So this theater season - gasp! - apparently didn't hold much interest for me. I can't believe I am even saying this but there were very few shows that I was excited to see. There were a few I missed altogether and a lot that are still running that I intend on seeing eventually but I'm not jumping out of my chair to get there.
My favorite show that opened this season - and my fan geekiness was detailed on this blog - was "Lennon." Based on the life of John Lennon with a number of actors - men, women, of all backgrounds - all portraying him using his song catalog as it's score. It stuck around for a short time, then quickly closed. Critics hated it. It flopped. I saw it like six times or something, stagedoored, bought the merchandise, loved it. Ah well what can you do.
My runner-up favorites are both revivals - "Sweeney Todd" and "Threepenny Opera." Both extremely dark, brilliantly reconceived versions of well-known musicals. And I'm glad to see both garnered some nominations. Though the Best Revival of a Musical Field didn't have much to choose from as there weren't many of them this season anyway. But they're amazing, still playing, and you should run out and see them. Michael Cerveris as Sweeney will no doubt win Best Actor In A Musical and Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett might grab a Tony as well. The performances in Threepenny were overlooked in my opinion. With a cast including Alan Cumming, Jim Dale, Ana Gasteyer, Cyndi Lauper, Nellie McKay, etc there should have been many more nominations. They lived up to their "star" names.
I caught a couple other shows that opened this season but to be honest, I missed most of them. I love flops but I missed the disastrous "In My Life" and Suzanne Somers ego-driven one-woman debacle "The Blonde In The Thunderbird." I have tickets to see "Lestat" next Friday determined to catch yet another vampire flop but now can't use them because I have an event at my store that day. (Anyone interested in the Lestat tix? 5/26, orchestra and only $36 a pop!)
The ones I intend to see - hopefully before the Tony Awards - are:
"Jersey Boys" - The Four Seasons don't intrigue me and I'm not a fan of their music so that's why I haven't seen it yet. That and I'm sick of jukebox musicals. But I have heard so much about how incredible John Lloyd Young is that I'd really like to see him.
"The Color Purple" - Oprah and I have a love-hate relationship (that she is completely unaware of.) I find her so self-righteous and egotistical that I just want to punch her all the way back to when she was eating cake and ice cream and doing shows about transvestites that love their dogs. You know - when she was down to earth. Ha! But I am strangely drawn to her, at times even DVR-ing her show and considering reading her book club selections. Anyway! I really want to see "The Color Purple." I've loved most of the music I've heard. I LOVE LaChanze and I'm thrilled to see her back on Broadway. AND they have general day-of-show rush tix for $25 so I can afford to see this one. And to my credit - I have tried to get rush tix for this show twice but was too late. So the effort is there. But then there is that damn Oprah singing along with the cast on her show, spouting her b.s. about it being the best show ever and I just want to vomit. But I'm gonna try this week for rush tix again so I may see this one yet.
"The Drowsy Chaperone" - Sutton Foster is in it. Need I say more? She is triple - no - quadruple threat! She sings, she acts, she dances and now she does one-handed cartwheels. Is there anything this woman can't do? And this is a musical in the oldfashioned Broadway tradition, splashy, funny, and silly. Plus it's written by a musical theater lover for other fan geeks. This one I really REALLY want to see. (And it has tix for $23.50 - even better!) Wow. Maybe there IS a show I'm excited about.
Eventually I hope to get around to "The Wedding Singer" (but geez! another musical based on a movie? Ugh. I don't know. But Kevin Cahoon is in it! But it's a dopey concept. Bah I don't know) and "Tarzan" because there is a handsome guy in shorts flying around like he's on a trapeze and, well that's just good theater. Hah!
1 comment:
Admire your enthusiasm for the shows you liked most. As long as YOU like it, who cares what the critics think! You mentioned wanting to see Jersey Boys -- naturally, on the Friday night I went to see it, John Lloyd Young was out, and to be honest, I wasn't impressed at all by the needlessly crass show (and I actually like the Four Seasons). Not sure how this show has become so popular, except perhaps it's the August Wilson Theatre's proximity to the State of New Jersey. The Wedding Singer (and Kevin Cahoon) is much more fun! Cheers!
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