Michael Dale - Page 139

The fact that Jonathan Larson won two posthumous Tony Award for writing and composing Rent is certainly bittersweet, but the fact that for one of those awards he bested the also posthumously nominated Rodgers and Hammerstein is just plain weird. But the last-minute addition of Rent to the 1995-96 Broadway season seemed to be the catalyst for one the oddest Tony nights ever.

Although there have been previous productions of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World since the musical premiered in Los Angeles eight years ago, thanks to a 13-year-old girl's fondness for Friday, the show has never been more relevant.

'Cute' is probably not the adjective that Robert Lopez, Matt Stone and Trey Parker were going for when they co-authored the book, music and lyrics of The Book of Mormon.  Neither is 'cute' a word I'd expect to use when describing a musical where genital mutilation and the belief that having sex with an infant will cure an adult of AIDS figure significantly in the plot and the big Act I showstopper has a chorus of villagers happily singing, 'Fuck you, God!'  But The Book of Mormon - which absolutely should be praised for its non-traditional material that, to borrow what Brooks Atkinson wrote of Pal Joey, attempts to draw sweet water from a sour well - sets us up for intriguing social satire and then settles for being well-structured, sharply mounted, terrifically performed innocuous entertainment.

Although performances of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will be suspended from April 19th through May 11th while the cast and new creative team work on implementing major revisions to the show, ticket-holders will still have an opportunity to see the webbed superhero in a musical, as the Foxwoods Theatre will be housing a limited run of The Spidey Project: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.

While BroadwayWorld follows a policy of not reviewing productions before they have officially opened, after careful consideration both this reporter and the editor-in-chief concluded that an exception must be made for 'The Spidey Project: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.'

Having a credited new bookwriter added to make wholesale changes while a show is previewing has been done before with mixed results.

Why you won't see a review of Spider-Man from BroadwayWorld today.

Michael Dale names ten memorable theatre moments from some of New York's lesser known 2010 productions.

The only press night offered for the Public LAB's premiere production of playwright/director Richard Nelson's That Hopey Changey Thing was this past Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 7pm.  Given that the play actually takes place on Tuesday. November 2nd, 2010 at 7pm (America's Election Night, for my plethora of foreign readers) I was rather hopey that the text might, in fact, wind up being changey, depending on the news of returns coming in during the play's 90 minutes.  No such luck.  But even in its frozen state, the piece is sharp, engrossing and superbly acted.

This past Friday afternoon I read that this person has been meeting with producers to consider the possibility of appearing on Broadway, in order to, 'expand her brand by taking to the stage.'  That evening I heard the 82-year-old Marilyn Maye, after nearly ninety minutes of superlative interpretations of musical theatre classics from the likes of Jerry Herman, Frank Loesser and Kander and Ebb, tell her completely enthralled audience that it's still her ambition to one day be on Broadway, before emoting a beautifully vulnerable 'Losing My Mind' that segued into a classy and celebratory 'I'm Still Here' that brought just about the entire packed Metropolitan Room house to its feet in one of the most adoring ovations I've ever seen.

'I didn't do anything.'

When Isaiah Sheffer first walked into the dilapidated movie house on Broadway and 95th Street in the late '70s he saw some kind of makeshift boxing ring on the creaky stage.  But what he envisioned was a great center for the arts on the Upper West Side that filled the wide cultural gap between Lincoln Center and Columbia University.

Roundabout Theatre Company's Artistic Director Todd Haimes announced this morning that the company's Broadway production of Terrance McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart, which was postponed after the sudden departure of star Megan Mullally, will be replaced by a revival of the popular musical Les Misérables.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg became the first person ever issued a summons for violating the city's ban on cell phone use during public performances, a law he has openly opposed since its introduction in 2002.

Michael Dale names ten memorable theatre moments from some of New York's lesser known 2009 productions.

I had the immense pleasure of taking another visit to Grover's Corners, New Hampshire last week, via the fascinating David Cromer production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town that opened in February at the Barrow Street Theatre. Back then I wrote that the director's non-traditional take on the play - which remains completely faithful to the author's text and themes - was one of the most exciting theatre events of the season. On second look, with a mixture of new and old cast member, I'd say it's the best theatre production I know of currently playing in New York.

From Show Boat to Finian's Rainbow to Ragtime to Hairspray the racial divide between white America and Americans of African decent has been one of the richest resources for both Broadway musical dramas and musical comedies. And a popular theme of such musicals has been the assimilation of African-American music into the white mainstream. The latest to tackle this topic, Memphis, certainly wouldn't look like the best of the lot on paper, but on stage the gritty sincerity of Joe DiPietro's book coupled with David Bryan's infectiously melodic compositions (they collaborated on the lyrics), under Christopher Ashley's dynamic staging, frequently threaten to tear the roof off of the Shubert Theatre.

You wouldn't expect a 1937 Broadway musical that satirized American profiteering from wartime rumblings in Europe and was written to showcase the unique comedy talents of 'The Perfect Fool' Ed Wynn to be especially playable in the year 2008, but The Medicine Show, on their tiny stage way out west on W. 52nd Street, do a bang-up job with Hooray For What!

While there are many artistically pleasing features to be seen on stage in SLAVA'S SNOWSHOW, the Russian clown piece that returns to New York for a limited Broadway run, you can also have a heck of a good time if you just like having things thrown at you, dropped on you, sprayed at you or bouncing off of you.

If I were a betting man I'd wager Billy Elliot to be the last show standing should the economy remain steadfast in its current quest to entirely obliterate Broadway. (Any truth to the rumor that the next thing moving into the St. James is a Starbucks?) Throngs who were enchanted by the musical's source film and even more who have been undertowed by the waves of publicity surrounding the three adolescents who alternate performing the title role (presumably until puberty brings out the hook) will no doubt enter the Imperial Theatre for many months or even years to come, as eager to see the kid dance as audiences at Miss Saigon were to see Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate Jonathan Pryce hump a Cadillac. And Billy Elliot never disappoints in that respect. My Billy of the evening was the very game Trent Kowalik, but even if you catch a performance starring David Alvarez or Kiril Kulish (or understudy Tommy Batchelor) you can take your seat assured you'll be witnessing the work of a specially trained specimen carefully schooled in the arts of ballet, tap, street dance, jazz and gymnastics at the exclusive Billy Elliot House, which I'm told is only a short drive from Grease Academy.