A playwright who needs someone to back his next show. A mobster who needs some way to please his showgirl girlfriend.
This could be the start of a beautiful friendship - or a brand new musical comedy!
Based on the screenplay of the acclaimed film, Bullets Over Broadway brings the talents of Woody Allen and Susan Stroman together for the first time.
Loaded with big laughs, colorful characters, and the songs that made the 20s roar, Bullets Over Broadway is ready to bring musical comedy back with a bang.
In an ideal universe, the new musical 'Bullets Over Broadway,' based on the 1994 Woody Allen film, would shut down for a few months so that a talented songwriter - perhaps David Yazbek ('Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' or the young team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul ('A Christmas Story') - could pen an original score for it. To its credit, 'Bullets Over Broadway' is mildly entertaining...Although the show contains flashy design elements, amusing one-liners and generally decent performances, the decision to use jazz standards from the 1920s and 1930s instead of an original, well-integrated score proves to be absolutely fatal. By pigeonholing these familiar tunes into the existing plot, they arrive randomly and have almost nothing to do with the characters or plot...Zach Braff works too hard at portraying the stressed-out playwright. His singing voice is pretty thin as well. On the other hand, Marin Mazzie is ideally cast as the grandly theatrical Sinclair, and Vincent Pastore of 'The Sopranos' is effortlessly effective as Valenti.
There's certainly much to savor in this gin fizz cocktail of a show, tossed back in the Art Deco glory of Prohibition-era New York. But the ostentatious flaws of this much-anticipated production, which opened at Broadway's St. James Theatre, make it difficult for me to hold my tongue...Backstage musicals bring out the best in director and choreographer Susan Stroman, and her production of 'Bullets' has electricity that at times matches her high-voltage staging of 'The Producers.' Even when the jokes fall flat and the songs (all borrowed from the period, many revamped by Glen Kelly) seem incongruous, the show has the galloping vigor of a runaway hit, if few of the ecstatic peaks...Stroman's staging moves with an effervescent fluidity - gangsters and flappers glide by, each in high Cotton Club style - yet the book isn't as spry. Scenes that could be distilled into a few lines are belabored. For all the frenetic Jazz Age motion, the show feels dramatically sluggish.
2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2015 | US Tour |
Non-Equity National Tour US Tour |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Susan Stroman |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design | William Ivey Long |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Susan Stroman |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Nick Cordero |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Set Design | Santo Loquasto |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Peter Hylenski |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Nick Cordero |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Zach Braff |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Bullets Over Broadway: The Musical |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreographer | Susan Stroman |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) | William Ivey Long |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Nick Cordero |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Marin Mazzie |
2014 | Theatre World Awards | Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance | Nick Cordero |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Woody Allen |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Choreography | Susan Stroman |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Musical | William Ivey Long |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Jeremiah J. Harris |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Doug Besterman |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Nick Cordero |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Santo Loquasto |
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