Watching 68: A New American Musical at the New York Musical Festival, I was reminded of why I don’t like Titanic – the Musical. That show is a musical about a boat. We get very little engagement with the individual stories of the people on it, and no central character in that show carries our emotional interest through the evening.
Similarly, bookwriter and lyricist, Jamie Leo, and composer Paul Leschen, the team behind 68: A New American Musical, try very hard to capture the full range of events surrounding the democratic convention in Chicago in 1968, as well as some of the background issues.
A program note explains that the show began as a song cycle. Each song has a clear central idea, which is good. But they lyrics are generally underwritten, and wouldn’t stand alone as story songs. Instead of focusing on the experience of a few individuals to carry us through the story, the show is a collage of snippets of people and events in and around the convention, none of whom are developed enough to make us truly care. This elephant is just too big for this team to eat, no matter how small the bites.
To take us through the story, the team has created a middle aged librarian named Charlene (Mary Callanan) who never rises above being a framing device. The show opens when she decides some months after the convention, for no apparent reason, to tape interviews with people who were there. It’s not made clear that Charlene is doing this as a personal project, rather than as part of her job at the public library. What drives her personal interest is not articulated. The opening song, “The Trouble With History,” which should explain Charlene’s intentions, explains nothing….which is, in my opinion, the problem with almost all of Mr. Leo’s lyrics.
Charlene hires a young assistant, Gary (Jeremy Konopka), because she can’t handle a reel to reel tape recorder, just to run the tech. Then, almost in her next breath, she is instructing him on how to ask the very questions which she is supposed to be asking and writing herself, which makes no sense.
We don’t see each character come in for their interview, establish who they are, and then tell us their story. Instead, sometimes the characters just appear onstage in a flashback, and we don’t learn who they are or where they are until the scene is over, if at all. That leads to considerable confusion.
After the opening number, an unidentified African American man (Uton Evan OnykJekwe), who looks like he’s supposed to be Black Panther leader Huey Newton, sings a song asking “Do you feel powerless?” but we don’t know to whom.
Then, a bus full of people arriving in Chicago for the convention ask one another “Where Are You From?” in a song which was pretty but pointless, since Leo the lyricist never allows them to establish themselves as individuals in answer to the question.
There is one enjoyable yet isolated scene at the Humphrey campaign office with another worker, Sandy (the equally funny and lovely Maggie Hollinbeck), who sings a fitfully amusing song in praise of Humphrey being “”Minnesota Nice”. But like all the vignettes, this plot point also dead ends.
As preparations for the convention escalate, Police Superintendant Conlisk (Jonathan Spivey) and hard nosed Lt. Stubig (Bob Gaynor) sing a cheesy song about “The Thrill of Confrontation,” to an ensemble standing around them in white helmets, who might be intended to be police, but who look more like city construction workers taking a long lunch break.
We meet a Hispanic woman, Rebecca ( Nicole Paloma Sarro), who sings a flashback song, “Name Tag,” as her hotel maid mother, urging the wealthy guests to look right through her rather than acknowledge her. That was probably meant to be sarcastic. But a more direct statement of her feelings and her experience would have made a richer song.
A song called “The Festival of Life” takes us to the people in Grant Park. We encounter a hippie character (Joe Joseph) who looks like Abbie Hoffman, but isn’t established as anyone in particular.
The songs become more surreal as the show wears on. There’s a song called “Wake Up Call” sung by the conventioneers at the Hilton Hotel which makes them all out to be party animals, until the song becomes suddenly and inexplicably serious.
Charlene sings a song about her father’s attempts to fight for the labor movement in 1948, which is a peppy, upbeat, big band tune. We learn afterwards that she’s singing it on the day of her father’s funeral, which supposedly explains why her inexplicably sexy dress is black. This team apparently has a taste for the Brechtian, without the talent to pull it off.
Also out of nowhere, we see a Vietnamese girl (Delphi Borich) emerge in peasant garb, singing a symbolic song about the sky falling, and the failure of the chickens in the house to revolt. If you’ve been reading the program instead of watching the show, you would realize that the scene has shifted suddenly to My Lai, the scene of the worst massacre of the war by our own troops. But unless I missed it, this Vietnamese girl never was there to tell the story to Charlene. It doesn’t work in the context they’ve created.
The war itself, and its impact on the people we meet at the convention, also gets very short shrift, except for the song, “The Lucky Ones,” in which a soldier (again, Joe Joseph), who also may be singing from anywhere to anybody, describes himself ironically as being one of the lucky ones for returning from the war.
In the latter half of the show, Mr. Leo finally tries to create a relationship arc, and establishes a conflict between Charlene and Gary, which unfortunately comes out of nowhere. Then, Lt. Stubig comes in to do his interview, and there’s some trumped up conflict between the two men about the Lieutenant’s daughter, whom we never meet in the show… so we just don’t care. However, Lt. Stubig has some monologue time talking about the New Yorkers who brought the trouble, and how the police weren’t all bad guys. A round of applause to Bob Gaynor, who managed to engage me in this moment.
Also, in the very end, Jalynn Steel as Kerry the social worker gets a few moments of nicely played character development, although too late to help the show.
The choreography by Brook Wendle fails to enhance the evening. None of the design elements are worth mentioning in comparison to other work I’ve been seeing at the Festival. Even the singing of this cast, and the band under musical director Rob Baumgartner, Jr., are a cut below what I’ve heard in the other shows so far this year.
It’s hard to know whether to credit director Joey Murray for keeping all this together, or fault him for not demanding more. He does get points for convincing the team at the last minute to edit the show into a one act without intermission, although the program says it’s in two acts with an intermission. There are no cliffhangers to justify splitting the evening into two parts.
This show probably should have been presented as a reading, and more work should have been devoted to story development. Without compelling central characters, or an interesting plot, it remains a jukebox show in spirit, and an unsuccessful one.
By Jacqueline Parker
Nature’s reward for enduring a spate of rain and gloomy weather is a rainbow. The York has delivered just that in their latest production in their Mufti series, Golden Rainbow. This musical from the late 60s is always mentioned among aficionados of this art form with wistful smiles and fond remembrances. The York has brought it back to life in a version that features some new lyrics by original composer/lyricist Walter Marks that carry the storyline into this century.
Robert Cuccioli , Max Von Essen
Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
From the opening notes of the Jule Styne-esque overture to the rousing finale, the audience was toe-and-finger tapping along to the sounds so evocative of the time when most of us were very young. The story itself is touching—a single father of a boy on the brink of teenhood must wrestle with the choice of saving his livelihood or letting his son move to the other side of the country with his aunt. The connection between father and son is made clear through several songs delivered touchingly by dad Max Von Essen and son Benjamin Pajak.
Mari Davis Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
The arrival under a false pretense of Mara Davi as Aunt Judy sets the plot spinning and allows Robert Cuccioli as mobster Carmine Malatesta and Danielle Lee Greaves as Jill to play their part in the resolution with songs hilarious and touching.
Max Von Essen and Mara Davis Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
If the story seems familiar it’s because it is taken from the film “A Hole in the Head,” based on the same source material, that starred Frank Sinatra and Eddie Hodges singing the Oscar-winning song High Hopes. Golden Rainbow opened in 1968 starring Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme in the leads. They were household names at the time, based on their talent and popularity from television appearances and cabaret performances.
Max Von Essen and Benjamin Pajak
Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Perhaps most impressive in this production was Von Essen’s version of the hit song “I Gotta Be Me.” It was haunting as it built in intensity and left the audience almost breathless at the end of Act 1.
Benjamin Pajak
Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Pajak, familiar to all from his recent appearances in Oliver! and The Music Man was astounding in his ability to project the at times heartbreaking and lovingly joyous emotions of his character.
Mari Davis Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Mara Davi’s character has her own roller coaster ride of emotions, which she transmits with style and conviction.
Robert Cuccioli Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Robert Cuccioli was hilarious as a mobster singing Taste,
Danielle Lee Greaves Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
and Danielle Lee Greaves delivered two of the new songs, making me hope for a new recording of this terrific show soon.
Max Von Essen and Benjamin Pajak
Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
The clock is ticking on this gem of a show – it closes Sunday, October 1st. Get your tickets at yorktheatre.org and find your own pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.
Max Von Essen and Mara Davis Photo Credit: Rider R. Foster
Broadway
Theatre News: Here We Are, Some Like It Hot, A Beautiful Noise, All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented The Villain and The Laramie Project
The curtain rose last tonight on the first performance of the final Stephen Sondheim musical. Here We Are, the new musical from David Ives and Sondheim, is on stage at The Shed’s Griffin Theater (545 W. 30th Street), with an Opening Night on Sunday, October 22, for 15 weeks only.
Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello, the cast of Here We Are will feature Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamond, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, and Jeremy Shamos. The understudies for Here We Are are Adante Carter, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Bradley Dean, Mehry Eslaminia, Adam Harrington, and Bligh Voth.
Here We Are is inspired by two films, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, by Luis Buñuel.
Here We Are will include choreography by Sam Pinkleton, set design and costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Tom Gibbons, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, musical supervision and additional arrangements by Alexander Gemignani, hair & make-up design by Wigmaker Associates, and casting by The Telsey Office.
Tickets are on sale on TheShed.org.
For each performance, a limited number of $25 tickets will be available via a weekly lottery, which will open for entries on the TodayTix app each Sunday at 12:01 AM for the coming week’s performances and will close at 12:00 PM on the day before each performance. Winners will be notified by push notification and email between 1 – 4 PM on the day before their selected show, and will have 30 minutes to claim their tickets in the app. Entrants may request 1 or 2 tickets, and entry is free and open to all.
Via TodayTix’s mobile rush program, a limited number of $40 same-day rush tickets will be available for that day’s performance of Here We Are at 9:00 AM each day on a first-come, first-served basis. Users can download the app and “unlock” rush tickets by sharing the program on social media ahead of their desired performance day.
The most award-winning musical of the 2022-2023 season, Some Like It Hot, will play for 13 more weeks through Saturday, December 30, 2023, at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street) before launching a national tour and West End production.
Awarded Best Musical by The Drama League, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle, Some Like It Hot received over 20+ major awards throughout the 2022-2023 season, including four Tony Awards for Best Lead Actor in a Musical (J. Harrison Ghee), Best Choreography (Casey Nicholaw), Best Orchestrations (Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter) and Best Costumes in a Musical (Gregg Barnes). J. Harrison Ghee made history as the first non-binary performer to take home the Tony Award in their category.
A national tour will launch in September 2024 and a West End production will follow in 2025, produced by The Shubert Organization and Neil Meron in partnership with Ambassador Theatre Group.
At the time of the final performance, the production will have played the Shubert Theatre for over a year, for a total of 483 performances.
Will Swenson and the cast. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Will Swenson, who is electrifying audiences with his star turn in A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical, will play his final performance as ‘Neil Diamond – Then’ at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) on Sunday, October 29. Casting for the role of ‘Neil Diamond – Then’ will be announced at a future date.
The unofficial commencement of “spooky season” takes place this Friday, September 29, when Tony Award® Nominee and Grammy Award® Winner Patrick Page returns to the New York stage in All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented The Villain, a new work created and performed by Mr. Page, based on the villains of William Shakespeare. Directed by Simon Godwin, the solo show will play the DR2 Theatre (103 E 15th Street) beginning Friday, September 29, with an Opening Night set for Monday, October 16, for 14 weeks only.
Tickets are now available at allthedevilsplay.com, Telecharge or by visiting the DR2 Theatre box office (103 E 15th Street).
Julie White
Julie White and Brandon Uranowitz will join Ato Blankson-Wood in a staged benefit reading of The Laramie Project. Moises Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theatre Project’s The Laramie Project, will bedirected by Dustin Wills (Wolf Play, Wet Brain). The event, which will raise funds to support the work of The Trevor Project, will take place on Monday, October 16th at 7:00 PM at Peter Norton Symphony Space, and is being produced by District Productions. Additional casting is soon to be announced. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/vp-the-laramie-project-a-benefit-staged-reading
Pulse Theatre will be presenting Chasing Happy a new comedy by Michel Wallerstein (Flight, Five Women Waiting, Off Hand). Directed by Pulse Theatre co-Founder Alexa Kelly (Strings Attached).
Video by Magda Katz
The company of Chasing Happy features Spencer Aste (Wake Up, Axis Theatre), Jenny Bennett (City of Ladies, Pulse Theatre), Schyler Conaway in his Off-Broadway debut, Christopher James Murray (The Falling Season, Theatre Row), and Elizabeth Shepherd (Relatively Speaking and Conduct Unbecoming on Broadway; War and Peace and Inherit the Wind in London’s West End).
T2C talked to Michel Wallerstein and Spencer Aste to learn more.
Chasing Happy is a modern comedy about personal identity, love, acceptance …and the elusive pursuit of happiness. Nick is in love with another man’s boyfriend. (Oops.) Nick’s mother says George Clooney wants to date her (Really?). Nick’s ex-wife says she has to have surgery.( Now?) …It’s a laugh a minute on an unexpected merry-go-round when you’re chasing happy.
The limited engagement will play a five-week limited engagement, October 11 through November 11, at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, NYC). Opening night is Thursday, October 19 at 7PM. Tickets are now on sale at TheatreRow.org or by calling the box office, 212-714-2442 ext. 45.
For more information visit www.ChasingHappyOffBroadway.com.
By Dennis White
The theater is filled with eerie almost tribal music with birds chirping as the audience finds their seats for Primary Stages’ production of DIG at 59E59 Theaters. It’s a new play written by Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet) who also directs and as the name implies, DIG is not going to let us just see what’s on the surface. This story wants us to DIG to find out what we don’t see going on underground. The play’s setting is a garden shop that we’re told is failing but is filled with what looks like thriving plants.
David Mason in Primary Stages’ DIG at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by James Leynse.
Roger, the owner, played with elegant restraint by Jeffery Bean (Broadway’s Amadeus, Bells Are Ringing) seems content with keeping his shop even though developers are buying up the neighborhood. But Roger is unaware of how his complacent life is going to change thanks to his longtime friend Lou played by Triney Sandoval (Broadway’s Bernhardt/Hamlet), a man who reluctantly has his tormented daughter Megan come live with him. Megan deftly played by Andrea Syglowski (Broadway’s Pass Over) is a woman lost but even though it seems futile, she has not given up – completely. Entering the shop Megan takes a seat in the corner facing the wall attempting to camouflage herself in greenery covering her face with a hoodie.
She has committed an unforgivable act that has made national headlines. After a failed suicide her father agrees to supervise his daughter’s release even though he cannot forgive her. Megan reaches through her pain and within minutes she offers to repot a plant hoping to convince Roger he needs her help and she’ll work for free. You can feel how Syglowski’s Megan feels caught like the plant’s bound roots pushing against the sides of the pot, trapped and in pain. But she sees hope in the garden shop and Roger. The relationship between Roger and Megan is tenuous at first but the actors reel in the audience. The garden shop is coming alive as a place where they can both grow but it’s not as easy as they find out.
The rest of the cast is vital as they build the grotesque puzzle pieces of Megan’s horrifying past with pros like Mary Bacon (Public’s Coal Country) as Molly. Bacon does a good job as the judgmental nosy customer who turns into a helping hand. Stoner Everett aptly played in what can be described as a life lived in a pot cloud haze by Greg Keller (Playwrights Horizons’ The Thanksgiving Play) seems like a comical diversion but there’s a darker side coming. A surprising element is the appearance of Adam, Megan’s ex-husband, played with the intensity of a caged animal by David Mason (Broadway’s Pictures from Home) who makes the most of this small part. You can feel the audience cringing through the entire scene as writer/ director Theresa Rebeck finally gets her chance to see her play fully realized as she saw it in her mind, line by line.
DIG takes us to places we could not imagine when we first meet the characters. She builds relationships, tears them down, and then gives them some hope by the end. The play’s surprising revelation leaves the audience stunned, gasping at the turn of events and the secrets revealed. Rebeck’s direction seems effortless, moving her actors in the garden shop through this story of realization, forgiveness, and redemption. The scenic design by Christopher and Justin Swader (Off-Broadway’s The Boy Who Danced On Air) fill the garden shop with life, growing and changing reflecting the events of the play. Lighting by Mary Ellen Stebbins (MCC’s Space Dogs) helps set the mood with deep shadows and the original music and sound design by Fitz Patton (Broadway’s Choir Boy) give us an ominous melody to add to the tension, giving DIG a chance to get a lot of it right. The cast led by Syglowski and Bean hit all the right notes as they travel through tormented waters, some raging, while others swirl below the surface. Rebeck’s play with its unexpected twists and turns wrenches our guts and we follow gladly to the end.
For more information and tickets, visit primarystages.org/.
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, is now playing at New World Stage, 340 West 50th Street, until January 7, 2024 or beyond.
In this caricature you will find James Daly’s Dracula and clockwise: Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Arnie Burton, Ellen Harvey and Jordan Boatman who make up this amazingly talented cast.
You can read T2C’s mouth watering review here.
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