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BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Vic Sage Sep 03 2013 01:52 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Sep 03 2013 02:12 PM

The new Broadway season has begun, and here's what's scheduled so far: * FOREVER TANGO [7/14-9/15] - limited run revival of this Spanish dance piece * LET IT BE [7/24-9/1] - limited run of a Beatlemania type show * FIRST DATE [8/4] - new musical about a first date, with Zachary Levi * SOUL DOCTOR [8/15] - The musical story of the rock star rabbi of the 60s (I kid you not) * ROMEO & JULIET [9/19] - Montagues are white, Capulets are black, with Orlando Bloom * GLASS MENAGERIE[9/26] - with Cherry Jones and Zachary Quinto * BIG FISH [10/6] - Susan Stroman stages a musical adaptation of the Terry Gilliam [on edit: Tim Burton -- Doh!] movie, songs by Andrew Lippa * A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN [10/10] - Joplin-mania concert * WINSLOW BOY [10/17] - Roundabout revives the Rattigan play with Roger Rees, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * A TIME TO KILL [10/20] - Rupert Holmes adapts the Grisham book as a new play * SNOW GEESE [10/24] - MTC presents Sharr White's new play, with Mary-Louise Parker * BETRAYAL [10/27] - Pinter revival directed by Mike Nichols, with Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz * AFTER MIDNIGHT [11/3] - Cotton Club in the 1930s; a musical revue with Wynton Marsalis and Fantasia Barrino * 12TH NIGHT / RICHARD III [11/10] - Mark Rylance stars, in repertory * 700 SUNDAYS [11/13] - Billy Crystal returns with his autobiographical monologue * A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER [11/17] - musical adaptation of KIND HEARTS & CORONETS, with Jefferson Mays * MACBETH [11/21] - Lincoln Center presents this revival, with Ethan Hawke * NO MAN’S LAND / WAITING FOR GODOT [11/24] - Dr. X and Magneto star in these Pinter/Beckett revivals, in repertory * BEAUTIFUL: CAROLE KING [1/12] - King's life story, featuring her songs * MACHINAL [1/16] - Roundabout revives this 20s-era murder melodrama * OUTSIDE MULLINGAR [1/23] - MTC presents a new John Patrick Shanley play, with Deborah Messing * THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY [2/27] - Kelli O'hara stars in a new musical adaptation of the Waller book, songs by Jason robert brown, directed by Bart Sher * ROCKY [3/13] - Ahrens & Flaherty songs for this adaptation of the Stallone movie, directed by Alex Timbers * ALADDIN [3/20] - Disney musical adaptation, with songs by Menken/Beguelin * LES MISERABLES [3/23] - yet another revival; this time the 25th anniversary production * IF/THEN [3/27] - a new musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (NEXT TO NORMAL), with Idina Menzel * RAISIN IN THE SUN [4/3] - Denzel Washington in a new revival * BULLETS OVER BROADWAY [4/10] - Stroman adapts Woody's film with a woody script and period music, starring Zach Braff * ACT ONE [4/17] - James Lapine directs his adaptation of the Moss Hart autobiography for this Lincoln Center production Reviews to follow. Please post your own too.

Vic Sage Sep 03 2013 02:04 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Sep 03 2013 02:11 PM

FIRST DATE - This new musical was developed by director Bill Berry in Seattle with a first time writing team, then brought to Broadway for no good reason. It's genial and sort of entertaining, I guess, with Zachary ("Ed") Levi and Krysta Rodriguez as a mismatched pair set up on a blind date, and hijinks ensue. Will love follow? Well what the hell do you think? The story is sitcommy clever, with the depth of a sheet of paper, and no cliché about Manhattan romance is overlooked. The songs are inoffensive, though inconsequential and forgotten as soon as the curtain comes down. But the performances are good, the design serviceable, and there are worse ways to spend an evening in the theater. [C+]

Edgy MD Sep 03 2013 02:06 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

That looks like a wanting season to me. Is that enough of a reason? Big Fish is a Tim Burton movie, though I don't really blame you for mistaking it for a Gilliam one.

Vic Sage Sep 03 2013 02:12 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Burton... DOH! Thanks. Enough of a reason for what?

Edgy MD Sep 03 2013 02:49 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

If the season is padded by the 209th revival of Raisin in the Sun, and adaptations of an absolutely dreadful book that nonetheless became a bestseller 20 years ago based on a title that scanned nicely, it's more likely that successful regional musical may get a shot on Broadway, where nu musicals are hard to come by, no? It seems clear that too many producers have little knowledge (or perhaps faith in) of what's good, and so are desperate to grab at what they can sell -- revivals, things that seem thematically a lot like revivals, stuff based on familiar (if not always particularly good) source materials, and stuff that did well regionally. Rocky, huh?

Vic Sage Sep 05 2013 09:40 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

yes, all good (or at least valid) reasons. I just meant "no good reason" based on the nature and quality of the show. I could see it playing off-Broadway, where tickets are cheaper and expectations are lower, and the smaller theaters would support the show's small, intimate nature. Or in a local non-profit theater, for the same reasons, as part of a subscriber's overall season, but not as a stand-alone production on Broadway. I don't see it ever making its money back here, or even establishing enough visibility to add value for touring, stock/amateur, and foreign markets such that it will ever recoup (it's currently 19th out of 23 current shows in weekly grosses, running about 50% of capacity. Shows like that close quickly unless it has a big advance and a low running cost). and yes... ROCKY. The saving grace there is that the songs are by Ahrens & FLaherty, who are my favorite musical theater writers to come along since Sondheim.

Edgy MD Sep 05 2013 09:59 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Song titles for a Rocky musical: [list][*]"Dipper's a Climber, You're a Tomater" [/*:m] [*]"I'm a Fighter/You Is an Accident" [/*:m] [*]"There Ain't Nuttin' 'Bout the World o' Pugilism That Ain't Livin' Up Here." [/*:m] [*]"Little Marie (Ya Brother Know You're Hangin' Out So Late?)" [/*:m] [*]"She's Not Retarded, She's Just Shy"[/*:m][/list:u] You do Rocky as a play, you've got to put the ring in the middle of the theater and perform the fight scenes in the round.

batmagadanleadoff Sep 05 2013 10:06 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Adrian, You Is My Woman Now. (You Is, You Is).

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 05 2013 10:18 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I Shoulda Broke Your Thumb Be a Thinker, Not a Stinker

Vic Sage Sep 05 2013 03:41 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

-curtain up- "Philly is a hard-scrapple town" (opening number) "Pay the shark" (Rocky's intro) "The Italian Stallion" (Apollo/entourage intro) "Yer a tomata" (Mick's intro) "Yo, Adrian!" (duet - Adrian's intro / the "meet cute" charm song) "Freak Luck" (Rocky's "i want" song) "Gotta hit the meat" (Rocky's training song dance number) "Shaddup, Paulie" (Rocky's "I love her" moment of realization) "Out of My shell" (Adrian's soliloquoy) "My Creed" (Apollo's "eve of battle" song) "Just wanna go /You're gonna go the distance" (Rocky/Adrian poignant duet) "Bicentennial Bout" (The fight / dance number) "Cut me, Mick" (Rocky triumphant) "Ain't gonna be no rematch / Don't need one" (Creed / Rocky duet) "Yo, Adrian!"/ Philly is a hard-scrapple town" (medley/reprise) "Bicentennial Bout" (reprise/dance) [Finale] -Curtain-

Edgy MD Sep 05 2013 06:10 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Those the actual songs?

Vic Sage Sep 17 2013 12:15 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Edgy MD wrote: Those the actual songs? nah, just made it up.

MFS62 Sep 17 2013 09:57 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Is Soul Doctor the story of Jay Black? (Jay and the Americans) Later

Edgy MD Sep 18 2013 05:34 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

It's about Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Not so much a rocker but a folkie.

MFS62 Sep 18 2013 06:52 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Guess not. Thanks. Later

Vic Sage Oct 01 2013 01:39 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

ROMEO & JULIET - David Leveaux's new adaptation makes sense on its face... Capulets are black, Montagues are white... but the graffiti walls, bike chains, switch blades and motorcycles bespeaks WEST SIDE STORY without the songs, and THE WILD ONES without Brando. But it has some nice things in it, particularly Condola Rashad's Juliet who is captivating, contemporary, funny and heartbreaking in just the right amounts. Jane Houdyshell, too, is a delight as the nurse, with her impeccable comic timing. And "Twilight"s Christian Camargo is entertaining as a strutting Mercutio, a Keith Richards spoiling for a fight. Orlando Bloom, however, is another story. While not a particularly bad actor, he's also not a particularly good one, and he has zero chemistry with Ms. Rashad, making this a rather passionless R&J, which defeats its purpose. After all, we are expected to buy the notion of a tragic and all-consuming love that erupts literally upon first sight, but it's just not there. The fact that Romeo is about 20 years too old for both the part and for this Juliet (she's mid-20s, but can get away playing a teen with her easy girlishness) makes it even less plausible. We can almost accept this kind of self-destructive narcissism from teens (at least we have for the last 500 years or so), but from a 36 year-old its just kind of pathetic. Also, Brent Carver is an incomprehensible and twitchy monk, and the sets, filled with sand pits and spouts of fire, make absolutely no sense. This R&J has its entertaining moments, but doesn't add up to much. [C]

Vic Sage Oct 15 2013 03:10 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

BIG FISH – This adaptation of one of Tim Burton’s lesser films, about an Alabama salesman spinning tall tales to inspire his stubbornly realistic son, is a fun, tender, no-holds-barred big, brassy Broadway musical. And I mean that in a good way. Screenwriter John August has adapted his script to the stage with style and craft. Though it isn’t as cohesive a story as one might prefer, that’s the nature of the episodic material he’s working from. Songwriter Andrew (“Addams Family”) Lippa evokes Aaron Copeland with an Americana-infused score that, while not likely to make you forget MUSIC MAN, is about as good as modern Broadway music gets these days. Two songs in particular, FIGHT THE DRAGON and I DON’T NEED A ROOF, create heart-breakingly memorable 2nd Act scenes. Susan Stroman’s ingenious direction and choreography tries a little too hard at times, like a hyperactive puppy demanding your attention, but is unflaggingly entertaining. Julian Crouch’s scenic design works with William Ivey Long’s costumes to create some unique theatrical moments, particularly the use of projections onto draped cloaks with startling effect. But the story doesn’t stir up quite as much magic as it needs to, remaining inexplicably earth-bound, and though it’s ostensibly about fathers and sons, the heart of the tale is in the love between husband and wife, with Norbert Leo Butz, brilliant as always, working with Kate Baldwin to create a couple that you can believe was destined to fall and stay in love forever. The father-son dynamic is not only undermined by the son’s underwritten role, but by a charmless performance by Bobby Steggart, as the adult son about to get married and hoping his dad won’t embarrass him at the wedding with his “big fish” stories. When cancer intrudes into the goings on, it’s supposed to heighten the stakes for their reconciliation, but it feels like a movie-of-the-week cliché. There is also confusion about the story’s central metaphor: Butz’ Edward Bloom has a way with a daffodil, and Bloom’s effect on flowers (he is a life force named Bloom, after all) is a main theme of the show (extending to the advertising too). Yet there is also much fuss about the river, continuously present at the foot of the stage, and the mermaid living therein, and the catching of fish as a father-child ritual, and the flood of the town, and Edward's return to the river in the end, and even the existence of the title character, the “big fish”. The flower and fish metaphors have virtually nothing to do with each other, competing for time and attention and meaning; they should have picked one and went with it...preferably the latter. All that said, it’s a good family show with great entertainment value and anybody who says otherwise is just spinning ya a big fish story. [B+]

Vic Sage Oct 16 2013 04:07 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

THE GLASS MENAGERIE - This new revival of Tennessee Williams' first hit, and perhaps his most personal work, has been lauded to the skies, particularly the performance of Cherry Jones as Amanda, one of the most iconic roles in the history of American theater. I’m just not sure why. MENAGERIE is a memory play; an impressionistic expiation of Williams' own "survivor's guilt" over abandoning his crippled and crippling family. And as Williams' surrogate in the play, Zachary Quinto is moving as the narrator, brother Tom. His southern accent is surprising in its eccentricity, evoking Williams without mimicking him, and he moves about the stage as if falling backward into the story and into the past. Celia Keenan-Bolger as Laura and Brian J. Smith as the gentleman caller are both wonderful, too, at least in the "gentleman caller scene" in Act II, which is the highlight of the play. But, frankly, I don't know what everybody is seeing in Ms. Jones' performance. Amanda, the faded southern belle desperate to save her family and, in her desperation, destroying it, has been portrayed on Broadway by Laurette Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris and Jessica Lange (among others) and by Geraldine Page, Shirley Booth and Katherine Hepburn in film and TV adaptations, and Jones isn't as good as any of them, as far as I can tell. Now I'm a big fan of her work (with ANGELS IN AMERICA, THE HEIRESS, and DOUBT among her great performances), and as a girl from Tennessee, Jones comes by Ms. Wingfield's southern roots honestly. But her mannered portrayal is garish and grotesque, with a dialect that is occasionally incomprehensible and often chalkboard-scrapingly irritating. My heart did not break for her, as it did for Harris (on stage) and Hepburn (on TV). I just had the sense that if Tom had any balls at all, he would have throttled his mother in her sleep and put them all out of her (and our) misery. Most damningly, I could no longer find Amanda tragic... just pathetic. I liked the minimalist design of this production, and its balletic sense of movement, and its imaginative direction (the moment where Laura enters by emerging from the couch is magical), but without Amanda's tragedy at its core, this MENAGERIE can’t avoid stumbling a bit. [B]

Vic Sage Nov 22 2013 02:56 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

A TIME TO KILL – Rupert Holmes’ by-the-numbers adaptation of Grisham’s first novel, a southern courtroom drama with no resonance whatsoever. I couldn’t help thinking “yeah, this would be a decent TV movie, but what’s this potboiler doing on Broadway?” Good performances by Fred Thompson as the stoically amused judge and Patrick Page as the smarmily ambitious DA can’t help the fact that Sebastian Arcelus is a bland Matthew McConaghy-type pretty-boy, and Tom Skerritt as his drunken mentor is a walking cliché. Characters are functionaries of the plot; nobody really changes, nor is their behavior particularly interesting, much less explicable. The rotating sets and the well-paced direction can't make up for all that. It’s not a bad production, but it’s not a good play. [C-] WINSLOW BOY - The Roundabout is presenting this terrific Old Vic revival of Terrence Rattigan’s 1946 play about pre-war Edwardian England, and the price of familial loyalty and the obsessive pursuit of justice at all costs. Roger Rees and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are wonderfully moving as the parents of a boy they believe was wrongly dismissed from military school, and the father’s attempts to clear his son’s name ends up devastating the family, even as the case becomes a political cause celebre. Alessandro Nivoa is excellent, too, as the arrogant attorney representing the family for his own reasons. In the end, he comes to an uneasy affection for the daughter, Charlotte Parry, a woman of quality who has lost a suitor over the family’s troubles. Though it’s a bit of a chestnut of a bygone era, its focus on human frailty and the rights of the individual versus the state, and the personal cost of ethical behavior, keeps it relevant. And a well-made play is a joy forever. [B+] AFTER MIDNIGHT - This revue of popular jazz music that came out of the era of the Harlem Renaissance and the Cotton Club (songs by Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, Cab Calloway, etc) is certainly well played (Wynton Marsalis assembled this all-star jazz orchestra), well-sung (by Fantasia Barrino, among others), well-danced by a talented young cast, and utterly pointless, tedious and uninvolving. Dule Hill is just fine as a quasi-narrator, reciting bits of Langston Hughes’ poetry between numbers, and he does a few excellent numbers himself, but this structure fails to create any kind of characterization, or drama, or thematic thru-line (much less any kind of narrative) to carry the show forward, beyond the level of “ain’t these good songs and good dances?” It doesn’t even feel like an authentic night at the Cotton Club, as there doesn’t seem to be a serious attempt to replicate that environment or the type of evening’s entertainment that might have been presented there; instead, these performances feeling strangely anachronistic (some of the dancers seem to be break-dancing, for instance). Even the evocation of the Cotton Club, a Harlem-based theater of the 20s and 30s where black artists once worked for white owners to entertain white audiences with "jungle music" and racially stereotypical "minstrel"-y material and strict segregation policies, feels vaguely creepy, as we now watch a contemporary black cast, led by a white creative team, and hired by (mostly) white producers, entertain a predominantly white Broadway audience. The show could certainly have explored the dramatic tension between the racist nature of the club itself and the fact that great black performers got their starts, and got well paid, and earned higher status, as a result of being there, and ended up creating a legacy of black culture from that period. But no such exploration is attempted; in fact, nothing is attempted... but ain't they great songs? [C-] BETRAYAL - Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, sleepwalk through this tedious revival of a tedious Harold Pinter play directed by Mike Nichols, about an affair told from its end forwards to its beginning. Sondheim did a similar thing with MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, but it was infinitely more interesting and moving, and had great songs and characters you could care about. This, on the other hand, made me want to jab a pencil in my eye. The only thing here to recommend is the performance of Rafe Spall as Craig’s best friend, whose having a long-term affair with Weisz, Craig’s wife (his wife in real life, too). Does her husband know? Has he known all along? Does he care? Do you? I didn’t. Mike Nichols, it’s time to let go of the milk truck; your time has passed. [D]

Vic Sage Dec 03 2013 03:10 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER - This new musical adaptation of KIND HEARTS & CORONETS (or rather the book which that classic British “Ealing Studio” comedy is based on) is amusing and agreeable, but it has no business being a musical. While this black comedy would have made for an excellent farce, the songs (clever as they are) break the story's momentum and add very little to the goings on. That being said, Jefferson Mays gives a tour-de-force performance in the Alec Guinness role, playing 8 different members of an aristocratic family being dispatched by a revenge-seeking distant relative, determined to inherit the family's title and riches and avenge his late mother's ostracism from the clan. It's all played out as an “English Music Hall”-style entertainment, on a stage within the stage, and the tuneful music and delightfully droll lyrics by Steven Lutvak are great fun. Still, the characters are intentionally broad and cartoonish, so when they stop to express their feelings through song, one wonders what feelings a cartoon has to express? I had a similar reaction to the similarly styled MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, but in GUIDE at least the songs are mostly good, even if irrelevant, and I didn't feel a burning need to flee the theater. Musical farce is a hard thing to achieve. In fact, the only fully successful one I can think of is FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, but no truly funny things are happening here. Unlike a musical, a farce is not character-based or grounded in an emotional journey, it is based on velocity of objects in motion, and the plot mechanics of characters overcoming (or failing to overcome) greater and greater obstacles, so when they stop to sing songs they haven't really earned, everything grinds to a halt. Robert Freedman’s book tries to make up for it by making the murderous protagonist a little more sympathetic, even giving the story a slightly more upbeat ending, but it’s not enough to fill the emotional gap. So, while this might have made a funny play, it’s only a middling musical. [B-]

Edgy MD Dec 03 2013 03:56 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I would guess that from the earliest musicals, going back to 1880 or so, and somewhat right up to the dawn of Rogers and Hammerstein, a lot of musicals would also qualify as farce. Also, I imagine a lot of them wouldn't play today. Latter days musical stuff that also qualifies as farce: ummm... [list][*]Joseph and the Amazing...[/*:m] [*]Kiss Me, Kate[/*:m] [*]How to Succeed...[/*:m] [*]Dracula: The Musical[/*:m][/list:u] Maybe? I honestly don't know exactly where the border between comedy and farce is. But I get your broader point.

Vic Sage Dec 03 2013 09:11 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Farce is a kind of comedy based on exaggerated characters and unlikely situations, with plot contrivances for their own sake, and extremely physical comedy. Its often played in one room (often a bedroom or drawing room) with many doors through which the characters duck in and out to comic effect; there is usually mistaken identities, sexual confusions, and a high level of general absurdity. There is little to no real character development or sincere emotion; its entertainment value is based on bombarding the audience with comic twists and turns at a great rate of speed, offering diversion not insight or a hero's journey. None of the musicals you mentioned are considered farces. Of plays, think of NOISES OFF, LEND ME A TENOR, COMEDY OF ERRORS, IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST, and last season there was a terrific one on Broadway, ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS. This one made great use of music, but not as in a musical. It had a funny early `60s type British rock band playing songs between scenes in order to maintain tone, allow transitions, and give the audience a breather between the laughs. But if these paper-thin characters broke out into songs about their feeeeeelings in the middle of scenes, totally breaking the comic momentum, the thing would've been dreadful.

Edgy MD Dec 03 2013 09:31 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Yeah, I know what it is, I just don't know where it necessarily starts. Those four, I'd say, meet most of the qualities of farce.

Vic Sage Dec 04 2013 08:32 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I agree that the distinction is not a black line; stories are on a continuum and rarely fall into just one genre or another. But i think the border for Farce is at that place where prat-falling characters, running in and out of rooms, begin to demonstrate sincere emotion and plausible growth, offering some form of genuine catharsis for the audience, instead of mere diversion. KISS ME, KATE, despite its farcical elements, is a sincere love story at its core, not peripherally, or only for plot purposes. While HOW TO SUCCEED's love story is less central, it is still critical for the characters' development; in any case, it is less a farce and more a satire of corporate culture of the era. Satire is similar to Farce in its lack of sincere emotion, but its comedy is based on an intellectual conceit (SUCCEED requires an understanding of the corporate culture prevalent at the time to make its points); satires attempt to "say something". Farces are not based on an intellectual conceit; they don't try to say anything beyond "ain't this some silly shit?". It deals in the laughter built on the unexpected twist, on improbability and exaggeration, and check your brains at the door. JOSEPH, on the other hand, is purely pastiche, using various musical styles in what is essentially a song cycle to re-tell a significant historical event, and it drips with sincerity, despite its theatricality. I'm not even sure what farcical elements you see in it. DRACULA? I didn't see it; i hope you're just kidding about that one. At any rate, if it's farce, it supports my position that musical farce is rarely successful, since that one was a catastrophe.

Edgy MD Dec 04 2013 08:39 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Dracula was modestly successful and still gets revived. But about as disconcerting an evening as one could hope to spend at the theater, so yeah.

Vic Sage Dec 04 2013 11:38 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

DRACULA ran for 5 months on Broadway, losing money in 19 out of 23 weeks (often playing to houses of 35%-45%, when most shows break even at 75%), in addition to losing its entire capitalization (probably around $6-$8m on the low end), and got universally scathing reviews. I don't know what your standard is for "moderate success" but i can't imagine that DRACULA meets it. Yes, it later got produced a few times in Europe in extensively revised productions (apparently a big hit in Serbia!) which is not unusual for a Wildhorn show (all his stuff tours and plays abroad, regardless of its success in the US), but that doesn't keep it from earning its "flop" status.

Edgy MD Dec 04 2013 11:45 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Well, I'm certainly not looking to back it.

themetfairy Dec 04 2013 03:21 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I agree with Vic about Big Fish. A very well produced family-friendly good old fashioned Broadway show. My friends and I enjoyed it very much.

Vic Sage Dec 05 2013 09:40 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

unfortunately it's closing as a total loss.

Vic Sage Dec 05 2013 10:15 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

After all my complaints about farce... TWELFTH NIGHT - About as good a mounting of this Shakespearean farce as i've ever seen. I've never much liked Shakespear's comedies (I think most comedy is culturally specific, and doesn't travel well from other cultures and other eras), but this one runs on all cylinders and is laugh-out-loud funny. It features Mark Rylance (possibly the greatest stage actor extant) in the supporting part of Lady Olivia, and he manages to be both touching and hilarious. The other female characters are also played by males, in the tradition of the period, and they are grand, too, particularly the young fellow in the lead, playing Viola as she pretends to be the boy, Cesario... he's a guy playing a girl pretending to be a guy, and it totally works and adds layers to an already multi-layered work. The rest of the production is also steeped in a Globe Theater-style production, with authentic costumes, period musical instruments, a simple design with additional double-tiered seating for the audience that is built onto the stage, and hundreds of candles cascading their light down from enormous chandeliers and candelabras to light it all. But more than anything, what i love about this production is the way the actors deliver their lines. It is common for actors doing Shakespeare these days to recite the lines as if its just poetry, focusing on pace, rhythm, meter and rhyme, sometimes at the expense of understanding. Here, lines are spoken as the actual dialogue spoken by actual people that they were always intended to be. They haven't changed a word, but their speech patterns (pausing or stammering as they search for a word, making it feel like they're just making it up as they go) make this story comprehensible in a way the ludicrous plot never does. And their timing is for comic effect, not for poetic cadence. The genius, of course, is to do that while not losing the poetry as well, and i think they accomplish that, too. The director has done a rare thing... he has put the play first, and so does not impose some false "interpretation" onto the work, beyond making it authentic, immediate, and funny as hell. [A+]

sharpie Dec 06 2013 07:17 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Saw Tweflth Night (or Twelfe Night as they put it) last night. Agree with everything that Vic said. This is the fourth production I've seen of the play and the weakness I've always found previously is that it is hard to believe Viola, usually played by a beautiful young woman, is a man. Here, with a man playing the role, it is clearly not a problem but the actor playing the part last night was quite believable as a woman (as were the other men). I do, to a point, disagree with Vic about the Shakespeare comedies as I've seen a number of great productions over the years, including last year's As You Lke It with Lily Rabe at the Delacorte and, at the same location this year, a great production of The Comedy of Errors. Twelfth (or Twelfe) Night, however, is about as good as you're ever going to see.

Vic Sage Dec 11 2013 03:40 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

NO MAN'S LAND - After enjoying the pleasures of the Patrick Stewart-Ian McKellen GODOT, I endured the pain of Pinter's NO MAN'S LAND, which they are presenting in repertory. Not that either Stewart or McKellen were bad; they are incapable of badness. Even the two supporting actors, Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley, who were so misplaced in GODOT, are much better suited to their roles here. The problem is that NO MAN'S LAND is an almost unendurably bleak, pointless and dull play...almost hypnotically dull, in fact, like a Phillip Glass concert. Two old poets, one successful and one not, are apparently trapped in a drawing room together, attended to by two servants not unlike Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, the murderous pair in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (later given a nod to in NEVERWHERE, with Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar). Are they in purgatory or are we? Does it matter? [D] SNOW GEESE - Sharr White's new play is like paint-by-numbers Chekov, with an aristocratic family coming to terms with the end of their way of life on their hunting lodge in upstate NY during WW I. The performances are fine, with Mary Louise Parker as the mother of the clan, mourning for her recently dead wastrel husband who diddled away the family fortune, leaving behind 2 sons at odds over their situation and their future. Unfortunately, there is no drama here. Nothing ultimately happens; their dire situation is revealed early on and their is no dramatic conflict resolved. we simply witness the family digesting this information. There is much talk of feelings, but when actors describe feelings instead of embodying them, you have an inert drama. It's well designed and not entirely uninteresting, but it's not in the ballpark of White's brilliant play last season, THE OTHER PLACE. [C]

sharpie Dec 12 2013 07:18 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

After argreeing with Vic on TWELFTH NIGHT I disagree on NO MAN'S LAND. Pinter isn't your bag, I get it (from reviews of THE HOMECOMING, BETRAYAL and now NO MAN'S LAND). I've long liked the play and had never before seen it. I had a bit of a problem with the production as I think they played it too much for laughs, sacrificing the menace. That being said, Ian McKellan's plea for a job which becomes more hopeless the more he talks was quite moving. Not for everyone, obviously, and a curious show to mount on Broadway, but I rather liked it.

Vic Sage Dec 12 2013 09:09 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

After argreeing with Vic on TWELFTH NIGHT I disagree on NO MAN'S LAND. Pinter isn't your bag, I get it (from reviews of THE HOMECOMING, BETRAYAL and now NO MAN'S LAND). You're quite right; Pinter isn't my bag. I think Pinter is the most overrated playwright of the 2nd half of the 20th century, along with Richard Foreman and Charles Mee, and I despise nearly every word he's ever committed to paper that i was foolish enough to hear uttered aloud on stage or screen. So people definitely need to take that into consideration when reading my comments about his work, since your mileage may well vary. I try to be upfront about my own preferences when i write about stuff, so a reader has a context. So perhaps I should have been clearer about Pinter in my NO MAN'S LAND screed. I've long liked the play and had never before seen it. I had a bit of a problem with the production as I think they played it too much for laughs, sacrificing the menace. So, you thought the play was too FUNNY? Wow. I think audiences should be given a dose of L-Dopa with every ticket, to bring them out of the catatonic stupor it induces. People fled at the intermission in droves; my wife, who likes some Pinter work, just shook her head sadly all the way home.

sharpie Dec 12 2013 01:34 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I can agree on Richard Foreman and I really don't know anything about Charles Mee (had to look him up). I didn't see anybody walk out the evening I went. I, however, should've walked out. Not because I didn't like the play, which as I've said before I did, but because the seat I was in was probably the most uncomfortable thing I've ever sat in. It slumped down, making me feel like I was about to tumble out. Now, most plays I see are via TDF which my wife is eligible for and so I spend a whole lot less than most people do for tickets (although not nothing) but I'm sure that there are nights that people actually pay $100 or so to sit in a seat that should've been replaced years ago. I would have switched except I was already way over to one side and the only other open seats I saw were worse (would that people had walked out and I could've found a better spot for the second act).

RealityChuck Dec 29 2013 09:11 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Vic Sage wrote: NO MAN'S LAND - After enjoying the pleasures of the Patrick Stewart-Ian McKellen GODOT, I endured the pain of Pinter's NO MAN'S LAND, which they are presenting in repertory. Not that either Stewart or McKellen were bad; they are incapable of badness. Even the two supporting actors, Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley, who were so misplaced in GODOT, are much better suited to their roles here. The problem is that NO MAN'S LAND is an almost unendurably bleak, pointless and dull play...almost hypnotically dull, in fact, like a Phillip Glass concert. Two old poets, one successful and one not, are apparently trapped in a drawing room together, attended to by two servants not unlike Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, the murderous pair in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (later given a nod to in NEVERWHERE, with Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar). Are they in purgatory or are we? Does it matter? [D] Saw it yesterday and liked it a lot. It's a play that depends on the actors involved -- if they aren't brilliant, the play falls down. The performances, though made it entertaining and very funny in parts (Stewart's description of his affair the the other author's wife in the second act was just great comedy). Pinter is often about silences, and the skill of Stewart and McKellen with those silences was amazing. Perhaps being a writer of about the age of the characters, I saw more into it, but giving it a neat explanation of what's going on misunderstands the play. If anything, it's about stories and how they create realities. If the actors were not in top notch form, I could see the play seeming dull, but yesterday, they were in top form and it was fascinating.

Vic Sage Jan 10 2014 03:06 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

RICHARD III - The same company that did the amazing 12TH NIGHT is also doing this RICHARD in repertory, on the same sets, with the same designs and cast and director. Unfortunately, it doesn't have quite the same results. Mark Rylance, so great as Lady Olivia in 12TH NIGHT, gives a bizarrely comic performance as the evil usurper, making him seem a drooling idiot who goes insane, rather than a crafty villain of great depth who suffers a tragic fall of his own making. The comedy undermines the tragedy; without great heights, there can be no tragic fall. This is not to say it isn't entertaining; Rylance is incapable of being uninteresting. And the supporting cast is once again terrific, particularly, Samuel Barnett as Queen Elizabeth, who was also notably great as Viola in 12th NIGHT. And the same excellent designs evoking a Globe Theater production of that play are still in place for RICHARD, and still just as effective. Absolutely worth seeing, just a bit of a letdown after the superior 12TH NIGHT [B+] MACBETH - Jack O'Brien dramatically over-directs this Lincoln Center revival, offering us Ethan Hawke as a slacker general who wants to be king. The witches are hilariously overplayed by men in drag (John Glover, Malcolm Gets and Byron Jennings), cackling incomprehensibly, as Hawke projects his lines into the depths of a very deep stage design. But he's unintelligible even when you hear him, as his reading has no meaning and alternates with hysterical shouting for no apparent reason. He's never the least bit believable as either a general, or a king, or an assassin or a lover. Lady MacBeth is played by an unattractive Brit who makes no impression and seems to be in another play than Hawke... which was probably a good choice for her. And John Orsini's "Malcom" gives one of the worst performances of the season... really, he'd have been fired from a High School production Only Brian D'Arcy James' Banquo rises above the clatter to make a powerful impression. The design is fascinating, practically turning the stage on its side and playing from deep up stage all the way down to the lip. But design can't help this vanity production with nothing to be vain about. While this was better than Alan Cummings' 1-man nightmare production last season, that's really the faintest of praise. [D]

sharpie Jan 10 2014 08:17 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I can second Vic's bleak take on the Lincoln Center Macbeth. Looked great, the male witches were kind of interesting, but that was about it. I do, however, need to put in a word for Julie Taymor's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at the new Theater for a New Audience space across from BAM. Sometimes uneven performances but rates high on the amazement factor.

Vic Sage Jan 15 2014 08:44 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

i seem to have skipped GODOT, so here is that one: WAITING FOR GODOT - I’ve seen others perform Vladimir and Estragon, but I’ve never seen a better team than Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart, who bring so much more to the parts than is readily apparent in the play. Their advanced age, older than any I’ve seen before in these roles, makes the play more poignant, as I can see etched on their faces and apparent in their gait the lifetimes they’ve spent waiting under than infernal tree. Also, the longtime friendship of these two actors infuses their performances with a tenderness I’ve never seen before. The fussy, bossy Vladimir can often appear cruel but here the cruelty is made gentler by Stewart’s warmth and good humor, and McKellen’s forgetful and hilariously eccentric Estragon responds with a sweetness undisguised by his filthy appearance. It transforms what can be a cold and cerebral play into one that is warm, funny and sad. The misstep here is Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley as Lucky and Pozzo, who are both fine actors but simply cannot keep up and can’t help but pale in comparison. The arrivals and departures of these two feel like an unwanted intrusion from another play, offering performances so different in tone that they diffuse the impact of the production. Still and all, Stewart and McKellen are triumphant and well worth seeing. [A-]

Vic Sage Jan 15 2014 08:48 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

still to come this season: January BEAUTIFUL: CAROLE KING (M) MACHINAL (PR) OUTSIDE MULLINGAR (P) February BRONX BOMBERS (P) THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (M) March ALL THE WAY (P) ROCKY (M) ALADDIN (M) LES MISERABLES (MR) MOTHERS & SONS (P) April IF/THEN (M) RAISIN IN THE SUN (PR) BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (M) OF MICE AND MEN (PR) ACT ONE (P) VIOLET (MR) VELOCITY OF AUTUMN (P) HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH (MR) CASA VALENTINA (P) CABARET (MR)

Edgy MD Jan 15 2014 09:02 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I think I saw your review of Godot somewhere else. Is that the most frequently revived play of your time as Tony voter? It's got to be among that, Streetcar, and Raisin in the Sun.

themetfairy Jan 15 2014 09:05 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Hedwig counts as a revival? Even though it was only Off-Broadway previously? Revival or not, D-Dad and I are seeing it in May.

Vic Sage Jan 15 2014 09:36 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

yeah, i thought i had written a GODOT review, but i couldn't find it, so i rewrote it and posted it. As for HEDWIG, yes, if a show has been produced off-Broadway (or anywhere else for that matter) and is an established work ("part of the theatrical repertoire"), and is subsequently produced in a new production on Broadway, it's considered a "revival", even though its never been on Broadway before. There have been some examples of that over the years; TRUE WEST comes to mind. Some Ibsen and Chekov, too, i think. Have fun seeing it; i loved it downtown.

themetfairy Jan 15 2014 10:03 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I did too. Funny story - when MK was about four, I was listening to Wig in a Box in the car. From his carseat, the kid asked me whether that was a man who sounded like a woman, because the voice was a man's but the words were a woman's. Freaked me out that he could figure out something like that at such a young age.

Vic Sage Jan 15 2014 11:55 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Is that the most frequently revived play of your time as Tony voter? It's got to be among that, Streetcar, and Raisin in the Sun . i think at this point, it's MACBETH, which i've seen on Broadway 4x since 2000; i've also seen 3 CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOFs in that period. (GODOT, STREETCAR, RAISIN = 2 each)

batmagadanleadoff Jan 15 2014 11:59 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Do you save all your Playbills?

Vic Sage Jan 15 2014 12:09 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

i have 8000 comic books, and movie posters, stills, etc., tons of books, even my vinyl. But i've never kept Playbills. My mom did; when she died, i inherited many boxes of them. I went thru them; kept a few (the valuable ones autographed by major stars and the vintage ones), but got rid of the rest (i traded them to my comics dealer for an original STAR WARS 1-sheet). You'd think i would, given that i save most everything else, but oddly, no. they just never mattered to me. my wife saves them though.

Edgy MD Jan 15 2014 12:14 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Is that the most frequently revived play of your time as Tony voter? It's got to be among that, Streetcar, and Raisin in the Sun . i think at this point, it's MACBETH, which i've seen on Broadway 4x since 2000; i've also seen 3 CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOFs in that period. (GODOT, STREETCAR, RAISIN = 2 each) I believe the best plural construction here would be "three Cats on a Hot Tin Roof," as it would be Streetcars Named Desire and Raisins in the Sun. In the interest of a possible addition depth and clarity, depending on context, one may perhaps opt for Cats on Hot Tin Roofs, or even Rooves for some usages in Northern England Other important dramatic plurals: [list]Pals Joey Fenceses Equi[/list:u]

Vic Sage Jan 16 2014 02:50 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I missed this one, too: 700 SUNDAYS – Billy Crystal is back with his poignant autobiographical monologue about growing up in Brooklyn. It’s borscht-belt funny and schmaltzy, with a dollop of bittersweet, and whether that’s a good thing or not is for you to decide for yourself. As for me…[A]

Edgy MD Jan 29 2014 09:18 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Tweeted this morning by Patrick Stewart... or more likely by Jordy or Wesley or Barkley or whoever does his social media stuff:

seawolf17 Jan 29 2014 09:22 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Ian McKellen, Keef, and Pat Stew. That's fantastic.

Edgy MD Jan 29 2014 09:24 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Doesn't bode well for Ron and Gary next season, does it?

Vic Sage Feb 19 2014 09:50 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

BEAUTIFUL: CAROLE KING - A pleasant bio-musical of the legendary singer-songwriter. The show breaks no new ground theatrically (as did the superior JERSEY BOYS), but the terrific musical performances and competently crafted libretto put it light-years ahead of the awful MOTOWN. Though strictly by-the-numbers, the book is at least amusing and does a good job of setting the scene of the “Brill Building” sound and the world of pop song writing in the early 60s, pre-Beatles. It also offers a great performance by Jessie Mueller, who not only channels King’s unique sound, she captures the heartbreak of a plain-looking Jewish girl from Brooklyn whose marriage to lyricist Gerry Goffin comes apart even as they become a success, and then embodies her courage in picking up her kids, moving west and starting her life over as a performing artist. The supporting cast is strong too, and the direction is unobtrusive. A solid evening’s entertainment, particularly if King is in your personal pantheon. [B+] BRONX BOMBERS – The new sports play from Eric Simonson is no better or worse than its predecessors (LOMBARDI and MAGIC/BIRD), but this time he directed it too, so he bears a greater proportion of the blame. He employs Yogi Berra as his protagonist in this sycophantic butt-kiss to Yankee lore in all its mythic splendor. In Act I, Yogi (Peter Scolari) is the bumbling intermediary in the conflict between Billy Martin, Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson in the 1977 “Bronx Zoo” championship season, offering his stumble-tongued wisdom in order to save “Yankee tradition” from infighting. Yogi’s bad dreams about the fall of Yankee civilization foreshadow the 2nd Act dream sequence, where he co-hosts a dinner with his wife Carmen for the Yankee greats of days gone by… Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, Elston Howard, Micky Mantle and Derek Jeter. They drink and argue and joke, with old conflicts still unresolved, but ultimately they put Yogi’s unquiet mind to rest, reassuring him that Yankee greatness will always survive. Finally, in the play’s denouement, Yogi has awoken from his dream in time to pass the torch to Saint Jeter in the Yankee locker room in 2008, asking Derek to give the speech Yogi was asked to give to say goodbye to the stadium in the last game played there. There is an interesting, if only nascent, theme here about the two strands of “Yankee tradition”… the Gehrig / DiMaggio / Howard / Munson / Jeter line of stoic pride, class and dignity, and the brash Ruth / Martin / Mantle / Jackson line of hard-partying big-mouthed showmen, with Berra straddling the two in an attempt to reconcile them. There is also some welcome attention paid to the issues of race in the team’s history, from Howard to Jackson. But the play is obvious and artless, and offers no real conflict or forward-moving narrative other than in Yogi’s mind (his fear about bad press somehow leading to the imminent downfall of the Yankees), and the characters are all clichéd versions of their public personas. Somehow it is not without its charms due to a talented cast and some funny lines, but this simple-minded play is pure Yankee hagiography, of interest mostly to those who already bleed blue pinstripes, for whom the grade would be a solid "A". But i'm a Yankee-hater, so... [D+] OUTSIDE MULLINGAR – John Patrick Shanley's funny, moving play about duty and loneliness and love (both parental and romantic) is as good a new play as I’ve seen in many years. Brilliantly performed by a small cast, Bryne O’Byrne is heartbreaking as an Irish farmer, working his small family farm dutifully and well, but without joy or love, who is suddenly threatened by his dying father’s notion of selling off the land rather than turning it over to him. And Debra Messing is the Irish lass growing up with her folks on the farm next door… now bitter, neurotic and lonely, but somehow content to live side by side with O’Byrne, even if he never comes to her door. But she is furious about his unwillingness to stand up for himself, or for them. And when, after their parents die, the question remains… will they finally acknowledge their need for each other? Messing’s accent is real without being overly mannered, and is soon forgotten as she talks naturally with her native Irish cast mates, so her terrific performance isn’t all about the technical proficiency of her dialect. Her Maureen O’Hara- style feistiness is funny and appealing, and well-balanced by a modern dark, neurotic quality. And O’Byrne never fails to find the emotional core of every character he plays, even a daft, stunted and slightly mad fellow like this. It’s a tight, 90-minute, 1-act piece of Irish blather, filled with humor, sadness, poetry and a touch of whimsy, in all the right amounts. It's being marketed as a romantic comedy, but MULLINGAR exists outside that limited description. [A+] MACHINAL – The Roundabout offers a fascinating revival of an old play that was probably daringly experimental and feminist in its day, but now seems both creaky and self-indulgent. Loosely based on true events, like the musical CHICAGO, Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 expressionist play is about a young woman driven to murdering her husband by the societal forces of conformity and lack of options for women in that period, and the tragic results of that fatal act. The story is undermined by a thematic problem, however, in that the woman’s poetically rambling internal monologues and her general odd behavior, commented on by many of the other characters, indicates a woman who is borderline mad when the story begins. So rather than a story about how social forces drove her insane and ultimately destroyed her, it’s about a crazy lady who does something crazy, stripping the story of its social context and reducing it to a matter of psychosis. Tonally, the play is a relentlessly dire dirge, humorless and didactic, and so highly stylized as to be rendered inert. It really should be left to academics at this point rather than inflicted on audiences. But if you must mount it, this seems as good a production of it as you can hope for, I guess. [D+]

bmfc1 Feb 20 2014 07:19 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I have been looking forward to your review of "Bronx Bombers", so thank you.

Edgy MD Feb 20 2014 07:36 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Does Munson really fit in the line of stoic pride, class, and dignity, or has his early death forced hagiographers to shoe horn him in there? I guess, personally, I think they're all mostly shoehorn jobs, save Gehrig, more or less. But Munson, captainship and premature death aside, seems like a stretch.

Vic Sage Feb 20 2014 08:46 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

The play doesn't literally define those 2 threads of Yankee tradition, nor does it include Munson in one rather than the other; it is just a conclusion i inferred from it. But compared to Reggie Jackson, Munson was Gehrig. The Munson character isn't in the Act II dream sequence, just in the Act I Reggie/Billy scene, where he sides with Billy against Reggie. It is clear that Munson is depicted as out of the "put your head down, do your job and shut up" school of athlete who resented the "look at me, ma, no hands!" school Reggie was an acolyte of. So, in that sense, Munson's stoic professionalism stands in for the "quiet class/dignity" characterization, and i don't think that's a stretch. And "captainship and premature death aside", there IS no Munson, at least in terms of the Yankee mythology this play trades in. The final scene between Yogi and Jeter in the lockerroom is played out in the shadow of Munson's empty locker, which Yogi says is going to be brought to the new stadium. Presumably like a shrine. And that's not because Munson was a heckuva catcher.

sharpie Feb 21 2014 09:14 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Closing March 2. Didn't even make it to Opening Day.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 21 2014 11:40 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Whoo! Meantime Vic's glowing review and Lunchpail visiting granny has resulted in surprise datenite at that Mullingrew thingy tonite.

Vic Sage Feb 21 2014 01:28 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

It's pretty romantic. Maybe you'll get lucky afterwards.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 22 2014 07:31 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Tonight (tonite tonite) I consider myself (self self) the luckiest man (man man)... Thanks for the recommendation, we both enjoyed it.

Vic Sage Mar 05 2014 10:40 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY – BRIDGES was a wildly successful romance novel, then an excellent Clint Eastwood film about mature love, and now a great Broadway musical. It is the story of an Italian war bride who, 20 years after WWII, has become a middle-aged Iowa housewife and mother drawn into a brief but intense affair with a sexy photographer and ultimately confronted by a choice between passion and familial love and duty. Of course, in this female wet-dream of self-abnegation, she chooses martyrdom over happiness. The music by Jason Robert Brown is a revelation; its moments of Joni Mitchell folksiness and country-pop style combine seamlessly with soaring orchestral melodies of operatic scope and heartbreaking, quiet beauty. And the score is held aloft by the two best musical performers of this generation, Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale, whose vocal brilliance is matched by their poignant performances of these star-crossed lovers, decent people stuck in a no-win situation who ultimately come to realize that despite the loss of their great love, to have loved is always better. Marsha Norman’s book gives the romantic tragedy a solid structure and context, fleshing out the 60s-era mid-western farming community that literally bears witness to the love story in its center, as well as the woman’s family, who will have to bear the consequences of her choice. Bart Sher’s impeccable direction and the show’s minimalist design give the play a spare “OUR TOWN” quality of distilled purity and emotion, never distracting from what’s important. In the play’s final moments, your heart will ache or you are already dead. [A] To hear 4 of the songs: http://bridgesofmadisoncountymusical.com/music/

Vic Sage Mar 18 2014 10:42 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Mar 18 2014 11:29 AM

ALL THE WAY – Robert [The Kentucky Cycle] Schenkkan’s new bio play about Lyndon Johnson is well-meaning with some effective moments, but overwrought, overemphatic and heavy-handed. Bryan Cranston is bombastic as the larger-than-life politician, underlining his vulgarity, insecurity, folksiness and cruelty, as well as his political acumen and cunning, but lacking the physically imposing quality Johnson had to bully his opponents. The performance is big but lacking in nuance, just like the play. The story focuses on the first year of Johnson’s presidency, from his taking office after the Kennedy assassination through his election against Goldwater. Act I works well enough as an inside-baseball look at Washington politics, similar to Spielberg and Kushner’s LINCOLN, where we see the sausage of legislation getting made. But the preachy Act II, focusing on the civil rights movement and Johnson’s election efforts, meanders and is filled with face-palm moments. Yes, it’s interesting to see that the rhetoric of that time resonates with the same “freedom” and “state’s rights” arguments currently being used to justify anti-gay state laws, and we get to see the seeds sown by Johnson’s election in the later loss of the Dixie-crats to the Reagan revolution and current Tea Party politics. But when you hear Johnson explain that his drive to win election is based on his need to be loved, you realize you’ve entered a twilight zone of hackneyed psychodrama that you’d just as soon escape but, with a 3-hour running time, the exit feels far off and continuously receding. [C] ROCKY - This musical adaptation of the iconic boxing movie is as pointless as you'd expect. It adds nothing to the original story but songs which are entirely unnecessary and, in this case, particularly uninspired (which is especially disappointing given that the score is by Ahrens & Flaherty, one of the best Broadway songwriting teams ever). The orchestrations also reiterate and interpolate the "Rocky Theme (gonna fly now)" and "Eye of the Tiger" endlessly, to push the audience's obvious emotional buttons. The training sequences do the same thing, using the music with projections and scrims to give the scenes the "movie montage" feeling. Which makes it a second-rate derivative sort of movie rather than a first-rate theatrical experience. You know something particularly cynical and artless is being perpetrated when the scene where Rocky drinks raw eggs gets a hand of excitement and recognition. In fact, all moments that echo the film are heightened and spotlighted to elicit that kind of audience response. The final fight is well staged (the audience in the first 8 rows of the center orchestra are re-seated behind the boxing ring so the ring can roll out and create a real boxing match atmosphere, even as the ring rotates, uses lighting effects and slow-mo to make it "cinematic" [not "theatrical"]). At any rate, the fight scene's affect on the audience is palpable. And the leads are sweet and sympathetic so the love story works pretty well, even though the "dese" and "dose" inauthentic cartoon accents don't help (whatever else Stallone was, he was at least authentically inarticulate). Overall, this felt like a show constructed by people with no real interest in "theater" per se, except to try (and fail) to make it as close to a movie as possible. The last show i saw like that was GHOST, but at least that hi-tech production showed me some effects i hadn't seen before. ROCKY doesn't even do that, offering an ironic lack of inspiration to tell one of the most inspirational stories around. [D]

themetfairy Mar 18 2014 11:24 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I wish I had read this a few weeks ago. We just bought tickets to take MK to see All The Way during his spring break....

Vic Sage Mar 18 2014 11:27 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

it's more interesting as history than as drama, so it might still be interesting for you guys on that level.

sharpie Mar 18 2014 11:54 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I see it Saturday only because some out-of-town friends are coming here from upstate expressly to see it. Not really looking forward to it but I have read the four published volumes of Robert A. Caro's Johnson bios, the last one quite recently which covers part of the same timeline as the play so there's that. I did see the amazing production of "A Doll's House" at BAM last week, the one which got front-paged in the NY Times last Sunday due to the fact that there is an actual baby in the cast. I'd never liked any Ibsen before but this was devastating. A couple of weeks before that I saw the godawful "Antony and Cleopatra" at the Public so "A Doll's House" revived my faith in the American theater.

Vic Sage Mar 18 2014 12:05 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

well, Ibsen doesn't really constitute "American Theater", does he? It may have been an American production, but as one of the most widely produced plays in the history of theater, that doesn't say much about "American theater" i don't think. But i'm glad it was good and you enjoyed it.

sharpie Mar 18 2014 01:33 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Yes, American shouldna been there. Norwegian play done by English actors.

G-Fafif Mar 18 2014 03:47 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Enjoyed All The Way a great deal, especially Cranston taking over the theater as LBJ must've inhaled every room he entered, but it definitely has an "add a grade if you enjoy cloture talk" element to it. Poor Hubert was stuck in the role of exposition fairy, and even that carried more dignity than his term as vice president.

Edgy MD Mar 19 2014 08:50 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Putting "Eye of the Tiger" into Rocky is a desperate misunderstanding of your own material. It's like putting "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" into 1776.

Vic Sage Mar 19 2014 11:25 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

True, but they're not dealing in such subtleties. They're just pushing buttons, and they may know their material well enough to know where the buttons are.

Vic Sage Mar 24 2014 09:33 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

ALADDIN - Somebody left the back gate to the theme park open and this musical escaped. If you hold your breath, it may just sniff you and move on. The songs are OK (including the 4 new ones), but it was never one of Menken’s great scores, and it now also includes 2 of his outtake songs, “Proud of Your Boy” and “High Adventure”, which, while fine by themselves, take the story in the wrong direction or in no direction at all (which was why they were cut from the movie in the first place). The story problems in the score are set up by the lousy libretto... padded with bad puns, Borscht Belt jokes and self-references, it replaces Aladdin's monkey Abu with a trio of clichéd pals (they were in an early draft of the movie screenplay, again cut for good reason), the princess’s tiger is now a useless trio of ladies-in-waiting, and the parrot Iago is now a very short toady who shrieks like Gilbert Gottfried. Structurally, the love story of Aladdin and Jasmine, which was the original motivating force for Aladdin’s character arc, is undermined by an earlier “I Want” song about Aladdin wanting to make his dead mother proud of him (Why now? Because the script says so!). This prior motivation leaves the character unfocused and also results in not 1 but 2 escape-and-chase scenes through the marketplace of Agrabah, which was not 1 but 2 too many. Also, like last season's CINDERELLA update, the book sticks in a de rigueur politically correct ending of female empowerment which feels forced… but only because it is. James Iglehart gives an award-winning performance as Genie, but the leads, while attractive, are just cruise-ship quality, all bland and chipper and robotic with nice voices, and the rest of the cast makes little impression. Other than Genie’s big show-stopping number, “A Friend Like Me” and the sweet magic carpet ride during “Whole New World,” it all looks and feels like a cheesy touring production, with little invention or creativity. And the whole mishegas has absolutely no emotional content whatsoever, which I guess is what they were going for, but isn’t such a good thing for a love story, even an animated one. [D+]

Vic Sage Apr 02 2014 02:18 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

LES MISERABLES - It returns once more… and is always welcome, as far as I’m concerned. It’s an excellent production of a classic musical performed with the kind of gorgeous vocals that the soaring score requires, particularly by newcomer Ramin Karimloo as Jean Valjean. However, the show does feel a little smaller and less grand in its scale this time (perhaps disappointingly so), and Will Swenson’s Javert is a mustache-twirling villain without the necessary depth and ambivalence to make his death sufficiently moving. But his suicidal leap is now done in front of effective projections that make it a memorable scene anyway. In fact, the projections overall work well with the evocative lighting to flesh out the somewhat less impressive physical elements. Their use in the escape through the sewers gives the scene a cinematic sense of movement I’ve never experienced in it before. Ultimately, if you’re a Miz-head, you’ll be happy with this production (as the audience was when I saw it), and if you’re not… well, you aren’t going to see it anyway. [B+]

Vic Sage Apr 03 2014 02:59 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

MOTHERS & SONS - Terrence McNally has written a sequel to his 1990 screenplay for American Playhouse's "Andre's Mother", now presenting the homophobic Dallas housewife 20 years later, once again confronting her son's ex-boyfriend, and still unable to come to grips with her son's gayness and his death from AIDS. It's a 90-minute living room drama, where the gorgon mom (Tyne Daly, brilliant as always) has arbitrarily dropped in on her son's saintly ex-boyfriend, Cal (an excellent Frederick Weller), who is now married to a younger man (the irritating Bobby Steggart) and raising their overly cute son in a classy upper west side apartment overlooking the park. Cal has moved on and flourished; the mother is now alone and still uncomprehending of her loss. This setup might have set the stage (literally) for a moving and compelling drama, but the characters are either dull, annoying, or awful, and their conflict mostly un-dramatized (presented primarily through dueling barbs), and the play instead descends into political debate over various issues of gay culture (legacy of AIDS, parental abandonment and acceptance, gay marriage, gay parenting, etc), before concluding with a cloying (even if vague) "happy ending" delivered by Cal's annoyingly chipper child. The TV movie ANDRE'S MOTHER came out at the height of the AIDS epidemic and so it was immediate and powerful (even if saddled with Richard Thomas) and important, because no one was paying enough attention to the plague in our midst. This play, 25 years later, is a plea to remember what happened, which has no real urgency or immediacy beyond being yet another of McNally's explorations of the socio-political aspects of gay life and culture. And, frankly, that is what most of Mr. McNally's plays end up being about, which is kind of a shame because when he focuses on our broader humanity, he has written some wonderful things (including FRANKIE & JOHNNIE, A PERFECT GANESH, MASTER CLASS, and RAGTIME). But if you are a fan of the McNally gay play genre, well then this is another one. [C]

Vic Sage Apr 10 2014 10:34 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

IF/THEN - This original new musical takes the "Sliding Doors" concept (2 parallel story lines following a person's 2 different potential lives that split off after a critical event) and makes it even more trite and uninteresting, rendering it a live-action Lifetime TV special interrupted by generic songs. The authors, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, have fail to live up to their brilliant prior show ("Next to Normal"), and are unable to offer either memorable music, insightful lyrics or a storyline that makes sense. Idina Menzel is terrific as the 40-something single woman in NYC living the 2 parallel lives, one pursuing a family and the other a career, but to what purpose? Ultimately, the story cops out for a happy ending that suggests she would meet her soul-mate regardless what path she chose... so why did we have to spend 2+ hours concerning ourselves with her choices and their consequences? Good performances, too, by LaChanze and Adam Rapp, as her gay friends, but their 2 parallel lives create a cacophony of confusingly diffuse and competing ideas and themes. The direction keeps the show moving, and confusion is kept at bay to the extent possible, and the design elements are excellent. Not an unentertaining show overall, and women of a certain age may find the material has resonance for them, despite its shopworn notions [oh, career or family; what's a girl to do?], but on the whole, it's a disappointment based on the talents involved. [C]

Vic Sage Apr 16 2014 09:22 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

RAISIN IN THE SUN - A solid revival of a still-powerful and moving play. Denzel is a bit too old for the part of Walter Lee Younger (i.e., he needs to be younger to be a Younger), but he's so good it doesn't matter or distract. All the women in his life (LaTanya Richardson Jackson as his mother, Sophie Okonedo as his wife, Anika Noni Rose as his sister) are similarly excellent. The other men are slightly less impressive (sister's boyfriends Jason Dirden and Sean Patrick Thomas, and the young son Bryce Clyde Jenkins), but still not bad. The direction is properly unobtrusive, allowing the focus to remain on Lorraine Hansberry's enduring work which, while not a masterpiece, is solidly grounded in our common humanity and so remains timeless and true. [A-]

themetfairy Apr 17 2014 08:50 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I didn't love All The Way, although it definitely had its selling points. I think that the first act is WAY too long, and that most of the characters are too two-dimensional to build up much in the way of dramatic tension. But Bryan Cranston is entertaining in any vehicle, and it was fun seeing him in action. I expect to enjoy If/Then much more than Vic did, based on the fact that I remember crying on the bus ride home from The Heidi Cronicles. It's easy to dismiss the effect of such life choices if you've never had to make them.

Vic Sage Apr 18 2014 08:51 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

It's easy to dismiss the effect of such life choices if you've never had to make them. I'm not saying such life choices aren't real or hard; i'm just saying, as the basis for a drama, the issues have become tv movie cliches, so you need to add something new to the mix or say something new about it for the issues to be worth considering yet again. But despite its "novel" structure (actually a derivative one, similar to SLIDING DOORS and other stories of that type over the years), IF/THEN really adds nothing to this conversation. And I'm not the one dismissing the effect of such life choices... the authors are. By allowing the consequences of either choice to lead to "true love", they made the time we spent worrying about her choices irrelevant. It was as if they were saying, "your choices don't matter; it'll all work out for you in the end." Which is comforting and false. but good art is discomforting because its true. Hence, IF/THEN = bad art. It's a syllogism. This is not to say you may not enjoy it. I enjoy a great many things that are not very good.

Vic Sage Apr 18 2014 01:43 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Apr 18 2014 02:00 PM

BULLETS OVER BROADWAY - Susan Stroman has directed and choreographed this show to within an inch of its life, which is just as well since there ain't much else to appreciate about it. Woody Allen has adapted his screenplay about Broadway in the roaring 20s, with artists and gangsters put through their farcical paces to answer philosophical questions like "what is an artist?", and "what is more important: life or art?" and other such high-falutin' notions. But, unlike the movie, this time the action is interrupted by classic `20s-era jazz songs like "sittin on top of the world", "hold that tiger", "baby, ain't i been good to you?", and "down a lazy river". While the tunes offer an excuse for some excellent production numbers (most spectacularly, the male tap dance chorus for "ain't nobody's business if i do"), they don't do much to further the story or define the characters, instead merely illustrating or underlining what we've already been told. But that's just as well since, as with most farces, if you stop to consider the characters or their behavior, you will find them woefully lacking in depth or sympathetic attributes. That's why a good farce doesn't stop to give you time to consider; they're just mechanically hilarious. But this one isn't nearly funny enough, to its fatal detriment. Zach Braff infuses the "hero" --an arrogant, talentless, dishonest playwright -- with whiny Allen-style tics, and nobody else makes even that much of an impression, all playing garish cartoon characters. All in all, I've seen worse musicals this season, and it has its entertaining moments, with some great songs well performed with exciting choreography, but you won't exactly walk out floating on air... more likely, you'll feel like you're wearing concrete galoshes. [C-]

Vic Sage Apr 18 2014 01:57 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Now that i've seen all of this season's new musicals, here are my final grades: THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY [A] BIG FISH [B] BEAUTIFUL: CAROLE KING [B] GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER [B-] AFTER MIDNIGHT [C+] BULLETS OVER BROADWAY [C] IF/THEN [C] FIRST DATE [C] ALADDIN [D+] ROCKY [D]

themetfairy Apr 20 2014 06:44 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

D-Dad and I caught The Realistic Joneses this afternoon. A waste of a great cast (Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts and Marisa Tomei) - superficial, disconnected and not particularly funny or engaging. Even though it's only 90 minutes long, it dragged. Unless you're dying to see one of these artists performing in person, don't bother.

themetfairy Apr 20 2014 08:49 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I missed this one, too: 700 SUNDAYS – Billy Crystal is back with his poignant autobiographical monologue about growing up in Brooklyn. It’s borscht-belt funny and schmaltzy, with a dollop of bittersweet, and whether that’s a good thing or not is for you to decide for yourself. As for me…[A] We DVR'd this off of HBO and watched it this evening. Very well done indeed!

Edgy MD Apr 20 2014 09:13 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I thought Crystal grew up in Long Beach. Am I getting dotty here, or are both true?

themetfairy Apr 20 2014 09:15 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Yes, Long Beach. It's a big part of the show.

Edgy MD Apr 20 2014 09:18 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Yeah, thought so. Thanks. Long Beach = Greg Prince, Jim Carroll, Billy Crystal, and Rick Rubin, to me.

Vic Sage Apr 21 2014 09:55 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

I thought Crystal grew up in Long Beach. Am I getting dotty here, or are both true? My bad; I always think of Queens and Long Island as East Brooklyn. But here's one about the Bronx... ACT ONE - Writer/director Moss Hart's classic autobiography about his journey from poverty in the Bronx to success on Broadway has been adapted as a play by writer/director James Lapine for Lincoln Center. But this trite Horatio Alger tale is not moving, inspiring, funny nor particularly dramatic, so one is left to wonder "why bother"? I suppose the play has some interest as a backstage look at theatrical production and Broadway celebrity in the 20s-30s, and the immigrants who lived in its shadow, but Moss Hart doesn't make a compelling protagonist (nor does Santino Fontana help much in his portrayal), and nothing happens that you don't expect, and no larger ideas or notions are explored. Andrea Martin is mostly wasted as Hart's pretentious aunt who encouraged his love of theater, as well as playing other thankless roles where her comedic gifts were clearly being counted on to elevate the general lack of humor in the material. Tony Shaloub is terrific as neurotically bizarre George S. Kaufman, who collaborates with the young Hart to create a Broadway hit, but as Hart's immigrant dad, and as the older Hart commenting on the action, Shaloub is significantly less interesting. Lapine presents us with a large and continuously rotating set of scaffolds and rooms that take us from Hart's Bronx tenement, to some offices on Broadway, to Kaufman's grand apartment, but it’s all just cluttered and distracting movement. And the narration by both the older Hart and the younger one creates a static and undramatic structure, telling us rather than showing us. But since there's nothing new to show us, it's just as well. The play isn't awful, it’s just meh, with no real point to its existence. Hart's book (a beloved text in theatrical circles) may suit the story better, since nothing is added by putting it on a stage. As for me, I prefer fiction that reveals the truth rather than a "true story" that traffics in the clichés of shop-worn fiction. [C]

Vic Sage Apr 23 2014 10:14 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

VIOLET - This Roundabout Theater revival of the 1-act off-Broadway musical by Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley is simple, direct and profoundly moving. In the south of the mid-60s, Violet is a young woman, tragically disfigured as a child, who goes on a healing quest but instead finds love in a pair of soldiers about to be deployed to Vietnam. It is about loneliness, and otherness, and forgiveness, played out to a gorgeous score with bluegrass roots and orchestral heights, from full-out gospel, to twangy honky-tonk, to delicate acoustic, to uplifting chorale. The show is inherently theatrical, interweaving the past and present, and visions and dreams, with a simple timeline of present events, with music carrying us forward, and without stopping to over-explain or narrate. Even the characters' motivations are more abstract than literal... why does she fall in love, and so quickly; and why do the soldiers? Because people do, i suppose, but mostly because the story is more a contemplation of the healing power of love then it is about these particular people falling and being in love. This lack of realism is both its strength and weakness as a narrative. But anyway, the performances by Sutton Foster (more unglamorous than I've ever seen her) and Joshua Henry are first rate, as are all the supporting players, too, and Leigh Silverman's direction is gentle and direct, without any design elements overwhelming the play or the players. By not actually depicting Violet's grotesque injury, using the "Elephant Man" technique instead (indicating nothing except through characters' reactions to her), it is implicit that her injury is really more internal than external, just as it is with the black soldier who comes to love her as he deals with isolating racism, and her guilt-ridden father, who caused her injury but did all he could to raise her as best as he knew how. VIOLET is a surprisingly big emotional show in an unpretentiously small, delicate package. [A-]

Vic Sage Apr 24 2014 02:44 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON Edited 3 time(s), most recently on May 12 2014 01:07 PM

THE REALISTIC JONESES - What's Will Eno's new play about? Better to ask what it's NOT about. First, it's about 1 1/2 hours without an intermission. Then, it's about 2 couples (1 older, 1 younger -- but both named Jones) who've become neighbors in a small mountain town and come to realize that they're facing the same issue of terminal illness. It's also about the shifting roles people play in a marriage, about denial, and love, and what is said, and what is unsaid. But mostly it's about language, and its inadequacy to express how we feel about... well, everything. It often feels like watching a stroke victim trying to communicate but frustrated by the difficulty...except it's a lot funnier. Yes, it's funny... an absurdist black comedy about our need to, but inability to, communicate and connect to the people we love, particularly in the face of our own mortality. At times, the play feels like a darkly comic version of Albee's A DELICATE BALANCE, where a couple flees to a friend's home to escape an unnamed dread. Here, the dread is disease, and it has a name. But the flight, and the dread, and the highly stylized inarticulation are all very much the same. The play’s absurdist abstraction is not only funny, it is a distancing technique to keep a subject at arm's length that would otherwise be maudlin and soap opera-ish. But the style also keeps one from investing fully in the circumstances of the characters, and so it’s more of an intellectual journey than an emotional one. Still, a brilliant cast can make you care despite the play, and this has a brilliant cast: Toni Collette and Tracey Letts as the older couple, Marisa Tomei and Michael C. Hall as the younger one, all bouncing off one another like strange little billiard balls, finally coming to rest in the end, in some sort of acceptance of their dire situation and appreciative of their lives despite their inability to say so in a coherent way. It's a polarizing play (you'll either love it or hate it), because it's flawed, and maybe its reach exceeds its grasp, but it dares much. [A-]

Edgy MD Apr 24 2014 02:56 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Curiosity forced me to look this up, but, ironically enough, Toni Collette is eight years younger than Marisa Tomei.

Vic Sage Apr 24 2014 03:17 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Tomei is still cute as a button, and Collette just comes across as older, more mature.. so it works fine. And i didn't mean to suggest that the older couple is THAT much older, just a little further along in life.

Vic Sage Apr 25 2014 02:23 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN- The acclaimed London revival of this early play by Martin McDonagh has come to Broadway with Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe as the titular invalid, and it's wonderful in every way. McDonagh's play is funny, satiric, sad, quite touching and almost uplifting despite the tragic overtones of its conclusion. Based on the true event of documentarian Robert Flaherty going to the remote Aran Islands off Ireland's west coast in the 1930s to document the lives there, McDonagh spins off his own tale offering even deeper insight than Flaherty could, into that time, that place, and those people, and by extension, our common humanity. The play is about the razor-thin line between despair and hope, but mostly about the stories and lies we tell, to others and to ourselves, in order to create a world we can live in. In the world of Inishmaan, folks are casually, hilariously brutal to each other, but beneath that they are deeply loving, too, and the community works, in its way. On the surface, the story seems an almost vicious satire of Irish life and beliefs, but it's more compassionate towards its subject than that. Michael Grandage's direction is admirably restrained, not allowing the humor to overwhelm its tragedy, and enabling these people to speak for themselves. A revolving 3-sided set, seemingly hewn out of the island's stony skin, provides the various settings in a clear, efficient, yet evocative manner, and the Irish cast drips with authenticity, even as their characters constantly baffle our expectations. McDonagh, a master of black comedy and Grand Guignol satire, keeps the violence to a minimum this time, allowing the story's heart to show through without denying the sadness beneath. And Radcliffe, who has had a series of impressive Broadway performances since hanging up his wand, carries it all on his back like a diminutive, crippled Atlas. [A+]

Vic Sage Apr 28 2014 10:57 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

CABARET - What good is sitting alone in your room? Certainly not as good as sitting in the audience for the return of this brilliantly re-imagined revival of the classic Kander & Ebb musical. Alan Cumming reprises his incredible performance as the decadent MC who, in this version, is as doomed as his audience at the Kit Kat Club in Berlin at the rise of Nazism. This production is basically the same as the last revival 10 years ago, also with Cumming, played out in a cabaret setting at the Roundabout's Studio 54 theater. But this time, we have Michelle Williams as the fallen starlet-wannabe, Miss Sally Bowles, famously played by Liza Minnelli in the film adaptation, and most affectingly by the late Natasha Richardson in the last production. Here, Ms. Williams is cute as a button, just talented enough musically to be believable as a low-rent chanteuse, and is a good enough actress to pull off the ode to self-destructive hedonism that is the title song finale. But the problem is the performance, while offering tragedy, lacks the underlying melancholy that Richardson found there. Instead of being a knowing co-conspirator in her self-destruction, circling the drain and not willing to drag her American boyfriend down with her, Williams offers only a perky, selfish, empty-headed sort of girl, oblivious to the world around her, who finally realizes she's tragic when all is too late. Which is a far less interesting interpretation. It's a valid one, and Williams is excellent, but just not as rich and interesting a performance as Richardson had offered (as for Minnelli, she was far too good a singer and dancer to have ever worked at the Kit Kat, and far more interested in getting a laugh than plumbing the depths of Sally Bowles’ soul). The other misstep of this production was the ending, brilliantly re-conceived for the last revival and slightly modified in its staging here, to much less effect. Originally, the MC (as portrayed by Joel Grey in the original production and a brief revival in the 80s, as well as Fosse's film version) was a purely Mephistophelean character, pulling the strings and commenting on the action, but not really a part of it; above it, really. The genius of Sam Mendes adaptation (which he originally created in London with Alan Cumming for the Donmar Warehouse in 1993 before bringing it to Broadway in `98) was reconsidering the MC to be as much a victim of the Nazis as the other characters he'd been mocking throughout. The final image of Cumming in concentration camp pajamas, with both a pink triangle and a Star of David on his breast, as he takes his place in line with the rest of the cast, already in those iconic striped pajamas, bleached with white light against a stark background, offered a truly startling conclusion entirely consistent with (and summarizing) the entire show. But this time, while the cast is frozen in that white light, it is only the MC in the pajamas, suggesting he was the ONLY victim, and certainly lessening the impact of the moment. I also miss Fosse's choreography from the film adaptation, which similarly dehumanizes the characters with his highly stylized movements. But on the whole, it's still a terrific show, with great music, great performances, and great power that has not only withstood the test of time, but grown deeper. [A-]

Vic Sage Apr 29 2014 09:40 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 15 2014 03:03 PM

*AVI*

Vic Sage May 01 2014 09:04 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

OF MICE AND MEN - This latest revival of the Steinbeck play is an excellent production, but some missteps in casting and performance limit its impact. The roles of Lenny and George are iconic… created as literature, adapted to both film and stage numerous times, and influencing other works in the popular culture since its original inception (even Bugs Bunny cartoons). But James Franco, a movie star of negligible talent, can only play 1 note at a time as George, an intelligent but uneducated farm worker with a compassionate heart and dreams for better life. And his primary note is exasperation and frustration with his companion, the dangerously strong but mentally deficient Lenny, with whom he travels. But there has to be more than that for George and Lenny’s tragedy to play its deepest chord, and Franco has nothing more to give. Chris O’Dowd as Lenny is affecting, but he plays Lenny as not only mentally deficient but literally disabled, accurately mimicking the speech and palsied movements of a retarded man. That specificity, however, while an interesting and valid acting choice that is well executed, pulls the focus of the play away from the men’s relationship, and away from Steinbeck’s themes [about the social forces that frustrate our dreams, and the damage done by loneliness and isolation, and therefore the necessity to be our brother’s keeper in order to survive]. Instead, we’re thinking about the unfortunate conditions for the mentally disabled... which is not what the play is about. But the design, the direction, the interstitial music, and most of the supporting performances (particularly Jim Norton, as Candy, who was so terrific in THE SEAFARER a few seasons back) are strong and make this still important and relevant work accessible and worth experiencing. [B-]

Vic Sage May 02 2014 09:28 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

VELOCITY OF AUTUMN - Eric Coble’s small 1-act play features a mother and son arguing in a room for a while. Mom is growing old and waiting for death but wanting to do so in her own home and on her own terms. Son, estranged for 20 years, has returned at his siblings’ request to talk their mother out of their old Brooklyn brownstone in which she’s barricaded herself and armed herself with numerous Molotov cocktails to keep her children at bay. There is a lot of talk about aging, and art, and family, and the literal and metaphorical tree outside the window, occasionally interrupted by hysterical phone calls from the concerned children outside... but it’s all talk, no action. And it’s all terribly obvious, predictable and dramatically inert talk, with no inherent theatricality in the work to enliven it in any way. So will he talk her out of the house? Will mother and son be reconciled? Well, what do you think? But Estelle Parsons is still a wonder, and Steven Spinella holds his own, and the play has some funny lines and valid insights. While lost on Broadway, it would be a nice community theater play – easily produced (2 actors, 1 set, 1 big tree), easily understood, long speeches with allegorical imagery that makes it seem smarter than it is, and dripping with sentimentality. [C-]

Vic Sage May 07 2014 03:18 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON Edited 2 time(s), most recently on May 13 2014 09:33 AM

LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR & GRILL - Audra McDonald gives an uncanny performance as Billie Holiday in this otherwise monotonous "play with music". McDonald's vocal impersonation of Holiday's singing style and speech pattern is shockingly exact, to the point where it's almost mimicry rather than a performance. But as she sings all or part of 15 songs and, in between, regales us with the stories of her life, McDonald's performance becomes almost a ritual channeling of Holiday's spirit. The problem here is that the "play" lacks any kind of dramatic energy. Presented as one of her last nightclub appearances before her death in 1959, the play consists entirely of monologues between songs (interacting with the audience and her band) that basically illustrate how tragic her life was, as she gets drunker throughout the evening (even taking a moment to go off-stage and shoot up). As a play, it is sad but leads nowhere. And as a concert, songs are sometimes interrupted or incomplete to make room for the monologues, and the songs vary little in tone, tempo or arrangement, so it is unsatisfying on a musical level as well. But when she gets to sing, backed by an excellent jazz trio, there is no denying McDonald's talent and artistry. So, if you're a fan of jazz vocals in general and Holiday in particular, you may love this as a sort of BEATLEMANIA ("... not Billie Holiday, but an incredible simulation!"). For me, though, a little faux Holiday goes a long way. [C+]

sharpie May 08 2014 07:07 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Saw The Realistic Joneses last night. Agree with pretty much everything Vic said: great performances and a funny, incisive play.

Vic Sage May 08 2014 08:39 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

yeah, right? i don't get all the hate for the play among the nominators.

Vic Sage May 13 2014 09:32 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

last 2 shows tomorrow... CASA VALENTINA and HEDWIG. Then i cast my Tony Ballot (got it in the mail today), which i'll explain here.

Vic Sage May 14 2014 03:20 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

CASA VALENTINA – In the early `60s, a Catskills lodge is a safe haven for closeted transvestites. Will they organize and go public to advance their movement? Will they denounce homosexuals to save themselves? Harvey Fierstein’s “issue play” about the tragedy of otherness brings GLEN OR GLENDA to the stage (metaphorically speaking), but with predictable results. Characters are clichés … the funny fat guy, the sassy good-time girl, the sweet old suffragette of strong principles, the McCarthyist zealot, the old judge who has secrets within his secrets, and the naïve virgin who, as the newcomer to the group, allows everyone to explain everything (for the audience’s benefit) and functions as the plot’s “inciting incident”. At the center of the action are the married middle-aged proprietor who just wants to be “normal”, and his wife, a good sport about his predilections but beginning to wonder where she fits into his life. Dialogue is comprised of exposition, political speeches, quips and Oscar Wilde bon mots, and you know you are being spoon fed when a character explains the play’s title. The acting is terrific, though, and the direction and design are solid. And there is an interesting idea explored here, where an oppressed group finds a sub-group within its community to oppress in turn, to elevate themselves. But when a play’s subtext is the text, it lacks the nuance, subtlety, and artistry necessary to make its viewpoint implicit through real characters and real human drama. I can see some being moved by this, but I was not. [C-]

Vic Sage May 15 2014 02:57 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH – This is a brilliant, funny, moving Broadway revival of the off-Broadway musical that masquerades as a one-night only concert by an East German (almost but not quite) transsexual singer who lays bare his/her tragic life as s/he sings great rock songs about his/her fruitless search for love. This time, it’s played out on the stage of the Belasco, made suddenly available by the quick closing of HURT LOCKER: THE MUSICAL (they even leave mock playbills for that show on the seats), using its abandoned set as their own. Neal Patrick Harris is a force of nature and holds the audience in his palm throughout, backed by a solid rock band and the extraordinary backup vocals of Yitzhak, Hedwig’s Jewish Croatian transvestite husband/wife, played by Lena Hall. As you can see, the notion of identity and the nature of love are very much at the heart of this story. During the course of the 90-minute concert confessional, Hedwig gradually strips away the layers of costumes and wigs s/he hides behind, even as parts of the set are similarly and gradually struck, finally leaving the stage bare, too. As good as Harris is, and he’s terrific, there is still something missing in his performance. When John Cameron Mitchell originally wrote it and performed it at the Westbeth and the Jane St. Theater, he infused it with an unspeakable sadness and ended it as a tragically broken and lost figure. But this is Broadway, so the laughs are emphasized over the sadness, and the tragic ending is softened and suffused with an uplifting spirit of grace and transcendence. While that is certainly a valid way to go, it does dilute the impact of the original work to some degree. Still, HEDWIG is a thrilling entertainment, and Stephen Trask’s songs may comprise the most authentic rock score ever written for a dramatic stage work. [A-]

Edgy MD May 15 2014 03:03 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Like the NFL draft, you took the gay ones late.

Vic Sage May 15 2014 03:16 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

MY BALLOT: Best Play Act One - James Lapine All The Way - Robert Schenkkan Casa Valentina - Harvey Fierstein Mothers and Sons - Terrence McNally Outside Mullingar - John Patrick Shanley That Will Eno's REALISTIC JONESES didn't receive a single nomination is outrageous. The play was certainly polarizing, but ACT ONE, CASA VALENTINA, ALL THE WAY and MOTHERS & SONS are all deeply flawed plays. They may have been more appealing to the nominators because they more closely reflect the politics and cultural mores of the Broadway community (despite their limited artistic accomplishments), and JONESES, a more esoteric and challenging work, apparently made them hostile; perhaps it spoke over their heads. In any event, I would still vote for Shanley’s wonderfully idiosyncratic romantic comedy, MULLINGAR. Best Musical After Midnight Aladdin Beautiful: The Carole King Musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder ALADDIN? This lame theme-park show got nominated over both BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY and BIG FISH? As with the plays, this mediocre commercial work was nominated over more ambitious, accomplished work. While GUIDE wasn’t brilliant, and its farce and songs worked at cross purposes, it was still an entertaining and well-crafted production. MIDNIGHT was an utter bore, and BEAUTIFUL was endearing but unexceptional. Best Revival of a Play The Cripple of Inishmaan The Glass Menagerie A Raisin in the Sun Twelfth Night Overlooked and worth mentioning are McKellan and Stewart's WAITING FOR GODOT and a marvelous WINSLOW BOY earlier this year. Regardless, there wasn’t a better production on Broadway this season than TWELFTH NIGHT. While I liked this production of GLASS MENAGERIE overall, Cherry Jones’ garish performance dragged the show down for me. Best Revival of a Musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch Les Misérables Violet LADY DAY was classified as a "play with music", and CABARET was a recreation of the exact same revival that was nominated a few years ago, so neither of them are eligible in this category, leaving only 3 musical revivals this season. But, happily, all 3 were excellent and deserved nominations. HEDWIG, while a great production of a great show, suffered in its translation to Broadway by pulling its punches a little bit. So, my vote is for the unstintingly theatrical, austere and powerful VIOLET. Best Book of a Musical Aladdin - Chad Beguelin Beautiful: The Carole King Musical - Douglas McGrath Bullets Over Broadway -Woody Allen A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder - Robert L. Freedman I can sort of understand the nomination for BULLETS, but it’s just Woody's screenplay only barely adapted to the stage. And BEAUTIFUL is kind of by-the-numbers bio pic, despite its craftsmanship. GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE would have been an excellent play, if not particularly great as a musical book. But again with ALADDIN? Both BRIDGES and BIG FISH are more worthy of consideration. In the absence of BRIDGES, I have to vote for GUIDE. Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre Aladdin - Music: Alan Menken / Lyrics: Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin The Bridges of Madison County - Music & Lyrics: Jason Robert Brown A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder - Music: Steven Lutvak / Lyrics: Robert L. Freedman & Steven Lutvak If/Then - Music: Tom Kitt / Lyrics: Brian Yorkey ALADDIN's score is comprised of the movie songs, movie song outtakes, and expansions and modifications of the movie songs, with only a few completely new songs, but Disney worked the rules to get the score deemed eligible. But it's only “meh”. Andrew Lippa's score for BIG FISH was better, and better than the disappointing IF/THEN, too. But the best score, without question, was JR Brown’s gorgeous work on BRIDGES. Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play Samuel Barnett, Twelfth Night Bryan Cranston, All The Way Chris O'Dowd, Of Mice and Men Mark Rylance, Richard III Tony Shalhoub, Act One Sam Barnett was spectacular in 12th NIGHT, so they got THAT one right, at least. But O’Dowd, while affecting, offers an interpretation of Lenny that seems misguided, Cranston's performance lacked nuance, Rylance was over the top and inappropriately comic, and Shaloub's role required him to play multiple supporting (not leading) parts, and only one of which was worth noting. Meanwhile, overlooked were Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart from GODOT, Denzel Washington from RAISIN, Bryn O'Byrne from OUTSIDE MULLINGAR, Daniel Radcliffe from INISHMAAN, Zachary Quinto from MENAGERIE, Roger Rees from WINSLOW BOY and Michael c. Hall and Tracy Letts from JONESES, all of which were superior to this year’s nominees (except Barnett). In fact, this entire category may represent the most egregious of this year’s many nominating faux pas. Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons LaTanya Richardson Jackson, A Raisin in the Sun Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill Estelle Parsons, The Velocity of Autumn Cherry Jones' acclaim for MENAGERIE continues to elude me, but Daly, Parsons and Jackson were all terrific. McDonald’s performance, however, is a ritual summoning of Billie Holiday, putting her on another level entirely. Overlooked performances include Debra Messing for MULLINGAR (who I might have voted for, if nominated), Toni Collette and Marissa Tomei for JONESES, Marie Louise Parker for SNOW GEESE, Condola Rashad for ROMEO & JULIET, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio for WINSLOW BOY. Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch Ramin Karimloo, Les Misérables Andy Karl, Rocky Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder Jefferson Mays gives a tour-de-force performance (actually 8 different performances) in GUIDE. Karimloo is also impressive as the most recent Valjean, but Andy Karl, while likeable, is inauthentic in ROCKY, and Bryce Pinkham made no impression. Harris was terrific, but missed the more tragic aspects of Hedwig, focusing on the humor instead. Other performances worth noting include Norbert Leo Butz in BIG FISH and Steven Pasquale in BRIDGES (Alan Cumming was not eligible again for reprising his role in CABARET). Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical x- Mary Bridget Davies, A Night with Janis Joplin Sutton Foster, Violet Idina Menzel, If/Then Jessie Mueller, Beautiful:The Carole King Musical Kelli O'Hara, The Bridges of Madison County I didn’t see the JOPLIN concert musical, but the other 4 nominees are all worthy. Worth mentioning, too, is Michelle Williams in CABARET. In such a close category, my vote would likely have gone to O’Hara. Best Direction of a Play Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night Michael Grandage, The Cripple of Inishmaan Kenny Leon, A Raisin in the Sun John Tiffany, The Glass Menagerie All worthy; also worth mentioning are Sam Gold for JONESES and Doug Hughes for MULLINGAR. But TWELFTH NIGHT was a brilliant recreation of an “Old Globe” production, authentic down to the underwear. Best Direction of a Musical Warren Carlyle, After Midnight Michael Mayer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch Leigh Silverman, Violet Darko Tresnjak, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder Silverman, for VIOLET’s heartfelt simplicity, over Carlyle’s high style for MIDNIGHT. Also deserving of mention is Bart Sher for BRIDGES. Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play Reed Birney, Casa Valentina Paul Chahidi, Twelfth Night Stephen Fry, Twelfth Night Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night Brian J. Smith, The Glass Menagerie Rylance is a comic genius, as he demonstrated once again in TWELFTH NIGHT. Nobody else was close. Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play Sarah Greene, The Cripple of Inishmaan Celia Keenan-Bolger, The Glass Menagerie Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun Anika Noni Rose, A Raisin in the Sun Mare Winningham, Casa Valentina A strong category, but Greene makes a real impact as the ill-tempered Irish lass in INISHMAAN. Besides, she's a redhead. Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical Danny Burstein, Cabaret Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway Joshua Henry, Violet James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin Jarrod Spector, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical No contest; Iglehart’s show-stopping Genie in ALADDIN wins in a landslide. But Danny Burstein was excellent, too. Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical Linda Emond, Cabaret Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch Anika Larsen, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical Adriane Lenox, After Midnight Lauren Worsham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder Emond is simultaneously funny and heartbreaking as CABARET’s Fraulein Schneider. No one else stood out. Best Choreography Warren Carlyle, After Midnight Steven Hoggett & Kelly Devine, Rocky Casey Nicholaw, Aladdin Susan Stroman, Bullets Over Broadway A close call between Stroman’s old school Broadway show stoppers and Carlyle’s stylish high steppin’ at the Cotton Club; I’ll go with Stro, since some of the moves in MIDNIGHT felt oddly anachronistic. Aladdin was lame and Rocky was worse. Best Orchestrations Doug Besterman, Bullets Over Broadway Jason Robert Brown, The Bridges of Madison County Steve Sidwell, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical Jonathan Tunick, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder BRIDGES sounded great, but BEAUTIFUL really captured the `60s Brill Building sound and King’s uniquely folky R&B performing style that followed it. Design nominations: MACHINAL, while a bore, was impeccably designed with an Art Deco style that stayed with me; BULLETS was similarly tarted up for a big night out. But the lighting in BRIDGES deserves special recognition for its dramatic impact, and the authentic costumes in 12th NIGHT were practically another character in the play. Best Scenic Design of a Play Beowulf Boritt, Act One Bob Crowley, The Glass Menagerie Es Devlin, Machinal Christopher Oram, The Cripple of Inishmaan Best Scenic Design of a Musical Christopher Barreca, Rocky Julian Crouch, Hedwig and the Angry Inch Alexander Dodge, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder Santo Loquasto, Bullets Over Broadway Best Costume Design of a Play Jane Greenwood, Act One Michael Krass, Machinal Rita Ryack, Casa Valentina Jenny Tiramani, Twelfth Night Best Costume Design of a Musical Linda Cho, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder William Ivey Long, Bullets Over Broadway Arianne Phillips, Hedwig and the Angry Inch Isabel Toledo, After Midnight Best Lighting Design of a Play Paule Constable, The Cripple of Inishmaan Jane Cox, Machinal Natasha Katz, The Glass Menagerie Japhy Weideman, Of Mice and Men Best Lighting Design of a Musical Kevin Adams, Hedwig and the Angry Inch Christopher Akerlind, Rocky Howell Binkley, After Midnight Donald Holder, The Bridges of Madison County Best Sound Design of a Play Alex Baranowski, The Cripple of Inishmaan Steve Canyon Kennedy, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill Dan Moses Schreier, Act One Matt Tierney, Machinal Best Sound Design of a Musical Peter Hylenski, After Midnight Tim O'Heir, Hedwig and the Angry Inch Mick Potter, Les Misérables Brian Ronan, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical ------------------------------------- In summary: The most unduly praised = ALADDIN (musical) / ACT ONE (play) The most egregiously overlooked = BIG FISH (musical) / REALISTIC JONESES (play) My 2 favorite new plays this year, MULLINGAR and JONESES, received exactly 1 nomination between them; my favorite 2 original musicals, BRIDGES and BIG FISH, got 4 (all for BRIDGES, and neither of them for Best Musical).

Vic Sage Jun 09 2014 10:59 AM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 09 2014 01:38 PM

[u:svndrusn]TONY AWARD RECAP:[/u:svndrusn] Am I the kiss of death or what? If i like your show, close immediately. you have no shot. Big love for ALL THE WAY, RAISIN, GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE, HEDWIG, with a few bones to BEAUTIFUL. Not as many huzzahs as i expected for TWELFTH NIGHT (unfortunately) or BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (which was the kind of cynical old-school mediocrity that used to be a slam dunk for Tonys, at least for design/direction awards). some other thoughts: * Why did Jackman's opening consist of him hopping? And why was the rest of the opening just a number from AFTER MIDNIGHT? Did they just figure, "well, Jackman can't do that as well as Neil did, so we'll just skip it"? * For years, i've been complaining that the "best book of a musical" category was given off-air, during the pre-show, along with the design awards. The unfairness of certain authors (composers & lyricists) getting on-air recognition while their collaborators were ignored was unjustifiable. They solved that problem this year -- the gave BOTh musical writing awards off-air. GENIUS! I wonder if that was because BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY was a slam dunk to win for best score this year, and the closed show was not going to spend the money to produce a segment for the broadcast, so they just said "screw it", no air-time for the category! ("No soup for you!") * Man, BRIDGES got so fucked this year. Not only couldn't it sell tickets, and was unjustly overlooked for a "best musical" nomination, and its composer won his "best score" award off-air during the pre-show... the show didn't even get good seats allocated to its nominees! You could see, during Hugh Jackman's awful song & dance with all the leading ladies nominated for "Best Actress in a Musical", Jackman found 4 of the ladies sitting down front, in proximity to each other, but Kelli O'Hara, the nominated star of BRIDGES, was sitting way back. That's some cold shit right there. "S'long BRIDGES, and don't let the door hitchya where the good lord splitcha!" * Unlike musical theater writers, the playwrights this year were made the spokesmen for their shows to present the "best play" award. CBS never knows how to represent plays on the broadcast (short scenes don't work dramatically), so they just gave it over to each playwright to decide. I think it came off ok, except the playwrights were all old white men, which says something about the interests of the Broadway producing community; * Jackman doing a rap version of a song from MUSIC MAN, with LL COOLJ an TI? Really? Nothing more uncool than uncool people trying to pretend their cool. This ain't gonna make "the kids" tune into the Tony show. * VIOLET was a brilliant show badly presented on the broadcast. These things are tricky; deciding how to select and shape the actual performance piece for the show is an art in and of itself, and one not all producers are particularly adept at. * Jennifer Hudson was awful doing an awful song from a still un-produced show. Was that really necessary? * But Sting's show coming in this fall might be interesting; * When HEDWIG won the best revival Tony, the producer thanked the authors but didn't let them say a word (there was a rule change this year that living authors of revivals of shows that were not originally presented on Broadway will be eligible with the producers [as they are with plays]. I so don't miss sitting through this show at Radio City anymore.

themetfairy Jun 09 2014 12:11 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Vic Sage wrote: * Why did Jackman's opening consist of him hopping? It was homage to Bobby Van (I believe it was Van that he saluted on screen at one point during the number).

Vic Sage Jun 09 2014 12:25 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Bobby Van? BOBBY VAN? Wow, how utterly obscure, bizarre and pointless. That's not like recreating a scene from SINGIN' IN THE RAIN now is it? And yes, i just realized they dropped the "In Memoriam" section; how awful, to drop the portion of the program that presents a moving acknowledgment of theater greats who died this past year, just so you could have time to let LLCoolJ, Sting and Jennifer Hudson to sing on the show, and a nice song from WICKED. Here's the unaired memoriam video: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/19 ... Lost-Video

themetfairy Aug 01 2014 03:33 PM Re: BROADWAY: 2013-2014 SEASON

Is there any advance word on The Last Ship? I hear Sting and think pretentious as a knee jerk reaction, but am willing to keep an open mind if the buzz is really good.