Word: broadway
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Before departing the United Kingdom, I took in the long-running West End production of Yasmina Reza’s Art. The play was as enjoyable as when I first viewed it on Broadway in 1997, and two-thirds of the cast sparkled. The one dull spot? The lone American, George Segal, sadly best known these days for his role on the insipid Just Shoot Me, was flat throughout. Still, I left London having enjoyed three of the four productions and fired up for some good ol’ American theater...
...next show up had me a bit apprehensive; after the disappointment of George Segal, I was unsure about watching another Must-See-TV star. I was quite pleased, however, by what I saw from Will and Grace’s Eric McCormack in his Broadway debut as The Music Man, Harold Hill. With tremendous charisma, a pleasant, if unspectacular voice, and a great deal of enthusiasm, he was a perfect complement to Rebecca Luker’s beautifully sung and just old-fashioned beautiful Marian in a classic show that Susan Stroman has lovingly restaged...
...somewhat fictionalized account of his life, told with his own songs—for which he wrote both words and music. The result was the best musical of the season, a work richer in music and deeper in resonance than either The Producers or The Full Monty. Though its Broadway-run ended after it failed to garner any Tony’s, it is survived by a top-notch cast album that I cannot recommend highly enough...
...performance of the national tour of Kiss Me, Kate at the Kennedy Center. When I was able to look at the stage (and away from the dreadful red velvet motif of the auditorium), I saw what looked very much like a national tour of a show currently on Broadway. Same book, same songs, slightly scaled back set, medium level stars who were inferior to their Broadway predecessors, and an audience who loved it all-the-same. Truth be told, if Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, Amy Spanger and Michael Berressee weren’t so dazzling in the Broadway production...
...enough to see a reading at Lincoln Center of William Finn’s A New Brain. Though this work did not enjoy a particularly long NY run, it has had a healthy regional life, and I would love to see it come to a Harvard stage. Its off-Broadway cast is featured on one of my favorite recordings, with Malcolm Gets, best known as Richard on Caroline in the City, but also an accomplished musical theater performer and Yale Drama grad, beautifully assaying the lead role...