Broadway Blog - Double Review Roundup: 9 to 5 and Waiting for Godot

By: May. 01, 2009
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Double Review Roundup: 9 to 5 and Waiting for Godot
by Robert Diamond - May 01, 2009

Don't miss this new musical comedy based on the classic hit movie! 9 to 5: THE MUSICAL features a brand-new score by seven-time Grammy Award® winner Dolly Parton that includes the blockbuster title song, plus a book by original screenwriter Patricia Resnick, direction by two time Tony Award® winner Joe Mantello (directing his first new musical since Wicked), and choreography by Tony winner Andy Blankenbuehler (In The Heights). Emmy Award® winner and Tony Award nominee Allison Janney stars as Violet Newstead, the super-efficient office manager who joins her fellow co-workers - frazzled divorcée Judy Bernly (Stephanie J. Block) and sexy secretary Doralee Rhodes (Megan Hilty) - to turn the tables on their "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" of a boss, Franklin Hart, Jr. (Tony Award nominee Marc Kudisch).

In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy - giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains "otherwise engaged," the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can't she?

David Rooney, Variety: "The principal asset in "9 to 5: The Musical" is unquestionably the beloved screen property on which this eager-to-please adaptation is based. The popular 1980 fem-powerment farce about three renegade secretaries who turn the tables on their chauvinistic boss was driven by three iconic performances, and the women who step into those heels here do dandy work re-creating those characters with enough freshness to rise above mere imitation. If the material showcasing the trio is an uneven cut-and-paste job that struggles to recapture the movie's giddy estrogen rush, plenty of folks will nonetheless find this a nostalgic crowd-pleaser."

Ben Brantley, New York Times: "Give some credit to "9 to 5" - the overinflated whoopee cushion lodged at the Marquis Theater - for bucking this spring's fashion trends. Can this gaudy, empty musical really be part of the same Broadway season that gave us the minimally decorated, maximally effective "Exit the King," "God Of Carnage," "Next to Normal," "Hair," "Mary Stuart" and "Norman Conquests"?"

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "Durn. You kinda want "9 to 5: The Musical" to be better than it is. Not that you won't have fun at this stage version of the 1980 feminist revenge comedy that was a hit movie with an impossibly catchy title tune. It's a certified crowd-pleaser."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "At a recent preview, Block nearly stopped the show with a song called Get Out and Stay Out- directed at her ex, though she would have pleased the crowd equally belting it out to Hart. If seeing Y-chromosome-addled cartoon characters get their due is your idea of an empowering experience, or at least a good time, 9 to 5 has your number."

Linda Winer, Newsday: "'9 to 5" is a female-empowerment theme-park musical - complete with a spunky Dolly Parton impersonator and lots of faceless scenery that might as well have been moving animatronics. The lavish and harmless entertainment, which opened last night with a shiny-colored and efficient score by Parton, is mostly a tracing-paper adaptation of the popular secretary-revenge movie - which, you may have noticed, was dated when it starred Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in 1980."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "Is "9 to 5" as hip as TV's "The Office" or as joyously hit-filled as "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"? No, but if you're looking for a little diversion, it will do the trick from 8 to 10:15."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: "Yes, a pair of X chromosomes may well help you enjoy this show. Then again, women buy 66 percent of Broadway tickets. And it's "9 to 5" that gets the last laugh."

Erik Haagensen, Backstage: "arton's undistinguished songs are at least pleasant, and Resnick did create the wonderful comic archetypes that allow the stars to shine. 9 to 5 aims low and hits its target squarely. And that's the difference between creating a classic and just a fun night out."

Simon Vozick-Levinson, Entertainment Weekly: "Parton's new tunes, meanwhile, are just fine. None of them will likely be entering her greatest-hits canon any time soon, but they advance the musical's plot well enough. And it's tough to complain about any performance that includes not one but two renditions of 9 to 5's title song, still one of Parton's catchiest, cleverest compositions. Seeing the cast sing it out on stage is enough to make any aspiring pop songwriter pour him- or herself a strong cup of ambition. B+"

Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal: "'9 to 5' is a Big Mac musical, a surprise-free entertainment machine based on a hit movie. Buy a ticket and you don't have to guess what you'll be getting: You already know, right down to the number of pickles on the sesame-seed bun that is Joe Mantello's ultraefficient staging. From start to finish, it does what it's supposed to do -- and no more."

John Simon, Bloomberg News: "Folks yearning for an old-fashioned musical may finally get their wish as the 1980 movie "9 to 5" arrives on Broadway, starring Allison Janney and Marc Kudisch and with no little help from Dolly Parton. What exactly is an old-fashioned musical? A silly but amusing story with lots of jokes, catchy tunes, zesty lyrics and exuberant dancing on the way to a happy ending. Attractive women and suave men don't hurt either, but mind-lulling entertainment is the sine qua non."

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: "The show is wholly harmless and will have its fans, especially among its target demographic. But neither the lyrics nor Patricia Resnick's choppy book really let us get to know these women."

Matt Windman, AM New York: ""9 to 5" had the potential to be a great musical comedy. And while faint hints of a crowd-pleaser occasionally occur, sitting through this faithful adaptation feels as tiresome as a long day at the office."

Two-time Tony Award® winner Nathan Lane, Tony Award® winner Bill Irwin, Golden Globe® winner John Goodman and Tony Award® winner John Glover star in Samuel Beckett's cryptic and comical play, Waiting for Godot, directed by Tony Award® winner Anthony Page.

 

David Rooney, Variety: "Aside from its title, there's no more perfect summation of "Waiting for Godot" than Estragon's complaint "Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful." But there's no trace of that monotony in the perversely gripping non-drama and fine-grained emotional textures of this haunting revival. Samuel Beckett's 1953 play has been absent from Broadway for more than 50 years, and the current climate of pervasive anxiety makes the timing ideal for a comedy of existential despair -- even better when it comes wrapped in Anthony Page's transcendent production, showcasing four distinctive actors at the top of their game."

Ben Brantley, New York Times: "As a profound comedy, this "Godot" is deeply satisfying. As an emotionally moving work, it is less so, except when Mr. Goodman and Mr. Glover are onstage. That's because while Mr. Irwin and Mr. Lane have each mapped credible paths to their roles, mostly the paths are parallel and rarely intersect."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "It's not easy handling the comic absurdity and terrifying despair that snake hand-in-hand throughout "Waiting for Godot," but the Roundabout Theatre Company's striking revival does justice to both."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "This two-man dream team is wonderfully crabby and cozy together, exactly right for a couple who've spent ages together waiting and waiting and waiting for the mysterious no-show Godot."

Linda Winer, Newsday: "The Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of "Waiting for Godot," which opened Thursday at Studio 54, is the one against which others will be measured for a long time. This is bliss - seriously - theatrical and existential bliss."

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: "Veteran theatergoers usually don't have to wait long for another production of the oft-performed "Godot." But one as special as this doesn't come along that often."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "In the new Roundabout Theatre Company production (* * * ½ out of four) at Studio 54, Beckett's hobos Estragon and Vladimir - Gogo and Didi, as they call each other - are played by Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin, with John Goodman in a supporting role. But like the current revival of Eugene Ionesco's Exit the King, this Godot is noteworthy less for its cast members' marquee value than their ability to make the existential, universal questions posed by the text accessible to a mass audience.."

Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly: "In the end, as in the beginning, the show rightly revolves around Gogo and Didi. And Lane and Irwin are more than up to the task of capturing their characters' mutual friendship, antipathy, and befuddlement at their fate in life - as they ponder their circumstances with regard to an absent and seemingly indifferent Godot. B+"

Robert Feldberg, Bergen Record: "But Beckett's great work, ranging through most human emotions, and with lines and scenes open to multiple interpretations, allows for many choices. The ones in this presentation work very well for me."

Matt Windman, AM New York: "We can't promise that you will understand "Waiting for Godot." But so far as Beckett revivals go, this "Godot" really reaches the top of the class."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: "The most potent aspect of "Godot," after all, is that you can project almost any meaning onto it. Right now, there couldn't be a more provocative text for a culture such as ours, built on a need for instant gratification, a pathological fear of boredom and the seeming inability to learn from the past. It's all funny, yes, until someone gets hurt."

David Sheward, Backstage: "In the current Roundabout Theatre Company production at Studio 54-the former disco is an ironic location for this desolate comedy-drama-director Anthony Page and his brilliant cast neatly sidestep that pitfall and dance a merry gig around it. Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin, two of our most skilled stage clowns, find the zestful comic joy and soul-crushing despair in Beckett's sorrowful everymen. Dressed in rags by costume designer Jane Greenwood and covered with dirt, wounds, and scars, they look as if they've been through hell-in most productions, these facial details are overlooked, and the tramps appear to be neatly shaved actors in funny clothes."

Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal: "If you've never seen "Godot," let me assure you that this production will leave you in no doubt as to what the fuss is about -- and if you know it well, you'll feel as though you're seeing it for the first time.."

John SimonBloomberg News: "Capped by a memorable comic performance from Nathan Lane, the Roundabout Theatre Company has solidly revived Samuel Beckett's seminal 1953 play, 'Waiting for Godot.'."

More Reviews to Come in the AM!

 


 



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