Guys And Dolls (The SOB Review) – Nederlan-der Theatre, New York, New York
*1/2 (out of ****)Don't believe for a minute the prevailing theory out there that no new revival of
Frank Loesser's beloved
Guys And Dolls could ever top Broadway’s celebrated
1992 incarnation. Unfortunately,
that superior sexy
mounting from
Michael Grandage in London never materialized stateside
as planned.
Instead, we're stuck with
Des McAnuff’s impossibly dull and benign production of the classic story of how gambling loses to love around the fringes of the Great White Way. What particularly depressed me was how this revival falls flatter than the giant screen capturing
Dustin O'Neill's frequently more captivating projection design.
Any production in which Nathan Detroit (an ineffectual
Oliver Platt) becomes a tertiary character -- not only competing here with
Tituss Burgess' 11th hour heights as Nicely-Nicely Johnson, but also a
Damon Runyonesque character essentially aping “
Where’s Waldo” -- proves that even this gem of a show can be completely misdirected.
Fortunately, there’s no mistaking Loesser’s glorious score or
Mary Testa's trademark brilliance (albeit in cameo form) as General Cartwright. Small consolation for one of the worst musical revivals I’ve ever seen (and full disclosure:
Guys And Dolls is my all-time second favorite tuner.).
Oh well.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Des McAnuff, Frank Loesser, Guys And Dolls, Michael Grandage, Musical, Oliver Platt, Revival, The SOB Review
Lucky Sixes? Des McAnuff Rolls Dice Opening Sixth Broadway Guys And DollsLater today, the ultimate Broadway-based musical fable
Guys And Dolls will open for the sixth time on the Great White Way. Helmed by
Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys), this fifth revival opens at the newly refurbished
Nederlander Theatre, a block south of 42nd Street.
This
Guys And Dolls will be noteworthy, not necessarily because of it cast -- including
Craig Bierko as Sky Masterson,
Lauren Graham as Miss Adelaide,
Kate Jennings Grant as Sarah Brown, and
Oliver Platt as Nathan Detroit -- but because of McAnuff's incorporation of
Dustin O'Neill's elaborate video projection design, as well as the introduction of the creator of the stories upon which
Guys And Dolls' stories and characters were based,
Damon Runyon himself (played by
Raymond del Barrio) .
Way back in 1950,
Abe Burrows and
Jo Swerling took Runyon's stories and transformed them into
Guys And Dolls' beloved book, while
Frank Loesser wrote the timeless score. The trio took home the
1951 Tony Award fro Best Musical.
Of course, many Broadway audiences -- myself included -- still fondly recall the glorious
1992 revival that took home four Tony Awards, including for Best Revival of a Musical, Best Director (
Jerry Zaks) and Best Actress in a Musical (
Faith Prince as Miss Adelaide). In addition to Prince, that wondrous incarnation also starred
Peter Gallagher as Sky Masterson,
Nathan Lane as Nathan Detroit, and
Josie de Guzman as Sarah Brown.
Will McAnuff's gimmicks be enough to make this revival erase 17 year old memories of the last
Guys And Dolls mounting? Find out tomorrow as I not only provide my own SOB Review, but also share my regular critics' capsule.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Abe Burrows, Broadway, Craig Bierko, Damon Runyon, Des McAnuff, Frank Loesser, Guys And Dolls, Jo Swerling, Kate Jennings Grant, Lauren Graham, Musical, Oliver Platt, Opening Night, Revival
Farnsworth Invention To Be Turned OffLast night, it was announced that
Aaron Sorkin The Farnsworth Invention has posted its closing notice. The play about the race to build the first television will shutter at the Broadway's
Music Box Theatre on March 2.
Directed by
Des McAnuff and starring
Hank Azaria and
Jimmi Simpson, the show scored
mediocre reviews when it opened in early December (
I gave it two out of four stars). Sorkin has been put through the
proverbial wringer for twisting historical facts in fictionalizing this true story.
No matter now. The cold hard facts as we know them are this. During the February winter doldrums,
The Farnsworth Invention's box office take last week was down to $186,343 for a total capacity of just 43.2%, while the average ticket price was $53.65. The only show to pull a lower capacity crowd was the 11 year old revival of
Chicago (42.8%), and the only shows to pull in lower grosses were the very funny
Is He Dead? (which at just $165,165, sadly appears to almost be caput) and cult favorite
Xanadu ($153,328).
When Sorkin's drama finally closes, it will have played a total of 104 regular performances. Then on March 2, it will be history.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Sorkin "No Tracy Letts" (December 14, 2007)
Did Critics Enjoy Sorkin's Invention? (December 4, 2007)
The Farnsworth Invention (The SOB Review) (December 4, 2007)
Don't Touch That Dial: Farnsworth Invention Opens (December 3, 2007)
All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Television Comes To Broadway (June 21, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Box Office, Broadway, Closing Notices, Des McAnuff, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, Play, The Farnsworth Invention
Did Critics Enjoy Sorkin's Invention?Last evening,
Aaron Sorkin's first play on the Great White Way in nearly twenty years opened at Broadway's
Music Box Theatre. Directed by
Des McAnuff,
The Farnsworth Invention pits
Hank Azaria against
Jimmi Simpson in the supposedly true story on the race to invent television. Critics were lukewarm at best.
Calling this "vintage Sorkin and crackling prime-time theater,"
Linda Winer of
Newsday offers about the most glowing review I could find: "Breezy and shrewd, smart-alecky and idealistic, the quick-moving drama presents two sides to the still-contentious story behind the invention of television....For all the double and triple casting, nobody is generic. Sorkin can pile more details than the mind can process about the mechanic versus the electronic TV. But he makes sure we get it. He also can set the stage for the Great Depression and the moonwalk with a few miraculously brief bursts of information."
Noting how "Sorkin has gotten some -- possibly a lot -- of his facts wrong,"
New York Post's
Clive Barnes still offers two and a half stars: "Sorkin's take on the Farnsworth/Sarnoff standoff would be better suited to a screen, either big or small. Even now, while crackling with crisp dialogue,
The Farnsworth Invention often has the air of a clumsy stage adaptation of, say,
'Citizen Kane.' Its very busyness detracts from it as a stage play -- plus the fact that all but two of its 19 actors play multiple roles....(McAnuff)'s helped by the smartly minimalist stage design of
Klara Zieglerova, and the general performance of his Protean cast, particularly Simpson as the innocent genius, a
Jimmy-Stewartishly rumpled Farnsworth, and the smoothly opportunistic and charmingly ruthless Azaria as the nicely tailored Sarnoff."
Eric Grode of
The New York Sun offers this middling review: "Mr. Sorkin...has brought over some unfortunate habits from the left coast, including a tendency to create dramatic parallels where none exist and a weakness for soupy background music. But he has also imported his shrewd ear for plotting and his unmistakable flair for well-crafted paragraphs caroming off the halls of power. And he has found in Des McAnuff the rare director capable of turning all those painstakingly assembled anecdotes into a breezy parable, one about two men with huge dreams and the invention that proved bigger and more rapacious than even they could imagine."
Calling it an "information-crammed, surface-skimming biodrama,"
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times is dismissive: "you’re likely to leave
The Farnsworth Invention feeling that you have just watched an animated
Wikipedia entry, fleshed out with the sort of anecdotal scenes that figure in 're-enactments' on
E! channel documentaries and true-crime shows. This two-hour play is a fast-moving sequence of reflex-stimulating information- and emotion-bites. It never pauses long enough to find depth in any of them. Mr. Sorkin clearly had higher intentions."
Referring to "Sorkin's ingratiating approach" and "manicured dialogue,"
David Rooney of
Variety is quite critical: "
Farnsworth never fully moves beyond its stream of overexplained factoids. What's worse is that it's morally questionable....Sorkin wants to have it both ways. He depicts Sarnoff as single-minded in his focus on personal glory and corporate profit to the exclusion of all other concerns. But then after crushing Farnsworth and consigning the true inventor of television to obscurity (in lengthy legal proceedings reduced to a single perfunctory scene), Sarnoff gets to imagine the rapprochement between the two men and acknowledge the underdog's achievement. He also gets to show tearful remorse and big-picture perspective in a manipulative closing speech."
Discounting the show that "seemed to have everything going for it,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News is also negative: "So why is
Farnsworth disappointing and ho-hum enough to make you want to change channels? Sorkin's framework -- Sarnoff and Farnsworth co-narrate the story -- automatically adds a layer of distance. And though the play is informative, it's seldom deeply involving....Both stars give fine performances, but their characters often don't rise much above one dimension....Dramatic license is one thing. But a play about the invention of television that fails to blaze in living color is another."
Frankly, as much as I enjoyed the first act, I felt very cheated by the second, which clearly should have been labeled "The Sorkin Invention."
Newsday's Linda Winer is right to point out that there are plenty of people questioning Sorkin's conceit in adding a contrived confrontation between Farnsworth and Sarnoff when it admittedly never happened. She's also right to question where all the outrage was when
Frost/Nixon used a similarly fictitious 11 o'clock device to propel its story (she clearly wasn't reading my
review in which I said, "[S]uch flagrant abuse of the facts borders on an abrogation of artistic license.").
You can view my full SOB Review for
The Farnsworth Invention by clicking
here.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:The Farnsworth Invention (The SOB Review) (December 4, 2007)
Don't Touch That Dial: Farnsworth Invention Opens (December 3, 2007)
All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Television Comes To Broadway (June 21, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Des McAnuff, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, La Jolla Playhouse, Play, The Farnsworth Invention
The Farnsworth Invention (The SOB Review) - Music Box Theatre, New York, NY** (out of ****)With nary a boob tube in sight, it's astonishing that the backstory on the invention of television is playing out on the unlikeliest of all living art forms: the stage.
But against
Klara Zieglerova's unimaginitive set, which, let's be honest, inexplicably looks more like a retread of her dual-level
Jersey Boys design gussied up like a retro Japanese steakhouse -- I'm not kidding! --
Des McAnuff wisely keeps all channel surfers at bay by focusing their attention on his two outstanding principle actors in
Aaron Sorkin's second Broadway play
The Farnsworth Invention.
The two exceptional actors --
Hank Azaria as the irascibly boorish
David Sarnoff, legendary founder of
NBC, and
Jimmi Simpson as the boyish man who went down in history as the asterisk, the titular
Philo T. Farnsworth -- complement each other perfectly with enough
yin and yang to feel more like you're caught in a quick moving giant
yo-yo of one-upsmanship: one moment one of them is up in the race to "invent" television, the next moment he's down and vice versa.
There's a particularly captivating moment during the First Act when the initial promise of a televised live picture crystalizes that's positively electrifying. It hints at just how great this show could have been. The irony is that McAnuff never allows his audience to see that picture. By deliberately keeping the one single prototype to be found in all of
The Farnsworth Invention turned away from us, we're never truly allowed in. Faster than you can say "photon," the magic Sorkin had succeeded in building gets zapped away.
Making matters worse, in the Second Act, Sorkin resorts to sheer melodrama bordering on pure fiction. It's a pity Sorkin chooses to veer so far from reality in the climactic dust-up between Farnsworth and Sarnoff. It's an exposive scene to be sure, but the moment is ruined by an 11 o'clock admission that what we were to believe constitutes a first attempt at reality TV is instead as bogus as a Jerry Springer episode. Just like with Springer, we feel had. Only here, we didn't see it coming.
Even more frustrating is Sorkin's feeble attempt at a misty-eyed finale. Given what a certifiable SOB Sarnoff is made out to be throughout the proceedings, how can anyone believe he'd shed anything but crocodile tears for Farnsworth. Apparently Sorkin does what he does "best" for television -- he signs off with a hackneyed, melodramatic conclusion.
Maybe that works for a made-for-TV movie, but on a Broadway stage, we just need a better picture with finer tuning.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Don't Touch That Dial: Farnsworth Invention Opens (December 3, 2007)
All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Television Comes To Broadway (June 21, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Des McAnuff, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, Play, The Farnsworth Invention, The SOB Review
Don't Touch That Dial: Farnsworth Invention OpensNearly three weeks after it was originally scheduled to open,
Aaron Sorkin's
The Farnsworth Invention finally gets its opening night this evening at Broadway's
Music Box Theatre.
The November 12 opening night was the first casualty of sorts during the recent stagehands strike.
The drama stars
Hank Azaria and
Jimmi Simpson as the legendary David Sarnoff and Philo T. Farnsworth, respectively, who raced to build the first functioning television.
The
Des McAnuff-helmed play enjoyed its world premiere last summer at the
La Jolla Playhouse, just north of San Diego. McAnuff had been the playhouse's artistic director until
Christopher Ashley took over later this year.
Find out tomorrow whether critics enjoyed tuning in when I present my critics' capsule. I'll also be providing my own SOB Review then.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Television Comes To Broadway (June 21, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Des McAnuff, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, La Jolla Playhouse, Opening Night, Play, The Farnsworth Invention
Television Comes To BroadwayEarlier this year,
Aaron Sorkin's new play
The Farnsworth Invention played to sold-out crowds at the Left Coast's
La Jolla Playhouse. I even attempted to find tickets for myself, but had to settle for the
Altar Boyz during my San Diego visit (don't worry,
Altar Boyz fans,
I enjoyed the show).
Perhaps now I'll have my chance to catch Sorkin's work as it's finally been confirmed for Broadway. According to the casting notice, previews are to begin October 15, with opening night scheduled for November 18.
The
Des McAnuff-helmed play is Sorkin's theatrical dramatization of the race to develop that little technological breakthrough you may have heard of called television. No word yet on whether
Steven Spielberg will be involved
as previously reported.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories: Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Des McAnuff, First Word On New Show, La Jolla Playhouse, Play, The Farnsworth Invention
Out Of The Mouths Of Rockers: Flaming Lips Musical Headed For Broadway?
Of the source material, lead singer
Wayne Coyne told EW.com that "[I]t's not really a story. It's more like a mood...'There's a Japanese girl; she fights some robots; that's five minutes. After that I don't know.''
EW advises that the while the details of this anti-jukebox musical are not specific, expect a dystopian fantasy not unlike
Terry Gilliam's "
Brazil."
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Des McAnuff, First Word On New Show, Jukebox Musical, Musical, The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
A Matter Of TasteThe latest issue of
Forbes includes
its annual listing of "The Tastemakers" for "affecting the way we read, eat, listen and live."
Fortunately (no pun intended, of course), the publishers know their well-heeled demographic includes a higher number of theatre lovers per capita, so they've devoted
one of their top ten lists to those individuals whom they deem as having had the most impact on Broadway.
While the selection process may seem a bit dubious -- they "chatted with producers and professors, critics and industry experts; studied media coverage; and looked to see who lined their bookshelves with the most awards" -- the results are certainly interesting:
- Scott Sanders, Producer (The Color Purple)
- Harry Connick Jr., Actor (The Pajama Game)
- Des McAnuff, Director (Jersey Boys)
- Judy Craymer, Producer (Mamma Mia!)
- Duncan Sheik, Composer (Spring Awakening)
- John Doyle, Director (Sweeney Todd)
- Bob Crowley, Designer (The History Boys)
- Christine Ebersole, Actress (Grey Gardens)
- Oprah Winfrey, Producer (The Color Purple)
- Bob Martin, Actor and Author (The Drowsy Chaperone)
Does it really matter that exactly 40% of the above list walked home with Tony Awards last year? Or that the producer (
Marc Platt) behind last year's biggest and ever-expanding hit
Wicked was excluded? Or that the playwright (
Tom Stoppard) of the year's most talked about drama
The Coast Of Utopia was nowhere to be found? Or that the producers (
Barry and Fran Weissler) of the
Chicago revival that celebrated its tenth anniversary weren't even provided an honorary mention? Of course not. It's
Forbes' list and their editors can write it up anywhere they please.
To their credit, the
Forbes editors were careful to note Broadway's banner year that attracted nearly 12 million theatregoers who collectively shelled out a total of $906 million. That's an average ticket price of $75.50.
But it's more than the Great White Way's big money that's attracted the magazine's attention. The writers of the "Tastemaker" list provide an appropriate nod to theatre's intrinsic and lasting allure: "[W]hatever the thrills of the small and big screens, there is a special magic and immediacy of live performance that continues to draws theatergoers to the hushed houses on Broadway." I can certainly live with that definition of taste.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Bob Martin, Broadway, Christine Ebersole, Des McAnuff, Forbes, Harry Connick Jr., John Doyle, Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders
Toxic: Jersey Boys Will Be Boys
At issue is a
February 14 Chronicle story meant to
celebrate the first, lengthy leg of
Jersey Boys' national tour. McAnuff, clearly a legend in his own mind, is thus featured and quoted:
Director Des McAnuff explains why there are only three actresses playing so many roles. When writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice approached McAnuff with the idea for Jersey Boys, there was no script, just the idea.
"I didn't like it very much," McAnuff recalls by phone from San Diego, where he's in rehearsals for Aaron Sorkin's new play, The Farnsworth Invention, at the La Jolla Playhouse. "Marshall and Rick were very gracious about the rejection. And even after I turned them down twice, they were very persistent. So we came up with the outline together. I helped them with the structure.
"And at one point, they came up with a chorus of 16 Jersey girls. Frankly, I didn't think it worked. It was ridiculously extravagant considering the blue-collar nature of the group. So, simply put, the reason we have three girls is because I said we could have three girls -- and that's it."
Not so, says Brickman, who has been honored with Oscar nomination
s, even winning one for his screenplay of "
Annie Hall." Apparently not one to sit idly by while being trashed by the director, Brickman fired back, in part:
We can finally put to rest any lingering doubts about who is responsible for the success of our little offering, Jersey Boys, currently at the Curran Theatre. It is, of course, the director. Le spectacle, c'est lui. I see him now, goose quill in hand, fingers raw, eyes bloodshot from his tireless restructuring of our 72-page "idea."
Would that I had known him years ago so he could have restructured the screenplays for "Sleeper" and "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan" and "Simon" and "Lovesick" and "The Manhattan Project" -- they might have won awards and gained some critical acclaim. Or instructed William Shawn in the proper restructuring of my New Yorker pieces.
But I was naive then and didn't know enough to be persistent. Twice we offered him the crown and twice he refused it, it says. Sheer modesty. We offered it to him 139 times. Only after we doused ourselves with gasoline and lit a match did he agree to interrupt his restructuring of the book for Dracula, The Musical to heed our pleas and, as a bonus, instruct us in the niceties of the musical theater: how to arrive fashionably late, how to humiliate the cast, how to create an atmosphere of collegiality rivaled only by a board meeting at Hewlett-Packard, how to give interviews that, for sheer fantastic invention, rival anything out of Lewis Carroll.
But why be churlish? I owe the man. He wrote our show, ate my dinner, married my wife and fathered my children. For all I know, he may have even written this letter.
Marshall Brickman
Co-author of
Jersey Boys
New York City
No word yet on whether McAnuff intends to claim songwriting credits for any of the Four Seasons' tunes used in the show.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, California, Des McAnuff, Jersey Boys, Jukebox Musical, Marshall Brickman, Musical, San Francisco, Touring Production
