2013 theater reviews

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i'm a bit behind, so rather than starting a thread per show....

Forever Dusty

I'm familiar with the name Dusty Springfield, but never really knew all that much about her. But I like musical bios, so off we went to see this as our first show of 2013. Kirsten Holly Smith wrote the play, and plays Dusty. According to people familiar with Dusty, Smith channels Springfield quite well. I don't know about that, but I did find her performance riveting. The play itself felt a little stereotypical at times, talented girl from nowhere makes it big and alienates her friends and family due to her self-destructive behavior. But the play shows enough of the good in Dusty that I was able to tolerate the stereotype. I found out things that I'd never known about. That she died of breast cancer in 1999. I thought she was still alive. That she got thrown out of South Africa for performing to mixed crowds. That she was a lesbian. That she brought the Motown sound to the UK. That she was diagnosed bipolar and hospitalized for cutting herself. That she recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis.

One thing I didn't like about the show was the use of flashback. We started in Memphis, with Dusty trying to record a new album at Sun Studio and storming out when it's not going well. She gets into a cab and introduces herself to the cabbie as Mary. That's our flashback cue, taking us back to her school days and first band. And setting up her pattern of being part of a group and jumping ship as soon as she gets a better offer. We follow her career and personal life from then until we get back to where we started, then keep going. I'm tired of the use of this device in TV shows (thanks Joss Whedon), and found it even more annoying here. Another annoyance was that while Smith only plays Dusty, the other actors all play multiple parts. I kept wondering who the guys were supposed to be. If you have to have a character say someone's name so the audience can keep them straight, then hire a couple more actors.

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Annie

The two songs people associate most with Annie are Hard Knock Life and Tomorrow. Unfortunately, the current revival seems to me to be more about how bad things are then how good they can be. The stage is very dark, and the costumes for much of the first act are too realistically drab. Adding to the depressing tone was a number titled We'd Like to Thank You, set in a Hoovervile filled with out of work New Yorkers. I don't know remember this number from the 1997 production, but watching it now, I wondered how many of the kids in the audience (or even the parents in the audience) understood any of the 1930's references.

The Miss Hannigan I saw in 1997 was Nell Carter, and while her Miss Hannigan was definitely one of the villains of the piece, she was also funny. I found no humor in Katie Finneran's man hungry, alcoholic shrew and just wanted her off the stage. Lilla Crawford as Annie had a great singing voice, but her speaking accent was so broad that she was difficult to understand at times. Anthony Warlow, who is a big musical star in Australia was bland as Daddy Warbucks, and a bit creepy. The one actor I did find enjoyable was Clark Thorell as Rooster Hannigan. He's fun to watch, and as long as I ignored Katie Fineran, the song Easy Street was enjoyable.

As I stated above, the stage lighting was dark, but there was one set piece that impressed me. When Annie is being given a tour of Warbucks' apartment, the different rooms are unfolded like the pages in a storybook. This gave a wonderful feel to the show for a brief period of time. But too little and for too short a time.

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Cinderella

I saw a production of Rodger's and Hammerstien's Cinderella at the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey in 2005, and really enjoyed it. So when Cinderella's Broadway debut was announced, we pounced. I scored very good seats in the mezzanine at a discount and looked forward to a magical afternoon. And for the most part, Cinderella delivered. The costumes were gorgeous, with some very impressive quick change moments. The set was beautiful, especially for the wedding finale scene (although I would have liked it if the trees weren't in the house). The singing and dancing was wonderful, and the cast gave the show their all. However, not all was perfection. For some reason, the producers didn't trust the original story as written and attempted to "update" it and make it more politically relevant.

Instead of our prince being raised by his parents who are anxious for him to marry, he's got a guardian who is taxing the peasants and holds a ball to distract the Prince. The Prime Minister is in cahoots with Cinderella's step-mother to get one of her daughters to marry the Prince so they can keep the power. There's also a subplot of a peasant political activist who is trying to raise the consciousness of the peasants and who is in love with one of the stepsisters. And the fairy godmother? She starts out as the local crazy lady, to whom only Cinderella and the Prince show any respect. But the worst thing they did was not have Cinderella lose her slipper after the ball. She trips out of it, but manages to grab it back. So after an interminable chase scene to start act 2, the Prince decides to hold a banquet in the hopes that the girl of his dreams will reappear. This time she does leave her slipper behind, setting up the classic scene of all the ladies in the land trying on the shoe.

Laura Osnes makes a spunky and fun Cinderella, but if you're expecting Disney's blonde Cinderella, you'll be disappointed, as Osnes is a brunette (or possibly a redhead, I really can't tell). Santino Fontana is a cute Prince Topher, but is a bit lacking in the vocals. The three best people on stage are Victoria Clark as Marie/Fairy Godmother, Harriet Harris as Madame (Cindy's stepmom) and Ann Harada as Charlotte (one of the stepsisters). Of course one needs to suspend one's disbelief that Harada could ever be Harris's child.

I tried listening to various version of the music after seeing the show, but none of them quite worked for me. So, I'm hoping that the cast recording when released is as magical as the show was.

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Hands on a Hardbody

Okay folks, get your minds out of the gutter. The Hardbody of the title is not some hunky guy, but rather a Nissan truck. The musical is based on a documentary about folks in Texas attempting to win a truck by keeping one hand on it at all times. My first thought was that the creative crew were gonna have a hard time making this seem interesting, and unfortunately, it's my final thought as well. I think the show would have worked better as a 90 minute, no intermission show, because once you give the audience a break to stretch, it's hard to recapture their attention. Another problem I had with the show was that I really didn't have anyone to root for. All of the characters seemed a bit generic, and since there were so many of them, it was hard for me to pick one out to care for. Because of the large number of characters, it kind of felt to me more of a character song cycle. Each person got their big number which basically described why they were trying to win the truck. Fortunately, and somewhat unexpectedly, the authors did manage to avoid having each big number happen right before that contestant fell out of the running. Besides the contestants vying for the truck, we also have 2 spouses on stage, and we have to watch the going's on between the two salespeople running the contest. While the backstory of why they are holding the contest is interesting, it was too much of a diversion from the main story. And I found it hard to believe that they did not have someone watching the contestants at all times, in the end, nobody realizes that there's only one person standing!

The best part of the show was the songs, which mostly have a country/rock kind of feel, with a bit of gospel thrown in. Fortunately, even though the show closed yesterday, it is getting a cast recording.

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Kinky Boots

This show had the BEST turn off your cell phone bit I've seen in ages. Since there is no show curtain, we start by looking at the outside of the Price and Son Shoe Factory. A burly gentleman walks on stage, and his cell phone rings. He answers it and says "No, I can't talk now, I'm going to work. no, i can't text you. I've got to turn off the phone. And no, no photos. EVER." While I won't say that was the funniest bit of the show, it was one of the highlights. The show tells the story of two men, Charlie, the "son" of Price and Son Shoes, and Lola, the drag queen he meets in London and from whom he gets the inspiration to make women's style boots for men in order to save his shoe factory. The show starts with the two characters as boys neither of whom wish to follow in their fathers' footsteps. Then it focuses on Charlie, who moves to London with his fiancee (a wasted Celina Carvajal). When his father dies, Charlie discovers that the factory is in dire straits and after getting help from an old friend (played by an ex-waiter acquaintance of mine named Andy Kelso who gets to sing a nice bar song that has no purpose in the show), Charlie comes across some men accosting a woman and tries to help. Well, this woman has a mean left hook, and turns out to be our cross-dressing Lola.

Billy Porter looks wonderful as Lola, but I don't believe that anyone would ever mistake him for a woman (as our burly factory worker does at one point). I think it's because I know in advance that he's a he, so I don't ever manage to forget that. I had the same problem with Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria.... Porter has a strong voice and shines in the big production numbers, but again, these numbers seem to have no purpose in the show, except to be big production numbers. Actually, that's my problem with most of the show. Too many big production numbers and not enough real heart. Of the sixteen songs listed in my Playbill, only 3 were character driven, and even of those, one was done as a performance number, not a real character driven song.

Stark Sands as Charlie has the harder role to my mind, as he is attempting to play the "realer" person. Unfortunately, the writing does not serve his character well. He seems to accept Lola as a drag queen almost immediately, but during the second act, he turns on her in a particularly vicious way. Of course, at that point he seems to be turning on everyone, but honestly, I didn't buy it. This is where Stark gets his one solo number of the night but while he sounds okay, he's hampered by some very odd staging.

Now, I have to admit, I seem to be in the minority about this show. The audience the day I saw it was really into it, and most of the on-line chatter has been positive. The show is fun, and has a good message about acceptance, but I wish they'd given us less big glitz and more soul.

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Pippin

One of the best known songs from the show (Corner of the Sky) was the "theme" song of my graduating class in high school. Now, the words to the song are really inspiring, all about finding your place, being true to yourself and all that stuff. HOWEVER, in the context of the show, the song is sung by the self-centered title character who thinks he's so wonderful that he deserves everything and that he knows it all. Sort of like a number of the people I went to high school with...

But I digress. The play tells the story of one man-child's search for something extraordinary. And a lot of the fun is in the way it is presented. We are watching a troupe of players (lead the day I saw it by the excellent Stephanie Pope), perform the story of Charlemange's son, Pippin. In the original production (with the leading player portrayed by Ben Vereen), the troupe was an acting/dancing troupe. In this revival, we have a circus troupe. So in addition to Bob Fosse inspired dance numbers, we also get acrobats, balance artists and trapeze acts. While all the acts were enjoyable (most especially Andrea Martin on the trapeze), I found them a bit much. Instead of supporting the story, at times they overshadowed it.

Most of the acting in the show was wonderful, especially the aforementioned Stephanie Pope as the Leading Player and Andrea Martin as Berthe. Terrence Mann was wonderful as Charles, but I can't help wondering when he got so grey. His real life wife, Charlotte d'Amboise, plays Charles' wife Fastrada, and does well in the dance heavy role and Rachel Bay Jones was fun as Catherine. Unfortunately, the weakest link for me was Matthew James Thomas as Pippin. His voice wasn't that strong, and I never really warmed to him.

My biggest problem with the show was an "updated" ending.
Spoiler... In the original, Pippin decides to settle down with Catherine and her son, even though that means giving up all the lights and colors and magic. In this production, Pippin and Catherine exit, leaving the son alone on the stage. He starts playing with some of the left over props, and the players reappear, setting the stage for the next self-centered, searching generation. I found this to be a disappointing ending, having always enjoyed the original.

This is a fun show, and I think it'll be around for a while, and it's one that I am currently recommending.

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Motown

At intermission, my sister turned to me and said "you're not enjoying this much are you?" Honestly, no, I wasn't. During the first act, I was reminded of Dreamgirls, Jersey Boys and Memphis. And Motown was paling in comparison to them, especially Dreamgirls. But that made sense to me, since Dreamgirls was the fictionalized story of Diana Ross and the Supremes with one of its characters based on Motown founder Berry Gordy, and Motown the Musical is Gordy's version of his life story. So it follows a similar path to that in Dreamgirls, but it does give more stage time to other Motown artists. Unfortunately, it keeps repeating the same actions. Gordy discovers an artist (Mary Wells, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Jacksons), makes them into big stars, and then they abandon him and move on. The musical tries to excuse Mr. Gordy's controlling behavior and set him up as a misunderstood marketing genius who just wanted the best for everybody but was betrayed by most people in his life. Sorry, not buying it.... I found the character manipulative and the story self-serving and couldn't sympathize with the main character. Diana Ross comes out pretty good in this story, not quite as pathetic and needy as her fictionalized counterpart in Dreamgirls. Of the big Motown artists, Smokey Robinson fares the best, coming across as sympathetic and being Gordy's friend. Marvin Gaye is also well portrayed, but a line that Gordy is "not my father" leaves a bit of a sour aftertaste, seeing as how Gaye was shot by his own father. Unfortunately, in an attempt to shoehorn a large number of Motown artists and songs (the playbill lists almost 60 songs) into the show, a number of them get shortchanged. We get to see "performances" by Stevie Wonder and by the Jacksons, but the characters are cardboard cut-outs.

Lest it seem that there was nothing I liked about the show, let me say the performers were great. While I didn't like the character, I did enjoy Brandon Victor Dixon's stage presence. Valisa LeKae does a wonderful Diana Ross, and Charl Brown as Smokey Robinson and Bryan Terrell Clark as Marvin Gaye sound and look like their characters. The show is heavy on "concert type" performances, and the sets and lighting are quite good. And the music is the best part of the show. Hearing all those Motown classics was a real treat.

Interesting point about the music. The playbill lists some 60 songs, but the cast recording seems to have only 1/3 of them on it. I guess while they got the rights to perform the songs, they weren't able to obtain recording rights. So, I think I'll just go listen to the original versions, which is available as a CD titled "Motown: The Classis Songs that Inspired the Broadway Show!" (exclamation point is theirs, not mine).

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CINDERELLA

It was quite entertaining but I was a bit disappointed. The Stepmother (Harriet Harris) was more a comical character than the evil Stepmother I was expecting, Marie/Fairy Godmother (Victoria Clark) was okay but nothing marvellous, the stepsisters (Marla Mindelle and Anne Harada) were okay, but especially Mindelle's part was totally upstaged by others. Laura Osnes's Cinderella had been updated too much to my taste. Too "modern day girl" for my taste. (Let's say here that I have never seen the Julie Andrews tv-version or any other version of this show, I'm only familiar with the Disney movie and other Cinderella-stories!) It seems to me that to please the crowds (and in this case that means young girls) these days if you have a young woman as the leading role they're all from the same cookie cutter; WICKED, LEGALLY BLONDE, CINDERELLA... the lead roles seem to be too similar to me - sure there are differences as well. I don't mind a strong woman character as the lead, but a little bit more personality would be nice! Here it was totally missing. Result was a bland, very colorless character. Osnes can't be blamed here, she did a good job and her voice is wonderful. But the biggest disappointment for me was the score. There were some nice tunes, but mostly the score was forgettable. Escpecially the lyrics! So not the best work Mr Hammerstein has done. But like I said, the show is entertaining and definitely not the worst show on Broadway but it wasn't as captivating as I thought it would be.


PIPPIN

I was very curious to see this one, since I don't have any previous connections to this show, except hearing a couple of songs and seeing "The Manson Trio" choreography in FOSSE. I wasn't really sure what the show was about, but I wanted to see this as it has gotten such rave reviews everywhere. And though the basic plot wasn't the most clever one ever, the production was excellent! Patina Miller's The Leading Player wasn't exactly my cup of tea, she seemed to be too much in a hurry in her moves and with her lines. But her singing voice fitted the songs very well and even though the role was originally created for and by a man (Ben Vereen) there's no reason why the role couldn't be played by a woman. Matthew James Thomas was decent as Pippin, your basic young man in search for himself. His singing was good enough, but he didn't create very deep a character, so one didn't really care for him. Terence Mann and Charlotte d'Amboise, the real life husband and wife, were both great as Pippin's father and stepmother, respectively. In her first scene D'Amboise made one of the best exits I've seen in a long time! But the star of the show was the magnificent Andrea Martin! Although she is on stage in other scenes, she really has only one scene to shine in. But that's all she needs! In that one scene (and one single song, "No time at all") she totally steals the show! She really knows how to play comedy, but she also knows how to stay within the boundaries and not venture too far. She was the best thing in the dreadful YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN musical and now it's the same case again, although this time the show is far from dreadful. To me, "The Divine Miss M" is no longer Bette Midler, but Ms Martin! ;-) Stephen Schwartz's score was good, some excellent melodies and great lyrics. And I enjoyed the Fosse style choreography - "The Manson Trio" in particular, as it has been one of my favorite Fosse choreographies since seeing FOSSE, it was a great move from the director Diane Paulus to keep that classic choreography in the show. Visually the show was brilliant! The circus style sets with the circus troupe as ensemble was an inspired decision! In short, although I was sitting in the last row of the orchestra, I was totally captivated by what was going on on stage. I will probably go and see this one again, but hopefully with Stephanie Pope as The Leading Player, I'd like to see her take on the role in comparison. A Very Good Show!