In a busy autumn on Broadway, here are a few of the better offerings to meet a variety of tastes: Maybe Happy Ending – On a Broadway landscape filled with movie adaptations and celebrity biographies, a genuinely original musical — from Korea, no less — is bound to stand out. Factor in that it is a romantic comedy between two outdated robots in the year 2064, who didn’t know … [Read more...]
Maltz’s gentle ‘Once’ a satisfying alternative to holiday bombast
So many musicals are adaptations of movies, largely because their producers want theatergoers to be drawn in by familiar material. But surely few saw the small, low-budget 2006 Irish film Once. Nevertheless, it made its way to Broadway 12 years ago, winning eight Tony Awards including best musical and now, just as improbably, it has been mounted at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Joseph’ an engaging romp with standout performances
Long before composer Andrew Lloyd Webber became known for musicals about felines, an Argentine social climber and a Parisian phantom, he began his theatrical career with tales from the Bible. He and lyricist Tim Rice were commissioned by a British prep school to create a show for its student choir and the result was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, based on the Old … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 7: ‘Death Becomes Her’ looks to be a campy hit
A campy, effects-heavy movie from 1992, Death Becomes Her, gets a stage musical makeover and looks likely to have a healthy run if the audience response at the final Wednesday matinee preview is any indication. Megan Hilty (TV's Smash) and Jennifer Simard (Company revival) inherit the roles from Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as a fading film star and a plain-jane novelist … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 6: Unfocused ‘Tammy Faye’ announces closing
Tammy Faye, the musical biography of the infamous, free-spending televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, with a score by Elton John, was touted to be one of the Broadway season’s big hits. But yesterday afternoon, just hours before I saw the show, it unexpectedly posted its closing notice, surely reflecting weak advance sales. Tammy Faye opened Thursday and will close on December 8, … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 5: Culture break for retrospectives of two dance giants
Monday means that Broadway is dark, but I can still get some arts culture. This morning I went to the Whitney Museum to see Edges of Ailey, the first major show devoted to modern dance giant Alvin Ailey. Videos, artifacts and paintings by contemporary African-American artists. First-rate. In the afternoon, I went to the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center where the … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 4: Mary Todd Lincoln, played for (some) laughs
If these distressing times cry out for something silly to laugh at, an elfin young man named Cole Escola has emerged to deliver it with Oh, Mary. He wrote the 80-minute romp and stars as Mary Todd Lincoln, in a bouncy hoop skirt and ringlets wig. A spiritual descendant of Charles Ludlum and his Ridiculous Theater, Oh, Mary is too silly for my taste, but that is clearly a … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 3: New leads make for a scorching ‘Cabaret’ revival
“Immersive” and “environmental” are the hot buzzwords on Broadway these days, nowhere more evident at Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. The August Wilson Theatre has been gutted and transformed into the tawdry nightclub of Weimar Berlin, the site of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s landmark musical, which has grown edgier and more topical over the years. While their Chicago is … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 2: ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ a refreshing change from usual musical bombast
Putting quality aside for the moment, you have to concede that Broadway musicals have been distressingly unoriginal of late, being largely uninspired rehashes of movies and biographies of music icons. So it was eye-opening to encounter Maybe Happy Ending, a truly novel tale of romance between a pair of robots that originated in South Korea, of all places. Part rom-com and … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 1: Hello, Louis: An exceptional Armstrong from Iglehart
I'm up in New York this week to attend the bat mitzvah of a cousin, Emma. So while I'm here, I'll see six shows in seven days. I began last night with A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, a biographical show about the trumpet-playing "king of jazz." The best thing about it is James Monroe Iglehart, an enormously appealing performer who is probably damaging … [Read more...]