All in Broadway
Capping an unusually gay year for New York theatre, I take a look at what many consider to be the first gay play (“The Boys in the Band”) and what might be the newest gay play (“Log Cabin”). Catch the former if you can (tickets are scarce and expensive); skip the latter.
Revisit the 2018 Tony Award Nominations and take a look at my predictions of who/what “should win” vs. who/what “will win” - then tune in to CBS at 8pm ET on Sunday June 10th!
The 2017-2018 Broadway season comes to a close with three play revivals: an excellent, energetic production of “The Iceman Cometh” with Denzel Washington; a perfunctory and pageant-like production of “Saint Joan” starring Condola Rashad; and an absolutely ravishing London transfer of Tom Stoppard’s brilliant “Travesties”, starring Tom Hollander.
Take a look at the 2018 Tony Award Nominations - I highlight some surprises, snubs, and quirks.
“Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” is a flat and soulless jukebox tribute to the “Queen of Disco” that disgraces the genre she created by offering thin orchestrations, inauthentic choreography, and a song listing that includes too many obscure cuts from later in her career. LaChanze’s radiant performance is not enough to salvage this joyless and unfocused show. Save your money and listen to Summer’s iconic songs instead.
Harry Potter makes his Broadway debut in a new play that is an astonishing thrill ride packed with plentiful twists and turns in a production that marks a triumph of stagecraft and skillfully captures the spirit and sensibility of the beloved book series and film franchise. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is pure magic, and a must-see for any Harry Potter fan or acolyte.
Lincoln Center Theater delivers a grand, first rate, feminist revival of Lerner and Loewe’s classic musical, “My Fair Lady”. Perfectly keyed to this moment while honoring the greatness of its text and score, director Bartlett Sher hits another home run, and Lauren Ambrose and Harry Hadden-Paton give smashing, revolutionary performances as Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins. A great revival of a great musical to end the season on a high note.
“Rocktopia” is a one-trick rock concert in which snippets of top-shelf, survey deep classical compositions are mashed-up with and swallowed whole by beloved rock songs from the 1970s and 1980s. Garishly self-indulgent, sublimely absurd, bland, and loud, you can skip this well-intentioned musical experiment gone awry.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” is back on Broadway in a big, bold, and beautiful new production that is both soaringly operatic and heart-wrenchingly intimate, thanks to a quintet of smashing principal performances, stunning choreography, enchanting sets, and a generously sized orchestra. Great musicals of the golden age deserve to be seen; pay a visit to this glorious “Carousel”.
“Children of a Lesser God” is one play whose sell-by date has definitely passed; even given embers of a still burning debate about deaf culture and identity, this plodding and clinical revival is dull, stale, unremarkable, and problematic in its treatment of a relationship between a deaf student and her teacher. Despite strong performances by TV’s Joshua Jackson and deaf actor Lauren Ridloff, skip this one.
Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls” the musical is a triumphant burst of high-energy fun, artfully written and brilliantly executed. This stage adaption is every bit as funny as the now-iconic 2004 film, and even more effective at delivering its message of self-confidence and kindness, thanks to good writing, great design, a boffo cast, and the guiding hand of director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw. In a season of too few musicals, “Mean Girls” is a standout.
Tony Kushner’s 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece “Angels in America” is back on Broadway in a transcendent and timely production sleekly staged by Marianne Elliot and featuring a superb ensemble cast; one of the greatest plays ever written and certainly the most important of the past 25 years, get tickets now or live to regret it.
