Sunday in the Park with George

I will preface by saying that Sunday in the Park with George is a very close second behind A Chorus Line on my list of favorite musicals, so you won't get objectivity from me. In my opinion, this is the most perfect score ever written for the musical theatre. The complexity of Stephen Sondheim's work, and the way in which it mimics Seurat's pointillistic style, is a marvel. It is highbrow and cerebral, yet also emotionally resonant and accessible.

I love Annaleigh Ashford, but I was surprised when she was cast as Dot/Marie. She doesn't fit the mold of the women who have played the role in major production. That being said, I found myself actually laughing tonight. This show presents pretty heavy material, but Annaleigh was able to mine out every little nugget of comedy. Conversely, this made her more emotional moments even more heart wrenching. I found her Marie to be more engaging than any of the others I've seen. Her southern drawl peppered act II with sass, which again, made the ballads ever more powerful. Her connection to her mother in the painting during "Children and Art" was palpable.

Jake Gyllenhaal is thoroughly impressive as George. You'll be shocked when you hear him sing. He's not just one of those actors who happens to sing well...he's a Singer with a capital S. His portrayal of the dogs is a highlight as the comedy juxtaposes the seriousness of Act I George. His impeccable diction makes the fast paced numbers,  namely "Color and Light" and "Putting it Together," a dream to listen to.

The supporting cast fills out the painting with standout performances from Erin Davie and Ruthie Ann Miles. This is truly an ensemble show and it's refreshing to see actors, the aforementioned specifically, who have starred in previous shows be able to blend into the chorus, yet deliver a knockout line when the libretto dictates.

I firmly believe that our favorite shows affect us differently at different phases of our lives. We relate to characters differently, a previously ignored song stands out, or a particular scene is revealed to us in a new light. That new moment for me tonight was Dot's speech before "Move On". When she explains what she learned from George, she talks about concentration. When she was younger, she thought it meant standing still and focusing, but now she knows concentration means feeling comfortable where you are, not living in the past or the future. This really stuck me. It's a common sentiment to live in the moment and live for today, but the idea of concentration really gripped me. In a sense, she's admitting that George was never in the wrong in their relationship, but he helped her to grow and change, which helps her to go forward. It's absolutely gutting to think that two people can be right for one another all along, but the timing doesn't work. However, Dot and George don't feel that way in the end. They honor their time together and move forward. I always say that Sunday is the most cathartic closing number in the entire musical theatre canon and George's final spoken sentence really provides closure and hope for the audiences. "White a blank page or canvas, his favorite, so many possibilities."

Musical Mondays: VANITIES

I'm embarking on a new journey called Musical Mondays. I want to spotlight some of my favorite musicals: old, new, popular, unsuccessful, hits, flops, and everything in between. These will not simply be my favorites shows, but more specifically the shows that were personally meaningful to me at one point in my life or currently. Come back every Monday to learn about another show that is near and dear to my heart!

I saw Vanities when it ran Off-Broadway at Second Stage in in the summer of 2009. It was supposed to transfer to Broadway, but it wasn't to be. Vanities a three-person show performed in three acts without an intermission. The story spanned several decades of the friends' lives from a Texas High School to an Upper East Side apartment. Kathy (Anneliese Van der Pol) Mary (Lauren Kennedy) and Joanne (Sarah Stiles) grew up together as cheerleaders and sorority sisters, but they went their separate ways after graduation. This show, with music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, is based on Jack Heifner's play of the same name which was wildly successful in the 1970s.

I was enamored with this show when I first saw it as a college Junior, but it's really stuck with me and I've been drawn to different parts of the show at different times in my life. I immediately connected with Kathy, the organized one, who plans every single aspect of her life down to the last second. She firmly believes that if she plans everything she can keep her life under control, and I can certainly relate. She leads the other characters on the cheerleading squad, as the head of the school dance committee, and later as members of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Her mantra is "Take care of little things, you'll have an organized life," while Joanne and Mary prefer to "let life happen, relax, and that is the key." The characters remain basically unchanged from high school (1963) to college graduation (1968) but the third act is where we see the changes.

As I said earlier, I was a Kathy through and through in high school and in college. I lived by my Lilly Pulitzer dayplanner and my to do list, but then something funny happened after I graduated college. I looked around and nothing worked out as I had planned. This is where we find Kathy at the beginning of act three. It is 1974 and the once inseparable friends have reunited on Kathy's Upper East Side terrace after half a decade. We learn that Joanne, who has always dreamed of having a family is happily married with several children, or so it seems. Mary, who creates erotic installation artwork, blows up this fantasy when she reveals that she's been having an affair with Joanne' husband Ted. But even though their lives are falling apart, they rely on Kathy to have it all together. Much to their surprise, she has lost her job, and "spent a couple of years hanging out at every singles bar, and every therapy group on the east side." She then became so depressed and she couldn't leave her house. Her friends are shocked that her life didn't go according to plan. The rest is in the lyrics:

I sat around all day, without the slightest clue,
It shouldn't sound so sad, it's what I had to do,
'Cause I had worked so long, and I had tried so hard,
And I was so demanding, I was so relentless,
Always in control, and never letting down my guard,
And if that's how you organize your existence, you have an organized nervous breakdown,
You get strung out and neurotic, messed in the head,
That's what you tried to tell me way back in college, call it a bitterly hard-won knowledge,
But there's something to be said for simply living your life.

As someone who always joked that I would plan my own nervous breakdown, these lyrics hit me like a ton of bricks in my post-collegiate life when things didn't go even remotely as planned. They made me cry, they made me have full on breakdowns in my shower, but then they guided me forward, reminding me to stop trying to plan everything and just live! I loved this show so much and I wish that more people had gotten to see it. It's probably too small for Broadway, but I hope that it has life in regional theatre because so many young women could benefit from these characters and these lyrics. If it's playing in your area, go see it--you won't regret it! 

ALLEGIANCE on Broadway

It has been quite some time since I've written a post just to share my love of a show, but ALLEGIANCE compelled me to do so. I make it my goal each season to see all of the musicals I suspect will receive the big TONY nominations, but when ALLEGIANCE announced a February 14th closing date, I crossed it off of my list. It was only after a dear friend told me that everyone he knew who saw the show wept, that I reluctantly bought a ticket on TDF...and I'm so thankful I did.

The piece penned by Lorenzo Thione, Marc Acito, and Jay Kuo opens in 2001 with Sam Kimura (George Takei) in his military uniform on Pearl Harbor Day. He is visited by a woman who announces that his sister Kei (Lea Salonga) has passed away. He hasn't seen her in over fifty years, but he is immediately visited by her spirit, reminding him that their family has unfinished business. We are then transported back to 1941 when a young Sam (Telly Leung) returns home from college to the family artichoke farm in Salinas, CA. The family's future is wrapped up in Sam, but then Pearl Harbor happens and everything changes. The events that ensue recount one of the darkest parts of America's history. Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were transported to labor camps, not unlike what was happening in Nazi Germany simultaneously. Japanese Americans, including the Kimura family, struggle with their own allegiances. Sam wants to prove just how American he is and eventually joins the Army, while their father refuses to pledge allegiance to a country that essentially disowns his family and finds himself in prison. After the war, Sam returns to a hero's welcome, but finds his dear Hannah (Katie Rose Clarke) gone and the entire Kimura family changed forever.

What struck me so much about this piece was not the music, normally my favorite entry point into the musical, but the storytelling. I certainly learned about Japanese American internment in school, but I never realized how eerily similar it was to Nazi Germany. As Americans, we were horrified to learn what was happening in Europe, yet we had no clue what was happening in our own backyard.

Even more than a history lesson, this piece is one about family and the bonds that unite us across generations or cultures. ALLEGIANCE is not dissimilar to hit shows like Fun Home, Fiddler on the Roof, The Color Purple, Les Miserables, or even The Lion King in its exploration of family. When you see how close this family once was and how America's horrific treatment of them tears them apart, it's nearly impossible not to tear up a little bit.

Adding to the emotion of the piece is actor George Take's real life experience. It was his own childhood, largely spent in internment camps, that inspired the show. Seeing his ability to live his character nightly without any resentment toward his past is the ultimate example of forgiveness. Telly Leung carries this show on his back with drive and conviction, showing us that he is one of Broadway's brightest young stars. This brings us to Lea Salonga, a revelation whose Broadway return is akin to Judy Kuhn's Broadway return in Fun Home. Salonga expertly holds the audience in the palm of her hand as she carries the vocal heft of the show. Every word and every note out of her mouth are so laden with emotion than you shouldn't be surprised if you find yourself sobbing through the piece. But, I'll let you decide for yourself because you must see this remarkable show. It is only here for two weeks and it will be one of those shows that if you miss it, you will regret it.

THE VISIT on Broadway

You are about to hear a tale of revenge, debauchery, and greed. That certainly describes one Kander and Ebb show, but not just the one you are thinking of. Yes, the long-running revival of Chicago is still razzle-dazzling audiences uptown at the Ambassador, but what I want to discuss is their final collaboration, this season’s The Visit. The Visit, starring the incomparable Chita Rivera, tells the story of Claire Zachanassian, a poor Gypsy turned whore who became one of the wealthiest women in the world. Though she has survived many husbands, she declares herself “unkillable”. When she returns to her hometown in an unspecified European country, she finds the village in shambles and the people hungry for her to help them. Throughout the piece, we learn that Claire was once in love with Anton Schell, with whom she conceived a child, but he married Mathilde as her father’s store offered him more of a future. After revealing that Anton’s lies caused her to flee from the town, Claire offers to give the town 10 billion dollars, but only if they will agree to kill Anton. At first, the townspeople grimace at the thought, but as they imagine the luxuries that they could have, dream of “yellow shoes,” and begin purchasing things on credit, their greed overtakes their compassion and they all agree to sacrifice Anton, merely for the sake of “justice.” This tale begs a question that we have all wrestled with before. When wrong is done to us, will forgiveness or revenge win out in the end? We may not know how we’d react in this situation, but we certainly know Claire’s opinion.

This piece has three standouts: Japhy Weideman’s lighting design, Kander & Ebb’s score, and Chita Rivera’s performance. Weideman’s design creates an ominous mood from the very beginning in cold shades of gray. As the performers sing of their memories, the lighting moves into sepia tones that suggest days gone by. I don’t know that I have ever seen a lighting concept that is quite so integral to the storytelling and carried out so effectively. John Kander & Fred Ebb’s final score is perhaps their most complex. The piece is nearly sung through, though Terrence McNally’s trim book holds it all together. This theme of waltzes, particularly the “You, You, You” motif, makes the piece reminiscent of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. “Winter” and “Love and Love Alone” are standout performances for Chita Rivera’s Claire, while “Yellow Shoes” is a classic Kander & Ebb number if there ever was one, with a toe-tapping rhythm and a lyric that bites.


The show itself is exquisite, but what made this evening a once in a lifetime experience was the postshow discussion by John Kander and Lin Manuel Miranda. These two men represent bookends of a musical theatre composer’s career: the former is experiencing likely his final show on Broadway while the later is preparing to open just his second. As an aspiring musical theatre writer myself, listening to them discuss the writing process brought tears to my eyes at several moments. Kander began by discussing the inspiration for The Visit, which was to take the operatic story of The Merry Widow and “turn it on its ear.” From this idea came the operetta structure and the waltz themes. Miranda commented that, much like Cabaret, this piece gives you beautiful melodies while Ebb’s lyrics “step on your throat”. He then compared the “Yellow Shoes,” the most haunting number in the show to “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” on steroids. A particular highlight was when Miranda shared his favorite saying of Kander’s. “My conscience is clear” is what he says when he has finished writing for the day. Both men also sang the praises of star Chita Rivera, who also stepped onto the stage with director John Doyle for a brief moment. Miranda told a story from last week’s Drama League Awards, where Chita hugged him on her way to accept her award for best performance and whispered “Viva Puerto Rico!" Kander’s final remarks were directed toward Rivera, stating that this was a very different role for her, who we all know best as the dancing dynamo from West Side Story and Chicago. “She’s famous for movement, but watching her stand still is breathtaking.” At 82, Chita is more dazzling than ever, Claire’s mere presence still has the ability to put this downtrodden town in a tizzy, and that is the very heart of this show. In the best Broadway season I have seen in my lifetime, Chita Rivera is still the brightest of stars.

See CHAPLIN while you can!

The critics loved it and you'll love it too! Don't miss your chance to see Chaplin in its final weeks.

Chaplin, starring Rob McClure, runs through January 6th at the Barrymore Theatre. Make it a part of your Holiday plans!

Win a pair of tickets to CHAPLIN on Broadway!

Chaplin, the man who changed the way America went to the movies, is now the musical Broadway can't stop talking about!

Featuring a book by three-time Tony Award® winner Thomas Meehan (Hairspray, The Producers, Annie) and Christopher Curtis, and music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis, CHAPLIN is the showbiz Broadway musical that takes you from the workhouses of London to the heights of Hollywood.
Along the way, this 22-person musical reveals the truth behind the headlines and the man behind the legend, the undeniable genius who re-invented motion pictures.

This big musical about the little tramp marks the remarkable Broadway debut of Rob McClure as the legendary silent film star, and is choreographed and directed by Warren Carlyle (Follies, Hugh Jackman—Back on Broadway). Join us as America falls in love with CHAPLIN all over again.

http://chaplinbroadway.com/

For your chance to win tickets, answer the following question along with your email address in the comments section below. Please replay by Thursday November 1st. The winner will be notified on Friday November 2nd.

Christiane Noll, one of the leading players in Chaplin was recently nominated for a Tony award for Ragtime. Where did that production of Ragtime originate?

Win a Nice Work If You Can Get It cast album!

Nice Work If You Can Get It, one of the biggest hits of the 2011-2012 Broadway season has recently release a cast album!

To win, answer the following question along with your email address in the comments section below. Please reply by Saturday 10/20 at 11:59 pm.

NICE WORK star Kelli O'Hara is a 3-time TONY nominee. For which shows has she been nominated?

Win a pair of tickets to SCANDALOUS on Broadway!

 Two-time Tony Award® nominee Carolee Carmello stars as Aimee Semple McPherson, the trailblazing media superstar whose passion for saving souls was matched by her passion for making headlines.

Set in 1920s Los Angeles, holiness collides with Hollywood in the extraordinary tale of one woman's charismatic rise to fame. But as her popularity grows, so do her enemies, until her sermons, her celebrity and her past combine to put everything she believes in on trial. Two-time Tony Award® winner George Hearn leads a remarkable cast of 20 in this new musical about one woman's incredible rise to glory…and fall from grace.

To enter, please answer the following question in the comments section below along with your email address by Saturday October 20th at 11:59 pm. Book writer and lyricist Kathie Lee Gifford made her Broadway debut in which revue?

Musical Theatre Monday

This is a new weekly feature I'm adding to keep me engaged with theatre fans! Here are a few musical theatre songs & scenes I'm currently obsessed with. Enjoy!




Sherie Rene Scott: "I Know The Truth," AIDA




Laura Benanti & Patti Lupone: "The Dressing Room Scene," Gypsy





Laura Benanti, Patti LuPone, Sherie Rene Scott: "On The Verge," Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Broadway.com | Ooh-la-la, Zaza! Feast Your Eyes on Harvey Fierstein and Jeffrey Tambor in La Cage aux Folles

These photos of Harvey Fierstein as Zaza are fantastic!

Broadway.com | Ooh-la-la, Zaza! Feast Your Eyes on Harvey Fierstein and Jeffrey Tambor in La Cage aux Folles

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

STAGE TUBE: Sondheim Talks Lyrics, Life, and More with PBS Video Content (BroadwayWorld.com)

Listen to living Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim as he discusses his work with PBS' Jeffrey Brown. From Follies and Company to A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd, Sondheim has given us some of the American musical theatre's greatest treasures.

STAGE TUBE: Sondheim Talks Lyrics, Life, and More with PBS Video Content (BroadwayWorld.com)

Barbie's Big Bold Statement of the Day

Everyday Rapture is the first piece of truly perfect theatre to hit Broadway since Sunday in the Park with George.

I was thinking about Everyday Rapture a lot today and I can't help but marvel about what an incredible piece of theatre it really is. I am going to go out on a limb and say it is the only new musical I've ever seen where every element works. Most new musicals have a strong score and a weak book, or strong actors and weak material, etc. But this show was simply fantastic. I cannot come up with enough adjectives to describe what I felt for this show. The book by Sherie Rene Scott and Dick Scanlan is, according to Scott, about 50% reality and 50% embellishment but the transition is seamless and one would never suspect that it was not all autobiographical. And her singing and acting abilities? Well they are unparalleled. I am going to agree with Barbara Cook and say Catherine Zeta-Jones did now deserve that Tony award, Miss Sherie Rene Scott did. I've seen a lot of Tony winning female performances including the revered Alice Ripley in Next To Normal and Idina Menzel in Wicked and in my opinion, neither of them even came close to the level of talent that Sherie Rene Scott displayed in this show.

Now I've seen some amazing revivals in my time, A Little Night Music, Hair, and South Pacific to name a few that were really spectacular, but this post is devoted specifically to new musicals and I stand behind my decision 150%.

Here is my review of the show as well as one of my favorite video clips.

http://backstagebarbie.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-would-judy-do.html

Barbie's Showtune of the Day #12: Opening of Ragtime

You can say a lot of things about Rosie O'Donnell, some good and some bad, but there is nobody who is more supportive of the theatre, and the arts in general, than she is.When her daytime talk show was on the air, she exposed a national audience to theatre and is forever an advocate for the art form. On this particular occasion, she had the cast of the original Broadway production of Ragtime perform their opening number. This look back to 1998 gives us a glimpse of some of today's biggest Broadway stars back when they were just getting their start, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, and Brian Stokes Mitchell among them. And that little girl that appears around 2:50...that is a young Lea Michele. This is one of my favorite songs from the musical theatre and the harmonies at the end are astounding.