"Brooklyn" SF Bay Area Newspaper Review Thread

[jimnysf]

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'Brooklyn' is a fairy tale with no heart
- Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic
Friday, August 11, 2006

Brooklyn the Musical: Book, music and lyrics by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson. Directed by Jeff Calhoun. (Through Sunday at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Ave., San Jose. One hour, 35 minutes. Tickets $26-$73. Call (88 455-7469 or visit www.amtsj.org.)



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Dressed down in its grungy urban set and Dumpster-look costumes and prettied up as a fairy tale about lost love and happy endings, "Brooklyn the Musical" is resoundingly empty at the core. The show, which played on Broadway in 2004, opened the American Musical Theatre of San Jose's 2006-07 season Wednesday at the Center for the Performing Arts.
Fans of "American Idol"-style vocal overkill -- and of that show's 2004 runner-up Diana DeGarmo -- may find what they're after in this 95-minute evening. One song after another in Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson's bravura-scaled pop score begs to be a showstopper. High notes, hyperextended blues riffs and improvisations, ear-rattling volume and relentless reprises are all deployed for maximum effect.

But as the show lurches from sentimental hilltop to valley of despair and back up again, missing no cliche or bromide along the way, "Brooklyn" abandons all pretexts of well-crafted musical storytelling, character development or authentically earned emotion. The music is the aural equivalent of a roller-coaster ride -- thrilling at moments, swooping into a deceptive calm now and then and ultimately heading nowhere.

The fairy-tale conventions are meant to frame and justify the show's indulgences. They also invoke its slightly improbable origins. After a chance meeting in New York, where Schoenfeld was scraping by as a street performer, McPherson invited her long-lost musical collaborator to her home in Massachusetts to begin writing together again and see what happened. Fast-forward to Broadway, where the high-fructose content of the material was thoroughly enriched.

Staged (by Jeff Calhoun) in story-theater fashion on a blighted stretch of pavement under the Brooklyn Bridge, the piece begins with the ensemble cast of five introducing themselves as homeless City Weeds, "trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps." The big-picture wisdom comes on hard and fast: "When you're in America's lost and found, you have to believe anything is possible."

What else to do, with that kind of prompting, than perform a musical-within-the-musical? Racing around the stage to improvise chain-link sets, trash-heap props and "Salvation Armani" costumes, the company launches into its fairy tale about an American folksinger (Lee Morgan as Taylor Collins) living in Paris in 1969. Taylor falls in love with a French waitress (Julie Reiber as Faith), writes an unfinished lullaby, then heads back to the United States without realizing that Faith is pregnant.

After her mother's suitably tragic death, the child (DeGarmo as the eponymous Brooklyn) comes to America in search of her long-lost dad and immediately becomes a famous singer. It is, after all, a fairy tale. And since fairy tales need wicked witches, too, this one contrives an evil diva (Melba Moore) to challenge the young upstart in a singing duel at Madison Square Garden.

Determined to root their story in harsh reality, the authors make Taylor a Vietnam War veteran strung out on drugs and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Before all is set to rights in the end, with the intervention of a magical Streetsinger (the entertaining Cleavant Derricks), "Brooklyn" has touched on homelessness, sexually transmitted disease, the perils of fame, addiction, suicide and the difficulty of getting through Christmas without crying.

All of this might have a fighting chance to work if Schoenfeld and McPherson had relaxed and let their characters breathe instead of stuffing them with shrill platitudes about miracles and happy endings and changing the world by changing someone. The few leavening dashes of humor (Moore mocking the insipid lullaby fragment that keeps getting sung) are drowned in the hyperbolic drivel of the book and lyrics and frantically oversold songs.

Derricks, reprising his Broadway role, uses his mobile face, gracefully emphatic gestures and warmly fibrous voice to give the production's most winning performance. Moore mugs, preens and loses pitch on her loftiest excursions. DeGarmo (Maria in the theater company's "West Side Story") has a potent voice, but her acting is coy and ingratiating to a fault here. Morgan and Reiber, who also appeared in the Broadway version, make the best of their roles.

"Brooklyn" self-consciously dubs itself "The Musical," and you can see where the creators were striving for some sheen of "The Fantasticks" in a post-"Rent" idiom. But borrowing the clothes and conventions of a musical fable isn't the same as fully inhabiting them. In trying to find the "Heart Behind These Hands," as the opening and closing song puts it, this overbearing, artificially sweetened show comes up empty.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/11/DDGRSKF0HV1.DTL

[dancingthrulife04]

I am not shocked.

What's with the little guy in the chair?

[jimnysf]

San Jose Mercury News Review:


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/performing_arts/15250185.htm



Broadway with a Brooklyn accent
STREET CRED MAKES MUSICAL LEGIT
By Karen D'Souza
Mercury News

In ``Brooklyn the Musical,' ``once upon a time' gets slapped upside the head big-time.

Fairy tales get their funk on in this Broadway musical, a Cinderella fable unfolding on the trash-strewn streets of Flatbush. ``Rent' meets ``American Idol' in this ghettolicious mash-up of cheesy anthems, pop culture puns and, oh yeah, shake-the-rafters solos so hot they'd burn the smirk right off of that Simon Cowell.

OK, so ``Sweeney Todd' it ain't. Indeed, it's the sort of thing that gives Sondheim fans seizures. Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson's score, chockablock with showboating ballad face-offs, never met a trill it didn't like. There are more runs in this musical than on the slopes at Tahoe, yo.

And don't even get me started on the sappier-than-thou plot about a wide-eyed waif searching for her father in the Big City. Hallmark cards got more gravitas going on. This line actually gets said (out loud! more than once!): ``Sometimes with our tears, we can water roses.' I kid you not.

But as all y'all already may have surmised, the narrative is not the thing here. It's all about the attitude, baby, and in this road show , imported by the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, ``Brooklyn' has street cred in spades.

Give it up for Diana DeGarmo, the pop princess who bopped from runner-up on ``American Idol' to Broadway fame in ``Hairspray.' The cherubic chanteuse (who became a local darling as Maria in AMT's ``West Side Story' last year) is all pipes and spunk, and her peppy persona perfectly fits her role in this show, a dumpster diva headlining a street theater extravaganza.

OK, so DeGarmo still sings rings around her acting chops (her crystal soprano shines in ``Love Fell Like Rain' and ``Heart Behind These Hands'). But since last we saw her, she has learned how to live in the moment as well as to hit the notes.

This time around the 19-year-old it-chick holds her own (well, almost) with the show's scenery-chewers: Melba Moore, as nemesis Miss Paradice, the wicked witch of the hood, and Cleavant Derricks as the narrator.

Best of all, even if the whole show-within-a-show plot feels forced, the smart-aleck yo-mama style dialogue rules. Schoenfeld and McPherson have nailed the way we speak today, from the witty commercial riffs (plug it in, plug it in!) to the snarky audience asides and fashionista chutzpah (props to Tobin Ost on costumes).

In the show's ``American Idol'-style faceoff, for instance, Paradice is resplendent in what she calls ``Salvation Armani.' Don't even think about dissing her garbage bag ball gown complete with police tape tiara and bubble-wrap boa. Oh, no, you didn't!

Moore will get right up in your grill, as she does in the showstopper ``Love Me Where I Live.' Watching this girl get down with her nasty self in this tour-de-trashiness is just plain yummy. Feel me?


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[Shawk]

The Little Man is the SF Chron's version of one to four stars. His reactions range from wild applause, applause, sitting at attention, snoozing and leaving the chair all together.

[jimnysf]

The SF Chronicle's Little Man:

Light in the Piazza



"A Chorus Line"



"Brooklyn"

[Mateo2]

I do not know who the heck Steven Winn is but his use of 25 cent vocabulary words I find resoundingly empty at the core. I think his use of such words as bravura, bromide, authentically, etc a relentless reprise to show that he has a better command of the English language than this ability as a critic. Mr. Winn is just as guilty in his review as he thinks Brooklyn is in its story line. Hypocrite! It’s just a 90 minute play not “War and Piece” nor “Moby Dick”. Mr. Winn, your review ZZZZZZZZ

As for Ms. D’Souza, there are very few actors who can act as well as Diana DeGarmo can sing.

I loved Brooklyn – The Musical and I always will. But opinions are like AH’s, everybody has one.

[LizzieCurry]

I do not know who the heck Steven Winn is but his use of 25 cent vocabulary words I find resoundingly empty at the core.

Steven Winn is one of our resident cranky critics. I've always found him entertaining, even if I don't agree with him. (And I don't plan on seeing Brooklyn, so I don't really care anyway.)

[Parks]

Has anyone here seen the show in SF yet? Any opinions? The show improved from when I saw it on opening night to the day it closed in Dallas--so I wonder what will change by the time the last show comes around in SF.

[jarretSF]

It's San Jose actually. And I'm still debating the 40 mile drive to see it or not this weekend. Morbid curiosity may get the better of me. The advantage would be my expectations are not high. Is it worth it, Parks?

[Parks]

Everybody I talked to, whether or not they liked the show itself, LOVED the singing. Everyone was blown away by Diana's voice. If you hate the show, think of it as a Diana DeGarmo concert with her opening acts coming on and off in the middle of the show. That's what I told my friends .

Personally, I love the show--so you may want to ask somebody else. I didn't care all that much for the show--I think I just love the cast. There--that's what I needed to say. The cast is amazing. The show, not so much. An incredibly talented cast with so much soul.

[jarretSF]

I like some of the musi I've heard. My BF really wanted to see it, but hasn't said much about it in a while. I'm so back and forth on this one, although I know tix aren't hard to come by. It's in a Huuuuuge auditorium, one that was almost too big for Hairspray a couple moths back.

[Mateo2]

Jarret, Go to Broolklyn. You will not be disappointed. I drove 3 hours to Hartford and flew 1,800 miles to Dallas to see the play. I'm telling you the live performances will blow you away.

[defying_gravity2]

I'm going tomorrow night and I'm excited.

[ThePinballWizard]

I just wanted to say that I've just come back from the FINAL....

The FINAL people...

performance of the BROOKLYN TOUR. All I have to say is HOW UNBELIEVABLE. What the audiences and the critics didn't like in this show was beyond me. I know it's not brain surgery but god I had such a good time. Everyone was AMAZING, but DIANA DEGARMO literally stole the show for me. I really truly underestimated her, and for being 19 I was like HOLY HOLY CRAP. I mean seriously there was a standing ovation AFTER STREETSINGER was over. It.....was......amazing. I wanted to throw my shoe at her and Melba everytime they sang.

So yeah if you didn't get the drift, it was an amazing show and I'm excited to see Diana get back into Hairspray on the 8th. Maybe she'll outshine that DUFF girl that's in it right now, cuz remember they'll BOTH be in it at the same time.

Diana gave a wonderful closing show speech and thanked everyone and everything for such an amazing ride, and she was crying on top of that all. Outside she was so cute thanking everyone and we chatted for a little while about Hairspray, the Brooklyn rehearsal process and just everything.

P.S. I loved her I think a little more than I did Eden...but that's just me. :)