Michael Dale News

As I write these words the opening night party of Roundabout's revival of Sunday in the Park With George, which I'll be seeing on Saturday, is no doubt in full swing, but despite the sublime glories of that Steven Sondheim/James Lapine creation, there's another musical in town about radical artists that deserves just as much attention from anyone interested in the euphoric excitement felt when watching a unique, intelligent and wondrously creative evening of musical theatre.

As the 21st Century chugs along toward completing its first decade, perhaps Broadway's new role in American theatre with emerge as the place where talented composers and lyricists with interesting projects will premiere their less-inspired shows while their exciting, adventurous and better-written work continues to hide in the under-publicized shadows of Off- and Off-Off Broadway, festivals and the occasional cabaret appearance.  Just as Legally Blonde, the Broadway debut of composer/lyricists Lawrence O'Keefe (Bat Boy, Sarah, Plain and Tall) and Nell Benjamin (Pirates!, Sarah, Plain and Tall) doesn't match the quality of their Off-Broadway and regional work, last season composer Tom Kitt made his first main stem appearance with the catchy-tuned and enjoyable, but not especially notable, High Fidelity while musical theatre lovers in the know were anxiously awaiting a production of Feeling Electric, his substantially superior collaboration with bookwriter/lyricist Brian Yorkey, first seen at the 2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

I had to chuckle a bit while reading The Public Theater's Artistic Director Oskar Eustis' program notes for Adrienne Kennedy's Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles?, which described the play as 'the most accessible' she's ever written.

You would think that Edith Wharton's fizzy little comic novel, The Glimpses Of The Moon, might have been a perfect property for Rodgers & Hart or Kern, Wodehouse & Bolton to musicalize when it was fresh off the presses in 1922.  But no, it took until 2008 for New Yorkers to get a glimpse, not to mention a pleasant earful, of a brand new frothy little musical charmer based on her book, courtesy of a couple of moderns, Tajlei Levis (book and lyrics) and John Mercurio (music).

In the 1979 revival of Oklahoma!, Christine Ebersole insisted that when it comes to men she 'cain't say no,' and this weekend she's showing City Center audiences that when it comes to performing, the same words apply.  Despite suffering musical theatre's most talked-about flu since Faith Prince played Miss Adelaide in the last revival of Guys and Dolls (Okay, so Miss Adelaide only has a cold, but you get my point.) Ms. Ebersole is nevertheless positively luminous as Margo Channing in the Encores! staged reading of Applause.

There are several reasons I'm looking forward to this week's Encores! concert performance of Charles Strouse (music), Lee Adams (lyrics) and Betty Comden and Adolph Green's (book) 1970 musical version of All About Eve, retiled Applause, this weekend.  Like hearing those mod Broadway rock orchestrations by the great Philip J. Lang played by a full assemblage of musicians.  And seeing that crazy segment of the title tune when the cast does a series of parodies of Fiddler On The Roof, Funny Girl, Hello, Dolly! and other classic musicals, including a challenge dance between Oklahoma! and Oh! Calcutta!  And, of course, to see the wonderful Christine Ebersole in her first major role since nabbing the Tony for Grey Gardens.

William Gibson's The Miracle Worker is one of those rare serious American dramas you can call a real crowd-pleaser, as much as Oklahoma!, Hello, Dolly! or any other musical with an exclamation point at the end of its title.  Death of A Salesman?  Long Day's Journey Into Night?  Great dramas for sure, but not exactly crowd-pleasers.  Heck, we already know there's a happy ending.  It's called The Miracle Worker, for goodness sake.

During a quiet moment midway through Act I of last Saturday night's performance of Come Back, Little Sheba, an annoyed (and annoying) man seated in the orchestra section was loudly heard complaining, 'I'm waiting for something to happen.'

The Palace Theatre.  An engagement to appear before an audience at that aptly named showplace, where the kings and queens of vaudeville would hold court on a 2-a-day schedule, was once the Holy Grail of show business.  'Playing The Palace' was the dream of every vaudeville performer and the term is still used today to describe someone who has reached the top of their profession.  And for those who headlined at The Palace… Well, having top billing at The Palace used to mean that you were among the best stage performers that American entertainment had to offer.

There's a great moment in Cecil B. DeMille's gloriously overblown epic, The Ten Commandments, when Sir Cedric Hardwicke, playing Pharaoh Sethi, upon discovering that his beloved son Moses is really Hebrew, makes a proclamation that the name of Moses must be stricken from the history books, despite his many heroic accomplishments for Egypt, and that his name never be spoken again.  Moses, as far as Egypt was concerned, will have never existed.

When a cabaret show is promoted as containing 'an eclectic mix of style and sound,' I generally don't expect to hear 8, count 'em 8, Rodgers and Hart classics, but who am I to question Christian Hoff's good taste in music?  Though never officially announced, Hoff was to star in a proposed Broadway revival of Pal Joey, and though that project has been placed on hold, his one-night gig at The Metropolitan Room this past Monday night, titled 'Exiled,' often seemed like a preview of how he'd play the title role.

Robert Patrick, that legendary pioneer of Gay Theatre, may spend most of his time on that other coast these days, but his heart always remains at a little storefront on Cornelia Street that once housed the birthplace of Off-Off Broadway, the Caffe Cino.  One of my first assignments for BroadwayWorld was an interview with that remarkably colorful playwright, where he shared vivid memories of that exciting time in American theatre when he and the likes of Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson and John Guare enjoyed complete artistic freedom in seeing their early efforts staged.  Bernadette Peters starred in the original one-act version of Dames At Sea on the tiny Cino stage.

They say there are three things a guy should never say to a woman on a first date:1)      I have commitment issues.2)      I have mother issues.3)      I really liked Neil LaBute's last play.No other playwright around is known for pushing angering buttons like Neil LaBute, yet both times I've reviewed one of his plays he's sent me a nice little complimentary email thanking me for my comments, so to me he seems like a sweet guy.His recent piece for 'The Guardian,' titled 'How American Theatre Lost It,' isn't exactly going to win him an invitation to present at the Tony Awards ('And now to present this year's Tony for choreography, let's welcome Neil LaBute and Sutton Foster!') but I found it an enjoyable read.  That is, until the last paragraph where he makes a blanket dismissal of musicals.  Maybe Michael John LaChiusa can introduce him to some good ones.

Shortly after word started spreading through the internet tonight about the announced June 1st closing of the Broadway production of Rent, BroadwayWorld's News Editor, Eugene Lovendusky, started a thread on our Broadway message board asking readers to share their experiences of seeing Jonathan Larson's breakthrough achievement for the first time. I'll be checking in on that thread and enjoying the stories but first I'd like to share my first Rent experience here. If you know me personally you've probably heard this one before. I've told it a lot in the past 12 years

Unless the painters have been around the past few days, a bit of graffiti on the Classic Stage Company's men's room wall reads, 'Good Theatre + Great Coffee + Clean Bathroom = CSC.'  While the lobby's Everyman Espresso Café and (I would assume) some eager young intern are keeping the latter two parts of that equation accurate, director Walter Bobbie's premiere production of David Ives' New Jerusalem is indeed providing some good theatre.

Teri Ralston's Broadway career may only consist of small roles in two musicals but those two musicals, as they say on the Brooklyn side of Shubert Alley, were cherce.  Her young soprano can be heard in scattered solo moments on the original Broadway cast albums of Company (as Jenny) and A Little Night Music (as Mrs. Nordstrom), but she's probably most known among musical theatre fans for her delicate and lovely performance of Stephen Schwartz's 'Chanson' in the original didn't-make-it-to-Broadway cast album of The Baker's Wife.

As foreign as the concept may seem to 21st Century playgoers, there was a time, so I'm told, when audience members freshly entertained by Gotham's newest theatrical endeavors would not rush home to discuss their reactions on the internet.  Instead, elegant couples, rowdy intellectuals and distinguished middle-aged gentlemen with their pretty young 'nieces' in tow would gather at one of Longacre (later known as Times) Squares' numerous emerging supper clubs and nightspots to mingle, refresh and perhaps even converse about the evening's entertainment.