Stage Rush

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2010-05-17T10:39:00.001-04:00

Hey Rushers! Stage Rush has moved! Didn't you know? This site is no longer active. For all your Stage Rush features and news, please visit www.stage-rush.com.

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Jesse North

Stage Rush TV: Episode 13

2010-05-14T08:41:00.000-04:00

Talking points:

Red set designer Christopher Oram kicks off Stage Rush’s Tony series!
The cast of White’s Lies somehow enjoys themselves, despite the horrific writing
Broadway grosses

What do you think, Rushers? Have you seen Red? What did you think of Christopher Oram’s set? Did you find White’s Lies as embarrassing as I did? Leave your questions, thoughts, and suggestions in the comments!

Broadway Brain: 'Red' set designer Christopher Oram doesn’t like color

2010-05-13T00:03:00.000-04:00

Few artists get the chance to recreate artwork that has had an effect on their own craft. British set designer Christopher Oram, who is nominated for a Tony for his work in Red, got to do just that with the Mark Rothko murals intended for (yet which never became a part of) New York’s Four Season’s restaurant. The play features Alfred Molina as the American painter who squares off with his young assistant (played by Eddie Redmayne) over the elements of art, as well as the struggle for student and teacher. The minimalist production, which is up for seven Tony awards, including Best Play, rests on the shoulders of two actors and the massive canvases on display in Rothko’s Bowery studio. In a phone interview from London, Oram (who pulls double duty as the show’s costume designer) told Stage Rush about the building sets in one week, the luxury of being picky about projects, and keeping tabs on a show once it’s opened.

What were your thoughts or reaction when you found out you were nominated?

Very excited. I wasn’t expecting it at all. I don’t consider my work to be flashy like [the work that the Tonys tend to recognize]. What I do is make the play work, and that’s good enough or me. When it gets recognized, that’s good for me too.

What does the Tony nomination mean to you?

I haven’t done a good amount of work in United States. To work on Broadway is a major achievement, as is to be recognized at this high level. The play itself has been successful in connecting with audiences. I believe in it, and in the writing. When it was offered to me, I felt it was an important and exiting play and wanted to be a part of it very much. As a set and costume designer, you read a new play and you try to asses if you like it and if the audience will like it. It’s difficult with new works, because with works of Shakespeare, you know there will always be an audience for it. Red is unique and has no history as a piece. You’re looking to create an audience for it that will be interested in the subject matter. It’s great to find a play that makes a connection.

What are some of the responsibilities of set designing?

Design is a discipline and it covers everything about the piece. These days, there are fewer boundaries to each person’s work. The crossover between lighting affects video designers, which affects set designers. I worked very closely with Red’s lighting designer, Neil Austin. The description of Mark Rothko’s studio was key about how he controlled life. I knew I had to have close dialogue with Neil about how I would design the space, how he would light the play.

What are your goals when you begin designing?

The boundaries of making scenery are holistic—it’s about entering the world of the play. Sometimes it doesn’t mean you have to do a complicated set. That’s an American trend. These days, it’s not quite as clear-cut as that. I think the cost of building scenery has become more prohibited. You can’t continue to build castles. There are two types of shows: there’s the huge Shrek shows and there’s the Spring Awakening-style shows. One is old fashioned and scenic, while the other is a more modern approach. I think a lot of audiences want to pay a lot of money and see a lot of scenery. Get more bang for their buck.

Take me through the process of set designing. What’s the first step?

The contract. [laughs] It starts with the author. You get the play, you read it, and you decide if you have a response to it. I do a fair amount of work. I don’t have to take everything I get offered. I can choose my projects and that’s important. If you do something because you have to, you don’t necessarily do the best work you can. You have to want to do it and do it well. I have an innate response and I have something to give to it. You have to have a gut instinct, a need to explore that piece.

How much time is spent at the actual theater, as opposed to in a studio where the sets are built?

Sometimes the sets are simple to make. It usually takes four or five weeks for build time. When we put up Red in New York, it was a very quick turnaround. We had already done the production in London, but it made sense to keep the energy alive, keep it flowing, instead of sitting on ours hands. I was there for about a week and a half. My year was already booked when we got the news that Red would transfer. I didn’t stay for the opening. I’d gotten to see the first preview, but I was already on to my next project, which is Madame Butterfly at the Houston Grand Opera.

What do your duties consist of once the show opens?

You set it up and you leave it in the hands of people that run the show. For any show I’ve worked on that’s running, I receive the show report every day. It includes how long the show ran that night, if anything went wrong, and any local reports. When there was the bomb scare in Times Square, that was included in the show report. My job is to have a good relationship with the crew so that they know how to look after it when I’ve left.

By being commissioned to design the costumes as well, does that make your work harder or easier (since you have control over another aspect of the play)?

Easier, but it depends on the play. In a Broadway sense, Red is non-costume. They’re very real work clothes. The actors do all that physical work and they have to get dirty. I wouldn’t design something that makes the actor feel uncomfortable. If an actor wins Best Actor, it means everyone involved won, because everything naturally worked. You all got it right.

You’ve done quite a few productions where you’ve served as both set and costume designer. Which do you consider yourself first?

I would never separate the two. I was recently offered something that wasn’t the costumes and only the set, and I didn’t want to do it. For me they’re intrinsic. Dressing the human form is as exciting as carving a three-dimensional space.

I know there’s Broadway magic and everything, but it seems these two guys get your set pretty messy through the course of the 90 minutes. How does it get cleaned, and how did you design it so that it could be cleaned easily?

I didn’t. It is what it is. It gets mucky—so did Rothko’s studio. The show is short, but the evening goes on. The crew mops the floor down, takes the canvases down, and prepares the paint for the next day. They’ve got it down to a fine art. Nothing in the play is contrived. It’s real paint, real pigment, it gets heated up as proper artists do. That’s why it’s so exciting. It smells of fresh paint when you walk into the theater. It’s a real working studio.

How close is your set to Rothko’s actual studio?

It didn’t matter that it was an exact replica. I didn’t have to recreate the actual footprints. What we needed to achieve what the sense of it being hermetically sealed, that it was slightly claustrophobic. It’s a bare pit with the two characters in it.

How did it feel having the task of recreating Rothko’s paintings exactly?

Those paintings have existed in London since I was a kid. They are extraordinary. They effuse extreme physical presences. Viewing them was a very profound experience. It remains with me always. This production allowed me to explore something that was my own experience.

The growing trend of projections and video in theater blurs the lines between scenery and lighting. Can you talk about your collaboration with projection/video designers?

With Frost/Nixon on Broadway, we used video, not projection. It was a play about the media—it was in its genes, so it had to use video. All the TV monitors on the back wall were kept at mid shot the entire play, and then at the end when it gets closer closer and closer, you got what the TV got and what the play was driving at—that Richard Nixon was brought down by TV and the media. In the right context, video and projection can be great. It can also muddy things visually. You have to have the lighting and projection working closely in harmony. It can be genius when it works well. 3D movies like Avatar, where 3D is at the heart of what it is—that works. Other films that stick the 3D effects in at the last minute—you’re just using that because you think you’re making your project juicier. Projection could be like that too. I would only want to use it where I felt it was appropriate.

What’s next for you?

National Theatre doing Danton’s Death in July. Passion at the Donmar Warehouse in September. Houston Grand Opera to do Madame Butterfly in October. King Lear at the Donmar in December.

Any word on what’s happening with the rumored transfer of the West End’s Evita to Broadway?

You probably know as much as I do. I hope we get to do it. It’s very dear to my heart and I’d love to reexplore it. They’ve been talking about it. Rumors are as true as rumors are.

So many British productions came to Broadway this season and received Tony nominations, including Red, Hamlet, which you were also involved in, La Cage aux Folles, A Little Night Music, and Enron. Why do you think British productions have such success on Broadway?

It’s hard to know, isn’t it? If the show is good, it will work on Broadway or Patagonia. There is no magic recipe that makes it all happen. Red is about a New York artist. It’s an intelligent play; it’s not an easy ride. I imagine that’d appeal to a New York audience.

What are your thoughts on the surprising failure of Enron on Broadway?

It’s a piece unique unto itself. It’s not really for me to say. I can understand why American audiences wouldn’t take to it. It’s kind of exiting, its success in UK and not in the US. Same language, two cultures.

In Red, Rothko and Ken go back and forth in the play about what red means to them. What does red mean to you?

It’s at the heart of what I do—with color. I don’t choose to work with color a lot. I’m a monochromist at heart. I have red hair. It’s at the heart of me—it’s in my genes.

Photos, top to bottom: Courtesy of Boneau/Bryan-Brown; Johan Persson, Johan Persson

Stage Rush TV: Episode 12

2010-05-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

Talking points:

Tony nominations announced: predictability and disappointment
Collected Stories: another well-developed Donald Margulies relationship
Stuffed and Unstrung: foul-mouthed, hysterical puppets without a script
Enron’s producers act hastily and close the show
Broadway grosses

What do you think, Rushers? What are your reactions to the Tony nominations? Do you think the Best Score category should have been eliminated this year? Do you think Memphis is a worthy opponent for Fela? Do you think the producers of Enron are acting too fast by closing the show? Leave your thoughts, questions, and suggestions in the comments!

2010 Tony Awards: Nominations & Reactions

2010-05-04T10:21:00.001-04:00

Well, here they are folks. And just like Christmas morning, we’re excited about some things, and disappointed about others. Check out the list of the 2010 Tony Award nominees below, where you’ll also find what predictions of mine were incorrect (not too many!) and my take on the categories.

Best Play
In The Next Room (or the vibrator play) by Sarah Ruhl
Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts
Red by John Logan
Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies

Predictable category. Tonys got it right. Note though how few nominations Next Fall received, including getting shut out of the acting categories.

Best Musical
American Idiot
Fela!
Memphis
Million Dollar Quartet

My wrong guess: Everyday Rapture

Surprised Million Dollar Quartet made it in here, particularly with so few nominations. At least it wasn’t The Addams Family.

Best Revival of a Play
Fences by August Wilson
Lend Me A Tenor by Ken Ludwig
The Royal Family by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber
A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller

Best Revival of a Musical
Finian’s Rainbow
La Cage aux Folles
A Little Night Music
Ragtime

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Jude Law, Hamlet
Alfred Molina, Red
Liev Schreiber, A View From The Bridge
Denzel Washington, Fences
Christopher Walken, A Behanding In Spokane

My wrong guess: Daniel Craig, A Steady Rain

Predictable category, and the addition of Jude Law makes sense. I thought the Tonys would give some recognition to the massive success of A Steady Rain, and I expected it to be in this category. Alas, no love in any category for Rain.

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Viola Davis, Fences
Valerie Harper, Looped
Linda Lavin, Collected Stories
Laura Linney, Time Stands Still
Jan Maxwell, The Royal Family

My wrong guess: Abigail Breslin, The Miracle Worker

Predictable category. Not surprised Breslin wasn’t recognized, as Miracle Worker didn’t manage to receive any nominations, and the play wasn’t regarded well during its run. Maxwell’s inclusion makes sense, as Royal Family received numerous nominations.

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Kelsey Grammer, La Cage aux Folles
Sean Hayes, Promises, Promises
Douglas Hodge, La Cage aux Folles
Chad Kimball, Memphis
Sahr Ngauja, Fela!

My wrong guesses:
John Gallagher Jr., American Idiot
Nathan Lane, The Addams Family

This is probably the most surprising category (which isn’t saying a lot). I expected Grammer might push in, but I still think his merely capable performance in La Cage is unfortunately edging out more fierce performances in other musicals. I felt sure that the Tonys would show allegiance to Lane and his heavy lifting in Addams. In light of the poor reception Promises is receiving, Hayes’ nomination is a shock.

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Kate Baldwin, Finian’s Rainbow
Montego Glover, Memphis
Christiane Noll, Ragtime
Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture
Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music

Called this category shot for shot. It’s interesting to see Zeta-Jones stick out like a sore thumb in this group, among mainstream no-names. Very happy for Kate Baldwin.

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
David Alan Grier, Race
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Fences
Jon Michael Hill, Superior Donuts
Stephen Kunken, Enron
Eddie Redmayne, Red

My wrong guesses:
Eric Bogosian, Time Stands Still
Russell Hornsby, Fences

This is a category filled with second guesses for me. I considered David Alan Grier, but thought better of it since I didn’t think Race would receive any other love (and it didn’t). I also considered Stephen Kunken and Gregory Itzin from Enron, thinking another Fences actor would get it. In the end, it ended up being Kunken.

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Maria Dizzia, In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)
Rosemary Harris, The Royal Family
Jessica Hecht, A View From The Bridge
Scarlett Johansson, A View From The Bridge
Jan Maxwell, Lend Me A Tenor

My wrong guesses:
Marin Ireland, After Miss Julie
Alicia Silverstone, Time Stands Still

Got two wrong here, but not really surprised. I know there’s a lot of love for Royal Family and Rosemary Harris. I’m half surprised and half not by Scarlett Johansson’s nomination. She was great in the role, but I sometimes sense that big-name stars that come to Broadway are greeted with snarkiness by the critics, so I figured Johansson might be left out. This is a very strong category.

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Kevin Chamberlin, The Addams Family
Robin De Jesus, La Cage aux Folles
Christopher Fitzgerald, Finian’s Rainbow
Levi Kreis, Million Dollar Quartet
Bobby Steggert, Ragtime

My wrong guesses:
Hunter Foster, Million Dollar Quartet
Tony Vincent, American Idiot

This ended up being probably the most exciting category with shockers and strong contenders. All these nominees are fantastic choices, but I am excited and saddened by the surprises. I loved Robin De Jesus’s performance in La Cage, but didn’t think the role was big enough to get him nominated. Levi Kreis was the only actor of Quartet’s quartet to warrant a nomination, and he got it (I so wish Hunter Foster had been included). And I am absolutely heartbroken that Tony Vincent from American Idiot didn’t make it in. I felt sure that had he been nominated, he actually would have won.

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Barbara Cook, Sondheim On Sondheim
Katie Finneran, Promises, Promises
Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music
Lillias White, Fela!
Karine Plantadit, Come Fly Away

My wrong guesses:
Rebecca Naomi Jones, American Idiot
Terri White, Finain’s Rainbow

This turned out disappointing. I haven’t yet seen Sondheim On Sondheim, but from what I’ve heard, Barbara Cook uses a Teleprompter, which to me doesn’t warrant a Tony nomination. I also always like to see new talent being included, and instead of nominating the theater vet, the likes of Rebecca Naomi Jones and Terri White could have been given a first shot at the Tony. Because while she’s great, Angela Lansbury doesn’t do all that much in A Little Night Music.

Best Direction of a Play
Michael Grandage, Red
Sheryl Kaller, Next Fall
Kenny Leon, Fences
Gregory Mosher, A View From The Bridge

My wrong guess: Daniel Sullivan, Time Stands Still

I’m shocked that Daniel Sullivan didn’t get nominated for Time Stands Still, as it’s nominated for Best Play, and Next Fall did get recognized. It seems clear though that the Tonys were trying to spread some love in this category, by giving it to Fall. Still, this seems like a “they got it wrong” instance.

Best Direction of a Musical
Christopher Ashley, Memphis
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Ragtime
Terry Johnson, La Cage aux Folles
Bill T. Jones, Fela!

My wrong guesses:
Michael Mayer, American Idiot
Trevor Nunn, A Little Night Music

Am I really seeing this? Am I? Michael Mayer did not get nominated for American Idiot? I must have fallen into a parallel universe where absolutely nothing makes sense. Almost every nomination for Memphis (besides Kimball’s Best Actor nod) is a case of ‘Well, we needed a fourth nominee.’ Why nominate a tepid, unoriginal musical, as well as one that completely failed at the box office (Ragtime)? This is the biggest oversight of the Tony nominations this year. This is a shame.

Best Choreography
La Cage aux Folles
Come Fly Away
Fela!
Promises, Promises

My wrong guess: American Idiot

No real surprises. I thought Idiot had a choreography style unlike any other show this season and should have been included, but I’m not surprised it wasn’t.

Best Book of a Musical
Everyday Rapture
Fela!
Memphis
Million Dollar Quartet

My wrong guess: Sondheim On Sondheim

I think Quartet is lucky to be in this category. The book was weak as can be.

Best Original Score Music and/or Lyrics Written for the Theatre
The Addams Family
Enron
Fences
Memphis

Not surprised at all, and this remains one of the most interesting categories of the bunch this season, by its default. In a stronger year, none of these pieces would have been nominated. Yet they’re all up for Tonys. Way to think outside the box, Tony Awards! No one should have been nominated this year.

Best Orchestrations
La Cage aux Folles
Fela!
Memphis
Promises, Promises

My wrong guesses:
American Idiot
Sondheim On Sondheim

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Red
Fences
Present Laughter
The Royal Family

My wrong guesses:
Collected Stories
Enron
In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)

I clearly didn’t do well predicting this category. Excluding Enron is a mistake. The production elements of the show were perfect and innovative in every way.

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
The Addams Family
American Idiot
Fela!
La Cage aux Folles

Best Costume Design of a Play
Fences
In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)
The Royal Family
Lend Me A Tenor

My wrong guess: A View From The Bridge

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Fela!
Memphis
Ragtime
La Cage aux Folles

My wrong guesses:
The Addams Family
A Little Night Music

No argument here besides Addams. The New York Times had a fantastic audio slideshow with co-director Julian Crouch, in which he described the avoidance of the obvious black in the show, using other darker colors to match the Addams’ traditional styles. This production element of Addams seemed worth nominating.

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Hamlet
Enron
Fences
Red

My wrong guess: A Steady Rain

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Ragtime
American Idiot
Fela!
La Cage aux Folles

My wrong guess: The Addams Family

Best Sound Design of a Play
Enron
Fences
A View From The Bridge
Red

My wrong guess: In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)

Best Sound Design of a Musical
La Cage aux Folles
A Little Night Music
Sondheim On Sondheim
Fela!

My wrong guesses:
The Addams Family
American Idiot
Come Fly Away

Again, not my best category.

What do you think, Rushers? Did your favorites get nominated? Are you outraged about Michael Mayer’s snub like I am? Did any of the acting categories take you by surprise? Did you think it was adorable when Lea Michele said during the webcast, “"I'm standing on an apple box. I might fall off!”? Leave your Tony-frenzied thoughts in the comments!

2010 Tony Awards: Nominee Predictions

2010-05-03T17:29:00.007-04:00

It’s been a Broadway season dominated by straight plays and Hollywood names adorning marquees. It’s also been a weak year for the original musical, with only two entries (The Addams Family and Memphis) having original scores. Nevertheless, the Tony nominations are upon us. Before Lea Michele and Jeff Daniels announce the 2010 Tony Award nominations Tuesday morning over a live webcast on the Tony website, check out Stage Rush’s predictions on which names will make the cut and will be seen at Radio City Music Hall on June 13.

Best Play

In The Next Room (or the vibrator play) by Sarah Ruhl

Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts

Red by John Logan

Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies

Best Musical

American Idiot

Everyday Rapture

Fela!

Memphis

Best Revival of a Play

Fences by August Wilson

Lend Me A Tenor by Ken Ludwig

The Royal Family by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber

A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller

Best Revival of a Musical

Finian’s Rainbow

La Cage aux Folles

A Little Night Music

Ragtime

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

Daniel Craig, A Steady Rain

Alfred Molina, Red

Liev Schreiber, A View From The Bridge

Denzel Washington, Fences
Christopher Walken, A Behanding In Spokane

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

Abigail Breslin, The Miracle Worker

Viola Davis, Fences

Valerie Harper, Looped

Linda Lavin, Collected Stories

Laura Linney, Time Stands Still

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

John Gallagher Jr., American Idiot

Douglas Hodge, La Cage aux Folles

Chad Kimball, Memphis

Nathan Lane, The Addams Family

Sahr Ngauja, Fela!

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical

Kate Baldwin, Finian’s Rainbow

Montego Glover, Memphis

Christiane Noll, Ragtime

Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture

Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

Eric Bogosian, Time Stands Still

Stephen McKinley Henderson, Fences

Jon Michael Hill, Superior Donuts

Russell Hornsby, Fences

Eddie Redmayne, Red

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play

Maria Dizzia, In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)

Jessica Hecht, A View From The Bridge

Marin Ireland, After Miss Julie

Jan Maxwell, Lend Me A Tenor

Alicia Silverstone, Time Stands Still

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

Kevin Chamberlin, The Addams Family

Christopher Fitzgerald, Finian’s Rainbow

Hunter Foster, Million Dollar Quartet

Bobby Steggert, Ragtime

Tony Vincent, American Idiot

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical

Katie Finneran, Promises, Promises

Rebecca Naomi Jones, American Idiot

Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music

Lillias White, Fela!

Terri White, Finain’s Rainbow

Best Direction of a Play

Michael Grandage, Red

Kenny Leon, Fences

Gregory Mosher, A View From The Bridge

Daniel Sullivan, Time Stands Still

Best Direction of a Musical

Terry Johnson, La Cage aux Folles

Bill T. Jones, Fela!

Michael Mayer, American Idiot

Trevor Nunn, A Little Night Music

Best Choreography

American Idiot

Come Fly Away

Fela!

Promises, Promises

Best Book of a Musical

Everyday Rapture

Fela!

Memphis

Sondheim On Sondheim

Best Original Score Music and/or Lyrics Written for the Theatre

The Addams Family

Enron

Fences

Memphis

Note the lack of four nominees in the Best Original Score category. The only musicals eligible for a nomination are The Addams Family and Memphis. And although they are straight plays, Enron and Fences both have extensive scores specifically written for these productions and the Tony Awards Administration Committee has deemed them eligible for nomination. I don’t foresee the Tony Nominating Committee leaving this category shy of four nominations, although in light of this season’s dismal entries in this category, it would be admirable (and dramatic, to say the least) if the category was left devoid of nominations.

Best Orchestrations

American Idiot

Fela!

Memphis

Sondheim On Sondheim

Best Scenic Design of a Play

Collected Stories

Enron

In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)

Red

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

The Addams Family

American Idiot

Fela!

La Cage aux Folles

Best Costume Design of a Play

Fences

In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)

The Royal Family

A View From The Bridge

Best Costume Design of a Musical

The Addams Family

Fela!

A Little Night Music

Memphis

Best Lighting Design of a Play

Enron

Fences

Red

A Steady Rain

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

The Addams Family

American Idiot

Fela!

La Cage aux Folles

Best Sound Design of a Play

Enron

Fences

In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)

Red

Best Sound Design of a Musical

The Addams Family

American Idiot

Come Fly Away

Fela!

What do you think, Rushers? Do you agree with my predictions? What do you think I got wrong? Who do you think will be nominated? Leave all your Tony excitement in the comments!

Review: Everyday Rapture

2010-04-30T02:43:00.000-04:00

We all know that Broadway and hamminess go hand in hand. One is just a part of the other as peanut butter is to jelly. Yet the level of obnoxiousness that Sherie Rene Scott reaches in her one-woman show Everyday Rapture is downright off-putting.

As a last-minute replacement for Lips Together, Teeth Apart, (the play that Megan Mullally unprofessionally ditched), causing the show to cancel) the Roundabout Theatre Co. rustled up Everyday Rapture, which performed at the off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre last May. Written by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott, the one-woman show (with backup vocalists and a brief character role, so… kinda sorta) focuses on Scott’s journey from oppressed childhood in Kansas to her self-proclaimed semi-stardom on Broadway.

Most know Scott from her Tony-nominated turn in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and for playing Ursula in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid. In addition, she and her husband Kurt Deutsch founded S-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records, which is one of the largest Broadway record companies that publish cast recordings. Scott is by no means short of talent or artistic ability. That’s actually not my issue with Rapture—it’s the manner in which the material is presented.

Speaking in an irritating, childlike voice for the duration of the show (a very odd acting choice), Scott rambles and muses on her desire to be in the spotlight since early childhood. The audience enters Scott’s world, which is definitely intended, since the set (designed by Christine Jones) seems to emulate an “in-between” solar system, which we can only assume is in the Scott Galaxy. Yet—and I’m sorry to make this comparison—the whole writing and delivery feels a bit, you know, spacey. Sitting in the American Airlines Theatre, I felt as if there was giant inside joke on stage that I was not a part of.

Scott’s narrative is difficult to follow. The childhood portion of her tale is easy enough. There are close-minded townspeople and more churches than houses on her block (she grew up in a Mennonite neighborhood). The most charming introspection into Scott’s craving for stardom is when she admits to enjoying only one aspect of her church upbringing—participating in the choir. However, solos were not allowed; hence, little Sherie was not permitted to take the spotlight.

Then we follow Scott to her arrival in the Big Apple, a segment that is like a dozen other small-town-girl-in-the-big-city stories. The story drags until Scott is struggling with her Broadway fame, and an immensely grating bit with Eamon Foley comes into play as a super-Sherie fan who challenges her authenticity when she reaches out to him through the Internet. As we sense the show is wrapping up (OK, she’s going to tie this together and make it make sense, I know it!), Scott rubs it in the audience’s face that she and her husband have a summer home in Connecticut, and rambles about her young son finding a four-leaf clover on his first attempt. (Curtain down. So, I guess she’s not going to sum this show up in an encore?)

I get that the show is about fulfilling a destiny and also reaching an inner peace and happiness with one’s life. (Find the rapture in every day. ::wink, wink::) The message is very Buddhist, Kabbalist, The Secret, etc. I love the notion of living life to the fullest. However, Scott gets to this point through such a self-indulgent way, I am turned off to her and her message by the end of it. I’ve discussed this issue with a few friends. Linda of Pataphysical Science countered, “Aren't all solo shows self-indulgent?” No, they’re not. As my friend Kym (@fakeplasticreep) pointed out, Colman Domingo’s solo show A Boy and His Soul was all about his childhood and how soul music interlaced with so many moments in his life. Domingo’s story all about his development from boy to man, and yet it reminded so much of each of our own personal childhoods and carried with it so many heartwarming values of family and love. Scott’s story left me feeling none of that.

For a show pinch-hitting for Lips Together, Teeth Apart in such short notice, it’s amazing that the production value of Everyday Rapture is so good. Although there isn’t much needed here, Jones crafts a whimsical and attractive galaxy of Scott’s mind (as previously mentioned), with polygonal shapes and lines against a glossy black stage and walls. Kevin Adams’ lighting (more reminiscent here of Spring Awakening and Next to Normal than his work in American Idiot) compliments Jones’ set well (his Spring and Idiot collaborator), as the colorful dots printed on the stage are embodied in luminescent form on the set’s frame. Interestingly, Michael Mayer directs the show, which means Everyday Rapture share most of its creative team with that of American Idiot. It’s strange how one director’s production like Idiot could make me feel so much, and his other make me feel so little.

The rush:

Everyday Rapture has a general rush policy, which offers two tickets per person for $21.50 when the box office opens. Yet I didn’t get my ticket that way. I saw on Twitter that Roundabout was offering $10 tickets to Rapture through the use of a discount code on their website. I clicked over to roundabouttheatre.org and learned that for every Roundabout production, $10 tickets in the mezzanine are available for the show’s first four previews. Fantastic deal! You can read more about the policy here at the Roundabout’s website.

Play: D / Discount: A

Stage Rush TV: Episode 11

2010-04-30T02:34:00.000-04:00

Talking points:

Seeing American Idiot, during Green Day’s surprise appearance
Interviewing God of Carnage standby Charlotte Maier
Charlotte gives Stage Rush a video tour of her dressing room at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre
Broadway grosses

What do you think, Rushers? Were you one of the lucky audience members to experience Green Day at American Idiot? Were you in the audience during either of the two performances that Charlotte Maier went on in God of Carnage last February? Can you believe the amazing view Charlotte has of the Imperial Theatre from her dressing room window? As always, leave your thoughts and questions in the comments!

Understudy Hall: ‘Carnage’’s Charlotte Maier doesn’t need vomiting lessons

2010-04-27T00:00:00.002-04:00

Imagine being trained to do a job and then having to wait a year to apply it. That’s how long Charlotte Maier had to wait to unleash Annette’s projectile vomit and tackle her on-stage husband as Veronica as the female standby in the Tony-winning play God of Carnage. The life of a standby (different from an understudy, in that there isn’t even an ensemble role to play) is a true waiting game. Yet in between mystery novels and balancing her checkbook backstage, Maier says she’s received master classes in acting by observing the actors she covers.

A Chicago native, Maier began her career at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She moved to New York and started a family while appearing in Broadway plays in understudy and standby roles since 1993. She has acted in films with Steve Martin, Sandra Bullock, and Drew Barrymore, and Carnage marks her tenth Broadway production. The producers of Carnage announced Monday that the Tony winner for Best Play would close on June 27. Of this news, Maier remarked that the cast and crew felt lucky to run for a season and a half—a rare feat for a straight play. “Now we pass it on to the next cast in the next city.” Despite this news, Maier remains grateful—and why shouldn’t she? She learned how to vomit with the use of a hose.

How many times have you gone on in Carnage?

Twice. Fifty-two weeks had passed and I knew I was going to go on for Christine Lahti, but Annie Potts had broken her rib in the show somehow. So Thursday night, February 11, I went on for Annie after being with the show for a year. Two days later, I went on for Christine. Didn’t go on before and haven’t gone on since.

What was that first performance like?

That’s the part of Annette, the one who throws up. Technically speaking, that’s a very difficult part. For the vomit trick, you’re hooked up to a hose and there’s a hookup in the couch. I had never had a rehearsal doing that.

***VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP: Charlotte Maier talks vomiting sensations and James Gandolfini's cast gift that got mysteriously destroyed.***

Never once did anyone say, “Would you like to try it out?”

We never did it on stage ever. But we did it in a sink off stage once before. So that night, we tried it in the sink again, but that’s nothing compared to what it’s like in front of a thousand people. With this play, if that trick doesn’t work, that’s a big problem. That made me nervous.

Did it make you, you know, want to throw up?

It made me want to throw up! It did, it did! It made me so nervous, which actually fed the part beautifully.

Has the vomit trick ever not worked?

Yes, it has not gone off. I guess each cast has had a night or two where it hasn’t worked.

What do they do?

It’s very disconcerting and it’s really hard. The actress playing Annette does have a backup vomit in her purse, if it doesn’t work. But it’s very hard to get at and it’s complicated.

You’re understudying some pretty recognizable actresses. How does that make you feel?

I think it is a little intimidating, but in a very good way. Whoever you act with, it makes you a better actor. When I did scenes with Steve Martin in The Pink Panther, it made me a better actor because he’s so incredibly good at what he does. That’s how I feel with all these people. But you always have that moment where you wonder, “Is the audience going to ask for their money back if somebody’s out?” But that didn’t happen to me. It does goes through your head though. Will they be terribly disappointed? Will I have to win the audience over?

People are usually disappointed when understudy cards fall out of a Playbill. What are your thoughts on that?

I feel like, “Come on guys. I’m going to be good in this. It’s OK.” After two seconds, the audience is calm and it’s fine. But there is no doubt in your mind that that makes it harder. The women I am standing by for now—definitely, people have come to see them, and not the play, necessarily. It is hard, psychologically.

What does your family think of your standby status?

My 13-year-old son said to me, “Well, you’re as good. You just never got your big break.” That’s how he puts it, which is sweet. It’s really hard to make a living by acting. My husband is very grateful that I’m willing to do this, because you could say, “I don’t want to be an understudy. I want to do it myself.” There are moments when I feel like that. I feel very [groans] “I want this part to be mine.” But you make a living. There’s something incredibly liberating about it being a job, instead of it being about me and my value. I say, OK, that’s what I’m here for. I’m here to keep the curtain up.

Do you have nights where you’re feeling really good and you think, “I am SO in the mood to KILL IT tonight!”?

Today, we had rehearsal, and it was a great rehearsal. To have rehearsal today and to have completely figured out a whole other aspect of the play, I do feel tonight like, “I would like to go on now. I want to try this.” And… I’m not going to. It makes me want to do the play somewhere else. This play is probably going to have a very wide regional life. It makes me want to say, “I want to do my own run.”

What do you do when you’re not on? What’s the standby life like?

You have to come every day pretty much prepared. You never know whether or not something will happen. Ken Stott, who was part of the second cast, has asthma. Bruce McCarty, the male standby, is probably one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with in my life. There were days when he was there and it was five minutes to curtain, and management was like, Bruce, you’re going to go on.” You really have to come every day thinking, “This is it.” Then you get there and you realize, “This is not it.”

I’m really lucky. For one, it’s interesting to watch the play. The backstage people are spectacular. They’re people you love to talk to. It’s just great. You can knit. You can read books. Suddenly, it’s like, “Wow, I can have an hour and a half that I didn’t plan on having!” It’s actually pretty OK. Also, the squawk box is on, so you hear the play throughout the entire backstage. It’s piped in everywhere, including my dressing room. Sometimes I do think, “Oh damn. I would have liked to have done it tonight.” And then other nights you’re like, “Phew! God, I had a terrible day. I’m not feeling well.” Because we can’t get sick. We really can’t!

What happens if you’re really sick?

I don’t know. It’s never happened, that I know of. You just make yourself go on.

You’re in the business of Murphy’s Law. You’re line of work is to be prepared for the “who knows?”

Things happen all the time. People put their contact lenses in and scratch their corneas. They can’t go on. Crazy things that you just can’t predict. Like Annie breaking her rib. Who in the world would have thought, someone’s going to break their rib? Things happen. There have been moments when people have started the play not feeling well, having the flu and thinking, “I’m not sure if I’m going to make this performance.” There was actually a performance where I sat completely dressed—hair, makeup, everything—in case the actress couldn’t get through the show. They were going to make the announcement, “Excuse me. We’re going to start over,” and I would have just walked out and done it.

You went on for the first time 52 weeks into the show’s run, and from the routine you just described, that’s a lot of down time.

For a while when I was doing this play with the original cast, those people were so good and they really weren’t going to miss, I just thought, “This is crazy. I’m getting paid all this money—why?” And somebody said to me, “Do you know how much money they’d have to give back if you weren’t here?” It is so worth it, to hire somebody of a high caliber. Because when I went on, I knew they were exactly right. We standbys really are essential, because the curtain will not stay up without us.

Have you ever felt like your talent was going to waste?

I wouldn’t put it like that. No. There are particular skills you need to be an understudy. I have a lot of those. How I see it is: I don’t have to leave New York. I’m not a big star. But I have a family. I get to live in the city that I love with my husband and my son. And I make a very good living. I don’t see it as I’m being denied. Instead of having to be a waitress, I use all of my acting skills all the time. And I get paid very well. I also learn so much from watching people. I am a better actor because I have had a master class in acting from everyone from Helen Hunt to Jill Clayburgh to Janet McTeer.

What kind of relationships or connections do you have with the actors you understudy?

Marcia Gay Harden and I definitely talked about the role of Veronica. She was unbelievably forthcoming about it. I’ve definitely talked to other people about it, but I did the most with her. She’s somebody who never ever stops. Literally, the last week she was in the play, she was still taking notes and figuring out moments. She would say to me, “What do you think about this? You’ve been rehearsing it. How do you feel about this moment?” And that was really nice; I felt like it showed a great respect for me.

Today’s understudies are tomorrow’s Broadway stars. What are your thoughts on this notion?

I don’t know if that’s true. [laughs] But I have never stopped liking the work that I do. I’m not going to stop now. What I do is very specific and necessary. Take Mary Stuart, Lend Me A Tenor, Collected Stories—those are four plays where women my age are expected to step up and be a star. You can be a really good actor but not know what that is. I know what that is, to have that energy and move into that play.

Review: American Idiot

2010-04-23T03:26:00.002-04:00

Michael Mayer has a knack for making us remember some of our worst memories. In Spring Awakening, he helped us recall our yearning teenage years. Now in American Idiot, he reminds us of the uncertain and melancholy times that followed 9/11. Mayer’s marriage of visionary theatrical direction and Green Day’s passionate music make for a haunting and indelible production.

It’s hard to believe the last show that played the St. James Theatre before American Idiot was Finian’s Rainbow. Although a stellar production, it couldn’t be a further cry in style and tone from this musical by Green Day. That’s just the point—everything is a far cry from this production. American Idiot adds a new layer onto the ever-growing popular genre of rock musicals. This is a punk rock opera.

Simple in story to allow for even greater conceptual depth, American Idiot follows three greatly unsatisfied suburban youths who flee their hometown for a less-restrained life in the city. But the three friends’ plans quickly fall apart. Will (Michael Esper) remains at home because his girlfriend is pregnant, Tunny (Stark Sands) joins the army and is deployed to Iraq, and Johnny (John Gallagher Jr.) becomes swept up in a whirlwind of drugs. The three men’s downfalls are spurred by political disillusion, media saturation, and lack of faith in society’s day-to-day rituals.

***VIDEO after the jump: Green Day makes a surprise appearance and performs at the April 22 performance. Here, they perform their classic hit “Basket Case.”***

Gallagher brings the same passion to Johnny that he did to his Tony-winning performance as Moritz in Spring Awakening. With every guitar riff, his body and face convulse with an anger and defiance that no other actor currently brings to the stage. His vocals, equally equipped as his acting, are perfectly suited for Green Day’s score. Sands gives Tunny a piercing, bewildered stare, as he is first entranced into the armed forces, and then a hollowed-out gaze as he is wounded and lies in an infirmary. With few scenes to devote to his experience in Iraq, Sands fills the gaps of his incurred traumas with a broken presence. Esper gets the most underdeveloped character with Will, but sets the tone for the apathetic dad. Without much fuss, he turns Will’s couch into his prison of disinterest. Although more could have been devoted to this third of the trio, Esper shapes a sufficient character out of what little he is given.

In the supporting cast, Tony Vincent gives perhaps the strongest performance in the company, playing Johnny’s demonic, drug-dealing alter ego. Devilishly good, Vincent slinks around the stage, the heroin-dolling, tattooed spirit to Johnny’s Ebenezer Scrooge. He boasts some of the strongest vocals in the cast, and his grotesque, emaciated appearance creates an outrageous, memorable character. Passing Strange’s beautiful and affecting Rebecca Naomi Jones is unfortunately underused as Johnny’s exotic love interest, Whatsername. Yet with spotlight moments with “21 Guns” and “Letterbomb,” she shines in all the right ways.

This is probably the best show on Broadway to be an ensemble member (or is this one of the best new ensemble’s on Broadway?). Every company member is active on stage at all times. And these kids work for the money, risking broken bones and necks during every song. Mayer and choreographer Steven Hoggett push these performers to their limit, but it pays off in jaw-dropping ways. Leaping from platforms, dangling from the top of the stage, and flying on wires, the actors commit to every stunt and make it look as easy as in a video game. The wild acrobatics they’re forced to perform perfectly match the intense rock score they’re set to.

The American Idiot cast stomps, kicks, and jerks their way all over the stage of the St. James, up and down, left and right. Never before have I seen a stage fully utilized, every square inch of it (and I’m talkin’ the air above it). Set designer Christine Jones has staircases, scaffolding, and windows scaling the towering set, which the actors tear up, climb over, and leap out of. And if the performers can’t climb it, they’ll just fly up. For the poetically staged number “Extraordinary Girl,” Mayer has Sands and Christina Sajous perform a high-flying act that’s better than any I’ve ever seen. Unlike most sequences, the actors don’t look inhibited by the wires. Just another aspect proving that if it’s in this show, the team has committed to doing it 100 percent.

Illumination is one of the most prevalent facets of American Idiot, and it appears to be a perfect collaboration between set designer Jones, lighting designer Kevin Adams, and video/projection designer Darrel Maloney. The high walls of Jones’ set have flatscreen TVs of varying sizes embedded in them. Maloney’s video montages of news and entertainment clips flash on them, as do graphics of cartoon grenades and bleeding hearts. Jones’ concert poster-covered walls are light enough to allow Maloney’s vibrant projections to engulf the stage. During “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” a twinkling city skyline pans behind Johnny as he sings, and during “Extraordinary Girl,” an EKG read becomes an incredibly vibrant backdrop to Tunny’s well-coordinated flight. Kevin Adams (noticeably missing his neon-bulb lighting that was so present in Spring Awakening, Passing Strange, and Next to Normal) makes plentiful use of floodlights in this production, bathing sections of the stage and walls in sharp greens and reds. The collaboration between Adams, Maloney, and Jones is evident throughout, as none of their areas drown out the other.

Like the creative team, the actors converge tightly to build this efficient machine of a production (they kind of have to, or else someone would surely lose a limb). Mayer’s vision of American Idiot is portrayed so clearly, and it’s nothing short of astounding since he’s pushing the actors and technical features to their limits in this 90-minute roller coaster. Yet despite flying, leaping, and punk music that nearly blows out the speakers, Mayer sets the show’s tone with precision. At the musical’s opening, the curtain rises and a cacophony of sound bites and clips play on the television sets. As the cast gazes at the screens, President George W. Bush appears and delivers the chilling statement that we all heard so soon after the September 11 attacks, “Either you are with us, or with the terrorists.” I heard the words that frightened me back then and they still frightened me now. And BAM—I’m suddenly ready to take that ride with American Idiot.

Editor’s note: I bought a ticket the old-fashioned way to American Idiot, although it does have a ticket lottery. Names can be entered two hours prior to the performance and winners are drawn a half hour later. Two tickets per person for $27. Seats are located in the first and second rows of the orchestra.

Play: B+

Photo: Alessandra Mello

Stage Rush TV: Episode 10

2010-04-23T00:22:00.001-04:00

Talking points:

Brian d'Arcy James to return to Next to Normal
The four shows I saw this week… in 30 seconds: Million Dollar Quartet, Next to Normal, La Cage aux Folles, and Everyday Rapture
The At This Performance concert inspires with stellar understudy talent
Broadway grosses

What do you think, Rushers? Are you beaming that Brian d’Arcy James will be coming back to Next to Normal? Did you see him in the show’s off-Broadway run? What did you think of the four shows I saw this week? Did Million Dollar Quartet make you leave smiling? Did you find Everyday Rapture to be a bummer, like I did? Have you been to an At This Performance concert? As always, leave it in the comments!

Review: Million Dollar Quartet

2010-04-21T23:55:00.000-04:00

The fact that two musicals have opened on Broadway this season that focus on 1950s rock and roll in Memphis speaks greatly to the current creative drought in musical theater. Or maybe it speaks to the gatekeepers of Broadway and their resistance to take creative chances. Either way, Million Dollar Quartet, trailing the first rock and roll musical of the season—Memphis, is a play-it-safe show that employs some incredibly smart strategies to escort its audience out of the theater grinning. These choices, I’m sure, will make the production a commercial success.

The story takes places over the course of just a few hours on December 4, 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. The true backstory is that Sun Records founder Sam Phillips has invited Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis for a recording session. It would be the only time these four rock and roll gods would ever play together. Eighty percent of the show is this jam session with some light (and I do mean light) banter and relations between the musicians. For the show’s only dramatic backbone, Phillips, who has recently sold Presley to RCA to keep his fledgling record company afloat, is preparing to resign Cash for another three years. What Phillips doesn’t know is that Cash is on his way to break the news to him that he’s already signed with Columbia Records.

The main aspect of this show is the simulated performances of these rock and roll greats, and that part is right on the money. The four actors who play Presley, Cash, Perkins, and Lewis (Eddie Clendening, Lance Guest, Robert Britton Lyons, and Levi Kreis, respectively) are the show’s orchestra. Their instrumentals and vocals are incredibly strong. Their performances of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Hound Dog,” and “See You Later Alligator” are fire-breathing rock and roll spectacles. Quartet holds up as well as it does because of the acute musical talent of these performers. It doesn’t have a lot else to ride on.

The most interesting (and unexpected) aspect of the show is Hunter Foster’s portrayal of Phillips. Foster, a Tony-nominated actor for Little Shop of Horrors has starred in numerous other musicals like The Producers, Urinetown, and off-Broadway’s Ordinary Days. This is a gifted musical theater actor—why he would accept a non-singing role in a musical was beyond me when I learned of his casting. However, Foster takes the role of Phillips from what could be a stale narrator and gives him hefty character and heart. Most of the play, Foster plays Phillips as a stubborn, curt business man—his impatience and frustration with his company’s finances showing on his face in a tight-lipped grimace. Yet Foster gives Phillips heavy sentiment at the play’s conclusion, when the real-life photograph of the four musicians huddled around the piano is shown. It might be a tad schmaltzy, but Phillips says to the audience, “I just wish my boys had a bit more happiness in their lives.” It’ll pull at your heartstrings (it pulled at mine). Foster can expect a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical… for a non-singing role!

So you’re watching a show with blazing musical performances peppered with clunky dialogue (Presley calls Phillips “the father of rock and roll.” He wouldn’t have known to say this back then, nor would have been likely to say it at all.). The actors do the curtain call and that’s it, right? Wrong. The quartet comes back out, donning bedazzled jackets, and the set raises up to reveal a new scene, featuring a wall of gigantic flashbulbs. The quartet performs a handful of closing numbers about five times more raucous than any done during the show. The crowd is out of their seats, dancing in delight, and just as “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” ends, the gang forms a closing tableau with Presley on his knees, leaning back parallel with the stage and Perkins standing on a bass (standing on a bass!). The audience is ecstatic and files out of the Nederlander Theatre grinning from ear to ear. And I’m standing there thinking, “This director Eric Schaeffer is one smart man.” No matter what any individual in that audience thought of the show, that rock-‘em-sock-‘em finale is genius audience manipulation. Give ‘em a spectacle to take away as the departing memory of the show and that will be their lasting impression.

Million Dollar Quartet has going for it the same winning formula that Jersey Boys has: a Behind-The-Music style story and a roster of beloved songs. There’s no book or story to get in the way. There’s just sheer performance value. This is not a creative piece of theater, but it’s popcorn entertainment that pleases (if popcorn was allowed in a Broadway theater). I expect its crowd-pleasing factor to be acknowledged at the Tonys this year, along with definite box office success.

Editor’s note: I was invited to see Million Dollar Quartet and did not rush it. There is a ticket lottery for this production. The drawing is two hours prior to curtain, two tickets per person at $31.50 a piece.

Play: B-

Photo: Joan Marcus

Understudy Hall: 'At This Performance': Spring 2010

2010-04-19T08:56:00.000-04:00

Before the actors took the stage for the penultimate performance of the spring series of At This Performance concerts Sunday night, Musicals Tonight! artistic director Mel Miller delivered the bittersweet introduction. “These are among the most talented and underappreciated performers on Broadway,” he said. And therein lies what is so brilliant about this concert series that features Broadway understudies—for this night, the spotlight is on them; they are the headliners. Little white slips of paper be damned!

Sunday night’s lineup featured actors currently appearing in The Addams Family, Hair, Lend Me A Tenor, The Phantom of the Opera, and the recently closed Ragtime. Each performer took the stage, looking thrilled to be there, and ebulliently performed their prepared numbers. A barebones stage allowed the audience to focus solely on these (most likely, new) performers’ talents. Singing with only a piano accompanist (Eugene Gwozdz), the setting had an “audition feel” to it, which felt relevant to these performers’ stories.

Frank Mastrone sang a hyper-emotional “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables. Mykal Kilgore performed an octave defying “Aquarius” from Hair (he understudies the female role of Dionne?? Interesting!). And Mamie Parris gave a heartbreaking rendition of “Back To Before” from Ragtime. In addition to impressive vocals, many of the actors’ performances displayed infectiously likeable personalities. Briana Carlson-Goodman of Hair performed a comedic song from a musical workshop she was involved with, where she sings of her love for her piano accompanist, and Lend Me A Tenor’s Donna English displayed a multitude of hilarious facial expressions during “The Killer Soprano,” a song featured in Forbidden Broadway.

Setlist:

Briana Carlson-Goodman (Hair, u/s Sheila and Chrissy)

“Easy To Be Hard” and the in-love-with-accompanist tune

Donna English (Lend Me A Tenor, standby Maria and Julia)

“Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” and “The Killer Soprano”

Mary Illes (The Phantom of the Opera, u/s Madame Giry)

“Yes, It’s Love” and “Go Little Boat”

Morgan James (The Addams Family, u/s Wednesday Addams and Alice Beineke)

“Pulled” and “Ohio, 1904”

Mykal Kilgore (Hair, u/s Dionne)

“Aquarius” and “Don’t Let The Sun Get You Crying”

Frank Mastrone (The Phantom of the Opera, u/s Monsieur Andre and Piangi)

The dress rehearsal of ‘Hannibal’ (from Phantom), “Bring Him Home” and “Those Were The Good Old Days”

Anastacia McClesky (Hair, u/s Dionne)

“White Boys” and “Stormy Weather”

Mamie Parris (Ragtime, u/s Mother)

“Back To Before” and “Perfect”

The spring dates of At This Performance (which also takes place in the fall) has been playing on scattered Sunday and Monday evenings since February 28. Today is the final performance, and tickets can be purchased for $25 online or at the box office. Further information can be found at musicalstonight.org.

Review: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

2010-04-17T17:20:00.000-04:00

Being that I was an AP History student in high school, I’m embarrassed to say this: going into Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, I couldn’t remember a thing about this particular president. It’s a good thing there’s nothing like a loud rock musical to pound the facts into your head.

Chronicling the childhood and political rise of Andrew Jackson, our country’s seventh president (I learned this from the show!), this creation of Alex Timbers (book writer and director) and Michael Friedman (music and lyrics) is a random, wild-child piece of genius. Billed as an “emo rock musical,” Andrew Jackson strips the characters of any dense, political verbiage and colonial form. Instead, a rock star ensemble screams a hilarious rock score of the president that is both adored for being a “people’s president” and loathed for genocidal acts against the Native Americans.

Timbers, Friedman, and the rest of the creative team have dedicated themselves to the show’s “look,” and it’s that commitment that makes Andrew Jackson such a standout piece. Upon entering the theater, the audience’s experience begins. Scenic designer Donyale Werle and lighting designer Justin Townsend have strung distressed gold and red chandeliers on the ceiling, extending over the audience to the back row. Single-color decorative string lights pass over the chandeliers, and long neon bulbs (a la Kevin Adams’ designs for Spring Awakening and Passing Strange) hang on the sidelines. I felt as if I had walked into a grungy New York rock hall. The stage bears the same rock-grunge motifs, as well as wilderness clutter, to reflect Jackson’s Tennessee upbringing. There are so many details to look at on the stage that it’s frustrating to realize you can’t catch them all.

I’m sure the entire cast hugs costume designer Emily Rebholz every day for making them look sexy. The actors wear fantastic looking costumes that are a rock star-colonial fusion. The men wear jeans and colonial-style coats (with guyliner, naturally), while the women wear boots, frontier-inspired dresses and revealing tops. Benjamin Walker as Andrew Jackson is appropriately dressed the best. Playing a rock star president, Walker is outfitted in skin-tight black jeans, tightly fitted undershirt and an attractive white colonial coat. As a final touch, the leather gun holster strapped around his waist sets him up perfectly to reign as the outrageous first Democratic president.

Walker earns his presidency as Andrew Jackson. Amping up the confidence to a staggering level, Walker struts around the stage and screams into his wireless mic just as convincingly as any of today’s men of rock. Yet Walker lets the confidence give way to scenes of appropriate whininess. Faced with tough times and even tougher decisions, Walker portrays Jackson as an immature young adult, bewildered by his circumstances of political scrutiny and standoff with the Native Americans. (He comes off as a more charming Ashton Kutcher.)

The ensemble balances Walker’s Jackson perfectly. Each of the actors gets their own moments to shine and delight. The ensemble carries much of the show’s comedy, and they execute it winningly. Andrew Jackson is hilarious, not just for its content, but for its mood and delivery. Some quips are over the top and hilarious and some are dry and cutting. The cast commits to the show’s tone just as well as the creative side has to its aesthetic aspects. This is one well-running machine of a show.

The beauty of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is in its unexpectedness. It’s a random story to tell in a random form of storytelling. I didn’t know we needed a rock musical about President Andrew Jackson, but when the story is told through a modern vehicle, it shows present-day relevance. Nicer still is that Andrew Jackson does take a break from the hilarity and hits some sentimental notes. It nicely rounds out a production that is completely entertaining and amazingly original.

The rush:

Planning how to rush Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson was more difficult than actually doing so. The production is a limited run until May 9 and it’s selling extremely well. There are general rush tickets available for $20 (two per person) an hour before the performance, based on availability. Yet there is also a student rush available for $25 (one per ID) available at any time, even in advance (doesn’t even have to be the day of the desired performance). There were almost too many plans of attack on how to get the tickets. By just taking a risk and seeing what was available, I showed up at 3 p.m. on the day I wanted to see the show and asked if there was availability for student rush tickets. There were a few seats still available for that night and I picked one up. The seats were in the third-to-last row, but the box office attendant said the student rush seats are merely located wherever there is still availability. The Public Theater is small, so any seat is a good one. Not bad for a price that’s a little more than a Jackson.

Play: A- / Rush: A

Photo: Joan Marcus

Stage Rush TV: Episode 9

2010-04-16T02:03:00.003-04:00

Whisper House's Holly Brook introduces!

Talking points:

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson gets EMOtional
Seeing Anyone Can Whistle from a mile away
Chicago’s ensemble talks stunt casting
Broadway grosses: Why American Idiot isn’t a sellout

What do you think, Rushers? Have you seen Andrew Jackson? Does it deserve to get an open-ended off-Broadway run? Did you pay for better seats to Anyone Can Whistle than I did? Do you think I’m right about the people who are buying tickets for American Idiot? Leave it in the comments!

Ensemble Watch: 'Chicago,' Part 2

2010-04-12T01:05:00.000-04:00

In this second part of Ensemble Watch, Melissa Rae Mahon and James T. Lane of Chicago discuss stunt casting, learning numerous versions of choreography for numbers, and perform their favorite dance steps from the show.

(If you missed Part 1, catch it here)

Did what Melissa and James said about knowing numerous versions of musical numbers surprise you, Rushers? How do you feel about some choreography being "watered down" for certain stars?

Review: Anyone Can Whistle

2010-04-10T01:05:00.000-04:00

Since I was a fool and missed Raul Esparza’s last mind-blowing on-stage pairing, it was even more exciting to see him co-star in a musical with Broadway’s leading lady, Sutton Foster. That man is a fantastic dramatic actor, but he really needs to do more musicals.

The show is City Center Encores!'s production of Anyone Can Whistle. This is a rarely performed Sondheim show, and it's got a collect-'em-all factor for fans.

To summarize this play would be missing the point. If you don’t understand it (which I didn’t), there is still fun to be had. But for a primer, it's about a plotting mayor, played by Donna Murphy, who rules over a destitute town. A rock starts spouting water and people flock to the town to see it and the “mayoress” charges them for it. Suddenly, Raul Esparza arrives to sort out the town crazies and the mayor is out to arrest Sutton Foster for questioning the validity of the lucrative miracle.

Murphy is enraptured in her role as Mayor Cora Hoover Hooper. She emits classic Broadway ham and it's delightful. She is having the most fun of anyone on stage.

Foster could not be cuter as Fay Apple, who is playful as a faux French spy one moment, and then singing the heartbreaking titular number the next. Her deadpan-delivered jokes strike the hardest, and Foster’s voice soars with Sondheim's score. She is truly an actress who has it all.

Esparza is in different form than usual, taking on a light, comedic role. Despite his talents for drama, he is adorable as J. Bowden Hapgood, and wears his silliness just as well as he does his handsome suit.

There is some great choreography by Casey Nicholaw (who also directed), and what's even more incredible is how swiftly the cast and creative team had to throw it all together (it’s a only a five-performance run, stretching from Thursday to Sunday). The ensemble is sprite and colorful, and they get down with the leads, which is pleasant to watch.

Part of what made this a great theatrical experience was the audience's response. Being such a short run, the massive, 2,750 seat (!!) City Center theater is jam-packed with people who are dying to be there. Everyone was elated upon each individual entrance of Murphy, Foster, and Esparza. That sort of anticipation and thunderous reception can't help but boost the mood of an evening.

Editor’s note: City Center has a student ticket policy, only for certain events. The Encores! productions sell out, so student tickets to Anyone Can Whistle are unlikely. However, tickets to the show sold for as low as $25—a fantastic price for a truly special night of theater, considering the stars and the authorship of the work.

Play: B+

Photo: Joan Marcus

Stage Rush TV: Episode 8

2010-04-09T00:11:00.000-04:00

Talking points:

Interviewing Chicago ensemble members Melissa Rae Mahon and James T. Lane on the stage of the Ambassador Theatre
Loss #2 at the American Idiot ticket lottery
Broadway grosses

Please leave your thoughts, questions, suggestions in the comments!

Ensemble Watch: 'Chicago,' Part 1

2010-04-08T00:00:00.003-04:00

Kicking off Ensemble Watch, the series that highlights ensemble actors in Broadway's hottest companies, Melissa Rae Mahon and James T. Lane dish on life in the classic musical Chicago and how they stay fit for those revealing costumes.

A sneak peak at Part 2.

Rushers, have you seen Melissa open Chicago? Did you catch James when he was in A Chorus Line? Are you surprised that these two didn't describe a rigorous workout routine for the show? Leave it in the comments! Be sure to check back at Stage Rush for Part 2 of my interview with Melissa and James!

Stage Rush TV: Episode 7

2010-04-02T05:50:00.000-04:00

Talking points:

Interviewing Chad Kimball’s understudy, Bryan Fenkart, from Memphis
Loss #1 at the American Idiot ticket lottery
Million Dollar Quartet rocks out at a private jam session
Broadway grosses

Have you seen Bryan Fenkart go on for Huey in Memphis? Have you won the American Idiot ticket lotto yet? Do you plan on trying your luck at it? Do you think Hunter Foster should not have taken a non-singing role in a Broadway musical? Please leave any questions or suggestions for topics in the comments!

‘Million Dollar Quartet’ previews songs at invited jam session

2010-04-02T00:02:00.001-04:00

Attention classic rock and roll buffs! The closest you’re going to get to seeing Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins creating music history together is by watching the video below. On Thursday, the new Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet (currently in previews, opening April 11) played a handful of numbers from the production to an invited crowd at the Nederlander Theatre.

The musical spotlights the December 4, 1956 recording session at Sun Records studios, organized by Sam Phillips (Hunter Foster) that brought together Cash (Lance Guest), Lewis (Levi Kreis), Perkins (Rob Lyons), and Presley (Eddie Clendening).

While the on-stage interviews seemed forced, the music flowed from these actors like whiskey in a Memphis bar. Much like John Doyle’s recent revivals of Sweeney Todd and Company, the actors in Quartet are the orchestra. These strong-voiced guys played just as well as they sang. (Lyons even stood on a bass, for wild closing-number pose!!) Oddly, Tony-award nominated musical theater actor Hunter Foster is relegated to the non-singing role of Phillips, who (from what I could tell by the preview) acts mostly as a narrator. Seems like a strange role choice for such an acclaimed actor, but I’ll reserve judgment until I actually see the full show.

Watch the video for a medley of performances, featuring “Let’s Have A Party,” “Wild One,” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”

What do you think, Rushers? Does seeing these guys jam out make you want to see Quartet? Are you disappointed Hunter Foster won’t be singing in the show? Does watching this video put you in the mood to re-watch Walk the Line at all? (Because it does for me!)

Understudy Hall: ‘Memphis’’s Bryan Fenkart is worth teaching how to dance

2010-03-31T13:28:00.000-04:00

While Chad Kimball builds Tony buzz for his exhaustive lead performance as Huey Calhoun in the new musical Memphis, his understudy Bryan Fenkart is making a very visible Broadway debut. Having performed the role a handful of times since the New Year, the New Jersey native is getting his chance to bask in the spotlight of one of Broadway’s flashiest male roles.

Growing up in Midland Park, Fenkart wasn’t set on acting. He joined his first high school production on the terms of a lost bet. Yet after the interest took, he studied acting at Rutgers moved to New York. With a three-year stint as a doorman for the Times Square comedy club Carolines behind him, the 30-year-old has made his way to a different Broadway venue and is learning the lessons of performance-induced amnesia and even how to dance. Yes, after being cast in the role.

You’re making your Broadway debut understudying the male lead in a new musical. How does that make you feel?

It is really an honor. I didn’t train in musical theater, but I do love it and everything I’ve seen. Coming in for Memphis, I fell in love with the part of Huey. It’s everything that you would want, as an actor. It’s a very distinct physicality that’s different from my own. It’s got an accent. He’s got a drinking problem by the second act. Even as an understudy, to be able to have the opportunity to do that is a great thing. Also, to have somebody like Chad Kimball do the role and watch him every night is pretty awesome. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he brings to that part. He fully immerses himself in it and I love what he does. To be able to watch that and then change it on my own is pretty awesome.

***VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP: Bryan Fenkart would get "beat up" if he wore Huey's clothes outside the theater.***

What does it feel like when you’re in your moment as Huey, whether it’s in your favorite scene or taking your final bow?

Taking the final bow for my first performance as Huey was pretty surreal. I remembered being in the auditorium of Midland Park High School, seeing my parents in the second row and taking a bow. To flash forward 10 or more years and see my parents still in the second row and I’m taking my final bow at the Shubert Theatre after carrying the show was pretty surreal. Especially since the Shubert was where I saw my first Broadway show, Crazy For You. I got very choked up and teary with that first one.

What is the longest period you’ve gone without performing the role of Huey?

The first time I went on was in January—we opened in October. Since then, I’ve gone on almost once every two or three weeks. I’ve gone on for a couple of stretches—three shows here, four shows there, for a grand total of 13 now. The longest I’ve gone without performing the role since I’ve started is two or three weeks.

What’s the shortest notice you’ve been given before performing?

An hour and a half. Luckily, I had gone on before. The first time I went on, I knew the night before. That was a blessing and a curse, because I didn’t sleep. The hour and a half one wasn’t as scary. I had gone on five or so times before that. I knew Chad wasn’t feeling well; he had sounded a little scratchy. Sure enough, at 6:30 p.m., I got the call saying I was going to go on as Huey. If that had been the first time for me though, that would have been terrifying.

Tell me about your first performance as Huey.

The cliché of getting shot out of a cannon is accurate. It felt like getting shot by a cannon. When we rehearse as understudies, we’re rehearsing with folding chairs and stage management. We don’t have the other actors, we’re not surrounded by 29 dancers on the stage flailing around, moving columns and a radio booth that comes out of the stage. Going into a set that huge was very difficult and intimidating. The costumes changes are so fast, and we didn’t get a chance to rehearse those either. Luckily, my dresser is an angel and was saying under his breath, “Do the pants first. Now do the shirt,” in my ears. It’s amazing how much even the order of getting changed is something you have to think about. I got off stage after the first performance and stage management asked, “How’d it go?” and I said, “I have no idea what just happened!” I felt like I had lost two and a half hours of my life. Somehow all the words came out and all the costume changes happened. I didn’t kill anyone, so it worked somehow. But it was complete and total amnesia.

I had a second show to do that day, so I forced myself to get more comfortable. There’s a scene where Huey is in the radio booth and Bobby, his friend, is squeegeeing the booth window, and he’s inside doing a commercial. I as just trying to get comfortable, and I leaned my arm outside the window that he was squeegeeing, and in my head I was saying, That’s glass, don’t do that. You’re in a soundproof radio booth; keep your wits about you!

People are usually disappointed when understudy cards fall out of a Playbill. How do you feel about that?

I can understand. I’ve had that experience when I’ve seen shows. I get it. Taking nothing away from Chad and Montego [Glover], but I think I’m lucky to be in a show where people aren’t coming to see Alec Baldwin or whomever. People aren’t paying for the names; they’re paying to see this show that’s been getting a lot of great reviews and a lot of word of mouth. I have the benefit that most people aren’t as much coming to see Chad Kimball as they are coming to see Memphis.

What does your family think of your understudy status?

They love it. My parents are just happy to see me on stage. But I’m a star in their eyes, so they are always asking me questions like, “Do you get to take over the role when Chad leaves?” I say, “I don’t know! I don’t know how it works! The show might close, God forbid!” They’re always asking questions I can’t answer.

Do you have nights where you’re not scheduled to go on, but you’re feeling really good, and you think “I am so in the mood to KILL IT as Huey tonight!”?

Almost every night, I would rather be doing that part. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with feeling that, because it’s an amazing role and I love performing it. It’s something I feel like I do well. It’s the reason I got cast in the show. They had to teach me to dance at the rehearsals, because it’s something I didn’t have to do at the auditions. Huey doesn’t dance in the show. I came into the show to understudy and my second job is to be in the ensemble. My primary job is to understudy Huey. Do I want to be playing that part every time I go to the theater? Yeah, absolutely! But could I? I don’t even know how Chad does it eight times a week. It’s a monster. He’s superhuman for being able to act it as often as he does.

Explain your ensemble role.

I dance a little bit. They made a considerable effort to remove me from most of the major dance numbers. They knew that I wasn’t a dancer. I’ve never taken a dance class. I certainly was not offended by that. It’s a Broadway show; there’s no such thing as ‘good enough.’ I dance in two or three songs, and even then it’s minimal. They knew what they were getting into. I’m clunky; I do what I can. I do backup vocals and any time a guy comes out and steals Felicia’s purse or rips a speaker off the wall—a bunch of the random, racist white dude [antics].

Who understudies you?

Charlie Williams is the white male swing; he covers all those ensemble parts. There was a time when I went on for Huey and someone else in the ensemble was out, and they were able to cut my track for the most part. Most of the stuff they have me doing in the ensemble isn’t integral; they could have anybody do it. It’s not a difficult track by any means. They either just filled in the gaps with somebody else, or took my part out entirely.

Do you find you have a special connection with the person you understudy, Chad Kimball?

He’s become one of my closest friends in the show. He’s been helpful in ways I think most other actors wouldn’t have been. Because I didn’t get a chance to work on the character so much during rehearsals, I had to ask him a lot of questions about his motivations as the character and what brought him from points A to B in a scene. He was always very helpful with trying to help me reach the emotional life of the character. He’s just such a funny, quirky dude. It’s fun to go out and get a beer after the show—sometimes we will talk shop and sometimes we won’t.

Today’s understudies are tomorrow’s Broadway stars. What are your thoughts and hopes regarding that notion?

I believe that. I have no doubt that I will get there. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could. I’m not somebody who ended up here by accident. A lot of people will say, “You’re so lucky to be where you are,” and I say, “I don’t believe in luck.” I don’t believe that I’m lucky; I believe that I worked my ass off to get where I am, and I will continue to work my ass off, because this is where I want to be and there are many more rungs above me where I want to get to. For me, this is a lily pad—a very important and large one, the biggest one I’ve jumped to yet—but there are many more in front of me.

Stage Rush TV: Episode 6

2010-03-26T05:00:00.001-04:00

Talking points:

Interviewing Broadway music director Lynne Shankel, juggler extraordinaire.
Seeing All About Me
The short-lived Henry Miller’s Theatre is renamed after Stephen Sondheim
Broadway grosses

What did you find most surprising about my interview with Lynne Shankel? Have you seen All About Me? Did you think Michael Feinstein held his own, or was he just one of Dame Edna’s props? Please leave any questions or suggestions for topics in the comments!

Review: All About Me

2010-03-25T01:03:00.000-04:00

Not every good idea has to make sense, initially. When I first heard that Dame Edna Everage and Michael Feinstein would be co-headlining a Broadway show, I thought, Who wants to see that? Dame Edna has already had two Broadway shows—isn’t her shtick old? And Michael Feinstein is stuck in the 1930s with his cabaret act—how is he relevant to today’s paying audience?

Well last night, all these performers had to do to convince me was open their mouths.

Played by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries, Dame Edna’s comedy is sharper than ever. Her improvised routine of honing in on grinning audience members and humiliating them never gets boring. What’s so effective about her delivery is that Edna never appears to be insulting intentionally—every caustic quip is delivered in a tone that would sound the same if she were saying she loved you. Edna is miraculous, because she is a short-sighted, self-absorbed, politically incorrect snob—yet you can’t help but love her! She commands the stage of the Henry Miller’s Theatre (soon to be the Stephen Sondheim Theatre) using her usual staples of gladiolas, muscular male dancers, and boas. Edna also looks blindingly glittery in her wild costumes, designed by Stephen Adnitt. One particular bedazzled frock displayed a massive collar that was the Sydney Opera House, with Edna’s head poking out through the middle of the famed building. It was a design fit for Lady Gaga, which isn’t too shabby for the 76-year-old dame.

It would be too easy to fall to the wayside, when positioned next to all of Edna’s glittery costumes and on-stage boisterousness. Feinstein, the noted pianist and owner of Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, is placed in an awkward position. In addition to appearing quite wee next to the giant Edna, a cabaret singer of American songbook classics seems like a pretty uneven deck of cards against riotous comedy. Lucky for Feinstein, he’s armed with a voice that is wildly powerful and emotionally evocative. He performs his solo numbers with such strength that I was taken aback. In addition to the wonderful quality of his voice, there is a real pleasure in watching a person talk about something they are so passionate about. Before performing tunes penned by Gershwin, Porter, or the team of Rodgers and Hart, Feinstein introduces each with the song’s background. He speaks so lovingly of the work—his passion isn’t only detected in his voice, but in his face as well. When someone truly cares about what they’re doing, no matter what it is, it’s difficult as an audience member not to feel magnetism toward it.

Unfortunately, Edna and Feinstein have been staged in a fumbling conceit where they are both unconvincingly surprised to discover the other’s spotlight-stealing presence in “his”/“her” show, and they waste precious time vying for it. There’s an unnecessary stage manager character (Jodi Capeless) and the bantering and soft-balled insults are near embarrassing. If I had to see one more dramatic headshake from Feinstein to display the emotion of befuddlement to the audience, I would have checked to see that I hadn’t walked into my old high school for a production.

Even though the two entertainers learn to share the stage by the play’s end, Edna and Feinstein are both better when enjoyed separately. Now, I know I previously stated that this dual-show concept was a good idea. It is, only for the fact that we get to witness these two massive talents in one sitting. When they blend together, it isn’t so much a meeting of the minds, as it is an insult to theirs.

Editor’s note: I was invited to see All About Me, and did not rush it. There is a student rush policy in effect for two tickets per ID at $26.50 a piece, on sale when the box office opens.

Play: B-

Photo: Joan Marcus

Broadway Brain: Music director Lynne Shankel risks the Broadway crapshoot, sexifies Christmas

2010-03-22T04:27:00.000-04:00

If Raul Esparza is making audiences swoon with a Spanish rendition of “O Holy Night” or a boy band causes an audience to crack up with their humorous religion-infused pop music, it means Lynne Shankel is doing her job. As a music director, Shankel is in charge of shaping a production’s music into the correct tone, style, and interpretation. Having worked on Broadway (Company, Cry Baby), off (Altar Boyz), and on countless concerts at venues like Joe’s Pub (ASTEP’s New York City Christmas) and benefits around the country, Shankel is a go-to musician for producers and performers who want their shows and showcase concerts to hit the right notes.

The Kansas City native studied piano performance at the University of Michigan, but much to the chagrin of her professors, she soon drifted from her classical studies and gravitated toward the theatrical. Playing piano in numerous college productions, which involved future Broadway stars Hunter Foster and Jennifer Laura Thompson, as well as Vanities composer David Kirshenbaum, Shankel’s passion for musical theater was established. She moved to New York in 1993 and has been working ever since.

Shankel kicks off Stage Rush’s Broadway Brain series, focusing on the behind-the-scenes masters of New York theater. The 39 year old opens up about Broadway’s triumphs and disappointments, nursing a show’s score from start to finish, and keeping the creative juices flowing.

Explaining it to me as if I’m a 3 year old, what does a music director/supervisor do?

The first thing you do as a music director is you work with the cast before you even start with the musicians. You teach them the vocals for the piece. I work on tons of new pieces. When you’re working on something new, it’s not like putting together The Wizard of Oz, where the actors have heard the cast recording and they know how it’s supposed to sound. With a new piece, the score is constantly changing and developing. Even before that, you work with the creative team to develop the piece. For a new show, I develop it through as many readings as we decide to have. Once we get past that point, I work with the composer, director, and choreographer intensely to figure out what the piece is, musically. What is the style we’re going for? From there, we hone in on the vocals and work on not only the sound and the style, but also the interpretation of the lyrics. A big part of what I do is coaching the actors through a song so that it not only has a musical arc, but a dramatic arc as well. Once I get through working with the cast, then it’s time to add in a band. If it’s an original piece, then I also work with an orchestrator, because the music hasn’t been played before. Sometimes there can be a bit of trial and error, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I work out the dynamics, style, and articulations, so that we have a piece that feels cohesive. Then we get into the theater and it’s a whole other ball of wax with technical elements and conducting the show.

***VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP: Lynne Shankel describes her strangest day working in the theater***

What’s the difference between music supervising and music directing?

It depends on the piece. In New York, often a music supervisor and music director are the same person. Sometimes there will be a music supervisor who is not the person who is conducting the show nightly. The person who conducts the show every night is the music director. That is the person who takes care of the show on a daily basis. The music supervisor can be someone who comes in every few weeks and just gives a global checkup to the show. But sometimes they are one and the same person. Pretty much every show I’ve done, I’ve been the music director and the music supervisor. On Company, I was working with Mary-Mitchell Campbell, who is actually my best friend. She’s conducting The Addams Family right now. She did the orchestrations for Company and brought me on as the supervisor. On Company, nobody was conducting that show, because the actors were playing the instruments on stage. Somebody needed to be there on a nightly basis to make sure nothing was going crazily awry. That was my job. I had to get the understudies ready and note the show on a daily basis. For Cry Baby, I was conducting the show every night.

What’s the difference between working on a revival (Company) and an original show (Cry Baby).

Company was totally different from what it’s normally like working on a revival, because the orchestration was completely different. The original was completely brilliant, but it was very much based in the 1970s, musically. Mary-Mitchell took out the whole 70s-rhythmic element of it and made it more of a chamber piece. It was a very different sound. That was fun for me to do, because I seem to end up doing more rock and pop shows. I am a classical person, that’s my background. So it was great to be able to work on something juicy like Sondheim.

What was it like meeting Stephen Sondheim?

I ended up conducting the cast album for Company. On a recording session, it’s kind of different—you can’t just let everybody play the music themselves. So there I am conducting and I’m thinking, Holy crap, I’m conducting and Stephen Sondheim is in the control room. What an amazing experience.

What is the Broadway schedule like? We hear actors talk about it all the time, but never those behind the scenes.

It’s grueling. It’s eight shows a week, and if you’re the music director for the show, not only are you showing up every night to conduct the show, but there are understudies that have to be trained, people get hurt, people could call out at a moment’s notice. You have to be ready for that. It ends up not being something that just goes from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. I think it can sound to people from the outside, How fun and easy, because all you have to do is show up for a couple hours each night. It’s really not the case. It’s tricky to keep a show fresh that you do every night. Everything I do, I try to put myself in it every night so that I’m always in it and on every night. It’s really important for the energy of the cast and the energy of the musicians, because they’re very effected by what the conductor is doing. If the conductor’s just like (waves arms dully), that’s what you’re going to get.

What’s the difference between working on Broadway and off Broadway?

Ha! You work just as hard, but you get paid less. There’s no difference in quality; you’re just working at a venue that has less than 500 seats. It requires the same kind of time and commitment that Broadway does. It’s not easier, it’s just cheaper. What’s really great about off Broadway is that so many interesting pieces get produced. Especially now, since Broadway has become so commercial in recent years, you find that most off-the-beaten-path, interesting shows happen off Broadway. It’s so expensive to do a Broadway show, and if a producer doesn’t feel like it’s going to be commercial, it’s really hard to do something that’s not a movie or that doesn’t have a movie star in it. It’s really really hard.

How do you feel about getting back to Broadway? Is it a ‘must do’, is it something you’d simply ‘like’, or ‘if it happens, it happens’?

There’s no sense in trying to predict it, because all I can do is choose work that I’m attracted to. Broadway is the greatest crapshoot. I’ve been involved with many pieces that were supposed to go to Broadway and haven’t, and I’ve been involved with pieces that went to Broadway, like Cry Baby, and then don’t run very long. There’s no sense in feeling like, Broadway— this is it! I love it, and whenever it happens next, that’s fantastic.

You’re part of the group that shapes the show. What’s it like collaborating with the director, producers, and all the other behind-the-scenes players?

I love collaborating with people. For me, putting a show together is the most fun part of the process. It’s more fun than running the show on a nightly basis, because the part that I love is the creative aspect. That’s where the magic happens.

What do you think of being behind the scenes? Your work is seen, but you are not.

If I had wanted to be an actor, then I suppose I would have been an actor, but I was never drawn to do that. I enjoy performing very much, and if I’m conducting a show, I’m still performing—the people’s focus just isn’t on me.

Altar Boyz lasted a very long time—five years. How long were you involved with it?

I was involved with it for years. We opened in 2005, but we started doing readings around 2002 or 2003. Once it opened, I left after about a year and a half into the run. At that point, I wasn’t involved on a daily basis anymore. When you’re doing readings of pieces, you’re doing a million things at the same time. During the time we were working on Altar Boyz, I did The Thing About Men off Broadway and I took a leave of absence to go do a new musical called Princesses in Seattle. I try to always work on two or three projects, because you never know what’s going to happen. It’s good to diversify and keep the creative juices flowing.

Lynne Shankel accompanying Bonnie Raitt at a Hole In The Wall Gang Camp benefit in San Francisco in fall 2008.

Neither Company or Cry Baby lasted very long. What are your feelings regarding the length of those runs?

Company was a great critical success. Unfortunately, most Sondheim shows don’t run that long because they’re not commercial. It’s hard to get your average Joe Tourist to want to come and see something like that, as much as all us theater folk know that it’s a completely brilliant piece. With Company, it’s a fun evening, but it has a lot of stillness. It’s not a show that has chandeliers dropping to the floor or helicopters landing on stage. It’s not for everybody. It had as long of a run as any of us could have imagined. Cry Baby, honestly, was kind of the opposite. It was something I still feel is very commercial. It’s hard to say why it didn’t run longer, because our audiences loved it. People always remember The New York Times’ [negative] review, but we got great reviews from many papers. That’s why I say you never know. I worked on Cry Baby for two years, and then it ran for eight or 10 weeks. Who knows? It’s a bummer; that’s all you can say.

What projects are you working on now?

I’m doing a lot of orchestrating now, which I’m really enjoying. I’m orchestrating a new show for Goodspeed called Band Geeks, which is a comedy that’s opening there this spring. I’m working on a show called Wanda’s World, that I’m orchestrating and music directing. That’s looking to come to New York either this fall or next spring. I was just down at band rehearsal for a show that I did up at Williamstown Theatre Festival a couple years ago called Party Come Here, which is by David Kirshenbaum and Daniel Goldfarb. They’re doing a production of it at NYU. It’s only been done once before. That’s kind of the front-burner stuff right now.

We just did our first reading of many for Allegiance two weeks ago. It’s a new piece I’m writing arrangements for and music directing. It’s a really interesting piece about the Japanese internment during World War II. It’s a subject that hasn’t been dealt with in the theater. Lea Salonga has been involved with it for a while, and George Takei from Star Trek.

I’m also working on a piece that kind of came out of the ASTEP concert. Lindsay Mendez, who sang at that concert, and I are putting together a big concert of all Lindsay. We’re gearing toward late summer, early fall. I’m writting all the arrangements and the orchestrations. There’s not a fake bone about Lindsay and she can sing the phone book. She and Chester Gregory, whom I adore; they’re my favorite muses. I know their voices so well and I know what I can write for them that will make them sound amazing. Writing for people like them is like a candy store for someone like me. Their gifts are so extreme, it’s so much fun. That’s the kind of stuff I really love to do, and that’s what was so great about the ASTEP concert and the album.

Give me the dirt on Raul Esparza.

Raul is the greatest guy in the world. He’s an absolute doll and an absolute professional. He’s always working to be the best that he can be, to do the best job for the show. Personally, I owe him a lot for coming to sing for ASTEP. He’s a dream. It don’t hurt to look at him either.

Tell me about your arrangement of “O Holy Night,” which he sang at the ASTEP concert.

For everyone in the concert, their song ended up being personal. When I got together with everyone, I asked them what spoke to them, what songs, what styles. With Raul, we talked about doing something to show off his Cuban heritage. “O Holy Night” was his favorite Christmas song ever. I said to myself, I think I can meld these things together. We sang through it, put the second bridge in Spanish, he came up with some great stuff, and it’s one of my favorites on the album. When we went into the studio, he literally sang it twice and he was done. He told me that when he sang it, he was thinking about his grandmother and how much she would have loved to see him do this. That’s where that performance came from. Done. Brilliant.

Photos: (Top to bottom) Jesse North / Courtesy of Lynne Shankel / Courtesy of Lynne Shankel

Stage Rush TV: Episode 5

2010-03-19T22:17:00.000-04:00

Duncan Sheik introduces this week’s episode!

Talking points:

Duncan Sheik spills details on Spring Awakening movie
Sheik in concert in South Orange, NJ
Broadway double-header: rushing A Little Night Music and The Miracle Worker
Broadway grosses

What do you think of the Spring Awakening movie news? Are you disappointed that Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff won’t reprise their roles in the film? Are you still terrified of the prospect of McG taking the wheel, or do you think it will be his ticket to respected filmmaker-dom? Were you as disappointed with The Miracle Worker as I was? Did you fall in love with A Little Night Music? Please tell me in the comments!

Duncan Sheik: Original Broadway cast will not reprise roles in 'Spring Awakening' film

2010-03-19T04:52:00.003-04:00

Thursday night, the Grammy and Tony award-winning singer and composer Duncan Sheik performed the first show in his six-city concert tour at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in New Jersey. I caught up with Sheik at the post-concert reception, and with a glass of wine in hand, he discussed some details of the Spring Awakening film adaptation, currently in development.

For those hoping that Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff will reprise their roles in the film, Sheik said there is no chance of any original Broadway cast members making it on screen. Sheik noted that by the time the film goes into production, the actors would look too old to convincingly portray 15 to 16 year olds.

Regarding the much-talked-about decision to hand directing and producing responsibilities over to McG, mostly known for action movies such as Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Terminator Salvation, Sheik maintains that the director was adamant about taking on the project. Sheik said McG courted himself and writing partner Steven Sater for 18 months about the project. It was McG’s desire to shoot on location in places like Prague, and to focus on the performances that won Sheik and Sater over. Sheik added that McG has extensive experience with big-budget films, and said he claimed he knew how to make the film look high budget for less.

Also milling around the reception was Holly Brook, a regular back-up singer and accompanist on Sheik’s tours, who just came off the successful San Diego run of the composer’s latest musical venture, Whisper House. If the musical ghost story makes its way to the east coast, Brook said she would love to reprise her role as the female ghost. While she said she does not yet know of any upcoming production plans, she said one change that would likely be made is to the set design. Brook said that while at the Old Globe, the scenery, which is the interior of a lighthouse in Maine, was a bit complicated and didn’t come across well enough to the audience. Brook added that the redesigned set would probably be more minimalist.

The concert

Sheik took the stage surrounded by numerous acoustic guitars at his disposal, Brook to his left on piano and backup vocals, and Jerry Leonard to his right on electric guitar. His set lasted an hour and a half, and included work from two of his musicals—Whisper House and Spring Awakening—his upcoming album of covers, and his solo music.

Sheik was characteristically bashful in his bantering with the audience, but despite his onstage self-deprecation, he continuously reached out to speak to the crowd after every song. Sheik and Brook kept highlighting the fact that their instruments were out of tune, and they were having sound issues with their ear feeds. Brook even jokingly chastised Sheik on stage for not writing out an official playlist before the show, and that they should do it before the next city. Later at the reception, Sheik told me about the sound issues during the concert, and chalked it up to the fact that this was their first stop on the tour, adding this was the first time the three musicians had gone through this set together. Sheik told me that when the tour hits San Francisco’s Symphony Hall in April, they will be playing with a 90-piece orchestra.

Set list:

From Whisper House:

“It’s Better To Be Dead”

“The Tale of Solomon Snell”

“We Don’t Believe In You”

“Take A Bow”

From Spring Awakening:

“Mama Who Bore Me” (sung by Holly Brook)

“Touch Me”

“Don’t Do Sadness/Blue Wind”

From upcoming covers album:

“The Ghost In You” by The Psychedelic Furs

“Hold Me Now” by Thompson Twins

“Stripped” by Depeche Mode

Solo songs:

“On A High”

“Such Reveries”

“Start Again”

“Home”

Encore:

“Come Out” (new song)

“Barely Breathing”

Highlights from the set included Whisper House’s “It’s Better To Be Dead” for its striking guitar base and “We Don’t Believe In You” for Sheik’s vocally emotional delivery. All three songs from Spring Awakening were top notch, and made me miss the show so much that I ached. Sheik’s vocals on “Touch Me” had particular sweetness. From his upcoming album of covers, “The Ghost In You,” was sang with just as much romance as his own gorgeous “Such Reveries,” and “Stripped” had a sinister tone that was similar to his Whisper House work. As for his solo selections , the upbeat songs “On A High” and “Start Again” had the most sound and tuning problems, while the slower, more melodic “Such Reveries” and “Home” seemed to engage more of Sheik’s interest.

As for his encore, it will always perplex me, Sheik’s unwillingness to play his mid-90s smash hit “Barely Breathing.” Disregarding it as a “pop song,” Sheik played it just as good as it ever sounded, and exited the stage with an “are-you-happy-now?” smirk.

Photos: (top to bottom) Doug Seymour / Craig Schwartz / Crackerfarm

Review: The Miracle Worker

2010-03-18T14:59:00.001-04:00

As a nice last-minute rush alternative upon discovering The Addams Family did not have any rush tickets for their matinee performance, I hopped on over to play the ticket lottery for The Miracle Worker. I had good vibes about this lottery, after being skunked by Addams.

For the play about Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan who gave her the gift of language, about 15 people entered and the attendant announced they’d be selling 10 lottery tickets. Now keep in mind, it was more like 30 people were playing, since most people register for two tickets. I kept positive and was the fifth name called! The lotto attendant directed the winners to line up in the order our names were picked. We did, but upon directing us to line up in the same order at the box office window to purchase our tickets, the attendant walked away and the order disintegrated. A woman who was called after I was zoomed to the front of the line. I suggested that the woman whose name was called first should be the first to purchase her tickets. The woman protested my suggestion, saying that she was waiting to play the lotto since 11 a.m., and should purchase first. I told her that wasn’t the way a ticket lottery works, to which she called me a “ticket Nazi.” So to the box office workers of the Circle in the Square Theatre, this ticket Nazi is telling you that you should keep your lottery more organized in the future.

Aside from disorganization, The Miracle Worker ticket lottery is a good one. From what the attendant said, 15 people was the most he’d seen play the lotto, and the tickets are $16 a piece, up to two per person. The seats are in the back row of the theater, and that brings me to my first point of review for this show—the scenery.

The scenery for The Miracle Worker is impractical. Why scenic designer Derek McLane constructed his set with pieces that would hinder the views of the audience is a mystery. The Circle in the Square Theatre is in the round, which means the stage is in a pit at the theater’s center, and the audience surrounds the stage in stadium seating fashion, like in an arena. Therefore, there really is no front or back of the stage. Performers’ backs will be toward you at points, depending where you’re sitting, and that is tolerable. Yet in a production that is to be performed in the round, do not create set pieces with height that will block the audience’s view. For crucial scenes in the play, I had a doorframe in my vision. There were two doorframes, actually, another on the opposite end of the stage (so I imagine the people opposite me in the theater got the same blinded treatment). One marks the entrance to the Keller household, and the other the exit. Most of the play’s important moments take place at the dinner table. When the actors were seated at the table, the doorframe perfectly blocked Abigail Breslin’s (Helen Keller) face from my vision. That’s pretty disappointing, considering those were generally the most exciting scenes in an otherwise boring production.

Which brings me to my next point: this play, which is about a fascinating story, wasn’t executed interestingly. As I entered the theater for the show, there were hordes of children on class trips flooding into the lobby. I haven’t been to a show with that many kids in the longest time. I felt like I was on a class trip myself. And the play didn’t help to turn that notion around. This production, directed by Kate Whoriskey, felt extremely simple in its delivery and staging. It felt like a production for children. It didn’t poke at my interest or make me think. It was an overly literal rendition of this play by William Gibson.

Annie and Helen are the two characters that matter in this play, and the five supporting players just fade into the background without any real development. Well, half of that is true—they have no depth, but they do annoyingly keep popping back into the scenes. Captain Keller (Matthew Modine) and Kate Keller (Jennifer Morrison)—Helen’s parents—unconvincingly fret and fester over their little girl’s disabilities. James (Tobias Segal), Captain Keller’s son, whines that his father pays him no attention. Elizabeth Franz plays the crabby Aunt Ev who won’t shut up, and I don’t know why she’s been invited to the house in the first place.

Alison Pill as Annie Sullivan is an almost-there performance. There is a lot of praise to be given to her portrayal of the teacher with the impossible task of turning the tortured young Helen into a communicating being. Pill is marvelously firm and confident, which she needs to be, not only because of Helen, who will kick, stomp and thrash anyone who comes near, but also due to the household of relatives who are all too eager to give in to Helen’s tantrums. Pill has Annie’s teacher speak down pat, dictating in authoritative, lecture-ly ways. The only problem is Pill never comes down from that plane of dialect. When she is playing emotional scenes, not teaching Helen, her delivery seems monotone, choppy, and unrealistic. It is in those scenes that Annie must become an empathetic, emotional being, and Pill falls short of that.

The only home run in the play comes from Abigail Breslin. The almost-14-year-old Oscar nominee is a force as Helen. Naturally, she has no lines in the play, so all her work is physical. Physical is almost an understatement. With groans, screams, and tears, Breslin pounds her feet into the stage in protest at almost every gesture made by he family and teacher. She struggles violently with anyone attempting to calm or direct her. Helen is supposed to be agonizingly frustrating to her parents and Annie, and she becomes that way to the audience as well. While I did have to fight nodding off in my seat most of the play, it is during Breslin’s scenes that I found myself squirming along with her, hoping that she will grasp Annie’s lessons and harness her language.

Credit must be given to Breslin for the effectiveness of the play’s final scene, which stands as this production’s only effective scene. After one of their most violent tussles yet, Helen communicates to Annie for the first time. (This isn’t a spoiler, people; this is history.) It really is a crushing moment, watching a window open to this girl, which has never been open before. It’s a transformational moment for Breslin, and proof of this young actress’s massive talent. Lucky for The Miracle Worker, the play concludes after this scene. I am sure the majority of audiences leave praising this play, because the last thing they’ve witnessed is this one touching scene. It’s a wallop of an emotional payoff, but it’s the only thing this production has to offer.

Play: C / Lottery: B

Photo: Joan Marcus

Stage Rush TV: Episode 4

2010-03-12T05:00:00.005-05:00

Talking points:

The Broadway portion of Las Vegas
The Scottsboro Boys has a rush policy, but no rush tickets
Evan Rachel Wood backs out of Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark
Steven Sater: Spring Awakening film could begin production as soon as fall
Broadway grosses

Please leave your thoughts, questions in the comments below!

Review: Next Fall

2010-03-12T01:48:00.002-05:00

A quality family drama can be a greatly effective play because everyone in the audience can relate in some aspect. Geoffrey Nauffts’ new dramedy, Next Fall, has many entrance points of reliability. Not everyone in the audience will relate to the homosexual relationship at the center of the play. Not everyone will relate to the various religious stances held by the characters in the play. What everyone will relate to, however, is the common denominator of religion in our lives and how it influences our views.

Patrick Breen plays Adam, a man approaching the edge of middle age, who is a cynic and holds no stock in religion. Patrick Heusinger plays Luke, a 20-something optimist who never begins a meal without a Christian prayer. The audience is privy to crucial moments in their five-year relationship through flashbacks, while a hospital waiting room stands as the play’s main hub, where Adam and Patrick’s friends and family converge after a serious accident. We see how the two have made their many differences work over the years, and which ones have gotten the better of them.

Although it doesn’t reach the heights of August: Osage County (the last great family drama to hit Broadway), Next Fall is a poignant, relevant work that highlights some of America’s most pressing issues. Most importantly, it has a lot of heart, and that it is an original piece is incredibly refreshing.

The most crucial element of this play is the relationship and chemistry between Adam and Luke. Breen and Heusinger are mismatched—Breen is thin and pale with a nerdy disposition, while Heusinger is handsome and athletic. The physical differences of the actors further highlight the love that they both portray on stage. These two do not look like they belong together, and as we learn their idiosyncrasies and beliefs, it’s further proof that their relationship shouldn’t work. But it does, and beautifully tender scenes staged by director Sheryl Kaller lay the foundation that the story couldn’t survive without, including a quiet moment where Adam and Luke lay on a couch.

Breen is the strongest in evenly fleshing out his character. His Adam is comically cynical, and irritatingly so sometimes. He has a distrust for life, but it slightly fades away during his intimate moments with Luke. It is then that we see what Luke provides for Adam. It isn’t as clear how Adam benefits Luke. Heusinger plays Luke like an overeager puppy—not a poor acting choice, as it helps to highlight the differences between these two men. Heusinger is loveable and comical, particularly in his laissez faire attitude in regards to the contradictions his lifestyle has with his religion. Yet at times it seems that his relationship with Adam instills fear in him—the opposite of what happens with Adam—especially when faced with the notion of revealing his lifestyle to his family. This unbalanced dynamic in Adam and Luke’s relationship may have been intended of Nauffts, but it makes their relationship feel just that: uneven.

The supporting players are pretty strong, but maintain a sense of extremeness that seems to carry the play’s comedy, which can become annoying. Connie Ray as Luke’s mother Arlene is a Southern whirlwind of hysteria and motor-mouthed speech. She’s undoubtedly one of the most memorable aspects of the play, but a certain amount of realism is lost with that. Maddie Corman as the guys’ best friend Holly is pleasant and endearing in her loyalty and pulls off some great laughs as well. Unfortunately, she develops into a tired New Yorker cliché, which again detracts from the realism—she talks way too much about her apartment.

The supporting men are as uneven as can be. As Luke’s staunch, rugged father Butch, Cotter Smith nails the type of father that would instill the fear in his son of revealing who he truly is. Then there’s Brandon, played by Sean Dugan. I honestly can’t say exactly who his character is. He’s not a great friend of Adam and Luke’s, but he used to be in their social scene… and now he’s at the hospital for what reason? I don’t believe this is any fault of Dugan’s; Nauffts dropped the ball with this character. The role of Brandon could be deleted from the play and the story would remain intact.

Next Fall relies entirely on the writing and acting; there aren’t many other creative aspects the show rides on. Wilson Chin’s set design is simple: a hospital waiting room and Adam and Luke’s apartment. What is interesting about Chin’s set is the way it transitions, with ledges, shelves, and doorways pushing in and out of the set walls. The effect is similar to drawers pulling out of a dresser.

Next Fall is a smart play that attacks important issues covered every day in the media. Its focus on important themes is commendable and the play is sweet. However, the emotional level didn’t reach its height for me that I imagine the playwright intended it to. For me, it may have been because the actors themselves didn’t seem to be experiencing that same emotional climax. Throughout the play, I kept wondering why the characters seemed so non-chalant about the serious circumstance. It kept the play’s emotional wave from reaching it’s full potential. Nevertheless, original and smart are qualities that should put people in the seats.

Editor’s note: I did not rush Next Fall, I purchased my ticket through TKTS. The show does have a student rush policy: two hours prior to the performance, two tickets per ID at $26.50 each.

Play: B

Stage Rush TV: Episode 3, LA Edition

2010-03-05T05:00:00.010-05:00

Coming to you from Los Angeles this week! Please excuse the wind interference—we weren’t aware of it until we had finished (low-cost equipment here). I had a real, live soldier of the Hollywood entertainment industry collaborating with me this week—my good friend Michelle Mogavero . Having a “crew” was very exciting.

Talking points:

Rush FAIL: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Upcoming interview with Lynne Shankel, former music supervisor for Company, music director for Cry Baby and Altar Boyz.

ASTEP's New York City Christmas benefit concert

Raul Esparza’s performance of “O Holy Night” (YouTube)

Broadway grosses

Please leave your thoughts, questions in the comments below!

‘Glee’ concert tour: What is it with Lea Michele and May 18?

2010-03-01T14:05:00.000-05:00

May 18, 2008. It was a big day for me, as I had seats (excellent ones, might I add) to Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff’s final performance in Spring Awakening. Sitting there in the audience, with an electricity of excitement in the air, I knew it was a very important day in Michele’s life too. What I didn’t know is that this date—May 18—would continue to be a milestone day in her life each time it came around for the next two years running.

Last year on May 19 (give me a little wiggle room here), the pilot episode of Glee broadcast on Fox after part one of the season finale of American Idol. I couldn’t believe that almost exactly a year ago, I was watching Michele perform live to a packed Broadway house, and now I was watching her in a lead role in a debuting major television series, following the most successful show in America. As everyone knows, Glee became a huge hit and threw Michele into superstardom, as well as earning her a Golden Globe nomination just half-way through the show’s first season.

Fox announced today that the cast of Glee will be hitting the road for a four-city concert tour, kicking off in Phoenix on… May 18. What other date would it possible be??

It strikes me as interesting that on this date for three years in a row, Michele has reached a new pinnacle in her career. From someone who maintains a healthy level of OCD, I think it’s rather pleasant that her career contains such symmetry. And to be embarrassingly honest, I was mistily reminiscent when May 18 hit last year, remembering that incredible last performance at Spring Awakening. Needless to say, I think May 18 is going to be a day that I continue to remember—not to speak of what Michele must think of the date.

What do you think, Rushers? Did you make the May 18 connection with Lea Michele? Are you buying tickets to the Glee concert tour? Do you cry every May 18? (I’m sure you don’t. Only losers do that.) ::looks around suspiciously::

Stage Rush TV: Episode 2

2010-02-26T05:00:00.001-05:00

Talking points:

Interviewing Jeremy Stolle at the Majestic Theatre and getting a backstage tour
Rushing A View From The Bridge and TKTS-ing Next Fall
Broadway grosses

We had an awesome amount of comments last week. I loved responding to everyone. Please keep them coming this week. In addition, please ask me any questions you’d like me to address or throw out any topics you’d like me to discuss in next week’s episode. I’m taking your suggestions and I’d love for you guys to contribute to the topics list next week!

Review: A View From The Bridge

2010-02-25T02:06:00.000-05:00

Pardon the cliché, but today reminded me why in rushing, the early bird gets the worm. Sure, it’d be nice to sleep in a little longer and it would definitely be better to stay indoors another hour on a drizzly day, all to show up at the box office right before it opens and chance your luck. But taking the question of “am I going to get a ticket?” out of the equation is far more worth it. These are the choices I made when I rushed A View From The Bridge.

Just like A Steady Rain, which boasted two huge Hollywood names, people are coming out in droves to see Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber in this revival of the Arthur Miller play. Last week, it sold 102 percent of its tickets! Being that there are only six weeks left to the production’s run and I was well aware of the demand for this show, I decided to be very cautious with this rush. I’m honestly shocked that Bridge has a rush policy at all, with the rate they’re selling. It’s a general rush that goes on sale when the box office opens for $26.50 a piece, up to two tickets.

I arrived at the Cort Theatre at 8:30 a.m. and was the third person in line. The Cort has a nice, large overhang that sheltered us from the rain. Once 9 a.m. hit, the rush line grew fast, eventually adding up to about 30 people. I could tell the rushers that were beyond tenth in line were getting antsy as to whether they would be getting a seat. People even began querying the front section of the line, asking who was purchasing tickets for the matinee or the evening show. It was then that I was content with my decision to get there early, because I knew I was getting a ticket and didn’t have to worry. It was a comforting thought, and made for a very easy rush. The payoff was even larger when I got my ticket, which was for a front row orchestra seat on the aisle of the center section. I thought it was a mistake at first! The idea of seeing Johansson and Schreiber perform that close was incredibly exciting. It turns out, the front row of the Cort is extremely close to the stage, which is also quite high. But luckily, the actors stand further upstage for most of the show, so they were visible. I didn’t need a giraffe neck like I thought, after all.

A View From The Bridge paints the portrait of a man, who once called all the shots, now losing control of the people around him. The man with the waning influence is Eddie Carbone, a surly longshoreman (Schreiber) at a turning point in his life. His niece Catherine (Johansson, in her Broadway debut), who he has raised since childhood, is now a young woman on the brink of independence. There is a disconnect between he and his wife Beatrice (Jessica Hecht), and she is often on his case. And the arrival of two illegal immigrant cousins of Beatrice’s from Italy throws a wrench in the dynamics of Eddie’s cramped Red Hook, Brooklyn apartment. When the youngest cousin, Rodolpho (Morgan Spector), falls in love with Catherine, it’s all Eddie can stand. His unraveling gives way to unjustified intolerance and an eerie obsession with his young niece.

Director Gregory Mosher’s pacing of the play is fantastic. Bridge feels like a pot of water on the stove, steadily heating to a boil. The stove’s heat is brilliantly facilitated by Schreiber’s incredible talent. His on-stage presence is magnetizing. Eddie becomes a monster, but what is important here is that Schreiber succeeds in beginning Eddie’s story as a sincere, kind-hearted man of few words. This way, we are able to see the story as a tragedy. He is overprotective, but he cares deeply for Catherine, and the first few scenes of the play really demonstrate this. Yet in each scene, Schreiber makes calculated decisions that steadily reveal the power-hungry beast that lies within. It’s a rich character, one that deals with struggle for control, blind intolerance (which hints at homophobia, regarding the character of Rodolpho), and the battle to maintain one’s loyalty. It’s heavy and delicious, and Schreiber is so up to the task. Every moment he is on stage, there are subtle layers and subtext he is injecting into his performance.

Although I am constantly underwhelmed by the film roles she chooses, Johansson was fantastic as Catherine. Even though it is a key role, there are large portions of the play where all Catherine has to do is run from room to room excitedly. But in her spotlight scenes, Johansson comes alive with a light I have never before seen from her. Her voice and delivery are scratchy and filled with the working-class mentality of Catherine’s nature. If I closed my eyes, I would have never guessed it was Johansson speaking. Because her character doesn’t get the shaft in this play, Johansson is able to reveal true depth as Catherine. Although she is not perpetuating the foreboding events that stack up during the play, she is not completely innocent either. In scenes where she is told she needs to act like more of a woman in front of her uncle and distance him, and in one where she questions this advice completely, she shows both inner conflict and the fire of her convictions. It’s an attractive aggressiveness from Johansson, which I hope to see more of in her film work.

Even though Schreiber takes top-dog acting honors in Bridge, Hecht delivers a deeply moving performance as his strong and appealing wife. The entire cast’s dialect is top notch in this production, and Hecht and dialect coach Stephen Gabis have created a Beatrice who conveys painfully earnest pleading mixed with a simple woman’s sensibility. Hecht’s Beatrice is the wisest person in the show and her performance is nothing short of endearing. She is a simple woman from an extremely humble background, so when she speaks, she does so with no false allusions of where she’s been in her life, and yet Beatrice holds all the solutions of the play. Of course, no one takes her advice, and that is what makes her character all the more moving.

The look of the play is sharp, perhaps even literally. The Brooklyn alley that the Carbones live on is presented as at a dramatic angle, rather than straight on from one end of the stage to the other. The same is done for the Carbone apartment. John Lee Beatty’s design never fails to be visually appealing, and the rusty, red color scheme adds a sense of eeriness and danger to Miller’s Brooklyn. Jane Greenwood’s 1950s costumes are flattering to all the actors, yet all exist on a muted path, as all these characters are from modest financial standings. It is Tom Watson’s hair and wig designs that are a misfire. In all cases, I could easily see the line on the actors’ foreheads where their wig caps ended and their real skin began. Johansson’s hair never passed for authentic and Spector sports an embarrassing blond dye job.

The play is gripping the whole way through, although I was expecting an ending that had more of a surprise. True, it is a climactic and emotional conclusion, but I anticipated a more jaw-dropping twist. I also could have done without the narration of the lawyer Alfieri (Michael Cristofer), which felt like unnecessary audience handholding. Ultimately, the performances are stellar and propel this engaging story at an exciting pace. Most refreshing is that this is a production with Hollywood star power where the big names actually sweat, rather than just sit in chairs and deliver monologues. There is real elbow grease being displayed here, and I for one respect the likes of Johansson a lot more for it.

Play: A- / Rush: A

Photo: Joan Marcus

Understudy Hall: ‘Phantom’’s Jeremy Stolle drives his BMW all over the Majestic

2010-02-23T01:49:00.002-05:00

We’ve all done it. We’ve taken our seats in a Broadway theater, opened our Playbills in anticipation of the rising curtain, and groaned when that little slip of paper has fallen out and floated to our feet. The disappointment sets in: one of the lead actors is being understudied. It’s a common occurrence, yet rarely are the stories of these underdogs of Broadway told. We’ve all seen incredible understudies, as well as mediocre ones. But the truth is that without them, the show couldn’t go on. And don’t kid yourself for a second—they know exactly what the audience is thinking of them. Understudy Hall is a series spotlighting some of Broadway’s greatest pinch hitters. Now let’s kick off the series with an actor who is always on call to play one of the most coveted roles in Broadway history.

Jeremy Stolle has gone months at a time without playing the Phantom or Raoul, the two leads he has understudied in The Phantom of the Opera since he joined the company in October 2007. Most nights, he plays the operatic Passarino in the musical’s haunted Opera Populaire. But during the week of February 15, while the regular Phantom, John Cudia, was on vacation, the 33-year-old California native went on as the tortured genius during the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening performances. Given that the 22-year-old Broadway mainstay sold over 90 percent of its tickets that week, the excitement of the packed, cheering house should sustain Stolle for the next few months, in case it’s that long till he next dons the mask.

You’re making your Broadway debut understudying the Phantom and Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera. How does that make you feel?

That feels amazing. I started acting at 15. I wasn’t into musicals whatsoever, and everybody has their one show that they find and they really like, and Phantom was mine. At 15, I really wanted to play the Phantom of the Opera. Ninety-five years later, I’m here as the Phantom of the Opera. I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t even speak for a good half hour when I got the hiring call. Every day I come to work loving to be here. When it comes to playing the Phantom, I walk down the street with just a little bit of pride about that.

What does it feel like when you’re in your moment as the Phantom, whether it’s in your favorite scene or taking your final bow?

It feels amazing for me, because I’ve worked really hard at this part. It’s not an easy part. People have ideas about the role, like, “Oh, you’re only on stage for 30 minutes.” It is 30 minutes of full-out sprints. It’s one of the hardest things ever.

Give me a brief history of your background.

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area. I taught high school for two years; I was a substitute. I taught math, English, and choir. Then I decided that with two bags and a plane ticket, I’d move to New York.

What is the longest period you’ve gone without performing the role of the Phantom or Raoul?

I’ve never counted, but months at a time. It really depends on the leads. Our leads aren’t flakey at all. We go on occasionally, on their vacations and their sick days. I do get to go on as the Phantom every so often, but I also rehearse the role at the theater during the day a lot. So I’ll have run Phantom six times within a three-month period during rehearsals and then I’ll have done it once at an actual performance. That is to make sure it’s fresh.

***VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP: Jeremy Stolle unlocks the mystery of the Phantom's never-seen full mask***

What’s the shortest notice you’ve been given before performing?

For the Phantom, the shortest notice happened just last month. I came up to my dressing room to change for Act II and I hear on the intercom, “Jeremy, can you please call the office?” I call and they tell me, “We need you to do Act II.” I literally took my clothes off and ran to the other side of the stage.

What goes through your head when you hear that? I’d crap my pants.

No, I go, “WOO-HOO!” I’m fully prepared to do it.

How did they get the makeup on you so quickly?

When you’re the Phantom, you don’t do anything. You don’t even tie your shoes. Two girls do it. They’ve got a blow drier and the glue, and the stage manager’s standing there asking, “Are you guys ready? Are you guys ready?” Once Act II starts, they’ve got about a 15-minute window between the orchestra and “Masquerade” before I actually need to be out there. So we just kind of chance it. It was quick, but they’ve been doing it for a long time.

People are usually disappointed when understudy cards fall out of a Playbill. How do you feel about that?

I would feel the same way as a kid. I’d go to see Phantom and think, “He better be on.” I kind of have to ignore it. You have to laugh and say, “This is my job.” If they see the picture of the actor playing the Phantom outside, then that’s what they expect, and then they see my name and I’m already two steps in the mud. But I know when I do the show that it’s going to be done to the best of my ability; it’s going to be done well. If they don’t like it, then I can’t help that. But you’re going to see what you’re supposed to. I’m going to tell a story and I’m going to kick ass. I’m thinking of the point in my last story, how I went on in Act II. While I’m sitting in the chair getting my makeup done, over the intercom in the theater they announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, due to illness, Act II’s Phantom will be played by Jeremy Stolle.” Sixteen hundred people went, “AUUGGGHH!” You can’t take it serious. We were back stage going, “HAHAHAHAHA!” I try not to think about it. I hope that I can do well enough to shine through the understudy class, so that the audience doesn’t weigh, “John Cudia… Jeremy Stolle.” I hope I can shine through that and they will enjoy the show.

What does your family think of your understudy status?

My parents didn’t get the understudy deal until I told them how it actually works. Everybody thinks there’s this one guy that is the next in line, but it’s not true; there’s several people. It depends on the process, the work, who needs it, who does what—there’s a whole strategy to it. I have to explain the world I live in of not being this guy. They want to know what the potential is to move up. I have to explain that there are people who have done it in the past, but it doesn’t mean that I’m the next in line to get the job, because I’m the understudy. But they think it’s great. They think it’s so exciting every time I get to go on. They start telling their friends, “He’s going to be on this day!” For me, it’s like, OK, I get to do something else today. For them, it’s like, “He gets to be the Phantom today!”

Do you have nights where you’re not scheduled to go on, but you’re feeling really good, and you think “I am so in the mood to KILL IT as the Phantom tonight!”?

Yeah, some days I come in and I’m like, “Man, I’m in good voice! I would kick butt today!” Absolutely.

“John, just take a sick day!”

Yeah, I get paid more every time he does. I tease him a lot. I say, “Hey man, you sick? What’s going on?”

Do you find you have a special connection with the person you understudy, John Cudia?

We’re thick as thieves. John was an understudy at one time. He’s been in this company a long time. He obviously knows he has a lot of my respect. I think he’s amazing. He always checks in with me, asks me how it’s going, if I need tips or ideas, or encouragement. When he’s out, he’ll say, “Kick butt!” His wife will, as well. He couldn’t be a greater guy.

What’s it like to know three vocally challenging roles, particularly one that is considered to be one of the most challenging male roles, vocally and emotionally, on Broadway?

It is a lot, and it took a long time to learn. I learned one role at a time. I learned Passarino first for a month, then we moved on to Raoul, and then we did that for two months, and then we picked up the Phantom, and they told me I wouldn’t go on until I was ready. It was a lot of work. I’d have to run the show in my head and aloud in the room before we went on in that particular track. There’s a lot of motives in this show—lyrics that overlap with different characters in the same music—and that can kick your butt.

Since you’ve inhabited both these characters, how is it different playing the Phantom and Raoul?

(Hearty laugh) Playing the Phantom is like getting into your BMW and when you’re playing Raoul, it’s like borrowing the Toyota. They’re both exciting, but the Phantom is just such a pinnacle role. You’re the Phantom, you’re the mask, you’re the third most recognized icon in the world. Raoul, it’s fun. He just doesn’t have the journey. He’s got, “Hey, I’m rich. Hey, there’s a girl. We got together. We’ll get rid of the other guy. We’re done.” The Phantom—the emotion is just pouring out when you sing. You know when you sing in the shower and you sing as loud as you can and you’re just kicking butt and you’re pouring it all out and you’re a little exhausted afterward because nobody’s around? That’s what you get to do in this role. You just get to go to the limit, sing in the red zone, and do it the whole time. And it’s so fun. You’re doing something that not many people can do. They think they can, but you know they can’t.

Today’s understudies are tomorrow’s Broadway stars. What are your thoughts and hopes regarding that notion?

I think being an understudy is a great part of the journey. I certainly hope that in some form, in some show, I’ll get my crack at having it for myself. I’ll certainly have a place in my heart for the understudies. If I get there. There are no promises for anybody in this world. I’m hoping this is a step.

Stage Rush TV: Episode 1

2010-02-19T01:14:00.000-05:00

After a year, I finally come from behind the curtain, much like Oz, and get in front of the video camera (eek!). I present to you the first episode of Stage Rush TV! Every week, I’ll cover any shows or events I’ve been to, weigh in on the week’s Broadway news, and discuss any theater-related topics whirling around in my brain.

Please excuse the first-time-in-front-of-the-camera nerves. I promise people, I will get better. I’ll also make these videos shorter; we wouldn’t want The Lion King to close before the video ends.

Talking points:

How I fell hard for Broadway
Attending the All About Me press conference
Seeing Phantom of the Opera and my upcoming Q&A with Phantom understudy Jeremy Stolle
The media goes spoiler-crazy with Next Fall
Jersey Boys sells a shockingly-low number of tickets (for them)

Please leave your thoughts, retorts, agreements, and disagreements in the comments section—all are welcome! This way, we can actually turn this into a discussion, rather than just my big head floating on the screen jabbering. In addition, please email me, tweet me, or leave a comment letting me know if there are any topics you’d like me to address in the next episode.

Knee-jerk reaction: ‘Hair’ cast 2.0 announcement

2010-02-16T16:45:00.002-05:00

The second Broadway revival cast of Hair was announced today, and the news has fans rolling in the mud—some in joy and others in frustration. The new lead actors announced include Kyle Riabko, Ace Young, and Diana DeGarmo; the latter two have appeared as finalists on American Idol.

The casting of Young and DeGarmo was known as of February 7, when BroadwayGirlNYC announced the casting scoop. Since, fans have filled message boards and Twitter with concerns on stunt casting and whether it is good for a show’s sales or if it just cheapens its artistic value.

Riabko will take over for Gavin Creel as Claude, Young for Will Swenson as Berger, and DeGarmo for Caissie Levy as Sheila. The rest of the casting can be seen at Broadway.com.

Today’s cast announcement has seen reactions on Twitter, ranging from the disappointed…

@jeffreychrist says if Diana DeGarmo & Ace Young join the cast of his beloved HAIR, it will not only have JUMPED the shark, but EATEN by the shark...

@PataphysicalSci I'm disappointment with much of the new Hair cast, but on the bright side, it's a pretty good way to cure my Hair addiction.

…to the elated…

@CrysDenn So unbelievably excited about the new cast of Hair..I'm gonna have to see it again and i have to sit front row to get played with again! :)

@BroadwayJack The new @HAIRTribe is awesome! Especially excited about @joshlamon as Margaret Mead and Annaleigh Ashford as Jeanie... :)

Do I think the branding of American Idol with Young and DeGarmo will cause Hair’s ticket sales to surge? No. But stunt casting? DeGarmo has appeared in Hairspray on Broadway and The Toxic Avenger off. She has a substantial amount of professional musical theater experience now, and let’s not forget; she did come in second place during Idol’s third season. I hope that counts for something.

Young has appeared in the recent Broadway revival of Grease, and although I haven’t seen him perform, I’ve heard he’s pretty charismatic.

The casting of Riabko, however, gives me pause. The Canadian singer replaced Jonathan Groff as Melchior in Spring Awakening upon his departure, and then continued on in the role during the show’s national tour. Coming off of any original cast which you’ve loved is going to be a tainted experience. But I found Riabko to be quite wooden in the role of Melchior. A second viewing months later during the national tour didn’t reveal any progress. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles the free-loving role of Claude (which was also played by Groff when the show was in its Central Park run. Do we see a trend?).

What do you think, rushers? Are you excited about the second generation of Hair tribe members, or are you resisting sleep, hoping that the original cast’s departure date on March 7 may never come? Leave it in the comments!

The Odd Couple: Dame Edna and Michael Feinstein unite in theatrical harmony

2010-02-16T08:52:00.012-05:00

When Dame Edna Everage and Michael Feinstein walked into the journalist-filled private room of the Red Eye Grill for their press conference last night, there was a gasp from the crowd. I’m positive it was due to the hulking presence of Ms. Everage, who appears easily over six-feet tall, and the stark contrast to her companion, the rather diminutive Mr. Feinstein. These two entertainers, varying in many ways than merely the physical, were there to promote their Broadway show, All About Me, which begins previews this Sunday.

“I’m not at all sure what I’m here for,” Everage said in her innocent, elderly coo. “People say to me, ‘Edna, what kind of show are you going to do?’ and I say, ‘I never divulge and I never think about what I’m going to do until the minute before I step onto the stage.’”

“I can vouch for that,” Feinstein deadpanned.

This mismatched pair—Feinstein, the pianist/cabaret owner/music archivist, and Dame Edna, the cross-dressing alter ego of comedian Barry Humphries—will open a musical-comedy review on March 18, complete with dance numbers and duets at the Henry Miller’s Theatre. It was publicized that the performers had intended on unveiling separate, solo shows this same Broadway season, but decided to join forces due to lack of theater availability.

***VIDEO AFTER JUMP: Dame Edna heckles an innocent waitress who gets too close***

“The story is really about how we are forced to come together, because we were planning to do separate shows, and the Shubert Organization told us it was necessary to combine forces and do a single show together,” Feinstein said. “This show is really a recounting of part of that process and gives us a chance to re-experience some of the emotions we had during that rather volatile time.”

“It’s a journey. It’s also a meditation on loss,” Everage said. “It’s a story of reconciliation of a tall, attractive Australian woman… and a… an American person.” Everage takes another comical swipe at Feinstein (“It’s like a conversation between two people—one of whom is much more interesting than the other”) before admitting that the pair laughs all the way through their rehearsals.

I saw Dame Edna in her last Broadway stint in December 2005, during the run of Dame Edna: Back With A Vengeance. She was incredibly engaging then, but ever since All About Me’s announcement, I have been skeptical as to whether her shtick would remain fresh. If it’s any indication, Dame Edna had the entire room of journalists in stitches during the press conference, her almost-animatronic eyes darting back and forth as she slingshot each well-timed quip into the air.

All About Me will be a genre standout this spring, against a Broadway slate of revivals and high-concept new musicals. Dame Edna didn’t seem to have a high opinion of the competition facing Feinstein and herself. “We feel that America needs this kind of entertainment. Will you look what’s coming up? Frankly opossums, I don’t want to say anything negative about other shows, because I’m sure that those rumors about The Addams Family are unfounded. Or the umpteenth revival of La Cage.” Everage further mused about one of the creators of the upcoming Frank Sinatra jukebox musical, Come Fly Away. “I’d love to meet Twyla Tharp,” Everage said, putting particular emphasis on the choreographer’s name. “Do you think it means something backwards, if you rearrange the letters?”

Regardless of the big-budget competition, Dame Edna feels confident All About Me will rise to the top. “Michael and I feel very strongly that the United States of America has taken me to their heart. They’ve thrown Tonys at me, and you of course, too,” Everage said, addressing Feinstein, to which he replied, “But they’ve missed me.”

Hey Finian, shut up and sing!

2010-02-03T18:25:00.002-05:00

When I make a playlist, I mix in songs from Broadway musicals right in there with my circa-1995 soft rock. To me, they’re no different, and just as motivating while cleaning the apartment or working out. So when I’m in the groove, there’s nothing more irritating than when dialogue interrupts the music.

The cast recording of Finian’s Rainbow is going to annoy me to no end. The album for the excellent, gone-way-too-soon show was released yesterday, and today I downloaded three songs from it (I loved the show as a whole, but didn’t want the entire album). “How Are Things In Glocca Morra,” “Look To The Rainbow,” and Old Devil Moon” all have introductory dialogue leading into the music. I’m sure the majority of the tracks have incorporated dialogue—perhaps someone can let me know if I’m right or wrong in the comments section below.

Why did the producers at PS Classics (the label that released the album) do this?? Dialogue in cast recordings toss a distracting wrench in the continuity of the album’s flow. And in Finian’s case, there’s more than just continuity problems.

The acting sounds terrible. I thought Kate Baldwin and Cheyenne Jackson were terrific when I saw the show, but this dialogue out of context is embarrassing.

From “How Are Things In Glocca Morra”:

Finian: “Do you hear that skylark, Sharon?
(pause)
Sharon: “Aye.”
Finian: “It’s the same skylark music we have back in Ireland.
(pause)
Sharon: “Aye. A Glocca Morra skylark.”
(song begins)

Did we really need that information? I’m pretty sure that Sharon, who has just traveled from Ireland with her father, knows what their silly skylark music from back home sounds like. And Baldwin specifies that it sounds like a “Glocca Morra” skylark, as if reminding her senile father the name of their hometown.

But ok, that example aside, maybe the dialogue intro to “Look To The Rainbow” provides us with some much-needed backstory for the song.

From “Look To The Rainbow”:

Sharon: “In Glocca Morra, where we come from, there is an old legend. You’ll never grow old and you’ll never grow poor if you look to the rainbow beyond the next moor.”
Woody: “That’s a lovely legend. I wonder who thought it up.”
Sharon: “My father.”

See, that might be helpful, if the first lyrics of the song weren’t “On the day I was born, said my father said he… Look, look, look to the rainbow.”

This obnoxious flaw in the Finian’s cast recording reminds me of the same issue with another album. Although it doesn’t do it nearly as bad, the cast recording for Spring Awakening has unnecessary dialogue. Inexplicably, during only one track on the album, the producers felt it necessary to insert dialogue. On “Don’t Do Sadness / Blue Wind,” Moritz and Ilse chop up their amazing rock number with their awkward conversation. During the show, the dialogue was an excellent highlight. But everyone I’ve talked with about that track wishes it was purely the music, because on the album, it’s such a great rock song.

The best cast recording I own, in terms of producing, is Passing Strange. Recorded live at the Belasco Theatre, Stew and the cast captured an incredible audio imprint of what it was like to sit there and watch that amazing show. I don’t know why all cast albums aren’t recorded the same way.

Don’t get me wrong, Baldwin and Jackson sound unbelievable on Finian’s tracks. But I’m tempted to do a chop job with my free audio editing software.

Editor's note: Happy first birthday, Stage Rush!! And an enormous thank you to everyone who reads. Stage Rush would be nothing without you.

Time Stands Still

2010-01-29T10:13:00.000-05:00

The number one lesson I have learned so far this Broadway season is the benefit of seeing a show while it’s still in previews. Time Stands Still, which boasts four above-the-title names, should be a big draw for student rushers. While the drama is selling well right off the bat (it sold 94 percent of its tickets in the week ending January 24), the rush crowd was nonexistent on the Sunday that I attended.

I arrived at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre at 11:55 a.m. Yes, this is the dreaded Sunday rush (box offices open at noon, forcing rush crowds for popular shows to wait out in the cold an extra two hours). I, however, didn’t stay out in the cold. Although it was a gamble, I used my judgment and assumed that this show would not yet be pulling a large rush crowd, while still in previews. I haven’t seen a lot of advertising yet for the show, and some people I’ve talked with didn’t know it was showing yet. There was no one waiting at the box office and the doors were already open when I arrived. I walked up to the box office attendant and purchased my tickets with ease. It ranks among the easiest rushes I’ve ever done. Time Stands Still has a student rush policy for $26.50 a piece, up to two tickets per ID. Tickets go on sale when the box office opens.

Although there are four stars inhabiting the four roles in this show, I was most excited to see it because it was written by Donald Margulies. For years, I’ve been a huge fan of the HBO movie Dinner With Friends, which is based on his play and for which he also wrote the screenplay (the play won the Pulitzer for Drama in 2000). Margulies is excellent at writing dialogue for couples, particularly for scenes in which they evaluate the fundamentals of their relationship. What Margulies does for Andy MacDowell and Dennis Quaid in Dinner, he does nearly as well for Laura Linney and Brian d’Arcy James in Time.

Playing two journalists who have been reporting for years in war-torn countries, Sarah and James (played by Linney and James) return to the Williamsburg, Brooklyn apartment they share after Sarah’s release from the hospital. She has spent weeks in a coma, after sustaining injuries in a car bomb explosion while on assignment. They have returned home to resume their lives, but Sarah’s face and arms are marred with shrapnel scars from the explosion. The physical markings are only half the reminders that are holding Sarah back from truly returning home.

Rush seats for Time Stands Still are in the last row of the mezzanine. Until Sarah’s scars were mentioned, I had no idea that she had been disfigured in the explosion. Linney’s makeup is not discernable from the back row, so rushers, while this is a great price and a breezy experience, the seats are among the worst in the house.

Sarah, a photojournalist, explains early on that when she’s looking through her camera, about to snap a picture, she feels as if “time stands still.” Her job and the horrors she has seen while doing it has also had the same effect on her life. Her mind is frozen in the violent environments where she works, making it impossible for her to move forward with her life. Her growth has come to a standstill. Her long-term boyfriend, James, hasn’t been halted by the visions of their work. He is ready to move on with his life, starting a family with Sarah. They aren’t on the same page.

Arriving as a taunting embodiment of what James longs for, Sarah’s and his friend and editor, Richard, comes for a visit with his pregnant girlfriend Mandy (a grossly underused Eric Bogosian and Alicia Silverstone). Their arrival forces Sarah and James to examine the possibility of what their futures together hold.

Time Stands Still is really a mirrored reflection of Dinner With Friends. In Dinner, the failure of the secondary couple’s relationship (Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear) exists as a turning point for the primary couple’s future—a make-or-break moment. In Time, it’s the success of Richard and Mandy’s relationship that acts as a crossroad for Sarah and James. There’s a formula here for Margulies, but it doesn’t have the tremendous results that it did for Dinner With Friends.

In Dinner, Collette and Kinnear’s characters are the catalysts for the choices that the primary couple must make, but they also thrive as complicated, three-dimensional players. In Time, Richard and Mandy are completely disposable. They do so little that they could have served the same purpose as off-stage presences. It’s a crime to enlist the amazing talent of Bogosian (a hurricane in the play and film Talk Radio, which he also wrote) and the charming Silverstone to serve as added scenery. I hope these two have hobbies, because they aren’t going to be spread too thin during the play’s limited run through March 21.

Sarah and James, however, have great depth, and listening to their different views on life that create this fault line in their relationship is engaging. James concedes that the world is cruel, but that it’s not a reason for Sarah and himself to deny themselves happiness, and I want Sarah to see his way. But Sarah’s position that typical conventions seem trivial when compared to the poverty and terror they’ve seen is frustratingly understandable as well. Linney illustrates how weighted Sarah's conscious is. This is not a woman that falls asleep easily. Despite a desire to see these two prevail, Linney at times plays Sarah as a mega-bitch, and it’s difficult to see what James sees in this hard woman.

The most striking element of Time Stands Still is the idea of people who have seen war (in addition to soldiers, which is a more commonly-examined theme) who are unable to resume normal life. James tells Sarah that she shuns happiness out of guilt for the sorrow that they know still exists, unchanged in volatile countries. Sarah’s life is stunted, because she has been injured by the truth—truth that she knows America’s primetime television audiences aren’t aware of.

Time Stands Still has a great central idea, yet with half of its four-person cast being undeveloped, the play can only go so far. Plot points and dialogue were predictable throughout the duration, even down to the blocking of the play’s final moments. While still a thought-provoking and well-acted production (courtesy of Linney and James), Time Stands Still left me wanting to sit down for Dinner With Friends.

Play: B / Rush: B

Photo: Joan Marcus

My First Time

2010-01-21T14:55:00.001-05:00

Social media has so quickly become a permanent aspect of our lives that we have already begun to see it seep into the arts. David Fincher is set to release his film, The Social Network, about the founding of Facebook in October. But years before Facebook even came across our computer screens, a website called My First Time was amassing mountains of submissions from Web surfers about their memories of losing their virginity. Those submissions have been turned into a delightful off-Broadway play of four actors, a projection screen, and a bunch of hilarious and touching monologues.

Seeing My First Time at New World Stages isn’t just seeing a play—it’s an experience. Go with a friend (not a parent), and if you have a good experience, the play should have you discussing the night’s subject matter long after you leave the theater. You and your buddy will walk in and find a survey (and a My First Time pen!) on your seats. Take a deep breath—they’re anonymous. The survey asks you to share how old you were when you lost your virginity, what your partner’s name was, where you did it, if you still keep in touch, if you felt pressured, how good the experience was, if you used contraception, and what you would say to your partner if they were with you today. Ushers collect the cards and they become part of the show (calm down! I already said they were anonymous).

While the audience waits for the performance to start, a projection screen flashes statistics, both domestic and worldwide, about people’s first sexual experience: average ages, percentages of people that felt pressured into it, as well as quotes from famous authors about sex. Minutes before the show begins, the statistics projected are ones tabulated from the audience’s surveys—a funny and effective way of getting the audience involved. Throughout the show, the actors pull out the survey cards and read from them—a segment which provided uproarious laughter when I saw the show.

At my performance, Dana Watkins, Cydnee Welburn, Ian White, and Vi Flaten were the four actors perched on stools to deliver the monologues. The play, which features only stories from real people that have been submitted to the My First Time website, was adapted by Ken Davenport, and his formula of long monologues, quick quips, and even mere single words flows at a great pace. The play is peppered with episodes of longer monologues, but never becomes monotonous with five-minute story after five-minute story, because the four actors are racing through comments and observations on their many characters’ first sexual experiences. At times, the play can be a whirlwind. While always delightful, I found difficulty focusing on all the great stories, because they were being trampled by the stampede of subsequent anecdotes.

This is a play about sex, and yes it’s funny; but it shouldn’t be mistaken as crass or immature. A pleasant aspect of this show is how touching a lot of the stories are. Some are heartwarming (a wheelchair-bound high schooler who teaches a young girl he’s no different than any other guy), some are tragic (a boy dreams of his first time with his crush, which never comes to fruition, because she is raped), and some highlight the cruel misunderstandings of sex (a girl receives misguided advice on contraception from a friend). The four actors handle themselves well with the rapid-fire stories, and while the two guys (Watkins and White) do a fine job, it’s the ladies (Welburn and Flaten) who really charm and show a little more spunk.

My First Time closes tomorrow, and if you can make it, it is money well spent. I was invited to see the show and did not rush it, but there is a student rush policy. Tickets are $25, one ticket per ID, and on sale when the box office opens.

Play: B

Finian's Rainbow

2010-01-14T13:16:00.000-05:00

When I received the Twitter update on my phone that Finian’s Rainbow received its closing notice for January 17, I let out a tremendous, “Nooooooo!” I was at a loud bar in Morningside Heights at the time, so luckily, my exclamation went unnoticed. I rushed Finian’s Rainbow in November and knew that my review of the show would be heavily influenced by the fact that it was closing. I’ve been avoiding writing this ever since. But since Finian’s is three days away from its final performance, this is my last chance to support the show. So I give you…

5 Reasons To Rush Finian’s Rainbow This Weekend

The rush is $27 and box seats might be available. The situation might be different this weekend, as rushers might be getting in their last chance to see Finian’s before it closes, but when I rushed, I was at the St. James Theatre at 8:55 a.m. and was the first and only person on line until a half hour before the box office opened. It’s a student rush, with up to two tickets per ID. At my performance, I got box seats, which gave me a great view of the beautiful St. James Theatre and great, close-up views of the actors. Unfortunately, the box seats are an extreme side view, so I don’t feel I saw enough of John Lee Beatty’s set design to properly review it. Many characters’ entrances were blocked, as well.

Christopher Fitzgerald’s pants. Playing the loveable leprechaun Og who has traveled to Missitucky, USA from Ireland in search of his stolen pot o’ gold, Fitzgerald cements himself as one of Broadway’s greatest current character actors. Having played quirky and riotous characters in Wicked and Young Frankenstein before this, his performance in Finian’s is delightful. A mute performance by Fitzgerald would be equally as entertaining, because the man’s eyes and mouth work to create such animated facial expressions, he can convey almost anything and make it just as enjoyable. While he’s staying in Missitucky, away from his magical homeland, the leprechaun finds that he is growing. Costume designer Toni-Leslie James puts Fitzgerald in different sets of pants throughout the show, each new pair shorter than the last. This simple, not-fooling-anybody gimmick becomes so hysterical, and Fitzgerald wears the joke perfectly.

Kate Baldwin: The Breakout / Cheyenne Jackson: Broadway’s new A List. As Finian’s lead lovers, Kate Baldwin and Cheyenne Jackson show true star power on the stage. As Sharon, Baldwin makes her first Broadway leading role monstrously impressive. Given gorgeous numbers like “How Are Things In Glocca Morra” and “Look To The Rainbow,” Baldwin shines with unmatched grace. Her voice is clear and rolls through the ballads with pleasant vocal nuances and a soft hint of Irish accent. For someone who has understudied for Broadway leads for years, this is a well-deserved and elegant debut. Her handsome counterpart, Woody, is played by Jackson, who has quickly become a part of Broadway’s A list. I was surprised to find the role of Woody didn’t allow Jackson to showcase much at all, which is disappointing for someone of his talent. But he took a fitting role in a great show, and that says something to his artistic taste. With guest spots on 30 Rock and his increasing desirability on the stage, getting to see Jackson live in anything is an opportunity to be taken.

A racist, white senator turns black. Yep, you read that right. How could anyone not be interested in this kooky show about a mythical town of Missitucky sharecroppers who are in the midst of being thrown off their land by a windbag senator? So that he may see the error in his backward thinking, Senator Rawkins (initially played by David Schramm) is magically transformed into a black man (played by a booming, strong Chuck Cooper). It’s weird, but it gets a lot of laughs, and anyone can admit—it’s unlike anything they’ve seen on Broadway before.

Actress Terri White used to be homeless. It’s hard to imagine that a supporting lead actress in a Broadway show could have been homeless only a year ago, but such is the case for Terri White, who plays Dotti. After years of professional acting, she was unable to find work and fell upon dire economic times, lost her apartment, and began sleeping in Washington Square Park. But magic has sometimes been known to happen in New York City, so she landed this role in Finian’s and was featured in People magazine. During the curtain call, you can tell that White is grateful to be where she is, and it's touching. Baldwin isn’t the only one for whom this show has been a big break, which makes it even more disappointing that it is closing so soon.

While the story is definitely light and at times verges on bizarre, Finian’s Rainbow has gorgeous musical numbers and a cast that can charm the pants right off anyone (or shorten them, in Fitzgerald’s case). Most importantly, it’s an amazing display of some of Broadway’s hottest new talent on the same stage, and that is reason enough to catch this before it’s gone.

Play: B / Rush: B

Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play

2010-01-06T16:04:00.004-05:00

When a play needs to have a parenthetical statement added to its title, that's a red flag. Particularly when the addition is "or the vibrator play." It's a sign that the creative team does not have full faith in their work's potential to bring in crowds on merit alone. It’s the ‘when in doubt, ‘give 'em shock value’ philosophy.

The problem with adding this subtitle to In the Next Room is that it doesn't fit the tone of the piece. This jocular addition would better fit the style of a show like Avenue Q or [title of show]. This play by Sarah Ruhl has some jokes, yes; good ones, at that. But at its heart, it is a drama about a historical turning point in the sexual education of adults.

Michael Cerveris plays Dr. Givings, a physician who treats women (and sometimes men) with "hysteria" and anxiety with his “paroxysm” tool, which will in the future be referred to as a vibrator. His wife, played by Laura Benanti, is inquisitive about her husband’s medical treatments, which go on in the room adjacent to the couple's living room (hence In the Next Room). But her husband is annoyingly rigid about what he divulges about his practices and thus shelters Mrs. Givings.

Benanti and Maria Dizzia portray the characters that interestingly demonstrate how women were regarded at the time, in terms of their concerns and problems. Dizzia plays Mrs. Daldry, Dr. Givings’ new patient. She is sensitive to sunlight, bursts into fits of tears, and is exceedingly anxious. Her unhelpful husband (Thomas Jay Ryan) drops her off at the doctor’s practice, and does just that. He leaves after pointing out to Dr. Givings just how much an inconvenience his wife’s troubles have been to him, never minding how she feels.

In the Next Room shows a time and setting where married couples didn’t derive pleasure from sex. When Mrs. Givings’ child’s wet nurse suggests to her and Mrs. Daldry that the feelings of physical pleasure they described after their paroxysm treatments are feelings she herself has gotten from her husband, the two women glance at each other and laugh in bewilderment. Pleasure from having sex with my husband? Get out of here!

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play isn’t necessarily about the first clinical use of the vibrator. Ruhl uses the subject to highlight what was going on in American marriages at the time. And although it is an interesting and roundabout way to hit at the topic, what Ruhl reveals about the invention of the vibrator itself is quite interesting. The setting of the play is at the dawn of the electric age. These people were discovering all sorts of ways the new convenience could impact their lives.

While everyone in the play is feeling the first impacts of electricity on everyday life, no one is more wrapped up in it than Dr. Givings. His head has been so focused on the science of electricity, and the benefit it can have on a person, that he neglects to take emotional care of his wife, and she is hurting from it. This role is a curious one for Cerveris, who pulled off a genius performance as Sweeney Todd in the 2005 revival. While Dr. Givings and his new tool are crucial to the play, he doesn’t do all that much on stage—Mrs. Givings and Mrs. Daldry forward most of the action. Cerveris is fine in the role, but I don’t know that it was the right role for him. While he doesn’t make any missteps, it doesn’t allow him to showcase either.

Benanti is delightful as Mrs. Givings. Her cheery and inquisitive demeanor gets a lot of laughs, but her tender moments are true as well. Dizzia locks down the best role, as the treatment-hungry Mrs. Daldry. She nails the awkwardness of having to be (medically) pleasured on stage, and pulls us into the belief of her experiencing these exotic sensations for the first time. She perfectly switches between socially proper and composed to schoolgirl frenzied the next moment.

The look of the play is splendid, with a gorgeous Givings household by Annie Smart and lavish costumes by David Zinn. I haven’t seen a period play in a long time—at least one that actually used a detailed period setting—and it was refreshing.

In the Next Room says a lot, but doesn’t deliver too much in terms of a walloping story. It’s one of those tricky plays where I walked away thinking, “That was really interesting,” but didn’t feel anything very deep. I guess that was the problem of the characters in the play too. Maybe I could use a… oh, never mind.

Editor’s note: I was invited to see In the Next Room, or the vibrator play and did not rush it. There is a student rush policy for the show. Tickets are $21.50 each and go on sale two hours prior to the performance. Only one ticket per ID.

Play: C+

ASTEP's New York City Christmas at Joe's Pub

2009-12-15T11:43:00.007-05:00

Wherever Raul Esparza goes, I go.

That’s why I was at Joe’s Pub last night for New York City Christmas, a holiday concert featuring some big Broadway stars and benefiting Artists Striving To End Poverty. It was the second incarnation of the concert, which was held for the first time last year at the Zipper Factory (why is that place closed??). Due to the success of last year’s concert, ASTEP produced a recording of the songs performed on Sh-K-Boom Records (actress Sherie Rene Scott is a co-founder), and they decided to do it again this year.

It was a well-paced, dimple-ridden evening, with enough belts and laughter to last the entire year. Big names like Chester Gregory, Sierra Boggess, Sherie Rene Scott, and Orfeh filled the room with fantastic renditions of classic Christmas tunes. Lesser-known names like Lindsay Mendez and Tyler Maynard (both who appeared last year) held their own among the marquee fixtures, and looked ebullient. Mendez, who I want to see more of, two years in a row has made one of the most lasting impressions.

The evening was hosted by Harriet Harris (photo embedded, because I feel she’s one of those actors whose face everyone knows, but few people can attach a name to), who has the ability to induce hilarity with any word she says. Referring to cellist Summer Boggess (Sierra’s sister) who was part of the band, “Summer’s on the cello. I just had to find a way to work that in there and say that,” cooed Harris. But I also have to give huge credit to keyboardist Lynne Shankel, who unofficially co-hosted the event. She served as MC last year, and in addition to being wildly charming, she helped organize the concert (along with ASTEP founder Mary-Mitchel Campbell) and is astonishing with how wide her talents stretch. Where can I see more of her? Does it have to be once each December?

And now we come to Mr. Esparza. Last year, he debuted a mid-tempo, Spanish-guitar arrangement of “O Holy Night,” in which he sings the first verse in English and the second in Spanish. It is a searing performance, memorable in every way, and redefines the classic song. For me, he can do no wrong, and the way his performance makes my mom feel—“I want to claw the skin off my face!” You know, in a good way.

Below is the video of his performance from last year’s concert. I chose to enjoy this year’s without the confines of a lens. I hope you’ll understand.

All I can say is I hope this becomes a Christmas tradition, just as TBS’s A Christmas Story marathon and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

Screengrab of the Day: Love for Duncan Sheik and "Whisper House"

2009-12-10T14:20:00.004-05:00

This just makes me really happy.

That's all.

Fuerza Bruta

2009-12-04T19:08:00.000-05:00

Going to the theater should always be an “experience.” That’s pretty much the whole point. Bells and whistles aren’t needed to create that experience though. An amazing night of theater could involve two great actors, a riveting script, and no set at all—a bare bones production. That said, some people (admittedly myself) are too quick to write off big-budget or flashy productions. This thought was going through my mind as I attended the visual orgasm that is Fuerza Bruta at the Daryl Roth Theater last night.

The show is flashy. Flashy, glittery, loud, wet, upside down, and in your face (or down your throat, as I experienced with the confetti). Fuerza Bruta (meaning “brute force” in Spanish) is an optical spectacular in the vein of Cirque du Soleil that doesn’t really have a story (unless your imagination is on overdrive, which it should be) and surrounds the audience, forcing them to interact. If the thought of audience participation makes you clench, you have no choice at Fuerza Bruta. Yes, a few audience members do have advanced participation, in that they hop on platforms and groove with the actors, subsequently being smashed over the head with confetti-filled pizza boxes—not everyone has to do that. But in terms of audience participation, every theatergoer must participate in that the group has to be constantly moving, as the “stage” (there really isn’t one) keeps changing shape and direction. Massive (and I mean massive) treadmills, platforms, aluminum foils sheets, and ladders are wheeled out into the performance space. If you choose not to “participate,” then you might find yourself road kill.

Keeping that in mind, it struck me how inappropriate this show could be for someone elderly or disabled. You have to be able to move around easily and not be inhibited by tight spaces. There are. no. seats. at this show—you stand for a full 70 minutes. Furthermore, it could also be inappropriate for someone dressed nicely! I, for one, usually dress for the theater. Unless you have deep, prior knowledge of this show, the only warning you get about the water that’s flung is when you arrive and collect your tickets, as there’s a slip of paper handed to you. (I suppose you’d receive the notice if you had your tickets mailed to you in advance, but I received my tickets at the performance and… here at this blog, we don’t do tickets in advance.) No, Fuerza Bruta is not Splash Mountain, but it’s not exactly the place for a silk tie, either. (Coat check services are available, but for $2, which I think is ridiculous. Besides, you'll need the protection!)

And on the subject of all this moving around in a non-seated space—if Fuerza Bruta can do it, so can Fela!.

Like those in Bill T. Jones’s new musical, the performers in Fuerza Bruta are athletic, fierce, move extremely well… yeah, and they’re pretty sexy too. These people work hard during these performances—no wonder they only do it six times a week. This cast is so skilled, but at things that few other humans need to be skilled at. For instance, these people really know how to run sideways on tin foil curtains hanging from the ceiling! And they are experts at sprinting on massive treadmills while dodging lawn chairs! And they’re particularly adept at looking like creepy lake monsters in a water tank suspended from the ceiling! The performers of Fuerza Bruta will make you feel like a slacker in that you have learned to do none of these things yourself.

So what makes Fuerza Bruta special? I know many people would think that it’s just eye candy and not good theater. Maybe this show doesn’t need to be given a specific label. Diqui James, Fuerza Bruta’s creative and artistic director, has conceived great performance art. In the absence of spoon-fed story, there are imaginative takes on otherwise regular objects and concepts: designs made in shallow water using feet, vertical chases, and people jumping through seemingly thick walls. It reminded me of the annual Watermill Center summer benefit in the Hamptons. People question the artistic value of that too, but they can’t deny that it gets them to think. So whether walking around Watermill’s wooded art installations or dodging Fuerza Bruta’s four-person treadmill, I’d say that counts as an experience.

Editor’s note: I was invited to see Fuerza Bruta and did not rush it. There is a general rush policy for the show. Tickets are $25 each and go on sale two hours prior to the performance. Only one ticket per ID.

Show: A-

Photo: Courtesy of Fuerza Bruta