Category: Broadway Reviews

Beowulf Boritt’s scenery can be as large a character as anything in a show.  Take the phenomenal cityscape from Act One (the play from Moss Hart’s memoir) that rotated from tenement to luxury penthouse and back again.  It was an awesome framing device to an exceptional play.  We are treated to big moving brownstones in A Bronx Tale, but this time they get in the way.  Perhaps they were going for choreography but the structures’ spinning, then moving upstage and back throughout the proceedings is distracting, overwhelming this rather underwhelming musical.

Based on his one man show turned into a well-admired 1993 movie, Chazz Palminteri wrote the book with Alan Menken (every Disney musical and the great Little Shop of Horrors) providing the music.  We are in the Bronx alternating between the years 1960 and 1968 in an Italian neighborhood ruled by “goodfellas.”  Young Calogero is a child seduced by the easy money earned from the mob.  The older Calogero is our narrator and lead character in the story who is looking back on choices made, while trying to find the right path for his future (Bobby Conte Thornton, confident portrayal in his Broadway debut).

At far too many curtain calls these days, the audience leaps to its feet like puppies begging for Snausages.  Tellingly, that did not happen at the end of A Bronx Tale although the audience seemed more satisfied with the show than me.  There’s one outstanding song, “One of the Great Ones” sung by our mob-in-chief played by the always solid Nick Cordero (best thing in Bullets Over Broadway, great off-Broadway work in Nice Girl and Brooklynite).  All of the other songs are unmemorable.  Supporting players with little to do are given goombah names (Frankie Coffeecake, JoJo the Whale) but there is no character development whatsoever.  The direction is credited to Broadway veteran Jerry Zaks and Robert De Niro (who also directed the movie, his first).  If telling your cast to stand center stage in the spotlight and sing facing forward is direction, then WOW.  But the set moves a lot so I guess someone had to coordinate that.  The absolute worse thing in A Bronx Tale was the Sound Design.  The cast was amplified like it was playing an arena.  When the material is this subpar, loudness does not help.  I’ve certainly seen worse but this one’s not good.  Terrible may be too strong.  But maybe not.

www.abronxtalethemusical.com

Once in a while you go to a Broadway show and leave so completely entertained that you can hardly believe your luck.  If you don’t already know, the basic plot premise is that Phil Connors (Andy Karl) is an irritable, obnoxious weatherman sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover Phil, the groundhog, and his shadow prediction for spring.  But something happens and he wakes up to face February 2nd again and again.  I vaguely remember liking the movie on which this show is based and I am a big fan of Andy Karl’s previous work (On the Twentieth Century, Rocky, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Legally Blonde).  His performance (acting, singing, clowning, being an asshole) is astonishingly great and he is onstage nearly the whole show.

I would rather not give too many details, just go.  Groundhog Day is a combination of inventive set design (Rob Howell), a very funny book (Danny Rubin), clever lyrics (Matilda‘s Tim Minchin, another winner) and direction (Matthew Warchus) that tightly packs in so much hilarity throughout.  Importantly, this entire cast was stellar and memorable no matter what the size of the role.  If you want to attend a big Broadway show, be wildly entertained and leave completely in awe of the talent that created and performs this finely tuned machine, then Groundhog Day is a must-see.

www.groundhogdaymusical.com

Bandstand is a new musical about United States servicemen returning home from World War II and attempting to settle down into normalcy again, “Just Like It Was Before.”  Naturally, this being a musical, our servicemen are accomplished musicians forming a band to win a nationwide songwriting contest.  An enjoyable, if flawed, first Act falls headfirst over a cliff in the second Act, the whole endeavor marred by fatal errors particularly in direction, sets, sound and lighting.

The premise here is a good one:  the integration of our soldiers back into society with all the baggage in their heads and the changes at home which make the journey a true struggle.  Adding to that premise are more than a handful of well-written songs from upbeat swing to heart-wrenching ballads.  Bandstand struggles a bit (like the recent Sunset Boulevard revival) with how much darkness the musical needs to nail the tension.  But I felt there was a solid backbone with which to build a memorable show here.

Laura Osnes (Julia) has a beautiful, clear voice.  I should not have to struggle to hear her over the band which happens.  The set in Act I never changes.  We are always in a bar/nightclub and the cast busily and distractingly moves tables, chairs, pianos, glasses and the like to effect scene changes.

Choreography is inserted whenever possible despite whether it makes any sense or advances the story.  In one scene, Julia and the band are performing and her mother (Beth Leavel, terrific) is on hand to watch.  I’m sitting center orchestra row G and I happen to look stage left and see the mother and the nightclub owner flirting.  I chalk that little throwaway moment to actors embellishing a scene.  Then the four couples dancing spread out wide across the stage.  Ms. Leavel has to move almost completely offstage to allow the dancers room.   They are not really doing anything important, we are just opening up a huge space center stage to be able to see Ms. Osnes and the band perform.  Eventually, the dancers return and Ms. Leavel slides back into full view.  A teensy tiny slice of the show to be sure, but a real example of choreography taking over the proceedings.  Perhaps directors and choreographers (Andy Blankenbuehler) should not be the same person?

Then we get to Act II.  Hard fall approaching.  We are leaving Ohio, going to New York.  No spoiler alert needed as there was no doubt the plot would take us there.  Miraculously, the entire set now moves offstage which annoys me since some scenic movement in Act I might have helped the storytelling.  What follows is a bizarre Art Deco train ride complete with four dancing porters.  We morphed stylistically from Guys & Dolls to On the Twentieth Century.  If you are going to go that far, why is the train just some basic chairs on a platform?  The show then gets bogged down to wrap up plot and minor characters are largely throwaway stereotypes.  Thankfully some good songs help us through.

Happily, the servicemen deliver the goods, lead by Corey Cott (Donny Novitski) who commands the stage and gives us a fully fleshed out anguished leading man.  His band mates were all good, adding shades to underwritten characters giving them life and individuality.  Did the band’s costumes pay homage to Jersey Boys at the end?  And why?

There’s a beautiful song “Welcome Home” at the end of the show.  How about lowering the lights and setting a mood?  Ms. Osnes can certainly sing and dance well, but her acting can come across as two-dimensional.  She’s given an amazing, richly written 11:00 song that she delivers big time.  It might have been nice to help her by framing the drama visually as well.  That is direction which was sorely missing here.

One more thing regarding that little throwaway flirtation mentioned earlier.   In the finale, the nightclub owner and Julia’s mother were, voila, a couple.  Seriously, the almost unnoticeable little mini-scene thrown offstage by choreography was needed to connect that dot at the end.  A hot mess.

bandstandbroadway.com

I saw the original production of Sunset Boulevard with Glenn Close as Norma Desmond back in 1995.  She won a Tony for the role and I remember thinking she did a fine job in a show I recall as being “just ok” with a couple of good songs and a really big set.  So I had no special interest in reliving the experience until the reviews for Ms. Close came out when the show opened in February.  The NY Times’ critic Ben Brantley’s highly dramatic “one of the great stage performances of this century” among other glowing reviews influenced my decision to go.

The verdict.  The show remains “just ok” for me.  Is it musical comedy or a darker musical noir?  Who can say for sure but they both don’t coexist successfully for me.  Glenn Close, on the other hand, completely killed.  Not only was the character fully realized – scary, tragic, fragile and driven – but she knocked each of her big songs clear out of the park.  I know Ms. Close couldn’t be nominated for a Tony in the same role again but she was clearly the best performance by an actress on Broadway this year.  (Admittedly, to be 100% certain, I have a couple of performances still to see… but the chances of a bad call here are nil.)

The main reasons to see this show is Ms. Close and the orchestra which lushly performed the gorgeous melodies contained in the score.  While I liked Fred Johanson as Max, I did not warm to either Michael Xavier (as screenwriter Joe Gillis) or Siobhan Dillon (Betty Schaeffer).  I wanted significantly more noir shades from Joe and a lot less standard issue ingénue in the part of Betty.  Perhaps lighting that made sense for this show might have helped them.  I will say that they sang “Too Much in Love to Care” beautifully though.

sunsetboulevardthemusical.com

 

 

 

I saw Hello, Dolly! on May 31st and purchased my ticket last October when the Bette Midler as Dolly Levi frenzy was in full bloom.  As a result, my seats were fantastic (and very expensive).  Further, I am happy to report that the show is fun.  If you go to see Hello, Dolly! primarily to watch Bette ham it up and hoof it around the stage while playing Dolly for laughs, laughs, laughs, then you will be smiling while basking in the audience lovefest for every second Ms. Midler is on the stage.  If, like me, you were looking for a great revival of Hello, Dolly! with the character of Dolly Levi fully explored with all her humor plus her vulnerability and pathos, then you’re likely to be a tad disappointed, despite the grand proceedings.  Sadly, Ms. Midler’s singing voice was not quite up to the task at hand either.

Surrounding Ms. Midler are a slew of excellent performances notably by David Hyde Pierce as Horace Vandergelder, Gavin Creel as Cornelius Hackl and Kate Baldwin as Irene Malloy.  Having seen a number of Ms. Baldwin’s recent stage appearances, this one was my favorite.  As usual, her voice is outstanding but I loved her character which felt truly different (and spot on) than the other types she has played.  A big thank you to Taylor Trensch (Barnaby Tucker) and Beanie Feldstein (Minnie Fay), who were hilarious and memorable in their roles.  The only real miss was the normally funny Jennifer Simard as Ernestina, in an odd characterization that did not work for me.

It’s Hello, Dolly!  The waiters dance!  We get to put on our Sunday clothes!  We watch Bette descend the staircase!  We have a great time!  If only this Hello, Dolly! was a truly great revival.  Oh well.  Perhaps we dream next of Annaleigh Ashford as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl…..

hellodollyonbroadway.com

War Paint tells the fascinating stories of Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden, two women who created and ruled the cosmetics industry for much of the 20th Century.  They were the only women of their time to have companies named after them.  A great history with big characters require grand performers and we are in luck.  Both Patti Lupone (Rubenstein) and Christine Ebersole (Arden) deliver.  Yay!

The reviews I read before seeing this show were fairly mixed about the show even if they loved the stars.  And, yes, Ms. Ebersole has the best song with “Pink.”  From my seat, I saw a show that was beautiful to look at, a story that was very interesting with intensely executed performances by the leading ladies.  The show is essentially two separate stories bound together by their commonality of time, industry, gender and success.  A solid score and book whose only (but not insignificant) flaw was the one dimensional male characters in their lives.  I guess we need to let the ladies go off stage for a moment or two, but the relatively brief filler time was well below par.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed War Paint.  If you are looking for big performances and a set design that effortlessly draws you into the world of these cosmetic titans, then run to see “War Paint.”  You will then be rewarded by the costumes which are fabulous throughout.  A parade of fashions and styles from the 1930s to the 1960s.  And those hats !  It’s always a pleasure to sit through a show, understand what the creative team was attempting to do and be rewarded with a truly enjoyable night of theater.

warpaintmusical.com