Though the current tenants at the Eugene O'Neil claim to be presenting 'God's Favorite Musical,' the new gang moving into Circle In The Square this October may have something to say about that as the first Broadway revival of Godspell gears up for a November 7th opening.
With an uneventful 6pm coming and going on the evening of May 21st, I rested comfortably that night secure in the knowledge that any predictions of the arrival of Judgment Day were, at the very least, miscalculations. But the next evening, as I sat watching David Burnham, Sally Mayes, Howard McGillin, Billy Stritch, Lillias White and Rachel York perform eight-five minutes of songs composed by Broadway's heppist hepcat, Cy Coleman, you'd have a tough time convincing me I'd not been raptured into Heaven.
Unless the names 'Noel' and 'Coward' are involved, I tend to be a bit wary about musicals with the book, music, lyrics and direction all by the same person, but Willard Beckham makes a very entertaining go of it with his campy, country/western musical comedy, Lucky Guy.
Those who miss the patter of little urbanites that made Thursday night sitcoms so popular in the 1990s should welcome the arrival of Jonathan Marc Sherman's angsty new comedy, Knickerbocker; a play generously populated by an assortment of smart, funny and hip New Yorkers whose charm lies in their ability to over-think.
While older plays can often be interpreted to suit modern tastes and standards, films serve as permanent records of the public attitudes of their times; particularly when considering the ways ethnic minorities were portrayed. Many a fine film from long ago can contain moments that strike the modern eye as racist, even in cases where the intention was to be racially sensitive. In the case of black actors from early Hollywood, we can admire the talent of the likes of Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, Butterfly McQueen and Stepin Fetchit and say they opened door for others, but many have argued that their success came from demeaning their race as a whole by taking the types of roles that were within the white viewers' comfort zones.
There's a song in the backstage musical murder mystery, Curtains, that is unlike any other in the history of Broadway; a song guaranteed to make any musical theatre lover in the know choke up at least a little.
Another bed. Another woman. More curtains. Another bathroom. Another kitchen. Other eyes. Other hair. Other feet and toes. Everybody's looking. The eternal search. You stay in bed, she gets dressed for work and you wonder what happened to the last one and the one before that.
If there's one thing this town can't resist it's a gal who can reinvent herself, and in director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall's smashing new revival of the Cole Porter classic, Anything Goes, Sutton Foster foregoes the spunky wholesomeness that made her a Broadway star for a sleek, sophisticated and sexy turn as nightclub singer turned evangelist, Reno Sweeney.
When the 1920s crooner heartthrob Rudy Vallee made his return to Broadway in the 1961 original production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, he wasn't exactly known as an actor, and certainly not known as a comedian who might excel in a scalding satire of the ups and downs of the corporate ladder. So when director Abe Burrows guided him through the role of J.B. Biggley, the feared and revered President of World-Wide Wickets, he gave him specific instructs... don't be funny. Since the brilliant comic scribe Burrows was also writing the book for How To Succeed... (starting from Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert's straight play draft) he knew exactly how to surround the star with daffy characters and plant him into silly situations while keeping him obliviously normal. By not really giving a performance, but by being Rudy Vallee saying lines and singing songs, the used-to-be has-been had audiences rolling with laughter.
'Cute' is probably not the adjective that Robert Lopez, Matt Stone and Trey Parker were going for when they co-authored the book, music and lyrics of The Book of Mormon. Neither is 'cute' a word I'd expect to use when describing a musical where genital mutilation and the belief that having sex with an infant will cure an adult of AIDS figure significantly in the plot and the big Act I showstopper has a chorus of villagers happily singing, 'f**k you, God!' But The Book of Mormon - which absolutely should be praised for its non-traditional material that, to borrow what Brooks Atkinson wrote of Pal Joey, attempts to draw sweet water from a sour well - sets us up for intriguing social satire and then settles for being well-structured, sharply mounted, terrifically performed innocuous entertainment.
'This is kind of a weird play. I'll show you what I mean,' offers Bernard (Brian Hutchison), the character who opens David Greenspan's Go Back To Where You Are with a nostalgic monologue about childhood summers at a family Long Island beach house that sets a tone somewhat akin to that of a Tennessee Williams memory play.
'One man's facts are another man's fabrications,' notes Ghassan (Ted Sod) as he and several other characters in Mona Mansour's Urge For Going try to explain to the audience the circumstances that brought this family of Palestinian Arabs to live in a South Lebanese refugee camp that has been serving as a temporary settlement for nearly 60 years.
With the opening of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a stroll through New York's theatre district now offers a fascinating history of the evolution of that musical theatre genre we call 'the jukebox musical.'
A Columbia literary scholar with a passion for the punctuation used in Keats' poetry starts dating a personal trainer who has moved to New York from Ireland. Sounds like the beginning of a romantic comedy about a seemingly mismatched pair trying to get their conflicting worlds to mesh.
The Costa Mesa Playhouse is pleased to announce its 2010-2011 season-a season filled with classic and contemporary comedies, award-winning musicals, and a humor-laced drama.
There aren't many concerts around where you can hear a full house go berserk at the promise of hearing Jill Eikenberry sing a number from Onward, Victoria. Or where the mention of the name Bruce Yeko draws spontaneous applause and the audience enjoys a running gag about Lenny Wolpe.
