You almost have to admire the chutzpah of the producers of “Bronx Bombers,” a dramatically inert play about the Yankees that was poorly received when it ran briefly Off-Broadway but nevertheless now has opened in Broadway’s much larger Circle in the Square Theater. They apparently aim to make their show not just critic-proof, but immune to the opinion even of regular Broadway theatergoers. Bronx Bombers Review: The Yankees Foul
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
Andrew2, both a homerun and a no-hitter are good things. What you should have said is a home run or a strikeout. It is however always entertaining watching people who know nothing about sports talk about it.
I knew why you used the term but was just saying calling something a no-hitter is a positive thing in baseball terms, not a negative thing. A no-hitter is to pitching as a home run is to hitting. So basically what you were saying is was it great or was it great. If you are going to use sports analogies, you should try to have them make sense in the sports sense, not just the theater or literal sense. Just a little helpful feedback
Every once in a while we get one of these "reportage" reviews from Ben or Charles, where they really don't want to tell you whether they liked it or not, just that its here, and it might be good or bad. It doesn't much matter; plays like this have little to do with theatre. As Charles does say, it is in the same vein of this playwrights' earlier pieces, and if you liked them, you'll probably like this. Many of us won't find out.
I'm a little bit muddled as to how Isherwood rated this play. I get the sense that he didn't think it was "wow", but rather "o.k.".
"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)
It does seem a political decision of the Times (or Isherwood alone) not to slam the play -- which the Times did do in its review of the show when it was Off-Broadway. The review was by Daniel M. Gold: "the Yankees — the players, the organization, even the club’s fans — deserve better than this mawkish and sappy effort, which brings new meaning to the phrase “high cheese.”
Aw, let the rabid Yankees fans have their "field of dreams" on stage. I saw it Off-Broadway and didn't hate it; I could understand where all the love and passion were coming from and directed to. Of course, if it hadn't been a comp, maybe I'd be a little more harsh. I thought the cast at least was pretty admirable, even if Richard Topol, the guy who took over at the last minute for Joe Pantoliano, reminded me more of Larry David than Yogi Berra. However, I don't see its having much longer a run on Broadway than it did off.
I read an article in the Daily News not too long ago that made it sound very much like the producers don't actually care whether this does terrible business and closes in two weeks. The goal for them it appears was to get this play to have run on Broadway to help increase the licensing fees from regional theaters they'll get down the road. It sounded like whatever money they lost on the Broadway run of Lombardi as an example, was more than made up for by the fees they made later on.
It's kind of a sad way to do business. As a lifelong Yankee fan (even though I don't live in the New York area anymore), there are so many great, compelling stories about the Yankees that could have been told and yet they put forward this mishmash of ideas and characters. I actually liked Lombardi a lot, didn't see Magic/Bird and wouldn't waste my money on this. The only positive thing I can think of to say about it is that my favorite Yankee, Roy White attended the premier and it was nice to see a current photo of him.