All tagged Beowulf Boritt
“Freestyle Love Supreme” is an abundantly joyful and amusing freestyle, improvisational, hip-hop comedy show created by Thomas Kail, Anthony Veneziale, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. A pricey enterprise given that it is, fundamentally, an improv show, lovers of wordplay will take great pleasure in the clever and witty rhymes that the rotating cast of rappers and beatboxers come up with on the spot based on audience suggestions, and cynics will see a well-marketed cash grab.
Tween science-fiction, pop-rock sensation “Be More Chill” makes the leap to Broadway and gets an upgrade in the process with a snazzier production design and revised score and script that give it a clearer narrative and a more even tone. Relentlessly hyperactive, broad, and sophomoric, it still lacks the sophistication, polish, and emotional resonance of its high school musical peers, but it is infectiously fun.
Two hotly-anticipated new musicals opened Off-Broadway recently: Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s “Alice By Heart” at MCC Theater, and Tom Kitt and Joshua Logan’s “Superhero” at Second Stage Theater. I take a look at each.
Theresa Rebeck’s “Bernhardt/Hamlet” is a backstage comedy-drama of historical fiction recounting Sarah Bernhardt’s groundbreaking 1897 turn as Hamlet in Paris; discursive, incoherent, and verbose, the play has nothing particularly interesting to say about gender politics as it ambitiously attempts to tackle a panoply of themes and ideas. I’d much rather see Ms. McTeer play Hamlet than watch an endless series of rehearsals.
“Smokey Joe’s Cafe”, a musical revue featuring 39 songs from the pop cannon of legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, is a hyperkinetic 90 minutes of pure, joyful, electric entertainment; anyone looking for a jolt of high energy, head-shaking, toe-tapping fun should check out this rocking and soulful new revival at Stage 42 Off-Broadway.
