I’m Just a Broadway Baby…
Posted: June 6, 2015 Filed under: Broadway, Tony Awards | Tags: 69thannual, antoinetteperry, broadway, broadwaybaby, dressrehearsal, fancy, intheheights, memphis, nyctheatre, radiocity, radiocitymusichall, theatre, tony, tonyaward, tonyawarddressrehearsal, tonyawards, tonydress, tonynominated, tonys, tonywinner 4 CommentsWhat’s this? Becca posting on a Saturday? This must be a special occasion of some sort. There must be something unusual going on tomorrow…like, maybe she’s going to the Tony Award Dress Rehearsal?
WHAAAAAAT?!
You heard right, my friends. Thanks to a fateful turn of events, Jenn and I will be attending the Tony Dress Rehearsal tomorrow morning. Cause we’re fancy like that. Aka I’m freaking out, and I cried when she told me.
Tomorrow at 9am, we’ll show up at Radio City Music Hall (my first time if you can believe it) and take our seats left orchestra to soak in all of the Tony madness. For those of you who don’t know, Tony day is CRAZY for the people in the Broadway community. They get to Radio City at the crack of dawn to prep, rehearse from 9:30-1pm, rush over to their respective theatres to do a Sunday matinee (!!), get red carpet ready, arrive at the ceremony, sit and watch, change into costume for their show’s performance, change back, watch the rest, maybe win a Tony, and then party the night away. I’m exhausted just writing about it.
This is the closest I’ve come to the Tony Awards. I’ve been fortunate enough to be at the Tony parties for two Best Musical winners, In the Heights and Memphis (Marquee shout-out!). But the thought of being in that enormous hall to see everyone rehearse the songs, transitions, costume changes, and whatever else goes down, is making 5-year-old Becca geek out pretty hard. Who am I kidding? 30-year-old Becca, too.
I hope you’re all tuning in tomorrow (CBS at 8pm ET) for a night full of theatre. There’s a lot of talk right now focused solely on who’s going to win or lose, but what this evening should ultimately be about is the performances. Those are what I’ll be watching on repeat for years to come after it’s over. Those are what the folks around the world can experience if they can’t afford a trip to the city. So let’s celebrate the theatre, yes? See you on the Broadway.
It Shoulda Been You
Posted: June 2, 2015 Filed under: Becca Doodle - Sad, Broadway, Comedy, Musical | Tags: broadway, broadwayreview, chipzien, comedy, davidhydepierce, itshouldabeenyou, lisahoward, musical, musicalcomedy, newmusical, nyc, nytheatre, theatre, wedding, weddingday 3 CommentsI hate to be the bearer of bad news, but It Shoulda Been You is not the way to go this season. The premise is promising – an old fashioned wedding story of families colliding with a modern twist – but this brand new musical comedy misses the mark.
It’s Rebecca’s wedding day, and nothing is going well. Her mother and the groom’s mother aren’t getting along, her ex-boyfriend has gotten wind of the nuptials and is on his way to crash the ceremony, and her sister Jenny, always the bridesmaid, is expected to keep everything together (click here for highlights).
The book is weak and offensive. I suppose I might be more forgiving if the score were likeable, but the songs, after an hour and a half, were like nails on a chalkboard to my ears. The lyrics also include gems like, “How you pulled that out of your hat is making me smile like a Cheshire cat.” The music is made up of random notes following one another, trying to force a melody. I was looking forward to Lisa Howard’s 11 o’clock number because that woman has pipes, but I sat there thinking, this is what she has to sing every night?
Speaking of my excitement for Lisa Howard, I was so psyched for her to finally have a lead role on Broadway, but there’s a terrible subplot about her weight and her mother’s rude comments. The book is packed with fat jokes, Jewish jokes, black jokes, gay jokes, and alcoholic jokes, but none are smart. Mostly they made me cringe, and I’m not easily offended. I’m typically fine with that style of humor (The Book of Mormon, anyone?), but when written poorly, it just comes off as mean.
What a waste of talent. It’s a fantastic cast full of big names (Tyne Daly, Harriet Harris, Chip Zien, Sierra Boggess, David Burtka), and the brilliant David Hyde Pierce at the helm directing, so I can’t help but wonder what went wrong here. I’ll give it this much: there’s a surprise in the show that neither Matt nor I saw coming, and I don’t know the last time I was that genuinely surprised by a plot shift. But it doesn’t save the show by any means. For a brief moment I did think, “Oh, this will help the story,” but it only made it more convoluted.
But really, the show’s tagline is, “You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll be home by 10.” I mean, what? Their best foot forward is how short the show is?! That’s not gonna cut it for me. It shoulda been better.
It Shoulda Been You
Book & Lyrics by Brian Hargrove, Music by Barbara Anselni, Directed by David Hyde Pierce
Brooks Atkinson Theatre, Open-ended
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus
Pictured: Lisa Howard