Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals

Turn of the Century at the Goodman

Although Michael Riedel of the New York Post had reported that the new musical Turn of the Century was having trouble raising its capitalization, the show appears to be on track for its September opening at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.

The show will feature a long-overdue return to directing for Tommy Tune (Nine, Grand Hotel). Tune has spent the last decade or so performing in Vegas, in night clubs, and even (Great Honk!) on cruise ships, so the prospect of another Tune-directed book show is welcome, indeed.

But, get this: he won't be doing the choreography for Turn of the Century. Boston Conservatory grad Noah Racey (Curtains) will handle that task. What up with that? Now, Racey's a very talented guy, but c'mon this is Tommy Tune here. Could it be that the 69-year-old Tune is feeling his age? Or does he want to focus exclusively on directing this time, given that he hasn't directed a Broadway show since the 1994 Day-Glo bedecked revival of Grease?

Turn of the Century focuses on a down-and-out singer named Dixie Wilson (Rachel York) and a piano playing Lothario named Billy Clark (Jeff Daniels). The show's plot, according to TheaterMania is as follows: "At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1999, the century turns, but in the wrong direction: the duo is catapulted back in time, before the hit songs of the 20th century have been created. Together, Billy and Dixie co-opt the songs that make the whole world sing, becoming the stars they've dreamed of being."

An interesting premise, but also an excuse not to create an original score: the show will feature standards from the creators of the Great American Songbook, including Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Of course, it all depends on how book writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (Jersey Boys) execute the story, but the lack of an original score was one of the things that made Bob Fosse's Big Deal a Big Disappointment.

Turn of the Century will run at the Goodman from September 19th to October 26th. No word yet on whether the show will have a Broadway afterlife, but with all that big-name talent, it's hard to imagine that a move to New York isn't somehow in the back of everyone's mind.

Upcoming Musicals - Further Out

Following up on yesterday's list of immediately impending Broadway musicals, here are some shows that are a bit further out on the horizon:

EVER AFTER:
Source: Based on Drew Barrymore movie "Ever After," itself based loosely on the Cinderella story.
Cast: None yet announced.
Creators: Music by Zina Goldrich, lyrics by Marcy Heisler (Junie B. Jones, numerous Disney projects). Mauritius playwright Theresa Rebeck will co-write the book with Heisler.
Staff: Doug Hughes (Doubt, Mauritius) will direct, Rob Ashford will choreograph.
Status: The show will have a pre-Broadway tryout at San Francisco's Curran Theater in April 2009.
My Take: Goldrich and Heisler are unknown to me. Rebeck and Hughes are pros, but new to musical theater. Ashford's the only true musical veteran on board. I should probably see the movie before I make any grand proclamations about the quality of the source material, but I hear good things.

TURN OF THE CENTURY:
Source: None! (An original idea? What a concept.) The musical centers on a female singer who can't catch a break, and a male piano player. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1999, they both receive a fantastical power and set out together to "discover" America's most popular songs.
Cast: Jeff Daniels and the always delightful Rachel York.
Creators: Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, of Jersey Boys fame. The score will comprise various standards "from the American songbook."
Staff: Tommy Tune will direct and choreograph.
Status: September 19th to 26th at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. Will the show head to Broadway after that?
My Take: That's a pretty dull, generic title, but any show that creates the possibility of Tommy Tune returning to New York is reason to celebrate. Compilations scores are never a good idea (Big Deal, anyone?), but this one seems to fit in with the theme of the show, so we'll have to see how they pull it off.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY:
Source: Duh.
Cast: No roles have yet been cast for the Broadway production, but Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth will be part of reading in August. Lane was supposed to appear in the upcoming Catch Me If You Can, but according to Michael Riedel, "may find the role of Gomez Addams too good to pass up."
Creators: The very busy Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice are writing the book. The score will be by Andrew Lippa of The Wild Party fame.
Staff: Improbable Theater founders Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch (Shockheaded Peter) will direct and design.
Status: Scheduled for the 2009-2010 Broadway season following an out-of-town tryout.
My Take: I'm not personally thrilled at the prospect of Morticia and Gomez bursting into song, but it could be fun if the creators find the right story to tell and the right way to tell it.

That's all for now. I'm off to New York City to see [title of show], Bash'd, and Damn Yankees. I'll also be revisiting a few shows, including Adding Machine, A Catered Affair, and Passing Strange. Look for my reviews next week.

Upcoming Musicals - Coming Soon

There's certainly no shortage of musicals, both new and classic, settling into Broadway berths for the next season. Some have already found a home and are even selling tickets (Shrek, Billy Elliot, A Tale of Two Cities, [title of show]). Other have been announced, but are either waiting for a suitable theater to open up, or just haven't started to sell tickets yet (The Story of My Life, Pure Country, 13). Then there are the shows that are a little bit further on the horizon, but remain distinct possibilities for the coming season:

GODSPELL:
Cast: Gavin Creel
Staff: The upcoming Broadway production will reunite the creative team from the recent Paper Mill Playhouse production: Daniel Goldstein (All Shook Up) will direct, and Christopher Gattelli (South Pacific, 13) will choreograph.
Status: Details have been scant, but according to Broadway.com, Godspell will begin previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in September and open in October.
My Take: "I know I've seen this show before, in some old high school gym, on someone's basement floor..."

VANITIES:
Cast: Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles, and Anneliese van der Pol
Creators: Book by Jack Heifner, who wrote the play Vanities, upon which the musical is based. Music and lyrics David Kirshenbaum (Summer of '42)
Staff: Judith Ivey will direct, Dan Knechtges will choreograph.
Status: The show will play the Pasadena Playhouse from August 22 to September 28, before bowing on Broadway, reportedly in the fall 2008.
My Take: I saw the play many years ago, and recall it being fun but slight. A group of high school friends meet in the bleachers to talk about their lives: Will this wind up being Glory Days with girls?

9 TO 5:
Cast: Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty, and Marc Kudisch
Creators: Score by Dolly Parton, book by Patricia Resnick, based on her original screenplay.
Staff: Directed by Joe Mantello, choreographed by recent Tony winner Andy Blankenbueler.
Status: Will play the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles from September 3rd to October 19th. Possible Broadway bow shortly thereafter?
My Take: Great source material, fantastic cast, and Dolly Parton's first Broadway score. The show has so much going for it, but then so did Cry-Baby.

Tomorrow: Upcoming Musicals - Further Out

Spelling Bee at the Barrington Stage

I spent this past weekend helping a dear friend try to forget that she was "celebrating" a depressingly advanced birthday. Toward that end, we spent a lazy Saturday lolling around her house in the Berkshires, then went to Pittsfield, Mass to treat ourselves to Indian food, pedicures (my first), and a night of musical theater.

I want to make this clear: I did NOT force that last item upon her. It was her idea. Honest. She noticed that the Barrington Stage was hosting a return engagement of William Finn's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and suggested it to me as a great way to spend her [text omitted] birthday.

The Barrington Stage is actually the first regional theater to receive the rights to produce Spelling Bee after its successful New York run and national tour. It's rather fitting that the Barrington would receive this honor as it hosted the show's world premiere in 2004. Bill Finn must have figured it was the least he could do. 

This was my third time seeing Spelling Bee (I caught it at the Second Stage Theater as well as during its Boston run), and I remain completely enamored. It's certainly Finn's most accessible work, and it reveals him at his heartfelt and empathic best. Of course, much of the success of the show comes from Rachel Sheinkin's smart, funny, and Tony-Award-winning book, as well as director James Lapine's sure-handed editing job. The Barrington Stage program also goes out if its way to credit the show's developmental director Rebecca Feldman and The Farm, an improvisational theater group (which includes original cast members Jay Reiss, Dan Fogler, and Sarah Saltzberg) that developed the original script.

Despite some minor diction and sound issues, the Barrington production does the show full justice. The cast comprises a number of talented veterans of the New York stage, including Sally Wilfert (Make Me a Song) as Miss Peretti, and Molly Ephraim (Into the Woods) as Olive Ostrovsky. One quibble I had with the Boston cast was that too many of them seemed to be imitating the performances of the original New York cast. No such problem exists with the Barrington cast, as the members of the company seem to have found original interpretations for their respective roles. There were a few cast members who seemed to be pushing a bit too hard for laughs (particularly Miguel Cervantes as Chip Tolentino), but overall this cast could very easily have stood in for the Broadway company.

Spelling Bee runs at the Barrington Stage until July 5th. The same production will then play the North Shore Music Theater in Beverly, Mass from August 12th to the 31st. The NSMT house is in the round, and I have a hard time imagining Spelling Bee 360, but then the show played the Circle in the Square on Broadway, which is in three-quarter promenade. Still, I think it's going take some pretty clever re-staging to move the Barrington production into the NSMT space.

Evil Dead: The Marketing Campaign

To advertise the Toronto run of Evil Dead: The Musical, the marketing staff have come up with a pretty clever poster campaign. You might have seen these before, but I finally found some decent scans and decided to post them. If only the musical itself were even half as clever or as funny as the posters, they might have a winner on their hands. Unfortunately, the musical is a stinker. (Read my review of the Off-Broadway production.)

Boston Pops Night Music With Ebersole and Wilson

I was just walking past Boston's Symphony Hall on my way home from a dance rehearsal (watch later this week for a self-promotional announcement). As I passed the entrance, I glanced at the posters outside and noticed that the Boston Pops will be doing a concert version of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music next weekend.

With a shrug, I kept walking: concert versions don't typically grab my interest. (City Center's Encores being a notable exception: I just got my tickets for Damn Yankees with Jane Krakowski, Sean Hayes, and Cheyenne Jackson. Woo hoo.) But something in my brain ordered me back to the Pops poster. I then noticed that two of the stars of the Night Music concert will be none other than Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson.

Oh. My. God.

Regular readers will no doubt recall my abiding affection for Grey Gardens and its Tony-Award-winning stars. I'm not sure how it had escaped my attention that these wonderfully talented women would be appearing literally up the road from where I live (a quick Google search reveals that the concert certainly received a fair amount of press from the usual outlets), but I hightailed it home and scooped up a ticket for next Saturday night.

The Pops Web site doesn't specify which roles Ebersole and Wilson will be playing, but I would imagine that they'll be Desiree Armfeldt and Madame Armfeldt respectively. Mother and daughter, again. It's just too delicious for words. I've always loved Night Music, and the prospect of seeing it with two of my favorite performers has me giddy as a schoolgirl.

Well, giddier than usual.

P.S. I also got a ticket to the presumptuously titled "Broadway's Leading Man," featuring but one of Broadway's many leading men, Brian Stokes Mitchell. I really need to start paying closer attention to what's going on in my own back yard.

Happy Days? Not So Much

  What a lovely way to spend Memorial Day weekend: driving through the rolling hills of eastern Connecticut and taking in two new musicals at the Goodspeed. This was actually my first time there; I had ridden by the opera house once on a bicycle during the Boston/New York AIDS Ride, but had never seen a show here. It's a lovely venue, right on the shore of the Connecticut River. The theater's bar even has a balcony overlooking the river. On the whole, the charming building looks like the sort of place where you'd order a strawberry phosphate.

It made me wish I was there to see a better show. But since I was making the two-hour drive to see 13 at the Goodspeed's nearby Norma Terris Theater (check back later in the week for my review), and I noticed that Happy Days was playing at the Goodspeed mainstage, I figured I might as well make a day of it. In retrospect, I should have stayed home and cleaned on that sunny Saturday afternoon. I probably would have had more fun.

Because Happy Days the musical is almost irredeemably awful. It seems to have been put together by people who know nothing about musical theater. Although this warmed-over nostalgia for nostalgia has proved popular both here in Connecticut and at the Paper Mill Playhouse, I get the sense that it's all about the name-recognition factor.

The show certainly wouldn't otherwise garner any recognition for the quality of the book and the score. Garry Marshall's script is about as funny as your typical, late-in-the-run, post-jumping-the-shark "Happy Days" episode. In other words, not funny at all. And the songs by Paul Williams reveal why we haven't really heard from him in the last 30 years: He seems to have lost whatever talent he may once have had. The songs have no dramatic motivation, and the scenes are purely expository, periodically punctuated by the hoariest of jokes. The show plays like a poor relation to Grease. In fact, I'd much rather have been in NYC at the Brooks Atkinson taking in the much maligned Grease revival than sitting through this dreck.

The cast of Broadway pros tries gamely to inject some life into this flat show, to very little avail. Joey Sorge has the most success as the Fonz. Sorge has a terrific sparkle in his eye, a strong voice, great delivery, and he somehow manages to do a convincing Henry Winkler impersonation yet still make the part his own. Cynthia Ferrer as Mrs. Cunningham and Sandra Denise as Pinky Tuscadero also rise above the material, but there's only so much they can do. 

Act 2 got marginally better, I must confess, and I found myself almost enjoying myself. I guess the nostalgia factor kicked in for me, and the sheer charm and talent of the cast nearly won me over. But the show still sucks. Big time. It wouldn't last a week on Broadway: New York theater still has some standards, Young Frankenstein notwithstanding. But Happy Days will apparently tour the U.S. next season. Do yourself a favor and stay home. If you need a nostalgia fix, pop in a DVD from the "Happy Days" TV show. Preferably from one of the early seasons.

She Loves Me at the Huntington Theater

I have long been of fan of She Loves Me, the lovely little jewel box of a show now playing at Boston's Huntington Theatre. It's a model of dramatic economy: Joe Masteroff's libretto spends just enough time with each character to make him or her believable and sympathetic. And the score by Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) gives each character just the right number of songs, according to his or her importance to the narrative.

It's a shame that director Nicholas Martin's production doesn't afford the show the same admirable balance and restraint. Martin appears to have directed this show in absentia: everyone and everything on stage seems to have come from a different show. The cartoonish costumes are like something out of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Leading lady Kate  Baldwin plays Amalia more like Peggy Sawyer from 42nd Street. And Brooks Ashmanskas plays George like a combination of Pseudolus from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Albin from La Cage aux Folles.

Ashmanskas is unquestionably a gifted man, one whom I've admired in numerous recent productions, including the Huntington's own Present Laughter, as well as Broadway's The Ritz and Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. But from the second he came on stage, I knew there was going to be trouble. Ashmanskas here is all mannerisms and exaggerated facial expressions. He seems to constantly be saying "insert laugh here" rather than trusting the material and giving an honest performance. And as for being a convincing leading man, well, let's just say that when he got to the lyric in the title number that goes "I love her, isn't that a wonder?" I turned to my friend Richard Carey and said "Um...yeah, it is."

The lovely and talented Kate Baldwin imbues Amalia with a spunk and a sprightliness that might have been appropriate for any other leading lady. There was very little vulnerability in her Amalia, which makes it hard to believe she's such a loser in love. And there's no spark between her and Ashmanskas, either during the fight scenes or the inevitable denouement, but this is not entirely the actors' fault. Baldwin is simply misdirected, Ashmanskas miscast.

But as Richard and I exited the theater, we marveled at how much we really enjoyed the show. Richard has directed She Loves Me twice before, and asserted that it really is a fool-proof recipe: all the ingredients are there, and practically anyone can make it work, unlike, say, Carousel, which requires a master chef. It's a testament to the perfection of She Loves Me that it somehow winds up working despite the misjudged casting and absent direction of the Huntington production.

13 Headed to Broadway

Add yet another small-but-ambitious musical to the 2008-2009 season. According to Playbill.com, the musical 13 will be the next tenant at the Jacobs Theater, after The Country Girl ends its limited engagement. The Jason Robert Brown tuner will transfer to Broadway after its one-month run at the Goodspeed Opera House.

Apparently the creators are confident enough in the show that they don't feel the need to wait to see what happens at the Goodspeed. Producer Bob Boyett told Playbill that 13 will begin New York performances in September with pretty much the same cast and crew as the Goodspeed production.

(An interesting footnote: Boyett is also one of the producers of The Country Girl, as well as the following current or recent Broadway shows: South Pacific, Passing Strange, Sunday in the Park With George, Boeing-Boeing, The Drowsy Chaperone, The 39 Steps, The Seafarer, Rock 'n' Roll, Is He Dead?, The History Boys, and The Coast of Utopia. Busy guy, huh?)

So the current list of musicals for the next Broadway season is as follows: [title of show], Shrek, Billy Elliot, A Tale of Two Cities, The Story of My Life, Pure Country, and now 13. That's quite an eclectic mix, including everything from overblown spectacle to plucky little shows that could. Of course, it's great that there are so many shows taking a chance on Broadway. But as this season clearly shows, there is such a thing as too many musicals, especially in the current economy. None of the current crop of tuners has broken out to become a bona fide hit. (Yet?)

I'll be seeing 13 at the Goodspeed next month. Look for my review here shortly thereafter.

13 and Happy Days at the Goodspeed

This may come as a shock to some, but there are opportunities to take in quality musical theater outside of New York City. I must confess a personal bias against regional productions, but this is just outright snobbery on my part. In an effort to ameliorate this injustice, I've been looking for opportunities to expand my musical horizons beyond the confines of Manhattan.

Toward that end, next month I'll be taking a road trip to the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn. to take in two shows: Happy Days and Jason Robert Brown's 13. Yeah, I know: from the ridiculous to the potentially sublime. But I figure I owe it to my readers and my students to sample the full gamut of musical offerings. Of course, if it weren't for 13, I probably wouldn't be making the trip, but as I was ordering my tickets, I noticed that Happy Days would be playing the Goodspeed main stage on the same day. I figured, as long as I'm down there...

The world premier of 13 took place last year at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, where the show met with mixed-to-positive reviews, with the best notice coming from Variety. From what I can glean, the show appears to be about the pressures of fitting in at that wonderful/terrible age of thirteen, but there do appear to be some rather melodramatic elements to the plot. JRB's body of work thus far has been pretty darned serious (Songs for a New World, Parade, The Last Five Years), but within those shows he has proven himself adept at crafting more light-hearted fare. Something tells me that, even though 13 is billed as a "musical comedy," there will be a very serious streak that runs through it.

After its LA engagement, 13 was then supposed to move to New York, but apparently JRB wanted to make some changes before that happened. Is this Goodspeed run another stop on the road to Broadway? Time will tell. The Goodspeed certainly has a time-honored tradition of producing shows that would later make it to New York, including Shenandoah, Annie, and Man of La Mancha. It's interesting to note that the Goodspeed production of 13 will have a new cast and creative team, although that doesn't necessarily mean that the original actors and staff got dumped. 

And then there's Happy Days. I must confess, I'm not expecting great things. The show has a book by Garry Marshall, who produced the original "Happy Days" TV series and wrote many of its episodes. The score is by Paul Williams. Yes, that Paul Williams. The short guy from the 70s and 80s who wrote the songs for "The Muppet Movie" and "Bugsy Malone." Talented guys, to be sure, but relatively untried in the realm of musical theater. The Goodspeed produced a workshop production of Happy Days last year. Now, after an apparently successful run at the Paper Mill Playhouse, the show returns to Goodspeed to open its current season.

Is Happy Days headed for a New York run? Something tells me it isn't. I have a feeling that Happy Days is going to find a very vibrant life in regional theater and then join the upper pantheon of shows that high schools do in rapid rotation: Grease, Bye Bye Birdie, Footloose, etc. But, then, I could be wrong. It's happened before.

I'll be seeing both shows on May 24th. Look for my reviews here shortly thereafter.

Next to Normal Gets Regional Production

The recent Off-Broadway musical Next to Normal will be part of the Arena Stage's 2008 to 2009 season. Featuring lyrics and book by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, the show ended a one-month run at New York's Second Stage Theatre in March.

Regular readers will no doubt recall my strong reaction to seeing Next to Normal. Essentially, although I had problems with the execution of the show, my primary contention was with Yorkey's apparent message that the central female character was better off without psychiatric intervention. I took particular exception to his apparent stance on electroconvulsive thearapy (ECT), as well as to the horrific and tasteless way the show portrayed ECT.

After coming across my admittedly harsh review of the show, librettist Yorkey sent me an angry email. His lengthy missive started off reasonable, but eventually descended into argumentum ad hominem. I didn't want to dignify Yorkey's screed with a direct response, but I'll issue it here in open-letter style:

Mr. Yorkey,

I applaud your efforts to craft a show that addresses the serious issue of mental illness. But nothing in your email to me addressed my central concern. Are you, indeed, saying that your main female character is better off without drugs or ECT? If so, then I stand by my review. If not, then your show, in the form I saw it at the Second Stage Theater, does not accurately reflect your point.

I can understand if you'd rather leave that judgment to the viewer. But, as currently constructed, your show gives the strong impression that you advocate a "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" approach to mental illness. Again, if that's your intention, then I couldn't disagree with you more.

Respectfully yours,

Chris Caggiano

In the process of ripping me a new one, Yorkey mentioned that the show was a work in progress. Fair enough. Let's hope that, as the show progresses, Yorkey and director Michael Greif can find a way to to bring the show some clarity and balance.

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.

Cry-Baby Tryout and Casting

The new musical Cry-Baby is looking more like a definite prospect for this Broadway season. Based on the 1990 John Waters movie starring Johnny Depp, the show will play an out-of-town tryout at La Jolla Playhouse. The San Diego cast will include Tony winner Harriet Harris and newcomer  James Snyder in the Johnny Depp role.

The show is a bit of a sophomore effort: it represents the second John Waters movie to become a Broadway musical under the ministrations of librettists Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, who both helped craft Hairspray into a beehive-sized hit. The songs are by Broadway newcomers David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger. Rob Ashford, Tony winner for Thoroughly Modern Millie, will choreograph, and Mark Brokaw will direct.

I'm a big fan of John Waters, so I'm hoping this show will work out. "Cry-Baby" is definitely one of Waters' more accessible efforts. It's basically a parody of all those awful Elvis Presley musicals of the 50s and 60s, particularly "Jailhouse Rock." I can't imagine there will be many more Waters movies made into Broadway musicals, although as I've said before I think "Serial Mom" would make a great campy Off-Broadway bloodbath musical, a la Little Shop of Horrors and Bat Boy.

Cry-Baby begins its San Diego tryout in November and is aiming for Broadway opening in April 2008.

Kiki and Herb: Alive from Broadway

I got one up on the Tony voters.

Last night I caught Kiki and Herb: Alive from Broadway presented under the auspices of Boston University's Huntington Theater at the Calderwood Pavilion. Kiki and Herb lost the Tony for special theatrical event to Jay Johnson: the Two and Only, which I also saw. (Read my review here.)

So, unlike many of the Tony Voters, I'm actually in a position to determine who really should have won. ("What's that you say? The august members of the Tony community vote even when they haven't seen all the shows?! Slander! Libel!")

The bottom line: Kiki and Herb was robbed.

Kiki is more than just a drag queen. She amounts to nothing less than a bravura acting achievement on the part of Justin Bond. Bond does more than merely portray the boozy cabaret star Kiki; he embodies her. Bond's ministrations are fierce, frenetic, and above all funny. But the show isn't just a wildly comic spoof of chanteuses of a certain age. It's also a timely political tract on everything from the Iraq war to the Catholic church to gay marriage, apropos of yesterday's landmark vote in the Massachusetts legislature.

As both Kiki and Herb consume vast quantities of alcohol, the show also gets increasingly moving and downright existential. Despite the fact that neither of them is really consuming anything alcoholic, the act becomes gradually, almost imperceptibly looser as the show progresses. Bond evinces one of the most credible drunks I've ever seen, and the results are both hysterical and heartbreaking.

Kenny Mellman as Herb matched Kiki's intensity with a smarmy, obsequious rendition of the classic cabaret pianist, but I could have done with a little less screaming into the microphone. We get it: the guy's deaf. Does the audience need to be as well?

Speaking of which, one major note to the production staff: the sound overall was wa-a-a-a-ay too loud. I'm not sure if this is part of the intent of the creators, but the decibel level was over the top, jarring, and at times painful. The Wimberly Theater isn't that big: we don't need the sound system to go to eleven.

But I encourage any fans of cabaret or musical theater to make their way to the Calderwood Pavilion before June 30th.

Earplugs in hand, just in case.