The SOB Five "Worst" Of 2007-08As
noted yesterday, I've been extremely fortunate to take in 84 different performances of 81 various productions during the course of the 2007-08 Theatrical Season.
Since I'm
not given freebie tickets, instead paying for them all out of my own pocket, you can bet that I'm hoping beyond hope to be entertained by every single one of them. Even though there's really no such thing as a bad night at the theatre -- after all, you have to see some real dogs (my apologies to my pooches Henne and Fargo) to truly appreciate the best -- I've still managed to see some downright awful shows.
Since I paid for every last ticket and still take no paid advertising, I'm taking advantage of my right to free speech by offering up my third annual list of the "5 Worst" shows I saw. I may as well unleash all my inner negativism now before moving on to all the wonderful shows that have made my "Best of" lists.
And so, without any further ado, here are the
SOB Five Worst of 2007-08:
5 - Cry-Baby (Marquis Theatre, New York, NY)
Is it fair to count a performance of
Cry-Baby when it was just
three weeks into previews among my worst? Well, if they can charge me to see a bad show, I can include it on my list, and there was nothing about it that made me want to return once the show opened. I can only hope it actually improved, given its Tony nominations. Despite its multi-million dollar budget, this new musical quite incredibly comes across as a poor man's
Grease with its tired good girl gone gaga for bad boy premise. Sadly, the latest
John Waters-inspired Broadway musical
Cry-Baby is trashy fun. Without the fun.
4 - Gone With The Wind (New London Theatre, London, UK)
A flop of epic proportions, I understand that they're still chiseling away at this show a month after it opened in hopes of avoiding all their capitalization from becoming
Gone With The Wind. Although purely unintentional, this ranks as one of the year's funniest laugh-out loud musicals. Simply put, writer/sociologist
Margaret Martin and director
Trevor Nunn fail to deliver a compelling musical that can stand on its own. Their efforts have added nothing to the art of live theatre except endless exposition. Do we really need a narrator telling us that Miss Scarlett is about to look at herself in the mirror when we can see that for ourselves, or worse, having her step over dying soldiers rolling around on the stage who suddenly rise up to tell us they're all dying? Funny, yet sad at the same time.
3 - The Ritz (Studio 54, New York, NY)
The flaccid revival of
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz was low on shock value, except for how dull and lifeless it was. Ranking as one of director
Joe Mantello's most disappointing efforts yet, the only real highlight came near the end of the first act when its whacked-out Googie (
Rosie Perez) took to the stage of
The Ritz baths to sing an insipid, if it weren't so inspired, medley of tunes slapped together from the deviously clever mind of
Seth Rudetsky. For one brief enjoyable moment,
The Ritz thrilled before reverting back to the facile facscimile it was.
2 - Glory Days (Circle In The Square Theatre, New York, NY)
In retrospect,
I was far too kind to the subpar, threadbare 90-minute
Glory Days that dared to call itself a Broadway musical. The show vanished immediately after opening night. If not for the worst show of the year, the ill-fated
Glory Days ironically would have achieved that dubious distinction. Coming across as not even quite half-finished, this is not the type of show that should have so easily or quickly been catapulted directly to the Broadway spotlight from a regional theatre. The show could easily have been mounted by an Off Off-Broadway house and attracted an appropriate youthful audience it was clearly targeting without having the audacity to charge $100 or more per ticket. No glory there.
1 - Triple Espresso (Music Box Theatre, Minneapolis, MN)
Bad to the very last drop,
Triple Espresso was an inexplicably long-running musical revue about an eponymous comedy trio reuniting after 25 years. After running over a decade, it apparently had been percolating so long, it lost all its taste. The warmed-over schlock simultaneously tasted like it had been on the burner way too long without ever having been fully brewed to begin with.
So, there you have them: SOB's choices for the "5 Worst" shows I endured during the 2007-08 Theatrical Season. As I've stated in previous years:
Of course, this is all in the eye 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).
Related Stories:SOB's Best & Worst Of 2007-08 Theatre Season (May 22, 2008)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Top Ten Of The Year (June 4, 2007)
SOB's Best of 2006-07: Best Special Theatrical Events (May 23, 2007)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best New Musicals (May 22, 2007)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best New Plays (May 21, 2007)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best Revivals Of Musicals (May 18, 2007)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best Revivals Of Plays (May 16, 2007)
The SOB Five "Worst" Of 2006-07 (May 14, 2007)
SOB's Best & Worst Of 2006-07 Theatre Season (May 14, 2007)
SOB's Best of 2005-06: #1 - Theater Of The New Ear (May 30, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #2 – Guys And Dolls (May 26, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #3 – Hedda Gabler (May 25, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #4 – A Blameless Life (May 24, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #5 – Reeling (May 23, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #6 – “MASTER HAROLD”…And The Boys (May 21, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #7 – Love Song (May 19, 2006)
SOB's Best of 2005-06: #8 - Billy Elliot The Musical (May 18, 2006)
SOB's Best of 2005-06: #9 - The Well-Appointed Room (May 17, 2006)
SOB's Best of 2005-06: #10 - Sweeney Todd (May 15, 2006)
SOB's Best and Worst of 2005-06 Theatre Season (May 12, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2004-05 (May 26, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2003-04 (May 25, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2002-03 (May 25, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2001-02 (May 24, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2000-01 (May 23, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Cry-Baby, Glory Days, Gone With The Wind, London, Minneapolis/St. Paul, SOB Best of 2007-08, SOB Five Worst of 2007-08, The Ritz, Triple Espresso
The Ritz (The SOB Review) - Studio 54, New York, NY* (out of ****)I hate it when I waste good money. I hate it even more when I see good talent wasted.
Both occurred when I checked out the latest, limp revival of
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz.
I can honestly say that this is the least satisfying show I've seen all year. The only thing truly shocking about this revival was how dull and lifeless it was. It ranks as one of director
Joe Mantello's most disappointing efforts yet, and makes his lackluster revival of
The Odd Couple seem like an all-out triumph.
For starters, with dated cultural touchstone references ranging from
Margaret Dumont to the
Andrews Sisters, the material feels as creaky as an unlubricated floor. As a farce, it's ridiculously predictable and flaccid. And despite all those hard bodies, it's anything but titillating, especially since this den of iniquity is showcased (via
Scott Pask's set design) with all the sterility of a doctor's office.
To be frank, I was bored silly even with the literally ball-busting turns by
Rosie Perez as Googie Gomez and
Kevin Chamberlin as Gaetano Proclo. A caricature of herself, Googie aspires to the type of
Bette Midleresque fame that could only originate in the bowels of the 70s gay baths. She's so bad that she's a wonder.
Googie meets up with fish-out-of-water Gaetano, thinking he's the producer who's going to provide her big show biz break, while in reality, he's hiding out in
The Ritz, ironically enough, to avoid getting whacked. The joke is that this is the last place on earth his brother-in-law would look. If only.
The only real highlight of this play is near the end of the first act when whacked-out Googie takes to the stage of
The Ritz and sings an insipid if it weren't so inspired medley of tunes slapped together from the deviously clever mind of
Seth Rudetsky. For one brief enjoyable moment,
The Ritz thrills before reverting back to the facile facscimile it is.
I can only wonder how truly awful the
first revival of
The Ritz had to be in order to close after just one night. I'm glad I don't have to find out.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Critics Check-In To The Ritz (October 12, 2007)
Vulture Scoops Up Kevin Chamberlin (October 11, 2007)
Tonight: Puttin' On The Ritz (October 11, 2007)
Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths (May 31, 2007)
Labels: Joe Mantello, Kevin Chamberlin, Play, Revival, Rosie Perez, Terrence McNally, The Ritz, The SOB Review
Critics Check-In To The RitzLast evening, the second revival of
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz opened at
Studio 54. With one notable exception, critics on the whole seemed more eager for their check-out.
Hailing the revival as "even funnier" this go round in his three-and-a-half star review,
New York Post's
Clive Barnes is the most solidly positive: "McNally's written the best (
Georges) Feydeau farce since Feydeau, where eccentrics in seedy hotels chase one another wildly in search of love, or at least sex, in a merry-go-round of misunderstanding....Director
Joe Mantello, always in tune with McNally, has gotten a perfect ensemble performance. The adorable (
Kevin) Chamberlin is pitch-perfect as Proclo....But if you need just one reason to visit
The Ritz, I can give it to you in two words:
Rosie Perez."
Calling it a "spirited if essentially hollow revival,"
Rob Kendt in
Newsday offers a tepid review: "Of course,
The Ritz doesn't run on such poignance but on Swiss-watch comic timing. At its best, Mantello's cast whirls around
Scott Pask's multi-storied set like figures on a cuckoo-clock face, with the fey, needy Chris (
Brooks Ashmanskas) as a kind of benign ringmaster. But for all the spring in its step, the play can't help but show its age."
While noting that the "hilarity seems a little forced," the Associated Press'
Justin Bergman offers a mildly positive review: "McNally captured that 1970s underground gay sex scene so remarkably well, it feels fresh and lively three decades later. This probably has as much to do with the
Roundabout Theatre Company's ambitious restaging of
The Ritz on Broadway, though, as it does with McNally's play. The Roundabout has assembled a delightful cast, including Rosie Perez, Kevin Chamberlin and former gay porn star
Ryan Idol who looks far too comfortable dressed only in a sheer white towel."
Dismissing it as a "sporadically funny revival
," The New York Times'
Ben Brantley sniffs: "Well, yesterday’s dirt, as is often the case, has become today’s dust. This latest revival of
The Ritz...is cute, cuddly and often oddly inert....Stripped of the amyl-nitrite-scented clouds of novelty that clung to it 32 years ago, the show is exposed as a friendly, conventional sitcom for the stage. And though it features ace performances by Ms. Perez and by Kevin Chamberlin as a visitor from the planet of the heteros, Joe Mantello’s direction rarely revs up to the dizzy velocity that farce demands."
Complaining "how seldom the fitfully funny comedy gets off the ground,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News writes: "Director Joe Mantello is aces at creating still moments....Mantello is less skillful when things are in motion. Slapstick chases and physical business, like when Googie accosts Proclo on a bed, are clumsy. What should be airy ends up a cement soufflé. Chamberlin, a fine comic actor, sets the wrong tone. He's too low-key lovable and not jangled enough. Perez injects Spanglish, spark and spunk, especially in her intentionally off-key medley, a scene that now suffers from been- there, seen-this, a million times."
Lamenting that its original "outrageousness now feels a little mummified,"
David Rooney of
Variety pans: "Terrence McNally's 1975 comedy mostly groans along as a pallid echo of a time both wilder and more innocent, when gay sex was still a risque subject. As in his starry but unsatisfying revival of
The Odd Couple two seasons back, Joe Mantello's slick direction is not always employed to best effect in comedy. In his overproduced staging of
The Ritz, he plays it broad, fast and loud but reveals no feel for farce, which requires a deft balance of giddiness and precision that also eludes most of his cast. What's more distressing, however, is that Mantello lacks any special insight into the era so affectionately captured by McNally."
Unlike the
last, ill-fated revival at another former disco den called
Xenon, this revival will move beyond one regular performance. I'll be taking in the show shortly and providing my SOB Review soon after.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Vulture Scoops Up Kevin Chamberlin (October 11, 2007)
Tonight: Puttin' On The Ritz (October 11, 2007)
Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths (May 31, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Joe Mantello, Kevin Chamberlin, Play, Revival, Rosie Perez, Terrence McNally, The Ritz
Vulture Scoops Up Kevin ChamberlinI've mentioned previously how much I admire the work of
Kevin Chamberlin. He's the number one reason (honest, I
swear) why I'm looking forward to seeing the revival of
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz, which opens this evening.
I first caught Chamberlin in the vastly underrated 1992 tuner
My Favorite Year. But when I really sat up and took notice was when he offered such a funny, yet heartfelt performance in
Dirty Blonde toward the beginning of this decade; it was no small wonder he earned a Tony nomination. He repeated that feat a year later with a nod for his work in
Seussical, with many thinking he was about the only good thing in that dud.
While he has three other Broadway credentials to his name, it's been over six long years since Chamberlin last opened on the Great White Way. Portraying Gaetano Proclo in
The Ritz, Chamberlin inherits a role originally created by the late
Jack Weston.
All that leads me to a great Q and A from
New York magazine's Vulture columnist Annsley Chapman, who probes Chamberlin on today's audience reactions to a 35 year old show set in a gay bath house. Interestingly enough, one female audience member was so scandalized by the content that Chamberlin said she had an altercation with the director. Chamberlin muses, "I mean, look at the poster, for God’s sake!"
I'll be taking in the show in the next few days. Look for my critics' capsule tomorrow morning.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Tonight: Puttin' On The Ritz (October 11, 2007)
Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths (May 31, 2007)
Flashback: Best of 2003-04 (May 25, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Dirty Blonde, Kevin Chamberlin, My Favorite Year, New York Magazine, Play, Revival, Seussical, Terrence McNally, The Ritz, Vulture
Tonight: Puttin' On The RitzIt's been 32 years since
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz first opened on the Great White Way.
Tonight, the revival of this steam sex farce opens at a venue that seem entirely apropos:
Studio 54. Helmed by
Joe Mantello -- arguably Broadway's current top director --
The Ritz stars
Kevin Chamberlin and
Rosie Perez.
The original production
ran for almost a year, but this limited run is scheduled through December 2.
Will the critics find the new production to be dated? Look for my critics' capsule tomorrow.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths (May 31, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Joe Mantello, Kevin Chamberlin, Opening Night, Play, Revival, Rosie Perez, Terrence McNally, The Ritz
Before The Holidays Strike?As
previously noted, a potential strike on Broadway looms as
Local One of the stagehands union (or International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) is renegotiating its contract -- that expired in July -- with the
League of American Theatres and Producers.
Despite the relatively collegial nature of the actual discussions
described as "businesslike and civil," there's an underlying threat that is likely causing incredible tension: the League has indicated that if they don't reach an agreement by the end of September, they will force a lockout in early October. What does that mean for theatre fans?
It could force
most of the Great White Way to go dark as early as October -- a time period when Broadway business is traditionally slower. That way, the League controls the timing as opposed to Local One, which could opt to strike during the very busy Holiday season that begins in earnest immediately prior to Thanksgiving.
Why most? Since
Roundabout Theatre Company,
Manhattan Theatre Company (MTC) and
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts are all not-for-profit organizations, their stagehands operate under different contracts.
Considering that the first two have the next three shows to open on Broadway --
Mauritius (October 4 at MTC's
Biltmore Theatre),
The Ritz (October 11 at Roundabout's
Studio 54) and
Pygmalion (October 18 at the Roundabout-leased
American Airlines Theatre) -- if you're looking for safe bets when buying theatre tickets, these would be the shows to see. Whether or not they're any good has yet to be determined.
Update (9/28/2007): The New York Times reports that Young Frankenstein, which will operate in a non-union theatre, and Mary Poppins will not be affected by any lockout or strike.As a loyal patron on Broadway and theatre in general, I don't have a dog in this fight. But since I'm holding tickets for several shows over the next few months, I'm hoping beyond hope that it doesn't come down to a lockout, which I'm fundamentally against.
Given the fact that the IATSE already has a contingency plan geared toward finding its members union work in television or film during any work stoppage, the only real loser in this fight will be the audience.
The audience is hardly an insignificant group, yet their interests aren't being represented by either side in this battle. The audience is not only paying higher ticket prices at the box office, but in many cases, especially around the Holidays, a substantial number are also incurring non-refundable airfares and exorbitant hotel rates (one of my regular readers told me that's she's paying over $500 per night just for a room in November).
And for what? The chance that they might come to the Big Apple only to learn that their show isn't even playing?!
Let's hope the two sides don't reach an impasse. If they do, they risk turning off the loyal theatregoing public that both sides need.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Thanks, Mel! (July 6, 2007)
Labels: Holiday, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, League of American Theatres and Producers, Local One, Mauritius, Pygmalion, Strike, The Ritz, Ticket Prices
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths
Talk about coming full circle. The erstwhile den of 70s hedonism --
Studio 54 -- is headed back in a decadent direction this fall as the
Roundabout Theatre Company transforms the space back to the gloryhole days of
The Ritz.
With
Joe Mantello at the helm, this will mark the second revival of
Terrence McNally's 1975 seminal steamy sex farce set in the Big Apple's gay baths --
the first revival, which opened at the onset of the AIDS crisis in May 1983, closed after one regular performance.
Previews for the revival are set to begin September 14, with the opening scheduled for October 11. The comedy will enjoy a limited run through December 2.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: First Word On New Show, Joe Mantello, Kevin Chamberlin, Play, Revival, Roundabout Theatre, Terrence McNally, The Ritz
The SOB Five "Worst" Of 2007-08
