Send In The ReplacementsThe week immediately following the
Tony Awards often tends to be one of transitions. Often, nominated shows and/or original cast members take their final bows.
This year is no different as the just crowned Tony-winning Best Actress in a Musical
Catherine Zeta-Jones and her Tony-nominated co-star
Angela Lansbury offer their final performances in
A Little Night Music this Sunday. (Leave it to my dear friend
SarahB for snaring coveted house tickets to be a part of it all.)
While
A Little Night Music had previously
posted its closing notice when its producers seemed to have long given up on finding suitable replacements, along came a new buzz of rumors that the ultimate dream pairing in Great White Way replacements were actually in negotiations: Broadway legends
Bernadette Peters and
Elaine Stritch.
Some (including me) were even swooning at the idea that they could be lured into taking over the juicy roles of Desiree and Madame Armfeldt. In particular, many were thinking Ms. Peters could finally provide the nuanced performance we'd been waiting for (click
here for my SOB Review to see what I thought of the Tony winner she's replacing).
Then on June 7, theatre lovers rejoiced at
the news. While the show would remain dark for three weeks commencing immediately after this Sunday's final performances by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury, the musical would resume on July 13 with Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch. The dynamic duo are contracted through this November; however, tickets are now on sale through the first full week of 2011.
In addition to
A Little Night Music, what other major shows are bringing in replacements?
Here are a few of them:
Race - Ethel Barrymore Theatre
(
SOB Review: *1/2 out of ****)
On Tuesday,
Eddie Izzard,
Dennis Haysbert and
Afton C. Williamson joined the cast of this
David Mamet play as replacements for
James Spader,
David Alan Grier and
Kerry Washington, respectively.
Even though I wasn't a very big fan of this work, I thought Spader and Grier acquitted themselves very well, thus I find the casting of Izzard and Haysbert (in his Broadway debut) rather intriguing. But the one problemetic original cast member,
Richard Thomas, somehow remains in the cast.
Race is now scheduled to close August 21, 2010.
next to normal - Booth Theatre
(
SOB Review: ***1/2 out of ****)
The big news over the last couple weeks for
next to normal should have been that
Alice Ripley was
leaving the show for which she earned her 2009 Tony Award to tour with the production nationally
and that real husband-and-wife actors
Jason Danieley and
Marin Mazzie will take over the roles of this show's couple beginning July 19.
Instead, a flipplant
Facebook remark by Ripley rippled like an electroshock wave through the gay community. Ripley has since apologized.
When Mazzie and Danieley succeed Ripley and
Brian d'Arcy James, it will be first time this married duo will ever have been in a Broadway show together. As for the once "
criminally underused" d'Arcy James, he not only created
next to normal's Dan Goodman Off-Broadway and came "
full circle" in returning to the role as a Broadway replacement himself for
J. Robert Spencer, but now he is departing to perform once again in the next show on my list.
next to normal remains an open-ended run (meaning no closing date has been posted).
Time Stands Still - Cort Theatre
(
SOB Review: ***1/2 out of ****)
On May 12, one of those rarest of
rare announcements was made about a Broadway show that's already closed.
Time Stands Still, which had enjoyed an acclaimed
run at the non-profit
Manhattan Theatre Club's
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre earlier this year, will enjoy a return engagement at the Great White Way's
Cort Theatre, the mid-sized commercial house currently home to
Fences.
Because time doesn't stand still, only three of the four original Broadway principals --
Laura Linney, Brian d'Arcy James and
Eric Begosian -- will return to the production. But the fourth,
Alicia Silverstone (who had also been in the
world premiere mounting of the play on the West Coast) will not be joining them. She will be replaced by film actress
Christina Ricci in her Broadway debut.
Time Stands Still resumes performances at the Cort on September 23 with a second opening night slated for October 7. The limited engagement is currently scheduled through January 23, 2011.
Currently, of those four shows, I already have tickets to see
A Little Night Music and am contemplating a revisit to
Time Stands Still. How about you? Will any of these new names lure you back to see what these replacements can do?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: A Little Night Music, Bernadette Peters, Broadway, Christina Ricci, Dennis Haysbert, Eddie Izzard, Elaine Stritch, Jason Danieley, Marin Mazzie, Next To Normal, Race, Replacements, Time Stands Still
The SOB Five "Worst" Of 2008-09Over the past year, I've had opportunities to take in over 70 performances of a wide range of musicals, plays and "special theatrical events" both on Broadway and off, as well as productions from Melbourne and Sydney to London with plenty of stops in between.
Thankfully, I've enjoyed so many more shows than the ones that left me groaning. Yet, it takes seeing those bad productions to make me truly appreciate the good ones. And on the whole, I would much rather see a terrible show live on stage than take in virtually any other form of entertainment. It's that in-the-moment communal experience with other theatre lovers that makes every stage performance worth seeing. Or almost.
As a completely independent theatre blogger beholden to no one -- I pay for every ticket and I still take no advertising -- I'm exercising my freedom of speech by presenting my fourth annual list of the "5 Worst" shows I've seen during the 2008-09 Theatrical Season.
Drumroll, please:
5 - To Be Or Not To Be (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, New York)
Daring to ask
Shakespeare's famous question
To Be Or Not To Be right up front in the title of a play is a risky proposition, to be sure. But since there's no shying away from responding, the answer is a simple, "No." Why playwright
Nick Whitby and director
Casey Nicholaw ever decided this was Broadway ready? Well,
that my dear reader is the
real question.
4 - The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, Chicago, Illinois)
While I have no doubt that
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame has been a labor of love for
Dennis DeYoung of
Styx fame, it’s almost as if he has spent a little too much time studying the musical techniques offered by
Andrew Lloyd Webber or the team that gave the world
Les Misérables. The world of musical theatre has long since moved on. Could this
Hunchback someday prove to be the bell ringer DeYoung envisioned? The answer is a qualified "yes." But this incarnation took its toll.
3 - Annie (Providence Performing Arts Center, Providence, Rhode Island)
Leapin' lizards, what a dog! The current touring production of
Annie is a pale imitation of the
original show I loved so much. Bet your bottom dollar, because it looks as cheap as it is bad. There's absolutely no magic. With its heavy use of scrims, no wonder this revival falls so flat. This warmed-over
Annie marks the worst, most disappointing musical revival I’ve seen over the past year. It’s a hard knock, but someday, if not tomorrow, a dazzling revival worthy of the exceptional core show will come along.
2 - You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush (Cort Theatre, New York, New York)
Rather than too little, too late, this occasionally funny retread of the last eight years feels like far too much so soon after the eponymous
president left office. So much for mission accomplished. While
You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush has some genuine laughs and moments of inspiration, this
Will Farrell vehicle tries to shock with purported images of the Commander-in-Chief's chief of staff. It's ironic that a show about a president often accused of intellectual laziness suffers from too much of the same. While that may work on television, it wasn't really ready for a prime Broadway berth.
1 - Eddie Izzard: Stripped (State Theatre, Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Stripped seemed like an apt metaphor for this threadbare show that was bereft of articulate, cogent thought I had come to expect from comedian/actor
Eddie Izzard. Also largely missing was the humor. But
Stripped instead unintentionally came off as a pseudo-intellectual's desire to have his rambling and often incoherent thoughts -- which he's constantly interrupting himself, only to ask the audience, "Where was I?" -- taken seriously. Feeling truly trapped during an appallingly unpolished performance, the only thing I felt stripped of was the money I paid to sit through this tedious slog.
So, there you have them: SOB's choices for the "5 Worst" shows I endured, I mean
enjoyed, during the 2008-09 Theatrical Season. As I've stated in previous years:
Of course, this is all in the eyes of the beholder. You may vehemently disagree or wonder whether I even have a clue as to what is artistic and what is not. But since my goal in life is to enjoy it rather than simply being a dilettante, I’m going to tell it like I see it by naming the five productions that I enjoyed less than any others.
If you saw any of these shows, let me know what you thought. And please feel free to share the worst shows you sat through (or walked out of) during that past year!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Annie, Eddie Izzard, Musical, Play, SOB Five Worst of 2008-09, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, To Be Or Not To Be, You're Welcome America. One Final Night With George W Bush
Eddie Izzard: Stripped (The SOB Review) - State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
* (out of ****)Stripped seems like an apt metaphor for this threadbare show that is bereft of articulate, cogent thought I had come to expect from comedian/actor
Eddie Izzard. Also largely missing was the humor.
Certainly, anyone following his act may be led to believe that
Stripped references the lack of transvestitism for which he's made his mark. And there's nary a trace of it given his ringmaster coat and casual jeans appearance.
But
Stripped instead unintentionally comes off as a pseudo-intellectual's desire to have his rambling and often incoherent thoughts -- which he's constantly interrupting
himself, only to ask the audience, "Where was I?" -- taken seriously.
Yes, we get that Izzard does not believe in a higher being. But to make this the basis for most of his long, two-plus hour rant is hardly entertaining (although he does have one funny bit about Noah's ark).
I found myself fixated on what little real movement there was on the stage. It came from a set design that included a window to the skies. I sat and watched the sun morph into a black hole that turned into a moon. Sadly, it was as if the world was passing me by, and I wasn't laughing.
Unfortunately, that black hole had me feeling truly trapped during an appallingly unpolished performance. In the end, the only thing I felt stripped of was the money I paid to sit through this tedious slog.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Comedy, Eddie Izzard, Minneapolis/St. Paul, The SOB Review, Touring Production
Some (including me) were even swooning at the idea that they could be lured into taking over the juicy roles of Desiree and Madame Armfeldt. In particular, many were thinking Ms. Peters could finally provide the nuanced performance we'd been waiting for (click here for my SOB Review to see what I thought of the Tony winner she's replacing).
