With the same umbrage that it greeted the arrival of the Disney machine two decades ago, the theater community has turned a cold shoulder to Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has muscled his way onto Broadway with Finding Neverland, a musical adaptation of his 2004 film.
The show received absolutely no Tony nominations, but audiences are flocking anyway to this mawkish tale of British playwright J.M. Barrie and his creation of the enduring boy who refused to grow up, Peter Pan. Show biz politics aside, Finding Neverland is a reasonably entertaining, though way too insistent contraption geared for the family market as long as they do not mind a musical built around writer’s block and the death of a major character.
Aside from The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan may be the best-known work of fiction in the English language, which audiences arrive knowing and loving. Before the show begins, a tiny beam of light flits about the auditorium to the vocal delight of theatergoers, young and old, proof that they are primed for what is ahead.
That would be Barrie’s encounter with a widow named Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Laura Michelle Kelly) and her four rambunctious boys. Barrie (Matthew Morrison), you see, is coming off an expensive theatrical flop and is being pressured by his producer, Charles Frohman (Kelsey Grammer), to write something commercial. But Barrie is stuck for an idea until he gets in touch with his inner child, becomes inspired by the boys – particularly Peter, mature for his age – and creates the Neverland mythology. And unlike in the movie, Barrie develops romantic feelings for Sylvia, largely so he can sing a few love ballads.
The uninspired score is by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy (of the U.K. band Take That) in their first attempt at writing for the musical theater. Directing is Diane Paulus, who previously won Tonys for her revivals of Hair, Porgy and Bess and Pippin, but seems less assured with her first attempt at creating a new show for Broadway, pitching it precariously between an adult musical and kids’ stuff.
Finding Neverland marks Morrison’s return to Broadway after years on TV’s Glee, convincing enough as the childlike Barrie despite the far-fetched actions he is required to do. Grammer mostly underplays as Frohman, in distinct contrast to the first-act finale where he gets to cavort as Captain Hook.
Some shows leave an audience with a tune in its head, some have us whistling the scenery. With Finding Neverland, the most memorable element is the “air sculpture” of Daniel Wurtzel, a stunning glitter cloud effect that will almost make you a believer.
FINDING NEVERLAND (Grade: C), Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 205 W. 46th St. Tickets: $72-$147. 800-745-3000.
***
If only there were a Tony Award category for Most Talented Cast Trying Desperately to Breathe Life into Tired Material, then It Shoulda Been You could declare itself a winner.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: In a fancy hotel ballroom, two families from different cultural backgrounds gather for a wedding ceremony where squabbling breaks out, secrets get divulged and, after much schtick and partner-swapping, matters are resolved happily ever after.
Maybe it was director David Hyde Pierce who attracted these performers, because it sure wasn’t the material. There is formidable Tyne Daly as the overbearing mother of the Jewish bride-to-be and, as her counterpoint, the drily comic Harriet Harris as the mother of the WASPy groom. Then there’s the reliable, but wasted Chip Zien as Daly’s henpecked husband and the air-headed Edward Hibbert as the wedding planner.
And of the new generation of Broadway fixtures, there is Sierra Boggess (The Little Mermaid) as the bride, Montego Glover (Memphis) as her maid of honor and, as a genuine show-stealer, even if it is petty theft, Lisa Howard as the plump, neglected sister of the bride who wakes us up with her 11 o’clock solo, “Jenny’s Blues.”
Beyond the cast, the only possible reason It Shoulda Been You’s producers possibly thought this show was worthy of Broadway was its “surprise” plot twist. I wouldn’t dream of giving it away, but it you knew that book and lyrics writer Brian Hargrove is Hyde Pierce’s husband and that David Burtka, who plays the groom, is Neil Patrick Harris’s real-life hubby, you might figure out the surprise.
It Shoulda Been You also failed to garner any Tony nominations, which led me to predict it would close soon after they were announced. It continues to run — at a considerable weekly loss — so do not expect it to be around much beyond the Tonys ceremony.
IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU (Grade: D), Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 256 W. 47th St. $59-$132. 800-745-3000.
***
From the land that gave us the event theater of Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby and Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia comes yet another epic stage work, the two-part Wolf Hall, based on the first two volumes of Hilary Mantel’s history of King Henry VIII’s tumultuous reign, as seen from the perspective of his right-hand henchman, Thomas Cromwell.
At six hours, Wolf Hall is both too long and not long enough. The running time feels excessive, and yet the effort to contain so much English history in that time reduces it to a mere outline. There is plenty to take in over the course of two evenings (or a single day, with a dinner break), but all too often adaptor Mike Poulton (Fortune’s Fool) emphasizes plot over drama.
Still, it is juicy plot. Part One focuses on Henry’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon, a worthy mate for the king in every regard except one — her inability to present him with a male heir. So with Cromwell’s aid, and against the protestations of his Lord Chancellor, Thomas Wolsey, and the high-minded Thomas More, Henry exits Catholicism and invents the Church of England solely for its ability to annul his marriage.
Waiting in the wings — literally, in this case — is Anne Boleyn, who weds the king. But she is also male heir-challenged, a deficiency which she pays for with her head. And so it goes, next with lady-in-waiting — literally — Jane Seymour, the final wife, at least as far as Wolf Hall goes. Still to come, perhaps by her publishing deadline next year, is Mantel’s third volume and, undoubtedly, the third shoe of the theatrical trilogy soon afterwards.
With the large cast that only a subsidized troupe like the Royal Shakespeare Company can afford, director Jeremy Herrin keeps the pageantry and treachery moving. It boasts no recognizable stars, at least on this side of the ocean, but the acting is uniformly impressive and, with some subsequent film work or television series, such names as Ben Miles (Cromwell), Nathaniel Parker (Henry) or Lucy Briers (Katherine) deserve to become well known.
In a Broadway season that also includes The Curious Incident… and The Audience, two flashier British imports, Wolf Hall is not the runaway prestige hit it was expected to be, but it is certainly impressive enough to make us envious.
WOLF HALL. (Grade: B) Winter Garden Theatre, 1634 Broadway, through Sun, July 5. $27-$250. 800-432-7250.