Tony Officially Shuts Out LoveMusik, Legally Blonde From the "Why Can't We All Just Get Along" file, this year's
Tony broadcast just can't seem to get a break with decent news coverage. Perhaps it could if players involved didn't air their dirty laundry quite so publicly.
The latest dust-up occurred a couple days ago when the Tony producers nixed a plan to feature song performances from
LoveMusik and
Legally Blonde -- you know, the two viable shows that had been in the running for the coveted also-ran nod in the category of Best Musical until
Mary Poppins claimed it.
According to
New York Post's Michael Riedel, CBS had been pushing the idea to include performances to liven up the show and initially received the green light from the American Theatre Wing's
Howard Sherman. But the broadcast's producers put the kibosh on that for fear that including non-nominated works would open the floodgates to other shows demanding their time on the broadcast.
Arguing for an expansion of tune offerings,
The Playgoer's Garrett Eisler succinctly notes: "Maybe they should...just dazzle us for two hours with great performances." While Tony broadcasts have traditionally been viewed by a narrow slice of Americans, you'd think that Broadway would use the telecast to its advantage by enabling its cherished viewers to see as wide a swath as possible.
On the related topic of the Tonys, you'll now find four new polls in which I ask you to name the featured actors and actresses from both plays and musicals you believe will win the Tony Award on June 10. After voting, feel free to comment on why.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Tony Box Office Bumps (May 21, 2007)
Tony Award Nominations Announced (May 15, 2007)
Labels: Blogs, Broadway, Legally Blonde, LoveMusik, Mary Poppins, Michael Riedel, Musical, The Playgoer, Tony Awards
Did Critics LoveMusik?
Look no further than
New York Post's
Clive Barnes, who opines in his three-star review: "If, in the remarkable -- no, sensational -- hands of both Donna Murphy as Lenya and Michael Cerveris as Weill, the music comes off more convincingly than the love, that was ultimately the story of their lives....The book is frankly clunky. But time and time again it is luckily resuscitated by the music and the altogether remarkable performances from the whole cast under Harold Prince's inspired direction."
Calling it a "daring new musical,"
Newday's
Linda Winer is mostly positive: "The show has its problems, some inherent in the range of Weill's music, and a few that seem to be almost willfully wrong-headed choices by director Harold Prince and author Alfred Uhry. But its strengths -- especially the courageous, ruggedly brilliant performances by Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy -- are far more haunting than the flaws are troubling."
The first review posted
before last night's performance even began came from
Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press, who in calling the production "uneven yet fascinating" goes on to say: "[T]he production -- much of it based on letters between Weill and Lenya -- still feels unfinished and uncertain....Cerveris and Murphy dominate. Both have undergone startling physical transformations and both are flawless in their Teutonic accents -- which does make the English lyrics a little more difficult to understand....Prince presents the show as if it were a revue, a series of sketches depicting the lives of these unique people. There is a mock proscenium within the real proscenium of the Biltmore to underscore the artificiality of the storytelling."
Offering a surprising assessment that
LoveMusik "is sluggish, tedious and (hold your breath) unmissable,"
The New York Times'
Ben Brantley notes: "Donna Murphy and Michael Cerveris turn in stunningly shaded performances that hold their own in a season notable for its surprisingly high standard of celebrity character studies....How you wish, though, that they weren’t trapped in the struggle between Alfred Uhry’s conventionally sentimental book and Mr. Prince’s self-consciously jaded staging."
Calling it "ambitious but schizophrenic,"
Eric Grode of
The New York Sun laments: "
LoveMusik comes tantalizingly close to explaining how the son of a cantor and a former child prostitute formed one of the 20th century's most curious romances. Ironically, though, the project is foiled by the very thing that made it so tempting in the first place -- Weill's own versatility....This embarrassment of lyrical riches stymies Messrs. Prince and Uhry, who are left with a stylistic smorgasbord that continuously wriggles free of any unified tone and leaves the complexities of the Weill-Lenya relationship unexplored."
All these reviews would seem to suggest that the nominations the show has already received were deserved. Whether or not audiences will gravitate toward this unusual musical remains to be seen.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Alfred Uhry, Critics' Capsule, David Pittu, Donna Murphy, Hal Prince, LoveMusik, Michael Cerveris, Musical
LoveMusik? Check Out MTC's Opening Night
Will critics love this musical? I'll be reporting on their reviews tomorrow.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Alfred Uhry, Broadway, David Pittu, Donna Murphy, Hal Prince, LoveMusik, Michael Cerveris, Musical, Opening Night
Pittu's Hit Parade Leads To LoveMusik
Have you ever seen an actor, of whom you've never previously heard anything, who blows you away -- so much and so positively -- that you know you'll never forget them? Actor
David Pittu, who is currently part of the phenomenal cast of
The Coast Of Utopia, is one such actor.
I first caught Pittu when I took in the 2000 tour of the Uhry/
Jason Robert Brown musical
Parade. Pittu absolutely took my breath away with his brilliant portrayal of the tragic Leo Frank. It should be noted that critics hailed Pittu's breakthrough performance and largely credited him for helping the tour succeed in measurable ways that surpassed the original Broadway production. Pittu was so superb that he was honored with the
National Broadway Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Pittu's addition to the cast of
LoveMusik is enough to push me toward purchasing a ticket. Previews for the show begin on April 12; the musical opens on May 3 at the
Biltmore Theatre.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for ticket information. Related Stories:
Labels: Alfred Uhry, Broadway, David Pittu, Donna Murphy, Hal Prince, Jason Robert Brown, LoveMusik, Michael Cerveris, Musical, Parade
