Carolyn Bowman (Mathew Murphy)

In an attempt to attract new audiences to new plays and musicals, a pattern has begun to emerge. Shows are being conceived by a new generation of producers, writers and composers who are determined to cater to the young audiences who only recently have begun to form. There is clearly a new generation who are no longer interested in the sort of material that delighted and entertained their parents. Once upon a time, those folks were young, and they helped invent something called musical comedy, which brought wit, melody, and creative staging to Broadway. Operettas, comic-star vehicles, and even stories with emotional weight popped up every season, and it was all labeled “the golden age” by historians of the period.

We’ve now arrived at a new age that has as yet to be named, but it has relaxed even the unofficial dress code for its audiences, and you won’t find even one gent in a suit and tie and not more than a handful of women in a long or short skirt. No, the new look for ladies seems strictly sneakers, sweaters, and kneeless jeans.The new material has changed too. No more melody or mirth, no more flavorful lyrics. All the singers are aided by amplified sound to the point where 90% of the lyrics are totally lost usually until the song’s title (raised an octave and several decibels) blasts to a big finish with a final vibrato calling for hoots, hollers, and lots of screams and whistles. We’ve heard that sound before, but strictly at rock concerts until now. 

Brooks Ashmanskas plays the lead in the new musical he will direct called “Bombshell” starring Marilyn Monroe. He’s finally found a role that deserves his Star billing. He’s been featured in many hit comedies, and it is always a joy to be in his company. Robyn Harder is cast as Ivy Lynn playing Monroe herself. She has the difficult job of capturing the film star, yet she manages to make Ivy very real as well. With the help of a smashing blonde wig, she looks amazingly like Monroe the Movie Star yet manages to make a human being of her. She’s easy to believe, has star quality of her own, and she can sing and dance with dazzling ease.

Megan Kane, Brooks Ashmanskas, Robyn Hurder, Kristine Nielsen, Krysta Rodriguez, and John Behlmann (Mathew Murphy)

Others who add glamour and talent to very skimpy material that furthers the twisted turns of the plot as it unravels include Krysta Rodriguez, Kristine Nielsen, and Bella Coppola who play the various actors who populate the hard to follow story of how “Bombshell” became “Smash,” which is not a notable story in real life. Big Star Monroe never did appear in a film called “Bombshell.”

Bob Martin and Rick Elice with lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman and Music by Mark Shaiman have supplied all the lively musical arrangements to director Susan Stroman and choreographer Joshua Bergasse who have made great use of their attractive company of singer/dancers to supply whatever energy this very ordinary show possesses. Again, an undemanding audience treated the cast to a rousing reception. No one was discussing the material as they poured out onto 45th Street in a jolly mood. I narrowly avoided stepping on a small boy who was tying his shoelace. A few of us over 30 looked quizzically at each other, and two elderly ladies I helped up the aisle looked confused by all the commotion caused by their fellow viewers. I spoke to one of them as we reached the lobby. When I asked her if she’d enjoyed it, I had the impression she thought it would be rude if she said “no” so she said she thought it was all a bit loud. Then she turned to someone on her left and dismissed me. Enough said. It’s a lively romp but it’s not for everyone.   

Who would have believed that at last a musical comedy called BOOP would arrive on Broadway late in the season (April 6) just in time to deliver an Easter gift that saves us from the doom and disaster that seem to be the prevalent themes attracting writers and directors of musicals lately. Now curvy Betty Boop pops up with a knowing wink to assure us it’s all right to have a laugh at ourselves as the world seems to self destruct off stage.

Betty Boop began in the 1930s in animated cartoon form and later appeared in newspaper comic strips. Movies on the big screen later made way for the television sitcoms that gave us I Love Lucy and then The Golden Girls, Archie and Edith Bunker and others that an audience was happy to have in their living rooms even on smaller screens which are now giant plasma ones. Broadway, through all those changes, remained the main outlet for those people hungry for melody and mirth on a sophisticated and live level.

Now along comes Boop as a lighthearted and warmhearted musical comedy with nothing on its mind but A-1 entertainment served up under the direction and with the dazzling choreography of Jerry Mitchell whose staging is not only entertaining but even manages to move us emotionally as the simple tale unfolds to his precise and lively tap and dance combinations.Time and again, roars of approval greet the final moments of one number after another. The dancers who perform them are blazingly attractive and talented, and they are big time contributors to the show’s overall success. The show’s book by Bob Martin may be slight, but it’s not inconsequential. All it asks of us is that we look into our own resources for keys to happiness and not waste time in “looking around the corner”.

Jasmine Amy Rogers plays Betty Boop engagingly throughout. Her song and dance and her pretty face all help to supply us with a Betty Boop of star quality while remarkably marking her Broadway debut. Her romantic leading man is a very attractive Ainsley Melham. He sings with assurance and dances his part as well.

Erich Bergen as Raymond Demarest running for mayor has a chance to use his robust baritone to advantage. Faith Prince is an attractive asset as Valentina who brings a very distinctive maturity and charm along with her grace as a dance partner. All of their contributions enhance the book and the score, but the evening is in Jasmine Rogers’ triple talented hands, and she begins her career as a crowd-pleasing winner. Welcome to you, Ms Rogers — hopefully this will just be for you the start of something big.

Out of the nightly CBS talk show which once filled our radio and later our television listening hours, the 21st century has moved in early and finally taken command of the vast audience that created the Golden Age of Broadway which brightened our lives for more than sixty years. There is still a place called Broadway, and its buildings still house the musicals and plays that are hopefully to succeed in them. The “golden age” is having  problems of its own under the presidency of Donald Trump, as inflation has caused ticket prices to rise dangerously to the point where live theatre may disappear. But for the moment the general public has been willing to pay up to nine hundred dollars for one seat to whatever is up there on stage. A new generation of managers and producers has emerged as well, and because of the high costs, you will often find 30-50 names listed above the title in the program, which often means there is no producer at all. But the material that’s been chosen to delight or inform or entertain us is unusual as well, and only time will tell if it can attract an audience sizable enough to sustain it.

George Clooney (Emilio Madrid)

For example, today’s entry, Good Night and Good Luck isn’t really a play. It is more a spectacle involving two characters, yet Senator Joseph McCarthy (Star George Clooney’s adversary) is only seen on film in clips from actual newscasts of the day. Other plot points are made on film  Granted, all this technical wizardry is fun to watch, but it all distracted me from the story they were trying to tell. I felt like I was at a film class watching fun ways to stretch as film and play makers. Though there was excellent response from the crowd that filled the large Winter Garden, I was curiously unmoved by all the technical trickery. If this is where Broadway is going, it’s leaving me behind.

George Clooney with the cast of ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ at the Winter Garden Theatre, (Emilio Madrid)

Director David Cromer has handled the many crowd scenes adroitly, showing the speed and precision with which heavily populated lower level jobs are smoothly performed by ambitious and fast moving young folks on the constant move.

         Shaina Taub is an artist in residence at the Public Theatre in New York, where she first presented this musical for which she wrote book, music, and lyrics. In addition she is still playing a featured supporting role now that the piece has moved to its current home on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre. Clearly she is totally committed to this very angry feminist material which is now attracting an avid crowd of  equally interested young women and their mothers and grandmothers.

Shaina Taube and Cast (Joan Marcus)

When I saw a matinee, a packed house of these ladies and young girls bought into its very core, responding to most of it with great vigor. From the top however, I knew I was not to join them, for the opening chords of the Jason Crystal sound design made it clear nuance wouldn’t have priority in the upcoming score. As the play unfurled during the next 2 1/2 hours, the titles told all: “Let Mother Vote”, “Finish The Fight”, “Find A Way”, “Wait My Turn”, “Tell Them Who You Are”, “The Young Are At The Gates”, “I Was Here”, and “Keep Marching” all indicated we were about to be lectured on the abominable behavior suffered by women from the time of our nation’s birth in 1776. The music offered to attract us to the cause existed not as melody but merely as musical notes assigned to sing the story of the book.

Casting was impressive too. Every role, male and female, was played by a white, black, brown or Asian woman, though as made up and dressed, it was difficult to pay much attention to the likes of President Woodrow Wilson, the Speaker of the House and other goofy fellows, all played by actresses in pants.  If Ms. Taub’s intention as librettist was to make “suffs” (the preferred name of “suffragettes”) sound cute, she succeeds. Mayte Navalio’s choreography and Leigh Silverman’s direction keep things moving briskly and efficiently, but Andrea Grody’s Music Direction, when wedded to the vocal and  musical arrangements (Ms. Taub again, this time with others) turned all words and music into muddied and tinny sounds that became repetitious. I realize this work made a portion of its audience jolly, but I hope it does not set a new standard for big Broadway musicals.

Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard are now co-starring in this flashy and stylish new musical, playing the two nasty “frenemies” who were played in the non-musical movie by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. This time out the two “friends” are singing and dancing along with a company of fine featured players and an ensemble of attractive singers, dancers, and actors who earn their keep and our high regard in all departments. The ladies (who are played like the evil twins to Auntie Mame and her best friend Vera Charles) zipped along as though they were both on Red Bull and kept us engaged throughout this two and a half hour extravaganza. 

While the book and the score are largely forgettable, the direction and choreography by Christopher Gattelli and the scenery and costumes and lighting by Derek Mclane and Paul Tazewell and Justin Townshend will delight you throughout. In the capable hands (i.e. voice) of Michelle Williams as the Sorceress, Viola Van Horn, the spectacle begins with a rousing number which hints at the twists and turns to come… of which there are many.

This lavish musical has a marvelous supporting cast featuring Taureen Everett and also offers Christopher Sieber as the love interest of both leading ladies. The book by Marco Pennette races along replete with one-liners that are delivered so rapidly that they are often hard to follow. But no matter, the splendid variety of banter supplies one opportunity after another to allow the ladies to change their myriad costumes. The music and lyrics are zippy enough, but it is the pure Broadway spectacle of Mr. Gattelli’s staging that makes the show fun to watch as sung, acted, and danced by this thrilling company.

For those of you looking for dazzling entertainment with little thought provocation that asks of us only not to take take ourselves too seriously, this bright and lively spectacle advises that we should not seek to reclaim our lost youth, for things may well turn out worse the second time around. 

The  James Earl Jones Theatre on West 48th Street (once called The Cort) has put out its newly-refurbished welcome mat to a new rom/com by Delia Ephron based on her best-selling memoir. It’s been lavishly mounted in a handsome production sponsored by over two dozen would-be producers led by the well established Daryl Roth. Though strictly a play and not by any definition a musical, director Susan Stroman has staged the piece with fluidity using Beowulf Boritt’s beautifully designed library/living room that anchors the comedy in the lavish and accomplished world of the Broadway and Hollywood glitterati. Alas, it’s a total misfit as the story is one involving the hard working and determined young playwright who is sister to the star screen writer Nora Ephron. This comedy works hard to find humor in sister Delia’s struggles, romantic involvement, and life threatening medical problems.

Peter Gallagher and Julianna Margulies (Joan Marcus)

When Nora’s younger sister Delia Ephron lost her husband–the love of her life–to cancer, she withdrew from the world to write about their relationship. The play we are watching today is all about her second chance at recovery with a new love who was–coincidental to a speaking engagement she had taken with Jungians–a practicing Jungian Psychologist himself. 

He falls deeply in love with Delia only to almost lose her after a long but victorious bout with cancer. There is a lot of story to tell, and Delia Ephron gets to tell it to us with two main characters abetted by only one actor and one actress playing all the supporting characters including best friends, doctors, nurses, and all others as needed. On occasion, these four gifted actors–Julianna Margulies as the lead and Peter Gallagher as her persistent second husband supported by Kate MacCluggage and Peter Francis James–bring all of this to life for us.  It was a treat to spend almost a couple of hours watching all four actors having a go at physical comedy, at accents and vocal humor, and at the use of wardrobe and hairstyling for effective character changes. But clearly the basic material does not readily offer much source for a comedy. As a result, I found myself wishing for more emotional impact or involvement.

Peter Francis James, Peter Gallagher, Julianna Margulies, Kate MacCluggage (Joan Marcus)

Susan Stroman has contributed a consistently smooth staging that has helped to hold us for the 110 minute intermission-less act, but there is no obvious break in the narrative. Too little suspense and not enough surprise make this stage version of the book little worthy of a full length play.  

An odd quirk about the Playbill program that is notable–there is no listing of the songs’ titles and no mention of why. I suspect Lloyd Webber felt that his melodies were constant; they were almost always there floating behind the dialog and soaring above it and commenting on it. It gave another dimension to this extraordinary achievement. And there was so much on the stage here at the St.James that I felt for the first time (in far too long) a desire to see it all over again– perhaps next time with standby Caroline Bowman as Norma Desmond, only because I don’t see how she could pull it off. You don’t want to miss this one. It took me back to the glorious days when Broadway was the magical word that encouraged writers and performers to rise from small beginnings to the highest of heights.It was indeed a Golden Age. And if we get lucky, some of you will live to see the early light of another.

The management at New York’s Lincoln Center has brought into its spacious Beaumont Theatre a flashy new production called McNeal  by the highly regarded Ayad Aktar whose plays Disgraced and Junk have brought him Tony nominations and the Pulitzer Prize. Several other works have also enhanced his reputation as a distinguished contributor to the theatrical scene on and off Broadway and in the regional theaters of the USA and Britain. This new work is a drama that runs well over 90 minutes in one very long intermission-less act. Its format would make it less cumbersome were it structured more conventionally. Mr. Akhtar is a linguist, and his seven characters use speech–eloquent speech–as a weapon with which to discuss ideas on the modus vivendi of literate folks who connect them to the playwright around whom the discussion revolves.

Bartlett Sher has directed them all into a glorious concoction that looks like it might have been produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. It is set on the huge Beaumont stage where between the dozen or more scenes thousands of digitally programmed lights flash; lush curtains come flying from the wings and the flies; and in one dramatic moment, the floor moves to allow a startling surprise to keep us tuned in to the end.

Robert Downey Jr. is here making his Lincoln Center Theatre and Broadway debuts after years of acclaim on large and small screens. He coauthored with Thomas Kostigan a New York Times best selling book titled Cool Food. He is a resourceful actor, and he immerses himself all though the play in the confrontations with others whose ideas clash with his own. Impressive as these encounters often were, I did not find myself engaged. I felt I was being asked to sit in on a very long series of spoken ideas. With only modest voice projection, it was often difficult to hear some of the particularly ambitious dialog in which those ideas were tossed around. I did find Andrea Martin as McNeal’s very aggressive agent both amusing and terrifying at the same time. Again, I would like to have learned more about what made her tick than to see only the results of what living her life has done to her. 

Michael Yeargan has designed the sets as though it were a grand opera, His ten designs at the Metropolitan Opera and at major opera companies throughout the USA, Europe, and Australia have made him an ideal choice to bring a sumptuous look to this well-intentioned ambitious drama.  

The new Broadway season begins with this two-character play from Jen Silverman who is a “they/them” playwright, novelist, and screenwriter; and they seems to have had productions everywhere except in New York. But now at long last they can include the Booth Theatre on Broadway as a home for their writings. The Roommate is not really a play; it is more a ninety-five minute one act series of scenes in which two characters have long conversations beginning when one answers an ad and claims the role that gives this play its title. 

Mia Farrow is the owner of the very simple small house in Iowa City that she wants to share, and though Patti LuPone as applicant is old enough to be her mother, she is accepted; and we are invited to listen in on conversations the two of them have in the many years that bring us to the present.There are no peaks and valleys along their way. We know the years are passing by the changes in costumes and by the references to outside activities in their exchanges.The playwright has a keen sense for the backgrounds and beginnings–each very different–of both women.

The evening is saved by the most amazing work done by the two actresses. Mia Farrow made her debut in 1963 off Broadway in a revival of The Importance of Being Earnest, but her first lead role was in the film Rosemary’s Baby where her performance won her a Golden Globe nomination. She then worked extensively in London where she became the first American actor ever to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She then returned to America and had herself a hit on Broadway with Bernard Slade’s Romantic Comedy. Time magazine In 2008 named her one of the most influential people in the world. Patti LuPone’s credits are equally impressive, and her’s include a great number of memorable musicals in which she showed great range with a powerful voice.

I wish I could tell you that The Roommate is worthy of them. Jack O’Brien has staged it resourcefully, and costume designer Bob Crowley’s clothing adds much to the production. Though Silverman has great facility with dialogue, it fails to sustain us over the long haul because it deals only with the small issues of daily life, and I had the feeling I was merely eavesdropping on some private and personal small talk. Yes, the two actresses found ways to offer us subtle and ample grunts, groans, giggles, and facial tics to keep us involved. But they were the actors speaking, not the playwright.

It will be interesting to discover if this minor play can appeal to a large enough fan base to ensure it a place in the Western canon. Meanwhile, I recommend you have a rich time with these two very gifted acting artists. 

I took a third look at this–my memoir–and realized that, though it covered 90 years, I found myself reacting to some of its highlights with reflection, and realized that when it  was published by Xlibris in 2004 and revised in 2023 it was incomplete. I am still a member of the Outer Critics Circle, for which I review theatre on and off Broadway and also theatrical events of interest wherever they pop up. I contribute to my site, richardseff,com, and there I’ve written how I discovered film at the age of six, and live theatre at twelve. Looking back now, almost a century later, I have vivid and clear memories of many highlights, and how I responded to them when they happened, Time can clarify, so I ask you to come along with me as I react now to much that happened then. 

For starters, my first six years happened without much help from me. Technically I was born in a hospital in Manhattan, but at two, my older sister Carol and I were transplanted to Ocean Avenue near Prospect Park in Brooklyn where we lived contentedly as I  whizzed through grade school in only six years. It took most kids eight years to do that but I  seemed to know the answers to all the questions teachers asked, so they skipped me a lot, and  I was ready for high school before I was twelve.  This put me in a special category close to genius, which meant I was offered a place in Townsend Harris High–a three year city-operated establishment–that thought it sensible to send boys out into the real world ahead of all girls and everyone else. To further prove that this was a bad idea, my final year turned out to be the finale for the school itself. It closed in June 1942, but as a parting gift it offered our whole class  automatic tuition-free entrance into the highly regarded New York City College, which inherited all the classroom equipment of Townsend Harris High. 

Fate seemed to be favoring me even when it turned sour during World War II. Most of my father’s small business involved accessories to men’s clothing that were imported from Europe, and during the war all imports were terminated. My mother joined Pop’s business and spent the next ten years running a branch that worked exclusively with American suppliers until all was well again, and I switched to NYU for the final 3 years of my College life. I made the move because I’d begun to explore live theatre as an outlet for my growing wish to work as a performer. It was the most natural step to find work as a bit player in small theaters in the suburbs like Cedarhurst, where an ad caught my eye for “young non-Equity Actors” who would like to play bit parts with the Acting Company. Somewhere along the line a talent scout for Warner Brothers Studio phoned to ask me to meet Sarah Stamm about apprenticing at her Newport Casino Theatre in Rhode Island. I did, and off I went for the whole summer of 1943. After 3 weeks of small roles, I was welcomed into Actors Equity, the stage actors union. I was now a professional! 

I remained one for the next 80 years or so. I still am one, now semi retired, but still functioning as a member of the Outer Critics Circle, for whom I write reviews and comments on theatre wherever it happens. This will be my Finale Ultimo when it comes to roaming through my yesteryears, and I hope you will come roaming with me.  

After 30 years of devotion and much love for this marvelous institution, this will be my final report. The management has for three years ignored my request for a change of seat location. I have been seated in D4 – D6, which are just behind  and to the side of C-2 and C-4, in which two of the tallest men in America have been located these past three seasons. One of them manages to move from left to right all through the performance, making it necessary for me to follow behind him. Therefore I miss almost all of the musicals when they are on center stage; he blocks that area beautifully. I have never been contacted about changing my seats despite the fact that I’ve been a subscriber for 30 years, you might say a “founding father”. I have always paid for my tickets, even though I’ve been entitled to press seats as a member of the OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE where the management ignored my request for changing location. I approached the press department and asked for two press seats for future encores. Yesterday I received their answer. “There are none available.” So I am left with no choice but to say “farewell to Encores!”.

It is true that the golden age of musical theatre is over now and the fare  being offered us for next season is all about rock ‘n’ roll and other contemporary forms. I don’t really believe it, but the new generation of theatre goer seems to enjoy these “bands and acts”–many of them with no book at all, and most of them lacking in the melody and wit which we had come to expect from the best works. The talented performers continue to arrive on the scene each year, and they often deliver in A1 fashion, so there is a form of entertainment up there on the City Center stage. The choreography is often vivid and effective but it doesn’t often do what it’s supposed to do – to further reveal character or to enrich the story. Yet this current management does take the time and money to email me constantly requesting contributions to help further their plan. For that, they seem to have an enormous staff and a thorough work ethic.

I do wish them all well. During these difficult times, provocative and moving musical theater would be most welcome and helpful to get us all through. I will continue to cover as much as I can, but the announcements for the new season are not promising. The longest running shows now are the revivals of some of the best of the Golden Age. I sincerely hope a new generation of writers comes along, and soon, to keep Broadway humming, lively, and nourishing. 

On a fine evening in late June with a hundred celebrants in the Green Room at Yotel on 10th Avenue and 42nd Street, I was with my partner, Christian Foy, and two friends– the cartoonist Tom Kleh and actor John Quilty–attending the Actors Equity annual awards as the sponsor of an award for a male and a female actor who had appeared on or off Broadway in the just concluding season. For the Seff Award, a  committee of critics had chosen Kecia Lewis for her brilliant work in Hell’s Kitchen and Ciarán O’Reilly for his virtuoso directing and acting in Philadelphia, Here I Come, but both were celebrating over 40 years of excellent work on stages all over the world, including (for O’Reilly) long stints with the Irish Rep Company and so many other theatre groups where their work has always been singled out for notice. Although never stars, theirs are exactly the sort of  richly satisfying lifetime careers I love making a fuss over–the sort  that continue to pay big dividends until their final closing night…which I hope will still be a long way off.

Ciarán O’Reilly, Richard Seff, Kecia Lewis

A lavishly catered “meet and greet” hour where we mingled with celebrants and honorees  preceded the presentation of these other awards including mine: Clarence Derwent, Joe A. Calloway, Paul Robeson, Michael McCarty and Patrick Quinn, and the ACCA group where the seventeen members of the Broadway chorus of The Heart of Rock and Roll each received an Award leading to a rousing acclaim from the deeply committed theatre audience of which I was honored to be a part. I can’t imagine a more joyous way of sharing the satisfactions of one’s life work.

Chip Zien and Judy Kuhn (Joan Marcus)

I was unable to attend an early performance of this grand finale to the 2024 season, but I did catch it just before it finished its brief run on June 16th. I am so very happy to report that under Music Director Rob Berman and Anne Kauffman’s imaginative staging it was up there in all its glory as delivered by an extraordinarily gifted company of over 20 actor-singers who moved with precision throughout and sang with glory.  From the moment Conductor Berman raised his baton for the overture to this glorious score by Maury Yeston (music and lyrics) we were involved.  We were aware that Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations were going to illustrate the score and that Peter Stone’s book would tell us the tragic tale of the maiden transatlantic voyage of this “unsinkable” luxury liner on April 15,1912.

Brandon Uranowitz, José Llana, Alex Joseph Grayson, amd Chuck Cooper (Joan Marcus)

There is a great deal of story as we slowly get to meet oand engage with a dozen or more of the passengers in all three of the Irish built ship’s class accommodations. Captain Smith who is in full command of everything is played with authority and relish by the powerful Chuck Cooper. Eighteen of the ship’s Officers and Crew appear generously throughout. Two of the elderly first class passengers are Isador and Ida Strauss–a prominent and wealthy department store manager and his wife, who will figure prominently in the story. John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim and fifteen other first class passengers figure in the tale as do four third class passengers who are seeking better lives in the new world that beckons them to America. As this  Encore!  production was offered to us as a concert performance, actors were permitted to carry scripts, but this was done so discreetly that it in no way interfered with movement which was constant and cleverly choreographed by Danny Mefford.

Ramin Karimloo (Joan Marcus)

The original production of this grand musical play ran for 804 performances in 1997, and it won 5 Tony Awards including Best Musical. I offer  a special rave review  to the Casting by the Kelsey Office’s Craig Burns and Rachel Hoffman who have assembled dozens of excellent featured players all of whom can sing, dance, and act with star quality.  Pretty much ignored these past 27 years  because of its size, it is a most welcome Encore! 

This is an odd column  for me, as I reviewed this play by Amy Herzog in 2017 when it first appeared in the smaller venue of the New York Theatre Workshop on East 4th Street where it had welcoming reviews from most of the critics including me, and it enjoyed a decent run. It helped to establish the fine reputation of its author who went on to write several prize winning plays plus an adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House which was nominated for a Tony Award. She now teaches playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, and so it is no wonder that the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York did offer us another production at its home base on West 47th Street at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

What is odd about this revival is that it in no way resembles its first production–the one we so admired in 2017. It’s odd because it has the same Director and Scenic Designer and two of the original four actresses who recreate their roles in 2017 and now play them here. There is no resemblance in look or sound to the first time around. Yes, Mary Jane is now played by the gifted film actress Academy Award nominee Rachel McAdams, but she and all her supporting actors could project their performances to sound and energy levels better suited to the acoustics of a theater with a live audience. 

Mary Jane is the mother of a two year old boy who spends the play unseen and silent in a bed offstage because he was born with disease in his lungs, kidneys, and other vital organs, and all his mother can do do is wait in her cramped living room outside his bedroom or in the hospital getting whatever small support she can from professionals and a mother in a similar situation. Her life is this child.

For a look at my review of the production at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2017, click on this link: https://dctheaterarts.org/2017/09/27/review-mary-jane-new-york-theatre-workshop/  

I do wish these many first rate artists better luck next time. My advice is: “if something ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Playwright Amy Herzog has given us her version of Ibsen’s masterful play of the same name that remains set in late 19th Century Norway; but it is as though it was first conceived yesterday because its characters have been given dialog by Herzog that speaks directly to late 20th century audiences; and the conflicts it explores forcefully engage us.

Michael Imperioli (Emilio Madrid)

The main character, Dr. Thomas Stockmann,  remains the highly respected man of science whose family includes his bright and charming daughter Petra and his brother Peter who is the town’s Mayor. When the Dr. discovers, after repeated testing, that the town’s water supply is dangerously contaminated with unseen bacteria that can kill, he plans to immediately to publish the news. The scenes that follow become more and more involved with the decision to publish or not. At first the local liberals are in agreement that the doctor’s findings should be shared, but one by one in riveting confrontational scenes, they join his brother, the Mayor, until The doctor has become a powerful villain to them all–the enemy of the people.

Victoria Pedretti (Emilio Madrid)

This could have emerged as melodrama, but with the insight of Herzog’s dialog as implemented by her husband’s (Sam Gold) fluid direction, it rises to the level  of first rate drama.  It is equally served by an excellent cast headed by Jeremy Strong as Dr. Thomas,  Michael Imperioli as his brother, and Victoria Pedretti as his daughter. They lead a group of relatives and friends who slowly put conviction aside in favor of more practical compromises. The first 90 minutes of this two hour exploration of character are followed by a ten minute insurrection that brings the play to its final conclusion. It’s worth waiting for.

Jeremy Strong (Emilio Madrid)

I’ve always been attracted to characters on stage who are larger than life–those who dare to fight complacency and speak from the heart. It’s from the years of theatre going that I recall and revere such disparate characters as Molly Brown who “ain’t down yet!” which gives her the strength to save folks on the sinking Titanic or Dolly Levi who wants to live a fuller life “before the parade passes by, ”or West Side lad Tony Wyzeck who senses “Somethin’s Comin’!” to brighten his future. Include the man from La Mancha who yearns to “dream the impossible dream.” They are all joined by others of equal or greater passion in musicals and even in comedies (like Harvey who is probably certifiable, but even he has found a way to  find joy until he can ”shake off this mortal coil.”)  Amy Herzog’s “Dr. Thomas Stockmann” can now become one of them.

I’ve been privileged to be one of the few survivors of the 1966 opening of this landmark musical when its original production opened on Broadway. I was then a young theatre agent representing John Kander and Fred Ebb, its composer/lyricist. Under the direction of Hal Prince and the choreography of Ron Field, it established them all as major talents who would create the new wave moving stage musicals from light and frivolous entertainments to theatre pieces that were brave and bold, properties that demanded more of their audiences and gave them relevant substance to chew on.

In this imported British production, without changing the original script, British director Rebecca Frecknal has imaginatively revised the style of the piece into something far more gritty and powerful. Starting with the performance of Eddie Redmayne as the MC, the blatant Kit Kat Club has now become the setting for the entire piece–home not only to the MC as host but to all the characters as well who populate the original book writer’s, Joe Masteroff’s, world of Berlin in the 1930s when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis who followed him emerge to destroy everything in their path.

Redmayne’s performance is astonishing; it doesn’t diminish the power of American Joel Grey who until now has owned the role, but it takes off on its own trajectory. As soloist and leader of the gifted  company of singer/dancers, it brings deserved  roars of approval several times throughout the evening.  Bebe Neuwirth performs her own miracle by bringing powerful conviction  to the role of Frau Schneider–one that was memorable as created by Lotte Lenya 60 years ago. Her delivery of “What Would You Do?” In the second act is a knockout. Ms.Neuwirth has been delighting us for many years now, and it’s lovely to see her landing so solidly in this rich supporting role. She is joined very happily by Steven Skybell as her unfortunately doomed suitor Herr Schultz. 

Sally Bowles was played by Liza Minnelli in a film version of the story as written by Jay Presson Allen, and it became the role that anointed her a star. I don’t know the other work of Gayle Rankin who plays Sally in this outing, but her British stage credits are impressive. My own thought about her work in the role of Sally is not a good one. It is her choice to play Sally not as a neurotic, immature, but ambitious loser, but as someone who under any sort of pressure turns psychopathic. Her attack on “Don’t Tell Mama” and the title song, “Cabaret,” at the conclusion are in my opinion examples of her losing it too far down the road to madness . Ato Blankson-Wood is stuck with the character Clifford Bradshaw who is based on the real Christopher Isherwood, whose stories sired the musical. His relationship with Sally Bowles has problems, but they don’t much involve us. The show really comes alive when Redmayne’s MC and Bebe Neuwirth along those marvelous inhabitants of the Kit Kat Club are giving their all to us.  

The Scenic, Theater,  and Costume Designers along with the Conductor and Choreographer are all equal costars of this remarkable musical. From the moment you circuitously enter this cabaret, you are transported to a wild and exciting wonderland you won’t quickly forget.

There are classical themes that seem to interest and attract playwrights in each succeeding generation. Certainly Shakespeare was aware of the class distinctions of his time in urban England, and he came up with the Capulets and the Montagues to illustrate how teenagers are affected by their early influences and pre-set conditions. For instance, Juliet and her Romeo (and Maria and Tony in “West Side Story”) were taught to “stick to their own kind” when bonding with friends and even falling in love. They find big time trouble when they meet by chance and inexplicably discover a force that attracts them to each other. 

In 1967 a book was published by nineteen year old S.E. Hinton who wrote as a teenager for and about teenagers. Called The Outsiders, it spoke to and inspired them. Hinton’s book is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The central character is Ponyboy Curtis (played by Brody Grant) who has two older brothers (Brent Comer and Jason Schmidt) and a best friend called Johnny Cade (Sky Lakota-Lynch) A beautiful young teen named Cherry Valance (Emma Pittman) will trigger the rift that grows intense and violent between her affluent world and the one in which Ponyboy’s people are known as Greasers– The Outsiders.

With a bounty of excellent characters, the novel by the eighteen year old Hinton has now sold over 15 million copies in many languages, As a stage show, it is difficult to dramatize because of its abundant population, and its moving story has many settings in and around Tulsa.  But a vast team of writers, composers, arrangers, choreographers, and lyricists have joined director Danya Taymor for this musical production on Broadway which comes to us from its success at the La Jolla Playhouse. It is a monumental achievement and a tribute to all of its creators as well as to its smoothly integrated cast of young actors. The staging is inventive and complicated and often involves exuberant and intricate movement made even more extraordinary by the many smaller supporting roles that are sung, danced, and acted by excellent understudies and swings. The performance I saw was the Wednesday matinee of April 17, and it ran in show-stopping fashion through its two and one half hour playing time. 

The weakest area of the material would be its score. To my ear, it sounded more like film background music, though its lyrics are often eloquent and are written by Justin Levine, who is credited as co-author of the book plus music and lyrics as well as Music Supervision, Orchestration and Arrangements.

In 1967 when Playwright Hinton was 19, she wrote an Op Ed for the NY Times: “Teenagers are for real. Give them something to hang on to. Show that some people don’t sell out, that not everyone can be bought. Do it realistically. Earn respect by giving it.”  She put all that to good use by writing this play.  Now here we are, almost half a century later. It’s still valid, and her story lives on.  I recommend it highly.

There is a note in the Playbill for Corruption the current occupant of the Mitzi Newhouse Theater in Lincoln Center.  It’s by the play’s author J.T.Rogers and in it he tells us that his play is about “there and then”and that it is relevant to today in the “here and now.” It deals with the corruption and scandal that colored 2011 in regard to abuse of power by a particular media company. It’s his contention that it is prophetic of a renewed form of corruption that is infecting today’s world as well. He is attempting to teach us to the very specific details of the upheaval in Publisher Rupert Murdock’s world brought about by chicanery and deceit that runs rampant in our current world. It’s a warning bell, and it is earnest and alarming.  To my mind however, it is more of a series of shoutouts involving characters from 2011 who spend most of their time attacking each other ending each verbal thrust with an exclamation point. 

Seth Numrich, Dylan Baker, Saffron Burrows (T.Charles Erickson)

The characters are all real people from Rupert Murdoch’s world.  It’s the playwright’s contention that we can learn from history why we are facing such a divisive current world and warning us to be more diligent in learning from the past. These real people include dozens of those who are cohorts or adversaries in the political society of today. It’s an angry play– one which makes its points with a hammer and tongs; and after 90 minutes of its long first act, I found myself more irritated than moved by its relentless arguments. The playwright seems to be saying that we are doomed if we don’t very soon start to pay attention to the forces that are on a course to destroy the democracy that we fought so hard to enlighten this 21st century.

The cast (T.Charles Erickson)

The play is loaded with dense dialog some of which is lost in the heavy British accents which this cast of talented featured actors rely on. It’s difficult to learn from the program notes which actors are British, for almost all have considerable American credits, achieved at many of our prestigious regional theaters. Mr. Rogers wrote the play after reading Tom Watkins and Martin Hickman’s book Dial M For Murdoch which dealt with these happenings in Britain in 2011. What attracted Mr. Rogers to the material was his enjoyment at discovering the real events of the abuse of power by a particular media company who decided that by raising share prices they could bend the government to their will which threatened democracy itself. The play proposes that theatre is where we can still come together and look at our history to better understand the present. He felt we in America were caught in the middle a similar threat to our democratic ideals. I’ve always avoided politics which made me the wrong fellow to view this very angry play, and I can only report that it was splendidly mounted, made good use of a functional set comprised of movable sections that adroitly allowed for a variety of settings. The large company of thirteen actors played some 35-40 characters (some prominently featured some supporting bit players). Bartlett Sher’s direction constantly flowed, but I was never quite sure who was who and was certain only that though I heard a lot of rhetoric but felt little emotional involvement. 

This elaborately titled musical is based on a novel of the same name by Sara Gruen which was a best seller and served as the source of a film with Reese Witherspoon and others. It’s now been produced by a consortium of individuals, theatre lovers, management firms–over fifty of them!– with Jessie Stone credited as Director. Choreography is by Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll, and there is supervision and arrangements of the musical score by the Pigpen Theatre Company–which has to be a first. It features an extraordinary company of singers, dancers, actors, and essentially acrobats whose nimble bodies bend, twist, turn, and literally fly through the air to the gasps of pleasure and astonishment from all of us who sat stunned at the results. If all we were asked to do was watch the dazzling scenery and costumes whirl by, we could turn off our minds and not listen to the songs whose words and music make a frail attempt to tell us a story and to elicit some emotional connection to the characters who populate it. Then we could shout “Wow! What a dazzling musical comedy this is!” The problem here is that it’s dazzling enough…. but is it a theatre piece or is it a circus?

There is a character called Mr. Jankowski, there is a horse, a lion, an orangutan and an endearing elephant–all possessed with personality. But I regret to say I would need at least one more viewing of this gorgeous show before attempting to tell you its story. Is there a story to a spectacle? To a circus? If there is, I need help in deciphering it. I can say that Grant Guskin, Isabelle McCalla, Gregg Edelman, Sara Gettelfinger, Paul Alexander Nolan, Stan Brown and all the others manage without benefit of a cohesive book to make us enjoy it even though I still felt like an outsider looking in at the end.

The book by Rick Ellis throws in a line here and a short scene there to lure us back to the story, but all it did was make us wait for the magic of the spectacle to return. I admit my view of the show is not the popular one; the end of show babble as we left the theatre seemed favorable as we hit the street. We’ll have to wait to see if the show has legs. If it does, I apologize to those of you who embrace it.  Mr. Ellis spent seventeen years (from 1982 to1999) as Creative Director of ad campaigns for more than three hundred Broadway shows.Then he joined the Disney Company as Creative Consultant and was helpful in setting sales records for so much of that studio’s product. Clearly he was first rate at capturing the essence of a film’s appeal. His challenge will be to attract a vast audience to this musical in a Broadway market. 

In the beginning, there was the novel by Nicholas Sparks. Same title as the musical which is based on the book–a runaway best seller. A consortium of over twenty producers (investors) joined Kevin McCollum and Kurt Deutsch in adapting it into a Musical, and now here it is playing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway. That is no mean achievement, particularly as it features a creative staff of disparate first timers Bekah Brunstetter on Book and Ingrid Michaelson as Composer of the music and lyrics. There are two directors, Michael Greif and Scheme Williams,. Each get equal billing so I can’t imagine who contributed what to the highly attractive visuals. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such a pairing as it’s my experience that the Director is the one with final word on casting, design of scenery, costume, and lighting, There are often assistant directors on board along with choreographers, and here there is Katie Spelman. But The Notebook is not a dance musical, so I assume her work has more to do with movement than with dance. In fact, all the elements in this show are fresh and new; and I report here that a young and eager audience at the performance I attended on March 21 responded as vigorously as if it were a rock concert.

The stage was artfully designed and lit, and the story was very well acted by a company of singer-actors who delivered first rate characterizations telling the tale of a struggling romance that weathers adversity and culminates in the touching conclusion. The production is brave and daring by casting the two lovers with actors who embody the couple over three periods of their lifetime without regard to the actors’ different skin tones, heights, and builds. The shared humanity of the players is all that is required.

At least six actors play other supporting characters.  Andrea Burns is featured as the nurse caring for the oldest Allie as well as playing her caring mother in earlier times. She has a short musical solo that is very moving–a gentle song called “Don’t You Worry.” At least four of the twenty songs are sung by the Joy Woods playing Middle Allie, and they end with that familiar last note with head thrown back, throat put into belt mode, with that final note that always earns a roar of approval. There is a sound designer listed in the program, but here we are in a Broadway theatre and unable to understand much of the spoken dialogue in the more intimate book scenes and many of the lyrics. We don’t long for major amplification, but voice projection would help a lot.

Of course it’s possible that the Broadway of old is simply disappearing, and the young audiences who are beginning to discover this new sound may want something totally different onstage. They certainly seem to have embraced subject matter that would have been the property of high drama in the past–stories like “West Side Story”–or the seamy side of life as in “Chicago”. I Melody and laughter and exciting dance will always be welcome, but I wish ‘The Notebook” luck in appealing to a mass audience.  As of right now, it’s become difficult for a new musical to find enough of an interested public to manage the high costs of this new age. The composers and lyricists of the Golden Age are just about gone, and the group coming on to replace them will need to progress as Rodgers moved on from Hart to Hammerstein, or as Fred Ebb moved on from Paul Klein to John Kander. I hope there are people out there feeling as I do about the importance of melody and lyrics in musical theatre which America helped to invent and flourish. It’s true that Steven Sondheim opened doors for the highly original Lin-Manuel Miranda. We have the performers now. We have the directors and choreographers and designers. What we need now are more lyricists and composers who can send us soaring.

The New Group is offering us a play called The Seven Year Disappear by Jordan Seaver. Directed by Scott Elliott, it is now running at The Signature Pershing Square Theatre on West 42nd Street for a limited time only. It is an odd piece of work with a cast of just two played by Cynthia Nixon and Taylor Trensch as a very odd mother and son.  It is all set simply on a stage backed by half a dozen large video screens of different sizes that is remarkably fluid and allows us to move through the seven years during which mother had disappeared leaving the boy alone to get through his growth years on his own. 

Miss Nixon has personally matured as an actress of a certain age. In this play she plays a mother in her fifties who returns to help her son understand why she had to leave him and who his father was.  Because both actors are dressed in black jumpsuits in collusion with the minimal staging with no concern for changing characters and scenes or the issues of their later days, it’s all a bit murky. We were offered only a one card program, though we were invited to learn more by scanning a QR code or visiting the site tng.theater/program.

Though both actors often give engaging performances, the volume of their angry interactions and racing dialog makes much of it indecipherable. Occasionally the script will contain insight or wit, but for the most part it is just a loud howl of a battle. 

In the glorious days, a star like Ethel Merman, Gwen Verdon, Alfred Drake, or a favorite of mine, Chita Rivera (whom we just lost), could lift mediocre material to the level of entertainment magic; or they could make memories for us that would last a lifetime when playing material by a dozen first class playwrights and composers.  I was one of the lucky ones who was exposed to the magic of those legitimate stage stars that affected me in ways that no television, film, or opera star could ever achieve. I have enormous respect for all the hundreds of performers whose work I’ve enjoyed during the great Golden Age of live theater that lasted for some seventy-five years from the 1920s until the recent past. Now, with the advent of AI and amplification, there’s still a lot of live theater being offered, but it is reaching out to a new audience that seems more interested in qualities other than raw talent and unique personality. There doesn’t seem to be a new generation of writers talented for the musical stage, so each season we now get a slew of revivals of gems from the past. In the case of Once Upon a Mattress, the material here is not flawlessly gemlike; but it does offer a constant flow of lighthearted banter in this Encores! staging by Lear Debessonet.

In the beginning, this musical romp began life as a simple sketch to entertain in a theatrical summer camp called Tamiment. It was developed slowly by composer Mary Rodgers who joined forces with Marshall Barer on lyrics with book writers Jay Thompson and Dean Fuller.  The four of them spent months developing it until it began to resemble a proper–if slight–stage musical. Finally, after playing it to a long list of potential producers, it opened off Broadway at the Phoenix on Second Avenue. It had mixed reviews but built audience approval which led to its transfer to Broadway in April, 1959. It managed a 450 performance run due mostly to the growing attention garnered by its young star, Carol Burnett, who was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actress of the 1959 season.  The supporting cast in this current production is absolutely smashing with stalwarts like Michael Urie as Prince Dauntless and Harriet Harris as his mother, Queen Aggravain. David Patrick Kelly, Cheyenne Jackson, and others keep the laughs flowing.

But once again, it’s Princess Winnifred as played by the remarkable Sutton Foster, who carries the show over the finish line. It’s astonishing to watch the gifted Sutton Foster who has beautifully played Marian in The Music Man, (Drama League Distinguished Award) Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes (Tony Award), and the lead in Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony Award) transform herself once again into this goofball of a heroine who makes her entrance soaking wet after swimming the moat that protects the Queen’s castle. She is loose limbed and hilariously flexible, and has a voice that obeys her every command to wrap itself around every lyric.  

Andrea Hood’s costume designs have personality, and David Zinn’s scenic designs are spot-on as they slide on and off and up and down seeming to also be having a good time. I attended a matinée designed by management to close this brief run with a “family showing” so the theater seemed chock full of kiddies–some looking two or three years old. A good beginning that will hopefully become for them a life-long habit of theater attendance. I didn’t start till I was twelve, but I am so very happy that I saw that matinée of What a Life in 1939!

I spent some time in Sarasota in January as the Asolo Repertory Theatre is celebrating its 65th season. The Producing Artistic Director Peter Rothstein has announced an ambitious collection of theatrical fare in its beautiful Asolo Theatre that offers subscribers a great lineup of musicals and plays to “entertain and challenge” them. In November of 2023 Crazy For You, a Gershwin musical from the 1920s, arrived  under the direction and choreography of Denis Jones; and in January Artistic Director Peter Rothstein staged a new production of Inherit The Wind as a powerful drama with an excellent cast of more than twenty-five regional members of Actors Equity plus apprentices. 

Mark Benninghofer and Andrew Long (Sorcha Augustine)

An American classic from the 1995 Broadway season, this sizzling drama was written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. It dealt with the 1925 Tennessee Governor’s signing into law the Butler Act that disallowed teaching of any theory of human evolution except as taught in the Bible. The bill made headlines and served as the cause for the appearance of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan to legally represent the government vs John Scopes, a biology substitute teacher who lectured a class from A Civic Biology which cleared the way for prosecution. 

Thirty years later when Joseph McCarthy began his verbal attacks against suspected communists, Lawrence and Lee wrote this play to dramatize “when intellectual artistic spirit” is again being corseted .  For the play, the two lawyers were renamed Drummond and Brady, and Scopes became Gates. 

David Breitbarth, Ryan Schmidt, Mark Benninghof (Sorcha Augustine)

The first two are lawyers and old time friends who are now trying to understand how two such disparate viewpoints could co-exist, but each still affirms his rival’s humanity. Even so, the powerful court of public opinion rains brimstone and fire over this trial. 

Director Rothstein has staged this very large company with amazing fluidity. There are so many characters who pop in and out to interject a question or a comment, and his ability to maintain focus is remarkable. Also, as hymn singing is so vital to the religious factions, his use of it to introduce each act is fortunate and effective. 

Andrew Long and cast (Sorcha Augustine)

Mark Benninghofen plays Drummond as a very human being whose convictions are clear and recognizable. Andrew Long’s Brady is big and booming. He equates power with size and ultimately wins his case but loses his life to a previously intimated heart condition because of the energy with which he proclaimed throughout . There is hope at play’s end that reason will ultimately prevail, but watch out! There is always danger lurking, and this play advocates that we remain aware and alert. 

The physical production is absolutely first rate. Kate Johnson’s scenery is fluid and moves effectively and quietly with great effect. Fabian Aguilar’s costumes are helpful, and the lighting design by Philip Rosenberg always contributes and supports. It was a pleasure to note an interested, involved audience clearly enjoying good work being well done. 

What we have here on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a consortium of over FIFTY “producers” who gathered together to sponsor a musical comedy–something to which they could take their mothers-in-law, little family members, teenagers and their teenaged dates, and friends who might get a kick out of their efforts. Their target audience was the vast majority of good folks who rarely see live theatre, unless it is presented in their kids’ schools or in their local drama club’s auditorium. What they relish is undemanding mirth and merriment, preferably something announcing itself as “a new musical” (meaning not a revival), something with a professional sheen to it. In order to achieve this there would be sprinkled with them a familiar name or two among the creative credits. In this instance they’ve hired pop writers Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman whose credits are heavily weighted with recognition in other areas of the musical world.  Mr. Manilow has mentioned that Harmony on which he is the composer and arranger is the “most rewarding creative experience” of his career. Mr. Sussman has enjoyed a half-century collaboration with Mr. Manilow during which they have produced over 200 songs that have been featured in many films, many of them best selling hits.

Their musical begins with a greeting from an ex-Rabbi played by Chip Zien who was welcomed by the audience who knew and liked him in Into The Woods and many other theatre pieces on and off Broadway. Sierra Boggess and Julie Benko joined him as the book began to involve other characters who helped to tell the story of how he had joined together a group of singers into an act known as “Comedian Harmonists.” It was formed in 1929-1930 and became an international success until 1935 when Germany, becoming Nazified, forbade this group, which was comprised of six members three of whom were Jews, to appear anywhere on German controlled soil. The memory of the “Comedian Harmonists” became soon forgotten and had pretty much remained so until now. 

The group and its story were new to me, and I wish that this true tale had been rewarded with a score and lyrics that could match the power of the story along with a book that presents its cast with subtlety and insight and even humor when needed. But Mr. Zien and the female supporting cast all played with shouts and more shouts as the tensions mounted. The original score was composed of splashy rhythmic variations to which Choreographer/Director Warren Carlyle supplied acrobatic floor thumping choreography most effectively. The twenty plus songs were energetic and bombastic, but the far too predictable Sussman lyrics were simply not stage worthy. ”This Is Our Time” is one subject better served By Steven Sondheim in one of his scores; and though the orchestrations and staging are all lively, they are more the sort we’re more accustomed to in revues than in book shows because they do not enhance the plot; nor do they offer any wit, wisdom, inspiration or even much fun. Here is a show with a little known story worth telling, but it proves once again that over fifty producers do not make one with the vision of a Ziegfeld, a Hal Prince, a Cy Feuer, a Robert Fryer, an Alex Cohen or even a David Merrick.  

The dazzling company of 24 gifted singers, dancers, and actors under the remarkably inventive direction and choreography of Josh Rhodes have brought to the St.James Theatre on 44th Street a production that is musical theater as we wish it would always be — exciting, inventive, entertaining. I call the company ‘dazzling” because it is consistently sharp, and at the matinee I attended, a leading character called “the Lady of the Lake’ was played by one of the Ensemble company, whose star quality is usually reserved for — well, —  stars!. Her name is Gabriela Enriquez, and she is gorgeous, blessed with a satiny soprano voice, and her body moves with precision and grace. I don’t know how often she gets to play this role, but she fits into the long running company of principal players so smoothly that it proves she’d been paying attention when the staging was created for the Opening Night back on October 31. 

The Playbill lists the show as “having been lovingly ripped off from the original screenplay of the motion picture “Monty Python And the Holy Grail” which in turn was written by six comic writers including Eric Idle who wrote book, music, and lyrics for the stage version with some work on the score done with John DuPrez. It showed up onstage in 2005 in London and on Broadway where it played over 1500 performances followed by a popular American national tour. It was a big winner for Mike Nichols who staged it. It received 14 Tony nominations winning in three categories including Best Musical. The Nichols version opened in London in 2006. It’s not been on Broadway since 2009, and it is certainly welcome again now that the world needs to laugh more than ever,

The musical spins a tale of Arthurian legend and the Knights of the Round Table – Galahad, Robin, Lancelot, the Black Knight Prince Herbert, and Not Yet Dead Fred, all joining Sir Not Appearing and the Lady of the Lake. King Arthur is around to tell us tales. The King is played with great panache by James Iglehart who knows how to play with power while not forgetting that this is all a comical romp. Much of the score helps to remind us that this is a spoof. More than twenty songs are sung (and smashingly danced) with titles like “I Am Not Dead Yet,” “I’m All Alone Now” (he’s not), and one that’s become a standard, “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.”  The lyrics and the tunes earn laughs and contribute mightily to the merriment. It’s all Broadway at its best.

Most of the acting  company doubles and triples.  Christopher Fitzgerald,  Michael Urie, Taran Killam, Jimmy Smagula, and Nik Walker all pop up whenever needed in roles that are male and occasionally female.. The supporting actresses in the company do great work as Ensemble spending most of their time changing gowns, but each delights us. 

The set is heavy with walls, gates, stairs, all looking majestic. Walls drop down, floors slide off, flowers and snow fall from above. The gowns worn by the Lady In The Lake and all her supporting ladies, are magnificent – brilliant colors fill the large stage and it all looks expensive and lush.  When needed to be dark and scary, it is that too, so credit goes to scenic and projector designer Paul Tate dePoo III, lighting designer Cory Patty, and Costume Designer Jen Caprio.  But it’s the director Josh Rhodes, as commander in chief of all creative departments, continues his growing list of beautifully directed and choreographed stage pieces,  

A series of conflicting dates meant I had to wait until December 17 to see this musical at the Classic Stage Company where it opened in October and was extended to run through December 17th. I didn’t anticipate much magic, for the show was chiefly remembered as the one in which Barbara Streisand made her debut on Broadway in a small featured role as Miss Marmelstein. Her performance was the talk of the town even though the cast included her future husband, Elliot Gould, as Harry Bogen and Lillian Roth as his mother. The novel by Jerome Weidman on which it was based graphically told the story of the driven Harry Bogen who was capable of love–but only for money and ruthless control. The product of the surge of immigration to the United States of European Jews in the 1920s, Harry was hardly the type of character to endear himself to an audience of musical comedy fans who were accustomed to melody and mirth in the musical theatre that entertained them. So Jerome Weidman’s novel was an unlikely source for a Broadway musical. But by the 1960s audiences had begun to respond to difficult material, and as far back as 1957 they had welcomed “West Side Story” and “New Girl In Town” and others that featured interesting counter-heroes and heroines. It certainly paved the way in the 1980s for “Sweeney Todd” and his fascinating vis-a-vis Mrs.Lovett.

But to return to this production at the Classic Stage Company. For starters, the director Trip Pullman and choreographer Ellenore Scott were not known to me, and they both brought the most original movement that serves the material brilliantly. And on the small stage and with what I assume is not a limitless budget, they have assembled an ensemble and principals that are without exception first class. To keep things moving and visually stunning, they have made use of their talented cast to move furniture, light lights, turn tables into beds, and generally make the basic tables and chairs serve as everything needed to back the cast in over twenty musical numbers with astonishing variety. Harold Rome wrote both music and lyrics, and though there are few single hit tunes, there are many impressive theatrical sounds with revealing lyrics that support exciting stage movement.

Miss Marmelstein is notably still there, and as belted out to us by Julia Lester she is still a major force. Santino Fontana is smashing as the highly demanding Harry Bogen, and Judy Kuhn is fine as his mother–a woman whose disappointment in her son is palpable. There is unity in the consistency of all the supporting cast and how easily these performers slip into and out of the Ensemble when needed.  As an audience we stood as one to cheer them all at the final bows. Jerome Weidman, whose novel sired this powerful musical drama, would have admired his son John’ adaptation and the glorious score that now accompanies it.

This musical tribute to director/choreographer Graciela Daniele is beautiful to look at and mostly delightful to know. It was created musically by Michael John LaChiusa for Daniele–his good friend and colleague. They first worked together in 1993 when the composer/lyricist had just begun work on his adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde. They met; he played her one song–the opening number–and she said “Yes!” It’s now thirty years later and this current show at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre in Lincoln Center is soon concluding its very rewarding run. There are many lilting melodies and some very engaging lyrics with which it tells us, in 90 uninterrupted minutes, much about how Daniele as a poor girl in Argentina was influenced by a demanding Mother, a very vocal grandmother, and a charming Aunt (called “Tia”). Graciela tells us the story of her life through actress Priscilla Lopez (now in her seventies) in the present tense in her own late 70s. Graciela as a teenager growing into young adulthood is played by Kalyn West. This is a musical tribute remembered as a strong group of women with little room left for the occasional man as father, grandfather, and two mustached suitors. 

Eden Espinosa, Kaylan West, Mary Testa, Andéa Burns Photos by Julieta Cervantes

An excellent cast has been assembled, with particular pleasure offered by Priscilla Lopez who brings warmth, honesty, and imagination to the role of Daniele in her older age. She also moves so beautifully, it was no surprise to see her agility and grace when her memories demand a step or two. Tía is played by always welcomed Andréa Burns who seems to delight us each season with her glorious voice, her ability to get nuance into every role she plays, and to dance up a storm when her character needs to kick up her heels. There are some 16 numbers listed in the Playbill, and I found that some of the later ones were more than one act could comfortably handle, but it was Daniele herself who directed and choreographed the entire evening. It is just a suggestion, but I felt an editing eye would have been helpful.  

Andréa Burns, Mary Testa, Priscilla Lopez, Eden Espinosa Photos by Julieta Cervantes

The sets, and particularly the lighting by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhower were notably eloquent and gave the entire musical an ambience that seemed to say “Thank you” to Daniele the Artist for enriching our theatre so handsomely over these past thirty five years.   

This s a tough review to write because this new  musical at  the Public Theatre is a prime example of what has happened to Broadway as we approach the middle of  the 21st century. This was once the medium that attracted young and old to the theaters that let us imagine ourselves, albeit unrealistically, in song and dance. The appeal came first  to our parents, and then for many of us early exposure to theater hit us in in a precious spot we didn’t even know was buried within us. I was one of  the fortunate ones who came along just in time to love the stories that turned our average lives into something more. For two or  three hours we forgot about the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Second World War in the 1940s, the decades of analysis and introspection,   the growing pains of adolescence, and so much more.  We empathically supported the “Lady in the Dark” who probed her past with the melodic help of a great score by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin. We appreciated the humor mixed with angst following teenagers as they said “Bye Bye Birdie” to a young singing soldier.  We were wooed and won by the turn of the century “Oklahoma!”. Even as “Sweeney Todd,” the crudest barber and his woman, lusted after power in the dark society of merry old England not so long ago, we applauded them. There were stories, too, that were told in dance, but mostly they were offered  with music, lyrics, and choreography going for them–melodies that transported us; lyrics that either clarified the characters that sang them or simply thrilled us with wit and the beauty of the well trained voices that delivered  them to us. Not all of these musicals delivered what they promised, and they disappeared, though now and  again one would be revived and found it had been ahead of its time, and it found favor second time around. Which brings me to “Hell’s Kitchen” the  new musical currently having a go at the Public’s Newman Theatre on Lafayette Street.

       The  title sets the show in a section of the West Side of Mahattan that is in great disrepair, that  strip of the  city on Ninth Avenue and west to the Hudson above Times Square that is a grim reminder of the word “slum.” The young folks who live in it still are a  rough lot.  An enormous company of talented youngsters are on throughout the sad tale that follows for just under three loud, angry hours involving some 28 songs by Alicia Keys, whose credits in the pop musical world are phenomenal.  For this stage piece, she wrote music, lyrics and arrangements.There is also a book by Kristoffer Diaz,  but with 28 songs and many dance creations by Camille A. Brown, there is room only for the most sketchy scenes, most of  which  involve two leading central characters. In an attempt to be “now,”it’s  been decided to list the cast alphabetically. As I hadn’t known any of this cast before seeing “Hell’s Kitchen,” it became impossible to determine who played what.

       The  company cast list mentions a Jersey,, a Jessica, a Davis, or simply an Ensemble, but after only the one viewing, I can’t comment on any performances, for there is no way to know who sang what. The listing of the musical numbers, with titles like “River,” “Fallin’,” “No One,” “Work On It,” ”Heartburn,” and “Kaleidoscope” don’t let us in on who sings  them.The Who’s Who In The Cast, usually helpful, is  useless because once again everyone is listed alphabetically with the actors  playing the leading roles lumped together with understudies, alternates and members of the Ensemble.

      Alicia Keys has won fifteen Grammy Awards as singer, song writer, musician, producer, and founder of Keys Soulcare. She is considered the #1 certified female R&B Artist of the millennium. Her fans and following were in the audience at the matinee that included me, and their response  was tumultuous. It did not include me, or several of those seated near me, but we’ll just  have to see if this wild collection of “he/him” and “she/hers” (which is  how they are listed in the Who’s Who In The Cast) prevail in the future of the Musical Theatre on and off Broadway. Over amplified as they are, with arrangements that make most of  the solos sound like cabaret tunes, I could not get through all of them and their vocal tricks that obscured every lyric.

I had worked with Director Peter Flynn a number of times, both as an actor and as author when he staged two workshop productions in New York of a musical to which I’d written the book. I’ve seen many other samplings of his inventive staging in several  premieres and revivals in New York and in regional theaters all over the USA. But I’d never been to the highly regarded Olney Theatre Center in Olney, Maryland, and I was visiting friends in Virginia on November 10, so as it sounded nearby to my ignorant ears, I accepted Peter’s invite to see his latest project.

Occasionally out of town productions have minds of their own; and, in this case, the dreaded Covid came calling; the central character, Tevye, had to be replaced with Howard Kaye. In the case of the Rabbi, a supporting character, Sasha Olinick, would play the role. All previews were canceled, and now Saturday night November 11 would be the first performance, the Opening Night! As my Virginia hosts, non-show biz good friends, were included with me and my companion, I thought it best to offer our condolences to Peter and hope for better luck next time. But he sounded so disappointed that it only took a moment for us to agree to come, anyway.  After all, the Olney Theatre is only about an hour and fifteen minutes from where we were in Virginia, so off we went on our 500 mile round trip from New York to see “Fiddler” fiddle on the roof. I only  tell you all this because the evening became a NIGHT to REMEMBER!

The Olney Theatre is housed in a complex–a grand one that offers ballet, concert, classroom, education, food and drink. The theatre itself is housed just off the main central space in which literally hundreds find seats and settle to wait with us for the story to be told.  Onstage the characters take seats in a reception room on Ellis Island, and from this intriguing prologue, which ends as the orchestra completes the overture, one of the characters rises and addresses us. The play begins. 

We are immediately connected and involved when a fiddler emerges from the  crowd as an observer who will affect us throughout our time together. Howard Kaye as Tevye rises from the crowd of recent immigrants being processed on Ellis Island to begin the tale of his home and of his experiences as father to five young daughters, three of whom will weave in and out of the story. The other recent arrivals to America become the young boys who will join them as suitors, his wife Golde, the town matchmaker–a force called Yenta, played by Cheryl Campo–and all the other inhabitants of the village.

Stein’s book uses source material from Sholem Aleichem, and he has created a compelling tale of villages like Anatevka which was home to its poor but hardworking Jews–all of whom were about to be deported, or simply destroyed. While played by a large cast of gifted actors of several ethnic and racial origins, the opening Peter Flynn has staged in the prologue navigates us to a shtetl in Russia. Traditions, family, home, and what makes a disparate group project the values that bond all who came before and all who will follow. Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock have composed a score with melody and lyrics that probe the heart and explore the complex emotions that are universal. When this giant of a musical first payed in Japan, Joseph Stein was asked if American audiences had related to it, because “it I so Japanese in its values.”

I had never seen the work of any of these actors. I can only tell you that the three suitors to three of Tevye’s daughters, the young actresses who played them, along with the lovely performance of Rachael Stern as their mother, Golde, were all remarkably accurate in creating a family of very real people. Papa Tevye was always present, and Mr. Kaye hit a home run moving with ease and creating magic with his musical numbers, bringing to them a very different kind of power for Tevye than original star Zero Mostel who was brilliant but achieved his goal with more comical tools.

Another major contributor to the dazzling success of this revival is choreographer Lorna Ventura.Throughout  the evening her large cast is in constant motion and set pieces like the bottle dance set in a tavern is a truly stunning showstopper. I must also mention Christopher Joustra’s control of a wonderfully amplified orchestra hidden below us. From the opening strains of the Fiddler to the grand finale, I can’t recall a better performed score. In conclusion, this was a constantly surprising and glorious evening of musical theatre from the aptly named Golden age of Broadway. 

There was once a play called The Days of Wine and Roses by J.P. Miller, and in 1962 it was filmed starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. Now, sixty years later, Adam Guettel has written music and lyrics for an adaptation that is just concluding an off-Broadway run of eight weeks at the Linda Grossman Theatre. Craig Lucas’ book sticks closely to the very moving story, and as it is  sung through some twenty songs it becomes a play with music more than the more commonly called “musical”. Though it boasts a supporting cast of seven excellent actors to inhabit and deliver the friends, colleagues, and relatives, almost the entire score is acted and sung by the two central characters with the occasional inclusion of their daughter.

Brian d’Arcy James and Kelli O’Hara in Days of Wine and Roses Ahron R. Foster

As the couple played by Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, the results are memorable. These two artists, who have played everything from farce to tragedy in dozens of New York and national outings, have offered us a glimpse of what it means to be an onstage star in the manner of the theatre’s Golden Age. The public  then was invited to revel in the work of Gertrude Lawrence, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Alfred Drake, Bert Lahr, John Raitt, Tallulah Bankhead, Katherine Cornell, Helen Hayes, the Lunts, Ruth Gordon and a dozen others whose names alone lit up the sky and could fill a theatre for an entire season. The years of television, movies, and streaming have now created instant stardom, but most of the magic seemed gone. Well, it came back yesterday at the Atlantic Theatre.

The audience that shared the matinee of The Days of Wine and Roses with me seemed to revel in what went on up there on the small but vital stage at the off Broadway Linda Gross Theatre. As Dr. Frankestein once shouted, “It’s alive!” Part of the pleasure came from the variety of the seven supporting players. Some of them covered several roles, all of them impeccably, and so convincingly that I honestly can’t tell you who played what. Byron Jennings made a vivid and unforgiving father to Kelli O’Hara’s character, but most of the others played whatever was required of them. Ella Dane Morgan handled Lila when that character turned seven in the later part of the play. She joined her mother and father in three of the musical moments and sang sweetly though she needs to watch her way clearly singing  the lyrics. 

I return, however, to the remarkable clarity with which Michael Greif’s direction keeps focus as the basically one-room set turns smoothly into street scenes, a hothouse, a bedroom, and more. And to D’arcy James and O’Hara who send us back into our own real worlds tremendously moved and–even more remarkably for a musical–provoked, disturbed, and engaged.  I salute this company, its two leading players, and the theatre management for choosing and assembling this marvelous late addition to the 2023 season of New York theatre.  

Chita Rivera with Patrick Pacheco

When I was a “baby agent” back in 1954, my job as a new recruit was to discover young performers, composers, writers. directors, and any others with talent for musical theatre–the special area to which I was assigned. I was to sign those I found gifted to agency contracts and then to nurture and advise or just to  help open doors for them. My job was to visit the workshops where their early efforts were on display; or I was to hold auditions, to visit the community theaters, to seek those very special talents that would eventually join the masters–the great stars and major writers who were supplying Broadway with the musicals people wanted in the new Golden Age of Broadway which followed World War II. It’s always good to be young when you enter the world of work; it was especially good for those of us who were determined to have a life in the theatre.

On one rainy night in 1954 I stumbled in to a dingy off off Broadway theatre where a whole bunch of newcomers were strutting their stuff in a show aptly called “The Shoestring Review.” It had been produced for all of $18,000 which meant it did not rely on spectacle to put it over. It did allow bright talents like writer Michael Stewart to announce his arrival on the scene,  and it featured a small cast of disparate types including the highly original Chita O’Hara (that is Chita Rivera who tried on several names before she wisely stuck with two of her very own.) She had been trained as a ballerina but before she got started on that career, destiny placed her into a touring Broadway musical theatre chorus, where she found herself totally at home. How she landed in a dancing role that required her to sing and to use major comic chops as a comedienne is captured with all the surprise and fun that she felt herself as she blossomed into a triple threat. I offered my agency services, she accepted me, and we remained client and very happy agent for the next 20 years. It’s all there in this honest and greatly detailed account of the sixty year saga of a remarkable  life well spent. 

I am proud to have been a footnote to all of it, and it is a joy to note that she has now shared with us her varied experiences that included love, marriage, motherhood, prestigious awards, much success, and time for meaningful friendships and connected life  with her brothers and their own families. At ninety, she is still a force and I highly recommend you take the time to sit back and relish this very special memoir of a well lived life.