Broadway
What To Watch October 10th To Take Away The Blues
9:30pm: Saturdy Morning Live! By National Theatre in D.C. returns with the family favorite series—this time virtually! The performances will offer insights and entertainment especially suited for these times.
Episodes debut every two weeks on Saturday mornings. Check out the full schedule below.
Culture, music and theatre collide in bite-sized virtual experiences crafted by world-renowned educator and performer Paige Hernandez. Paige and Friends will feature some of Paige’s favorite artistic collaborators as they discuss collaboration, creativity, self-care and dreams for the future.
October 10 – Self-care
12pm: American Popular Song Society: Michael & Arthur: The Singer and the Composer Join singer/musical director and sheet music archivist Michael Lavine on October 10th for a program honoring the Broadway composer and cabaret artist Arthur Siegel. Arthur wrote the music for many of the songs in the NEW FACES Broadway shows of 1952, 1956, 1962 and 1968. He mainly collaborated with June Carroll, but in later years, Arthur wrote with other lyricists. He musically directed most of Ben Bagley’s Revisited cd’s over the years, providing arrangements and also singing on them! Michael will be joined by a number of Broadway and Cabaret artists, who will be presenting songs by Arthur. Michael will also tell some stories of his friendship with Arthur. Performers lined up to entertain: Steven Brinberg, Fay DeWitt, Natalie Douglas, Jay Aubrey Jones, Jon Peterson, T. Oliver Reid, Steve Ross, Sandy Stewart, KT Sullivan, and Sara Zahn.
12pm: Star Studio: Rema Webb By Cape Playhouse From the Cape Playhouse comes Star Studio, a series of online theatre master classes taught by some of the best Broadway has to offer.
All classes will run approximately 90 minutes to two hours and will have limited capacity to facilitate true, individualized attention from the Broadway instructors.
This episode: Broadway alum and On Broadway! founder Rema Webb lead sa course on comedy and improvisation for kids.
2pm: Broadway for Biden’s Town Hall: Spotlight On AAPI Voices Broadway for Biden’s fourth Town Hall event, produced by the Broadway Podcast Network, will stream online October 10 at 2:00pm EST. Telly Leung (Aladdin), Reggie Lee (All Rise), and Diane Phelan (School of Rock) will join a discussion about the Biden campaign’s policies for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, hosted by award-winning writer, actor, director Christine Toy Johnson.
2pm: Matinees for Families By New York City Ballet The NYCB season continues with repertory by Balanchine and Robbins specially selected for young audiences.
5:30pm: This Green Plot: A Virtual Picnic Benefit By Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s gala, This Green Plot: A Virtual Picnic Benefit, will stream online this year. The gala will be streamed from the site of HVSF’s recently announced future home in Philipstown, NY, and will include the announcement of the upcoming 2021 season.
The gala will feature special guests and musical performances from HVSF favorites including Kayla Coleman, Liam Forde, Mingo Long, Kurt Rhoads, Leenya Rideout, Britney Simpson, Emily Walton, and Nance Williamson. The musical performances will be directed by Jenn Thompson.
7pm: Hudson Valley Dance Festival Escape to the cultural heart of the Hudson Valley without leaving your living room when the Hudson Valley Dance Festival goes virtual for the first time on Saturday, October 10, 2020. The festival is produced by and benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The lineup is set to feature a diverse collection of festival premieres, made-for-the-moment filmed shorts and highlights from past festivals. The virtual festival will include an original dance film by Stephen Petronio, created at his residency center in Round Top, NY; an outdoor solo filmed at Kaatsbaan Summer Festival in Tivoli, NY, choreographed by Caleb Teicher featuring American Ballet Theatre’s Catherine Hurlin; a performance from So You Think You Can Dance’s Ricky Ubeda choreographed by Billy Griffin and more. The full lineup will be announced in the coming weeks
7pm: Next Fall Play-PerView The 10th Anniversary Broadway reunion reading of Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts (Artistic Director, Naked Angels) featuring the entire original cast led by Patrick Heusinger (“Absentia,” “Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce”), and directed by Sheryl Kaller (Mothers and Sons) on October 10th.
7:30: Wagner’s Götterdämmerung At the center of the exhilarating final episode of the Ring cycle are Siegfried and Brünnhilde, whose romance is doomed from the start: Hagen, chief minister of the Gibichung clan, intends to steal the ring for himself by wedding Brünnhilde to his half-brother Gunther and Siegfried to their sister, Gutrune. Gunther drugs Siegfried so that he will agree to wed Gutrune. At the wedding party, the unwitting Brünnhilde is crushed and infuriated by Siegfried’s infidelity, shaming him in front of the Gibichungs and banding with Gunther to hatch an assassination plot. Siegfried is still wearing the cursed ring when he is killed. When she unravels this web of treachery, Brünnhilde resolves to put an end to it. She takes the ring and rides her horse into Siegfried’s enormous funeral pyre—an immolation that leads to cleansing apocalypse. The Rhine overflows, reclaiming its gold, Valhalla burns with its gods inside, and a new age dawns.
7:30pm and 9:30pm: Concert by original Six stars The original stars of the West End production of SIX will reunite for a live concert, presented in-person to a socially distant audience at London’s Oval Space and live streamed to over 100 countries. Tickets available on Thespie
8pm: Jack Was Kind All for One Theater Through October 10
Tracy Thorne wrote and performs this “intimate, confessional play examines long-seated issues of privilege and complicity.” The production will be presented live on Zoom, four times a week, Wednesday-Saturday through October 10 for limited audiences.
8pm: Right Before I Go, Featuring Vanessa Williams, Blair Underwood, More written by Stan Zimmerman and directed by Michael Wilson, in association with R. Erin Craig / La Vie Productions, brings to life the last words of those lost to suicide in a play that aims to provide a sense of understanding and hope for the living.
The performance features Vanessa Williams, Blair Underwood, Hari Nef, and Wilson Cruz.
8pm: Birdland: Jessica Vosk: Coco Catch Up Broadway singer Jessica Vosk will be in the spotlight, along with her special guests, Marissa Rosen and Michael DiLiberto. Musical director for the event will be Mary Mitchell Campbell. Jessica Vosk is bringing her “Coco Catch Up” (finally) to a real stage. The pandemic might keep us from Broadway, but it is important to bring a concert to you that was curated for this particular event. Featuring songs from her album “Wild & Free,” as well as some brand new songs (Lady Gaga, Eva Cassidy, Taylor Swift and more), Jessica’s hope it to bring some joy and laughter wherever you are in the world. She says, “We are all in this together!”
8pm: Stars in the House: Coastal Disturbances Annette Bening reprises her role (along with much of the original cast) in Tina Howe’s play about a romance, set on a private Massachusetts beach. Jonas Abry, Timothy Daly, Jean De Baer, Angela Goethals, Ronald Guttman, Heather Mac Rae, Mary Kay Place and Ed Begley Jr. Directed by Annette Bening.
9pm: 2020 Carousel of Hope Ball The evening will be filled with once-in-a-lifetime performances and special appearances from icons including Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, Tony Bennett, Andrea Bocelli, George Clooney, Dame Joan Collins, Clive Davis, Robert De Niro, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Cynthia Erivo, Jane Fonda, David Foster, David Geffen, Josh Groban, Samuel L. Jackson, Quincy Jones, Gladys Knight, Adam Lambert, Jay Leno, Rob Lowe, Nigel Lythgoe, Barry Manilow, Judge Judy Sheindlin, Diane Warren, Dionne Warwick, Oprah Winfrey, Henry Winkler, and many more.
As previously announced, this year’s event will feature Jay Leno as master of ceremonies, David Foster as music director, George Schlatter as honorary producer, and Clive Davis and Quincy Jones as music chairmen. The event will be produced and directed by Erich Bergen and Marc Johnston.
Since its inception in 1978, the Carousel of Hope Ball has been a Hollywood favorite, raising more than $105 million to date, with proceeds benefitting the Children’s Diabetes Foundation and the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes.
Broadway
Broadway’s A Doll’s House Meticulously Stunning Revival Soars Like a Birdie Above That Clumsy Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
For a revival to find its footing, it has to have a point of view or a sense of purpose far beyond an actor’s desire to perform a part, whether it suits them or not. It needs to radiate an idea that will make us want to sit up and pay attention. To feel its need to exist. And on one particular day in March, I was blessed with the opportunity to see not just one grande revival, but two. One was a detailed pulled-apart revolutionary revival of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House that astounded. The other, unfortunately, was a clumsy revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that fell lazily from that high-wired peak – not for a lack of trying, but from a formulation that never found its purpose.
But over at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, a reformulation chirps most wisely and wonderfully, bringing depth and focus to a classic Henrik Ibsen (Hedda Gabler) play that I didn’t realize was in such need of an adaptation. With no extravagance at its core, Amy Herzog (Mary Jane) dynamically takes the detailed structure and beautifully adapted it with due purpose. It hypnotizes, dragging in a number of light wooden chairs, Scandinavian in style, I believe, onto the stage, one by one, by their black-clad counterparts in a determined effort to unpack what will unfold. There is no artifice to hide behind in this rendering, as designed most impeccably by scenic and co-costume designer Soutra Gilmour (NT’s My Brilliant Friend; Broadway’s & Juliet) and co-costume designer Enver Chakartash (Broadway’s Is This A Room), only A Doll’s House’s celebrated star, Jessica Chastain (Broadway’s The Heiress; “The Eyes of Tammy Faye“) rotating the expanse of the bare stage before the others join her slowly and deliberately. She sits, arms crossed, staring, daring us to look away, while knowing full well we won’t. Or can’t. And without a word, it feels like she has us exactly where she wants us. Needs us to be. And all that transpires before the play even begins.
They sit on that bare and stark stage, waiting, in a way, to be played with, like dolls patiently wanting some children to come and give them a voice through their imagination. As Nora, Chastain delivers forward a performance that is unparalleled. To witness what transpires across her face during the course of this extra fine adaptation is to engage in a dance so delicately embroidered that we can’t help but be moved and transported. She barely moves from her chair, as others, like the equally wonderful Arian Moayed (Broadway’s The Humans) as Torvald, are rotated in to sit beside her, conversing and delivering magnified lines, thanks to the brilliant work of sound designers Ben & Max Ringham (West End’s Prima Facie), that dig deep into the underbelly of the complicated interactions. This pair of actors find a pathway through the darkness, never letting us come to any conclusions until they are ready to unleash a moment that will leave you breathless. This is particularly true for Moayed’s Torvald, who seems decent enough at the beginning, but once the shift occurs, when the beautiful thing doesn’t happen as it should, his unveiling is as gut-wrenching to us as it is to Nora. Even though we knew it was coming long before the play even began to spin forward.
The art of the unfolding is steeped within the whole, refocused inside the brilliant shading, shadowing, and starkness of the cast. As Krogstad, the powerful Okieriete Onaodowan (Broadway’s Hamilton), alongside the deliciously tight Jesmille Darbouze (Broadway’s Kiss Me, Kate) as Kristine, find an engagement that sits perfectly in the structuring. They push the reforming to the edge, approaching and receding away from Chastain’s brilliant centering helping move the piece towards the required conclusion.
The same can be said of the wonderful Tasha Lawrence (LCT’s Pipeline) as Anne-Marie, and the exquisitely emotional turning of Michael Patrick Thornton (Broadway’s Macbeth) as Dr. Rank. Thornton, in particular, finds a telling and emotional space to connect, unearthing an engagement that breaks the circle apart, leaving Chastain’s Nora and all of us observers shattered and broken in its black X’d finality.
As directed with the same magnificently detailed energy and flat-walled framework as the previously seen Betrayal on Broadway and the West End, Jamie Lloyd gives us A Doll’s House that will never be forgotten. The focus is so deliberate, and the formulations are just so strong, pushed forward in black and white by the exacting lighting design of Jon Clark (West End/Broadway’s The Lehman Trilogy). Forced while remaining ever so intimate, the cascading of the statement delivered registers in a precise way, more exacting than I ever remembered, and I’ve seen numerous renditions of this epic play. And even though, from what I hear, many on the left couldn’t see the epic exit of Nora, a moment that typically registers throughout theatre history, the symbol of a woman, steadfast and true, leaving the safe and simple artifice of A Doll’s House for engagement in the hard cruel reality of the world outside is as clear as can be. The delicacies of this birdie trapped inside a cage, poisoned with lies and excuses, and beautifully brought forth by Chastain, registers the reasonings for this revival to exist. It has found a new and deliberate place to sing, and for that, I am truly grateful.
I wish I could say the same about Ruth Stage‘s modern take on the Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire) classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, currently being re-delivered at the Theatre at St. Clements. As directed by Joe Rosario (Hemingway and Me; Ruth Stages’ The Exhibition), the play doesn’t find its rationale for existing in the modern day beyond the simplistic sexualization of its boxing-ring corners. Matt de Rogatis (Austin Pendleton’s Wars of the Roses) as the tense athletic Brick stays broken and damaged in his corner, riding out the moment, waiting for the click, while in the other corner is the tense Maggie, played without hesitation by Courtney Henggeler (Netflix’s “Cobra Kai“) poised and ready for the bell to ring.
The battle is only heightened by the presence of two other fighters in the opposing corners, Big Daddy, played with determination by Frederick Weller (Broadway’s To Kill a Mockingbird) in the third, and Big Mama, played with a strong intent by Alison Fraser (Gingold Theatrical’s Heartbreak House), in the fourth. And watching and cheering for their own personal perspective wins are the obnoxious Mae, typically portrayed by Christine Copley (although I believe I saw an understudy), the weasely Gooper, played by Adam Dodway (Theatre Row’s Small Craft Warnings), Rev. Tooker portrayed by Milton Elliott (Ruth Stage’s Hamlet), and Doc Baugh, typically played by Jim Kempner (“The Girlfriend Experience“) (although, once again, I believe I saw an understudy).
Generally, this is a battle that rages deceptively strong and subtle for the length of the play, swimming cruelly in the hazy heat of its Southern charm. But somewhere in this modernization, the reasonings never get fully realized, leaving the cast to wander in their stereotypical delivery without a sharp focal point in the horizon to zero in on. Hidden behind the bar and the drink, de Rogatis finds a Brick to be engaged with. He’s definitely handsome and desirable, especially in the eyes of the far-too-straightforward Henggeler’s Maggie the Cat, and his occupation of drinking rings more true than most. I’m not sure if the modernization has been created to fit his chest-baring delivery of a broken Brick, but I will say that his artful approach to the part is one of the stronger components of this otherwise clunky reimagining.
Given so much to unpack, Henggeler runs a little too fast and furious, not weaving a pause into her thoughts and actions. It’s all forward flowing, ignoring the laws of silence and deliberation. Big Mama and Big Daddy, ignoring the fact that they don’t seem to fit in with their surroundings or the set-up, find their way into the same cage as the two central figure fighters, giving us something else to contemplate in their constructs, beyond their tight fitting jeans and dress. There’s not much of a father/son connection, nor does their familial energy register, even as it moves and twitches within the pauses well. The details of attachment are lost, as they talk around things, with everyone else playing at high volume, courtesy of a sound design by Tomás Correa (Hudson Street’s Adam & Eve), delivering the Southern drawl with the intensity of an SNL skit. That’s a problem to the whole and one that doesn’t work for this rendering.
Most of the cast is all hock and no spit, moving around the room with a strange case of physicalized mendacity while never really finding a reason for their existence. The artifice gets in the way of the movement, especially in Matthew Imhoff’s (off-Broadway’s soot and spit) busy and overly clumsy set, with some distracting fading in and out by lighting designer Christian Specht’s (SSTI’s Cabaret). The storm approaching is as false as the formula and the reasoning for this retelling. It showcases some basically good actors embracing the chance to play iconic Big roles that I’m sure they have always wanted to dig their Southern-accented chomps into, possibly because one or two of them might never otherwise get the chance as they don’t exactly fit the literal sashaying of the “fat old” bodies out and around the staging of this play. The idea breeds curiosity, but one that doesn’t save this Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from falling quick and hard from its perch, I’m sad to say. While the birdie in A Doll’s House flies strong out into the cool Broadway air, with solid reasoning on its stark wings, reminding us all what makes for a worthy reimagining of a classic.
You are seriously asking for it, when you make the title for your musical Bad Cinderella, however the show is not bad, it’s just seriously lacking. For an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which is normally rich in melody, the only song that has any kind of hold is “Only You, Lonely You” sung by Prince Sebastian (Jordan Dobson or in my performance the wonderful Julio Ray). The lyrics by David Zippel and book by Emerald Fennell, adapted by Alexis Scheer are inane. It doesn’t help that the cast for the most part speaks and sings with mouths full of cotton. The orchestrations sound tinny and computerized, The lead Linedy Genao has no charisma or vocals that soar musically, instead she is rather nasal, like Bernadette Peters with a cold. Why this show is two and a half hours long is beyond me.
Grace McLean and the hunks Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
The show is based in a town called Belleville (beautiful town en Francais), that is based solely on looks and prides itself on its superficiality. The opening number starts with “Beauty Is Our Duty,” the Queen (a fabulous Grace McLean) is into her hunks including her missing son Charming (Cameron Loyal).
Christina Acosta Robinson Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
And the fairy godmother (Christina Acosta Robinson) is a plastic surgeon who sings “Beauty Has a Price”. In a day and age, where we are suppose to see past all that, this show is politically incorrect.
Linedy Genao Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Cinderella a Gothic, and a graffiti artist, naturally does not fit into the town’s mold of beauty, which is how she earns her nickname. Her rebel move happens when she defaces a memorial statue of Sebastian’s older brother, Prince Charming. Sebastian is more of a geek, and he and Cinderella are in the “friend zone,” since both lack communication skills in admitting their love.
Carolee Carmello Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Sebastian is being forced by his mother, the Queen to find a wife at a ball and invites Cinderella. Cinderella’s stepmother (the always remarkable Carolee Carmello) blackmails the Queen to get one of her daughters Adele (Sami Gayle) or Marie (Morgan Higgins) the gig.
Grace McLean, Carolee Carmello Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
McLean and Carmello are the bright spots in the show and if the show had been about these two, maybe we would actually have a show that could work. These two steal the show.
Linedy Genao, Jordan Dobson, Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Cinderella has not one, but two what should have been show stopping numbers “I Know I Have A Heart (Because You Broke It)” and “Far Too Late,” but she does not have the vocals, the character development or the star power to carry them off.
The set and the revenge porn costumes by Gabriela Tylesova, are just over the top, with the storybook set faring much better than the over complicated flowered pastels that waltzed across the stage.
The direction by Laurence Connor is just dull and lacks oomph.
If you like buff men and Chippendale type choreography this is the show for you.
Bad Cinderella, Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street.
On Friday, March 24th, the 96-year-old John Kander was given a Mayoral Proclamation from Mayor Eric Adams in celebration of the first performance of his new Broadway musical New York, New York. Following the proclamation, Lin-Manuel Miranda unveiled the sign renaming 44th Steet ‘Kander & Ebb Way. On hand was the Manhattan School of Music to performed the iconic Kander & Ebb song “New York, New York.”
New York, New York opens Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at Broadway’s St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street).
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