Patricia Randell
and Charlotte Booker in Deathbed
Photo Credit: Aaron Epstein
Mark Schultz’s
Deathbed
Tuesdays @ 7PM
Wednesday - Saturday @ 8PM
Saturday @ 4PM
Sunday @ 7PM
Through March 1st
McGinn/Cazale Theater
Reviewed by Marguerite
Daniels
Read
Marguerite Daniels' Iterview With Mark Shultz
Death is a pesky inevitability
of life, and it is our response to it which
is the subject of Mark Schultz’s Deathbed.
Or lack of response, rather, for this isn’t
your average cancer/death play. Schultz
has crafted a cast of characters who don’t
wail, lament, and gnash their teeth when
death looms, instead they nonchalantly shrug
their shoulders and utter a collective,
“Hmm.” Here the living just
can’t seem to muster enough energy,
caring, and empathy to sympathize with the
dying, and the dying appear more interested
in obsessing over their impending doom than
actually grieving it. If you like a good
cry with a cancer diagnosis, then this isn’t
your cup of tea. But it’s still very,
very witty.
The play opens when Jane (Charlotte Booker)
approaches Betty (Patricia Randell) in a
waiting room while she is reading a book.
Jane, a gregarious busy-body, exclaims the
book to be a sad book. A really, really
sad book, and they continue to read the
book together shadowed down stage right,
as the action of the book is dramatized.
Just as the audience readies itself for
a long-winded journey-to-death play, we
are thrust into a vigorous, quick mad dash
of a play that lasts a mere fifty minutes.
We meet Martha (Christa Scott-Reed), who
dramatically exclaims that she has cancer,
and is repeatedly met with a blatant (and
very amusing) lack of sympathy by every
character she encounters including her husband
Danny (Jonathon Walker) and her friend Susan
(Emily Donahoe). There is Thomas (Ross Bickell),
an elderly man who calmly decides to commit
suicide, and the paper boy (Clifton Guterman)
who asks if he can witness the death. Then
there is arguably the most sympathetic character
in the play Steven (Brandon Miller), a gay
man who desperately seeks love and physical
affection from every character (male or
female) he encounters. Throughout the play
there are missed connections, and the audience
is left feeling more concerned for each
character’s isolation and emotional
turmoil than sadness for any of the impending
deaths.
There are a few technical snafus in Deathbed.
The scene changes are abrupt and since the
play is very short, set transitions prove
a bit jarring. Also, the language of the
play lacks a bit of the mastery seen in
Schultz’s earlier works, such as Everything
Will be Different, which won the 2005
Oppenheimer Award and the 2006 Kesselring
Prize, but this is a deliberate exercise
on the part of the playwright. In keeping
the language spare and concise (pronouns
are the first casualties in the play), Schultz
is asking the audience to focus on the here,
on the now. Or perhaps on a greater life
philosophy, there is no point in only mourning
death, when in truth we all suffer while
we are alive.
Tickets $45 212-352-3101or purchase online
at TheaterMania.com
McGinn/Cazale
Theater |2162
Broadway
New York, NY 10024
Photo Credit Fuerzabruta
Press
Fuerzabruta
Tuesday - Thursday @ 8PM
Friday 8PM & 10:30PM
Saturday 7PM & 10PM
Sunday 7PM
Closes February 17, 2008
Reviewed by Mindy
Hyman
The
Brute Force
Fuerzabruta
is a fantastical, delectable dream transformed
into performance art. It is the type of
show that stays in your mind's eye for years
to come. Fuerzabruta is an experience;
it makes you feel as if you are a mermaid,
a bird and an athlete all in one. This show
will leave you feeling high on life and
ready to fly.
The show starts off with
a man running on a large moving treadmill
to
portray the fast pace of urban life. He
is constantly confronted with obstacles
such as people and objects in his way, intense
weather conditions and brick walls. He is
determined to keep moving- a notion that
hits close to home for many New Yorkers.
The audience participates in the show by
being directed to move by the stage hands
in order to allow for the art to take place.
Movement of the onlooker
becomes a beautiful metaphor in that we
must be open to making space
for new happenings and new ways of viewing
art.
The show uses light, color,
fabric and other materials to create a sense
of in-your-face explosions of interactive
art. Harnesses are worn by the performers
to create the action of flight. The actors
do indeed fly throughout the show and communicate
with each other in a non-language that instills
a sense of playfulness and ease. Eye candy
includes gorgeous women chasing each other
and swimming at the audience through a suspended
pool playground and a DJ up on a platform
creates a set that you can't help but dance
to.
Fuerzabruta
will take you on such a beautiful fairytale
journey that you will be surprised to find
yourself in boring old Union Square once
again. It is truly a show not to be missed.
Fuerzabruta was created by the
same people who created De La Guardia.
For more information about Fuerzabruta,
log onto: http://www.fuerzabruta.eu/en/
Tickets: $70.00; $35.00 previews; $25.00
rush. 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250
Daryl Roth Theatre
|
20 Union Square East
New York, NY 10003
Legally Blonde
- The Musical
Wednesday
2:00pm & 8:00pm
Thursday 8:00PM
Friday 8:00PM
Saturday 2:00PM & 8:00PM
Sunday 2:00PM, 7:00PM & 8:00PM
The Palace Theatre
Reviewed
by Katharine Heller
katharineheller.com
To compare Legally Blonde the Musical
to great theater would be like putting
a Twinkie up against the Miso Black Cod
at Nobu. But goddamn it, sometimes, nothing
beats a good Twinkie.
Based on
the box office hit of the same title,
Legally Blonde rarely strays
from the original script. For the five
of you who are not familiar with the premise
of the story, I'll sum it up. Beautiful
Delta Nu sorority sister Elle Woods is
crushed when her beau Warner dumps her
before leaving for Harvard Law. Elle applies
and gets
accepted to Harvard (even though I would
assume the application deadline had passed-
I never quite got that part, although
the rest of the story is perfectly plausible)
in hopes to win back her man. Long story
short she realizes she doesn't need Warner,
makes some new friends and solves a murder
case in court along the way.
The stage
translation is exactly what you would
expect, complete with spunky dance numbers,
an energetic young cast and tunes so catchy
I might consider quarantine for a good
few hours after the show. I still cannot
get the opening number, aptly called "Omigod,
You Guys!" out of my head. No, seriously,
it's pretty frustrating.
The fresh
faced and immensely talented Laura Bell
Bundy as Elle carries the show with grace
and confidence. Right behind her are Richard
H. Blake as the arrogantly hilarious Warner
and Christian Borle as her sweet love
interest, Emmett. The obvious cast standouts
however are Chico as her faithful Chihuahua,
Bruiser, and Chloe the Bulldog as Rufus.
(Rufus is the dog of Elle's friend Paulette
played
by the singly named human, Orfeh.)
The amusing
book, written by Heather Hach with music
and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell
Benjamin, includes other engaging numbers
such as the infamous, "Bend and Snap!"
and "Gay or European". With
crisp direction and choreography by Jerry
Mitchell, this family friendly show is
a lot of fun. Just make sure those you
see it with have a sweet tooth.
Tickets
$40.00-$110.00 212-307-4747 www.ticketmaster.com
Palace Theatre
|
1554 Broadway
Marisa Tomei and
Brian Hutchinson in Oh, the Humanity
Will Eno's
Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations
Tuesday - Sunday at 7PM
Saturday Matinees at 3PM
November 3 - February 2, 2008
The Flea Theater
The Humanity
in Oh, The Humanity
Reviewed
by William S. Gooch
In
Oh, The Humanity, playwright
Will Eno attempts in five short plays
to illuminate the longings of the human
heart. Currently playing at the Flea Theatre,
Eno is successful most of time in creating
intimate insights into human frustrations
and our ability to cope with tragedy.
In “Behold
the Coach, in a Blazer, Uninsured,”
a sports coach (Brian Hutchinson) reflects
on a losing season. Told in the format
of a press conference, Hutchinson, in
a droll, detached manner, compares his
team’s losing season to the losing
seasons in everyone’s life. Starring
blank-eyed at the audience, he asks, “Did
anyone have a winning season?”
Trying
to find something good about a futile
year, Hutchinson blandly replies, “We
sold a few hot dogs.” Hutchinson
is superb in his interpretation of a man
who must find something good about an
otherwise fruitless endeavor.
Academy
Award-winning actress Marisa Tomei is
especially effective as a fish-out-of-water
spokeswoman for an airline plane crash
in “ Enter the Spokeswoman, Gently.”
Totally unprepared for the interchange
with family members of the victims, she
attempts to inject a little humor by saying,
“We hope they enjoyed the inflight
movie.” Apologizing for her lack
of empathy and decorum, she says, “My
degree was in hospitality management,
I fell into this field.”
Tomei successfully
establishes this character by exposing
the character’s discomfort and vulnerabilities.
Employing guffaws and awkward body language,
Tomei brings to light what it feels like
to be out of your element.
“The
Bully Composition” is perhaps Eno’s
most challenging piece. Tomei and Hutchison
have the task of creating characters that
transport audiences from a historical
event into real time. As two photographers
who took pictures of American soldiers
during the Spanish-American War, they
comment on how photographs, if closely
perused, can speak to the emotions people
were feeling at the time the photograph
was taken. “[Photos] show up the
national dilemma in your face. The anxiety
is so beautiful.”
Inviting
the audience into this photographic world
of war and suffering is a sobering request,
but Tomei and Hutchinson are adept at
manifesting imagery and motivation that
makes the request palatable. “ War
is not hell, it is not organized enough
to be so,” says Hutchison. The stage
effect of fog also gives the audience
the feeling of looking through a glass
darkly, peering between the world of what
was and our current world of war and sacrifice.
Eno’s
dialogue, though cumbersome and amorphous
at times, does give actors the range of
situation and character that thespians
find so lacking in other arenas. He speaks
to that secret place where we all live,
where it is okay to be vulnerable, fallible,
and oh so human.
Naomi Emmerson
in Piaf: Love Conquers All
Roger
Peace's
Piaf: Love Conquers All
Saturdays and Sundays 2pm and 8pm
December 8th - Feb 10, 2008
The SoHo Playhouse
Reviewed by Bryan Close
Edith Piaf is a great character. The celebrated
French chanteuse was an iconic talent
with a larger-than-life personality and
a compelling biography – complete
with a rags-to-riches prologue, infamous
love affairs, tragic losses, heroic involvement
in the French Resistance, and debilitating
drug addiction. In theatrical terms, this
is great stuff. It is easy to see why
an enterprising performer such as Naomi
Emmerson would be drawn to the role.
Emmerson is currently starring –
and singing up a storm – in the
one-woman show Piaf: Love Conquers
All (at The Soho Playhouse through
Jan 20). She is also the show’s
producer, director and designer. That’s
a pretty impressive bag of chores, and
if it seems at times that Emmerson is
wearing a hat or two too many, well, so
was Piaf, right? Sometimes a little hubris
is a good thing. After all, the show comes
with the stamps of approval of awards
in both Toronto and New York’s fringe
festivals.
Sometimes, however, a little healthy hubris
combined with too much praise can be dangerous.
While Piaf’s high points are high
indeed, its low points would be a lot
less low if they were less invested in
competing with the high points. In other
words, this show would benefit from some
tough love, including judicious cutting
of the script. More of that anon. Meanwhile,
there’s a lot here to love.
One might assume that the greatest difficulty
in making theater out of Piaf’s
life would be finding an actress with
the pipes and the verve to do justice
to those gloriously bittersweet songs.
Good news on this score – Emmerson
can sing. More importantly, she can sing
like Edith Piaf, which is high praise
indeed. Here she fills thirteen of Piaf’s
best-known songs (in French) with bountiful,
beautiful life. She is very funny singing
the saucy “Milord” as a pert
fourteen-year-old (never mind the anachronism
– “Milord” was actually
recorded in 1959, just four years before
Piaf’s death – it works).
And the amount of feeling and tragic grace
she wrings from “Mon Dieu,”
sung towards the close of the evening
as Piaf is breaking down under the weight
of morphine and disease, is amazing to
behold. She follows this directly with
“Non, Je ne Regrette Rien,”
sung in such a pure, straightforward way
that is both moving and life-affirming.
The simple, abstract set also strikes
a perfect note – black and white
with touches of red (a scarf, an umbrella,
roses). The furniture is all skewed pen
and ink drawings come to life at odd angles
– Eloise meets Dr. Caligari –
suggesting both whimsy and madness. Accompaniment
is skillfully provided by Carmela Sinco,
half-hidden upstage behind a draped scrim.
Unfortunately, however, this Vie is not
all Rose. Roger Peace’s script never
rises above the level of dreary and-then-this-happened
narration. Also unfortunate is that the
ferocious energy that so beautifully animates
Emmerson’s singing (and the lovely
choreography that goes with it), often
leads her acting astray. There is far
too much talking in the show to far too
little purpose, and Emmerson the director
has not done Emmerson the performer any
favors by allowing her to over-emote so
consistently and egregiously. The production
so misunderstands its own strengths and
weaknesses that at one point Emmerson-as-Piaf
says, “But it is not my songs you
want to hear about,” before launching
into another over-long story, all-too-similar
to the last over-long story.
She is wrong, of course. The songs are
why we’re there. And they are beautiful.
Tickets: Regular $45, Seniors
$35, Student $25.00 212-691-1555
For more information or advance purchasesohoplayhouse.com
& lvrproductions.com.
The SoHo Playhouse
| 15 Vandam St. NY NY 10013
(between 6th and Varick)
(C/E line to Spring Station-“1”
to Houston)
212-691-1555
Shel Silverstein's
Shel's Shorts
Schedule Varies
Through Feb 23, 2008
78th Street Theater La
Reviewed by Allison
Ford
Most children’s
first experience with poetry begins with
the works of Shel Silverstein. His books
“The Giving Tree” (1964),
“Where the Sidewalk Ends,”
1974) and “A Light in the Attic”
(1981) are the funny, touching, and even
sometimes dark and subversive products
of a singularly creative mind.
Silverstein’s
legacy will undoubtedly be tied to his
children’s’ books and poetry,
although Silverstein never intended to
be a children’s writer. The majority
of his works are adult-oriented, with
the requisite lewd humor, scatological
references, and macabre themes. He is
the writer of such songs as “A Boy
Named Sue,” “Cover of the
Rolling Stone,” and even a cautionary
song about venereal disease, “Don’t
Give a Dose to the One You Love Most.”
His literary style, which is evident even
in the works primarily read by children,
is gleefully cockeyed and unique.
Along with
his books, songs, and music, Silverstein
also wrote many short plays, ruminating
on themes absurd, tender, and outrageous.
Shel’s Shorts, currently
running at the 78th Street Theater Lab,
is a production of fourteen of his short
works that is at the same time arrestingly
funny, sweetly neurotic, and subversively
dark. The plots of these shorts are varied,
and rooted in the sometimes wacky realities
of everyday life…two plumbers analyze
their dreams…a woman ruminates on
the inconvenience of her hangnails...a
man perilously misinterprets a warning
sign…a woman adds an element of
surprise to her husband’s favorite
game.
The production
has a whimsical, handmade feel, which
is a perfect accompaniment to Silverstein’s
poetic approach and illustrative style.
Anything too slick or over-produced would
do disservice to the stories, which strive
to be accessible and everyday. The talented
cast delivers meditations on the peculiarities
of life situations, mundane and far-fetched,
and the great pleasure is watching the
arc and the development of each individual
storyline. The pitfall of most short plays
and one-acts is that too often, the audience
never has the chance to see a whole story
unfold, or to see characters develop.
It is a credit to both Silverstein and
the cast of Shel’s Shorts
that in this production, the characters
are all dynamic and real. In most short-form
theater, the audience never really has
the opportunity to develop an attachment
to the characters, but in this show, I
was often sad when a scene ended, knowing
that a particularly likeable character
wouldn’t be back. The scenes, despite
their brevity, are whole and complete
stories, some with dramatic arcs more
developed than full-length plays.
There
isn’t a single scene that falls
flat, or stays static. The actors are
uniformly excellent, portraying an array
of characters with their own little quirks
and peccadilloes. Every character develops
and changes, and many scenes progress
in ways that are very different then the
audience first assumes. Amanda Byron is
a standout in “No Dogs Allowed,”
as a woman vacationing with her, ahem,
‘husband.’ She is also excellent
alongside Michael Baker in “Gone
to Take A…,” wherein a male
employee makes a serious error in judgment.
Amy Hattemer is a comedic gem in “All
Cotton,” as a complaining customer
who is not what she seems to be.
The shorts,
in some way or another, all explore the
theme of rule-breaking. Should we blindly
follow the rules as posted, or explore
paths unknown? In some characters this
manifests as merely neurosis, while other
characters examine their fears outright,
but the characters reflect that every
person has the choice to either obey the
rules or subvert the status quo, and each
short scene has a different, slightly
skewed version of this reality.
Shel’s
Shorts is not for children. This
is definitely adult content, with profanity,
bawdy humor, implied bestiality, and references
to ‘skronking,’ (whatever
that might be). These should not be considered
caveats for the faint of heart, though.
The humor is ripe, modern, witty, and
wild, and many times I laughed until I
cried.
The best
part of Shel’s Shorts is
that it reminds the audience about an
almost-forgotten childhood favorite, and
encourages them to re-examine Shel Silverstein’s
ribald works as adults. Project: Theater,
the producing organization of the show,
dedicates themselves to engaging new or
forgotten works, with an emphasis on the
dialogue between artist and audience,
along with affordability and accessibility.
Shel’s Shorts is a perfect
choice to represent their message, as
these short slices of life are as human,
touching, and sometimes ridiculous as
real life. It’s a great evening
of comedy, and a perfect way for the audience
to rediscover the talented Shel Silverstein
that they never knew existed.
Shel’s
Shorts is playing at the 78th Street
Theater Lab (236 W. 78th St.) through
February 23rd.
Tickets
are $18.00 and can be ordered by phone
at 800-838-3006 or by logging onto http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/25957
78th Street Theater
Lab |236 West 78th Street
New York, NY 10024
Steve
Sater & Duncan Sheik’s
Spring Awakening
Monday 8:00pm
Wednesday 8:00pm
Thursday 8:00pm
Friday 8:00pm
Saturday 2:00pm & 8:00pm
Sunday 2:00pm & 7:00pm
Eugene O'Neill Theatre
Reviewed by Frank J.
Avella
When I first heard that
Spring Awakening was moving to
Broadway, I was a bit concerned. Would such
an intimate show lose all potency and urgency
in a big Broadway house?
Well the answer, thank
the theatre gods, is a resounding no!
I am elated to report
that this exciting, enthralling and oddly-enchanting
production thrives at the Eugene O’Neill
Theatre. And it’s improved greatly
from the version I saw this past summer.
It’s still audacious
and ambitious but it now has a wonderful
sense of humor as well. The original production
took itself a wee too seriously. But the
gifted director Michael Mayer has found
the perfect blend of comedy and pathos here.
And it doesn’t hurt to have the extraordinary
Christine Estabrook on board.
Based on Frank Wedekind’s
highly controversial 1891 play The Awakening
of Spring (not produced until 1906),
and adapted by Steven Sater (book &
lyrics) and rock star Duncan Sheik (music),
the ‘play with songs’ (quoted
by Sheik) focuses on adolescent schoolboys
and girls at the age of sexual and spiritual
awakening. The central figures being the
good looking, wave-making Melchior (Jonathan
Groff), his sweet, naive girlfriend Wendla
(Lea Michele) and his troubled, oddball
friend Moritz (John Gallagher, Jr.) as well
as a slew of other angst-ridden, sexually-stirred,
hormonally-bonkers characters.
Spring Awakening is
mesmerizing to the eye--and ears. It’s
a deliberately hard-edged visual and aural
cacophony of the evils of repression--religious
and societal (usually one begets the other).
The richly-rewarding anachronistic
nature of the work adds to its originality
and freshness. Although the piece is set
at the turn of the last century, the actors
whip out mikes and perform raw, intensely-modern
rock songs. The device achieves a Brechtian
break in the ‘period’ action.
It’s as if the audience has warp-sped
a century to a modern day rock concert.
But the songs are the inner monologues and
emotional mind states of Everykid. And that
is why it works so well.
Sheik’s music is
extraordinary, whether it be a heart-wrenching
ballad (”The Song of Purple Summer”)
or an angry rant (the fantastically fun
“Totally Fucked”) and are matched
by Sater’s intelligent lyrics and
by the extraordinary ensemble’s vitality
and conviction in song as well as performance.
These guys were great last summer. They’re
even better and seem more assured now.
“The Bitch of Living”,
in particular, raises the levels through
the rafters!
Melchior is that perfect
blend of youth: a walking sack of sexual
energy mixed with smarts and savvy and Jonathan
Groff brilliantly brings him to life...and
to despair as is necessary. Groff has a
command now that is dazzling to behold.
Moritz is a tad more difficult
since, as written he goes from frustration
and confusion to doom very quickly, yet
Gallagher, Jr. transcends the trappings
and let’s us inside the loopy/scared
mind of this tragic hero (especially in
Act Two’s Don’t Do Sadness”).
Michele’s Wendla
still feels too tentative as Wendla but
she conveys naiveté much better and
has an amazing voice. Lauren Pritchard’s
Ilse still brims with sex appeal and evoked
the perfect combo of tumult and rebellion.
And king of smarm and charm, Jonathan B.
Wright nails his role down perfectly as
the gay survivor about to feast on his prey.
His self-pleasure moment is a riotous combo
of delight and embarrassment. Special mention
to Gideon Glick as the adorable Ernst.
Newly added cast members
Stephen Spinella, and especially, Christine
Estabrook give the show a great lift as
well.
Beyond the masterful score,
near-perfect performances and deft direction,
I had
a problem last time with feeling emotionally
caught up in the lives of the characters.
This, too, has changed. I DID feel passionately
drawn into their worlds and I did care about
their fates.
Spring Awakening
is a triumph that should be seen by anyone
who cares about the future of musical theatre.
Tickets $66.25-$111.25
at www.telecharge.com
Eugene O'Neill
Theatre | 230 West 49th Street | New York,
NY 10036
Xanadu
Tuesday @ 8PM
Wednesday @ 2PM & 8PM
Thursday @ 8PM
Friday @ 8PM
Saturday @ 2PM & 8PM
Sunday @ 3PM
Opened July 10, 2007
Helen Hayes Theater
Reviewed by Frank
J. Avella
Okay, how bloody tiresome
has it become for the Broadway theatregoer
to have to withstand yet another screen-to-stage
translation? In recent years, we’ve
had to suffer through the abysmally bad
(Saturday Night Fever, Footloose)
and the not-so-bad-but-why-the-frig-bother
(The Wedding Singer, Legally
Blonde). And then there’s Disney,
in the ‘ you own the world so just
stop it already’ category. All this
appropriation has shown a complete lack
of originality and proven producers have
no faith in the audience.
Of course, no one has
tackled the bad Hollywood movie musical
adaptation yet. Then again, exactly how
many bad Hollywood movie musicals can actually
boast having a terrific score? Not that
many. Certainly very few in the last thirty
years. Actually one. A notorious debacle
from 1980 known as Xanadu.
Now, I have to admit to
having my own personal love/hate relationship
with the screen mess known as Xanadu.
Every time I watch it (and yes, I have watched
it many times) I keep waiting for it to
be different. I keep wanting the performances
to improve and I keep praying someone will
come along and actually DIRECT and CHOREOGRAPH
those great songs (written by Jeff Lynne
and John Farrar) in some way that isn’t
catastrophically impossible to watch. Alas,
I am always disappointed.
Yet I keep revisiting
Xanadu. Why? I have never quite
figured it out. It isn’t even a very
campy film--the kind that’s so bad
it’s good. But it does feature Olivia
Newton-John and Gene Kelly...and a tiny
spark of a good idea...and have I mentioned
the fantastic score?
When I read about plans
to bring it to Broadway, I thought: “well,
it couldn’t possibly be as bad as
the film.” Then I read that Douglas
Carter Beane, thanks to the dogged persistence
of producer Robert Ahrens, had been cajoled
into writing the book. At that point, I
knew it would have some merit. And I knew
that if anyone could tap into the reason
why so many folks are Xanadu-obsessed,
it was Beane. After all he was responsible
for the brilliantly biting and insightful
play, The Little Dog Laughed, the
funniest work to hit Broadway in the last
few years. (and of course it closed prematurely!)
My hopes were high.
Then casting problems
followed as well as the leading male (James
Carpinello, the only good thing in Saturday
Night Fever) being injured while skating
and having to be replaced. Was all this
a sign?
I am elated to report
that--Spring Awakening notwithstanding--Xanadu
is the best musical currently running on
Broadway! Actually, it’s the smartest
and most entertaining musical to open in
quite a long time!
How could this be, you
ask?
It’s fairly simple.
Assemble the best creative team possible.
Cast actors who are working at the top of
their game. Shake. Stir. Shimmy. Skate!
Part of the heavenly ‘magic’
on display at the Helen Hayes Theatre has
everything to do with a keen awareness of
the tongue-in-cheeky satire at play. But
no one ever condescends to the audience.
Quite the contrary, they invite the audience
in on all the jokes (and they are legion).
Beane has written an intelligent,
witty and clever script and manages to work
several miracles in the process. Firsty,
he remains faithful to the original film
while drastically improving the story, making
spendid script alterations and adding much-needed
character dimensions. He creates a believable,
old-fashioned love story where the audience
roots for Kira and Sonny--even though she’s
a Greek daughter-of-Zeus pretending to be
an Australian and he’s a mere mortal
AND struggling artist.
Beane also does justice
to each and every one of his cast of characters,
so rare in a musical, especially one that
clocks in at ninety minutes! Finally, he
has penned a ton of ovation-inspiring one-liners
that will have you howling with laughter.
The tremendously talented
director, Christopher Ashley (along with
choreographer Dan Knechtges), ingeniously
finds enormously entertaining ways to stage
those wonderful ditties mentioned earlier
(so poorly rendered onscreen). From the
delightful opening number, “I’m
Alive” to the sensational title tune
at the end, Xanadu explodes with
an exuberant and euphoric energy and life,
most musicals would kill for.
A new Broadway star is
born in Kerry Butler. She is absolutely
remarkable as Kira/Clio. Having seen her
shine in Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors
and the devilishly delightful Bat Boy,
I was still wholly unprepared for her performance
here. She has perfect comic-timing and displays
so much verve and charisma, you will truly
have a tough time taking your eyes off of
her. She also happens to be quite stunning.
Her Kira is a rich parody of Newton-John
infused with some daffy Nicole Kidman, yet
she creates a loveable, complicated and
quite memorable character that is ultimately
her own. She also happens to have a powerhouse
voice and is particularly divine singing
“Magic” and “Suspended
in Time.” Butler fascinates right
up until the curtain call.
When you are able to look
away from Butler, Cheyenne Jackson (All
Shook Up) provides delicious eye-candy,
but so much more than that. From his very
first bit of dialogue, he seduces the audience
and endears himself as a loveable lump of
a hunk, wide-eyed and earnest. It’s
a fabulous performance, filled with comedic
gem moments. Jackson is also an excellent
songman, tearing the roof off with the showstopping
“Don’t Walk Away.” And,
boy, does he look good in those denim shorts.
Yikes!
Tearing through the production
like two hungry tigresses are stage vets
Mary Testa (as Melpomene, muse of Tragedy)
and Jackie Hoffman (as Calliope, muse of
Epics). These two scenery-chewing vamps
have a bloody blast with their parts. The
duo’s rendition of “Evil Woman”
is rousing and ‘nasty’, in the
best sense of that word. Testa’s turn
is particularly Tony-courting.
The rest of the ensemble
seem to be having the time of their lives
as well with Curtis Holbrook providing a
killer tap dance during “Whenever
You’re Away from Me”. Veteran
stage actor, Tony Roberts has his own fun
in the Gene Kelly role and really impresses
as Zeus. One of the oh-so-may highlights
involves both the song “Have You Never
Been Mellow” and the Harryhausen film
Clash of the Titans. I can’t
say more, lest I spoil a classic musical
theatre moment.
So, what is it that Beane
and the Xanadu team are able to do what
the original filmmakers couldn’t?
Because...they have found the magic in Xanadu
as well as the irony and the joy. They tell
a simple love story in a complex and interesting
way. They comment on art and the creative
gifts that are given to us. And they show
us a damn good time while doing it. What
more could we ask for? Okay, maybe just
ninety minutes more, because once you see
this show, you will want to see it again...
Xanadu
Tickets $51.25-$111.25 Buy tickets
online www.telecharge.com
- Phone 212-239-6200 & 800-432-7250
Helen Hayes |240
W. 44th Street
