Caroline, Or Change (The SOB Review) - Wurtele Thrust Stage, Guthrie, Minneapolis, Minnesota*** (out of ****)Finally! Change we can believe in.
Perhaps my biggest personal disappointment during the entire 2003-04 Theatrical Season was missing out on
Tony Kushner and
Jeanine Tesori's
Caroline, Or Change both in its early Public Theater incarnation, as well as its subsequent
transfer to Broadway.
But thanks to the ongoing
Kushner Celebration at Minneapolis'
Guthrie, I've finally had the good fortune to take in this intensely profound, mystical musical as directed and choreographed by Marcela Lorca.
Caroline, Or Change transfixes, even as it transports.
Set in Louisiana at the close of 1963,
Caroline, Or Change is the story of an abandoned African American mother of three who provides for her children by working tirelessly as the maid for the Gellman family. Previously widowed patriarch Stuart Gellman (
Bradley Greenwald) remarries Rose (
Julie Reiber), a progressive-thinking New Yorker, and brings her to her new life in Louisiana where the march of time has yet to catch up with the change up North.
Kushner ingeniously uses the coins Caroline Thibodeaux continually finds while washing the pants of young Noah Gellman as a transcendent metaphor for all the sweeping change surrounding her, including the emerging civil rights movement, the swelling Vietnam War and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. That Rose urges Caroline to keep the change, not only to provide Noah with a valuable ongoing lesson, but also to supplement her wages is small consolation to Caroline, whose strength and pride is shaken.
Greta Oglesby's brave turn as Caroline alone is worth the price of admission. She wrings every last drop of pathos out of her performance, making her Caroline infinitely sympathetic. In delivering "Lot's Wife," we witness a tremendously powerful, yet sobering performance of a woman who feels shame for wanting more, even as she seems to fear the overwhelming degree of change may have already left her behind. As Oglesby transforms, she breaks your heart.
While most of the cast admirably rises close to the same league as Oglesby, there are a couple regrettable shortcomings, particularly one screechingly horrendous performance (when I saw it) by one of the young actors, who significantly detracts from the production.
Nevertheless, seeing
Caroline, Or Change was definitely worth the wait. Given how much I enjoyed it, I only wish I hadn't missed it the first time around.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Caroline Or Change, Greta Oglesby, Guthrie, Jeanine Tesori, Musical, Tony Kushner
Shrek The Musical (The SOB Review) - Broadway Theatre, New York, NY
*** (out of ****)After just
now reading
Michael Riedel's grim assessment for
Shrek The Musical's box office, it dawned on me that I've been remiss in providing my own assessment for the show itself.
You know what? It's not that bad. In fact, it's actually pretty funny and quite often borderline brilliant. The show deserves a larger audience.
Aside from the wonderfully versatile
Daniel Breaker, whose take on the Donkey is nothing short of inspired lunacy, I realize I may just be about the only person on the planet who hadn't seen any of the wildly successful "
Shrek" films first. For some reason, I always resisted seeing the animated features, so I was surprised by how often I found myself laughing early and often at this fairy tale satire, aided by
Jason Moore's frequently ingenious direction and
Tim Hatley's magical flourishes.
In fact,
David Lindsay-Abaire's book offers a far superior and roundly satisfying first act. Not only does it completely engage with its sly skewering of
Disney and Broadway fare alike, but it becomes a ginormous gutbuster when
Christopher Sieber's hilarious Lord Farquaad lampoons both
Dreamgirls and Wicked in less than six deliciously delirious seconds. It's moments like those that
Jeanine Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire's score occasionally soars.
Shrek's top-drawer cast is led by the enormously talented
Brian d'Arcy James in the title role. I've often said that this is one criminally underused actor. He imbues his
Shrek with healthy doses of humor and heart. He's also fortunate to be supported by the aforementioned Breaker and Sieber, along with the absolutely fartastic
Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona, who manages to fly her freak flag quite well.
If you're looking for an escape from all of today's headlines that only an ogre could relish -- and let's face it, who isn't?! -- as well as a musical where you can see all your money up on the stage,
Shrek The Musical is just the ticket.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Brian d'Arcy James, Broadway, Christopher Sieber, Daniel Breaker, David Lindsay-Abaire, Film, Jason Moore, Jeanine Tesori, Musical, Shrek The Musical, Sutton Foster, The SOB Review
Were Shrek Critics Ogres?Yesterday,
Shrek The Musical opened at the Great White Way's
Broadway Theatre. With score by
Jeanine Tesori and
David Lindsay-Abaire, who also wrote the show's book, this incarnation of
Shrek is directed by
Jason Moore and choreographed by
Josh Prince. The tuner stars
Brian d'Arcy James,
Sutton Foster and
Daniel Breaker.
Critics were mixed.
The best review came from
USA Today's
Elysa Gardner, who embraced the show with three and a half (out of four) stars: "Like other musical adaptations of hit films,
Shrek, which opened Sunday at the Broadway Theatre, leans heavily on winking satire. There are the usual nods to more fully realized shows, from
Gypsy to
A Chorus Line, and Jeanine Tesori's blandly ingratiating score doesn't feature any songs you're likely to be humming 20 years from now. But
Shrek, which draws from
William Steig's book about a lovable ogre and the
DreamWorks animated movie that it inspired, is nonetheless a triumph of comic imagination with a heart as big and warm as Santa's. It is the most ingeniously wacky, transcendently tasteless Broadway musical since
The Producers, and more family-friendly than that gag-fest."
Calling it "sweet and busy, nice and big, and, every so often, extremely lovable,"
Newsday's
Linda Winer is lukewarm: "The fact that
Shrek makes us think more about its market than its achievements, alas, says something about the shortage of real inspiration in the show itself. Director Jason Moore's production has an extraordinary cast -- including Brian d'Arcy James as a deeply endearing hulk of an ogre -- and marvelous prosthetics for the swamp-green monster with the plunger ears and Cyrano nose. But given the beloved source, not to mention a seriously bright creative team, we can be forgiven for expecting more than a paint-by-numbers fractured fairy tale from DreamWorks' first challenge to
Disney on Broadway."
Despite concluding that "
Shrek: The Musical plays it safe,"
New York Post's
Barbara Hoffman awards three out of four stars: "[I]t takes nearly all of Act 1 before
Shrek: The Musical starts to sing. And when it does, it truly comes alive.... With a soft Scottish drawl that hews close to Mike Myers' original, Brian d'Arcy James gives us a multilayered ogre -- a mix of vexation, anger, humor and woe -- made all the more amazing by the fact he's emoting through green rubber. He has a fine voice and a warm rapport with Princess Fiona (the unsinkable Sutton Foster)."
Noting how
Shrek "certainly has things to like, even if it's sometimes ungainly,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News offers a mixed assessment: "When (Foster)'s onstage singing, dancing or burping (Fiona's a princess, but not so fair), the production comes close to achieving liftoff. But by and large, it stays earthbound - fine, not great. The same goes for the score by lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire and composer Jeanine Tesori. It never soars, but the songs are pleasant and fit the story."
Branding it a "leaden fairy-tale-theme costume party,"
The New York Times'
Ben Brantley is not completely dismissive: "Aside from a few jolly sequences (nearly all featuring the hypertalented Ms. Foster), this cavalcade of storybook effigies feels like 40 blocks’ worth of a
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, accompanied by an exhaustingly jokey running commentary.
Shrek, for the record, is not bad. The maiden Broadway venture of DreamWorks Theatricals (a stage-oriented arm of the company that made the movie), in association with Neal Street Productions, it is definitely a cut above the most recent offerings from its creators’ direct competitor in cartoon-inspired musicals, Walt Disney."
Asking, "Why isn’t
Shrek the Musical great?" Bloomberg's
John Simon is every bit as tepid: "The good news is that it is done very well; the bad news is that it is done at all. When is the musical theater going to learn to let cartoons lie? Not that William Steig’s original book and its serial movie animations are bad, but they are terminally self-sufficient. A big, expensive Broadway musical needs to have grown-up as well as kiddie appeal.... Under Jason Moore’s sprightly direction, the performances are uniformly engaging. Multitalented d’Arcy James’s Shrek is as lovable as an ogre with bad breath and other odors can be, and then some. As Fiona -- even after sundown, when she turns into an unsightly ogress -- Foster is as enchanting as ever, with unbeatable comic timing and singing and dancing to match."
Given last week's dismal box office --
Shrek only attracted a capacity of just 52.3% -- producers had to be hoping for much better reviews than they received. They'll now have to pin their hopes on building buzz among Broadway audiences if they're to make it past January.
This is Steve On Broadway.
Labels: Brian d'Arcy James, Critics' Capsule, Daniel Breaker, David Lindsay-Abaire, Jason Moore, Jeanine Tesori, Josh Prince, Musical, Shrek The Musical, Sutton Foster
Fairy Tale Beginning? Shrek Opens On BroadwayAt long last, the journey from
book to
film -- well, actually three of them -- to Broadway tuner is complete as
Shrek The Musical opens Sunday.
Based on
William Steig's 32-page children's read "Shrek!" this incarnation features a score by
Jeanine Tesori and
David Lindsay-Abaire, who also wrote the show's libretto. Helmed by
Jason Moore and choreographed by
Josh Prince,
Shrek The Musical stars
Brian d'Arcy James as the eponymous ogre and
Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona.
Of course, considerable
early press focused on major casting changes since the initial Seattle tryout; both
Chester Gregory II and
Kecia Lewis-Evans are long since out, but
Daniel Breaker is now in. More recently, as
Chris Caggiano noted in his early middling review over on
Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals, a December 2 preview was canceled to allow for even more substantive changes.
Will critics respond well to the revisions? Find out tomorrow as I post my critics' capsule.
This is Steve On Broadway.
Labels: Brian d'Arcy James, Broadway, Daniel Breaker, David Lindsay-Abaire, Film, Jason Moore, Jeanine Tesori, Musical, Opening Night, Shrek The Musical, Sutton Foster
Broadway Preview: Shrek The MusicalI don't mean to be an ogre, but could it be that I'm the only living person who hasn't seen any of the
Shrek movies?
I'm not exactly sure why I never took them in, but the longer I've gone, the less interested I've become. Perhaps I've avoided them because I've been told that they're too smarmy for their own good, and I've never been able to shake that notion.
So it's against that backdrop that I find myself less than excited about the upcoming
Shrek The Musical, which already begins its
out-of-town tryout next month in Seattle at the city's 5th Avenue Theatre -- the very same venue that proudly launched
Hairspray six years ago.
The 5th Avenue Theatre describes their tryout:
This summer, the most beloved swamp-dwelling ogre of all time will make his theatrical debut in the World Premiere of Shrek The Musical, at The 5th Avenue Theatre. This all-new production is based on Shrek’s adventures in the classic William Steig book and Oscar-winning film. Joining Shrek on his journey from the swamp to the stage will be his wisecracking sidekick Donkey, Princess Fiona, Lord Farquaad and a chorus of everybody’s favorite fairytale creatures. With more layers than ever and a completely original new score, Shrek The Musical proves there’s more to the story than meets the ears.
Shrek The Musical is due to land at the Main Stem's
Broadway Theatre in time for previews starting November 11, with an opening night slated for December 14.
Now, if there
is anything to get excited about, it's that
Jeanine Tesori (
Caroline, Or Change) is writing the music for its score. The fact that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
David Lindsay-Abaire (
Rabbit Hole) is supplying the lyrics and book should also have me intrigued, but we all know what happend during his
previous musical effort. Knowing a thing or two about monsters is Tony nominated director
Jason Moore (
Avenue Q), who helms the show, yet the choreography comes from Broadway first-timer
Josh Prince. You see, everything I see as good is somehow tempered.
OK, another positive is that the criminally underused, Tony-nominated
Brian d'Arcy James returns to Broadway in the title role. Tony-winning actress
Sutton Foster will portray Princess Fiona; regular readers
will recall that it wasn't until my
fourth attempt to see her that she was actually performing in a show, but on the plus side, I thought she was incredibly talented when I finally saw her. Other cast members include the Tony-nominated
Christopher Sieber as Lord Farquaad,
Chester Gregory II as the Donkey,
Kecia Lewis-Evans as the Dragon and the Tony-nominated
John Tartaglia as Pinocchio.
Nevertheless, with the lackluster critical success of recent
film translations to the stage, along with some early
negative press already appearing in some important quarters, I'm left still feeling a bit like a bogeyman.
So, I ask you, dear readers. Should I bite the bullet and see the "Shrek" trilogy on film? Will it have me thirsting for the stage incarnation?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for Shrek Seattle tickets.Click here for Shrek Broadway tickets.Related Stories:Is It Just Me, Or... (Part III) (January 22, 2008)
Labels: Brian d'Arcy James, Broadway, Chester Gregory II, Christopher Sieber, David Lindsay-Abaire, Film, Jason Moore, Jeanine Tesori, John Tartaglia, Musical, Seattle, Shrek The Musical, Sutton Foster
