Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals

Dirty Dancing Headed to Broadway?

The producers of the upcoming national tour of Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story on Stage are billing it as the "pre-Broadway American premiere."

Thanks for the warning.

I'll be catching the show during the Boston leg of its tour in February. Never let it be said that I'm unwilling to give even the most cynical, venal, and misconceived shows the opportunity to prove me wrong.

After all, I saw Happy Days. And after an extended period of intensive therapy, I may yet be able to mitigate the damage to my psyche. Just in time for Dirty Dancing.

Drowsy Chaperone Tour A Tad...Drowsy

This past Thursday, I caught the Boston stop of the national tour of The Drowsy Chaperone. Regular readers will no doubt recall my deep affection for this sweet and funny show, which I adored both times that I saw it on Broadway. (Read my reviews here and here.)

And while I remain a devout fan of the show itself, I have to say that the pacing for the tour production was a bit slow. The Broadway running time was 1:40, while the tour ran about 1:50. And when you're talking about comedy, those ten minutes make all the difference in the world, especially when there's no intermission.

There's something about tours, particularly when you've seen the original Broadway cast, that inevitably disappoints. I know this sounds elitist, but for some reason it's true. I think it's that people tend to prefer what they're used to. So perhaps it's not the fault of the admittedly talented cast of the Drowsy tour that I found most of them serviceable but undistinguished, with the notable exception of Jonathan Crombie as "Man in Chair." Crombie had just the right amount of quirkiness and vulnerability to make the part humorous and appealing.

The delightfully talented Nancy Opel was terrific as the eponymous chaperone, and employed some nice original touches during "As We Stumble Along," but for me no one will ever compare to Tony winer Beth Leavel. One original cast member who has joined the tour cast is Georgia Engel, who's just as adorable and ditsy as ever as Mrs. Tottendale.

There are some improvements that the tour makes over the original Broadway production. "Cold Feets" somehow never worked for me with Eddie Korbich and Troy Britton Johnson performing it, but Mark Ledbetter and Richard Vida, as the tour's Robert Martin and "best man" George, respectively, give Casey Nicholaw's tap choreography a looser and more fluid interpretation, and the result is much more freewheeling and energetic.

The tour has made some inevitable changes to the script and the staging. The joke about the Marquis Theater is gone: the one about the Morosco Theater being torn down and replaced by a hideous hotel, ironically the one in which the Marquis Theater is ensconced. And for the dumb-but-funny joke in which Aldolpho mispronounces "airship" as "airchip," someone has inexplicably changed the pronunciation to "airshit." It's not necessary and not funny. Also, the "Show Off" reprise no longer features the line "disappear through the floor," which is understandable because the Janet character doesn't. I've performed in the Opera House, and I know there's room below the floor, but perhaps the requisite hydraulics were too expensive for the tour.

But I remain a steadfast admirer of of this wonderful little show. It has many detractors, including a large number who felt the need to spew invective on Amazon.com. But, to quote the Man in Chair (a part I eagerly hope to play one day), "It does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world and gives you a little tune to hum for when you're feeling blue."

The Drowsy Chaperone runs at the Boston Opera House until May 4th.

Avenue Q Tour: Still Funny and Fresh

Like many people, I was disappointed when the producers of Avenue Q initially opted to forgo a national tour in favor of a sit-down production at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel.  Well, that production shuttered after only five months, which is great in the long run, because now Avenue Q is in the midst of its first national tour, which plays at Boston's Colonial Theater until March 23.

I loved the show when I saw it in New York, and had hoped the tour would do justice to my fond memories of the show. Fortunately, it did. The best part for me was hearing all the jokes afresh, as well as the audience's uproarious response. The experience reminded me of how fresh and funny this show is, as well as how the great creative touches that director Jason Moore employs, including some very funny props and set pieces, really enhance the show's impact.

The show definitely has some slow spots: "I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today" never seems to work. I know it's not supposed to be funny, but I think Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, who wrote the score, could have found a way to make it humorous in a not-supposedly-to-be-funny way, if you know what I mean. And I've never been a fan of the Lucy the Slut song, "Special." The staging makes it work, but the song itself falls flat. The same is true for "You Can Be As Loud as the Hell You Want." It's not really the song people are responding to, but the full-on puppet sex. But overall, Avenue Q remains for me a charming and efficient show: everything has...well...a purpose.

The tour cast seemed not to be aping original performers, instead finding their own idiom. Boston Conservatory grad David Benoit is terrific as Nicky/Trekkie Monster. It would have been all too easy for Benoit in particular to simply imitate original cast member Rick Lyon, but he admirably takes the characters in his own direction. Robert McClure and Kelli Sawyer, as Rod and Kate respectively, sometimes appeared to be working too hard, especially at the beginning of the show. but eventually they settled in and found a very comfortable, effective, and moving style.

In other Avenue Q-related news, director Jeff Whitty and librettist Jason Moore are working on a musical version of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City. I can't wait to see what these two talented men do with one of my all-time favorite books.

My Fair Lady Tour: Boston Stop

Over the weekend, I caught the Boston stop of the national tour of My Fair Lady. It's interesting that producer Cameron Mackintosh chose to bring the show on tour rather than to New York. The last Broadway revival of the show was back in 1994, with Richard Chamberlain and Melissa Errico. Did Mackintosh (rightly?) sense that there would be more demand on the road, in the classic-deprived provinces?

As I watched the show, I couldn't help thinking of the recent Roundabout Theater revival of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, which I found cold and static. Hollywood import Claire Danes's was fine with the comedy, especially during the parlor scene (which becomes the Ascot scene in the musical), but was inept and amateurish in the dramatic scenes, relying on forced line readings and exaggerated hand gestures to prove that she was actually acting. And Jefferson Mays as Henry Higgins was a bit one-note: hard and heartless, without any redeeming qualities. An interesting choice, but not one that I found appealing or illuminating.

One thing the Pygmalion revival had in common with this production of My Fair Lady: unconvincing Cockney accents, especially by the actresses portraying Eliza Doolittle, Daines in the play, newcomer Lisa O'Hare in the musical. O'Hare was too refined as the coarse Eliza, with inconsistent Cockney vowels. Overall, O'Hare held her own as Eliza, but didn't leave a lasting impression. She was vocally thin, especially at the end of "I Could Have Danced All Night." Although she tried gamely to bring life to the role, but she remained small in stature and in effect.

But the main problem with this production was choreographer Matthew Bourne (Swan Lake). Based on his work on this show and in Mary Poppins, it seems clear that Bourne simply doesn't comprehend musical comedy, and should probably stick to ballet. For example, he's re-imagined "With a Little Bit of Luck" as a raucous romp like something out of Stomp, with dancers donning garbage-can lids on their feet to the rhythmic accompaniment of a utensil-laden chorus. Yeah, it's different, but it serves no dramatic purpose. Also ineffective was Bourne's "Ascot Gavotte," which has much of the chorus feigning horse movements -- perhaps to connect their foppish behavior in some way with the stylized movements of horses? Whatever, it's inscrutable, and it all but robs the scene of its intended humor.

Director Trevor Nunn does a bang-up job on the book scenes, bringing out both the pathos and the comedy, but he seems to have no idea how to focus a song, and Bourne certainly doesn't offer him any help in this regard. Nunn does make a few choices that mildly enhance particular songs: for instance, in "Show Me" he has Eliza meeting up with a group of marching suffragettes, creating an interesting connection between their signs reading "Action, Not Words" and Eliza's demands. Of course, the scene is supposed to be taking place in the early hours of the morning, which prompts one to wonder why these women are marching when there's no one there to see them. 

One gross miscalculation that Nunn and Bourne make together is during "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," which the pair stage as a sort of flower-girl ballet, with Eliza stand-ins weaving through each other behind Higgins as he performs the number. This was a huge mistake: it stole focus from what should be an epiphany for the character, added nothing to the meaning of the number, and undercut the dramatic weight of the song. 

Somehow the show still manages to work, but that's probably more a tribute to Alan Jay Lerner's wonderful book (edited by the sure hand of original director Moss Hart, who went through the entire libretto with Lerner, word by word, one long weekend.) Although it may be literary blasphemy to say this, the musical itself is, in many ways, superior to Shaw's original. In other ways, it's less deep and not as trenchant, although my impressions come solely from seeing the recent Broadway revival, which focused too much on the ideas and not enough on the people behind them. The musical adds heart to a cynical and cerebral exploration of class. (Shaw, of course, would be furious: the musical totally changes his intent, both in terms of the focus of the show, and the ending.)

My Fair Lady affords numerous examples of the musical transcending the play, for instance "The Rain in Spain," a terrific illustration of the power of music to heighten dramatic effect. Another great example of Lerner doing Shaw one better is the act 1 closer, which has Eliza regally descending the stairs in a shimmering gown, then gliding off to the ball to the swelling strains of "I Could Have Danced All Night" from the pit. A stirring moment, and one that the play simply can't match.

The tour cast is excellent, particularly Timothy Jerome as Alfred P. Doolittle. Jerome was somewhat hampered by the staging of his two big numbers, but that's the fault of Nunn and Bourne, and not the doing of talented Broadway veteran. Christopher Cazenove is serviceable but indistinct as as Henry Higgins. To his credit, he doesn't ape Rex Harrison, but he also doesn't really find his own idiom.   

Another standout was Justin Bohon as Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Bohon plays Freddy not as the matinee idol we've come to expect but rather as a foolish and foppish boy, and it really makes what can be a two-dimensional character come to life. "On the Street Where You Live" is still a pointless-but-pretty song, which only seems to be there to allow Eliza to change out of her Ascot drag. But Bohon, in consort with director Nunn, has enlivened the Freddy character with an animated and nuanced performance. During the Embassy ball, Nunn has Freddy trying to approach Eliza for a dance, as well as with glasses of champagne. When he's left forgotten on the dance floor, he drinks the champagne himself, which nicely sets up the "Street" reprise, which has a drunken Freddy lolling outside 27A Wimpole Street, mooning over Eliza.

Finally, what an absolute treat it was to see Marni Nixon as Mrs. Higgins. Nixon, as any theater queen worth his salt can tell you, sang the role of Eliza Doolittle in the movie version, dubbing over Audrey  Hepburn's unfortunate croaking. Nixon has a tremendously regal presence as Mrs. Higgins, and terrific comic timing.

The My Fair Lady tour runs at Boston's Opera House through February 17th, after which it has scheduled stops in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle. It's well worth catching: a terrific show with a strong cast in a semi-effective staging. You could certainly do worse.

White Christmas in Boston

No, this isn't a weather report, although the way things are looking outside here in Boston it might as well be. Beantown is enjoying(?) its first major snow storm of the season, with 8-plus inches accumulating on its crowded and serpentine pathways.

Apropos of the wintry weather, I also saw Irving Berlin's White Christmas for the first time tonight. The supposed star of the show, Brian D'Arcy James, was not on tonight. But then more than 60% of the audience failed to show up as well, because of the snow. C'mon, Boston! We're hardy New England stock. We're not the sort to let a little thing like eight inches of snow keep us from the theater. The Wang Theater staff held the curtain for almost half an hour to accommodate the intrepid souls who did venture out. Then, during the overture, there was a rather humorous free-for-all to grab the best vacant seats.

It had never occurred to me to take in White Christmas when it played in Boston before. I guess I just didn't take it seriously as musical theater. I've also never been a very big fan of the "White Christmas" movie, which I find a bit perfunctory and artificial.

But something about the show's festive logo and the overly jovial radio commercials caught my attention and made me curious. I figured I owed it to my readers, and to my students, to take in whatever musical theater comes my way. (Within reason, that is. I avoid community theater as a rule. Except as a performer. Elitist? Snobbish? Yeah, so what's your point?)

I have to admit, I was surprisingly taken in by the show and its charms, possibly because I wasn't really expecting much. It was a thoroughly professional and enjoyable, if a bit creaky, evening of theater. The show is engaging, sweet, sometimes obvious, but never boring. Most of the ineffectual jokes got lost in the cavernous space of the Wang, but there's an infectious gee-whiz quality that permeates the show and most of the performances. It's not cutting-edge theater, to be sure, but there's no reason that it should be. There's certainly room in the marketplace, and indeed the musical-theater canon, for shows that have nothing on their minds but a little mindless entertainment.

Director Walter Bobbie seems a little bit more in his idiom with this show than he was in shepherding High Fidelity, quite disastrously, to Broadway. (See my review here.) He demonstrates a much surer hand with the comedy and with keeping the action moving here. The show has lots of deliberately old-fashioned touches, such as scenes-in-one to cover the set changes. There's also lots of pointless, non-integrated production numbers, but that's certainly true to the spirit of the movie upon which the show is based. The characters also seem to come from central casting. There's the brassy broad who wants another shot at the spotlight (the delightful Susan Mansur, the original Doatsie Mae in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) and the precious little scene stealer Melody Hollis as Susan.

Librettist David Ives, currently represented on Broadway by his adaption of Mark Twain's Is He Dead?, has crafted a book for White Christmas that is certainly no masterpiece. (But then, this is also the man who wrote the Broadway book for the notoriously awful Dance of the Vampires.) The characterizations are thin and the humor is forced, but the book serves its function: to frame Irving Berlin's wonderful songs, and to provide sufficient room for Randy Skinner's rousing production numbers. I have to say, I could watch an entire evening of Skinner's tap choreography alone, but Skinner also proves himself adept at crafting the kind of flashy production numbers you don't see that much of anymore.

As for the leads, Jeffrey Denman is a terrific dancer, very light on his feet, with a downright Astaire-ian flair. His mannerisms were just a tad too fey, although he was certainly more believable as a heterosexual than Danny Kaye was in the movie, or in life for that matter. Kerry O'Malley in the Rosemary Clooney role was as bright and appealing as she was a the Baker's Wife in the recent Broadway revival of Into the Woods. Peter Reardon and Meredith Patterson were serviceable and professional, but rather unmemorable in the Bing Crosby and Vera-Ellen roles, respectively. (Oh, and a special shout-out to Luke Hawkins, one of my former Boston Conservatory students, who appeared rather ubiquitously in the chorus. That was some pretty fancy hoofing there, Mr. Luke.)

On the whole, I had a swell time at White Christmas. Perhaps the winter storm numbed my critical faculties, or maybe I was just in the mood to enjoy myself. I'm allowed my temporary lapses of cynicism, I suppose.

Sweeney Todd Tour: Still Razor Sharp

I enjoyed director John Doyle's recent Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd immensely (read my review here), so I was eager to see how the show would fare without Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone in the central roles when the national tour showed up at Boston's Colonial Theater.

In general, the tour performances weren't quite as sharp as those in the original production, but the cast members were nonetheless eminently effective and stirring. Doyle's actor/musician concept is still compelling, but it's somewhat less remarkable upon second viewing. I'm not sure if this was because I knew what to expect, or because it was easier to notice that sometimes the presentation represented style over substance. (I'm still not entirely sure what the little white casket is meant to represent. Hope?) Still, overall I found the production a thoroughly entertaining re-imagining of Stephen Sondheim's master work.

The tour stars the formidable Judy Kaye, Tony Award winner for The Phantom of the Opera, as Mrs. Lovett. Kaye was not quite as edgy as Lupone was, and not nearly as funny, but she eventually warmed up and really made the role her own, especially in "A Little Priest." Kaye's a total pro, and ultimately she gives the Lovett role a heartier and brighter spin than Lupone did.

The tour's other star, David Hess, was out for the performance I saw, so understudy David Garry donned the leather strop and chased-silver blades. Garry brought a certain smoldering sensuality to the part: he's a big burly bear of a man, and certainly the sexiest Sweeney I've seen. Now, Michael Cerveris is a hot guy, to be sure, but his interpretation of Sweeney was so grim and humorless that it was really hard to think of him as hot (unless that's the sort of thing you go in for). Garry put much more of a jovial spin on the role, albeit with a sinister subtext. The only indication that Garry was an understudy came during "A Little Priest" when he came in slightly late on one lyric and had to back-phrase to catch up. Hardly noticeable, unless you had the score memorized.

The rest of the cast comprised a healthy complement of veterans from the recent Broadway production, including Lauren Molina as Johanna, and she was just as sprightly and fresh as she was in New York. Benjamin Magnuson also repeats his role as Anthony, retaining his quirky, exuberant interpretation, although he did seem to be forcing the humor this time around. One refreshing newcomer was Edmund Bagnell as Toby, who was very different from Manoel Felciano in the role, yet each portrayal was compelling in its own way. Bagnell's Toby was far more playful and less dysfunctional: more barking mad than broodingly schizoid.

The Boston stop of the Sweeney tour ends Sunday, November 4th, but the show then goes on to numerous dates throughout the country. It's well worth checking out, especially if you weren't able to catch the show in New York. John Doyle's version breathes welcome new life into Sweeney Todd, which is without question a modern masterpiece.

Spring Awakening Recoups, Will Tour

The Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening has recouped its initial $6 million investment, according to Variety. The show had been limping along for months before it won eight Tony Awards, including one for "best musical." Suddenly the show is playing to sold-out houses and currently boasts an advanced sale of nearly $4 million.

As the show continues in the black on Broadway, its producers have recently announced that Spring Awakening will begin a national tour in the fall of 2008. (Why the wait? Perhaps director Michael Mayer is otherwise engaged until then.) Its first stop will be the venerable Curran Theater in San Francisco. There's also talk of a London production, as well as ones in Germany, Japan, Austria, and the Netherlands.

I must say that I've very glad for Spring Awakening's success. As I said in my review, I found the show raw, compelling, and stunningly theatrical. But the bitter, nasty, dried-up, smelly old theater queen in me can't help grumble that the show's good fortune comes at the expense of my beloved Grey Gardens, which closed last month despite winning three Tony Awards, including "best actress" for Christine Ebersole and "best supporting actress" for Mary Louise Wilson.

The Tony voters seemed to be making a statement rather than distributing awards based on actual merit. What might that statement be? Something about welcoming new voices to Broadway, perhaps? Or the desire to attract a younger demographic to ensure the future viability of live theater? Whatever.

But the whole Tony affair reminded me of when The Producers quite undeservedly won a record-breaking 14 Tony Awards, seemingly because the voters simply wanted to break the record. I mean, best lighting? Best costumes? Best sets? These aspects of that show were ordinary at best. And it all came at the expense of another worthy show that got lost in the shuffle: The Full Monty. In another season, The Full Monty might have been the show to see. But because it had the misfortune of being overshadowed by its over-hyped neighbor, it closed after a relatively meager 770 performances, compared to 2502 for The Producers.

My God. How did I get here from Spring Awakening? Talk about your ADD moments. Well, as I often say, my life is an open parenthesis.

Dirty Dancing U.S. Tour

There's certainly no shortage of classic and not-so-classic movies making their way to the musical stage. Coming soon to a theater near you: Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage, which will launch a national tour in Chicago this September.

The show began with a lucrative run in Australia, then piled up a record-breaking advanced sale of £12 million (about $24 million) in London, where it's still running, despite what I can only charitably call mixed reviews. The show will open in for a sit-down engagement in Toronto in November, and there are also productions planned for or running in Germany and the Netherlands.

Notice what's missing from these announcements: any talk of a Broadway engagement. Don't look for it to happen any time soon, because the show would likely be laughed out of town, and the producers seem to know this. Of course, Broadway has seen its share of cynically compiled, irredeemable dreck (Good Vibrations, All Shook Up) and misbegotten movie adaptations (High Fidelity). But Broadway has yet to sink as low as London in this respect, which seems to have a far greater tolerance for high-grossing, long-running schlock (We Will Rock You, Fame, Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, Footloose).

I have no end of contempt for Dirty Dancing, but not for the reason that many decry the show. Yes, it's not really a musical, in the classic sense. The characters don't sing, they just act out the screenplay; there's a band that performs the songs from the movie soundtrack.

But that's not what bothers me. As far as I'm concerned, a musical is anything that the creators say is a musical. So, yes, Jersey Boys, Movin' Out, and even Contact are all musicals. The question is, are they good musicals? Do they have artistic ambitions beyond merely transporting carbon copies from one medium to the next?

And here's where Dirty Dancing falls short. There's not a shred of creativity involved in the process. It reminds me of a certain community theater that I used to work with on the south shore of Boston, which will remain nameless, but anyone who knows me can probably guess which one it is. Their idea of creativity when it comes to producing a musical is slavishly aping the movie version or taking copious notes at the latest Broadway revival. There's another Boston-area theater that regularly rents the Broadway sets and costumes, and even brings in replacement cast members or understudies, from recently closed New York shows.

All of this is lucrative but artistically bankrupt. Yeah, it gives some locals a chance to experience, from both sides of the footlights, a bit of Broadway magic. And Dirty Dancing allows aging Boomers and teenage hoodsies the chance to see something familiar and unchallenging on a professional stage. But to pretend it has anything to do with artistry is arrogant in the extreme.

Sweeney Tour Features Broadway Cast Members

The upcoming national tour of director John Doyle's Sweeney Todd will feature four cast members from the recent Broadway revival. Repeating their roles will be Lauren Molina as Joanna, Benjamin Magnuson as Anthony, Diana DiMarzio as the beggar woman, and John Arbo as Jonas Fogg.

Playing the lead roles on the tour will be Tony Award winner Judy Kaye as Mrs. Lovett and David Hess as Sweeney. Both are also veterans of the recent Broadway revival: Kaye took over the Lovett from Patti LuPone, and Hess was a standby for Michael Cerveris later in the run.

No doubt one of the reasons that they'll all be part of the tour is that the roles require the performers to double as the orchestra. I didn't see Hess or Kaye, but Molina and Magnuson were both terrific in their respective roles. Molina brought a plucky, fresh interpretation to Joanna, a role that has never really stood out for me before, mostly because actresses tend to play her like a Gilbert and Sullivan soprano. Molina made her a credible and multifaceted young woman. And she did it while playing the frickin' cello.

Magnuson was likewise a welcome break from your typical cardboard, earnest, stand-and-sing Anthony. He brought a quirky, impetuous quality to the role, which made the character's choices and motivation all the more believable. And he did it while playing the frickin' cello.

Overall, I was a big fan of Doyle's production concept for this show, a skillful re-conceptualization of one of the rare masterpieces in musical theater. The actor/musician conceit was more than a mere gimmick: it illuminated the relationships between the characters. And Doyle's concept went far beyond the actors-as-orchestra ploy. He completely re-imagined the piece in a compelling and dramatically effective way.

The national tour launches at Boston's Colonial Theater on October 23rd.

See it.

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?