5 posts tagged “broadway”

I wrote about Lone Star Love a couple of weeks ago because it was going to Broadway. Turns out, Randy Quaid's unwarranted diva-y behavoir extends to more than just the curtain call, now it is no longer going to Broadway and his understudy is doing the role in Seattle performances. There are so many talented stage actors, I don't know why theater producers think they need to get c-list celebrities to be in shows. Was anybody really rushing out to see this show because Randy Quaid was in it? Really?

http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/parting_shot

I saw another Broadway-bound show last week; Lone Star Love. It was enjoyable, but it sure wasn't any Young Frankenstein. The show takes Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, transports it to Civil War era Texas, and gives it a country score.

Randy Quaid headlines as the Falstaff character, in a classic example of the pitfalls of adding a marquis name to a show for novelty's sake. He wasn't bad, but he didn't bring any more to the show than the rest of the cast. His hair was dyed a really odd shade of maroon, which will hopefully be fixed before the show hits Broadway, and frankly, he just isn't fat enough considering all the jokes and references to the character's girth in the script. There's even a song called "Fat Man Jump," which should be changed to "Moderately Overweight Man Jump." His casting probably wouldn't have irritated me so much if not for the curtain call. It's hoe-down style with the chorus and all the other principals dancing out energetically. When it was Quaid's turn, he just came strolling out, and I didn't feel like his performance was so much better or his part was so much bigger than everybody else's for that to be justified.

The songs are nice, although country music isn't really my thing. Falstaff's minions are played by three musicians who play their instruments onstage, and the rest of the band is on stage, too. The humor is mostly corny and/or crude. I saw a preview, but it seemed like the costumer missed some opportunities for dress changes--everybody pretty much wears the same thing throughout the whole show, even though it takes place over the course of a few days. Maybe they are still working on additional costumes.

I could really see the Shakespeare in the way the plot, dialog, and some of the scenes were put together, even though all the language was, of course, changed completely. It's kind of hard to explain it, but I could just see the similarities in the ways characters were introduced and conversed with each other.

Frankie0001

The new musical production of Young Frankenstein is doing out-of-town trials in Seattle before heading to Broadway later this year. Most, if not all, members of the creative team behind The Producers were involved in this one, and there is a great cast including Roger Bart, Sutton Foster, and Megan Mullally. I think it's going to be at least as big as The Producers. I LOVED it. I loved it so much that I wish I had a button to wear today that says "Ask me about Young Frankenstein."

I have only seen the movie once, and that was mostly to see what everybody was talking about. I enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was the bestest, funniest thing ever, which seems to be what a lot of people think. So while I was looking forward to the show because of the cast, and the excitement of seeing something Broadway bound, I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.

The musical numbers were catchy and funny, of course. I am kind of glad we only got to the theater a few minutes before the show started so I didn't have time to look at the song list, because part of the enjoyment for me was which lines and parts of the movie Mel Brooks decided to turn into numbers. I especially enjoyed Megan Mullally's (she plays Elizabeth, Frederick's "adorable madcap fiance") first number "Please Don't Touch Me," and Frau Blucher's torch song, "He Vas my Boyfriend"--complete with chair dancing, a la Sally Bowles in Cabaret. The Puttin' on the Ritz number is one of the most memorable parts of the movie, and they did a great job adapting it for the stage. I don't know what is so freakin' funny about the monster bellowing out "PUUAAAUHRII!!!!!," but I thought I was going to wet my pants. I mean, I really was worried that I would pee a tiny bit. I know people say that a lot to describe funny things, but it's usually hyperbole. I was sitting there telling myself "OK. He's going to do it again, and it's going to be funny. But you have to control yourself."

The cast was amazing. I usually get to see touring productions that are put together after a show is a hit on Broadway, and there are some very talented people who travel with these shows--I normally would say I don't think there is necessarily more talent in the New York productions, just more fame. However, I was particularly blown away by Sutton Foster, who played Inga. She is just talented to the point of ridiculousness. When she sings, it doesn't sound like it takes her any effort, like, her voice just flies right out, and she's a great dancer, too. (I think I would cheerfully give up my thumbs and/or agree to go around bald for the rest of my life if I could just have her legs.) My favorite, though, was Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor. He won me over immediately with with a little skippy dance that he did early in his first number with Frederick Frankenstein "Together Again for the First Time." It's no small feat to be the scene stealer in a cast like this.

I just wasn't expecting (I guess because I wasn't thinking that hard about it) the sets and special effects to be so spectacular. There are some really amazing effects in the lab and during dance numbers, and they are using what I think are some of the same new projection techniques that were used in The Woman in White.

Now, we move on from the "Amazing Show!" part of this entry to the "What the Fucking Hell is the Matter with People!?" section. Please skip if you are averse to the rantings of cranky misanthropes.

We were sitting in front of a group of people who apparently had no idea how to behave in public at a life performance. They were on the...senior side, so it is somewhat understandable that some members of the party didn't catch all the lines and needed to have them repeated. BUT--it is possible to repeat lines in a whisper, not the normal volume you would use if you were chatting with someone at a restaurant or something. And they do have those headsets now for people who have trouble hearing. Each member of the party had to repeat the punchlines to jokes AT LEAST once, if not more. Oh, and that's not all. During the number "He's Loose," in which principals and chorus repeat the phrase "he's loose" several times in the song, I hear from behind me, LOUDLY "Heh. He's loose." Yeah. That's what they said. About 12 times. But this is my favorite: You may recall the part from the movie where the monster has just come to life and puts Frederick in a headlock. He tries to mime to Inga, Frau Blucher, and Igor that he wants them to give the monster a sedative, and they play it out like a game of charades. Well, the people behind me were playing along with the cast on stage, and said "sedative!" several times during the bit. Um...the game is not for you. You see, those are actors. They are pretending to play charades, and they will get the correct answer when it is appropriate to the show. Did they think they were at Peter Pan and needed to participate in the same way that kids clap for Tinkerbell? One of my companions pointed out to me that part of the experience of live theater is sharing it with other people. I said "Yes, but I wasn't expecting this to be so much of a theater-in-the-round experience."

As if the chatty seniors weren't enough, as we were leaving I saw a litte girl wearing dirty blue crocs. That made me so sad. Remember when people used to dress up for the theater, and when little girls would wear patent leather mary-janes to special occasions?

As a testament to what a devoted MUSICAL THEATER ENTHUSIAST I am, I went to great lengths (involving a combination of walking, busses, and a hotel stay) to make it to The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee during some very icy weather. (This, after braving some very rainy, windy weather and a bus full of rowdy Seahawks fans to see All Shook Up a month ago.)

I really did not want to miss the Bee, and it was worth it. In the lobby, they had "bulletin boards" with artwork and those wavy borders that elementary school teachers are so fond of, and in the theater they had those felt "championship" squares in school colors that you along the walls in school gyms. Nice touches.

One of the best parts of the whole show was that they pull up four audience members to be spellers. We had one lady who didn't know how to spell jihad, and went out on her first try. Embarrassing! She got a sent back to her seat with a juice box. The other audience spellers were better--one girl they picked on a lot, but one of her words was "cow." ("Can you use that in a sentence?" "Please spell "cow".) And one emo-haired guy the pulled up was very into it and participated enthusiastically in the choreography.

The "kids" from the cast were great. So funny, and the writers did a really good job of picking "types" of kids. My favorite was Leaf Coneybear, the third place finisher in his district because the winner and runner up were attending a bar mitzvah. Leaf wears a cape made out of an apron. 'Nuff said.

I also enjoyed the Jesus cameo very much. Jesus had my very favorite line in the whole play: "Also? This isn't the kind of thing I care very much about."