Broadway Scorecard
Ze...@lycosmail.com
I haven't been checking out the newsgroup for a while as I was busy getting
married. After an onstage wedding ceremony, we spent three days in the
Poconos, then went to New York to see seven shows in four days. Here's a
rundown on what we saw:
1. "Ragtime." Wednesday matinee. Absolutely brilliant. The entire cast was
wonderful; what a great way to kick things off. Margie (my wife) gave it
four hankies out of four. Brian Stokes Mitchell, Peter Friedman, Marin
Mazzie, Audra McDonald... everybody was top notch.
2. "Power Plays." Alan Arkin and Elaine May are two of my idols. Yes.
Yes.
*sigh*
The show was 2.5 hours long and could have been forty-five minutes shorter.
The two shows written by Ms. May showed why working with Mike Nichols is
crucial for her quality; he *edits* her. She's very funny, but her shows
rambled. Arkin's play, "Virtual Reality," is also too long, but consistently
brilliant. Arkin's performance is sharp, detailed, thoughtful and funny.
*Nobody* handles invisible props as well as he. A good show, worth seeing,
but disappointing considering who the creators are.
3. "Cabaret." Thursday night. If the tickets hadn't cost so much, my wife
and i would have left at intermission. I love "Cabaret" and I HATED this
production. The cabaret scenes are supposed to comment upon the action, not
permeate it. Turning "It Couldn't Please Me More" and "Married" into
production numbers (not to mention axing "Meeskite") robbed them of any
feelings toward the characters. (It didn't help that we had "Married" sung
at our wedding; it felt like a personal artistic rape.)
Alan Cumming was brilliant for what they asked him to do, but what he was
asked to do killed the show. The ending was absurd. The characters are
trundled off to the gas ovens; we're supposed to feel their tragedy; but
since we weren't allowed to feel anything for them alive, why did they think
their deaths would mean anything to us? You can't refuse people emotion all
evening, then expect to pull tragedy out of your butt. It just doesn't work.
4. "Art." Friday night. Now here was a verbally dazzling show. Alan Alda,
Victor Garber and Alfred Molina were all sharp and precise in their
performances. The "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" of male bonding. Intense,
funny and fascinating, with showcase parts for all.
5. "The Fantasticks." Saturday matinee. It was okay. And it was the *only*
show out of seven that started on time. I was amazed that a production of
this show I helped to cast for community theater last fall was better than
the real thing. "El Gallo" was a surface actor with an annoying singing
voice: "Tryee to Reeemimberr the Kieend of Septimberr..." "Luisa" made up
for being too old for the part by speaking like Minnie Mouse. The fathers
seemed to be saving their energy for the evening performance, and "Hucklebee"
threw most of his lines away; our Hucklebee got many more laughs. I'm being
picky; if only historically, it was worth seeing. But the "pretty good"
quality instead of "fabulous" surprised me.
6. "Twelfth Night." Saturday Night. Philip Bosco is God. The only other
trip to Broadway I've had included seeing Mr. Bosco in "Moon Over Buffalo."
What a brilliant actor, and so underrated (at least, by the New York Times
review of "Twelfth Night".) His Malvolio was wonderful. Brian Murray and
Max Wright were sublime (it pains me to admit this; I recently played Sir
Toby.) Helen Hunt was very funny and Kyra Sedgewick is now on my top ten
list of really funny, hot actresses with scratchy voices. She was terrific.
7. "Chicago." Sunday Afternoon. We saw the Touring Company in Chicago, too.
Hmm. Who was better... Jasmine Guy, Bebe Neuwirth... let's see... tough
choice... not. BEBE NEUWIRTH!!! In Chicago, Charlotte D'Amboise and Ron
Orbach gave the star performances. In New York, it was Bebe Neuwirth. Karen
Ziemba was great; more real, less cartoony than Charlotte D'Amboise (both
interpretations were perfectly valid.) Ernie Sabella was gone and we got to
see Joel Grey as Amos. Oh. Lucky us. Ron Orbach got laughs and tore your
heart out. His "Mr. Cellophane" got one of the loudest ovations I've ever
heard in a theater. Joel Grey was too busy deciding what faces he wanted to
make to be sympathetic. I think somnambulism should be treated, not
displayed as a performance. Overall though, the show was great, due to Ms.
Neuwirth & Ms. Ziemba.
So, to recap, what we saw, in order of favorites:
1. "Ragtime"
2. "Art" & "Twelfth Night" (tie)
3. "Chicago"
4. "Power Plays"
5. "The Fantasticks"
6. Everything else you've ever seen onstage.
7. "Cabaret."
We also went to the Museum of Television and Radio and saw Groucho Marx in
"The Mikado" and Phil Silvers in "Damn Yankees." If you want to see the
definitive performance of "Those Were the Good Old Days," see Phil Silvers do
it.
All in all, a wonderful theater-lover's honeymoon.
Thanks for letting me spout.
Zeppo
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Lane Wright
and I have never since seen a production of the play that was as good. It's
a shame if the quality of the production has fallen that much (although
after a run of almost forty years it's not exactly a shock).
Lane Wright
Ze...@lycosmail.com wrote in message <6pmg61$fqi$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
June A SM
by revealing the surprise ending of a show (CABARET) without warning in the
header (or even the message text) that your message contained a SPOILER.
In the future, we would appreciate if you considered that not everyone who
reads this board will have had the great good fortune to have already seen the
shows you describe, although they may be planning to do so in the near future.
Out of consideration for these folks, you should always label such a post with
the word "SPOILER" in the header.
Thank you for your kind attention.
June
Jason A. Specland
showing that I had a ticket for has been canceled.
Huge, heaving sigh.
--
Jason A. Specland
Actor for Love, Sysadmin for Money