Sunset Boulevard

Every once in a while, a show lands a theatre that suits it perfectly. Wicked and Lion King can fill big barns like the Gershwin and Minskoff, Next to Normal was right at home in the intimate Booth, and then there is the revival of Sunset Boulevard, which I cannot imagine anywhere but the historic and grandiose Palace. The ghost of Judy Garland must be very much at home in this morose, reflective production.

As a Broadway fanatic, I am embarrassed to say I didn't have much knowledge of Sunset Boulevard other than the casting drama involving Patti LuPone. Glenn Close certainly has a commanding presence as the tragic Norma Desmond. Her voice is not first rate, though the vocal impurities add to the sadness of the aging diva who is cracking before our very eyes. That being said, I don't see anything singular about Glenn Close's permanence that wouldn't have been conveyed by any other film actress of a certain age. Jessica Lange comes to mind as another woman who could fill Demond's pumps. Lady Gaga is someone I could see playing the role in future revivals, but that is a conversation for another day.

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's scores are known for recognizable numbers that become hits, such as Music of the Night, I Don't Know How to Love Him, Memory, and Don't Cry for Me Argentina. Sunset has two such numbers in with One Look and As If We Never Said Goodbye. Both are show stoppers, and though Close doesn't sing "Goodbye" like Patti did, she acts the heck out of it. Unfortunately the rest of the score is largely forgettable.

The full orchestra onstage is one of the highlights of this production as it harkens back to the old MGM films of the golden age. This production features a few interesting technical elements, such as the interesting construction of Norma's car using actors and lights, and extremely ornate costumes that queens will die for.

The Patti fan in me loves to hate Glenn Close's singing, but you cannot deny her extraordinary range as an actress. The finesse and nuance in the final scene is a thing of beauty. After Norma kills Joe in a jealous rage, we have every reason to loathe her, but we don't. We cry for her when she shouts her famous line "Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." This once powerful woman has been so undone by the pressures of Hollywood that she has tricked herself into believing that the present is not real. In the hands of a less capable actress, the scene would be pathetic, but the greats like Close (and LuPone) have you so cleverly nestled in the palm of their hand that you fall for their every move. 

My Twenty-Two Year Journey with THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

My journey with The Phantom of the Opera began in 1992 at the tender age of four. My godmother took me to see the first National Tour at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. I was absolutely mesmerized. I have since seen the show on six or seven other occasions but I will always remember my first time, which ironically, was one of the show's advertising campaigns in recent years. The details from that first experience are fuzzy, but I very vividly remember the Phantom's lair, the Masquerade, and of course, the famous chandelier. Not yet five years old, I already knew what a "high C" and a "high E-flat" were from running around my house singing the title track at the top of my lungs. I thought I was part of the show and I experienced the drama along with Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford every time I listened to the cast recording on cassette tape.

Fast forward two decades and I still love The Phantom of the Opera, but for different reasons. Becoming a singer myself, I appreciate the glorious music that Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber has written for Christine and The Phantom get to sing. I'm not as enamored with the chandelier and the boat as I once was, but those first chords of the overture still give me goosebumps every time. I was lucky enough to attend the 25th anniversary concert a year ago and what an incredible experience that was. The festivities and the special performances that followed the show were fantastic, of course, but there was one element of the show that made the evening special. Her name was Sierra Boggess.

This brings me to the special performance I was able to attend a few weeks ago for a blogger event. I was more excited to see this show than I had been for any other repeat visit, and I was not disappointed. Sierra Boggess and Norm Lewis in the main roles are the most excitement this show has seen in years. I don't use the term 'reinvent' lightly, but that is exactly what they did with these roles that are over twenty-five years old. They are vocally brilliant, which was not unexpected, but what makes their performances so profound is their chemistry and their acting choices. I think their previous onstage relationship as father and daughter (in The Little Mermaid) adds an interesting element to their Phantom relationship by making it seem even more forbidden. The highlight of Sierra's performance is her Act II solo Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. The vocal nuance that she applies to the scores give such depth to the character and we experience Christine's emotional highs and lows alongside her. Super fans will also be excited to hear the Wandering Child trio from London has been added to the end of this scene. Norm's booming baritone adds a new flair to the previously tenor-performed songs Music of the Night and the title track. However, where he really shines is in the final scene Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer. He finds some small notes of humor in this character that is often played only as brooding and grotesque. He actually resembles a child throwing a tantrum as he forces Christine to choose between Raoul's life and her own freedom, which adds all the more pain and anguish to his character.

Hal Prince's staging of this beloved musical is timeless, yet if I squinted a little bit, I almost felt as if I were watching a new production because the performances are so fresh. Whether you're a casual fan or you've grown up with The Phantom in your soul like I did, it is worth revisiting. It is an absolute joy and a pleasure to revisit the staging and hear Sir Webber's glorious romantic melodies with two exquisite talents at the helm. In fact, take your own children and maybe, just maybe, the musical theatre will take hold of them and refuse to let them go as it did with me over twenty years ago.

2 Evitas: Elena Roger & Christina DeCicco

I had my doubts about Evita. I had never really connected with the score, save for a few numbers, but Michael Grandage's production at the Marquis took me by surprise. In the moment, the show was like any other. It was an enjoyable evening-if you can call a glorified funeral enjoyable-but nothing out of the ordinary.

But Eva stayed with me...for weeks. I couldn't get the score out of my head. She remained in my mind and I continued to wrestle with who this woman really was. Cinderella? A rags to riches story? A con artist? A Nazi sympathizer?

"The choice was mine and mine completely." That is the one line that haunts me above all others. What choice? Does she regret her social climbing ways? Does she regret sleeping her way to the top? Does she regret spending millions on diamonds on furs while her descamisados starved? Does she regret seducing a nation? I doubt it-not even for a second.

Beyond the character of Evita, I've struggled to process Elena Roger's portrayal of Eva. I have been listening to Patti LuPone for as long as I can remember-and nobody is Patti-so that was my first mistake. I had too many preconceived notions of how Eva should be played, and that clouded my judgement. I found Elena's voice shrill, nasal, and weak. When she went into head voice in Buenos Aires I was done with her. I wanted belting because that's what Patti did. I also didn't find her Act I Eva believable because she seemed too experienced. She didn't have that wide-eyed look of awe that an aspiring actress should have when she arrives in the big city. But, by the time we got to A New Argentina I was buying her performance hook, line, and sinker. She wasn't playing the role of Eva, she was becoming Eva. Honest to God I felt like I was watching and listening to the real Evita. Her feeble voice turned out to be perfect for the late Act II Eva. The weakness was evident. She sounded like someone who had really been through it. Eva was dying of cancer-betrayed by her own weak body-and Elena plays that perfectly. Now all these wonderful nuances that I noticed in Ms. Roger's performance-I didn't appreciate them until I saw the show a second time this week with the alternate Eva.

Christina DeCicco had me hooked from the moment she revealed herself at the end of Requiem. Her doe-eyed look and exuberance were perfect for the young Act I Eva. Her Buenos Aires was thrilling and her vocal power was evident. The excitement and joy of a young woman on her first trip to the Big Apple was palpable. But as her Eva transitioned from a teenager to a sex symbol, I couldn't help feeling like I was watching a Disney princess. She's known for playing Glinda in Wicked and that was apparent. She is simply too likable to play this highly polarizing figure. I so wanted her to become grittier, feistier, but it never happened. She started to lose me in I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You which was where Elena started to grab me. She was simply too young and too naive to play a woman who had experienced so much. She pulls you back when she starts to get sick. Her acting is almost enough to fool you into thinking she has become frail...but not quite. She is still just a little too healthy and a little too happy to be believable as a cancer-ridden woman bearing the weight of a nation on her shoulders.

I like to think I am a high brow musical theatre snob. I revere Stephen Sondheim and shun Andrew Lloyd Webber, but I couldn't help but fall in love with this piece. I'll never admit that I enjoy Andrew Lloyd Webber in certain circles, but this score is simply remarkable. It is nuanced, flavorful, and layered with a very smart use of leitmotif.  

Yes, Evita the show, but mostly Evita the woman, has gotten under my skin. I think about her often-I can't shake her. Eva said it herself when she promised to never leave me. It's fun to dismiss someone like that as power-hungry and opportunistic, but wouldn't we all have done the same thing given the circumstances. What would you do for the love of millions? As Che asks us in Act II, "Why try to govern a country when you can become a saint?"

Musical Theatre on Ice

One thing that I noticed more this season than any other season was the use of musical theatre selections in figure skating programs. This actually makes sense when you think about it because figure skating is as much a performance art as it is a sport and musical theatre pieces already have an inherent story, making it much easier for the skater(s) to develop a character and communicate a story to the audience. Here is a list that I have compiled so far but I will continue to add more programs as I discover them. I am also going to include music by  theatrical composers, even if the selections are not directly from Broadway shows.

• Cabaret by Kander & Ebb-Madison Chock & Greg Zuerlein's Free Dance
• Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber-Kiira Korpi's Free Skate
• Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber-Ksenia Makarova's Free Skate
• Fiddler on the Roof by Bock & Harnick-Akiko Suzuki's Free Skate
• Les Miserables by Boubli & Schoenfeld-Kirsten Moore-Towers & Dylan Moscovitch's Free Skate
• My Fair Lady by Lerner & Loewe-Federica Faiella & Massimo Scali
• On the Waterfront by Bernstein-Brandon Mroz' Free Skate
• Phantasia by Webber-Patrick Chan's Free Skate
• Slaughter on Tenth Avenue by Richard Rodgers-Rachael Flatt's Free Skate
• Summertime (from Porgy & Bess) by Gershwin-Kharis Ralph & Asher Hill's Free Dance
• Sweeney Todd by Sondheim-Stacy Kemp & David King's Free Skate
• Ten Minutes Ago (from Cinderella) by Rodgers & Hammerstein-Kharis Ralph & Asher Hill's Free Dance
• The Carousel Waltz (from Carousel) by Rodgers & Hammerstein-Maia & Alex Shibutani's Short Dance
• The Lion King-Penney Coomes & Nicholas Buckland's Free Dance
• West Side Story by Bernstein-Isabella Cannuscio & Ian Lorello's Free Dance

My Most Memorable Theatre Experiences: #2 The Phantom of the Opera

When I was 4 years old I was visited by the angel of music and I was never the same. My aunt took me to the Kennedy Center's Opera House to see the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera and according to her stories, I was the most well behaved four-year-old that anyone in the audience had ever seen. I was completely mesmorized and though I've seen the show several times since then, I'll always remember my first. Come to think of it, wasn't "remember your first time" an ad slogan used to promote the show a few years ago? Anyway, it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to decipher my first memories of the show from more recent ones, but I certainly remember the specatacle, from the the Phantom's lair  to the masquarade, and of course the falling chandelier. But above all else, I remember the music and that has lived with me for the past 18 years. I loved to listen to the original cast recording, I believe it was on cassette tape then, and I specifically remember running around my house singing the cadenza to "Think of Me" and the notes above the staff at the end of the title track, because I wanted to be Christine Daae. I was probably the only four year old in my neighborhood who know what a high C was.

While I have come to love many other musicals in my theatre-going career, The Phantom of the Opera will always be my first. And as a singer, I still love singing this score more than anything other piece of music I've ever learned. Though there are surely other musical theatre composers that I admire more, I will always credit Andrew Lloyd Webber with inspiring my love of the musical theatre, which has become for me, a love that never dies.

Grizabella in the Revival of CATS

Okay so maybe this post is a bit misleading-I don't know of any plans for a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS-but if there are future plans for a revival then here is your Grizabella. I have always been a fan of Stephanie J Block and I am going to make a very bold statement about her. I have never heard any singer, Broadway singer or not, that belts with more power and clarity than Stephanie. This video is a performance from the MUNY in St Louis in the 2010 season. Just wait until the "touch me" verse...you will be blown away.

Fun Fact of the Day: Patti LuPone Releases A Memoir

This is exactly what theatre fans have been waiting for decades to hear...the innermost thoughts of our favorite diva, Patti LuPone. Not that Patti has ever been one to keep quiet, but there are certain stories that she has kept quiet over the years. She has been part of many a scandal in her rich theatrical career and when her memoir is released on September 14th, we will finally be privy to stories she has never told before. Highlights are certain to include her sordid past with Andrew Lloyd Webber, from Evita, "the score that she could never really sing," to the role of Normal Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, which Webber promised to Patti in the Broadway transfer and then gave to Glenn Close. While she has been part of her fair share of drama, nothing can put a damper on her amazing career and I know that I look forward to reading her story, which will surely range from hilarious to heartbreaking.

**In honor of Patti's memoir, don't forget to vote in my poll of the week for your favorite Patti performance!

Barbie's Showtune of the Day #8: Tell Me On A Sunday/See Me On A Monday

So I've often made my opinions of Andrew Lloyd Webber quite clear--I am completely aware that his music is less intellectual than other composers (cough Stephen Sondheim) and that he recycles melodies from show to show, but he does have some killer songs, at least in my opinion. One that I recently discovered was "Tell Me On A Sunday, Please" which Bernadette Peters performed in the Webber musical Song & Dance. While I didn't enjoy the show as a whole, this song really grabbed me. The lyrics really tell a story and the melody has an inherent emotional life that really struck a chord with me. When I attempted to find a video of Peters performing this song, I found a really funny clip from Forbidden Broadway, an off-Broadway cabaret-style show that spoofs popular musicals. This particular number pokes fun at the demands of Peters' role in the show, from Webber's penchant for long musical phrases that rarely allow the singers to take a breath to his tendencies to write notes that jump all over the map and leave the singers exhausted. I of course was not around yet when the show was playing in 1985/1986 but apparently it was a common occurrence for Bernadette to miss shows due to vocal strain and this song, "See Me On A Monday" plays heavily on that. While I think this video is hilarious, do yourself a favor and also listen to Peters singing the original track "Tell Me On A Sunday".

Not That I'm Trying To Sway The Voting...

Rick Westerkamp and I have always hoped to make our Broadway debuts as Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer in CATS. We were born to sing Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's compositions in our head voices and perform partner cartwheels in matching cat suits. Cady Clapp will make said costumes and Pam Lewis will bedazzle them.