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Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Vic Sage Jul 28 2015 09:34 PM

The new season has begun. Here's a tentative lineup of shows currently scheduled to open this season: Already open: AN ACT OF GOD - David Javerbaum adapted a monologue written by god, with god personified by Jim Parsons HAMILTON – Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop hit history musical moved uptown from its acclaimed Public Theater run AMAZING GRACE – A musical about the origin of the song, with nobody you ever heard of. Still to come: [u:3evxfcuq]Musicals:[/u:3evxfcuq] ALLEGIANCE - George Takei co-stars in this musical based on his childhood experiences in a Japanese internment camp during WWII, with Lea Salonga ON YOUR FEET – Gloria Estefan's musical about Gloria Estefan SCHOOL OF ROCK - Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical adapts the Jack Black movie SHUFFLE ALONG – Writer/Director George C. Wolfe's backstage musical about a Eubie Blake musical from the 1920s, starring Audra McDonald TUCK EVERLASTING – Casey Nicholaw directs this adaptation of the film [u:3evxfcuq]Musical Revivals:[/u:3evxfcuq] COLOR PURPLE – Oprah moves the Menier Chocolate Factory production to Broadway, with stripped-down direction from John Doyle, starring Jennifer Hudson DAMES AT SEA - A hit off-Broadway musical from the 1960s gets a Broadway debut FIDDLER ON THE ROOF – Bart Sher’s revival of the Harnick/Bock musical, with Danny Burstein and Jessica Hecht. SHE LOVES ME – (RB) Revival of the Harnick/Bock adaptatioin of LITTLE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, this time with Laura Benanti and Jane Krakowski SPRING AWAKENING – sign language revival of the Duncan Sheik musical of teen angst [u:3evxfcuq]Plays:[/u:3evxfcuq] CHINA DOLL – New Mamet, with Pacino KING CHARLES III – British "Olivier" winner comes to Broadway MISERY – William Goldman’s adaptation of the Stephen King thriller features Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf in a limited run OUR MOTHER’S AFFAIR – (MTC) Richard Greenberg's new play, with Linda Lavin THERESE RAQUIN –(RB) Adaptation of the Zola novel, with Keira Knightley and Judith Licht [u:3evxfcuq]Play Revivals:[/u:3evxfcuq] A LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (RB) – O’Neill's autobiographical masterwork, with Jessica Lange and Gabriel Byrne A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE – Award-winning British revival of Arthur Miller's tragedy FOOL FOR LOVE – (MTC) Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell are lovers in a hotel room at the edge of the desert, in Sam Shepard's classic GIN GAME DL Coburn's pulitzer winner revived with James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson NOISES OFF – (RB) Michael Frayn's hilarious backstage farce, with Andrea Martin, Megan Hilty, Rob McLure OLD TIMES - (RB) Pinter's dark comedy, with Clive Owen SYLVIA – AR Gurney's comedy revived with Matthew Broderick, Julie White and Anneleigh Ashford

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 20 2015 05:06 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Anyone seen Hamilton? Wifey Bucket is making me buy tixxxx

Vic Sage Aug 21 2015 02:43 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 12 time(s), most recently on Aug 27 2015 08:05 PM

AN ACT OF GOD - David Javerbaum (writer for THE DAILY SHOW) has co-authored a comic monologue with God. His Holy of Holies has come to Broadway in the form of THE BIG BANG THEORY'S Jim Parsons, with solid support from some amusingly obsequious archangels, to tell us how he would rewrite and update the Ten Commandments. The play, good natured in its blasphemy, sly, and funny as hell, is basically a 90-minute stand-up routine expertly executed by Parsons, in which God finally realizes "there is something seriously wrong with me." Preach it, brudda. [B+] AMAZING GRACE - This incredibly clumsy and earnest musical tells the story of an 18th century English slaver who had a literal "come to Jesus" revelation and becomes an abolitionist and the author of the famous title song. Written entirely by an ex-cop with no training or theatrical experience, it is exactly what you think it is… a musical sermon written with a crayon. It’s basically a tent revival that is tuneful enough to have a life in community theaters. The Church groups bussed in for the matinee I attended seem quite moved, particularly during the final choral performance of the song, during which many in the audience stood and raised their hands to God, so I guess any criticisms of its craft are irrelevant. [D] HAMILTON – Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hip-Hop retelling of our nation’s founding and its founding fathers has opened to much fanfare and acclaim, with the author in the title role. Expertly performed, directed and designed, it is the story of the rise and fall of an immigrant orphan, driven to succeed, who comes to NY to make his fortune and helps build our country. It is the quintessential American story, using a melting pot cast and a variety of contemporary song styles to show how relevant the story remains. Structurally, it is much like JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR, where the story is told from the point of view of the antagonist (in this case, Aaron Burr) as we wind our way to our hero's inevitable martyrdom, with the tale expressed in anachronistic music and vernacular. The show has great energy and beauty, and its choreography and staging are all of a seamless whole, but it is not flawless work. The first ten minutes or so are told in an assaultive rap that rolled over me too quickly for my untutored ears to comprehend more than every 4th word. I got the gist of it but felt put off, with a panicky thought of "oh, no... is this what the whole thing is going to be like?" Happily, it isn't. The show is mostly sung through, a virtual and virtuoso Hip-Hopera, but with many moments of 60s English pop, R&B, rousing choral numbers and standard Broadway balladeering. Still, overwhelmed by the steady deluge of Miranda’s brilliant lyrical rap verse throughout the show, I continued to feel like I was missing good stuff. Maybe that was a "me" problem (my kids had no problem and loved it), but there were some non-"Me" problems, too. Act I has a big finale as Hamilton and the boys all march off to fight in the revolution, but the story doesn't have the sense to realize it should've stopped there. Instead, the act meanders on for two more scenes, putting the intermission in the wrong place and thus making the first act feel attenuated and overlong, and robbing it of its energy. After Hamilton's rise in Act I, Act II gives us his fall and so suffers from a few too many ballads and slows down a bit. My main problem, however, is the character of Hamilton himself. Brilliant but arrogant, driven, boastful, bullying and an adulterer more interested in protecting his legacy and power than his marriage, you kind of get why Burr wants to kill him. By the end, it's unclear that Hamilton has grown in any way; the only "journey" the character takes in the story is towards aging, loss and regret. In fact, the only reason I found him a protagonist about whom I could care at all is that he's played by the endearing and incomparable Lin-Manuel Miranda. But don't get me wrong... that's a damn good reason. Ultimately, while one's appreciation of the show may be connected to one's tolerance for rap music, the craftsmanship of the work and the talent on display are inarguable. [A-]

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 21 2015 02:48 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Thanks. Had to take a second mortgage for tix, now waiting 7 months till the date we could get 'em.

Vic Sage Oct 02 2015 05:51 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

SPRING AWAKENING – When I first saw this show in its original run on Broadway 6 years ago, I was unimpressed by the teen angst melodrama, and the syrupy alt-indie songs with overwrought lyrics didn’t help much, even though they were presented with power and energy. However, the score has really grown on me over the years and I was looking forward to this Broadway revival. Unfortunately, the quality of the score is undermined by the nature of this production by Deaf West Theater and all that’s left is the “woe is me” tale of teen tragedy. I applaud the work that Deaf West Theater does. They give hearing impaired performers and audiences alike an opportunity to explore shows from BIG RIVER to SPRING AWAKENING, and more power to them. But beyond fulfilling a social agenda of inclusiveness, why are all the characters in this show using sign language? Why is a musical cast with performers who cannot speak, much less sing? Why are the actors cast with doppelgangers following them around, singing the songs and speaking the dialogue? What is the aesthetic and/or narrative function of this device? Answer: there is none. From a story-telling perspective, the device just diffuses the performances, spreading audience attention between characters spread out on the stage, plus dialogue projected on screens, and so offers no focus to the characters, to the story, or to the music. Attention is split, leaving one necessarily less engaged. And the vocal energy and power of the songs is diminished, too, since some of the players are unable to make vocal contributions to the choral sound. The non-stop signing presents a constant source of distraction, with its miming quality unfortunately underlining the silent film melodrama of the story. I suppose they could have found a reason for the device: maybe the adults are deaf, unable to hear their children’s suffering. But no, some adults are deaf, some aren’t. Or maybe there is an inherent conflict as adults seek to inhibit the signing by the young, mirroring the conflict in the deaf community between an older generation of lip-readers and younger generations of signers. But no, everybody – old, young, deaf, hearing – is fluent and at ease with signing. Nor does the impairment function to isolate and ostracize the teen protagonists, which would’ve made thematic sense with the work. No, art is just sacrificed on the altar of politics and social activism, for its own sake. Then throw in the casting of a girl in a wheel chair and a black girl and you have the staging not of a musical but of an agenda. All that was missing was the casting of a Hispanic hermaphrodite, to cover all the bases. Not to say this production is without its own charm. In the musical numbers, the signing becomes a form of choreographed movement that is much more interesting than the spasmodic dancing of the original, so there is that. And the production is, overall, less squeezed and claustrophobic, and more graceful, than the original. The performances are fine, to the extent one can assess a performance when a character is split among different performers, with some of their lines appearing in projections. But on the whole, the show rests on its score, the impact of which is diminished by this production. Noble intentions aren’t sufficient, or even necessary, in creating art and when considerations other than aesthetics are imposed, art suffers. [C]

themetfairy Oct 08 2015 07:01 AM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

D-Dad and I caught a preview performance of Allegiance last night. As Vic said above, Allegiance is the story of Japanese-American families who are displaced into internment camps during World War II, and it was inspired by Mr. Takei's own experiences as a child in one of those camps. The story deals with the camps' harsh conditions and a family's differing views about fighting to defend a country that would take away the civil rights of a segment of its citizens. The show's book is not perfect, but since this was a preview it's entirely possible that it will be tightened up a bit before its official opening next month. What is good is the music and the earnest performances (although Lea Salonga is too old for her role, she's not so old that you can't suspend disbelief a bit), as well as watching a tale that deserves to be told. It is also special to see someone of Mr. Takei's status bringing this show to Broadway after years of hard work. Despite its imperfections, Allegiance is engaging and entertaining.

Vic Sage Oct 20 2015 02:30 AM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Oct 21 2015 08:38 PM

OLD TIMES - Clive Owen stars in this revival of Pinter's play in which three people sit around a stage for 70 minutes and smoke, glare, pause, and speak in non-sequiturs. It's like a parody of a pretentious play you might see on SNL, if SNL were still culturally literate. 30 minutes in, I went to sleep. I didn't FALL asleep, mind you… I WENT to sleep, consciously choosing unconsciousness over any further interaction with this experience. If there is a hell waiting for me at the end of my days, surely a Pinter festival will be the centerpiece of my damnation. [F] A FOOL FOR LOVE - A great Sam Shepard play about sexual obsession and the sins of the father has been revived on Broadway with a great cast, starring Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell, but it lacks the energy and impact of the original. That seminal theatrical event, with Ed Harris and Kathy Baker, would be hard for any production to live up to, but this one isn't as good as Robert Altman's film adaptation, either (it starred Sam Shepard and Kim Basinger, with Harry Dean Stanton and Randy Quaid in the supporting roles). Despite a lackluster production and glacial pacing, however, FOOL is still top-tier Shepard and so is still worth seeing. [C+]

Vic Sage Oct 21 2015 08:24 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

GIN GAME – D.L. Coburn’s Pulitzer-winning play is back on Broadway with James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, a perfect pair for this classic two-hander. A hilarious tragedy, GIN GAME explores aging, loneliness and regret as its protagonists/antagonists, abandoned by their families in a dilapidated old-age home and forced together as its only ambulatory and sentient guests, play a never-ending gin game which keeps reaching the same conclusion...her victory and his ever-increasing frustration. The play doesn’t engage in cheap sentimentality by offering an unearned happy ending, instead leaving them in a purgatory of their own devising, but the tragedy is played like comedy, and it’s very funny. The play doesn’t really feel resolved in the end, and the iconic cast doesn’t really try to convey the tragic underpinnings of the story, always going for the laugh instead, but they’re good laughs and so what?… Jones & Tyson are delightful. [B+]

Vic Sage Nov 13 2015 10:52 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Nov 20 2015 03:03 PM

KING CHARLES III – Imagine if Shakespeare were alive 10 years from now, when Queen Elizabeth II dies and leaves her aging son, Charles, to take the throne, with William and Kate as scheming usurpers and a constitutional crisis about to explode in civil war. What sort of play might old Bill make of that? The answer may very well be KING CHARLES III, a masterful work by Mike Bartlett. This British import gives us a brilliant insight into the role of British Monarchy in modern England, but with the Bard’s precocious emphasis on interpersonal family relationships and human psychology that leads to inevitable tragedy. It is told in iambic pentameter in a candle-lit production directed and designed as if for the Globe, mixing narrative elements and devices from Hamlet, Henry IV, Richard II & III, and MacBeth (among other works), but still feeling wholly original and modern. The verse style is subtle, and written in a contemporary vernacular, even though it sometimes veers off into poetic soliloquies that would play well on an Elizabethan stage. Still, the musical underscoring suggests Philip Glass rather than music you’d hear at a revival of RICHARD II, and it works with the modern dress and language to emphasize the currency of not only the play itself but the entire Shakespearean canon. But this play is not just some aesthetic stunt or academic exercise… it is a powerful tragedy, with a towering Lear-like performance by Tim Piggott-Smith, struggling to make of himself a great king in a modern world that has no place for principles or princes, fighting enemies from without and within. I left feeling I had just seen Shakespeare’s last play, and it was one of his better ones. [A] from the sublime to the ridiculous... ON YOUR FEET - The music and life of `80s Latin/dance/pop diva Gloria Estefan receives an utterly unwarranted musical hagiography that is surprisingly competent in its production and performance. Her immigrant “rags to riches” story is spelled out in exactly the ways you would expect from a glossy self-produced work but, despite the Horatio Alger clichés, there are excellent performances here, with slick direction and design work, and a witty book with a depth of emotion and heart. These story moments are underlined by Estefan’s particular brand of Latin-infused dance music with its infectious energy well integrated into the action. Even the banality of her lyrics is put to good use, since their generic quality allow the songs to work in a range of story moments without feeling forced. You may still wonder why Ms. Estefan is worth a second thought, much less the focus of a Broadway musical, but there is solid craft on display on this stage. [C]

Vic Sage Nov 16 2015 04:23 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

SYLVIA – The heart of A.R. Gurney’s charming domestic comedy is able to peak through this thoroughly mediocre revival. The story of an empty nest couple and the dog that comes between them is a slight work, but it does offer some humor and touching insight into the relationships between man & dog and man & wife. The man in question is perennial man-boy Matthew Broderick, whose vaguely autistic manner and delivery (his default mode in every role) is almost appropriate this time as a confused man in a mid-life crisis, looking for connection to something real and finding it in Sylvia, a stray he’s taken in from the park. The dog (played wonderfully in the original production by Broderick’s wife, Sarah Jessica Parker) is played this time by the delightful Annaleigh Ashford. Coming off her winning performance last season in YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, Ashford captures perfectly the inner life of a sweet but manipulative canine, competing with her owner’s wife for space in his life, and she brings her own ditzy flair and physicality to the role. Julie White, a brilliant comic actress, is somewhat underutilized in the thankless role of the put upon wife. But the real problem here is Robert Sella, overplaying three supporting roles as the wife’s socialite girlfriend, the man’s dog-park guy pal, and the couple’s androgynous therapist. Sella’s characters are caricatures, played so broadly the theater can barely contain them, and he almost sinks the show. But the play’s heart shines through in the end. [C+]

Vic Sage Nov 19 2015 09:43 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

DAMES AT SEA – Act I was not worth typing about; Act II will have to remain a mystery. [F]

Vic Sage Dec 03 2015 03:44 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE - This British import from the Young Vic certainly puts a new spin on Miller's classic working-class tragedy, so it's understandable to have it back on Broadway so soon after the excellent Liev Shrieber / Scarlett Johannsen revival just a few years ago. This minimalist interpretation turns Miller's realistic play into a modern abstract work, putting all the action inside a black cube that lifts up to reveal a blank stage completely surrounded by a plexi-glass lip/bench, with a black background and a single entrance up center that opens into more darkness. That squared space has audiences sitting on three sides, with risers stage left and right, putting the audience right on top of the action, which starts with 2 actors, soaked in a reddish water standing beneath silent shower heads, cleaning themselves off with washcloths and changing into fresh clothes. The story then unfolds in that confined space until its violent conclusion, where the entire cast is soaked in a red rain from the showers, and the purpose of the stage's plexi-glass lip becomes apparent, as it holds in the bloody downfall. And the entire play is underscored by Fauré's Requiem, playing softly in the background, which becomes like a white noise that just creates another layer of foreshadowing theatricality. It is a modern and abstract version of a play that is realistic and time-specific, in an effort, I suppose, to heighten the work's "universality" and to underline its classic Greek tragedy structure. But it didn't work for me. Part of the greatness of the play is that it's very specific about its time and place, dealing with the sociology of post-war immigration from devastated Europe and its impact on the lives of the longshoremen of Red Hook, in Brooklyn. It's that very specificity that makes the play universal, just as the specificity of Fiddler on the Roof has made it one of the most produced plays in Asia over the last 50 years. And one of the great joys in watching the play -- well, not joy exactly, but an epiphany it can lead you to -- is that these common folk lead lives that are the stuff of epic tragedy, just like Lear and Oedipus. So, like in Death of a Salesman, Miller is again making the point that ordinary people deserve the respect to see in their lives the same tragedy that western culture has dramatized in the lives of Kings and generals. Attention must be paid, even in Red Hook. But by scrubbing the play of its time and place, the "epic tragedy" is made apparent from the outset and denies the audience this epiphany, this realization that we come to by the end, and instead just spoon feeds us the underlying point at every moment along the way, leaving us nowhere to go. It's a powerful production, with startling and shocking theatrical moments, but this interpretation simply does not trust the play to make its point, nor the audience to understand it, without the directorial flourishes. The realism is also undermined by a British cast that tries and fails to maintain their Italian-Brooklyn accents, with Irish lilts constantly asserting themselves (accents are a tricky thing; either do it or don’t do it, but don’t do it badly). Only the protagonist, played by the incredible Mark Strong, maintains his vocal technique, and he carries the weight of this over-directed production on his back like Atlas. It is a towering performance and, together with the undeniable power of the play, overcomes all reservations to make this a production worth seeing, despite its excesses. [C+]

Vic Sage Dec 03 2015 04:26 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

THERESE RAQUIN – Zola’s 19th century erotic thriller is neither erotic nor thrilling as staged in this Roundabout Theater production adapted from the novel. Keira Knightly is the repressed, silent orphan forced into a loveless, sexless marriage with her idiot cousin by the well-meaning but controlling aunt who raised her. Her libido bursts free in a torrid affair with her husband’s old friend, a ne’er-do-well artist, as together they murder the husband so they can marry. But their guilt evokes a ghostly presence that drives a permanent wedge between them that only their deaths can bridge. It’s all beautifully lit and staged, with impressionistically painted drops behind dark, realistically rendered rooms, and Judith Light is gives a terrific performance as the mother, but the rest of the cast makes no impression whatsoever. Knightly isn’t bad, and is able to generate intensity without uttering a sound, but the whole play is so slow, silent and inert, it is stultifying and prevents any dramatic tension from building. The drama is also inhibited by the play’s poor structure, with scenes that feel either truncated or overlong, and with no setup as to why Therese would agree to the marriage in the first place, or why any of the other possible solutions short of murder couldn’t have been found. I’m sure Zola offered the sociological and psychological forces at work here, but the play does not even hint at them, leaving the characters incredibly unsympathetic, and the whole effort pointlessly dour, depressing, and dull. It’s not terrible, but it’s not good either. [C-]

Vic Sage Dec 09 2015 10:31 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Dec 14 2015 03:05 PM

MISERY - Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf star in this Broadway adaptation of the Stephen King thriller. The play is underwhelming, considering the potential for drama in the source material. Metcalf is fine as a desperate and pathetic fan obsessed with a Civil War-era heroine, and the loss of that character leaves her bereft and drives her over the edge. This interpretation offers emotional reality (and humor) to a character that could be (and has been) played purely as a horror-movie monster, but unfortunately, it robs the story of its horror-movie thrills. More importantly, Willis isn’t up to the challenge of matching Metcalf, offering a passionless and lethargic performance that is particularly lame (in more ways than one). The set, a rotating house, is well done, but the tension in the story would have been heightened if it was just two characters in one room, without “opening it up”. Overall the production elements are ok, Metcalf is fine, and the show is engaging enough, I suppose, but disappointing. [C-]

Vic Sage Dec 11 2015 04:27 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

CHINA DOLL – David Mamet’s new play features Al Pacino as a wealthy, aging power-broker on his way out… a man who gets his foot caught in the door before he’s able to leave his corrupt life behind by flying away on his private jet and retire with his too young fiancé to a happily ever after he doesn’t deserve. It is a tour-de-force for Pacino, essentially a full-length monologue (interrupted by brief asides to his young assistant) as he makes and takes various phone calls that reveal his situation to be increasingly dire, leading to an epically tragic conclusion. Unfortunately, that conclusion seems totally contrived and melodramatic, and is wholly unsatisfying, since the play doesn’t lead us inexorably to that moment; it is just thrust upon us as the lights go out. The young assistant is too undeveloped a character to serve such an important function in the play’s structure, and the actor’s performance is unable to elevate the role. This feels like a first draft of an interesting play; maybe David should've run it through the processor one more time. But, while this isn’t GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS or SPEED-THE-PLOW, it’s an entertaining play, with Mamet’s acidic humor and sly insights, highlighted by his signature dialogue, painting a fascinating portrait of a lion in winter. Or maybe I went in with such low expectations due to the critical roasting the play has gotten that I was likely to come out thinking “well, that wasn’t so bad.” It’s sometimes hard to tell with Mamet. [C+]

cooby classic Dec 11 2015 04:30 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Vic your reviews are awesome. It's like being there. I know it's ancient but did you like CATS?

Vic Sage Dec 11 2015 04:53 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

i saw it decades ago, when it was a old and tired show, and remember being bored by it. I might have felt differently if i a saw a fresh production, or if i saw it when i was either younger or older, but i don't think i would. The lack of narrative would've irritated me at any age and the music is very inconsistent; some great, some awful. And i really don't give a rat's ass about cats.

cooby classic Dec 11 2015 05:23 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Lol honesty will get you everywhere :) My mom and dad saw it on broadway years ago too and when it came to Williamsport mom took me to see it. Like you I was completely baffled by it. However I was charmed by mr mistofalees (sp) and mungojerry and rumple teasers songs, and played them endlessly at work the next day On YouTube I finally bought the CD of the movie and not only finally got the storyline (if there is one) but watched it with my daughter who also loved it. Her husband, who works at Penn StAte won tickets to a production there and we were excited to go see it live. Then the jerry Sandusky thing happened and the production was mysteriously cancelled

themetfairy Dec 11 2015 05:31 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

I had a college suitemate who thought that he was Barbra Streisand. His nonstop singing of Memory soured me on Cats forever and ever....

cooby classic Dec 11 2015 05:45 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Lol. Memory was not one of my favorites but when I saw this, our sweet cat Gavin was beginning to show her age and we associated it with her and started to love it

Vic Sage Jan 26 2016 06:32 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jan 27 2016 03:46 PM

ALLEGIANCE – Overly earnest, amateurish musical play about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. Every element of the show –everything from the writing, the music, the direction, the choreography and the design, to each and every performance— was either sub-par or ludicrously bad. Like this season’s AMAZING GRACE, there are probably community groups to whom this may be very moving because of the tragic history it covers, but as a piece of theater, it even lacks GRACE’s occasional tunefulness. I give Act I a [D-], crediting it for its good intentions; Act II escaped my evaluation. COLOR PURPLE - A spare, minimalist British revival of the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s feminist novel works even better this time around. There aren’t any great songs here, and only a few good ones, but the music works to move the story along, and its gospel-infused vernacular, along with solid design elements and choreography, support the piece well. But ultimately, this show is all about the spectacular star-making performance of Cynthia Erivo as Celie, and she is a tiny box of dynamite. Orange is the New Black" star Danielle Brooks gives great support as Sofia (played by Oprah in the movie), but Jennifer Hudson’s “Shug Avery” is underwhelming. There is no doubting that amazing voice, but her performance was low energy, unconvincing and lackluster. While she is terrific on film, she obviously lacks stage training. Also, while the male cast members are hamstrung by roles that are cartoonishly drawn (as they were in the film), they still offered little to elevate those characters. On the whole, though, this is a strong revival of a powerful show and Ms. Erivo blows the roof off the place. [B]

Vic Sage Jan 27 2016 02:48 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR – Richard Greenberg’s new play at Manhattan Theater Club is like many of his others: a story of over-educated New Yorkers coming to terms with their dysfunctional families and their corrosive secrets, usually involving their Judaism and/or homosexuality (his one great play, TAKE ME OUT, dealt with a team, instead of a family, dealing with a gay ballplayer). This particular one is a memory play, and it feels like a very poor man’s BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, where two grown children have to confront the reality of their (possibly) dying mother’s brief affair many years ago; here it’s with a notorious historical figure instead of a nature photographer. Is her story just dementia or did it happen? Did I care? Nope. All the characters are loathsome caricatures that sound the same and say things like “the photograph is the orgasm of the pose.” The direction and design offer nothing, and Linda Lavin has done this caustic Jewish mother thing way too much. The play does has an interesting structure, as we float in and out of time and memory, and the second act denouement has some emotional impact, but it’s all so dull and pretentious, and not really worth the trip. [C-]

MFS62 Jan 27 2016 03:29 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Vic, what do you think about the "live" broadcasts of musicals on TV? (some have had the music recorded prior to the broadcast) FOX will be doing Grease live this Sunday. Will you be watching/ reviewing it? Just curious. Later

Vic Sage Jan 27 2016 03:43 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 03 2016 07:17 PM

I think they've been awful so far. PBS used to do a good job recording live performances back in the 80s (i think they were shown as part of AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE). I remember seeing SWEENEY TODD, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and PIPPIN all on TV and liking them so much i wanted to see the shows. However, these current network TV- and pop-star cast-driven productions are DOA, directed by TV directors with no feeling for how to shoot musical staging in order to appreciate it, and lack the energy of a live audience responding to it, which feeds the performances. As for GREASE, I wouldn't watch it again under the best of circumstances, unless I was professionally obligated to do so (as i was a few years ago). The story of a high school girl who is pressured into becoming a slut in order to achieve social acceptance... and its a musical comedy! This used to be the subject matter of cautionary films projected during health class. As for the other shows this year, it's about half-way through the Broadway season, so here are my grades at the proverbial all-star break: Musicals: HAMILTON [A-] SCHOOL OF ROCK [B ] ON YOUR FEET [C] AMAZING GRACE [D] ALLEGIANCE [D-] still to come: DISASTER! BRIGHT STAR AMERICAN PSYCHO NERDS WAITRESS TUCK EVERLASTING SHUFFLE ALONG Musical Revivals: COLOR PURPLE [B ] FIDDLER ON THE ROOF [C+] SPRING AWAKENING [C] DAMES AT SEA [F] still to come: SHE LOVES ME Plays: KING CHARLES III [A] AN ACT OF GOD [B+] CHINA DOLL [B ] THERESE RAQUIN [C] OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR [C-] MISERY [C-] still to come: THE HUMANS ECLIPSED BLACKBIRD THE FATHER FULLY COMMITTED Play Revivals: NOISES OFF [B+] GIN GAME [B+] A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE [C+] A FOOL FOR LOVE [C+] SYLVIA [C+] OLD TIMES [F] still to come: HUGHIE THE CRUCIBLE A LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

Vic Sage Feb 01 2016 03:08 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

NOISES OFF - This Roundabout revival of Michael Frayn's British farce is a still a terrific laugh machine. Andrea Martin headlines a solid cast in this kinetic comedy of doors and sardines, as its 3 acts become increasingly deranged and frenetic. Storywise, its a farce about a small English theater company staging a farce, so it had that whole "meta" thing going on long before that was really fashionable. The problem with farce, however, is that the characters are just narrative cogs for the turbine engine of comedy that powers it. There is no humanity in it, or things about which one might care. So when its done poorly, the seams show and the exit sign looks like an oasis in the distance. But when its done with such precision, by such craftsfolk as these, it's a marvel of construction and you can't help but get sucked into it. [B+]

Vic Sage Feb 03 2016 07:15 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF –This iconic musical gets another going over, this time over-directed by Bart Sher, who has created a new framing device for this timeless tale. Here, we begin with a gentleman in modern dress, standing and looking around like a tourist at the train station in Anatevka, reading the opening monologue from a book (a Frommer’s Guide?), before taking off his jacket and becoming Tevye. This is to say, we have come home from where we are now, from our assimilated lives, back to where our families began to retell this story (like a Passover Seder of sorts). In the end, Tevye puts his modern coat back on, as he and the family leaves Anatevka. Past has become present. It’s an interesting idea, but it’s muddled and confusing, and it lessens the impact of the show’s final moments. And it’s more about Sher making an “artistic comment” than about the show itself. He should have paid more attention to the rest of the production. The design elements are those of a 2nd rate road company, the new choreography “inspired by” Jerry Robbins’ original work was less than inspired, and the performances were mostly just ok. Danny Burstein, however, offers a Tevye of such humanity, humor, sorrow and tragic scope, he overcomes all of Sher’s missteps to make the whole evening worthwhile. And the show is still the show, richly deserving of its exalted place in the canon of the great American musicals. [C+]

RealityChuck Feb 04 2016 04:54 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Not Broadway the the Proctor's Schenectady lineup of shows has been announced. Two will be the first stop on the tour. An American in Paris -- not a surprise, since Proctor's produced it. Dirty Dancing -- I wouldn't go if I hadn't a subscription. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time -- oh, yeah! I'll have to miss Thanksgiving to go to this. Something Rotten -- Really want to see that one. The Sound of Music -- meh. Not something I care that much for, but tolerable and it will draw people to the subscription. Cabaret -- I realize I've never seen the stage musical, so this should be good. Also, as a special event: Beautiful. I was a bit disappointed there was no Hamilton, but you can't have everything.

Vic Sage Mar 02 2016 04:28 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Mar 03 2016 03:47 PM

HUGHIE – Forest Whitaker gives a subdued but perfectly attuned performance in this hauntingly sad and beautiful revival of Eugene O’Neill’s rarely produced one-act. This 60-minute play is practically a monologue by Whitaker as Erie Smith, a small time gambler, hustler and drunk living at a gone-to-seed hotel in Manhattan. He is mourning for Hughie, the recently deceased night clerk who used to be Erie’s only audience for the bigger-than-life fabrications that Erie spun in order to glory in the gullible Hughie’s misplaced admiration. Gone now, Hughie is replaced by another night clerk also named “Hughes” (played by the brilliantly blank and stoic Frank Wood), and Erie tries desperately to engage this new fellow in his lies so he can continue to bear his bleak existence. Over the course of the play, the clerk’s polite indifference to Erie eventually turns into … something. What? Pity? Or has the clerk been transformed into a doppelganger for the old Hughie, willingly believing Erie’s stories? In either case, by the end, Erie has been saved (if perhaps only temporarily) from having to walk up to his empty room and contemplate whether or not to continue living. He has made a human connection in that hotel lobby, even if it’s built on a delusion. O’Neill’s dialogue is written in a Runyonesque patois that evokes a mythical NYC in the roaring `20s, yet O’Neill is not romanticizing his Sky Masterson; he’s depicting the reality of this type of life and it isn’t pretty, but still not without hope. While one might initially consider this play a minor work from a major writer (left unproduced until long after his death), HUGHIE looms increasingly larger in my mind upon further consideration. This is due, not just to the great performances by Whitaker and Wood, but also in no small part to the excellent direction by ace British director Michael Grandage and the flawless design work of the production. Yet as powerful as it is, the play feels less like a drama and more like a coda of sorts to O’Neill’s similar THE ICEMAN COMETH, which he had just recently completed. And I do wish it had been paired with another work (as it had been in a recent revival in Chicago, with Beckett’s KRAPP’S LAST TAPE) because I felt like I had just eaten a delicious appetizer but was left waiting for an entrée that wasn’t on the menu. [A-]

Edgy MD Mar 02 2016 04:40 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

O'Neill's got, like, 20 other one-acts it could have been paired with. But Hughie was a departure in that it came near the end of his career, while all the others are from much earlier.

Vic Sage Mar 02 2016 04:52 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

No aesthetic reason they coudn't have paired any two of his, or pair it with another writer's work on a similar theme. But you need a star who is both able and willing to pull off 2 major roles each performance. Brian Dennehy did the HUGHIE/KRAPP production in Chicago, but Dennehy is a real stage actor and had the ability (despite his age) to handle it. I think Forest Whitaker, making his Broadway debut, may not have had either the ability or the desire to take that much on. That's the thing: if you want a movie star, you're going to get short runs, missed performances, and generally ask less of them. An experienced stage actor could've taken on starring roles in two 1-acts, but then he probably couldn't sell as many tickets. So my guess is that, once they had Whitaker, the original notion of moving the HUGHIE/KRAPP production to NY from Chicago (a transfer that had been anticipated for years) fell by the wayside.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 06 2016 01:51 AM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Vic Sage wrote: HAMILTON – Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hip-Hop retelling of our nation’s founding and its founding fathers has opened to much fanfare and acclaim, with the author in the title role. Expertly performed, directed and designed, it is the story of the rise and fall of an immigrant orphan, driven to succeed, who comes to NY to make his fortune and helps build our country. It is the quintessential American story, using a melting pot cast and a variety of contemporary song styles to show how relevant the story remains. Structurally, it is much like JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR, where the story is told from the point of view of the antagonist (in this case, Aaron Burr) as we wind our way to our hero's inevitable martyrdom, with the tale expressed in anachronistic music and vernacular. The show has great energy and beauty, and its choreography and staging are all of a seamless whole, but it is not flawless work. The first ten minutes or so are told in an assaultive rap that rolled over me too quickly for my untutored ears to comprehend more than every 4th word. I got the gist of it but felt put off, with a panicky thought of "oh, no... is this what the whole thing is going to be like?" Happily, it isn't. The show is mostly sung through, a virtual and virtuoso Hip-Hopera, but with many moments of 60s English pop, R&B, rousing choral numbers and standard Broadway balladeering. Still, overwhelmed by the steady deluge of Miranda’s brilliant lyrical rap verse throughout the show, I continued to feel like I was missing good stuff. Maybe that was a "me" problem (my kids had no problem and loved it), but there were some non-"Me" problems, too. Act I has a big finale as Hamilton and the boys all march off to fight in the revolution, but the story doesn't have the sense to realize it should've stopped there. Instead, the act meanders on for two more scenes, putting the intermission in the wrong place and thus making the first act feel attenuated and overlong, and robbing it of its energy. After Hamilton's rise in Act I, Act II gives us his fall and so suffers from a few too many ballads and slows down a bit. My main problem, however, is the character of Hamilton himself. Brilliant but arrogant, driven, boastful, bullying and an adulterer more interested in protecting his legacy and power than his marriage, you kind of get why Burr wants to kill him. By the end, it's unclear that Hamilton has grown in any way; the only "journey" the character takes in the story is towards aging, loss and regret. In fact, the only reason I found him a protagonist about whom I could care at all is that he's played by the endearing and incomparable Lin-Manuel Miranda. But don't get me wrong... that's a damn good reason. Ultimately, while one's appreciation of the show may be connected to one's tolerance for rap music, the craftsmanship of the work and the talent on display are inarguable. [A-] Vic we saw this today and would say you're right on. Especially the pacing, very long first act, and would also agree about Hammys arc. Ecellent point about the timelessness of the message too. But it was really exciting and fun to watch, 9 year old Lunchpail was able to follow the gist, it was also very funny at times. We got the tickets as a birthday gift for wife bucket mother in law; as it turned out they had an illness and couldn't attend but demand was such we were able to flip the extras in Craigslist for a small fortune. Very well done, good times on Broadway!

Vic Sage Mar 07 2016 03:45 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

glad you enjoyed it; particularly that your son did. This is an endangered art form with a greying audience, so it's great when a young person is impacted by a theatrical experience. I remember seeing FIDDLER as a child and it made a huge impact on me. The intimacy and immediacy of live theater can do that in a way that films/tv simply cannot.

Vic Sage Mar 09 2016 03:38 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

ECLIPSED – This powerful drama by Danai Gurira (Michonne, from “The Walking Dead”) has moved to Broadway from its off-Broadway run at the Public Theater. Starring the luminous Oscar winner, Lupita Nyong’o, this is really an ensemble work about how a group of women each cope with their sexual slavery at the end of the Liberian civil war. The performances are good, but some go a little over the top for my taste. The design is simple but effective, much like the play itself. But, even though somewhat earnest and a bit heavy-handed and formulaic, this play is a searing, moving portrait of these women’s lives and the impossible choices they face with humor, dignity and moral courage. Even though it seems to be bent by the weight of representing to a western audience all of Africa’s modern history and the role women have played in it, the play does not break and is supported by a production well worth seeing. [B]

Vic Sage Mar 11 2016 08:07 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

THE HUMANS – – In Stephen Karam’s very funny, very sad, compassionate new play, three generations of the working-class Irish-American Blake family gather for a Thanksgiving dinner in the youngest daughter’s new NYC apartment. She shares the still-unfurnished place with her boyfriend (an older grad student about to inherit a trust fund), and though it’s a relatively spacious duplex (by New York standards), the bugs, bad wiring, sparse windows, loud noises, inconsiderate neighbors and gradually disappearing light makes it feel like the walls of this seedy Chinatown apartment are closing in, putting increasing pressure on this family. But, unlike the standard dysfunctional family melodrama that this play superficially resembles, the characters do not degenerate into bitter recriminations and bile. This family loves each other, despite their harmful flailing, and so their story draws us in, instead of driving us away. Even as the father sits, sobbing, alone in a dark and empty room, the play remains humane, honest and unsentimental in tone. And even as its hyper-realistic style grows increasingly symbolic and metaphorical, it never loses its compassion for these very real people, being crushed beneath the wheel of harsh economic realities that families are facing today, with all the damage such circumstances do to our relationships and our sense of self-worth. Oh, and did I mention how funny it is? Director Joe Mantello has done a masterful job with this terrific ensemble of great stage actors (no TV stars here), and the final image, of a door gradually sliding closed and shutting out the light, will make your heart skip a beat. But the play isn’t perfect; it doesn’t adequately set up the final revelations in the story, and the shift in tone from realistic domestic comedy to symbolic tragedy in the last 10 minutes, as the play slides into metaphor, is a little abrupt, heavy-handed and obscure, and maybe a teeny bit pretentious, but I didn’t really care. Whatever its flaws, this is a great new American play from a great new American playwright. [A-]

Vic Sage Mar 23 2016 03:57 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Mar 31 2016 08:39 PM

SHE LOVES ME - Harnick & Bock’s 1963 follow up to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, this sweet little romantic musical was lost on Broadway in its original incarnation, but this Roundabout revival is here to remind us what a tuneful, charming, old-fashioned love story it can be when expertly staged. This time, SHE LOVES ME supersedes FIDDLER as the superior Harnick & Bock revival of the season, as well as the year’s best revival overall. Adapted by Joe Masteroff from the same play as the films THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and YOU’VE GOT MAIL, it’s the story of a young man and woman who are bickering shop clerks in a parfumerie in 1930s Budapest, but who have unknowingly fallen in love through letters they’ve been writing to each other anonymously for quite a while. Of course, love conquers all, and it all ends in a kiss. Masteroff’s book has adapted the source material in musical terms not evident in the material, with humor, charm and sentiment in great supply. While the Harnick & Bock score cannot help but pale in comparison to their later work on FIDDLER, the music is sweet, pleasant and entirely appropriate for the story and, while the repeated use of waltz rhythms gives many of the songs an indistinguishable sameness, there are a few standout musical moments that the performers are able to land with real impact. Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi are perfect as the surprised lovers, and you couldn’t be happier about their inevitable happy ending. The supporting cast is tremendous, too, with Jane Krackowski’s sexy dumb blonde act transcending the cliché and Michael McGrath doing his Nathan Lane-like best as the funny pal. Overall, the show’s direction and design present a production that feels like one of the little musical cigarette boxes they sell at the shop, both poignantly intimate and surprisingly grand. When you hear it said, wistfully, that “they don’t write musicals like that anymore,” this is the sort of show being referenced. Whether that’s a compliment or not is a matter of taste, I suppose. As for me, [A-].

Edgy MD Mar 23 2016 05:19 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

The touring company of The Illusionists. Yay or nay?

Vic Sage Mar 23 2016 09:34 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

i didn't see it this year, but if its the same as last year's production, then its a hit-and-miss magic show, sometimes cheesy and sometimes amazing. It's very Vegas.

Vic Sage Mar 23 2016 09:57 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

DISASTER! - I usually hate this sort of thing (I left ROCK OF AGES at intermission), so I was surprised to find myself enjoying this silly pastiche of `70s disaster movie clichés. Perhaps my expectations were ridiculously low, or maybe I was coming down with a low-grade fever, but it made me laugh. A terrific cast elevates the work; their top-notch vocal performances deliver pop and disco tunes of the era to develop their cartoonish characters and advance the sophomoric plot (such as it is). Though too long by half, the show’s excesses are balanced by occasional cleverness and an undeniable charm. Proceed... but cautiously, and at your own risk. Because, if you don’t think watching a distraught husband cast three pieces of his dead wife’s dismembered body parts into the sea while singing “Once, Twice, Three times a Lady” is funny, this may not be for you. [B-]

batmagadanleadoff Mar 23 2016 10:07 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Is it in Sensurround?

Vic Sage Mar 23 2016 10:14 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

actually,yes! Before the curtain rises, there is, in fact, a Sensurround rumble put through the PA system, creating a sense of gleeful anticipation.

Edgy MD Mar 23 2016 10:34 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Vic Sage wrote: i didn't see it this year, but if its the same as last year's production, then its a hit-and-miss magic show, sometimes cheesy and sometimes amazing. It's very Vegas. You know, we have a magician's theater in town — a bar-and-performance venue, opened by the father of the featured performer. Dad was a trained clown, and a former Ronald McDonald, and built a career for his kid. It seemed very old-school cheesy, but better old velvet curtain school-cheesy for $20 a pop and a two-drink minimum than new-school dry-ice-and-loud music cheesy for $60-200. Daddy's going the cheap route for Mommy's birthday. Disaster! sounds like, well...

Vic Sage Mar 24 2016 02:52 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

BLACKBIRD - Scottish playwright David Harrower’s searing, raw, mesmerizing play, originally produced off-Broadway a decade ago after its success in England, has now come to Broadway with Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams. Together with director Joe Mantello, they take the audience on an emotional and literal wallow in a garbage-strewn room where a woman has come to confront the man who had sex with her when she was 12, an act of mutual consent for which he eventually went to prison and for which she was left permanently damaged. Was it a mistake or a crime? Is he a pedophile and she his victim, or are they star-crossed lovers? Was it simply sexual abuse or an illicit affair? The play dares to ask these questions and is wise enough to present no easy answers. The psychodrama of this confrontation plays out in a grey office break-room, littered with trash left behind by other workers… detritus that these two characters have been left to sort through. Like the play itself, it’s a heavy-handed metaphor, but effective nonetheless. Daniels, repeating the role he originally starred in off-Broadway, brings emotional honesty to a fearful, desperate man who may or may not be lying to himself about his own true nature and the nature of his “love”. Williams, a fine screen actress, here plays the woman with so many actorish tics and spasms, both physically and vocally, that her performance seems entirely unnatural and false. Why the title? The play offers no explanation but, as I’ve come to learn, a “blackbird” is equivalent to a “jaibird” in English vernacular, so there’s that. But whatever the title, BLACKBIRD is a 1-Act/90-minute journey into the heart of darkness, fraught and unrelenting, and it’s powerful and theatrical enough to transfix any audience. However, its disturbing subject matter aside, Williams’ irritatingly affected performance made it not quite worth the trip for me. [B-]

Vic Sage Mar 30 2016 05:52 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

BRIGHT STAR – An original bluegrass musical from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, the show is simple, straightforward, sentimental and sweet, if not spectacular. This southern gothic melodrama is a memory play of sorts, taking place in small North Carolina town in the 1940s, flashing back to the 1920s, telling love stories in both eras that are connected by the end. The performances are uniformly good, but actress Carmen Cusack in the lead is spectacular. She plays both the smart, lonely magazine editor who gives a break to a young writer just back from the war, and her younger, more joyous self, who falls in love and suffers a great tragedy. It is a star-making turn. Unfortunately, the book and score of the show underwhelm. While tuneful, with some beautiful moments, Martin’s bluegrass compositions get a bit monotonous. Worse are Brickell’s banal lyrics; they are clumsy and repetitive, often rhyme poorly, and sit awkwardly on the melodies. Martin’s book is flawed as well, with missing moments that demand musicalizing and scenes that are totally unnecessary. Yet Martin leavens the script with wry humor and irony-free sincerity, and it is ultimately moving in its sentimental way. Walter Bobbie’s direction employs a wonderfully simple theatricality, evokes great performances, and gets the most out of the misshapen material. So, despite its flaws, this is still an entertaining and life-affirming tale of redemption that is well worth seeing. [C+]

Vic Sage Apr 13 2016 09:54 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 6 time(s), most recently on Apr 18 2016 02:06 PM

THE CRUCIBLE - The worst thing to come out of Belgium since Brussel Sprouts, Belgian director Ivo Von Hove has defecated upon another Arthur Miller play this season; this time it's The Crucible he has ripped out of its context, imposing his own unrelated notions upon it purely for theatrical effect and with no consideration for its violation of the play’s meaning. Miller’s classic work about the Salem witch trials was written as an allegory of the Red Scare of the 1940s-50s, when personal ambition, greed, cowardice and zealotry prompted mass hysteria and paranoia, and the power of the state was wielded with tragic results. But Von Hove has imposed another layer on a work already overloaded with significance. As he did with A View from the Bridge earlier this year, he stages the action in a vague, abstract time and place… a schoolroom this time, institutional blue-gray, used to represent every location. The teenage girls who drive the action are in school uniforms, the other characters in not-quite-modern but certainly not period costumes, with the mood heightened by spooky lighting and droning Philip Glass music, ebbing and surging throughout the performance. Apparently Von Hove wanted to write his own version of The Crucible, making it an allegory about an allegory instead of one about power and human frailty. For example, the “witchcraft” that the girls are lying about, to accuse (and ultimately kill) their adult neighbors with, has now been literally manifested, with one of the girls actually floating in the air and another scene of magical destruction, with smoke and wind and falling lights, further confounding Miller’s metaphor. Are these magical goings on merely dreams, or subjective delusions suffered by the characters? There is no indication in the staging that either is the case. So, there must really have been reds in the state department… John Proctor was wrong and Joe McCarthy was right, I guess. Oh, and a wolf shows up at some point. An actual wolf strolls across the stage, unnoticed, at the beginning of Act II. Like the witchcraft in the play, Von Hove has made literal the wolves at the door, because we wouldn’t get it otherwise, I suppose. But the pretentions of Von Hove’s dark, static, lugubrious drama are themselves undermined by a brilliant cast that somehow manages to overcome all his artifice to plumb the depths of these characters and expose their humanity. They connect to Miller’s text in a most direct way so, if you ignore almost everything that’s happening on stage and just shut your eyes, you can feel in the play’s electrifying final scene these terrified, flawed people finding their courage and their love in the face of injustice and death. Ben Whishaw as John Proctor and Sophie Okonedo as his wife offer a quietly heartbreaking conclusion, Ciarán Hinds makes for a terrifying grand inquisitor, Saoirse Ronan is chilling as the teen mean girl Abigail, and the great Jim Norton finds humor and horror as the cranky old-timer Giles. Like Bridge, this Crucible is loaded with theatrical devices and images, some with real impact, but they have nothing to do with the play and everything to do with Von Hove. Even so, in addition to all the terrific performances, Miller’s great play is still in there somewhere, underneath all the nonsense, to talk about how at risk we all are when a community surrenders its reason and its morality to its fear… a message as vital as ever, particularly in this electoral season. [C-]

batmagadanleadoff Apr 13 2016 11:03 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Vic Sage wrote: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF –This iconic musical gets another going over, this time over-directed by Bart Sher, who has created a new framing device for this timeless tale. Here, we begin with a gentleman in modern dress, standing and looking around like a tourist at the train station in Anatevka, reading the opening monologue from a book (a Frommer’s Guide?), before taking off his jacket and becoming Tevye. This is to say, we have come home from where we are now, from our assimilated lives, back to where our families began to retell this story (like a Passover Seder of sorts). In the end, Tevye puts his modern coat back on, as he and the family leaves Anatevka. Past has become present. It’s an interesting idea, but it’s muddled and confusing, and it lessens the impact of the show’s final moments. And it’s more about Sher making an “artistic comment” than about the show itself. He should have paid more attention to the rest of the production. The design elements are those of a 2nd rate road company, the new choreography “inspired by” Jerry Robbins’ original work was less than inspired, and the performances were mostly just ok. Danny Burstein, however, offers a Tevye of such humanity, humor, sorrow and tragic scope, he overcomes all of Sher’s missteps to make the whole evening worthwhile. And the show is still the show, richly deserving of its exalted place in the canon of the great American musicals. [C+] Too bad about that C+. I'm thinking about taking this one in. I've never seen any of the previous Fiddler theatrical productions. Sensurround?

Edgy MD Apr 14 2016 03:36 AM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

It's an interesting choice by Scher, as he was raised Catholic and didn't realize his father was a Lithuanian Jew until adolescence, so re-discovering himself through the story is probably at least partly literal for him.

Vic Sage Apr 14 2016 01:37 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

that is interesting about Sher, and it makes so much sense to me now. Mags, don't be put off by the C+... if you've never seen it staged, you should. Burstein is terrific. And seeing every show on Broadway every year for over the past decade has made me more than a little jaded, so my grading may not reflect any general consensus. IOW, your mileage may well vary.

batmagadanleadoff Apr 14 2016 03:20 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Vic Sage wrote: Mags, don't be put off by the C+... if you've never seen it staged, you should. Burstein is terrific. And seeing every show on Broadway every year for over the past decade has made me more than a little jaded, so my grading may not reflect any general consensus. IOW, your mileage may well vary. Was there ever a bad Tevye? You'd know. Makes me wonder if maybe the role itself is so great, that any trained actor reasonably cast for the the part would be hard pressed to turn in a dud. I dunno. Maybe not. I'd bet that Robert Mitchum would've made a shitty Tevye.

Edgy MD Apr 14 2016 03:44 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

That would have been my first guess.

Vic Sage Apr 14 2016 09:36 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

you missed Mitchum's Tevye? What a shame. He played him as a stoned ex-con, feeling up Yente before gutting the Russian constable like a gefilte fish. Unforgettable. No matter how hard i try. Here are my rankings of the most famous Tevyes: Mostel Topol Theodore Bikel Hershel Bernardi Daniel Burstein Paul Lipson Luther Adler Alfred Molina Harvey Fierstein Molina was the least authentic Tevye ever, and Fierstein sounded like a gay foghorn. Lipson and Adler were reportedly adequate if uninspiring. Burstein was most similar to Bernardi in their quieter, comicly bittersweet interpretations. Bikel and Topol were the most authentically dramatic, balancing their ferocity with deft comic timing. But Mostel was a thing unto himself. The funniest, wildest, most poignant Tevye, who could also be the most petulant, self-indulgent and childish. Mostel was huge... he contained multitudes. On a bad night, when he was mugging to the audience, he could make you roll your eyes and shake your head. But when he was running on all cylinders, he was Tevye as no one else has ever been or could be.

Edgy MD Apr 15 2016 04:10 AM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Surprised Anthony Quinn never got the job.

Vic Sage Apr 20 2016 02:51 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016 Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 16 2016 04:27 PM

THE FATHER - Frank Langella gives a devastating performance in Christopher Hampton’s English-language adaptation of a French play about a man descending into Alzheimer’s as his daughter struggles to care for him. The play successfully does what art is supposed to do; it creates empathy by transporting an audience inside a perspective with which they’d be otherwise unfamiliar. Here, the play puts us into a man’s mind as he is losing it. The stage’s proscenium arch is lined with running lights that strobe between scenes, resembling neurons misfiring inside his head. We and he see different actors playing the same character at different moments, as the people in his life become unrecognizable; scenes repeat with conflicting information and fold in on each other in a non-linear fashion; we grow increasingly unsure of what is real and what is not, mirroring the character’s descent. This dramatic structure is incredibly effective. Too effective, in fact, because it put me in a place I did not want to be, creating an experience I never want to have again. But as depressing and unpleasant as it was, the play’s craft is undeniable and, together with the acting and staging, makes an indelible mark. [A-]

themetfairy May 15 2016 05:19 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

D-Dad and I saw Waitress last night. It's light fare, based on the 2007 movie of the same name, and it's an enjoyable show. Pop singer Sara Bareilles wrote the music for the show and she heads up the band on stage. While we didn't see Tony-nominee Jessie Mueller, understudy Stephanie Torns did a fine job as Jenna - the pregnant waitress and baker of whimsical pies who is married to an abusive oaf and dreams of a better life for herself. We also enjoyed the small servings of pie in mason jars that were available as snacks. This is a lovely and enjoyable little show.

cooby classic May 15 2016 06:02 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

I hope it was better than the movie. It sucked.

themetfairy May 15 2016 06:38 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

I really liked the movie coobs.

cooby classic May 15 2016 08:35 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

I think I just got sick of her fake accent.

Vic Sage May 16 2016 04:27 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

I'm baaaack! SCHOOL OF ROCK – Andrew Lloyd Webber returns to Broadway with this energetic adaptation of the Jack Black movie about a huckster faking his way into the hearts of some music students and their school-marmish principal. Sound like THE MUSIC MAN? Well, yeah, but no one has ever accused Webber of originality. So, Sir Andrew has once again summoned the faux-rock sound he developed for JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR and, together with clever young lyricist Glen Slater and sophisticated Brit writer Julian Fellowes, has crafted a good-natured family entertainment, with humor and heart, and featuring real kids playing real instruments as they revel in their rock-n-roll rebellion against their oppressive school and disapproving parents. Alex Brightman as Dewey Finn channels Jack Black’s performance expertly, even making him a tad more likeable, and the kids are terrific, and great musicians, too. Though the love story between Finn and the principal is perfunctory and unconvincing, and the whole thing is a bit cloying and loud, overall it’s a solid show and the best thing Webber has done in decades. [B] AMERICAN PSYCHO – When I was in law school some 25 years ago, I had a class where the students were put into small groups and instructed to conduct mock negotiations of various entertainment contracts. My group chose, as its project, to acquire the stage rights to the then-recent novel and movie, American Psycho. We picked the property as a joke, as the least likely work to ever be musicalized on a Broadway stage, and yet here we are now, 25 years later… and it’s still true. This bad idea has been poorly executed (and executed it should have been) by a solid creative team who’ve all done great work in the past. But this leaden, soulless satire of the superficial consumer-oriented 80s bombards us with high-tech projections and strobes (enough to cause seizures), cartoonish characterizations, humorless comedy, irritatingly atonal music, lyrics comprised of lists of brand names, spasmodic dancing, and absolutely nothing to care about, invest in, or even be the least bit interested in. Making a superficial show about superficial values may have sounded like a good idea over drinks, but they should’ve sobered up before producing this car wreck. And as bad as Act I was, I cannot offer an honest critique of Act II, since I was long gone. [F] FULLY COMMITTED – This Broadway revival of an off-Broadway hit of a few years back is 1-man show starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson as an underemployed actor taking phone reservations in the basement of a popular and pretentious NYC restaurant; Ferguson is also the 40 or so customers, co-workers, friends and family members he speaks with on the phone during one particularly grueling and life-altering shift. It’s all a little pat, obvious and clichéd, and Ferguson isn’t particularly up to the challenge of elevating the material, but he’s sweet, and it’s a genial entertainment, with a happy ending, and life-affirming in its way. [C] A LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT – This production by the Roundabout of O’Neill’s classic reminds me of what a revival should be, particularly in a season where Arthur Miller was twice brutalized by a director with his own agenda. Brit director Jonathan Kent’s artful restraint allows the pain and poetry of the playwright’s text to be channeled by a mostly terrific cast, led by the towering performance of Jessica Lange. And the staging’s directness and simplicity allowed me to reconsider a work I had long ago dismissed as merely the outdated basis for the loathsome sub-genre of “dysfunctional family melodrama”… a play that was itself excessive, repetitive and inert. And while I still think all of that is true, it’s also a work that is more ambitious and bigger than that. This time I also saw its humor, an aspect of the play that is rarely emphasized, blending with its sorrow in a way that does not alleviate the tragedy one iota. This production, however, starts and ends with Lange. Her vocal shifts (going from trilly and girlish when she is panicked or pretending to lightheartedness, then dropping to a baritone growl when she is contemptuous, earthy or defiant) could be a device that is overly theatrical and actor-ish, but she handles it perfectly. It allowed aspects of this character to shine through in a new way. Here, Mary Tyrone is more than just a guilt-riddled drug addict… she might literally have gone mad. It’s as if Lange has brought a bit of Blanche Dubois and Ophelia to the role, and it’s fascinating. Gabriel Byrne is more than able to keep pace with Lange; he’s entirely believable as the faded matinee idol James Tyrone, whose damaged childhood leads him to destroy the family he loves and to undermine his own career by choosing money over art, but his love for his wife has never felt more romantic, more sexual, more genuine, and so her downfall has never seemed more painful. Michael Shannon, too, is a powerful presence (as he always is), as the wastrel son Jamie, using his size to impose himself on the story, or to recede into the background, as the moment requires, and expertly blending humor with his self-hatred and cynicism. Only John Gallagher, as the consumptive younger brother Eugene, is unimpressive, but that just may be in comparison to the rest. Nothing actually happens in the play (we learn most of what we need to know in the first 10 minutes of its 4-hour running time), and the basic ideas keep getting repeated, and repeated, and repeated, but instead of being annoyed by it this time, I finally gave myself over to it. The play is like a Philip Glass score, and it’s pointless to criticize a Glass score for being repetitive… that’s its point. It builds on repetitions to create a mesmerizing effect and then the slightest shift or variation has great impact. That is what O’Neill has accomplished here. He takes us on this long day’s journey in the Tyrone living room, putting us in a nearly hypnotic state, and so when soliloquies arrive, or the smallest revelations are offered, they are variations on a theme that can take your breath away, and you suddenly realize why this is considered the play that it is. [A-] SHUFFLE ALONG – Director/bookwriter George C. Wolfe guides us through the story behind the story of how a Broadway musical was created by black artists in 1921, at a time when that had never happened before. Wolfe has written an original book to accompany SHUFFLE’S original Eubie Blake score, adding thrilling new choreography by legendary tapper Savion Glover and a starry cast of great singer-dancers led by Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell, and it should all have worked. But it doesn’t… not quite, anyway. Part of the problem is that Wolfe breaks the cardinal rule of dramatization: he doesn’t show, he tells. This is particularly noticeable in Act II, where we’re told how all the success they achieved in Act I later drove all these artists apart, and we get a Cliff Notes history lesson more concerned with outlining facts and making pronouncements about the importance of this show and these artists, rather than engaging in any real development of the narrative or its characters. Still, there is much beautiful and exciting theatricality in this show and its missed opportunities do not negate what has been accomplished. [C+] WAITRESS – An indie movie has been adapted with great craft by pop songwriter Sara Bareilles and bookwriter Jessie Nelson and, despite its stock characters and sitcom sophistication, is an emotionally satisfying Broadway musical rom-com. The mega-talented Jessie Mueller is magnificent as a waitress and creative baker of pies who is stuck in an awful marriage, unhappily and increasingly pregnant, and having an affair with her cute but married obstetrician, all the while hoping she can win the upcoming baking contest so she can win the money that will free her. Mueller expertly delivers Bareilles’s soulful, southern-inflected indie score which, though inconsistent, has moments of real humor, emotional depth and aching beauty. Even the show’s thin supporting roles, seemingly taken right out of Mel’s Diner from “Alice”, are enlivened by a quirky ensemble of actors that bring distinctiveness to the otherwise clichéd characters. Diane Paulus’ staging is simple yet effective, however the sound mix muddies the lyrics, often making them hard to decipher. Still, while this chick-flick story of a downtrodden woman’s self-empowerment is hardly groundbreaking, it is elevated by all the talent on display to make it feel refreshingly original and engaging. Plus, the delicious aroma of baking pies permeates the whole theater … which is nice, too. I had the key lime! [B-] TUCK EVERLASTING - This musical adaptation of the acclaimed children’s fantasy novel is well wrought, if ultimately underwhelming. It does have a lovely score, echoing the folksy, pseudo-Celtic-styled scores of similarly magical shows like FINIAN’S RAINBOW and BRIGADOON, and clever, poignant lyrics sung by a first-rate cast, all mounted with tasteful simplicity and just the right amount of whimsy. But the storytelling just seems… off. Like WIZARD OF OZ, we have a young female protagonist, 11-year old Winnie Foster, who is stifled by small-town life and seeks adventure, and she finds it when she stumbles into a magical world… in this case, a strange wood in her backyard where flows the fountain of youth, beneath a massive tree that dominates the stage throughout the story. Like Dorothy, Winnie runs into magical characters… the Tuck family (mom, dad and their two sons), who innocently drank from the fountain a hundred years earlier and now live eternally, if not happily. Though Winnie is tempted to drink, too, and join the younger Tuck son when she becomes 17 years old (the same age he was when he stopped aging) to join him in an eternity of adventure, she ultimately learns the life lessons she needs to go home and live her life without such magical intervention. Putting aside the casual sexualizing of an 11-year old girl, the problematic aspects of the show are largely dramaturgical. For instance, there is a comically cartoonish villain, “the man in yellow,” an old carny man in search of the fountain for his own nefarious purposes. He has a creepy SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES quality underlying his comic persona and doesn’t seem to belong in the same show, striking a discordant tone at odds with the more realistic characterizations populating the story. Also, his character is clumsily and unconvincingly defeated, in a vague and perfunctory manner. But more to the point, he shouldn’t really be the villain at all. It is actually the younger Tuck son, seducing Winnie into joining him in his accursed immortality out of his own selfish loneliness, who is the real antagonist implied by the narrative structure, but he’s played with sweet, disarming innocence that contradicts that role. And since the “curse” of immortality is not sufficiently dramatized in the way the story requires, we never experience him as a true antagonist luring her down a dark path…which is OK, because the story doesn’t really want us to look at him that way. In fact, the entire story is played with a safe sentimentality that doesn’t really deal with the dark philosophical musings it is pondering. In addition to avoiding its own tougher implications, and having given us the wrong antagonist, the narrative is further burdened with a passive protagonist. After running away from home, Winnie doesn’t actually do anything in her own story and is really just an observer. She doesn’t melt the wicked witch or lead her magical friends back to the wizard. She doesn’t dispatch the villain or help the Tucks in any particular way. She is simply told things and she listens. Her character’s actual transformation doesn’t take place until the last 10 minutes of the show. At its penultimate moment, in a wordless ballet, the girl grows up, falls in love, marries, has a child, suffers losses, ages and dies; it’s really a tour-de-force of storytelling technique and choreography to dare so much in such a compressed and impressionistic way. It is perhaps the best moment in the show, yet, as a result, we don’t experience the character’s change (her decision to reject immortality and live a full but finite life) and we’ve lost our connection to the little girl we traveled through the story with, as the young actress is off-stage during the dance and is replaced by a series of other performers portraying the character at different stages. This choice results in an emotional disconnect with the audience, and ultimately undermines the impact of the ending. Still, despite these significant reservations, it is a lovely family musical with great performances and a solid score. While unlikely to be everlasting, it’s certainly worth seeing [C]

Vic Sage May 16 2016 04:43 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

FINAL GRADES (Tony noms in parentheses): Musicals: HAMILTON (16) = [A] SCHOOL OF ROCK (4) = [B] WAITRESS (4) = [B-] SHUFFLE ALONG (10) = [C+] BRIGHT STAR (5) = [C] TUCK EVERLASTING (1) =[C] DISASTER! (1) = [C] ON YOUR FEET (1) =[C] AMAZING GRACE = [D] ALLEGIANCE = [D-] AMERICAN PSYCHO (2) = [F] Musical Revivals: SHE LOVES ME (8) = [A-] COLOR PURPLE (4) = [B] SPRING AWAKENING (3) = [C+] FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (3) = [C] DAMES AT SEA (1) = [F] Plays: KING CHARLES III (5) = [A] THE HUMANS (6) = [A-] THE FATHER (2) = [B+] ECLIPSED (6) = [B] AN ACT OF GOD = [B] CHINA DOLL = [C+] THERESE RAQUIN (1) = [C] MISERY (1) = [C-] OUR MOTHER’S AFFAIR = [D] Play Revivals: LONG DAYS JOURNEY (7) = [A-] BLACKBIRD (3) = [B] NOISES OFF (5) = [B] GIN GAME = [B-] HUGHIE (1) = [B-] A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (5) = [C] FULLY COMMITTED= [C] SYLVIA = [C] THE CRUCIBLE (4) = [C-] A FOOL FOR LOVE = [C-] OLD TIMES = [F]

Vic Sage May 16 2016 04:53 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

My 2016 Tony Ballot: Best Play Eclipsed - Danai Gurira The Father - Florian Zeller / adp.by Christopher Hampton The Humans – Steve Karam King Charles III - Mike Bartlett While these were all good plays worthy of nominations (with no glaring omissions) KING CHARLES was my favorite this season. I think, however, THE HUMANS has the edge. Best Revival of a Play A View from the Bridge Blackbird The Crucible Long Day’s Journey into Night Noises Off While BLACKBIRD and NOISES OFF are both worthy nominees, JOURNEY is the clear choice for me. The 2 Von Hove-directed Miller revivals are mostly annoying and personally I preferred GIN GAME and HUGHIE to either of them. Best Direction of a Play Rupert Goold, King Charles III Jonathan Kent, Long Day’s Journey into Night Joe Mantello, The Humans Liesl Tommy, Eclipsed Ivo Van Hove, A View from the Bridge Kent and Mantello took appropriately subdued approaches to their plays, but Tommy’s contribution to ECLIPSED felt unimpressive and Von Hove just shit all over both Miller plays he did this season. But Goold was able to make the experience of watching KING CHARLES feel like attending a new play by Shakespeare at the Globe. Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play Gabriel Byrne, Long Day’s Journey Into Night Jeff Daniels, Blackbird Frank Langella, The Father Tim Pigott-Smith, King Charles III Mark Strong, A View from the Bridge A particularly strong group, but I’d go for Tim Pigott-Smith’s Lear-like performance. Langella is a close second. I don’t know yet who the favorite is. I think Forrest Whitaker also deserves a mention for HUGHIE, as does Sam Rockwell for FOOL FOR LOVE, James Earl Jones for GIN GAME, Al Pacino for CHINA DOLL, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson for FULLY COMMITTED, but I wouldn’t consider their omissions as oversights. Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play Reed Birney, The Humans Bill Camp, The Crucible David Furr, Noises Off Richard Goulding, King Charles III Michael Shannon, Long Day’s Journey into Night Birney is absolutely heartbreaking and Shannon is indelible. I’m leaning toward Birney. Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play Jessica Lange, Long Day’s Journey into Night Laurie Metcalf, Misery Lupita Nyong’o, Eclipsed Sophie Okonedo, The Crucible Michelle Williams, Blackbird I vote Lange, and it ain’t even close. And frankly I don’t get Michelle Williams’ nomination; she was entirely over the top. Nina Arianda was great in FOOL FOR LOVE and should have been recognized, instead. Cicily Tyson, too, for GIN GAME, is worth a mention, and if you want to nominate a movie star, Keira Knightly’s THERESE RAQUIN was less annoying than William’s mannered performance. Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play Pascale Armand, Eclipsed Megan Hilty, Noises Off Jayne Houdyshell, The Humans Andrea Martin, Noises Off Saycon Sengbloh, Eclipsed The women from ECLIPSED were fine, and the NOISES OFF ladies hilarious, but Houdyshell has been one of the best actresses working on Broadway for many years, always able to find the humor in tragedies and the tragedy in comedies. Honorable mention to Judith Light for THERESE RAQUIN. Best Scenic Design of a Play Beowulf Boritt, Thérèse Raquin Christopher Oram, Hughie Jan Versweyveld, A View from the Bridge David Zinn, The Humans THERESE REQUIN’s sets were gorgeous and appropriate. HUGHIE was great, but just a single set, as was HUMANS. The pretentious minimalism of VIEW should not be rewarded. It just encourages that sort of behavior. Best Lighting Design of a Play Natasha Katz, Long Day’s Journey into Night Justin Townsend, The Humans Jan Versweyveld, A View from the Bridge Jan Versweyveld, The Crucible Misguided as they are, the productions by Von Hove both had exquisite lighting. VIEW may have been slightly more exquisite. Best Costume Design of a Play Jane Greenwood, Long Day’s Journey into Night Michael Krass, Noises Off Clint Ramos, Eclipsed Tom Scutt, King Charles III JOURNEY, I guess. Best Musical Bright Star Hamilton School of Rock - The Musical Shuffle Along Waitress Nothing will get in the way of the HAMILTON tsunami, nor should it. Best Revival of a Musical The Color Purple Fiddler on the Roof She Loves Me Spring Awakening SHE LOVES ME was perfection. SPRING AWAKENING, however, may take it, for its politically correct adaptation, or COLOR PURPLE, for being better than the original. Best Book of a Musical Bright Star - Steve Martin Hamilton - Lin-Manuel Miranda School of Rock - The Musical - Julian Fellowes Shuffle Along - George C. Wolfe HAMILTON, all day long. The books for the other shows were their weakest elements. Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre Bright Star- Music: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell / Lyrics: Edie Brickell Hamilton - Music & Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda School of Rock - The Musical - Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber / Lyrics: Glenn Slater Waitress - Music & Lyrics: Sara Bareilles Blah, blah, blah, HAMILTON, blah, blah. And the score for TUCK EVERLASTING deserves an honorable mention, too. In another season, i might have voted for WAITRESS. Best Direction of a Musical Michael Arden, Spring Awakening John Doyle, The Color Purple Scott Ellis, She Loves Me Thomas Kail, Hamilton George C. Wolfe, Shuffle Along Blah, blah, blah HAMILTON blah, blah, although Wolfe has an outside shot as the singular creative force behind SHUFFLE. Best Choreography Andy Blankenbuehler, Hamilton Savion Glover, Shuffle Along Hofesh Shechter, Fiddler on the Roof Randy Skinner, Dames at Sea Sergio Trujillo, On Your Feet! Tap dancing always wins. Here, 2 tap dance shows go against each other, and so the one that’s good will win. Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical Alex Brightman, School of Rock Danny Burstein, Fiddler on the Roof Zachary Levi, She Loves Me Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton Leslie Odom, Jr., Hamilton Miranda will probably win in the HAMILTON landslide, but I preferred Danny Burstein’s Tevye this year. Alex Brightman was great, too, But Odom is really in a supporting role. Levi was ok but nothing special. Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical Daveed Diggs, Hamilton Brandon Victor Dixon, Shuffle Along Christopher Fitzgerald, Waitress Jonathan Groff, Hamilton Christopher Jackson, Hamilton This is where Odom should have been nominated (and should have won) for HAMILTON, but alas it was not to be. The other HAMILTON guys sort of cancel each other out, leaving Dixon out there against Fitzgerald. I’m going for Fitzgerald for his hugely entertaining idiosyncrasy. Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical Jessie Mueller, Waitress Laura Benanti, She Loves Me Carmen Cusack, Bright Star Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple Phillipa Soo, Hamilton Wow, this is a tough category. Soo got Audra McDonald’s nomination, but I wouldn’t vote for either of them. Benanti was, as always, adorable, but this is a 3-girl race between the always terrific Mueller and newcomers Cusack and Erivo. I was leaning toward Erivo for carrying PURPLE on her tiny shoulders, but Cusack and Mueller both had less powerful material to work with and were involved with creating their roles from their inception. Speaking of tiny shoulders, the girl from TUCK EVERLASTING was pretty impressive, too. This is going to be a last-minute call. Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple Renée Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton Jane Krakowski, She Loves Me Jennifer Simard, Disaster! Adrienne Warren, Shuffle Along Krakowski is doing her usual dumb blonde shtick in SHE LOVES ME, and the HAMILTON women were good but not overly impressive. While Danielle Brooks shines as Sofia in COLOR PURPLE, Simard’s quirky performance in DISASTER was hilariously memorable. Best Scenic Design of a Musical Es Devlin & Finn Ross, American Psycho David Korins, Hamilton Santo Loquasto, Shuffle Along David Rockwell, She Loves Me While Loquasto’s work on SHUFFLE was impressive, Rockwell’s work on SHE LOVES ME was music box perfection. HAMILTON’s sets were its least interesting element, and PSYCHO’s high tech sets and projections nearly gave me a seizure, and definitely gave me a headache. Best Lighting Design of a Musical Howell Binkley, Hamilton Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer, Shuffle Along Ben Stanton, Spring Awakening Justin Townsend, American Psycho HAMILTON. Because landslide, that’s why. Best Costume Design of a Musical Gregg Barnes, Tuck Everlasting Jeff Mahshie, She Loves Me Ann Roth, Shuffle Along Paul Tazewell, Hamilton HAMILTON. Ditto. Best Orchestrations August Eriksmoen, Bright Star Larry Hochman, She Loves Me Alex Lacamoire, Hamilton Daryl Waters, Shuffle Along Blah, blah, blah, HAMILTON, blah, blah music blah.

Edgy MD May 16 2016 06:18 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

Vic Sage wrote: A LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT – This production by the Roundabout of O’Neill’s classic reminds me of what a revival should be, particularly in a season where Arthur Miller was twice brutalized by a director with his own agenda. Brit director Jonathan Kent’s artful restraint allows ... Here I always thought he was from Kansas.

soupcan May 16 2016 06:44 PM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Vic Sage wrote: HAMILTON – Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hip-Hop retelling of our nation’s founding and its founding fathers has opened to much fanfare and acclaim, with the author in the title role. Expertly performed, directed and designed, it is the story of the rise and fall of an immigrant orphan, driven to succeed, who comes to NY to make his fortune and helps build our country. It is the quintessential American story, using a melting pot cast and a variety of contemporary song styles to show how relevant the story remains. Structurally, it is much like JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR, where the story is told from the point of view of the antagonist (in this case, Aaron Burr) as we wind our way to our hero's inevitable martyrdom, with the tale expressed in anachronistic music and vernacular. The show has great energy and beauty, and its choreography and staging are all of a seamless whole, but it is not flawless work. The first ten minutes or so are told in an assaultive rap that rolled over me too quickly for my untutored ears to comprehend more than every 4th word. I got the gist of it but felt put off, with a panicky thought of "oh, no... is this what the whole thing is going to be like?" Happily, it isn't. The show is mostly sung through, a virtual and virtuoso Hip-Hopera, but with many moments of 60s English pop, R&B, rousing choral numbers and standard Broadway balladeering. Still, overwhelmed by the steady deluge of Miranda’s brilliant lyrical rap verse throughout the show, I continued to feel like I was missing good stuff. Maybe that was a "me" problem (my kids had no problem and loved it), but there were some non-"Me" problems, too. Act I has a big finale as Hamilton and the boys all march off to fight in the revolution, but the story doesn't have the sense to realize it should've stopped there. Instead, the act meanders on for two more scenes, putting the intermission in the wrong place and thus making the first act feel attenuated and overlong, and robbing it of its energy. After Hamilton's rise in Act I, Act II gives us his fall and so suffers from a few too many ballads and slows down a bit. My main problem, however, is the character of Hamilton himself. Brilliant but arrogant, driven, boastful, bullying and an adulterer more interested in protecting his legacy and power than his marriage, you kind of get why Burr wants to kill him. By the end, it's unclear that Hamilton has grown in any way; the only "journey" the character takes in the story is towards aging, loss and regret. In fact, the only reason I found him a protagonist about whom I could care at all is that he's played by the endearing and incomparable Lin-Manuel Miranda. But don't get me wrong... that's a damn good reason. Ultimately, while one's appreciation of the show may be connected to one's tolerance for rap music, the craftsmanship of the work and the talent on display are inarguable. [A-] Vic we saw this today and would say you're right on. Especially the pacing, very long first act, and would also agree about Hammys arc. Ecellent point about the timelessness of the message too. But it was really exciting and fun to watch, 9 year old Lunchpail was able to follow the gist, it was also very funny at times. We got the tickets as a birthday gift for wife bucket mother in law; as it turned out they had an illness and couldn't attend but demand was such we were able to flip the extras in Craigslist for a small fortune. Very well done, good times on Broadway! I saw 'Hamilton' a few weeks ago and was equally thrilled, impressed, awed, etc. Easily in my top 2-3 of things I've seen on Broadway in my lifetime. Fantastic show. If you can get tickets, get them. If any show is worth paying a premium for - its this one.

themetfairy Oct 22 2016 02:45 AM Re: Broadway Season: 2015 - 2016

i didn't want to start the 2016-2017 thread, but I was wondering what Vic knows about the upcoming Willy Wonka musical. Is there any advance buzz? I'm looking forward to seeing Christian Borle in the titular role.