Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals

Great Seats and a Great Cause

In my almost 20 years of experience as a journalist, I've developed a knee-jerk disdain for press releases. In the 13 years I was at Inc. magazine, I can recall only one story that I ever got from opening my mail. Lately, I've started to get press releases via E-mail from marketing folk looking for me to cover this show or that movie on my blog. I think that because I'm flattered that people are actually reading my blog, I usually at least read through these missives, but I can't recall having actually posted anything about any of them.

So, here's my first. I just got an E-mail from the folks at the Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets Service, which sells "house seats" to more than two dozen Broadway shows. ("House seats," for those not in the know, are the premium seats that producers set aside for industry insiders, friends of the cast, and other mucky-mucks. They're usually like seventh row, center orchestra, or some other highly desirable location.) The proceeds benefit the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, which was founded in the 1950s by Rodgers and Hammerstein, no less, after Runyon died of cancer.

Damon Runyon is perhaps best known (at least to my readers) as the guy who wrote the "Broadway stories" that would later become one of the best musicals of all time, Guys and Dolls. But Runyon was also a noted New York writer and journalist in the early part of the 20th century. 

The Runyon foundation gets four to six house seats for each performance of even the most popular Broadway shows - the current show listing (as of this writing) includes great seats for Wicked and South Pacific, and decent seats for Jersey Boys. Here's the hitch: the tickets sell for double the box-office price, but the amount over the regular price is fully tax deductible. These prices are comparable to what producers typically charge for premium seats, and considerably less than what you might pay at a ticket broker.

So, if you're looking for super seats to the most popular shows, and either money is no object or you're interested in supporting a good cause in the process, check out the ticket listing for the Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets Service. If you're looking for cheaper tickets, but still want to support a worthy cause, you could try the somewhat more limited selection of shows at Givenik.com. If all you really want is cheap tickets, your best bet is BroadwayBox.com.

But wouldn't it feel great to take your seats at G101 and G102 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, listen to that marvelous 30-piece orchestra swell to the strains of that Richard Rodgers overture, and know that you've also brought the world a little bit closer to the cure?

Clearing Off My Desk - Part 2

More stuff that somehow didn't warrant a full-length post, but nonetheless caught my interest:

A CHORUS LINE: The Broadway revival of A Chorus Line will close in August. The production will have played 759 performances, which is about 12% of the show's original run of 6,137 performances. Although the show recouped its investment in only 19 weeks, recently its weekly grosses have been all over the place, maxing out at about $500,000 in March, but lately coming in at about half that. Apparently, Mario Lopez and his big guns weren't artillery enough to keep the show open. Go figure.
Do I Care?: Just the fact that I couldn't be bothered to craft a full-length post about this one should tell you where it registers on my care-o-meter. (P.S. My sources tell me that another VERY long-running revival will close sometime later this year as well. I'll keep you posted.)

NINE: Daniel Day-Lewis is reportedly in talks to star in director Rob Marshall's upcoming movie version of Maury Yeston's Nine. Day-Lewis would join an already stellar cast of female co-stars: Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren, and recent Oscar winner Marion Colillard.
Do I Care?: As talented as Daniel Day-Lewis is, I would be much more excited if Javier Bardem were still going to play the role, or even Antonio Banderas. Guido needs to be sexy, and Day-Lewis just doesn't do it for me.

SEUSSICAL: The revised version of Seussical, which recently played Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theater, will receive a cast recording from Jay Records. The Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens musical was not a hit when it played Broadway, but it has gone on to become one of the most frequently performed musicals in regional theaters and in schools. The show has been significantly streamlined, and its score pruned and revised.
Do I Care?: I always care about what Flaherty and Ahrens are up to; I have a deep and abiding affection for them and for their shows, and I greatly look forward to hearing the new version of Seussical. I saw the show twice in Boston and once on Broadway, and was heartbroken that the creators couldn't seem to find a way to make it work. Let's hope they finally have.

Clearing Off My Desk - Part 1

I've been coming across a bunch of interesting news tidbits lately, but none of them has inspired in me the desire to craft a full-length post. So I thought I'd do a series of those desk-clearing posts, sort of like the ones that lazy newspaper columnists do at the end of the year. (Since this is sort of the end of the theater season, and I'm sort of a lazy guy...)

NERDS THE MUSICAL: We can add another quirky little musical to the 2008-2009 season. This tuner by Hal Goldberg (music) and Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner (book and lyrics) was formerly called Nerds://A Musical Software Satire, began life as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and focuses on the longstanding rivalry between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
Do I care?: The subject matter doesn't scream musical to me, but it sounds like it could be fun with the right treatment. There are some moderately amusing clips on YouTube that the creators have put together to promote the show. So, we'll see.

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: The original production team for the upcoming Harry Connick Jr. tuner has parted ways, and Kathleen Marshall has dropped out as director and choreographer. (According to Michael Riedel, Marshall's main squeeze was one of the original producers, but when he bolted, so did Marshall.) Connick remains as the star, and Broadway Across America has become the lead producer.
Do I care?: I already have my ticket for the Boston tryout, but I have serious doubts that the show will work without Marshall. Depending on whom they can line up to replace her, this project may be doomed.

MY FAIR LADY: Cameron Mackintosh is planning a new movie version of the Lerner and Loewe classic. The original score will remain, but the screenplay will reportedly veer a little closer to the original George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion. Kiera Knightly is currently in talks to star.
Do I care?: At first, I found it presumptuous that they would jettison Alan Jay Lerner's book, but then I recalled that Lerner himself strayed significantly from Shaw's intent. Will they return to Shaw's original ending, which would necessitate cutting "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"? Somehow I doubt it.

Check back tomorrow for more musical nuggets.

High School Musicals: Who's Doing What?

One of the most important contributors to the ultimate financial success of a particular musical is its afterlife: how frequently regional and community theaters as well and high schools and colleges perform that show. Many a musical has met with success on Broadway only to disappear, for whatever reason, in the aftermarket: Oh Calcutta!, The Magic Show, Promises Promises, Sugar Babies, Dancin', Pins and Needles, etc.

Conversely, numerous shows that have disappointed in New York have gone on to make a profit in the provinces. For instance, I fully expect The Wedding Singer and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to catch on regionally. They're a natural for high school and community theater productions: funny books, tuneful scores, and relatively easy to direct and cast.

One of the biggest winners in this respect recently has been the Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens show Seussical. This heartbreaker of a show played a disappointing 198 performances at the Richard Rodgers Theater, but easily ranks as one of my fascinating failures. I saw the show twice in Boston and once in New York, and although the staff made numerous changes, the show never quite gelled.

Well, the Seussical story has a happy ending: the show has gone on to become one of the most frequently performed musicals in the country. The Educational Theatre Association recently surveyed 925 schools to determine the most-produced musicals and plays for the 2007 season, and Seussical came in at number two. Here's the full list:

1. Little Shop of Horrors
2. Seussical, the Musical
3. Thoroughly Modern Millie
4. Beauty and the Beast
5. High School Musical
6. Grease
7. Fiddler on the Roof
8. (tie) Bye Bye Birdie
8. (tie) Oklahoma!
10. (tie) Anything Goes
10. (tie) Guys and Dolls

Seussical may be the biggest flop ever to make money. By that I mean, although the show lost its entire investment on Broadway, it has since become so popular that Flaherty and Ahrens could probably retire on the royalties to this show alone.

As for the other shows, I'm pleased to see so many truly great musicals on the list: Little Shop of Horrors, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma, and Guys and Dolls, all of which easily made it onto my list of the 100 best musicals of all time. (Beauty and the Beast is also on my top 100 list, but not because of the physical production on Broadway, which was tacky and over-the-top. The show itself is actually very good, particularly the stellar score by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and later Tim Rice.) Most of the other shows on the list are of middling quality but are real crowd-pleasers: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Grease, Bye Bye Birdie, and Anything Goes.  

A friend of mine who's a musical director at a local high school said they were thinking of doing Millie, but opted not to because of the white-slavery subplot. This is not a squeamish school: they do shows that drop the F-bomb all the time. Next year, they plan to do Smile, which has quite a bit of rough language, as I recall. But they apparently draw the line at being politically incorrect.

And then there's High School Musical. Well, I may have to buckle down and actually watch this at some point, though I'm really not looking forward to it. Something tells me it's going to reflect the "American Idol" school of over-singing and emoting, and the after-school-special variety of acting. If the TV shows on the Disney Channel are any indication, I can't imagine the writing and the acting are any good. I've been forced on more than one occasion to sit through "That's So Raven" and "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody." Mere words cannot sufficiently convey the pain.

There's no question that HSM has raised awareness of and interest in high-school theatricals. But is the movie itself any good, dear reader? Am I in for a pleasant surprise, or a painful reinforcement of my own admitted prejudice?

Did Ben Brantley Like It? Check This Site

Proposition #1: It's fun to hate Ben Brantley. There's something about the position of lead drama critic at the New York Times that seems to invite scorn, but there's also something about Brantley himself that makes him that much easier to hate. I mean, check out his NYT headshot. This is the photo that he chose to portray himself to his reading public. Even so, he's the most powerful theater critic in the country, and whether he's spot-on or way off base, what he says can have a huge impact on the success of a particular show.

Proposition #2: Yeah, Brantley's powerful, but that doesn't mean I want to read his every word in order to find out whether he liked the show. Also, he's not the only theater critic out there, and it's always fruitful to seek out a variety of opinions rather than relying on one dyspeptic scribe. Wouldn't it be great if there was a Web site that collected the opinions of all the different drama critics into one easy-to-understand format? Kind of like what Metacritic does for movies, books, DVDs, and video games.

Well, now there is. It's called www.didhelikeit.com. The site collects the available reviews from the major critics and represents the basic upshot for each with a simple graphic element -- the Ben-ometer, modeled after old Benny boy. The site appears to be a work in progress: the site's creator apparently has plans to eventually include Off-Broadway shows as well. But it's a valiant effort overall, and a welcome addition to my list of must-see theater sites.

We Will Rock You: The Sequel?

Some news is so self-contained that it requires little if any commentary: it makes its own gravy.

On the heels of the announcement that Ben Elton, librettist for We Will Rock You, will be working with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, comes the news that Queen guitarist Brian May is working on a sequel to that selfsame We Will Rock You. The show has been running in the West End since 2002, and has had productions in Melbourne, Madrid, Moscow, Toronto, Tokyo, Zurich, and Las Vegas. But not New York. Hmm, makes you wonder why, huh?

Our only consolation: no sequel in the history of musical theater has ever been successful. Of course, that doesn't mean a musical sequel could never be successful. But something tells me We Will Continue to Rock You, or whatever it winds up being called, isn't going to be the show that changes theater history.

Or Phantom II, for that matter.

South Pacific Announces Open-Ended Run

It looks as though I may be alone in my views on South Pacific, both the show and the current revival. Well, if not alone, then in a significant minority. The Lincoln Center Theater has announced that its critically lauded production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific will now play an open-ended run at the Vivian Beaumont. The show was originally to have played a limited engagement, with a June 22nd closing date. See Steve on Broadway for a compendium of the rapturous critical response to the production, which opened officially last night.

The cast recording for the revival will be released May 27th. Of course, I'll be getting it: I get everything. I'm actually looking forward to hearing Paulo Szot again on "This Nearly Was Mine," which was one of the highlights of the production for me. And Kelli O'Hara may just be the most appealing female Broadway star we currently have, with all due respect to the wonderful Sutton Foster.

But, what can I say, I just don't like the show. Never have, and likely never will. Although most of my fellow bloggers, whom I met with last weekend in NYC, were firmly in the "rapture" camp when in came to South Pacific, I did meet a few like-minded scribes who shrugged and said, "What's the big deal?" I certainly don't begrudge the show its success: it's a handsome production, and features a terrificly talented cast.

And I'd much rather see something like South Pacific become a hit than, say, Mamma Mia! or the current revival of Grease, which Michael Riedel refers to as "the worst show in the history of theater" and "an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values." Methinks Mr. Riedel is being hyperbolic, although perhaps not. But it will be interesting to see if the South Pacific revival can eke out a run that's even close to that of the 1,925-performance run of the original show.

South Pacific and Gypsy: Showcasing the Orchestra

When I was a writer at Inc. magazine, we used to joke all the time that twice is a coincidence, but three times is a trend. So I guess this technically isn't a trend yet, because I've only noticed it twice, but I was struck after seeing the current revivals of South Pacific and Gypsy how both productions go out of their way to showcase the orchestra. (See my reviews of Gypsy and South Pacific.)

South Pacific begins with a large hydraulic floor rolling back to reveal the full, tuxedo-clad, 30-piece orchestra. The floor remains open during the entire overture, the orchestra takes a bow, and then the floor rolls back as the show proper begins. Gypsy starts similarly by revealing the orchestra behind a scrim upstage. The orchestra remains visible throughout the overture, then makes two strategic appearances during the show itself: once while Tony Yazbek as Tulsa is performing "All I Need Is The Girl" and then again during Patti LuPone's kick-ass "Rose's Turn."

The question is: Why? Well, as for Gypsy, I think the reasoning is clearer: director Arthur Laurents is establishing the role that orchestra members will play in the rest of the performance by showing them during the overture, which nicely sets up their later appearances. Revealing the orchestra during "All I Need..." completes Tulsa's fantasy by bringing in the big band that he imagines himself playing in front of. Much the same goes for "Rose's Turn," except it's no longer a fantasy, but rather a tormented bit of wish fulfillment.

The reasoning behind showcasing the orchestra during South Pacific is a bit more inscrutable. Is director Bartlett Sher trying to communicate something about the symphonic nature of the Richard Rodgers score? The fact that Rodgers has become increasingly respected in the musical community? Is he sleeping with the concert master? Did he discover one day that the Vivian Beaumont Theater had a retractable floor, and hey wouldn't it be cool if...?

Whatever, I'm sort of hard-pressed to explain the dramatic purpose of showcasing the orchestra during South Pacific. Perhaps that's just a vestige of my critical response to the two productions: loved Gypsy, South Pacific not so much. Care to weigh in, dear reader, as to what Sher was hoping to achieve by giving the orchestra this much play? 

Why My Dog is Named Oliver

I apologize for my recent lack of musical theater postings, but it's been a very difficult week. Oliver, my beloved cocker spaniel, came down with a blood disease called immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, a condition in which his immune system began to attack his platelets, making clotting difficult. His gums started to bleed, and the next thing I knew he was admitted into the critical care unit at Angell Memorial, the best animal hospital in the country, and one of the best in the world.

Fortunately, I happen to live right across the street from Angell, in a section of Boston known as Jamaica Plain. I recall a while back while I was walking Oliver around the grounds of Angell and chatting up this woman who was walking her yellow lab. The woman had an accent, and I asked her where she was from. Turns out it was Bermuda. Did she relocate from that sunny island? No, she commutes up every two weeks to get chemotherapy for her dog. That's how good Angell is.

This week has been a wild ride both in terms of treatment options and emotional extremes. As you can tell by the prominence I give Oliver's picture on this site, I am inordinately fond of my dog, almost preternaturally so. You know how some people in really tough times clam up, lie in bed, and refuse all calls? I'm not one of those people. When I'm in a crisis, I grab the phone and pour my heart out to any and all who have the time and patience to listen. It's a mess, but fortunately I have wonderful friends who can withstand the slobbering.

As for the title of this post, Oliver got his name from the story of my less-than-immaculate conception. I was conceived the night that my parents saw the musical Oliver! on Broadway. (How are they sure of the exact night? They're Catholic. 'Nuff said.) More important, why did they feel the need to share this information with me? I can't recall the context in which it first arose. All I know is that I know, as do most of my nearest and dearest. When my friend Richard Carey saw Love! Valour! Compassion! on Broadway, he called me up immediately after the show and said "Chris, Terrence McNally stole your birth story!" In the play, the character Buzz tells the audience that he was conceived the night his parents saw Wildcat on Broadway. Close enough to be actionable, but I'm not the litigious sort.

Well, after eight long days and seven difficult nights, my boy is back home with me. He's a little weary for the wear, and they had to shave the middle of each of his four legs to accommodate all the needles for the transfusions and whatnot, which makes him look a bit too much like a poodle for my tastes. But he's my boy, and he's home, and I'd take him bald and painted Day-Glo orange if I had to. Please send your thoughts, prayers, vibrations, emanations, or whatever cosmic energy you ascribe to in Oliver's general direction to expedite a speedy recovery for my beloved boy.

And we'll send the same out to you.

Young Frankenstein: Abridged and Imperiled

OK, so you've read my pan of Mel Brooks' horribly cynical and lazy Young Frankenstein. Perhaps you've even read the reviews, which were less than stellar, to say the least. But if you really want to know what's wrong with the show, read Gil Varod's very funny and painfully spot-on parody: Young Frankenstein Abridged: Or Gene Wilder How We Miss You to Pieces.

I've long been a fan of Gil's Broadway Abridged blog, and his savage skewering of Young Frankenstein only makes me a bigger fan. For the uninitiated, Varod parodies Broadway plays and musicals by condensing them in a very snarky and disrespectful fashion. I don't always agree with him. (I actually really enjoyed the revival of 110 in the Shade.) But I always look forward to reading his take on the latest over-hyped mega-musical or highfalutin artsy-fartsy play.

Oh, BTW, according to Michael Riedel of the New York Post, all those $450 seats aren't exactly selling like hotcakes, and can be had for around $100 from outlets in the Times Square area. I can't help thinking about one of my favorite foreign words:

Schadenfreude: [Origin: 1890–95; < G, equiv. to Schaden harm + Freude joy] Happiness at the misfortune of others. ("Happiness at the misfortune of others? That is German..." Gary Coleman, Avenue Q)

Eat it, Mel.