Broadway
What To Watch September 30th To Take Away The Blues
Boys in the Band Netflix. Jim Parsons, Robin De Jesus, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells, Michael Benjamin Washington and Matt Bomer star in this Ryan Murphy-produced film based on Mart Crowley’s iconic play.
11am: Unbought & Unbossed: Reclaiming Our Vote By National Black Theatre. After its critically acclaimed partnership with Park Avenue Armory for 100 YEARS | 100 WOMEN, National Black Theatre continues to uplift and focus on voter rights and the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment with a curated digital series called, Unbought & Unbossed: Reclaiming Our Vote.
Grounded in the dynamic legacy of Shirley Chisholm, this digital series features micro-commissions from Ngozi Anyanwu, Hope Boykin, Mahogany L. Browne, Dane Figueroa Edidi, Candice Hoyes, Val Jeanty, and Dianne Smith. Their multidisciplinary works will generate community awareness around the national election on November 3, 2020, uplift the legacy of Shirley Chisholm and her peers, and support the current conversation around the power of the vote from the perspective of Black women.
3pm: The Show Must Go Online: Timon of Athens British actor and director Robert Myles launched The Show Must Go Online, a weekly online reading group—performed by actors via Zoom and live streamed on YouTube—that works through Shakespeare’s plays in the order they were written.
Timon of Athens – Ben Crystal, Flavius – Alex Phelps, Apemantus – Miguel Pérez, Alcibiades – Isabel Adomakoh, Poet – Gabriel Akamo, Painter – Michael A Lake, Third Senator – Mari Hayes, Actor Flaminius – Charlotte Vaughn Raines, Servilius – Victoria Howell and guest speaker Sir Simon Russell Beale.
All readings are saved to enjoy at a later date once they’ve been live streamed.
Shakespeare scholars have long referenced the fact that the Bard penned some of his greatest works in the midst of the plague, penning not only poetry while the theatres were shut, but plays too. Inspired by this, and in the wake of coronavirus restrictions around the globe, The Show Must Go Online was born.
4pm–9:30pm: Marie’s Crisis Virtual Piano Bar Tonight’s scheduled pianists are James Merillat (@James-Merillat-2) and Franca Vercelloni (@Franca-Vercelloni).
5pm: Metropolitan Opera: Free Student Stream The Merry Widow is a frothy comedy of love filled with memorable tunes, elegant settings, and realistically drawn, likeable characters. Composer Franz Lehár was the leading exponent of the “Silver Age” of operetta, the years between 1900 and 1920 that produced some of the most musically sophisticated scores of the genre, following operetta’s first wave of popularity (often referred to as the “Golden Age”), which began around the mid-19th century with the works of Johann Strauss, Jr. and other composers.
In her new Met production, director and choreographer Susan Stroman, together with her design team, has created a sparkling art nouveau setting for this charming tale while also taking a close look at the heart of the piece—the merry widow of the title, a woman who embodies modern sensibilities and pursues her own desires. Starring Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara and Nathan Gunn.
6, 7, 8 and 9pm: Voyeur: The Windows of Toulouse Lautrec Bated Breath Theater Company. In this open air, intimate theatrical experience, you and five other masked audience members will be guided through the dreams of iconic artist Toulouse-Lautrec as he recalls his final absinthe-laced years living and working in Montmartre. The sidewalks, doorways and windows of Greenwich Village become the setting as live accompaniment collides with the city’s soundscape, transporting you into the bohemian world of 1899 Paris.
7pm: Conversation with James Barbour Zoom in to the Lambs for an intimate evening with James Barbour. Click Here to join the Zoom meeting. The passcode is 1874JB.
James Barbour spent nearly 3 years starring as‘ The Phantom” in Broadway’s longest running smash hit musical The Phantom Of The Opera. An award winning Broadway star, international concert artist and speaker, James won the LA Ovation Best Actor Award for his portrayal of ‘Jean Valjean” in Les Miserables and was nominated for the Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Awards for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Sydney Carton in the Broadway musical version of A Tale of Two Cities. He also won the Sarasota Magazine Best Actor Award for the Asolo Rep pre-Broadway production. He has starred on Broadway in such Tony-Award winning shows as Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast as The Beast, Carousel as Billy Bigelow, Urinetown as Officer Lockstock and as Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre (Drama League Award nomination). He also appeared in the Broadway production of Cyrano and the national tour of The Secret Garden as well as multiple television and film credits to his name.
7pm: Days of Re-Creation By Philadelphia Theatre Company. The contemporary re-imagining of the Book of Genesis, inspired by current events, will feature Three Karens by Tony winner BD Wong, The Nerd by Lauren Yee, The Strong Friend, and Company by Masi Asare, SoilMates by SEVAN, To the Stars, With Love by Nandita Shenoy, S.C.R.I by AriDy Nox, and La Egoista by Erlina Ortiz.
7pm: Babbling by the Brook By Paper Mill Playhouse. Join Paper Mill Playhouse and Mark S. Hoebee each week for lighthearted, entertaining conversations with a star-studded roster of performers, writers, directors, and more theatrical denizens.
Gain insight into upcoming productions, delve into the creative process, and catch up with veteran actors!
7pm: New York Theatre Barn: The Lucky Boy / Borderline
The Lucky Boy
Book, music, and lyrics by Kirsten Childs
Directed by John Simpkins, music directed by Jennifer Peacock
Featuring Malik Bilbrew, Aidan Cole, Kate Fahey, and Jasmine Forsberg
The satirical one-act examines what happens when a country is held hostage by a tyrant’s rule.
Borderline
Music and lyrics by Benjamin Velez, book by Aryanna Garber
Directed by Sarna Lapine, music directed by David Gardos, produced by Joshua Goodman
Featuring Micaela Diamond and Bryonha Marie Parham
Borderline follows a girl living with Borderline Personality Disorder and struggling for normalcy amidst a revolving door of therapists, medications, and dysfunctional relationships.
7pm: Two River Rising Series: Romeo & Juliet By Two River Theater. A modern verse translation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by Hansol Jung in partnership with NAATCO, directed by Chay Yew.
Two River Theatre’s Two River Rising reading benefit series will donate proceeds to charities supporting COVID-19 relief. Readings selected for the series reflect the past, present and future of the theater’s diverse range of programming including reimagined classics and world premieres by the industry’s most adventurous theater artists.
7:30pm: Shakespeare Hour LIVE! Richard II By Shakespeare Theatre Center. Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Simon Godwin and Resident Dramaturg Drew Lichtenberg lead an online tour through every corner of the Shakespeare universe. Confirmed special guests include Tony-winning director Julie Taymor, Tony and Emmy nominee Kate Burton, former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu and STC Bard Association Chair Abbe Lowell.
7:30pm: Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito Shortly before the end of his tragically abbreviated life, Mozart turned to the antiquated style of opera seria—with its acrobatic feats of singing and plots taken from Classical history or mythology—for his final operatic project. But no genre was ever the same after Mozart got his hands on it, and the great master poured not only his musical genius but also his powerful sense of humanity and idealism into this work, turning an ancient Roman story of desire, betrayal, murder, and public unrest into something timeless and profound.
7:30: Broadway & The Bard: An Evening of Shakespeare & Song,
The Actors Fund. Len Cariou, a Broadway star as adept in musicals (Tony winner for Sweeney Todd) as in Shakespeare, put together a solo show Off-Broadway in 2016 (and toured with it last year), offering both Broadway songs and Shakespeare soliloquys and sonnets. It will be presented for free Available through October 4th.
8pm: The Tribute Artist By Primary Stages59E59. Primary Stages continues its fall virtual programming with The Tribute Artist by Charles Busch. The show features Busch as an out-of-work female impersonator who, when his elderly landlady dies in her sleep, takes on her identity in order to hang on to her valuable Greenwich Village townhouse.
This ‘perfect’ scheme goes awry and leads to a path of twists and reversals plotted by an eccentric rogues gallery of outrageous schemers with Mary Bacon, Julie Halston, Keira Keeley, Carole Monferdini, and Jonathan Walker
Click here for tickets. Opening Night will include an exclusive post-performance talkback and online celebration via Zoom with members of the cast and artistic staff.
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.
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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