I spent the day with King Henry VIII and his chief henchman Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s epic — as in very long — Wolf Hall. I’ll tell you a little about it, but first a shameless plug for a new CD of demo tapes by Broadway composer Cy Coleman (Sweet Charity, Little Me, City of Angels) called You Fascinate Me So. Coleman sings many of the numbers along … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 7: “It Shoulda Been You”
I have now seen nine shows on this trip and the main thing they have in common is that they all received standing ovations. And the proof that a Broadway audience will give a standing O to anything is the new musical I saw Thursday night, It Shoulda Been You. Its story, such as it is, concerns a wedding between a Jewish girl and a gentile guy who tries to endear himself by … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 6: “The Audience”
New York is not a very good city for shopping malls, but I learned Thursday that it has a couple of first-rate upscale food courts. Next time you’re here, check out Chelsea Market (9th Avenue, between 15th and 16th St.), full of gourmet food shops, like Lobster Place, which sells great looking seafood and — I can report from first-hand knowledge — first-rate sushi. If that … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 5: “Fun Home,” “On the 20th Century”
Before the rains came Wednesday afternoon, the weather in New York was beautiful. And with a little time to kill in Chelsea before an interview with composer-lyricist-orchestrator Jason Robert Brown (Bridges of Madison County), I went up on the High Line, an elevated park/promenade that runs from 34th Street to Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District, along the far Westside. A … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No.4: The Bonnet show, ‘The Curious Incident’
I come to New York at this time of year to catch the shows that open just before the Tonys eligibility deadline, but this week specifically to see the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition. For the past 29 years, the Broadway community has celebrated the end of the fundraising season with a two-day pop-up production of skits written and performed by the … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 3: “Something Rotten!”
So many musicals these days come from popular movies that a truly original, based on no previous material, show is extremely rare. So when an upstart new original show announced that it would open on Broadway without any out-of-town tryout, it seemed like the height of chutzpah. What was worse, the show is called Something Rotten!, which is ammunition one should never hand to … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 2: ‘Finding Neverland’
Arrived in New York on Saturday, to gorgeous, crisp, sunny weather. But Sunday turned downright cold and rain is expected today. Sunday evening I saw Finding Neverland, the new musical based on the 2004 movie that starred Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, and Kate Winslet as the widow whose four kids inspired the timeless fable of the boy who never grew up. … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway, No. 1: A stopover in D.C. for ‘The Originalist’
Like Neil Simon's alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome, I am Broadway-bound, with 11 shows lined up to see in nine days. I arrive today and will soon be in a theater, seeing the musical adaptation of Boris Pasternak's great Dr. Zhivago. (Fill in your own punch line.) But before New York, I spent a week in my hometown of Washington, D.C. While there, I went to Arena Stage, the … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 9: ‘Mothers and Sons’ and ‘Buyer & Cellar’
Last day of theatergoing in New York for me this trip, and another doubleheader. In 1990, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, Terrence McNally expanded a brief play into a made-for-public-television movie, Andre's Mother, about an intractable woman grieving over the death of her gay son. It has now been expanded further, updated and produced on Broadway with the new title, … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 8: ‘Beautiful’ has star turn, but script is too weak
Few people were expecting much when a jukebox musical biography about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons came to Broadway years ago, but Jersey Boys floored the theater world with such shabby tricks as a good surprise-laden story, sharp writing and first-rate staging. Ever since, producers have been in search of the next Jersey Boys. Sorry to report, Beautiful: The Carole … [Read more...]