Aladdin
Posted: April 9, 2014 Filed under: Becca Doodle - Sad, Broadway, Musical | Tags: abu, aladdin, alanmenken, broadway, flyingcarpet, genie, jafar, jasmine, musical, review 1 Comment
So the critics and I haven’t been seeing eye-to-eye much of late. ROCKY received mostly negative reviews, and I think it’s one of the more exciting shows this season. Meanwhile, Aladdin received rave reviews, and to be honest with you, I didn’t think it was all that amazing. People are lapping this show up; the audience was on its feet before the bows even started. And I doubt the show will have much trouble selling tickets being that it’s…ya know, Disney’s Aladdin (albeit The Little Mermaid wasn’t much of a success).
Here’s the thing: this production is a huge and colorful spectacle, but ultimately, I thought it lacked heart – the heart that I feel is deeply a part of the movie. Lines taken directly from the film (lines that still make me cry despite having watched the movie a thousand times because it’s my favorite Disney flick) actually made me roll my eyes. I don’t think the show goes much deeper than the glitzy surface. Aladdin comes off as pretty bland, and it becomes even more apparent how much this hero lies.
My biggest complaint may be the cutting of the animals. Yeah, yeah, I know – it’s a new musical, it’s not the same as the movie, and I have to let certain things go. But I’m sorry! This is Disney! They have so much money. Figure out how to make Abu work instead of throwing him to the curb and giving Aladdin three pals who follow him around instead, churning out jokes like “I feel awful.” “Did someone say falafel?” Iago is still in it, but now he’s Jafar’s human sidekick. He does have some funny moments, but I want the parrot! Abu, Iago, and Raja are iconic characters. As far as I’m concerned, it’d be like doing Beauty & the Beast and cutting Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts.
Oh, and I imagine you want to know about the flying carpet. Yes, the carpet does fly. It’s cool magic, and I don’t know how it’s done, but “A Whole New World” (one of my favorite songs of all time) falls short. The stage is dark except for the stars, and you can barely see the actors as the carpet makes its way all over the stage. The orchestrations are thinned out, and as a result, I didn’t feel the charge and excitement that typically comes hand in hand with that number.
Okay, enough negativity. Let me talk about the things that do work. You guys! Jafar is THE Jafar! Jonathan Freeman, the voice of the original Jafar, plays the role, and the kid in me definitely got a kick out of hearing him live. Some of the new songs are nice (written by Alan Menken and Chad Beguelin) and for the most part add to the story (A Million Miles Away is a lovely new tune).
Basically, the thing to know is that the Genie is the show. It should actually probably be called Genie. James Monroe Iglehart, who was also pretty darn fabulous in Memphis, gets another truly flashy role to show off his comedic and physical chops. “Friend Like Me” is an enormous production number and is the principal reason to buy a ticket. The way critics are saying it’s worth going to ROCKY for the last big fight? That’s what this song is. Nothing else matches it. (Speaking of which – why is it not the Act 1 Finale? I wonder if that’s changed since I saw it in previews. There are more scenes after that and another reprise of “Proud of Your Boy.” Bring the curtain down! Nothing can top that number!)
So listen, if you go see Aladdin, I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself. I just felt like there were a lot of missed opportunities. There were more tricks and magic in the Finding Nemo production I saw at Animal Kingdom in Disney World. And the “wink wink nudge nudge” humor in the new material becomes so dominant that when you get to the deep-down spirit of story, the energy drops. The show is still fun as a whole, and the target audience will certainly be entertained. As for me, I think if more time had been spent on the heart of the show rather than all the mugging, I might have walked away feeling differently.
Aladdin
Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, Book and Lyrics by Chad Beguelin, Directed by Casey Nicholaw
New Amsterdam Theatre, Open-Ended
Photo Credit: Cylla von Tiedemann
Pictured: Adam Jacobs
Love and Information
Posted: April 3, 2014 Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Off-Broadway, Play | Tags: carylchurchill, churchill, loveandinformation, minettalane, nytw, review Leave a comment
Here’s something I’ve learned about myself after watching years and years of theatre: I need narrative. I crave it. That doesn’t mean it needs to be a linear narrative (LOST anyone?). But if anything, I need to be able to make connections within the piece, whether it’s through plot points, characters, clues, something more specific than thematic. It’s how I personally connect and relate. That’s what gives a story purpose for me.
Love and Information is Caryl Churchill’s new play currently being produced by New York Theatre Workshop and performed at Minetta Lane Theatre. It’s just under two hours and a collection of vignettes – moving, hilarious, and thought-provoking. Each “scene” ranges from a few minutes to a few seconds – a full conversation or perhaps a single phrase, and then it’s gone in the blink of an eye as the set swiftly changes to the next set of circumstances. These pieces are lovely to say the least – beautifully entertaining, some very funny, others heartbreaking. Plus the fantastic design (lights, set, and sound) only adds to the setting. With this style of theatre, you as an audience member have to constantly adapt to new situations and figure out what’s going on. I like having to work in that way. But then, that was it. After 45 minutes, I started to check out once I realized there wasn’t going to be a “story” in the typical sense. Not that I didn’t enjoy the rest of the scenes! If the second half had happened first, I would have appreciated those just as much. It was simply the nature of the piece as a whole that I had difficulty with. It’s hard for me to stay engaged that long to watch brief moments in time. Others may not need the narrative as much as I do. The themes and issues brought up from scene to scene may be enough to get their gears turning.
I do think it’s exciting to note that the script itself is pretty much bare-bones, not specifying place, gender, character, situation, etc. From basic dialogue on a page, the ensemble created this piece and all of the beautiful details. I love when theatre does that. I simply left craving a greater common denominator linking these vignettes other than topics of “love” and “information.”
Love and Information
Written by Caryl Churchill, Directed by James Macdonald
Minetta Lane Theatre, closing April 6th
Photo Credit: Sara Krulwich
Pictured:Noah Galvin and Adante Power
ROCKY
Posted: March 12, 2014 Filed under: Broadway, Musical | Tags: adrian, ahrensflaherty, alextimbers, andykarl, margoseibert, musical, review, rocky, rockybalboa, rockybroadway, rockymusical, slystallone, sylvesterstallone, wintergarden Leave a comment
Well, that was a surprise. I gotta say: I was wary going into ROCKY – and admittedly even remained so on and off throughout Act I – but man oh man, this new musical may be the shock winner of the season. I think you all need to prepare yourselves for a whole lot of “ROCKY is a Knock-Out” headlines.
Before I dive into the details, let me get this out of the way first: I have never seen the movie. I know! I know! None of them! I should get on that stat. I think it gave me a unique perspective though, since I would guess most people attending know the films quite well.
Act I is relatively solid. There is a lot of exposition to cover, and it takes a little time to find its groove, but things kick into gear with Adrian’s first big song, “Raining.” For me though, Act II is where the show totally takes off. It’s non-stop, high energy, and reaches ultimate entertainment value. And have no fear – it includes all of the iconic moments you would expect from a Rocky musical. The training montages are kick-ass. There are Rockys everywhere! Instead of multiple Phantoms crossing bridges or lots of Spidermen flying across the stage, now you get Rockys in grey sweats. Also, the projections of the streets of Philadelphia as he trains are great and manage not to go overboard – what Ghost the Musical was trying to do and failed. Ghost looked over-produced whereas this just looks cool. Cool is key if you’re going to put Rocky Balboa in musical format. Who knew they could successfully make that character sing?
The leads are very strong. There’s the always-reliable Andy Karl in the title role. You may have seen Andy in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Jersey Boys, or perhaps as the UPS guy in Legally Blonde, to name a few. But this is his first “carrying-the-show” role. He plays a reserved, tough Rocky and doesn’t make a parody out of the iconic Sly impression. He makes it his own yet still honors certain aspects of Stallone’s performance. And then you have Margo Seibert making her exciting Broadway debut as Adrian. And damn, this girl can sing. Here’s an inside look at both the stars and the show itself.
The book was co-written by Stallone and Thomas Meehan (whose award-winning work includes Annie, The Producers, and Hairspray). The new score is written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the Tony-winning writing team of Ragtime, A Man of No Importance, and Once on This Island. Or perhaps you’re a fan of the animated film, Anastasia (I sure am). The ROCKY score is full of power ballads, sweet duets, and everyone’s favorite pump-up song, “Eye of the Tiger.” And of course there’s the man of the hour, director Alex Timbers, who returns to Broadway with yet another innovative experiment in new theatricality.
I so want to tell you about what they do for the big fight in the end, but I don’t think it would be fair of me to spoil it. Just know this: it’s awesome. I’ve never seen anything like this in a theatre. It’s excellently choreographed and packed with fantastic lighting and super cool effects. The last 20 minutes were so exhilarating that Matt and I ran out of the theatre with the beat thumping in our heads and our hearts racing. The audience was so worked up by the 15th round that we were all cheering together on the literal edges of our seats. I was practically on my feet shouting “Adrian” too.
This production may just be the punch Broadway doesn’t see coming. Go see it!
ROCKY
Music by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Book by Thomas Meehan and Sylvester Stallone, Directed by Alex Timbers
Winter Garden Theatre, Opening March 13th
Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy
Pictured: Andy Karl and Terence Archie
Philosophy for Gangsters
Posted: March 5, 2014 Filed under: Comedy, Off-Broadway, Play | Tags: callie, courtneyromano, courtneyromanohanson, philosophyforgangsters, review, theatrerow Leave a comment
This isn’t going to be so much a review as it is a chance for me to brag about my friend, Courtney Romano, who made her Off-Broadway debut last month in a play called Philosophy for Gangsters at the Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row. I went to go see the show a second time last week. Courtney starred as Callie, a mafia princess and college graduate who leads a philosophical revolution with the help of her mob family and a kidnapped philosophy teacher from New Jersey University.
Now, the play leaves much to be desired. While a funny concept with some genuinely entertaining moments, it is very much a film script trying to be a stage play. There are so many quick “cut-to’s,” and sometimes it feels like we spend more time in scene transitions than scenes (which keeps the momentum from building). Just when a couple of characters are really starting to get to the meat and potatoes, there’s a blackout. Some scenes only last a few sentences, and then there’s a transition to jump a few minutes in time. The creators need to take advantage of the fact that we’re in the theatre. They can use stage tricks and/or set up theatrical conventions for the time jumps or even work around them entirely.
But whenever the play started to dip or wander, Courtney was there, solid, with her feet on the ground, serving as the North Star for the production. She set the example for keeping the pace and sticking to the objective at hand. If the plot started to wane, I knew I could look to Courtney who would be on track.
And on top of all that? She was still playing. She was still having fun and diving deeper into the role. I had attended opening night on February 4th, and it was great to see how much she’d developed the character over a few short weeks.
So even though the show closed on Saturday and I can’t tell you go to see it, I can tell you to keep your eyes peeled for my pal in the future.
Philosophy for Gangsters
Written and Directed by Liz and Barry Peak
Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row, closed March 1st
Photo Credit: Carl Wiemann
Pictured: Courtney Romano, Tally Sessions, David Demato, and Tom White
Becca on Broadway 