Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals

More Spamalot Stunt Casting

As if the Broadway production of Spamalot hadn't already jumped the shark with Clay Aiken, comes news that the long-running hit will soon star former 98 Degrees member Drew Lachey and "7th Heaven" star Stephen Collins.

Spamalot has so far racked up more than 1,300 performances, but is showing definite signs of winding down its run. The show regularly appears on the board at TKTS -- which explains why the average ticket price for the show has been hovering around $75 -- and has been playing at about 80% capacity since the first of the year.

Lachey is no newcomer to stunt casting: he played Roger in Rent for seven months a few years back. Times Square had a big beefcake poster of him staring languidly at the camera. ('Cuz, that's what Rent is all about, right?) I'm not sure that bringing in Stephen Collins constitutes stunt casting, though. Sure, he's a TV name, but I can't imagine too many people are going to buy a ticket just because the dad from "7th Heaven" is in the show. (I could be wrong. It's happened before.) Collins actually has quite a few Broadway credits to his name, but anyone familiar with the cast recording to Putting it Together knows that his singing voice is...well...the less said the better, really.

It's no surprise that Collins will play the King Arthur role, but you'd think that Lachey would be Sir Lancelot, or even Sir Galahad. In fact, he's going to play Patsy. You know: the grubby guy with the coconuts, manservant to King Arthur. Hardly the glamor role one might expect for a former teen idol, although Patsy does get a couple big numbers in the second act, including "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Perhaps there are some Mario Lopez-esque costume changes in store: Patsy in a tank top? Patsy in spandex shorts?

In other Spamalot news, the London company is engaging in a little stunt casting of its own by bringing in Sanjeev Bhaskar, better known to BBC audiences as the host of "The Kumars at No. 42," who takes over the King Arthur role later this month. (Could King Arthur have been of Indian descent? That's a provocative genealogical notion, but methinks it's really just an extreme case of color-blind casting.) The London production of Spamalot has also announced that it will close in January of 2009, and will have played more than two years at that point. It's not often you hear about closing notices that are that far in advance. And it's interesting that Spamalot would run longer in America than in Monty Python country.

Perhaps the Brits are used to the real thing, and would thus be less enamored with imitation Python. 

Rowan Atkinson to Star in London's Oliver

I love London, and have been waiting for a theatrical justification to return to that wondrous city. But much of the stuff that's been opening recently in the West End, at least in terms of musicals, has been utter crap. (e.g. Dirty Dancing, Desperately Seeking Susan, Lord of the Rings. Yeesh.) Well, now I'm thinking that I may want to plan a trip across the pond sometime early next year.

I had heard that Andrew Lloyd Webber was doing the reality-TV thing again to choose a Nancy for yet another London revival of Lionel Bart's Oliver!. The show is titled "I'd Do Anything," and follows on the heels of a number of successful ALW-sponsored reality-casting efforts, including "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria," in which audience members chose a Maria for the current London revival of The Sound of Music, as well as "Any Dream Will Do," which focused on choosing the title character for a revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I'm sort of struck by the show name "I'd Do Anything." It really seems to sum up reality TV in a nutshell, don't it? "Any Dream Will Do" doesn't have the same sense of desperation.

Despite my historical associations with the show Oliver!, news of the revival didn't pique my interest at first. I mean, it's not a very good show, although it has many terrific songs. But then I heard that British comedian Rowan Atkinson is scheduled to play Fagin.

I'm in.

I'm a huge fan of British comedy: Monty Python, Beyond the Fringe, Flanders and Swann, "Absolutely Fabulous," "Little Britain," "The League of Gentlemen," etc. And I'm a particular fan of the old "Blackadder" shows from the 80s. Rowan Atkinson is a masterful comic, and across the four seasons of the show he portrays a delightful series of conniving historical footnotes, from a toadying member of the court of Elizabeth I, to a Machiavellian butler for George IV when he was Prince Regent. As for Atkinson's Mr. Bean, well, not so much. But the combination of Oliver! and one of my favorite performers has me planning frequent flier miles and thinking of floors and couches I can crash on in the general London area.

The TV show is also of interest because of the presence of host Graham Norton and celebrity judge John Barrowman. Both are openly gay, and each is adorable in his own particular way. Norton also hosts "The Graham Norton Show" on BBC America, and is easily the funniest man currently on television. Barrowman has appeared in such West End shows as Anything Goes and Sunset Boulevard, and currently stars in "Doctor Who" spin-off "Torchwood," also on BBC America. And he's yummy.

Oliver! opens at the Theater Royal, Drury Lane in January 2009.

Second Extension for Roundabout Sunday

The well-received Roundabout Theater revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George has been extended a second time. The production is now slated to run through June 15th, more than a month beyond its original closing date of April 27th.

I saw the show in London (read my review here), and I simply can't wait to see it again. Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell, as George and Dot respectively, were outstanding, and I expect they'll be much the same when I see the show again in a few weeks.

Much has been made about the show's digital set, which is certainly spectacular, but the real star of the show for me was Sam Buntrock's empathic direction, which really brought out the poignancy of the piece. Buntrock makes Sondheim's work less cerebral and more emotionally resonant, which is totally in keeping with the show's major theme. ("Connect, George. Connect.")

As fond as I am of the original production, I have to say that I got so much more out of the work this time around. With all due respect to Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin, Evans and Russell really made me feel what was going on between the characters. It wasn't about surface or inscrutable emotion, but rather about a palpable sense of longing and loss. 

One possible concern: the 922-seat Studio 54 is just a tad bit bigger than the show's London venue, the 759-seat Wyndham's Theater, and that may detract slightly from the intimacy of the production. But I don't want to be one of those people who say "It was SOOOOOO much better when I saw it in London. Oh, did I happen to mention that I saw it in London? Well, when I saw it in London..." If I ever become that supercilious, dear reader, or even border on it, please feel free to give me a slap upside the head. I'll thank you for it later.

Casting for Sunday Revival

Casting is now complete for the upcoming Roundabout Theater revival of Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George. I was under the mistaken impression that the entire London cast would be making the Broadway transfer (not sure where I got that idea, upon reflection), but apparently only stars Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell will repeat their roles, as George and Dot, respectively.

Joining Evans and Russell will be Broadway veterans Michael Cumpsty as Jules/Bob, Alexander Gemignani as Boatman/Dennis, Jessica Molaskey as Yvonne/Naomi, and Mary Beth Peil as Old Lady/ Blair. The cast will also include Boston Conservatory alum Anne Nathan as Nurse/Harriet Pauling.

Regular readers may recall that I saw the London revival of Sunday in the Park with George and was absolutely blown away. (Read my review here.) The production was a stunning combination of state-of-the-art (pun intended) digital technology and palpable, empathic direction. Sam Buntrock coaxed multi-layered portrayals from his uniformly excellent London cast. We can only hope that he manages a similar feat with his redoubtable Broadway cast.

The Roundabout revival begins performances at Studio 54 in January, opens in February, and is currently slated to run until the end of April. Do yourself, and the Roundabout, a favor and grab a ticket to this show. Multiple tickets, even.

"I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken. The choosing was not." -- Stephen Sondheim

Billy Elliot on Broadway

Even before the shortlived High Fidelity opened on Broadway last December, the producers of Elton John's smash hit Billy Elliot announced that the show would be coming the the Imperial Theater sometime in 2008. (Word had evidently got around that High Fidelity would not be long for this world.) Now they've announced that Billy Elliot will aim specifically for a September 2008 opening.

Regular readers will likely recall my opinion of Billy Elliot when saw it in London last summer. In short: it stinks. It wasn't that I had minor reservations. I just plain hated it. I found very little to enjoy in the show, either in the plodding book or the lifeless score. (See my review for more specific gripes and groans.) I understand that the show is going to undergo a pretty extensive reworking prior to its Broadway bow, but from what I gather that's to make the show more accessible to Americans.

Will I see it again on Broadway? I certainly won't be in any hurry. It will depend on what else there is to see at that time. I have no plans or desire to see Mary Poppins again, another show I saw and disliked rather intensely on my recent London jaunt. But if I start hearing good things about what the creators have changed about Billy Elliot, I might be willing to give it another try. If only to confirm that I wasn't just dyspeptic and cranky on that warm night last August at the Victoria Palace Theater.

London Drowsy Closing

Boy, it has just been one piece of bad news after another for me lately.

Coming all too soon on the heels of the announcement that my cherished Grey Gardens would be closing on Broadway comes the news that the London production of The Drowsy Chaperone will also be closing. Evidently Bob Martin's replacement Steve Pemberton wasn't enough of a draw to keep the show alive. Thankfully the Broadway production, which has long since repaid its initial investment, continues on, even if ticket sales are lately a bit anemic.

Drowsy's London closing fits in with a longstanding tradition of hit shows failing to transfer successfully across the pond, in both directions. Many a Broadway smash has disappointed in London; City of Angels, The Full Monty, and The Producers are prime examples. And Broadway is littered with the carcasses of successful foreign musicals that flopped on Broadway, including The Woman in White, Aspects of Love, Bombay Dreams, Starlight Express, and Chess, as well as Dance of the Vampires (Germany), Metro (Poland), and Cyrano (The Netherlands).

Why is that? Well, Americans and Brits, for instance, seem to have somewhat different standards when it comes to a successful, enjoyable, quality musical. I'm not saying that we Yanks have BETTER standards, although there are certainly a number of dreadful shows that seem to do a bang-up business in London, including Dirty Dancing and We Will Rock You, neither of which shows any sign of coming to New York any time soon.

But then, of course, there are Mamma Mia, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables, all ginormous hits both on Broadway and in the West End.

The bottom line? Well, once again, I'm  glad I'm not a theatrical producer, because I'll be damned if I can figure out what makes a successful international hit.

Drowsy Chaperone: Musical Chairs

The Drowsy Chaperone only just opened in London (see Steve on Broadway for a compendium of the reviews) and already the producers are announcing the replacement for star and author Bob Martin.

British television star Steve Pemberton will take over for Martin in July. Pemberton was part of the insanely talented cast of the darkly funny BBC show "The League of Gentlemen." Since that show wrapped up its three-season run, League members have been showing up on the London theater scene. Fellow gentleman Reece Shearsmith was Leo Bloom in the London cast of The Producers towards the end of its run. I really wish I'd been able to see Shearsmith, but by the time I noticed he was in the show, I was too late in my London trip to catch it.

The very busy Bob Martin will next be appearing in the Toronto run of his hit show, which starts this fall. That's a fitting start to the show's national tour, since that's where Martin and his cohorts developed the show. No word yet on whether Martin will appear in any additional cities on the tour.

I know this show sharply divides TQs (theater queens), but I am unapologetic in my admiration and affection for this delightful show. (Read my reviews of the original and replacement Broadway casts.) It's one of only two shows that I actually paid to see twice on Broadway. (The other was Thoroughly Modern Millie, another show of which I'm unapologetically fond.)

I urge anyone out there who hasn't seen the show to catch it when it hits your town, or the next time you're in New York or London. It's funny, heartfelt, and energetically performed. And it's basically a love letter to the Broadway musical. What's not to love?

Michael Ball in London Hairspray

Veteran British actor and erstwhile heartthrob Michael Ball will play Edna Turnblad in the upcoming London production of Hairspray. I guess he's put on a few since Les Miserables and Aspects of Love.

Here's my question, though: Why did it take five years for this show to open in London? The show is showing signs of winding down its Broadway run (stunt casting = jumping the shark), and has even started showing up in regional theaters such as the North Shore Music Theater, which is just outside of Boston. Plus, the movie version is coming out next month, although perhaps it's not being released yet in th U.K.

It will be interesting to see just how successful the London production is given its delayed bow.

Speaking of the Hairspray movie, I am seriously having second thoughts about paying to see it in the theater now that star John Travolta has said publicly that he agrees with superfreak Tom Cruise on the subject of psychiatry and psychotropic drugs. I'm not even going to mention the name of their crackpot "religion" because these nut jobs have a history of attacking anyone who questions them in public.

Note to Tom and John: your job is to look pretty and collect too much money for appearing in bad movies. Keep your misguided, unfounded, and downright dangerous misconceptions to yourself.

Guys and Dolls: Again

It's probably a good thing that I'm not a Broadway producer, at least a producer of musical revivals. Every time someone announces that they're bringing back a classic musical, my first reaction lately has been, "Again?"

I thought it was way too soon to bring back A Chorus Line, Les Miserables, and The Fantasticks. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. (I also questioned the wisdom of bringing back Sweet Charity, but at least in that particular instance, I turned out to be right.)

So readers will be justifiably skeptical of my reaction to the recent announcement that the hit London revival of Guys and Dolls will be coming to Broadway in 2008. Michael Grandage (a Tony nominee for Frost/Nixon) and Rob Ashford will repeat their duties as director and choreographer, respectively.

I didn't see this production, mostly because when I was in London, the original Sky Masterson, Ewan McGregor, had left and Patrick Swayze had taken his place. (Um, no thanks.) Swayze was later replaced by Don Johnson. Had the show lasted I'm sure the next logical choice would have been Erik Estrada or Vanilla Ice.

And therein lies my problem. The London production needed to engage in stunt casting to survive. Do the producers really believe that a prospective Broadway production will fare any better? Guys and Dolls is a classic, and justifiably so. It's a near-perfect jewel of a show. (I'm not a big fan of "More I Could Not Wish You."  Who is this guy, why is he singing, and why do we never see him again? Plus it's a dull song.) But, as Gerard Alessandrini put it so well in Forbidden Broadway:

I know I've seen this show before
In some old high school gym
On someone's basement floor

Now, if they can get Ewan McGregor to repeat his role, I'll be there in a heartbeat. Otherwise, well, it will sort of depend on what else there is to see when I'm in New York. I said I'd never see the A Chorus Line revival, and I did. But it's not like I'm champing at the bit.

Grey Gardens in London and on Tour

The producers of Grey Gardens recently announced that the show will play London next season with the luminous Christine Ebersole recreating her award-winning role. It makes me wonder whether the show will survive on Broadway without her, although there is talk of casting a replacement.

But it's entirely possible that the show will have run its course by that time, freeing Ebersole up to take Grey Gardens across the pond after her contract expires in October 2007. No word yet on whether the wonderful Mary Louise Wilson with join her in the West End production.

The producers also announced that a U.S. tour is in the works for sometime soon. It's not clear yet whether Ebersole with take part in the tour or go straight to London. Something tells me that the tour will be somewhat limited in scope, playing cities that will presumably be more friendly to a  musical with this tone (wistful and nostalgic) and subject matter (the tragedy of unfulfilled ambition).

Then again, perhaps I'm simply being elitist in this assumption. (What, me? An East Coast snob? Perish the very thought.) The tour for The Light in the Piazza played Columbus, Cleveland, Raleigh, and Des Moines, though I'm not sure how well the show performed financially on those stops.

In any case, if Grey Gardens comes to your town, see it. 'Nuff said.

Spamalot World Record

There's nothing like a good publicity stunt.

Last March, the producers of the hit Broadway version of Spamalot gathered 1,789 Monty Python fans together in New York's Shubert Alley to create what was then the biggest-ever, and presumably the first-ever, all-coconut orchestra.

Participants banged together empty halves of coconut shells, an homage to the preferred mode of transportation in the classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," to the tune of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." (Which is actually from "Life of Brian," but I digress.)

In a case of friendly oneupmanship, members of the London production amassed 5,567 coconut-wielding enthusiasts in London's Trafalgar Square, handily breaking the world record. Original Python members Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam were on hand to conduct the proceedings.

The event got tons of press. At this writing, Google lists about 339,000 Internet references to the event. Even NPR included a blurb on the event on Monday's "All Things Considered."

As I've posted before, I'm a huge Monty Python fan, so I was ecstatic when I heard about Spamalot. But I was a bit disappointed in the actual show. It's a tremendous amount of fun, but it's not great musical theater. The book and the staging are hysterical, but the score is just awful: puerile melodies, bad scansion, too much assonance. It works in the theater, but it doesn't hold up on repeated listenings.

But I'm glad that the show has become and international hit. Currently there are productions on in New York, London, Las Vegas, as well as a U.S. touring production. Blockbusters tend raise the profile of musical theater in the eyes of potential ticket buyers, and a rising tide, to a certain extent, lifts all boats.

Lloyd Webber Crafting Phantom Sequel

Andrew Lloyd Webber is apparently forging ahead with his idea for a sequel to his phenomenally successful The Phantom of the Opera.

God help us all.

Now, I'm not one of those knee-jerk Lloyd Webber bashers. I consider each of his shows individually, and judge them on their relative merits. I'm actually quite fond of Evita, and, believe it or not, Sunset Boulevard. And in my Boston Conservatory course, I make a point of discussing that Cats, for all its detractors, was actually an innovative and risky show for its time.

And I'm also not going to say that sequels are automatically doomed from their conception, despite the fact that no sequel to a Broadway show has ever been successful. Consider the following:

Show (Sequel to)
Let 'Em Eat Cake (Of Thee I Sing)
Bring Back Birdie (Bye Bye Birdie)
Annie Warbucks (Annie)
Divorce Me, Darling (The Boyfriend)
The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)

Not a very auspicious lot, to be sure. But that's not to say that a musical sequel could never be successful. As I've said many times, there's no such thing as a bad idea for a musical, only bad execution.

Even so, somehow the very notion of a sequel to Phantom reeks of disaster. What more is there to tell? Sure, the Phantom disappears at the end of the show, but do we really want him to return? Where's the dramatic necessity of dragging him back into Christine Daae's tortured life?

Is it possible that such a show could be a success, either artistically or financially? Absolutely. Is it likely? I'm not optimistic.

London Evita Revival to Close

The producers for the London revival of Evita have notified cast members that the final performance for the show will be May 26th. At that point, the show will have played just under a year at the Adelphi, somewhere around 350 performances. That's certainly enough to make back its investment, provided the show was wisely produced, but it hardly constitutes a cascade of cash.

What happened? When I saw the London Evita last August, it was a pretty hot ticket. As I said in my review, I certainly enjoyed the show, although I didn't find it earth-shattering. I was particularly struck by the performances by Elena Rogers in the title role and Philip Quast as Juan Peron. And I found the representational production design an interesting contrast to Hal Prince's expressionistic original production.

Perhaps this is the fallout from the show not having won a single Olivier Award. Elena Rogers seemed a shoe-in for best actress, but Sunday in the Park's Jenna Russell walked away with that award. And Quast lost out to Sunday's Daniel Evans.

Perhaps all the theater queens have seen the show and the production's appeal hasn't crossed over into the mainstream (read: tourist) audience. And the show's premature closure certainly doesn't bode well for its rumored Broadway transfer.

Sunday Wins Olivier Awards; Confirmed for Broadway

A couple of pieces of good news about the marvelous London revival of Sunday in the Park With George. First, the show won five Olivier Awards, the British equivalent of our Tony's. Those awards were:

Outstanding Musical Production
Best Actor in a Musical...Daniel Evans
Best Actress in a Musical...Jenna Russell
Best Set Design
Best Lighting Design

I heartily concur on all fronts. As I mentioned in my review, the production was not only visually dazzling, but it also had sharp direction and superb performances. It's interesting to note that Sunday essentially shut out the well received (and deservedly so) revival of Evita, as well as its able stars, Elena Rogers and Philip Quast.

On the heels of Sunday's big wins at the Olivier's comes confirmation of the show's long-rumored Broadway transfer. The Roundabout Theater will present the show at Studio 54. No word yet on whether Evans and Russell will repeat their award-winning performances. I truly hope that they do: both were simply marvelous, and imbued the show with a sense of yearning and raw emotion that  was missing in the original Broadway production.

Whoever the stars are, I highly recommend this production of Sunday. Sure, the visuals are dazzling: the set essentially comprises digital projections of Seurat's works as it progresses to its final form. But Sam Buntrock's direction breathes new life into this timeless show. I'll certainly be seeing it again.

Drowsy Chaperone's London Bow, Etc.

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt recall my love for The Drowsy Chaperone, which has even stood up to repeated viewings. So, I thought I'd catch you all up on a few pieces of Drowsy news.

• Now that DC is an unqualified hit, the producers have seen fit to upgrade the marquee outside the Marquis. Before it was a back-lit Plexiglas sign. Now it's a full-fledged neon version that fits in quite nicely in the Times Square milieu.
• Also, as previously announced, the Drowsy Chaperone recording will be coming out on vinyl. This is perfectly fitting, given that the lead character (Man in Chair) goes out of his way to stress his preternatural attachment to his beloved Broadway records ("Yes, records..."). The collector's-item edition will cost $50, so it's certainly not meant for the casual fan. Luckily, I'm not the casual fan.
• And, finally, news of the impending London production of DC comes with the announcement that the short-in-stature but long-on-talent Miss Elaine Paige will be starring as the eponymous chaperone. The show is scheduled to begin previews in May for a June opening at the Novello Theater. With all due respect to the talented Miss Paige, I can't imagine anyone taking the place of Tony winner Beth Leavel in my heart. Her performance was one of the highlights of the Broadway production: totally over the top, but for this show, that's a good thing.