My take on the Shows I saw in NY

The Addams Family

I haven’t read any of the reviews of this show but I’d heard that the show was panned. At the end of Act one I was baffled as to why. Here we are in a world that we are all vaguely familiar with (from the TV show if NOT from the Movie or the actual comic strip), the characters are fun and witty, the writing is good with lots of belly laughs, the lyrics are very polished and the score is pretty good too, not to mention the Star Power of Nathan and Bebe. Hell ‘One Normal Night’ is worth the price of admission alone.

So Act two didn’t quite measure up to Act one. It was a bit ballad heavy in a show that’s NOT about love stories. Well actually it’s almost EXCLUSIVELY about love stories but it’s NOT those stories that drive the show, it’s the witty patter and the wonderfully odd and backward characters that delight and intrigue us. But even with Act two being not quite the zinger we’d hoped, I still very much loved this show and would recommend it. I think the production values might suffer a little on the road, it’s a tech heavy show, but I still think it would be a great sell.

Million Dollar Quartet

What a perfect one act show! And there is absolutely NO WAY you can stay in your seat at the end of this curtain call. It’s got a little angst, a little drama, a little love, a little betrayal, a lot of nostalgia and a whole bunch of great performances. I had no idea what this show was about till I got to the theatre and read the walls out front of the theatre. Apparently there was one golden night at Sun Records when Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins (all Sam Phillips discoveries) were at a recording session. This is a fantasy (based loosely on fact) of what might have happened at that session. I think this would do GREAT on the road. It’s a one set wonder (with some glam at the end), has a small cast, and a fully contained orchestra, no hiring on the road. Big Glitz and low overhead. Huge Fun.

American Idiot

I very much liked this show. I was surprised that I recognized 3 songs (though vaguely) from the show. My music listening does NOT trend toward Green Day, but I am a child of the 70s and am prone to love rock n roll musicals just cuz it’s rock. There is a story, but it’s not very interesting or binding, but the show is NOT about the story, it’s about the music.

I love Broadway. Broadway is Plays (39 steps), it’s Musicals (Wicked), it’s Dance shows (Come Fly Away) it’s plays with music (Spring Awakening) and it’s shows like Idiot which is basically a Jukebox show. Idiot is like a beautiful abstract painting. In fact, if Genet or Ionesco were to write a modern musical I bet it would sound something like this, except a lot more dissonant. Idiot is not hard on the ear – it’s a punk pop mix of music that’s nice to listen to (isn’t THAT a contradiction). It’s visually stunning, extremely well performed, and a loosely strung together evening of fun. Oh and its got the BEST, most artistically satisfying Pas de Foy I’ve ever seen. Brilliant!

I still believe that the highest pinnacle of art that can be achieve on Broadway is a well crafted musical that IS a great story, whose music furthers the plot, whose choreography furthers the action, whose lyrics are witty and delightful and that starts you on solid ground and ends by taking you into the stratosphere. BUT that’s not to say that there isn’t LOTS of room for other kinds of art. I want a Broadway that has the above, AND an American Idiot et al with all their faults and foibles.

I don’t know how well it will sell on the road. I think it would do ok in our Balboa Theatre, NOT our Civic. I spoke to a booking agent that’s done some research and apparently San Diego is in the top 20 markets for Green Day enthusiasts. I’m curious to see how this plays out.

Race

God Mamet, Mamet to Hell. This play was surprisingly easy on the language (for Mamet), but then it DOES take place in a Lawyers office NOT a junk store. Very provocative, very intriguing, very captivating. Spader is brilliant, I expected more from David Alan Grier but he’s fine, Richard Thomas has a surprisingly small part but does it really well and Kerry Washington is very good. As a whole it’s a great play. They had a strange pause between the two scenes of act two. They brought in the main and did a slow fade up on it, held, faded out then raised it. We see this a lot in Opera between major scene changes. Usually the raising of the grand reveals a whole new set, not here. I can only think it was done to help break up Act 2 which was considerably longer than Act 1. I hear Eddie Izzard will replace David Spader. Hmmmm. I’d like to see that. Expect this to make the Regional Theatre circuit in a season or two. I’d expect it at the Globe.

La Cage Aux Folles

Ahhhh what a breath of fresh air. A pure musical of perfect structure and unquestionable quality. Fantastic performers sing sensational songs, act their hearts out in heart wrenching and warming scenes, and dancers wow you with their provocative and communicative movement. Every scintilla of stagecraft is dedicated to the story which is crafted by the creators (way back when) and interpreted by this production team with he highest skill and aesthetic intelligence. Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge are the perfect married couple struggling with their very unconventional life and the cast carries this torch with aplomb. Grammer’s star power doesn’t hurt none either.

Memphis

I met the lead performers of this one at the party the night before I saw the show so it was fun seeing them do their thing on the stage and knowing a little back story. This is a plot driven show with strong if one dimensional characters and a compelling if predictable plot. I saw it late in the week so I may have been having a bit of overload of shows playing the Race card and centering around the birth of rock and roll. It didn’t warm the cockles of my soul or delight me to the core, but it did entertain me and I enjoyed my evening of theatre. I prefer musicals to send you out with a happy ending, but this one is – well – not a tragedy really, sort of a melancholia ending. I bet the Brits would love it. They love their downer shows. It did it’s out of town work here in La Jolla so it will be interesting to see if it comes here or if we get it. It might go right back to the Playhouse if it tours here at all.

A Behanding in Spokane

Sunday morning I had a little time to kill so I went to see Iron Man 2 and low and behold there was the Lobby Receptionist from Behanding as Tony Starks rival! I’d seen only the first few minutes of The Hurt Locker (too much puke cam for me) so I didn’t recognize the boyfriend from behanding but apparently he had a major role in the movie. So this show had a lot of Hollywood exposure. Cuz of course it stars Christopher Walken. This was a sick and twisted, creepy story that felt a bit like one of those Irish plays (they seem to love violence and creep). This play looked like it was SOOO much fun to do. The cast was at a panel (saw the panel before I saw the play) and they were obviously enjoying themselves. They were asked if they had any commitment to doing the show on the road. The backpedalling was funny to behold.

Billy Elliot

I totally get what all the fuss is about. This is a great story, well told using all the creative elements of the stage. And then you have the amazing talent of that kid. In my humble opinion however, this COULD have been a musical for the ages, one of the great ones. The music is really good but didn’t quite have the hooks or anything that might be a set piece or a hit. The direction was a little too self indulgent here and there. The story could do with some tightening up. All of this is pickiuny stuff that only a Musical Theatre Egghead like me would find to even bring up. This is a great show that should tour very well.

Fela

This was a complete immersion into a very different, very colorful and very engaging culture. Here again I was almost wholly ignorant of what this show was before I got there. The whole theatre is transformed so it feels very much like environmental theatre and the performers enter the stage from the house. This show was a lot like Idiot in its structure. There’s a thin bit of a story to frame the very agreeable music and to showcase the really amazing talent onstage. I can’t see this selling on tour though. I’d love to be proved wrong on that.

Come Fly Away

Twyla Tharp has SOOO done it again. The technology to play Sinatra’s voice and balance it with a live band is so wonderfully seamless. The movement of those exquisite dancers conveyed their characterizations beautifully and the story was just a joy to watch. This is a sure fire home run on the road. Come to San Diego Franky!