Actually, Nelson has been on a bit of a Chekhovian kick in the past few years with his outstanding trilogy (soon to be a tetralogy) of plays about the Apple Family of Rhinebeck, NY that have been premiering at the Public, but for this venture the playwright imports a stageful of authentic Russians – some historic, some fictional – to simmer the samovar for a weekend in a spacious Westport, CT farmhouse, beautifully realized by set designer Marsha Ginsberg.

The focal character, rather appropriately, is painted as a mediocre man.  Nikolai Nabokov was a classical composer who earned some degree of notoriety, but whose success was later overshadowed by that of his cousin Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita.  (Nelson’s play is set in 1948, pre-dating the publication of that infamous classic.)  At this point in history, Nikolai has put his music career on hold to assist the American government as an insider with the newly-formed CIA.  This position grants him the luxury of being able to assist his fellow Russian émigrés who are concerned about their residential status and any suspicion that may be aimed at them during this early period of the Cold War.

By design, Nabokov is the least colorful of the major characters and is played by Stephen Kunken with a fine sense of dutiful humility.  But when he is once again among artistic geniuses at work, his passionate longing to once again be a part of that world is quite moving.

That longing is ignited by the presence of choreographer George Balanchine (a virilely charismatic Michael Cerveris) and composer Igor Stravinsky (an irritable, egomaniacal John Glover) who are presenting for their fellow guests a few highlights from their new ballet, Orpheus, danced by Balanchine’s wife, Native American ballerina Maria Tallchief (Natalia Alonso), and principal dancer Nicholas Magallanes (Michael Rosen).

The other purpose for the gathering is to celebrate the birthday of aging set designer Sergey Sudeikin (Alvin Epstein, occasionally gasping for life).  Other notable presences include conductor Serge Koussevitsky (an obliviously self-centered Dale Place) and character actor Vladimir Sokoloff (nicely comical John Procaccino), who Hollywood utilizes as whatever foreign villain may be needed.  The most prominent female presence is Blair Brown as Stravinsky’s wife, who is also Sudeikin’s ex.

As relationships and various plot points are revealed, the play emerges as a study of that insular group of Russian immigrants who helped make mid-20th Century American culture so vibrant and then found themselves in the precarious position of being distrusted by their adopted country and fearing deportation back to the homeland whose revolution they fled.  Though the dialogue is all spoken in English, much is made of the fact that the Russian characters are mostly speaking in their native tongue.  When the characters do speak in English, they do so with thick Russian accents, although this technique isn’t really apparent until Cerveris puts it to use.

Parallels are suggested between the plot of Orpheus and the situation the émigrés find themselves in.  The creative art that we leave behind serving as the most important evidence of our existence is eventually expressed as a major theme and the tragedy of Nikolai and the Others is that Nabokov sacrificed the opportunity to place his permanent mark in our culture by helping his fellow Russians through this precarious time.

At least in Nelson’s play he gets top billing.

Photos by Paul Kolnik:  Top: Natalia Alonso and Michael Cerveris; Bottom: John Glover, John Procaccino and Stephen Kunken.

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The golden era of musical theatre’s director/choreographers, when artists like Gower Champion, Jerome Robbins, Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse had such complete control over the stage movement that their visuals appeared as an indelible feature to the storytelling, left us with a few musicals whose reputations somewhat surpass the effectiveness of their book, music and lyrics.

Certainly the scripted texts of Fiddler On The Roof, Hello, Dolly!, Gypsy and Chicago can stand on their own and I suspect the same discovery will be made if ever a major production of A Chorus Line is produced without adhering to Bennett’s brilliant thumbprints.  But when it comes to many other director/choreographer hits of that era – Redhead, Bye, Bye, Birdie, Sweet Charity, 42^nd Street and even to some degrees, West Side Story and Dreamgirls – the strong visuals that inform the material and provide exacting subtext elevate the musicals to loftier achievements.

And then there’s Pippin; charming, beloved Pippin, about the medieval son of King Charlemagne who goes off on a series of quests in a search for his life’s meaning.  Pippin’s opening night reviews were not the best, but it became a smash hit by saturating television airwaves with the first ever commercial showing a scene from a Broadway musical, revolutionizing the way shows are marketed by targeting the people who do not regularly attend theatre.

What they attended was a show that, according to infamous reports that were later fictionalized in the movie All That Jazz, survived immense friction between its 24-year-old composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who was working on his first Broadway musical (His Godspell was, at the time, packing them in Off-Broadway.) and established hit-maker, director/choreographer Bob Fosse, who was entering the darker phase of his career and was staging the cheery, innocently naughty pop musical with layers of sinister eroticism.  The Fosse version of Pippin is not what high schools and regional companies get when they license the show for performances and the popular commercial video of a live Toronto performance is said to be more of what Schwartz and bookwriter Roger O. Hirson had in mind.

But it was Fosse’s dangerous seduction that fueled the original production of Pippin’s artistic success.  Left to its own devices, the cute but rarely clever book, as with many Candide-like stories, tends to fizzle out as the evening wears on.  And while the score begins with a pair of winners (“Magic To Do” followed by “Corner of The Sky”) and is highlighted by the genuinely sage and catchy “No Time At All,” the bulk of the score lies on the innocuous side.

Fortunately, Diane Paulus not only provides a firm directorial hand for the new Broadway revival, but comes up with a concept that teeters between physically seductive and family friendly.  The troupe of players who implore the audience to “join us” are now a collection of acrobats, aerialists, balancers and death defiers who also, quite literally, have a bit of magic to do.

With Patina Miller’s Leading Player acting as ringmaster, the company members partake in feats of agility such as jumping through hoops, contorting their bodies and creating a human jump rope; all guided by Gypsy Snider, founder of Montreal’s 7 Fingers circus troupe.  Terrance Mann’s Charlemagne performs the knife-throwing trick with Charlotte d’Amboise’s Fastrada acting as target, but the real jaw-dropper comes when Andrea Martin, known far better for delivering punch lines than performing tricks in mid-air, strips off Berthe’s grandmotherly garbs in the middle of her song to reveal a well-toned leotard-clad figure and, assisted by hunky chorister Yannick Thomas, dangles high above the stage on a trapeze, belting the last few bars of a chorus while hanging upside down.

While these seasoned Broadway pros, including Rachel Bay Jones as the comically sincere Catherine, perform with show-biz panache, Matthew James Thomas makes a merely capable Pippin, finding few ways to make the character’s earnestness interesting.

Chet Walker’s choreography, billed as “in the style of Bob Fosse” (Fosse’s choreography for the “Manson Trio,” made famous by that classic commercial, remains as was.) blends seamlessly in and out of Snider’s creations.  The sexual allure of Pippin remains, but Paulus hides it beneath the wholesomeness of athleticism, a neat trick that appropriately crumbles near the conclusion.  (For those wondering, this revival uses the “Theo ending” that was added some time after the original Broadway run.)

After her mounting of Hair that focused on some of the less flattering aspects of the hippie movement and her controversially rewritten production of Porgy and Bess, Paulus’ Pippin firmly establishes her as Broadway’s go-to director for creating new ways to see older musicals.  It would be interesting to see her get a shot at a brand new show next.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Patina Miller and Matthew James Thomas; Bottom: Andrea Martin and Matthew James Thomas.

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Posted on: Friday, May 24, 2013 @ 12:59 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

The grosses are out for the week ending 5/19/2013 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: CINDERELLA (14.4%), ANNIE (13.8%), VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE (12.6%), NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (10.0%), ORPHANS (8.4%), MACBETH (6.9%), THE NANCE (6.1%), SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK (5.6%), THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES (5.4%), ONCE (4.9%), THE BIG KNIFE (3.2%), ROCK OF AGES (2.8%), CHICAGO (1.9%), JERSEY BOYS (1.8%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1.6%), I'LL EAT YOU LAST: A CHAT WITH SUE MENGERS (1.3%), ANN (0.9%), LUCKY GUY (0.8%), KINKY BOOTS(0.8%),

Down for the week was: THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (-11.3%), MAMMA MIA! (-3.9%), THE LION KING (-1.0%), WICKED (-0.6%), NEWSIES (-0.2%), PIPPIN (-0.2%),

Posted on: Monday, May 20, 2013 @ 08:02 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

My votes are highlighted in bold, but remember, there are no write-in votes so my choices here may not necessarily reflect what I would pick as the best of the season. And because of the different categories and different nominations, many of my picks are different from my Outer Critics Circle choices.

Outstanding Play
Annie Baker, The Flick
Christopher Durang, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Joe Gilford, Finks
Richard Greenberg, The Assembled Parties
Amy Herzog, Belleville
Deanna Jent, Falling
Richard Nelson, Sorry

Outstanding Musical
A Christmas Story
Giant
Hands on a Hardbody
Here Lies Love
Matilda
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
The Other Josh Cohen

Outstanding Revival of a Play

Golden Boy

Good Person of Szechwan

The Piano Lesson

Uncle Vanya

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Outstanding Revival of a Musical or Revue
Cinderella (Though I still insist this is a new musical.)

Passion
Pippin
The Golden Land
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Working

Outstanding Actor in a Play
Reed Birney, Uncle Vanya
Daniel Everidge, Falling
Tom Hanks, Lucky Guy
Shuler Hensley, The Whale
Nathan Lane, The Nance
Tracy Letts, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Outstanding Actress in a Play
Maria Dizzia, Belleville
Amy Morton, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Julia Murney, Falling
Vanessa Redgrave, The Revisionist
Miriam Silverman, Finks
Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Eric Anderson, Soul Doctor
Brian d'Arcy James, Giant
Jim Norton, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Billy Porter, Kinky Boots
Steve Rosen, The Other Josh Cohen
Ryan Silverman, Passion
Anthony Warlow, Annie

Outstanding Actress in a Musical
Kate Baldwin, Giant
Stephanie J. Block, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Carolee Carmello, Scandalous
Lindsay Mendez, Dogfight
Donna Murphy, Into the Woods
Laura Osnes, Cinderella
Jenny Powers, Donnybrook!

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
Chuck Cooper, The Piano Lesson
Peter Friedman, The Great God Pan
Richard Kind, The Big Knife
Aaron Clifton Moten, The Flick
Brían F. O'Byrne, If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet
Tony Shalhoub, Golden Boy

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
Tasha Lawrence, The Whale
Judith Light, The Assembled Parties
Kellie Overbey, Sleeping Rough
Maryann Plunkett, Sorry
Condola Rashad, The Trip to Bountiful
Laila Robins, Sorry

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
Stephen Bogardus, Passion
John Bolton, A Christmas Story
Keith Carradine, Hands on a Hardbody
Bertie Carvel, Matilda
John Dossett, Giant
Andy Karl, The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Annaleigh Ashford, Kinky Boots
Melissa Errico, Passion
Andrea Martin, Pippin
Jessie Mueller, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Christiane Noll, Chaplin
Keala Settle, Hands on a Hardbody
Kate Wetherhead, The Other Josh Cohen

Outstanding Director of a Play
Lear Debessonet, Good Person of Szechwan
Sam Gold, Uncle Vanya
Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, Restoration Comedy
Pam MacKinnon, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Lynne Meadow, The Assembled Parties
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, The Piano Lesson

Outstanding Director of a Musical
Andy Blankenbuehler, Bring It On
Rachel Chavkin, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
John Doyle, Passion
Diane Paulus, Pippin
Emma Rice, The Wild Bride
Alex Timbers, Here Lies Love
Matthew Warchus, Matilda

Outstanding Choreography
Andy Blankenbuehler, Bring It On
Warren Carlyle, A Christmas Story
Peter Darling, Matilda
Josh Rhodes, Cinderella
Sergio Trujillo, Hands on a Hardbody
Chet Walker and Gypsy Snider, Pippin

(Note: I voted for Cinderella for this award on my Outer Critics Circle ballot but I’m voting for Pippin on this ballot because Pippin’s OCC nomination was only for Chet Walker’s work, but this nomination also includes Gypsy Snider’s gymnastics.)

Outstanding Music
Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green, Hands on a Hardbody
David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, Here Lies Love
Michael John LaChiusa, Giant
Dave Malloy, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, A Christmas Story
David Rossmer and Steve Rosen, The Other Josh Cohen

Outstanding Lyrics
Amanda Green, Hands on a Hardbody
Amanda Green and Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bring It On
Michael John LaChiusa, Giant
Dave Malloy, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Tim Minchin, Matilda
David Rossmer and Steve Rosen, The Other Josh Cohen

Outstanding Book of a Musical
Dennis Kelly, Matilda
Sybille Pearson, Giant
Joseph Robinette, A Christmas Story
David Rossmer and Steve Rosen, The Other Josh Cohen
Jeff Whitty, Bring It On
Doug Wright, Hands on a Hardbody

Outstanding Orchestrations
Trey Anastasio and Don Hart, Hands on a Hardbody
Larry Blank, A Christmas Story
Bruce Coughlin, Giant
Larry Hochman, Chaplin
Steve Margoshes, Soul Doctor
Danny Troob, Cinderella

Outstanding Music in a Play
César Alvarez with The Lisps, Good Person of Szechwan
Jiri Kaderabek, Mahir Cetiz, and Ana Milosavljevic, Act Before You Speak: The Tragical History of
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Glen Kelly, The Nance
Eugene Ma, The Man Who Laughs
Steve Martin, As You Like It
Jane Wang, Strange Tales of Liaozhai

Outstanding Revue
Forbidden Broadway: Alive & Kicking!
Old Hats
Old Jews Telling Jokes

Outstanding Set Design
Rob Howell, Matilda
Mimi Lien, The Whale
Santo Loquasto, The Assembled Parties
Anna Louizos, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Michael Yeargan, Golden Boy
David Zinn, The Flick

Outstanding Costume Design
Amy Clark and Martin Pakledinaz, Chaplin
Dominique Lemieux, Pippin
William Ivey Long, Cinderella
Chris March, Chris March's The Butt-Cracker Suite! A Trailer Park Ballet
Loren Shaw, Restoration Comedy
Paloma Young, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Outstanding Lighting Design
Ken Billington, Chaplin
Jane Cox, Passion
Kenneth Posner, Pippin
Justin Townsend, Here Lies Love
Daniel Winters, The Man Who Laughs
Scott Zielinski, A Civil War Christmas

Outstanding Projection Design
Jon Driscoll, Chaplin
Wendall K. Harrington, Old Hats
Peter Nigrini, Here Lies Love
Darrel Maloney, Checkers
Pedro Pires, Cirque du Soleil: Totem
Aaron Rhyne, Wild With Happy

Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical
Steve Canyon Kennedy, Hands on a Hardbody
Scott Lehrer and Drew Levy, Chaplin
Tony Meola, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Brian Ronan, Bring It On
Brian Ronan, Giant
Dan Moses Schreier, Passion

Abstain

Outstanding Sound Design in a Play
Ien DeNio, The Pilo Family Circus
Steve Fontaine, Last Man Club
Christian Frederickson, Through the Yellow Hour
Lindsay Jones, Wild With Happy
Mel Mercier, The Testament of Mary
Fergus O'Hare, Macbeth

Outstanding Solo Performance
Joel de la Fuente, Hold These Truths
Kathryn Hunter, Kafka's Monkey
Bette Midler, I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers
Julian Sands, A Celebration of Harold Pinter
Holland Taylor, Ann
Michael Urie, Buyer & Cellar

Unique Theatrical Experience
Bello Mania
Chris March's The Butt-Cracker Suite! A Trailer Park Ballet
Cirque Du Soleil: Totem
That Play: A Solo Macbeth
The Fazzino Ride
The Man Who Laughs

Abstain

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Posted on: Saturday, May 18, 2013 @ 01:54 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

Colin Quinn’s politically sharp blue collar deconstruction of our national blueprint, Unconstitutional, is 70 hilarious minutes of plainspoken wit.  In these days when the most relevant interpretation of The Bill of Rights seems up for grabs, Quinn fuels the debate with the kind of common sense even Thomas Paine wouldn’t have concocted.

Beginning with the preamble (“’…in order to form a more perfect union.’  Not perfect.  That’s fine for other people.  ‘More perfect.’”) and working his way through the amendments (“Piss Christ?  Asshole move, but it’s covered.”) Quinn’s fast and furious rant, directed by Rebecca A. Trent, is enhanced by projections of the historic text, but you won’t want to remove your attention from the comic’s keen observations.

Though he sometimes tangents into questionably relevant gags involving pop culture celebs (“If Bruce Springsteen was really the working man’s musician why does he have a four and a half hour concert on a Tuesday night?”) Quinn is at his funniest when delving into subjects like the difference between free speech and accepted speech, the effectiveness of American presidents in proportion to how ugly they were and why Barack Obama feels it necessary to make jokes about himself.

As far as the right to bear arms is concerned… well, despite describing himself as “pro-gun” he isn’t exactly pro-NRA.  But you’re better off hearing that from Quinn himself.

Photo of Colin Quinn by Mike Lavoie.

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It wouldn’t be fair to say the new Broadway production of Horton Foote’s beautiful drama The Trip To Bountiful misses the mark, because director Michael Wilson was obviously aiming at a different target.  Less than eight years ago Lois Smith picked up every major award an Off-Broadway actress can get for starring in Signature Theatre Company’s emotionally thick production of the play.  But for Cicely Tyson’s return to Broadway after 30 years, Wilson seems to be going more for cozy warmth and charm.  Moving pathos is replaced by cute laughs.  If you’ve never seen a production of the play before there are plenty of reasons to expect to have a fine evening.  Wilson, after all, has developed an excellent reputation for interpreting the plays of Mr. Foote, having mounted exceptional New York productions of The Day Emily Married, Dividing The Estate and The Orphans' Home Cycle.  But if you’re aware of how enthrallingly powerful The Trip To Bountiful can be, his new staging might just not be enough.

Tyson plays elderly Carrie Watts, who has not seen her home town of Bountiful in twenty years and, given her current situation, will most likely never set foot again on the farm where she grew up. It's 1953 and her days are mostly spent sitting in the living room, which doubles as her bedroom, of her son Ludie's (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) small Houston apartment, looking out the window and watching the traffic race by while singing hymns to comfort herself.

An illness had kept Ludie out of work for two years, depleting his savings, and his new job doesn't pay enough to support himself and his wife, Jessie Mae (Vanessa Williams) without the help of Carrie's monthly pension. Needing her money, but frustrated by her continual presence, Jessie Mae tends to treat Carrie like a child, scolding her for running in the house and ordering her not to sing in her presence. ("You know what those hymns do to my nerves.")

So when her next pension check arrives in the mail, Carrie takes the opportunity to hide it until her chance to run off to the bus depot and buy her ticket home. With Ludie and Jessie Mae on her trail, fearing she might want to make good on her stated desire to live in Bountiful for the rest of her days, taking away the pension money they depend on, Carrie must fight her failing health and fading memory to reach her goal.

Tyson’s Carrie is a feisty woman who projects impish charm as she plots her getaway while pretending to adhere to Jessie Mae’s rules of the house.  And while her humorous performance gets plenty of laughs, what’s missing is any hint of the devastating loneliness the woman must be suffering as she spends her time separated from the place where she feels at home without anyone of her own age to connect with.  The scene where Carrie begs not to be taken back to Houston when she’s just made it to the town next to Bountiful makes little impact because it isn’t preceded by much of an emotional foundation.  Just before that moment comes a spot where, from what I’ve read and heard, audiences have been consistently singing along to Tyson’s choruses of “Blessed Assurance.”  Many were in full voice the night I attended and while the star wasn’t exactly waving a baton and yelling, “Everybody!,” the staging rather slyly doesn’t exactly discourage the audience participation.  It’s a memorable moment for Cicely Tyson but it doesn’t serve Carrie Watts very well.

Gooding and Williams play Ludie and Jessie Mae in a Walter Mitty fashion, with the henpecked husband finally standing up to the domineering wife before the final curtain.  What we don’t get is a strong sense of Ludie’s feelings of emasculation for being an adult still having to depend on his mother for income, nor Jessie Mae’s frustration in being denied the kind of life she expected to marry into.

The production’s most pleasing moments come in a scene featuring the fine stage veteran Arthur French as a helpful bus employee and in the sweet simplicity of the scenes between Tyson and Condola Rashad, who does lovely work as the young wife who Carrie meets in the bus station and becomes her travel buddy.  Since the play was not written with the intention of Carrie and her family to be played by black actors, subtle, unscripted reminders of the times are made by signs in the bus depot designating segregated sections and by having the pair riding in the back seat.

But the non-traditional casting sticks out when Tom Wopat enters as the sheriff looking to put a halt to Carrie’s journey and bring her back to Ludie.  The time, place and racial differences between them make the white man’s polite and respectfully cordial manner when addressing the elderly black woman seem unexpected.  His attitude is certainly not an impossibility, but something seems missing without at least an acknowledgement that this would not be considered the norm.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Cicely Tyson and Condola Rashad; Bottom: Vanessa Williams and Cuba Gooding, Jr.

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Posted on: Friday, May 17, 2013 @ 06:47 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

That’s about the cleanest quip I can quote you from John Logan’s dishy I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers; a ninety minute solo piece that turns a visit with one of Hollywood’s first superagents into something resembling a stand-up comedy act, except the star stays seated on her comfy couch all night.

That star, of course, is Bette Midler; not in concert, but acting on Broadway for the first time since she last told Tevye to ditch the matchmaker because she wanted to marry Motel.

Not planning a brunch, but nevertheless lounging in her caftan, the conceit of the play has the woman who became one of the left coast’s most powerful career-molders (“Why be a king when you can be a kingmaker?”) finding her own career a bit on the skids.  It’s 1981 and after already losing some high-profile clients, she’s been informed by lawyers that her crown jewel, Barbra Streisand, will no longer be requiring her services.  Ensconced in designer Scott Pask’s sumptuous rendering of Mengers’ Beverly Hills home (It used to belong to Zsa Zsa Gabor, she tells us.) she waits for a phone call from the star herself.

Her love for movies developed when she was a little girl, learning English from Hollywood offerings after her Jewish family escaped to America from Hitler’s Germany.  (“That’s why I still talk like a gum-cracking Warner Brothers second lead.”)  The risk-taking attitude she acquired from dealing with anti-Semitic neighborhood kids served her well in her climb up the William Morris ladder.

As far as the dirt goes, there are plenty of anecdotes involving her professional dealings with names like Gene Hackman, Sissy Spacek, Faye Dunaway, Ali McGraw and Steve McQueen.  And the names of successful films Ms. Streisand turned down act as punch lines.

But I’ll Eat You Last is far more interesting when she’s describing how her profession fits into the off-screen machinations of the industry, particularly when describing the exclusive dinner parties she hosts, where alcohol-loosened tongues provide vital deal-making information.

As directed by Joe Mantello, Midler slips perfectly into the role of a bawdy fast-talking quipster.  Her comic sense is impeccable and her ingratiating star quality is the kind that sucks you in with the promise of a good time.  The blonde wig and oversized glasses she wears are authentically Mengers, even though they do make her look like a decadent Gloria Steinem.

Oh, and if you’re a good-looking gentleman sitting near the front… be prepared.

Photo of Bette Midler by Richard Termine.

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Posted on: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 @ 09:52 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

Stepping in for another actor who was injured in previews, Din himself plays the title character, a legendary 1950s Bollywood filmmaker (“Wasn’t I the first producer to put six monsoons in one picture?”) who has been bombing as of late because his studio’s regular leading man, Raj (Sorab Wadia), has grown a bit old and flabby to play handsome young heroes.  Knowing that it would break his pal’s heart to fire him, Raj disappears, so Bunty makes a deal with infamous gangster Shankar Dass (Alok Tewari), who will finance his studio out of bankruptcy in exchange for making his son the new star.

But Raj reappears in various disguises to help train Saleem (Nick Choksi), the talented young flunky whose job is to serve everyone’s tea, to become the studio’s next star.  Saleem is anxious for the job because the leading lady, Shambervi (Lipica Shah), is his childhood crush from the old neighborhood, though she refuses to acknowledge that past life now that she’s a star.

While the book only lightly spoofs the Bombay film industry (An upcoming project is described as, “A story with a social conscience, ten songs and a spectacular dance with elephants.”), the show is crammed with old-fashioned belly laughs, the more than occasional groaner and some time-honored sexual puns.  (When Raj, disguised as “Fatima, the Blind Soothsayer of Sind,” starts referring to his balls… well, you know the bit.)  A few gags do give off an “Are they really doing this?” vibe, like the moment when Bunty and his cohorts disguise themselves as women completely covered in black burkas to secretly listen to the audience’s reaction to their new film, or when Raj pops out of one of his hiding places, an elephant’s anus.  (I’ll spare you the Mein Kampf joke.)

The fluffy lyrics are pleasant, if predictable, but the music really succeeds in capturing the spirit of 1950s Hollywood musicals.  The melodies of “Let’s Make A Movie” and “It’s Great To Wake Up In Bombay” are catchy as all hell.  There’s a nice bluesy torch song for Gayton Scott, who’s terrific as the button-down secretary with a thing for the boss (Yes, there’s a scene where she enters looking like a knock-out in a tight dress.) and an enchanting fantasy dance number for Choksi and Shah, who make for a charming pair of young romantics.

Given the circumstances, Din does well as Bunty but the role would work better with an actor with sharper presence and a stronger singing voice.  Wadia’s vain, but loyal Raj is a bundle of comic energy, performing even the silliest of routines with crackling timing and flair.

While The New Group’s Off-Broadway mounting, directed with traditional musical comedy buoyancy by Scott Elliot, is certainly entertaining, Bunty Berman Presents… would most likely benefit from a larger production that can replicate the overblown glamour of its setting.  But as it stand now, the show still delivers a fun night out.

Photos by Monique Carboni: Top: Ayub Khan Din and Company; Bottom: Nick Choksi and Lipica Shah.

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Posted on: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 @ 11:38 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

-- Leonard Bernstein

The grosses are out for the week ending 5/12/2013 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: JEKYLL & HYDE (11.2%), THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (9.2%), NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (7.6%), JERSEY BOYS (7.0%), NEWSIES (6.6%), ORPHANS (6.5%), ROCK OF AGES (5.7%), ANNIE (5.0%), WICKED (2.6%), THE LION KING (2.4%), PIPPIN (2.1%), THE NANCE (2.1%), VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE (1.7%), ONCE (1.6%), THE BIG KNIFE (0.9%), LUCKY GUY (0.9%), CINDERELLA (0.8%), KINKY BOOTS(0.5%),

Down for the week was: MAMMA MIA! (-6.4%), MACBETH (-1.6%), SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK (-1.5%), ANN (-1.2%), I'LL EAT YOU LAST: A CHAT WITH SUE MENGERS (-0.9%), THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES (-0.8%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (-0.5%), CHICAGO (-0.4%),

Posted on: Monday, May 13, 2013 @ 07:45 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

But then, he might regard such a question as a badge of honor.  Conventionality was never a strong point for this legendary playwright, director and designer.

Whether they realize it or not, Foreman’s work is often the template from which satirists would spoof the wildest forms of abstract, avant-garde theatre.  If you’ve seen his work before you probably know already if you’re interested in seeing Old-Fashioned Prostitutes (A True Romance).  If you haven’t, and you’re the sort who would like to be exposed to all that American theatre has to offer, I would strongly suggest a visit to The Public to see the work of an original who has lasted long enough to make his inventiveness seem almost cliché.

As with the other 50+ theatre pieces Foreman has created since founding the Ontological-Hysteric Theater back in 1968, Old-Fashioned Prostitutes provides a tapestry of visuals and sounds that enhance a mood rather than convey story.

The set, typically Foreman, is decorated with an eclectic mish-mash of objects, including framed glossy headshots, framed black boxes, candelabras, chandeliers, wires stretched the length of the stage and random letters painted in white on the black walls.

The text is primarily spoken in a weary southern monotone by Rocco Sisto, an actor who, fortunately, can command attention through a wealth of distraction.  His character is haunted by the words of a shabbily-dressed passer-by, "Go to Berkeley, make film.”

On the other side of the stage, two mindlessly coquettish prostitutes in flapper garb, played by Stephanie Hayes and Alenka Kraigher, ponder if the advice was not a reference to the California city, “But possibly the long dead Irish philosopher of idealism, Bishop George Berkeley himself, whose view of reality might be poetically re-imagined as a vision of the world in which experience itself was but a thin film, spread in illusionary fashion upon human consciousness.”

While they debate over that one, Nicolas Norena makes random entrances carrying various items such as a mirror, drums, flowers and an oversized playing card while dressed as the iconic advertising symbol, the Michelin Man.  (As Anna Russell would say, I’m not making this up, you know.)

A detached voice occasionally commands, “Hold it!”  At other times it lets out an, “Okay.”  An alarm clock buzzes, gunshots are heard and lights flare out into the patrons’ eyes.

At one point I faintly heard the voice of an operatic tenor vocalizing in the hallway and I honestly couldn’t figure out if it was part of the play or an actor preparing for another show.

Photos by Joan Marcus:  Top: Nicolas Norena and Rocco Sisto; Bottom: David Skeist, Alenka Kraigher and Stephanie Hayes.

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Posted on: Monday, May 13, 2013 @ 04:15 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

My votes are highlighted in bold, but remember, there are no write-in votes so my choices here may not necessarily reflect what I would pick as the best of the season.  After I cast my votes for the Drama Desk awards, I’ll be sharing those with you, too.

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY
Grace
Lucky Guy
The Nance
The Testament of Mary
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL
Chaplin
A Christmas Story
Hands on a Hardbody
Kinky Boots
Matilda

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY
Bad Jews
Cock
My Name is Asher Lev
Really Really
The Whale

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL
February House
Dogfight
Giant
Here Lies Love
Murder Ballad

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL
Cinderella
Chaplin
Dogfight
Kinky Boots
Matilda

OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE
Chaplin
Dogfight
Hands on a Hardbody
Here Lies Love
Kinky Boots

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY
Golden Boy
Orphans
The Piano Lesson
The Trip to Bountiful
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Annie
Cinderella (Although I still insist this is a new musical.)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Passion
Pippin

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY
Pam MacKinnon Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Nicholas Martin Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Jack O’Brien The Nance
Bartlett Sher Golden Boy
Michael Wilson The Trip to Bountiful

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL
Warren Carlyle Chaplin
Scott Ellis The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Jerry Mitchell Kinky Boots
Diane Paulus Pippin
Alex Timbers Here Lies Love

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER
Warren Carlyle Chaplin
Peter Darling Matilda
Jerry Mitchell Kinky Boots
Josh Rhodes Cinderella
Chet Walker Pippin

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN
John Lee Beatty The Nance
Rob Howell Matilda
David Korins Here Lies Love
Scott Pask Pippin
Michael Yeargan Golden Boy

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN
Amy Clark & Martin Pakledinaz Chaplin
Gregg Barnes Kinky Boots
Dominique Lemieux Pippin
William Ivey Long Cinderella
William Ivey Long The Mystery of Edwin Drood

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN
Ken Billington Chaplin
Paul Gallo Dogfight
Donald Holder Golden Boy
Kenneth Posner Cinderella
Kenneth Posner Pippin

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY
Tom Hanks Lucky Guy
Shuler Hensley The Whale
Nathan Lane The Nance
Tracy Letts Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
David Hyde Pierce Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Tracee Chimo Bad Jews
Amy Morton Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Vanessa Redgrave The Revisionist
Joely Richardson Ivanov
Cicely Tyson The Trip to Bountiful

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Bertie Carvel Matilda
Santino Fontana Cinderella
Rob McClure Chaplin
Billy Porter Kinky Boots
Matthew James Thomas Pippin

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Lilla Crawford Annie
Valisia LeKae Motown
Lindsay Mendez Dogfight
Patina Miller Pippin
Laura Osnes Cinderella

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY
Danny Burstein Golden Boy
Richard Kind The Big Knife
Jonny Orsini The Nance
Tony Shalhoub Golden Boy
Tom Sturridge Orphans

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Cady Huffman The Nance
Judith Ivey The Heiress
Judith Light The Assembled Parties
Kristine Nielsen Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Vanessa Williams The Trip to Bountiful

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Will Chase The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Dan Lauria A Christmas Story
Raymond Luke Motown
Terrence Mann Pippin
Daniel Stewart Sherman Kinky Boots

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Annaleigh Ashford Kinky Boots
Victoria Clark Cinderella
Charlotte d’Amboise Pippin
Andrea Martin Pippin
Keala Settle Hands on a Hardbody

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE
Bette Midler I’ll Eat You Last
Martin Moran All the Rage
Fiona Shaw The Testament of Mary
Holland Taylor Ann
Michael Urie Buyer & Cellar

JOHN GASSNER AWARD
(Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Ayad Akhtar Disgraced
Paul Downs Colaizzo Really Really
Joshua Harmon Bad Jews
Samuel D. Hunter The Whale
Aaron Posner My Name is Asher Lev

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Posted on: Sunday, May 12, 2013 @ 09:18 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

After making his musical theatre debut as co-director of Jumbo, George Abbott, who as a director and bookwriter would become a major force in taking the humor of Broadway musicals from specialty bits performed by well-known comics to something that naturally evolved from the plot and characters, collaborated with R&H on his first book, using the then up-to-the-minute theme of how American jazz was still struggling for acceptance from “serious” classical institutions.  On Your Toes concerns a childhood song and dance vaudevillian, Junior Dolan, now a grown up music professor for the WPA, who tries to get a jazz ballet composed by one of his students performed by a prestigious Russian dance company.  But when the lead male dancer can’t adjust to the new syncopation, the former hoofer jumps in to save the day, though he winds up dancing for his life during the premiere while trying to avoid a hit man’s bullet.

The Rodgers and Hart score, a divine assemblage of wit and tenderness set to showtune, Broadway jazz and imitations of more cultured tones, sets a fine example of how the scores of musicals were growing more character specific.  Two of the more jaggedly syncopated numbers are meant to be examples of the songwriting skills of the musical’s ingénue, Frankie Frayne (who has a crush on the professor) and are filled with jaunty quips like, “It’s got to be love. / It couldn’t be tonsillitis. / It feels like neuritis / But nevertheless it’s love,” and “They fly the clouds to come through with air mail. / The dancing crowds look up to some rare male / Like that Astaire male.”  But when Frankie sings her own emotions as part of the plot, they come out in a simpler voice.  Her duet with Junior, “There’s A Small Hotel,” is a lovely example of plainspoken sincerity and her second act solo, “Glad To Be Unhappy” is a torch song kept on a demurely low flame.

In contrast, Rodgers writes a light minuet as a duet for arts philanthropist Peggy Porterfield and Russian dance impresario Sergei Alexandrovitch that gets its title from twisting FDR’s fireside chat promise of a better life for the average man.  Hart’s lyric derives punch lines from worldlier issues like psychoanalysis, elective surgery and reproductive rights.  (“Lots of kids for a poor wife are dandy, / Girls of fashion can be choosy. / Birth control and the modus operandi / Are much too good for the average floozy.”)

But, of course, what On Your Toes is known for is the ballets that end each act.  Rodgers composed La Princesse Zenobia in the style of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, but Slaughter On Tenth Avenue is a striking composition based on multiple jazz themes – comical, sensual and frantic – that ranks up there with Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue as a great American orchestral piece.  George Balanchine, the first ever to be credited as the choreographer of a Broadway musical (“dance directors” were commonly used to simply supply steps) is said to have taken great joy in spoofing his Russian roots for Zenobia (The Bolshoi Ballet, which was in town during the musical’s run, took out an ad in the program that proclaimed, “Only The Great Deserve The Darts of Satire.”) but Slaughter, the story of a sensual dance hall encounter between a strip-tease artist and a customer that turns violent, is a masterful achievement in musical theatre dance; illuminating the show’s theme of American popular arts evolving in complexity.  Though both ballets can stand as individual pieces, Balanchine and the bookwriters incorporated events from the plot that spill into their performances, thus making them an essential part of the storytelling.

But what makes On Your Toes a perfect selection for the Encores! concert series is the chance to hear Hans Spialek’s extraordinary orchestrations; one of the 75 sets he created for Broadway, including the original productions of Anything Goes, Pal Joey and Where’s Charley?  Under Rob Fisher’s baton, the 29-piece Encores! orchestra impersonates vaudeville pit musicians, a rousing big band, a chamber ensemble and a grand ballet orchestra.

Putting up a concert version of any musical with the limited amount of rehearsal time the unions specify is a difficult task, so while you can nitpick about details of director/choreographer Warren Carlyle’s production, the fact that so much is done so well is a reason to celebrate.  Those familiar with Slaughter will recognize the Balanchine staging replicated by Susan Pilarre, assigned to the task by the late choreographer’s trust, but Carlyle mounts the rest, including an austere and regal Zenobia and the third major choreographed moment, a freewheeling challenge routine between American tappers and Russian pointe dancers, which is loaded with some dazzling inventiveness.

The lead role of Junior has been traditionally played by dancers with a knack for the eccentric (Ray Bolger originated the part and Bobby Van and Lara Teeter starred in Broadway revivals.), but Shonn Wiley, a fine performer, comes off more as a traditional juvenile and his comic moments fail to pop out.  (It doesn’t help that Zenobia’s major sight gag involving Junior’s body makeup is altered to a far less effective bit.)  Still, he sings with charm when paired with Kelli Barrett’s spunky Frankie.

Christine Baranski’s dry urbane way with wit fits perfectly into her role as a wealthy patron of the arts, especially when delivering the book’s most famous punch line, a reaction to Junior’s inquiry as to whether a good man can love two women at the same time.  The thickly accented Walter Bobbie is delightfully snooty as Sergei and the trio of Karen Ziemba, Randy Skinner and Dalton Harrod get the evening off to a rousing start, singing and tapping as mom and pop Dolan and Junior as a lad.

Encores! raids the professional ballet ranks for the show’s two non-singing dance roles.  In her first speaking part on stage, Irina Dvorovenko of American Ballet Theatre seems to be having a grand time as Vera Baronova, the Russian diva who flirts with Junior to infuriate her cheating lover, comically tempting him with her droll accent and sinewy sensuality.  Her dancing shines with charisma, as does that of Joaquin De Luz who wows the patrons with his shirtless athleticism in Zenobia while playing her arrogantly masculine other half.

Meanwhile, almost exactly one year after On Your Toes opened, Rodgers and Hart opened Babes In Arms, with a score containing five songs that are still today considered classics of the American Songbook.  Maybe we’d have better musicals on Broadway if people didn’t spend so much time writing them.

Photos by Joan Marcus:  Top: Shonn Wiley and Irina Dvorovenko; Bottom: Christine Baranski and Walter Bobbie.

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Posted on: Sunday, May 12, 2013 @ 12:34 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

This is no dates and facts textbook lesson but more of an exploration of the emerging attitudes of the era that gives context to the music and lyrics left behind.  Nadler uses Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “The Bilbao Song” to wax nostalgically about a rowdy, inclusive nightlife culture that gave way to bland bourgeois repressiveness.  Though he wears a yellow boutonnière on his lapel with a folded pink handkerchief peeking out of his pocket, a continual reminder of the oppression to come, he’s not just singing about Germany.  Parallel to his Weimar stories he also tells of his own journey from being an Iowa-raised lad to a young Greenwich Village piano player at the famed Five Oaks, a now defunct piano bar that boasted an atmosphere he compares with 1920s Berlin.  Frederick Hollander’s “Oh, How We Wish That We Were Kids Again” sets the mood as Nadler explains how, “We glorify that time in our lives when we were young and broke.”

Weill takes center stage for much of the narrative.  Nadler imagines the satisfaction it must have given him, once arriving in America, to be able to collaborate with Howard Dietz on a song like “Schickelgruber,” which not only spoofed the rise of the fuehrer, but teased him with his actual last name.  But there was also the deep sadness he felt in being separated from his wife, Lotte Lenya, who, not being Jewish, remained in Germany where she took on several lovers.  Though it was Maurice Magre who wrote the words for “Je Ne T’Aime Pas” (“I Don’t Love You”), Nadler suggests Weill’s music for the song expressed his feelings about his marriage.

Hollander’s “Oh, Just Suppose” has a coy lyric about imagining a homosexual relationship, and Nadler goes out into the audience to make sure the meaning of the song comes across, but in a more serious vein he marvels at the courage it took for Mischa Spoliansky and Kurt Schwabach to write “The Lavender Song," a protest anthem demanding gay rights, in 1920.

The running theme throughout the show, for both the German artists and for Nadler himself, is taken from Hollander’s lyric, “I don’t know who I belong to, I believe I belong to myself, all alone,” stressing the conflict between individualism and the comfort of assimilation.  At one point he talks of the young boys who joined the Nazi movement and passionately insists, “I refuse to believe that every one of these kids was a monster.  They just wanted to belong.”

Franca Vercelloni on accordion and Jessica Tyler Wright on violin help provide period texture and director David Schweizer’s production features an upstage screen where Justin West’s projections of photos and film clips illuminate the lecture.   A particularly powerful moment comes when we see a sequence of names and faces of some of the artistic and scientific geniuses that escaped the Nazis to make great contributions to humanity, suggesting that the Weimar years nurtured what would have been a glorious era for German culture had Hitler not chased them away.

Photo of Mark Nadler by Carol Rosegg.

****************************************

Fiona Shaw’s depiction of a Jewish mother practically reached Molly Goldberg proportions when she flung both hands in the air and rolled back her eyes in sarcastic reverence to, “my son and his followers.” Of course, those who were expecting a more traditional portrayal of the mother of Jesus Christ most likely abandoned all hope once she took out a joint to calm her nerves.

Colm Tóibín’s stage adaptation of his novella, The Testament of Mary, which sadly closed last week despite a Best Play Tony nomination, never mentions her son by name, though we all knew who she was talking about.  “Something will break in me if I say his name,” she concludes.

Director Deborah Warner gave audiences a sneak peek at a familiar vision of the BVM by allowing them on stage for a pre-performance art installation where the actress was sitting in a plexiglass display case, perfectly still as a wax figure in a humble, biblical pose, only slightly upstaged by the live vulture (named Pinhead) perched nearby.  But once the patrons were seated, this Mary emerged from her enclosure as a theatre character created from thinking outside of the box.

The Playbill told us the time of the play was “Now,” so the protagonist has had quite a bit of time to stew over her child’s place in history.  An inserted brochure explained the setting as a home in what is now Turkey where Mary was taken after the crucifixion to live out her life, which set designer Tom Pye revealed as contemporary biblical.

Though grief-stricken by the death of her son, she is also infuriated with those (again, never directly identified, but we know) who visit her daily and encourage her to confirm a version of his time on earth that’s consistent with the message they want to convey.  “A group of misfits,” she calls his followers.  “Only children, like himself.”

The ninety minute monologue is her considerably less-miraculous view of the events that highlighted those thirty-three years, such as the resurrection of Lazarus and the turning of water into wine.  As proven in her last Broadway outing, Medea, Shaw is an actress who can whip up furious intensity – vocally, physically and emotionally – that teeters at the edge of believability without plunging into falseness, which she used here as a rail against a situation where Mary believes her son fell in with a fanatical group that raised him up to be their pawn.

But while the subject of the piece is attention-grabbing, the text itself was continually overshadowed by the star’s performance and the director’s high concept.  Though certainly an exciting evening, it was more about the passion of the actress than the passion of Christ.

Photo of Fiona Shaw by Paul Kolnik.

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Posted on: Thursday, May 09, 2013 @ 02:46 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

Nearly ten years before they adapted and added lyrics to the music of Alexander Borodin to create the score for Kismet, Robert Wright and George Forrest pulled the same trick for Song of Norway with the music of 19^th Century Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, who is best known to American musical comedy fans as the guy who wrote the love theme for Rosemary and J. Pierrepont Finch’s first kiss.  (For the record, he called it the Piano Concerto in A-Minor.)

Milton Lazarus’ book, which most often gets blamed for the show’s lack of post-Broadway longevity, tells a fictional tale based on the composer’s actual life.  Beginning in Norway, his closest companions are his sweetheart and eventual wife, Nina, and poet Rikard Nordraak.  (In real life Nordraak was also a composer and would write his country’s national anthem.)  Though Grieg and Nordraak agree to collaborate on a loving composition for their homeland (A “Song of Norway,” if you will.) the young composer keeps setting aside the assignment as he becomes the pet project of a wealthy benefactor who promotes his career by taking him to meet the great musical artists of Europe.

Roger Rees trimmed the book to its barest essentials for The Collegiate Chorale’s charming one-night Carnegie Hall concert performance, allowing the sumptuous music to take center stage; provided by the 71-year-old vocal ensemble and the American Symphony Orchestra, both under the golden baton of Ted Sperling.  Ballet dancers from Tom Gold Dance admirably performed within a very limited space.

The soloists included several Broadway favorites.  Jason Danieley, as Nordraak, began the evening in rousing fashion with “The Legend” and was soon after joined by Santino Fontana and Alexandra Silber, as Grieg and Nina, for the unusual love trio, “Hill of Dreams” where the flirtatious young lady revels in being the inspiration for both young artists and the two pals don’t seem to mind.

Wearing elaborate designs by Han Fong, Judy Kaye was grandly comical and vocally thrilling as the grande dame who exposes Grieg to the high life.  As socialite Count Peppi LeLoup, David Garrison delivered smarmy elegancy in a funny number about being a bon vivant.  And it was delightful to see Walter Charles and Anita Gillette in the small roles of Grieg’s parents.

Jim Dale nimbly and humorously narrated the evening and played a few small roles.  When it was introduced that he would be playing the role of Henrik Ibsen, he turned to the audience and advised, “Use your imagination.”

Photos by Erin Baiano: Top: Jason Danieley, Alexandra Silber and Santino Fontana; Bottom: Judy Kaye and Ted Sperling.

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1972 was a bit of a brutal year for Broadway musicals.  Of the 19 new shows that opened that year, nine of them didn’t make it past the first week.  Another four couldn’t make it to 25 performances.  The transfer of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, after enjoying four and a half years Off-Broadway, shut down after seven weeks at the Royale.  More encouraging was the fate of Melvin van Peebles’ allegorical Don’t Play Us Cheap, which opened in the spring and made it into autumn.

But when musicals succeeded that year, they made history.  Grease became, for a time, Broadway’s longest running production.  Pippin’s television commercial changed the way Broadway shows were marketed.  Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, an urban review focusing on contemporary black issues, ran for over 1,000 performances and was mounted by Broadway’s first African-American female director, Vinnette Carroll.  And while Sugar didn’t make history, the musical version of Some Like It Hot satisfied those seeking some traditional musical comedy with its Jule Style/Robert Merrill score and a crowd-pleasing star turn by Robert Morse.

So while Town Hall’s Broadway Musicals of 1972, the latest of creator/writer/host Scott Siegel’s 13-year-old Broadway By The Year series, was stocked with favorites from a couple of well-known hits, there was still room for some rarely-heard obscurities in the one-night concert directed by Mindy Cooper and music directed, as always, by Ross Patterson.

The Broadway By The Year Chorus, an ensemble directed by Scott Coulter and made up of performers at the early stages of their careers, was featured in energetic stagings (choreographed by Vibecke Dahl) of “Magic To Do,” “Summer Nights” (with soloists Graham Bailey and Jenna Dallacco) and “We Go Together”, and played the attentive youths for Patrick Page’s sage advice in “No Time At All.”

Earlier in the evening, Page and Carolee Carmello were matched for the delightfully wry, “Miserable With You,” a duet from the revue of Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz ditties titled That’s Entertainment.  (Which had nothing to do with the 1974 MGM film.)  Carmello, an extraordinary lyric interpreter, gave a thrilling rendition the dramatic ballad, “All Of My Life” from Ambassador, a show that had a brief run on the West End before coming to Broadway for an even briefer run.

First rate musical theatre clown Christopher Fitzgerald added some cute nervous stammers to Pippin’s “Extraordinary,” belted a courageous “Corner Of The Sky” and he and Danny Gardner sang and danced Sugar’s “Penniless Bums” as a comical vaudeville bit.  The charming Gardner also choreographed his own routines for Via Galactica’s “Dance The Dark Away” (performed with Brent McBeth and Derek Roland) and That’s Entertainment’s “How High Can a Little Bird Fly?”

The tender-voiced Bob Stillman introduced three folk/rock selections, Via Galactica’s “Home,” Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope’s “So Little Time” and “Stars of Glory” from The Selling of The President, a song that Siegel explained was included to pay tribute to the heroes of the recent tragic events in Boston.

Perky Lysistrata Jones star Patti Murin did fine jobs with Pippin’s “Without You” and two Grease numbers, “Freddy, My Love” and “There Are Worse Things I Can Do,” but for “It’s Raining on Prom Night” Broadway’s original Sandy, Carole Demas, made a special guest appearance, wearing a plain robe for the number, but removing it to reveal a smashing gown for her makeover reprise of “Sandra Dee.”  At 72 years of age she looked and sounded just terrific.

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Posted on: Monday, May 06, 2013 @ 05:37 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

The grosses are out for the week ending 5/5/2013 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: THE TESTAMENT OF MARY (4.9%), VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE (4.7%), THE RASCALS: ONCE UPON A DREAM (3.8%), NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (2.8%), MAMMA MIA! (2.6%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1.8%), CHICAGO (1.7%), KINKY BOOTS (1.6%), LUCKY GUY (0.7%), MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL(0.1%),

Down for the week was: THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (-16.9%), THE BIG KNIFE (-11.5%), MACBETH (-6.1%), SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK (-5.4%), CINDERELLA (-5.4%), JEKYLL & HYDE (-4.9%), ROCK OF AGES (-3.7%), WICKED (-3.4%), THE NANCE (-3.2%), JERSEY BOYS (-2.8%), NEWSIES (-2.5%), ANNIE (-2.4%), THE LION KING (-2.2%), ONCE (-2.1%), PIPPIN (-1.6%), ANN (-0.9%), ORPHANS (-0.8%), I'LL EAT YOU LAST: A CHAT WITH SUE MENGERS (-0.6%), THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES (-0.2%),

Posted on: Monday, May 06, 2013 @ 04:11 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

At the performance I attended of director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun’s new mounting, a road company that’s making a stop at the Marquis, the majority of the audience seemed to be offering polite levels of applause while pockets of fans throughout the theatre cheered enthusiastically.  (To be fair, at curtain calls there was the obligatory Broadway standing ovation for the stars.)

And while I’m not denying the possibility that someone can be a connoisseur of the finer details of Lerner and Loewe classics and Cole Porter obscurities and also have a great affinity for the show that Gerard Alessandrini called, “for people who find Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music too complicated,” my completely unscientific experience indicates that Jekyll and Hyde is one of those musicals that gathers much of its following from people who typically don’t go to musicals on a regular basis.

Its pre-Broadway popularity was nurtured in a premiere production in Houston, a national tour and two popular concept albums featuring high-belting power ballads with lyrics that don’t seem overly concerned with being specific to characters and situations, let alone making a good deal of sense.  (“This is the moment. / This is the time / When the momentum and the moment are in rhyme.)  Aside from its original Broadway star, the very fine theatre singer/actor Robert Cuccioli, Jekyll and Hyde tends to be cast with performers better known for vocal gymnastics and displays of passion – motivated or not – than detailed lyric interpretation.

Calhoun’s competent mounting shouldn’t change anyone’s mind about the piece.  Set and costume designer Tobin Ost and lighting designer Jeff Croiter team up to give the stage a look resembling a night out at one of those unmarked Brooklyn clubs on its weekly Victorian Goth night.  In the title roles, Constantine Maroulis comes off as a skinny hipster dude a little too in touch with his feelings.  Wildhorn’s music starts emotionally big and keeps the star at that level, like he’s singing an evening of 11 o’clock numbers, and Maroulis admirably performs his assignment of singing his face off all night.  The one let down is that the musical’s (Dare I say it?) iconic number, “Confrontation,” where the actor traditionally tosses his hair from side to side as good and evil… confront… each other, is instead staged with Maroulis remaining as Jekyll as the good doctor’s portrait is transformed through video and recorded vocals into Hyde.

By comparison, the musical’s leading lady role – Lucy, the singing prostitute – is more of a supporting part.  Deborah Cox benefits from getting to sing some of the score’s prettier melodies, but what can you really accomplish with lyrics like, “A new dream. / I have one I know that very few dream. / I would like to see that overdue dream…”  Teal Wicks also puts in a game effort as the sweet Emma, who certainly deserves a prize as the world’s most understanding fiancé.

The script has been trimmed and the score has been revised with cuts and additions.  Lucy’s new nightclub number, “Bring On The Men,” attempts to display the character as more of an erotic performer, but the intended sexiness of the production is broadly telegraphed instead of internally developed and falls miserably flat.  Much of the time, Calhoun stages numbers with the “stand there and sing” technique, making the musical appear more as a concert than any attempt at drama.

And that’s probably how Jekyll and Hyde works best.  Neither chilling, romantic nor even campy, the thrills of the show lie more in whatever excitement the performers can manufacture by singing loud and high.  And if that’s your thing, then by all means help yourself to, as Bricusse puts it, “all the dreaming, scheming and screaming.”

Photos by Chris Bennion:  Top: Constantine Maroulis; Bottom: Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox.

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Posted on: Friday, May 03, 2013 @ 02:57 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

Both instances are certainly believable because the cast of Transport Group’s splendid new production consists of two actresses known for getting laughs, Leslie Kritzer and Catherine Cox.  So the story of a 31-year-old single woman who moves in with her Alzheimer's stricken mother is played for a lot of humor – the Brooklyn Jewish kind – which serves as a coping mechanism for the pair and also eases the audience into the show’s unconventional musical theatre subject matter.

As suggested by the title, each character, referred to simply as “mother” and “daughter,” is putting on a bit of a show for the audience, whose presence they do acknowledge.  Though the action takes place with the two of them in mother’s living room (The upstage wall of Brian Prather’s set is covered with picture frames, some filled, some empty and some that empty as more of her memories disappear.) most of the songs are solos directed to the viewers where they express their emotions about their past relationship and what it has developed into.

Two very strong solos begin the evening.  First Cox reacts to a doctor’s question, “Who’s the President of the United States?” by complaining about what a ridiculous (Actually, the word she uses is fakakta.) question it is.  She keeps expressing her annoyance until finally confessing that she doesn’t know.  Kritzer follows with “Single Jewish Female Seeks Male,” a funny, character-driven song that goes beyond its familiar observations about Internet dating and expresses her hesitancy to become her mother’s caregiver, given their uneasy past.

Cooper’s lyrics tend to dominate the score, with Redler’s music, enhanced by gentle chamber orchestrations by Lynne Shankel, providing a conversational tone.  I daresay few musical theatre writers would come up with a quirky number like “You and Me, Toilet,” where the daughter describes having to clean up after someone who doesn’t always remember how to perform a certain bodily function neatly.  (Fortunately, the lyric doesn’t go into too much detail.)  But when the realization of what the future has in store becomes too serious to laugh at, mother expresses her fears in the discomforting “I’m Unlovable” and the daughter sees how she has inevitably developed in the beautiful ballad “Apple and Tree.”

Under Joe Calarco’s direction, both give dynamic and detailed performances without overshadowing the delicacy of the relationship portrayed.  With so little dialogue and interaction between the two characters, The Memory Show may not provide enough of the emotional impact the situation is capable of emitting, though there are plenty of lovely and heart-tugging moments.  And the exemplary work of Cox and Kritzer certainly elevate the evening into a memorable night.

Photos by Carol Rosegg:  Top: Catherine Cox; Bottom: Leslie Kritzer.

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Posted on: Wednesday, May 01, 2013 @ 01:52 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

A significant early hit for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in the mid-1980s, which transferred to Off-Broadway and also had a successful London run, Orphans makes its Broadway debut in a sharply performed production directed by Daniel Sullivan.

Set designer John Lee Beatty’s appropriately dreary set puts us in the dilapidating North Philadelphia home of orphaned brothers Phillip (Tom Sturridge) and Treat (Ben Foster), who survive on petty thievery and meals of canned tuna and Hellmann’s Mayonnaise.

The brutish, hot-tempered Treat has convinced his mentally unstable, childlike brother that he has allergies that will kill him, which keeps him inside and out of harm while he’s out stealing a living.

Treat thinks he’s hit the jackpot when he brings home well-dressed and inebriated Harold (Alec Baldwin), who he figures they can hold captive for ransom, but the cool and devious stranger, who is a far more dangerous sort than the young man had bargained for, quickly turns the tables.

Sympathetic to their plight, Harold offers Treat a generous salary be his bodyguard and even offers to put Phillip on the payroll, though for doing what is never quite clear.

Soon their home is decked out properly and, under Harold’s tutelage, Treat is developing a sophisticated fashion sense while Phillip is being introduced to fine cuisine.  Of course, both still have mental instability issues and although their exposure to the finer things is at first very funny, the dark subtext of what these boys are able to handle and what exactly Harold has in mind for them darkens the proceedings by the final curtain.

The dynamic chemistry between the three actors is a pleasure to watch.  Baldwin’s Harold is glib, composed and sweetly paternal in his desire help the boys “better” themselves despite the fact that he sees Treat as a caged lion who would take a bullet for him if trained successfully.  Foster keeps Treat on the edge of losing control, struggling with his survival instinct to react violently without thinking a situation through.

Cheerful and trusting, Sturridge’s Phillip spends much of the play avoiding contact with the floor by leaping from the stairway banister to the furniture like a kid on a jungle gym.  He is the empathetic heart of the production.

Photos by Joan Marcus:  Top: Alec Baldwin; Bottom: Tom Sturridge, Ben Foster and Alec Baldwin.

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Posted on: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 @ 11:47 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

The grosses are out for the week ending 4/28/2013 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (6.2%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (4.7%), MAMMA MIA! (4.5%), THE RASCALS: ONCE UPON A DREAM (3.8%), THE LION KING (1.5%), I'LL EAT YOU LAST: A CHAT WITH SUE MENGERS (1.3%), JERSEY BOYS (1.2%), CHICAGO (1.2%), KINKY BOOTS (1.0%), CINDERELLA (0.6%), SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK (0.5%), ROCK OF AGES (0.4%), MATILDA (0.2%), ANN (0.2%), MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL(0.1%),

Down for the week was: THE TESTAMENT OF MARY (-20.4%), ORPHANS (-15.4%), JEKYLL & HYDE (-13.6%), MACBETH (-9.9%), THE BIG KNIFE (-8.3%), ANNIE (-5.8%), NEWSIES (-4.2%), THE NANCE (-3.8%), NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (-3.5%), ONCE (-2.7%), WICKED (-2.0%), LUCKY GUY (-1.5%), VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE (-0.6%), PIPPIN (-0.5%), THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES (-0.4%),

Posted on: Monday, April 29, 2013 @ 03:21 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

The daughter of a famous dress designer, former teen movie star Julie Bascov (Jessica Hecht) lives with her successful businessman husband Ben (Jonathan Walker) and sons Scotty (Jake Silbermann) and Timmy (Alex Dreier) in a stunning 14-room apartment off of Central Park.  Scotty’s visiting friend Jeff (Jeremy Shamos) describes the place in a phone conversation with his mom as, “like the sets of those plays you love. With the breezy dialogue. They sort of talk that way and everybody’s unbelievably nice and, like, gracious and happy."

Indeed the conversation is charming and polite, not to mention educated to the most obscure edges of vocabulary and culture, when Jeff is being entertained by the likes of Julie, played with an airy, affected charm by Hecht (“A cheerful nature is an utterly ruthless thing.  I’m the most ruthless woman you’ll ever meet.”), but Santo Loquasto’s swiftly revolving set reveals not only an assortment of rooms but a selection of less-breezy private conversations that may not seem completely related, but begin to tie together in the second act, which stays put in the living room.

Those conversations involve Ben’s sister, Faye (Judith Light), her husband Morty (Mark Blum) and their slow-witted daughter, Shelley (Lauren Blumenfeld), visiting from Long Island.  There are hints of someone suffering a serious illness and discussion of a valuable family heirloom.

With a plot that is mostly suggested and a theme of transformation as a survival skill that involves events that take place during the twenty year span between acts, the evening seems dominated by Greenberg’s urban wisecracks, particularly those volleyed by Light, who has quickly become Broadway’s go-to lady for playing troubled, intelligent women who quip dryly.  (“Water isn’t necessary,” she explains while downing a Valium.  “Water is a garnish.”)  References to Y2K and the long process of figuring out who won the 2000 presidential election elicit chuckles of reognition.

Director Lynne Meadow’s graceful production really begins to fly when the trio of Light, Hecht and Shamos (whose emotionally bottled-up performance contrasts perfectly with Light’s acerbic nature and Hecht’s pretensions) become the main focus, elevating a good play into a highly satisfying evening.

Photos by Joan Marcus:  Top: Jessica Hecht, Jeremy Shamos and Judith Light; Bottom: Jonathan Walker and Mark Blum.

********************************

“When shall we three meet again?” asks a mysterious stranger, momentarily stopping the two who were about to leave the room.  They’re not sisters but at least one of them might be described as a little weird.

Perhaps inspired by the title character’s description of life as, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing,” Alan Cumming’s (mostly) solo performance of Macbeth is set in a psychiatric ward where someone who is perhaps an idiot (the savant kind) unexpectedly erupts into an edited performance of Shakespeare’s tragedy while being observed through a glass wall and from surveillance cameras by a pair of medical professionals.

And while I wouldn’t exactly describe the event as, “a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more,” the ambiguity of the concept, coupled with the foggy storytelling, does nothing to truly enhance the text.  This is one Shakespeare production where the player’s the thing.

Co-directed by John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, the piece is performed in set and costume designer Merle Hensel’s sparse observatory, which includes a bed, a sink and that fixture that’s turning up more and more on New York theatre sets these days, a bathtub.  (Yes, it is used.)

The play begins silently with a dazed and bleeding Cumming being attended to by Jenny Sterlin and Brendan Titley.  They change him from street clothes to clinical whites, place his belongings in a bag marked “evidence” and leave to take notes from above, occasional coming back to give him an injection.  Near the end they’re also speaking lines, but they’re amplified with a mechanical sounding echo by designer Fergus O’Hare.  (No, I don’t know why.)

As far as Shakespeare’s text is concerned, Cumming attacks his assignment with high energy and a trunkful of stage tricks.  The title role is his default setting, sticking to the reedy Scottish voice of his birth land.  Lady M. is pitched up a bit and for the trio of weird sisters he faces the surveillance camera so his image pops up on three video screens.  Banquo likes to toss an apple in his hand and King Duncan is a loony old man in a wheelchair.

Despite a game effort, many of the characters blend too easily into one another and being able to follow the plot without already having a decent familiarity with the play seems a lost cause.  There is plenty in Cumming’s performance that will provide surface entertainment, but the context keeps us aware that we’re not actually watching the actor playing these characters, but watching the actor playing this mysterious man playing these characters and the payoff that justifies the concept never occurs.

Ultimately, the evening adds up as a testament to Cumming’s stamina and athleticism, rather than his dramatic chops.

Photo of Alan Cumming and Jenny Sterlin by Jeremy Daniel.

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Posted on: Monday, April 29, 2013 @ 01:57 AM Posted by: Michael Dale

Director Alex Timbers, who turned the presidency of Andrew Jackson into an emo rock concert and the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard into a children’s holiday pageant, now stages the story of the political and romantic rise and fall of Ferdinand Marcos and his and his partner in corruption Imelda (who I’m told loved the nightlife and often got to boogie) as a night at a Filipino dance club, where disco, techno and house music are accompanied by flashing lights and the seeds of revolution.

Those who are immediately turned off by the thought of audience participation theatre need not fear.  This is not one of those shows that breaks the fourth wall to single out and/or embarrass customers, but depictions of the masses are intrinsic to the storytelling and it’s easy (and fun) to get caught up in the mob mentality; particularly when company members lead the audience in line dancing or an angry protest chant of, “Rise up!”

Since the invention of karaoke is credited to Filipino Roberto del Rosarioa, the concept has the cast singing to recorded tracks of the score by David Byrne (lyrics and music) and Fatboy Slim (music), often using hand-held microphones.  There’s almost no dialogue; not even recitative.  Just a series of hard-thumping dance tunes that, for authenticity’s sake, are written in simple pop vernacular with not a lot of attention to perfect rhyming.  But Byrnes’ lyrics, many of them adapted from real life speeches and interviews, are heavily detailed in storytelling and projections explaining who the characters are and the context of each song makes the plot easy, and quite exciting, to follow.

As Imelda, the terrific Ruthie Ann Miles starts sweetly as a simple country girl who moves to the big city after winning a beauty contest and eventually becomes a ruthless diva of a first lady, spending extravagant amounts of money on unnecessary government projects while her people are starving.  (Curiously, there’s no mention of her infamously large shoe collection.)  As Ferdinand Marcos, the handsome Jose Llana displays a devilish charm as he seduces both the lady and the country.  An impassioned Conrad Ricamora plays Ninoy Aquino, Imelda’s first boyfriend who later becomes a leader in exposing the corruption of the Marcos administration.  More poignant moments are handled by the beautifully singing Melody Butiu, as Imelda’s childhood friend, Estrella.

Scenes are played out on various moveable platforms which stagehands reconfigure frequently during the non-stop proceedings while assistants in hot pink jumpsuits gently guide audience members out of the way.  Choreographer Annie-B Parson’s tireless ensemble dances up a whirlwind of disco moves as Timbers paints funny and surprisingly touching and dramatic moments.

It may sound like a campy gimmick, but Here Lies Love is seriously good musical theatre.  All that’s missing are overpriced drinks and the drunken idiots hitting on you.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Ruthie Ann Miles and Company; Bottom: Jose Llana.

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Posted on: Friday, April 26, 2013 @ 12:08 PM Posted by: Michael Dale

Lane appears as Chauncey Miles, a burlesque performer working steadily at a small theatre on Irving Place where he specializes in doing sketches and songs as his “nancy boy” character; a swishy fellow who broadly hints at his homosexuality through double entendres.  It’s 1937 and New York’s Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia wants to clean up the town by closing down the handful of remaining burlesque houses.  But charges of indecency are not aimed at the strip-teasers, but rather at sexual innuendo comics like Chauncey who, as one character describes it, attracts gay men to the theatre who take advantage of the “normal” guys in the audience who got excited by the strippers by taking them up to the balcony for some “relief.”

Unlike the better-known nance comics of real life, Chauncey actually is gay.  With a mixture of ironic arrogance and self-depreciation, he describes his choice of profession as, “Like a Negro doing blackface.”  (Which did exist.)  The play opens with him sitting alone, having a sandwich at an automat (the first of John Lee Beatty’s wonderful collection of realistic and atmospheric settings) known to those in the know as a place where older gay men can find a hungry, younger gent in need of a place to spend the night.  This must be done, however, through discreet communication in order to avoid arrest.  Not for prostitution, but for simply giving the appearance of being gay men – or a less-genial term – in public.

He takes handsome and naïve out-of-towner, Ned (a sweet and charming Jonny Orsini), back to his Greenwich Village apartment for what he assumes will be another one-nighter but the young man has something more long-term in mind and for the first time Chauncey begins thinking that maybe he’s entitled to be loved.

Scenes of their growing domesticity alternate with backstage ruckus and onstage hijinks at the burlesque house owned by the gruff top banana comic, Efram, played by another great Broadway clown, Lewis J. Stadlen.  When Lane and Stadlen pair up to lead the company in classic burlesque bits like “Niagara Falls,” “Meet Me ‘Round The Corner,” “The Courtroom” and “The Crazy House,” The Nance offers some of the biggest laughs of the season.  These two old-school pros know that era and style so well.

Jenni Barber, Andrea Burns and Cady Huffman are all terrific as strip-teasers who also bump and grind for laughs in the sketches.  Costume designer Ann Roth contributes the right degree of tackiness to their stage costumes and special kudos go to the brassy Ms. Huffman, whose knock-out figure is well-remembered from her Tony-winning sexpot performance in The Producers, for trading vanity for authenticity when wearing tasteless outfits that, appropriately, do not flatter her at all.

Art and politics figure heavily in the offstage scenes.  Huffman’s Sylvie is a left-wing activist who is confident that the entertainment unions will back their burlesque colleagues against the city’s crackdown.  Chauncey is a devoted Republican who’s sure that his man LaGuardia is just making noise to help his reelection campaign. ("Say something nice about Roosevelt and prepare to have your eyes scratched out")  But although he’s accustomed to dealing with his private life being illegal, he feels forced to take action when his artistry is declared a criminal act.

Beane is a playwright best known for campiness (Xanadu) and sharp zingers (The Little Dog Laughed), but while his star is granted a wealth of punch lines (Chauncey describes his dressing robe as “Anna May Wong’s wet dream.”) they come in the context of a clever man using his wits as a defense against a world where he feels continually rejected.  Even while Lane is getting laughs he keeps his character’s anguish close to the surface.

If the playwright stumbles a bit, it’s with two monologues that, while sufficiently effective, seem a bit too familiar and could use some strengthening to create the impact they’re no doubt capable of making.  The first has Chauncey in court, politely defending his act to an unseen judge, explaining his comedy much in the way Lenny Bruce did during his infamous obscenity trial.  The second has the fed-up comic on stage, angrily commenting on what his act has been reduced to because of government censorship as the audience starts turning against him.  Lane, nevertheless, is heart-wrenching in both of these scenes.

Director Jack O’Brien’s splendid production balances the budget-conscious show-biz pizzazz of the rickety burlesque house with the tender trepidation of the romantic scenes.  The Nance, while heavily steeped in nostalgia for a long-gone era, turns out as the kind of fresh and original entertainment that Broadway doesn’t do often enough.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Nathan Lane; Bottom: Jonny Orsini and Nathan Lane.

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Posted on: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 @ 01:10 PM Posted by: Michael Dale