Ironic: Catching Neil Simon Theatre 'Cause It Could
As if it weren't bad enough that
Love Never Dies director
Jack O'Brien and choreographer
Jerry Mitchell already jumped ship for what they certainly must hope is smoother sailing with their other more promising project -- you guessed it
-- Catch Me If You Can -- the irony of the
Marc Shaiman/
Scott Wittman/
Terrence McNally musical capturing
Love Never Dies' place at the Simon Theatre must add insult to injury for Sir ALW. One can only imagine the intrigue that's taken place behind the scenes. (
UPDATE: Producers for Love Never Dies announced on October 1, 2010, that the show would not be mounted on Broadway during the 2010-11 Theatrical Season.)
For composers Shaiman and Witttman, this will mark a homecoming of sorts as their only other full-fledged Broadway musical -- the Tony Award-winning
Hairspray -- occupied the Neil Simon for six and a half enormously successful years. If
Catch Me If You Can catches on with critics and audiences, it'll become the first regular show to have succeeded since their earlier work closed at the beginning of last year.
While casting has yet to be announced, such acclaimed Broadway draws as
Norbert Leo Butz,
Aaron Tveit,
Tom Wopat and
Kerry Butler starred in the
out-of-town tryout in Seattle last summer. I know I'm not alone in hoping each of these talented actors can be caught yet again to reprise their roles on the Main Stem.
Previews for
Catch Me If You Can are scheduled to begin March 7, 2010, and open April 10.
As for Andrew Lloyd Webber? Well, perhaps he'll think twice about never saying never when naming a musical.
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: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Broadway, Catch Me If You Can, First Word On New Show, Jack O'Brien, Jerry Mitchell, Love Never Dies, Marc Shaiman, Musical, Scott Wittman, Terrence McNally
Has "Love" Actually Died?
UPDATED OCTOBER 1, 2010
Arguably one of Broadway's most anticipated new shows may have already withered before ever making it to the United States.
Make no mistake.
Love Never Dies --
Andrew Lloyd Webber's $15 million sequel to
The Phantom Of The Opera that transports the action from Paris' Opera House to New York's Coney Island -- is still playing at London's Adelphi Theatre. But now reports are suggesting that the show won't make it to Broadway this season, if ever.
Update: Love Never Dies producers announced on October 1, 2010, that the production would not be on Broadway during the 2010-11 Theatrical Season.
The musical sequel opened to largely negative reviews in London earlier this year. After seeing the show for myself in May,
I concluded that it needed an immense amount of work if it was ever going to last even a fraction of the twenty-plus years that
Phantom has been around. And indeed, it's been my understanding the performance West End audiences are seeing today is different than the one I saw just months ago.
But apparently that's not enough.
Previews were slated to begin for an open-ended run in April 2011, but all of that has now been called into question since director
Jack O'Brien and choreographer
Jerry Mitchell have
reportedly bailed so they may concentrate on a more sure-fire hit:
Catch Me If You Can.
The
New York Post's Michael Riedel
goes one step farther to say that although his sources have said the show is postponed "indefinitely," he says, "The $15 million London production, which was directed by Broadway vets Jack O'Brien and Jerry Mitchell, will not be seen in New York. Ever."
Thus, I have pulled
Love Never Dies from my
confirmed list of shows scheduled for the 2010-11 Theatrical Season and have placed it on my "
Definitely Maybe" list. Until we hear for certain that Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel is truly a non-starter for this season, it will languish like several other improbable shows on that list.
P.S. I must place a large
SPOILER ALERT on the second comment below. If you don't want to know the plot, read no further.
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: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Broadway, Jack O'Brien, Jerry Mitchell, London, Love Never Dies, Postponement, The Phantom Of The Opera
Lo
ve Never Dies (The SOB Review) – Adelphi Theatre, London, United Kingdom
*1/2 (out of ****) Eternal optimists often say, “Never say never.”
Legions of optimistic
Phantom Of The Opera fans aside,
Andrew Lloyd Webber would have been well-served not only to say “no,” but “never again” after his
cat reportedly destroyed his first draft of his score for this deadly dull sequel with not much to love, including its ridiculous opera meets vaudeville vibe. While the
show has been dubbed "Paint Never Dries," I dare say I've had more fun watching paint dry -- and it's faster, too.
That
Love Never Dies is merely a shameless rip-off of the original becomes painfully clear after Christine (
Sierra Boggess) arrives at New York’s Coney Island to perform a new aria she and Raoul (
Joseph Millson) discover has been written by her rejected and disfigured suitor (
Ramin Karimloo) from the Paris Opera House. When the words, “We’re just in this for the money” is spoken, the jig is up for all involved.
To
Love Never Dies’ credit, both Karimloo and Boggess are in exceptional voice. And there’s a visually arresting projection design from
Jon Driscoll. But with the exception of a first act tune “Beauty Underneath” in which director
Jack O’Brien must have decided that the time had come to show at least a little money up on the stage,
Love Never Dies comes up short in terms of spectacle for which the first show is known.
Instead, this sequel is mostly overwrought that's overdone. (Also overdone the night I attended was the incessant fog machine, which obscured all action on the stage for at least three or four minutes of the climax, making the unintended disembodied voices seem like the true phantoms. It left me thinking "Fog Never Dies.")
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: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jack O'Brien, Jon Driscoll, Joseph Millson, Love Never Dies, Musical, Ramin Karimloo, Sequel, Sierra Boggess, The Phantom Of The Opera, The SOB Review
Impressionism (The SOB Review) – Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, New York, New York
***1/2 (out of ****)Alright, alright. I know this is much too little too late, but at the risk of being stuck out on a precarious limb, let it be noted that I was absolutely charmed by
Michael Jacobs’s
Impressionism.
Maybe some critics just couldn’t see for forest for the trees. Coincidentally, in this story about the potential for love, its leading characters -- art gallery owner Katharine Keenan (
Joan Allen) and onetime photographer turned Keenan assistant Thomas Buckle (
Jeremy Irons) -- have difficulty seeing the infinite possibilities of a relationship that's right in front of them.
A truly lovely story with a lovely cast (
André De Shields in particular deserves credit for his two scene-stealing roles) and lovingly directed by
Jack O'Brien,
Impressionism is one of those plays that stealthily sneaks up on you and packs an enormous emotional punch.
I guess it’s true that art truly is in the eye of the beholder.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: André De Shields, Broadway, Impressionism, Jack O'Brien, Jeremy Irons, Joan Allen, Michael Jacobs, Play, The SOB Review
Allen, Irons Finally Back In The Broadway FireWow!
After having
repeatedly read that actress
Joan Allen had no interest in returning to the stage, I was resigned to never seeing her live. (Well, that is if you don't count dancing next to her and her daughter at
Steppenwolf's 30th anniversary gala a few years ago -- the elegant thespian certainly knows how to cut a rug).
Although Allen has been a Steppenwolf ensemble member since -- gasp! -- 1977, appearing in 23 of the company's productions, she has not graced a Steppenwolf stage since 1991 (last seen in Anne Tyler's
Earthly Possessions alongside
Kevin Anderson,
Sally Murphy and
Rondi Reed, among others). It's been two years longer since she last appeared on Broadway in her Tony-nominated turn as Heidi Holland in 1989's
The Heidi Chronicles (also starring
Peter Friedman,
Boyd Gaines,
Joanne Camp and
Cynthia Nixon). One year earlier, Allen received the Tony for Best Actress in a Play for her work in
Lanford Wilson's
Burn This opposite fellow Steppenwolf ensemble member
John Malkovich.
With Allen's film career going great guns, sometimes
quite literally, I resigned myself to never having a chance to see her perform live on stage.
So imagine my pleasant surprise to read yesterday in
Variety that she's ready to burn up the boards once again opposite no less than
Jeremy Irons, absent himself from Broadway since his one and only Tony-winning turn as Henry in the original 1985 incarnation of
Tom Stoppard's masterpiece,
The Real Thing.
Together, Allen and Irons are slated to star in the world premiere of
Impressionism by
Michael Jacobs. Directed by
Jack O'Brien and produced by
Ostar Productions, the play should land on the Great White Way sometime next spring -- just in time for Tony consideration.
This officially becomes my first "must-see" show for 2009.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Burn This, First Word On New Show, Impressionism, Jack O'Brien, Jeremy Irons, Joan Allen, Michael Jacobs, Play, Steppenwolf, The Heidi Chronicles, The Real Thing
London Critics Can't Stop The Beat Of HairsprayLast evening, after five years of wowing them on
Broadway and just months after the
film musical opened worldwide, the stage version of
Hairspray has finally opened in the West End of London. Overall, critics ate it up.
"Delightful" is how
Benedict Nightingale of
The Times describes the show in his four-out-of-five star review: "The musical resembles
Grease, then? Yes, but only a bit, for
Hairspray is wittier, funnier, more good-natured and, without being pretentious, more morally and politically aware....But anyone would forgive the show’s wishfulness, given the ebullience of
Marc Shaiman’s rock, which might have been written for and delivered by Elvis himself, and the quality of
Jack O’Brien’s cast, which matches its Broadway counterpart for energy."
Describing it as "heaven on earth,"
Charles Spencer of
The Telegraph joins in the praise: "Director Jack O'Brien, who alternates raucous musicals like this with superb revivals of
Tom Stoppard at the Lincoln Centre, ensures that sentiment and laughter are mixed in just the right proportions in a show that offers a sugar-rush of pleasure.
Jerry Mitchell's choreography is splendidly effervescent and newcomer
Leanne Jones, straight out of drama school and making her professional debut, has exactly the right bubble and bounce as Tracy, moving with a lightness of foot that belies her avoirdupois. The show might be less slick than in New York, but there is no mistaking its big, raucous heart."
Calling it "the plump girls' feelgood, romantic comedy of a musical" in his four out of five star review is
Evening Standard's
Nicholas de Jongh: "Hairspray...sent the rare, sweet smell of success wafting through the Shaftesbury last night....Leanne Jones, in an astonishingly accomplished stage debut, plays Edna's big-sized daughter, Tracy....It is through Jones's endearingly earnest Tracy, who dances with a lightness belying her size, that links between love, comedy and radical politics are forged....Marc Shaiman's urgent score, with clever, often witty lyrics written with
Scott Whitman, keeps
Hairspray pulsating with musical excitement as well as political anger."
Proclaiming it a "deliciously fluid production,"
Michael Billington of
The Guardian also offers four out of five stars: "But even if
Hairspray, in the process of being turned into a Broadway musical, has lost some of its glorious tackiness, it retains its generous spirit: this is still a show that not only hymns physical difference but also the basic right to racial integration....Where the show really scores is in its ability to integrate serious issues into a lightweight plot. Jerry Mitchell's joyous choreography is the beating heart of the show. There is something dionysiac about it; and, if the show achieves the ecstasy one looks for in a musical, it comes largely through the dance routines."
Taking note that "this exuberant, breathless production chokes all resistance, smothering all in its orbit,"
Quentin Letts of the cheesy
Daily Mail sniffs, "Here is full-squirt, two-dimensional fun, at times almost dementedly full-on. It doesn't tickle you into mirth. It blooming well shoves you."
Sounds like the Shaftesbury Theatre finally has scored a winning musical. Tickets are now available through next October.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Go East, Young Musical, Go East (July 26, 2007)
Hairspray To Brush With West End Style (March 9, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Film, Hairspray, Jack O'Brien, Jerry Mitchell, London, Marc Shaiman, Michael Ball, Musical
Ironic: Catching Neil Simon Theatre 'Cause It Could 
