Broadway lyricist Glenn Slater speaks with BWW about the much-anticipated release of the full music CD set from GALAVANT, the CD signing for A BRONX TALE, BEATSVILLE, and what it's really like to write for musical theater.
Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Today's big news: Larry Kirwan's REBEL IN THE SOUL starts tonight at Irish Rep, and writers of color take the stage in MTF's LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING this evening!
In a heartbeat, 38 planes and 6,579 passengers were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland, doubling the population of one small town on the edge of the world. On September 11, 2001 the world stopped. On September 12, their stories moved us all.
Featuring Tony Award winner Daisy Eagan with The 5th Avenue Theatre Executive Producer and Artistic Director David Armstrong at the helm, the show will undergo continued revisions in Seattle as it makes its way to a Broadway revival.
Seattle's The 5th Avenue Theatre is seeking the most creative and ambitious teens with a love for the stage to participate in an exciting new program called the “10-Minute Musical Project,” which involves local students in the process of creating new works in the musical theater genre. Washington State students ages 14-19 are eligible to apply for a variety of roles: composer, lyricist, playwright, stage manager, director, music director and marketer. Students will participate in workshops throughout the summer, culminating in a two-week long intensive rehearsal process and a staged reading presented as part of The 5th Avenue's NextFest: A Festival of New Musicals in October 2016.
I'll admit to only a passing familiarity with Janis Joplin before I saw the current show at the 5th Avenue Theatre, “A Night with Janis Joplin”, in that I knew who she was but was hard pressed to come up with any of her songs. Of course, after seeing the show I found I knew more of her stuff than I thought, I just didn't know it was her. And while Kacee Clanton as Janis is quite a sight to see not to mention the other incredible women she has up there with her, the show as a whole doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a biography, a rock concert, a history of blues? Who can say? But what I can say is that the connecting dialog attempting some kind of through line for the show was at best boring and at worst forced and embarrassing.
Updated this week! Check out upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, December 6, 2015 for both productions in your area and around the country including what/when/where and how to audition!
OkayBetterBest, a new musical written by Rhonda Kess and Michael Weems and directed by Hunter Foster, will be presented the Ars Nova Loft (511 West 54th Street) as a special industry reading on Thursday, December 3 at 3:00 PM and Friday, December 4 at 3:00 PM. The cast includes Jason Gotay (Bring It On: The Musical, Spider-Man Turn off the Dark), George Salazar (Godspell, Here Lies Love), Julia Mattison (Godspell), Elena Ricardo (Mamma Mia!), Christina Sajous (Holler If Ya Hear Me, American Idiot), Justin Matthew Sargent (Bonnie & Clyde, Rock of Ages) and Remy Zaken (Spring Awakening). Industry members interested in attending should email OkayBetterBest@gmail.com and indicate their affiliation.
With the creative team of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire at the helm, I had high hopes for the new musical 'Waterfall' currently playing at the 5th Avenue Theatre. With a pedigree like those two have there would have to be something to grab onto in the show, right? Unfortunately this adaptation of the Thai musical 'Behind the Painting' based on the novel by Siburapha offered nothing but a clunky story and nuance free music and lyrics that elicited no passion or romance, which for a love story is deadly.
The oldest professional summer theater in America, The Cape Playhouse, presents its first-ever Playhouse production of Lerner and Loewe's triumph - My Fair Lady - July 28 through August 8. Tony Nominee Hunter Foster makes his Cape Playhouse directorial debut with the unforgettable story of Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from Professor Henry Higgins so that she can pass as a proper lady. Broadway's Ashley Brown and Jeff McCarthy star in what is generally hailed as a masterpiece of musical theatre. Set against the gorgeous scenery and costumes of Edwardian England, My Fair Lady is filled with some of the greatest songs in musical theater history: Wouldn't It Be Loverly?, With a Little Bit of Luck, The Rain in Spain, I Could Have Danced All Night, On the Street Where You Live, Get Me to the Church on Time and I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Lorin Latarro choreographs and Nick DeGregorio is the musical director.
If you're going to tell a story about a journey to hell and back then you need to have a reason. Some kind of moral or message or even just an engaging character that the audience can grab ahold of to root for success. Unfortunately the new musical “Jasper in Deadland”, currently at the 5th Avenue Theatre, offers none of those things. On top of that it fails to offer any kind of memorable or plot-moving songs leaving me to wonder who this show was written for since it obviously wasn't the audience.
Even Musical Theater nerds such as myself might not be familiar with “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well & Living in Paris”, currently performing at ACT in a joint production with ACT and the 5th Avenue Theatre. I, myself, admit only a passing familiarity with the work and mostly from the covers that others have done of some of his songs. But now that I've seen it done I can understand the cultish following the show engenders and thankfully it was this production that filled the gap in my Musical Theater knowledge as this incredible ensemble took every angst ridden note and made them soar.
Sometimes jukebox musicals need to stay in the jukebox. There are some exceptions where it works. When it's a good review like “Smokey Joe's Café” or when there's a fun book like “Mamma Mia”. But when you take the songs of a classic rock band (such as Queen) and jam them into a completely contrived and nonsensical, thread thin plot the result (as with “We Will Rock You” currently at the 5th Avenue Theatre) is a barely entertaining mish mash of songs that left me less entertained and more embarrassed for those involved. Now I love me some Queen. I'm a little too young to have been aware of them in their hay day but like many others discovered them after their run as their enduring songs continue to live on. Which is why I feel they deserve better than the show they got. A show where we're in a not so distant future and people live their lives online (not so different from now) and because of this, rock and roll has been outlawed. (And there's the main plot hole because what's on the Internet but lots and lots of music.) So when a hunky idealistic dreamer, Galileo (Brian Justin Crum) who keeps hearing the lyrics from long dead rockers meets another outcast Scaramouche (Ruby Lewis), the two set out to escape the clutches of the all powerful Killer Queen (Jacqueline B. Arnold) and find other rebels who want to bring back rock. And how will they do this? Um, play music. Yeah, that's ultimately what drives the bad guys away, music. But then we've had music through out the whole show including from the bad guys. See, plot hole. And if this ridiculous story filled with so much bad, one repeated joke (how many times can we mention that the male leader of the rebels goes by the name Britney Spears?), sitcom humor and clunky exposition laden dialog from book writer Ben Elton weren't bad enough, but then they take these wonderful Queen songs and force them into the narrative often times changing the lyrics to try and make them fit. For example, they take the title song from the movie “Flash Gordon” and bastardize it so it's now all about giving the captured rebels electro shock therapy. Or how about Killer Queen singing “Fat Bottomed Girls” because, well I'm still not certain why she was singing it other than to check that iconic tune off the list. Did no one listen to the lyrics of the songs while trying to write the show? They're all quite narrative to begin with. And Elton couldn't come up with a story that fit in with those narratives? I mean he's even got characters names Galileo and Scaramouche but “Bohemian Rhapsody” (the thing all the bohemian rockers are striving for in the story by the way) isn't even performed until the end of the show as an after thought encore. The cast does what they can. In fact they amp their energy and intent up to about a 17 in order to try and give this story some punch. Crum and Lewis certainly have incredible voices worthy of Freddie Mercury and they completely shred any numbers given to them. Arnold too has a gorgeous voice but doesn't seem as invested in playing the villain in this over the top melodrama. But I have to mention Ryan Knowles who not only lent some incredible pipes to his numbers but some delicious comedic timing and heart to his character making him completely “ROCK”. But even the infectious energy of this amazing cast can't polish away the stench of this turd try as they may. The show is a somewhat fun ride but ultimately weighed down with such a horrible book and bastardized songs that it just feels insulting. Queen deserves better and smarter as do audiences, which is why I give “We Will Rock You” a NAH with my three letter rating system. Others may have enjoyed it but I just found it not worth the effort. “We Will Rock You” performs at the 5th Avenue Theatre through July 13th. For tickets or information contact the 5th Avenue box office at 206-625-1900 or visit them online at www.5thavenue.org.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. A motto to live by. That is, apparently, unless you're Diane Paulus who knows better than the original creators of “Porgy and Bess”, currently playing at the 5th Avenue Theatre, on how it should be told. Sure, it's mostly the same basic story but with the pared down script and cast and the re-orchestrated music it feels like “Porgy and Bess Lite” rather than “The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess” as they call it. And don't even get me started on that title. Enough has been said on that already.
The cast of Broadway's FIRST DATE, the critically acclaimed new musical comedy starring Zachary Levi and Krysta Rodriguez, will celebrate the release of their Original Broadway Cast Album one week from today with a one night only cabaret at Broadway's nightclub, 54 BELOW. All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Operation Smile. Zachary Levi is a longtime supporter and Smile Ambassador for the organization, which provides free surgeries to repair cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities for children around the globe. Though the cabaret is nearly sold out, tickets are $35 each and can be purchased at 54BELOW.com.
From the farms of Texas to the sands of Arabia, The 5th Avenue Theatre is taking Seattle on an unforgettable journey in Secondhand Lions - a thrilling new musical based on the popular film starring Michael Caine and Robert Duvall. Secondhand Lions springs to musical life in Seattle with a cast that includes Broadway stars Gregg Edelman, Mark Jacoby, Jason Danieley, Kevin Earley, Kendra Kassebaum, Jenny Powers, and A Christmas Story's Johnny Rabe as Walter, the show's young lead, alongside several of Seattle's favorite musical theater stars.
The 5th Avenue Theatre is thrilled to announce that pirates will be invading the historic stage for four hilarious weeks of performances this summer in Gilbert & Sullivans The Pirates of Penzance. This tuneful classic first set sail from New York's Fifth Avenue Theatre on Broadway more than 130 years ago, and 40 major revivals later, it arrives in Seattle with a Pacific Northwest twist. DirectorJames Rocco will take the helm of the all-new production, which he is setting in British Columbia. This cheeky farce features a boatload of Seattle's favorite performers.
Tony Award-winning producer Junkyard Dog Productions (Memphis) has just announced that leading man Zachary Levi, star of TV's “Chuck,” Disney's feature film Tangled and the upcoming Thor: The Dark World, will make his Broadway debut starring opposite Broadway and television ingénue Krysta Rodriguez (“Smash,” The Addams Family) in FIRST DATE, Broadway's new romantic musical comedy. With a book by Austin Winsberg (“Gossip Girl”), music and lyrics byAlan Zachary and Michael Weiner (Secondhand Lions, Twice Charmed) and musical staging by Josh Rhodes (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella) FIRST DATE is directed by Bill Berry (Producing Director of The 5th Avenue Theatre). Featuring Sara Chase (“Arrested Development,” The Toxic Avenger), Kristoffer Cusick (Wicked, Rent), Blake Hammond (Sister Act, Billy Elliot) and Kate Loprest (“Boardwalk Empire,” Hairspray), the cast of FIRST DATE also includes Vicki Noon (Wicked, Mamma Mia!). FIRST DATE begins performances Tuesday, July 9, 2013, and opens Thursday, August 8, 2013, at Broadway's Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street). Additional casting to be announced shortly.
