Oh, Boy! 2003 - Articles Page 32

While one show on Broadway laments what ever happened to class, another three blocks away answers the question. You'd be hard-pressed to find a classier woman on Broadway nowadays than Beth Fowler, currently in The Boy From Oz.

When you've started talking about the weather it's usually a sign that your date's not going very well. Unless, of course, you're on a date with Lady Guenevere. The way Lerner and Loewe wrote her in the musical Camelot, the chick seems to have a bit of a weather fetish. Think of it. When we first see her she's so disgusted at the thought of getting married that she runs away in the middle of a forest. But how does Arthur win her over? He sings a song about how nice the weather is in his kingdom. All he's gotta do is tell her "The winter is forbidden till December" and "The rain may never fall till after sundown" and she's all hot for a royal wedding. Need further proof? Look how Lancelot steals her heart away in Act II. He sings "If Ever I Would Leave You", a song that actually names all four seasons! When the musical climax occurs at "Oh no, not in springtime, summer, winter or fall..." the queen's been worked up into such a medieval, female Viagra frenzy she's willing to dump a wealthy king who gives her everything for some dude who writes rhyming couplets about himself and fights jousts for a living.

Stephanie J. Block is flying high and with good reason. She has been fortunate to be part of not one, but two of the most talked about shows to hit Broadway in the same season, Stephen Schwartz's Wicked and The Boy From Oz.

Some fun stuff looms on the horizon. But... so does Boy George!