A Summer's Worth of Musicals
For the 17 years I've known him, the Musical Theatre Muffin has come to NYC for a week of seeing musicals. He's crammed 8 musicals in 5 days, although at some point I decided to see one every visit, bc he pays top dollar to see things that will get panned by critics. This year was a doozy. I was shocked at his appearance when I got to Becco: he was literally twitching. He's been suicidal and on antidepressents the entire time I've known him, but this time his bff took him to the hospital bc it was so bad. I'm still annoyed with him though for not telling me that tickets to Once are $157 each when he knows I'm unemployed. That the show is not very good is not his fault. The biggest problem is that in a musical about an amazing songwriter who can make people fall in love with him and give him money, his songs need to be better than the scene change music. oops. How did this thing win the Tony?
In contrast, I paid less than that for both tickets to see Liz Callaway's "Even Stephens" show at Town Hall. I've heard her CDs and I'd forgotten she sang the female leads in Anastasia and a few Disney cartoons, but I've never seen her perform. She had some cute anecdotes about being a working actress. The biggest surprise to me was seeing Jason Danieley in the songs she had him sing: he emotes far more than I remember after seeing him in Candide. Jon's favorite part was the parody song "Another Hundred Lyrics", which she executed magnificently. I didn't love her choice of songs for the Sondheim portion of the evening - I wonder if she's done this sort of thing so often that she's bored of his well-known (read good) songs - although I loved her Flaherty (& Ahrens) selections. While I regularly listen to Norm Lewis' "Go the Distance" while working out, hearing him sing Ragtime (he was the workshop lead) made it clear why they picked Stokes to bring it to Broadway. All in all, a wonderful night that validates why I stay on the Town Hall spam list.
Running past the people queued for Shakespeare in the Park tickets, knowing I was going to the cast party that night, was pretty cool. A lot cooler than, say, the new production of Into the Woods. When I saw Amy Adams is in it, I assumed it would be a sell-out hit. However, she plays the Baker's Wife - isn't Cinderella the bigger role? - and the role doesn't highlight her charm. She sounded tired in her first song. Donna Murphy is perfectly fine as the Witch - I don't know if it's part of the original show that the Witch is having them solve the curse now bc her ugliness is in imminent danger of becoming worse/permanent. I liked that Chip Zien (aka the original Baker) played the Mysterious Man. Really though, while it's a nice, high-budget production, I felt like the director didn't add anything, other than the innovation of having a boy as the Narrator. IMNSHO, not worth waiting all morning in the Park.
Jon and I spend a lot of time discussing the Broadway sound, how you can tell a song is from a musical. Super Sidekick: The Musical at FringeNYC is not a high-budget production, but it's got that sound in spades. It's a more friendly-to-children-than-adults tale combining the usual tropes with a certain cynicism about superheroes. The actors are enthusiastic and energetic and while the pace was a little slow, I didn't fall asleep like during Into the Woods.
In contrast, I paid less than that for both tickets to see Liz Callaway's "Even Stephens" show at Town Hall. I've heard her CDs and I'd forgotten she sang the female leads in Anastasia and a few Disney cartoons, but I've never seen her perform. She had some cute anecdotes about being a working actress. The biggest surprise to me was seeing Jason Danieley in the songs she had him sing: he emotes far more than I remember after seeing him in Candide. Jon's favorite part was the parody song "Another Hundred Lyrics", which she executed magnificently. I didn't love her choice of songs for the Sondheim portion of the evening - I wonder if she's done this sort of thing so often that she's bored of his well-known (read good) songs - although I loved her Flaherty (& Ahrens) selections. While I regularly listen to Norm Lewis' "Go the Distance" while working out, hearing him sing Ragtime (he was the workshop lead) made it clear why they picked Stokes to bring it to Broadway. All in all, a wonderful night that validates why I stay on the Town Hall spam list.
Running past the people queued for Shakespeare in the Park tickets, knowing I was going to the cast party that night, was pretty cool. A lot cooler than, say, the new production of Into the Woods. When I saw Amy Adams is in it, I assumed it would be a sell-out hit. However, she plays the Baker's Wife - isn't Cinderella the bigger role? - and the role doesn't highlight her charm. She sounded tired in her first song. Donna Murphy is perfectly fine as the Witch - I don't know if it's part of the original show that the Witch is having them solve the curse now bc her ugliness is in imminent danger of becoming worse/permanent. I liked that Chip Zien (aka the original Baker) played the Mysterious Man. Really though, while it's a nice, high-budget production, I felt like the director didn't add anything, other than the innovation of having a boy as the Narrator. IMNSHO, not worth waiting all morning in the Park.
Jon and I spend a lot of time discussing the Broadway sound, how you can tell a song is from a musical. Super Sidekick: The Musical at FringeNYC is not a high-budget production, but it's got that sound in spades. It's a more friendly-to-children-than-adults tale combining the usual tropes with a certain cynicism about superheroes. The actors are enthusiastic and energetic and while the pace was a little slow, I didn't fall asleep like during Into the Woods.