As one of popular entertainment's reigning jesters, Ferrell took to "The Late Show With David Letterman" last evening and joked he was taking over for Zeta-Jones and then offers his own comical rendition of "Send In The Clowns."
If they ever decide to revive Sondheim On Sondheim, they already have plenty of new fodder for that YouTube segment.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
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You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush (The SOB Review) - Cort Theatre, New York, New York
* (out of ****)
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 Bushhas 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. Yet its greatest offense is its crass, jokey use of the N word (Ferrell's Bush confuses the name of a certain African country with the worst epithet in the English language).
Replete with even more costume changes than Liza Minnelli had during her recent Great White Way outing, You're Welcome America dulls down into one of those overextended Saturday Night Live sketches that appears late in the program and swaggers sharply into obscurity. 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's not quite ready for a prime Broadway berth.
Most critics' reviews rolled out the welcome mat for Ferrell with one notable exception.
Praising the show as "a cathartic, almost cleansing farewell," David Rooney of Variety claims that the show never descends into mean-spirited diatribe: "Ferrell delivers what's basically an extended 'SNL' political sketch grafted out of the easiest target in comedy.... [I]t's the kind of incisive 'SNL' sketch we haven't seen much of lately -- a fast-paced, well-sustained near-90 minutes that's consistently funny and invigoratingly rude.... [I]t's in the more fanciful satirical detours that Ferrell soars highest."
Proclaiming "mission accomplished," Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's Daily News awards four out of five stars: "Getting to see this comic whiz in the flesh is a big treat, and the fact that Ferrell has been able to squeeze so many fresh yuks from the beleaguered Bush legacy speaks to his always off-kilter, sometimes raunchy, imagination.... If some sequences run out of steam, another laugh is looming just around the bend."
Calling Ferrell "terrific -- sly and subtle, even brave," Newsday's Linda Winer offers a critical welcome: "(The show) has arrived right on time for both silly fun and smart summing-up of an epoch the country just voted overwhelmingly to change. Foolish comedy is deftly mixed with tough political satire in what is not, strictly speaking, a solo."
Surprised that "the ex-president turns out to be a hell of a lot of fun to hang with," Frank Scheck for New York Post awards three out of four stars: "Granted, the generally lowbrow humor of You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush is hardly cutting-edge political satire. Basically a (nearly) solo extended sketch, it's theatrical comfort food for Broadway audiences who want to see one of their favorite comic actors live."
Noting that "Sometimes it’s really funny, and sometimes it sort of sags. I laughed, I yawned," The New York Times' Ben Brantley offers a mixed assessment comparing it to Ferrell's more middling movies: "[T]he actor provides a critic-proof demonstration of the art that has endeared him to millions of fans around the world: the art of acting stupid, shrewdly, for fun and profit. Some might say that this is a talent shared by the man Mr. Ferrell impersonates. But the George W. Bush of You’re Welcome America ... is just stupid, without the shrewdness.... Mr. Ferrell’s Bush is less exact imitation than loopy extrapolation. And the show feels freshest when he goes off on surreal tangents that transport his blundering hero into the ether of pure absurdism."
Concluding that "Ferrell's mission ought to have been aborted," USA Today's Elysa Gardner pans the show with one and a half stars out of four: "It's tough to say who should be more offended by You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush: the 43rd president's most ardent admirers or his most rigorous critics.... No one familiar with Ferrell's work would expect in-depth political satire. He tries instead to provoke through tastelessness and goofy outrageousness, practices that certainly have long and distinguished traditions in comedy. But Ferrell's shots both overreach and fail to sting."
Perhaps to Brantley's point, this very limited run show is critic-proof from the get-go, so it appears that most of them just sat back, relaxed and let 'er roll. I'll be taking in a performance over the next couple of weeks and will let you know if I shared their general enthusiasm.
It's time for a change in America, but not without a few parting words from the 43rd President of the United States. Don’t miss your chance to discover the man behind the myth, the truth behind the lies, and the logic behind the illogical in the outrageous limited Broadway event.
Staged at Rialto's Cort Theatre, You're Welcome America is written by Ferrell, who stars as his most famous impersonation. Helmed by Adam McKay and choreographed by Matt Williams, the comedy features Michael Delaney as Dr. Scott Blumeth, Pia Glenn as Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Adam Mucci as a Pilot, and the lead actor's own sibling Patrick Ferrell as a Secret Service Operative. Perhaps most intriguing credit of all is the one for Flying by Foy, which is supplying flying effects.
Ferrell is one of the few SNL actors to receive an Emmy nomination for his work on the late night comedy shows. Certainly, his extraordinary gift for mimicking the mighty no doubt contributed to that distinction.
The big question about tonight's show is whether critics will give 43 a go one more time, or will they wish Ferrell had simply given it a rest. Find out tomorrow as I provide my critics' capsule.
Rain: A Tribute To The Beatles Limited run extended through May 31, 2011 (Show will go on hiatus starting January 15 and reopen at Brooks Atkinson Theatre on February 8)
Rock Of Ages - Open-ended run (Show will go on hiatus starting January 9 and reopen at Helen Hayes Theatre in March)
As someone who has been involved in both politics and public relations, it's no wonder I love watching theatre. Good or bad, it's the raw energy of seeing a live performance that gets my adrenaline pumping. From the moment I saw my very first Broadway show ("Annie" in London in 1979), I was hooked. Now I see as many as 70 shows each year ranging from soaring musicals to two-hander plays. And these eyes just may be in an audience near you!
