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Sunday, September 25, 2011

TheatreScene: September 19 - 25 in Pictures

Here is the TheatreScene for September 19 - 25, 2011!

BROADWAY BOX OFFICE (September 12 - 18):

Top Gross: Wicked: $1.479M
Photo by Joan Marcus

Top Attendance: The Book of Mormon: 102.4%
Top Average Ticket Price: The Book of Mormon: $147.58
Photo by Joan Marcus

Biggest Drop (Over previous week):
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark -3.3%
Photo by Jacob Cohl

Now in previews:

Man and Boy: Previews: September 9; Opens October 9

Relatively Speaking: Previews: September 20; Opens October 20

The Mountaintop: Previews: September 13; Opens October 13

BROADWAY SHOW NEWS:

Kathleen Turner and Evan Jonigkeit in High
Photo by Joan Marcus

8 included actors Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson
Photo by Joseph Marzullo

September 19:

High didn't last but a week on Broadway last season, but Kathleen Turner and Evan Jonigkeit will be taking their troubled souls on the road for a national tour starting in Boston.

8, by Academy Award-winning writer Dustin Lance Black, had a star-filled benefit reading at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre directed by Tony Award-winning director Joe Mantello.

Reeve Carney and Diane Pagan (center) along with all
the Spider-Men at the announcement of the first Everyday Hero.
Photo by Krissie Fullerton

September 21:

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark's Reeve Carney announced that show's first honoree in their "Everyday Heroes" program. Her name is Diane Pagan, honored for her work making house calls to home bound patients in an effort for them to avoid hospitalization. She's been doing this important work for six years!

Follies at the Marquis Theatre through January 22, 2012
Photo by Joan Marcus

September 22:

Follies has been extended for an additional 3 weeks at the Marquis Theatre. The critically-acclaimed revival will now close January 22.

September 25:

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS held its 25th annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction today.

BROADWAY CASTING NEWS:

The Addams Family: A Portrait
Photo by Jeremy Daniel

Roger Rees will continue in the role of Gomez Addams opposite the Morticia of Brooke Shields through the closing night of The Addams Family, December 31.

Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Sutton Foster, center) and her Angels
Photo by Joan Marcus

Tony-winner Sutton Foster also extended her contract this week with Anything Goes. This tap dancing phenom will now play Reno Sweeney through April 29, 2012. Of course, this also means that the show will go on at least that long as well!

Bobby Steggert (left) in a scene from a previous production of Yank!

Yank! will be getting a New York reading before heading off to the Old Globe Theatre, and, one hopes, then returning to Broadway. The reading will star Bobby Steggert, Santino Fontana and Nellie McKay.

BROADWAY PICTURE/VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

PICTURES:

A Little Night Music's Hunter Ryan Herdlicka
in Dallas Theater Center's The Tempest
Photo by Karen Almond

The Submission as rendered by (left) Ken Fallin and (right) "Squigs"

Last week, Spider-Man, this week, Assassins

and Cabaret star Neil Patrick Harris

makes the cover of a magazine.

VIDEO:

The making of the latest Roxie Hart, Kara DioGuardi:

Rate this blog below and leave your comments here, by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com, or Tweet me!
Jeff
3.027

Saturday, September 10, 2011

BLOG JACK: Brantley on the Empty Stage

Today, I read September 8th's Theater Talkback by The New York Times' Ben Brantley with some interest. It is called "When a Bare Stage Fills the Theatre." I was particularly drawn to this article because, as any of my theatre-going friends will tell you, my mantra for theatre is "Always remember that the Greeks did it on a stone slab with a mask, the sun and a toga!"

I say this very thing when we can't agree on the quality of a new show. Would this show ultimately be as good if it were stripped down to the actors on the stage and nothing else? Are the words and performances enough to engage the audience and entertain them?

This discussion happened several times this past Broadway season. Needless to say, it was shows like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, both of which I saw early in previews, and before the ensuing onslaught of press for both shows. And we agreed that as it was, The Scottsboro Boys - devoid of fancy costumes and scenery, but full of theatrical ingenuity - proved my point exactly.

I say this when we wonder if the show is a triumph of staging and spectacle over story. Does too much of the meaning rely on the visual created by the designers, the choreographer and the director? Or has the director and choreographer done enough, that if stripped of lights, scenery and costumes, and only the script to rely on, to still give us a full show?

My mantra reared its sage head once again when we discussed Wonderland - the answer? No. In fact, it was so over produced that it all but obscured the story and characters. And again with The Book of Mormon - the answer? Absolutely. That show would still be as funny, poignant and entertaining if the Eugene O'Neill Theatre had a blackout and all the costumes and scenery were stolen.

I recall the oddest experience of my theatre-going life. In 2002, the Box Office Union was on strike at a theater that hosts national tours. I don't remember the exact politics of it, but it boiled down to this: an agreement was struck, but too late for everything to be loaded into the theatre for that week's first show. Actors Equity allowed the performers to go on, while the ITASE unions told its workers to do as much as they could to help, but and not unload the sets, lights or costumes until that evening. The show was 42nd Street, a show that definitely relies on the visual spectacle of lavish sets, lights and costumes. Dying to see how it would play out, and with nothing to lose (I could not exchange my tickets for another performance that week), I stayed and watched the show on the very bare stage, on/off lights and street clothes of the performers that my mantra speaks of. Imagine the opening number or "We're In the Money" without tap shoes, or "The Shadow Waltz" without shadows! And yet, watching the whole thing play out was absolutely mesmerizing. And the story, now the focus, was actually much more interesting than I had ever remembered it being. It is also the only show I have ever attended where the act one finale got a full audience standing ovation, and, until Patti LuPone's "Rose's Turn," the only time a mid-show number got a standing ovation, which happened after the title number. It was exciting and an event I will never forget it. And it was nice to have my saying validated.

And I say this to friends who attend local, necessarily low budget, and lift their noses in their as they go in, expecting the least. I always take great pleasure in their shock and awe when such a show is success. Clearly, a silk purse has been made from a sow's ear.

Ben Brantley discusses several shows that benefit and thrive from a bare stage in his blog - Our Town, all of the original Globe Theatre productions of William Shakespeare's plays among them. And he brings up Chicago's current staging by Walter Bobbie and Ann Reinking. Boy, is he ever right! Less is so much more in this case. And it brought immediately to my mind the other great American musical in the long-run gallery, A Chorus Line, a show that, except for the last 3 or 4 minutes, not only thrives on a bare stage, but requires it. For all of their spectacle and excess, would the three longest-running shows - Les Miserables, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera really have been as successful without "stuff"? Brantley and I agree: probably not. But it would be interesting to see Cats under the same circumstances as when I saw 42nd Street.

I disagree with Mr. Brantley more often than I agree. But he and I see eye to eye on this point: good acting and thoughtful staging coupled with a good script can be as magical as a stage full of scenery and actors flying right over our heads.

Rate this blog below, leaving your comments here, by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com, or Tweet me!
Jeff
3.012

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Broadway Milestones

With so much attention these past few days on the milestone achievements of Chicago: The Musical, it might have been easy to overlook a few other events that are going into the Broadway history books this week. First, though, a look at that celebration, courtesy of Playbill Online.

I wonder if this cake also comes as a window card?

The celebrating cast of Chicago:

Christopher Sieber (Billy Flynn), Carol Woods (Matron "Mama" Morton),

Charlotte d'Amboise (Roxie Hart) and Nikka Graff Lanzarone (Velma)

Velma, meet Velma!

Mary Poppins, the mega-hit over at the New Amsterdam Theatre also has reason to celebrate. On September 4, the show will give its 2,000th performance! Laura Michelle Kelly, who originated the role in London and Gavin Lee, who originated the role of Bert both on the West End and on Broadway, currently star in the show.

Olivier Award-winner

Laura Michelle Kelly

The National Tour oh Hair celebrated its 300th performance at the St. James Theatre, where it is playing a limited run through September 10. That special occasion happened on Monday, August 29. The show will continue to tour throughout the U.S. into 2012. Kacie Sheik, who has been with the production as Jeannie since its beginnings at the Delacorte in Central Park, then on Broadway, London and now on tour, will leave the show on September 10th (along with fellow tour Tribe-mates Arbender Robinson and Caitlin Rose. For Ms. Sheik, that has meant over four years of harmony and understanding - a real achievement these days!

Goodbye, Starshine! Caitlin Rose,

Kacie Sheik and Arbender Robinson

But a world-record setting run is about to be celebrated and ended when The Phantom of the Opera original cast member George Lee Andrews leaves the stage of the Majestic Theatre for the last time on September 3rd. He is officially named in The Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running actor in the same Broadway show. If you've seen Phantom on Broadway, you've probably seen him. He started in the ensemble, but for the majority of his 23 year run, he played one of the opera company managers, Firmin or Andre (his current role) - one guesses he wanted to switch things up a bit over the years. Interestingly enough, his replacement will be Aaron Galligan-Stierle who is Andrews' son-in-law! Congratulations, Mr. Andrews! Phantom just won't be the same without you!

George Lee Andrews

Phantom's new Opera Company managers:

Kevin Ligon and Aaron Galligan-Stierle

Looks like Chicago will have to go another 7 years or so to even approach that record!

Rate this blog below, leaving your comments here, by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com, or Tweet me!
Jeff
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Monday, August 29, 2011

The Longest Running American Musical on Broadway

The very beginning of May 1996 was the time Broadway history began to be made. Of course, back then, no one knew what a true phenonemon Chicago: The Musical would become. At the time, fans of the show were just thrilled at the chance to finally see a professional production of a show many only knew from its original cast recording. A critical success, the Encores! production was immediately rumored for a transfer to Broadway.

Before that May was over, Barry and Fran Weissler had secured the rights to bring the concert version to the big time in a more finished version - that is, without scripts as in Encores!, and full staging. Finished, finessed, but not substantially different. The bare bones staging by Walter Bobby, sexy costumes by William Ivey Long, fresh revamped book by David Thompson, and choreography "in the style of Bob Fosse" by Fosse protege Ann Reinking woule remain essentially intact.

Fast forward to tonight, August 29, 2011. Tonight, Chicago: The Musical will play its 6,138th performance, and that will make it the 4th longest-running show in Broadway history, behind Les Miserables, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. It is now the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. (For some time, it has been Broadway's longest-running revival in history.) With no signs of stopping, Chicago: The Musical will surpass Les Miserables to become the third longest-running show in just over a year.