Broadway is back at Des Moines Performing Arts. While this last fall we were treated got a glimpse into having the Willis Broadway Series this last fall with an engagement of 'The Bands Visit,' the series returned on February 8 with a hilarious production of 'Tootsie.' Like the title of the act 1 finale, you could say the opening of 'Tootsie' makes the return of the Willis Broadway Series 'Unstoppable,' with 6 shows and a concert scheduled between now and the end of August.
The musical Tootsie, now playing at the National Theater in Washington, DC, has exceptionally good intentions and flashes of show-biz brio but it tries to do too many disparate things at once. Of course, the cultural zeitgeist of the brilliant film is pervasive in the “mind’s eye” but that should ideally be of little concern with a musical that veers into making differing choices appropriate for the stage.
In the oft-repeated words of the character Sandy, sung in a hilarious patter-fest at strategic points in the musical of Tootsie, playing this week only at the Hippodrome, 'I know what's going to happen.' What's going to happen is that you will attend the show and have an uproarious good time.
Payton Reilly sat down to answer a few questions to reflect on the return of live theatre and touring. Reilly plays Sandy in the National Tour of Tootsie A New Comedy Musical. The musical by David Yazbeck and Robert Horn tours the United States and made a recent stop in Houston, TX.
My advice for TOOTSIE THE MUSICAL is to distance yourself from the original film, and accept they are taking a dated concept and transposing it awkwardly onto today. You are going for the exquisite comedy performances that surpass the fact that TOOTSIE has not very much to say about gender that seems substantial.
But when all is said and done, after the big speeches are made and the morals have been imparted, TOOTSIE's 1982 DNA proves inextricable. Its parting lesson is fundamentally that women should be women and men should be men. The show's progressivism is limited to a fairly surface-level, lighthearted second-wave feminism that never rises above a 'very special episode' of any '80s sitcom. (Indeed, Michael's apartment set looks strikingly sitcomish, and all the dialogue there fits the bill.)
Get a first look at the non-equity national tour of Tootsie in all new photos and videos! The cast includes Drew Becker as Michael Dorsey, Ashley Alexandra as Julie Nichols, Payton Reilly as Sandy Lester, Lukas James Miller as Max Von Horn, Jared David Michael Grant as Jeff Slater, Kathy Halenda as Rita Marshall, Steve Brustien as Stan Fields, and Adam du Plessis as Ron Carlisle.
Based on Sydney Pollack's 1982 Academy Award-winning film of the same name, Tootsie follows Michael Dorsey, a skilled actor with a talent for not keeping a job. Desperate and out-of-work, Michael makes a last-ditch effort at making his dreams come true...by disguising himself as actress Dorothy Michaels. In a meteoric rise to Broadway stardom, Dorothy soon has audiences falling at her feet while Michael (disguised as Dorothy) is falling for his co-star, Julie Nichols. It isn't long before Michael realizes that maintaining his greatest acting success is going to be much harder than he expected.
TOOTSIE has taken the town as the first National tour of the Broadway musical opened in Buffalo this week. A full house of Covid vaccinated theatre goers packed into Shea's Buffalo theatre. Based on the 1982 movie, this non-Equity tour has been rehearsing in Buffalo prior to launching it's visits across the country next week.
KINKY BOOTS at Broadway Palm, directed by Amy Marie McCleary and choreographed by Chris Kane, tells the story of Charlie Price, his new friend, Lola, and 'The Most Beautiful Thing' in the world, AKA shoes.
Inspired by a 1999 BBC documentary, the musical tells the story of Charlie Price who reluctantly inherits his family's business, Price & Son, a shoe manufacturing company on the verge of bankruptcy.
Kinky Boots, The Lauderhill Performing Arts Center and Broadway Palm's third production of their inaugural season, will open on January 23rd. The multiple award-winning musical will run through February 9th.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then parody is a regular old kiss on the lips to any masterpiece. And that's what Spamilton is to Hamilton, a big fat kiss on the lips. And it takes an awfully talented bunch to pull off a loving lampoon of Broadway's biggest hit. We recently welcomed that awfully talented bunch to Broadway Sessions. The Spamilton cast brought the funny, the fierce and the in your face. And don't you worry none, they paid great homage to Hamilton with beautiful renditions of Dear Theodosia, Satisfied and Burn. Check out Nora Schell, Juwan Crawley, Dan Rosales, Christ Anthony Giles, Michael Wordly, Claudia Yanez, Nicholas Edwards and our "Rising Stars" Payton Reilly and Billie Aken Tyers blasting the roof right off the Beechman basement roof.
The Saugatuck Center for the Arts' Mason Street Warehouse (400 Culver Street) kicks off its professional summer theatre season with the gritty glamour and glitz of Cabaret. This updated version of the popular Broadway production opens at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts tonight, June 26 at 8:00p.m. and runs through Sunday, July 12.
The Saugatuck Center for the Arts' Mason Street Warehouse (400 Culver Street) kicks off its professional summer theatre season with the gritty glamour and glitz of Cabaret. This updated version of the popular Broadway production opens at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts on Friday, June 26 at 8:00p.m. and runs through Sunday, July 12. Tickets for the show can be reserved online at sc4a.org or by calling (269) 857-2399.
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