By Barbara & Scott Siegel…
A Summer Sampling: Once Upon a Mattress, Job, Forbidden Broadway, and More!
Before all hell breaks loose with a flood of new shows opening between October and Christmas, we thought we would share some thoughts with you on the shows that came in under the Autumn wire. These are shows — Broadway and Off-Broadway — that took the chance to establish themselves and get some recognition and a foothold in the marketplace when there wasn’t quite so much competition. The best contemporary example of a show that did just that was Hairspray. It opened during the Summer of 2002 and became an established hit, having the field to itself and running for months without any new competition; It ultimately won a slew of Tony Awards. Now that Fall has just begun, let’s look back at some of what this past Summer has wrought…
On Broadway, the big Summer surprise is the revival of Once Upon a Mattress, starring Sutton Foster in the role that made Carol Burnett a star. To be frank, though we love Sutton Foster, we went to see this with low expectations. We had seen the first Broadway revival of the show in 1996 with Sarah Jessica Parker and it played like a one-joke skit. But the City Center Encores retooling of the show earlier this year (which we did not see), obviously worked some wonders.
This time we adored the show. It was hip and hilarious with a new and wonderfully witty adaptation of the script by Amy Sherman-Palladino. Lear deBessonet’s direction is crisp and clever. And the casting is heaven. Sutton Foster as Princess Winnifred has never been more fun to watch; she looks like she’s having a grand time and that feeling is infectious. Michael Urie as Prince Dauntless tosses off comic lines and bits of shtick with a winning charm; he’s a perfect foil for Sutton. The cast is so strong that Ben Davis, the understudy for Will Chase as Sir Harry, who went on at our performance, almost stole the show. We’ve seen Ben Davis in everything from La Boheme on Broadway to Violet, but never in a comedy before; he’s a stitch! Once Upon a Mattress is already on our list as aTony Nominee for Best Revival.
On the dramatic front, the Summer transfer from Off-Broadway to Broadway of Job at The Hayes Theater was a smart move — and it’s a smart play. This two-hander by Max Wolf Friedlich might remind playgoers with a long memory of David Mamet’s Oleanna, at least insofar as its basic plot structure is concerned. We’re not going to describe the plot in any detail for fear of giving too much away, but suffice it to say, the interplay between a psychologist (Peter Friedman) and a crazed would-be patient (Sydney Lemmon) is rich with surprises.
But the joy of the piece is the acting. Peter Friedman has performed on and off Broadway for decades, most memorably in shows like The Common Pursuit, The Heidi Chronicles, and Ragtime. He’s an actor’s actor and it is a joy to watch him work. Sydney Lemmon, previously unknown to us but apparently the big draw as a film star, was an exquisite surprise. Tall and thin, she used her body to great effect, both comic and threatening, and she held her own with Mr. Friedman, which is a compliment in and of itself.
Job runs at The Hayes Theater on West 44th Street till October 27th. You might make it your Job to see it.
Now let’s talk about some things that opened this Summer Off-Broadway. And there is no place better to begin than Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song.
The Forbidden Broadway musical comedy revue franchise began in 1982 and it has regularly returned with periodic new versions throughout the decades that followed. It’s original creator and writer, Gerard Alessandrini is still at it, and – amazingly – the work is as fresh, clever, and laugh-out-loud funny as anything else he has ever written. Comedy gets no respect and parody, while beloved, gets even less, but we’re telling you, Mr. Alessandrini has consistently been among the very top lyricists in musical theater for more than forty years. And his series is a diamond in musical theater’s jewel box.
This edition of Forbidden Broadway spoofs everything from The Outsiders to Cabaret (Danny Hayward’s take on Eddie Redmayne is one of the revue’s many highlights), and from Sondheim to Suffs (Jenny Lee Stern’s version of Shaina Taub is a dead-on riot).
And full disclosure, we work with Jenny Lee Stern, hiring her whenever we can for our concert work. And she’s glorious in our shows. But what she does in this edition of Forbidden Broadway is nothing short of astonishing in its breadth of comic versatility. Her physical performance is awesomely funny, her vocal performance will blow you away, and her comic acting is unmatched in today’s theater. She’s that good, Good? No great! What better recommendation of her talent is that we originally saw her in an earlier edition of Forbidden Broadway and sought her out then and there. And have used her ever since. Now, that’s really full disclosure!
Jenny Lee Stern leads a strong cast full of very talented musical comedy performers, including the aforementioned Danny Hayward, plus the wonderfully zany Chris Collins-Pisano, and a strong-voiced Nicole Vanessa Ortiz.
Simply put, anybody who loves the theater owes it to themselves to see this new edition of Forbidden Broadway. It’s a Theater 555 on West 42nd near 11th Avenue.
Now, two shows that played over the Summer and have closed…
Empire at New World Stages was ambitious; we’ll give it that. But we won’t give it much more than that. The actual story of the construction of The Empire State Building and the people who built it is truly fascinating. And some of that history gets told. But Empire otherwise unfolds in a muddled, oftentimes confusing way. We were disappointed. And we’ll say no more.
The York Theater, that venerable and much-beloved Off-Broadway theater company that only produces musicals, has a full four show season of its acclaimed NEW2NY series, which premieres, in short runs, worthy musicals that have either never been produced or have never had their shot at a New York venue. We caught one of them (so far), a very impressive musical that won all sorts of awards when it played on the West Coast a few years ago, but didn’t make the cross-country move until early this September. The show is called Twist of Fate, with book and lyrics by Lissa Levin and music by Ron Abel.
Another full disclosure. We often work with Ron Abel, who also music directed Twist of Fate. We also work with three of the show’s actors. We’ll say again that we are already clearly convinced of their talent or we wouldn’t use them.
Based on a true story of Gypsy fortune teller arrested for foretelling the future and the Free Speech legal defense that followed, the book takes some considerable liberties, some wise, some not, but the tale is nevertheless compelling. Levin’s lyrics, likewise, are sometimes sharp, snappy and biting, and sometimes too predictable or on the nose, but even so they are far better (overall) than what you often hear these days in big budget Broadway musicals.
While it came as no surprise to us, Ron Abel’s music was sensational. Backed with a small band that featured a winning combination of violin, guitar, bass and drums, the score throbbed with energy and passion. From the overture that starts the show, you simply felt drawn in to the tale by the music that surrounded it.
The show starred Lianne Marie Dobbs as the Gypsy who gets arrested, a role one would think was written for her (It’s not true, but still you’d think it). We know and work with Lianne and her songs sat right in the center of her Linda Eder-like voice. Her vocals were simply thrilling — and her songs were among the best in the show, as well. Another one of our A-list performers is Ben Jones and he starred as the lawyer who defends our heroine. Making his Off-Broadway debut, this acclaimed singer/actor soars on his songs, especially in the second act. It was a pleasure to see him spread his musical theater wings in this show.
The third actor we have extensively worked with is Jillian Louis who, unfortunately for us and the audience, was out sick the night we saw the show. We know how great she is, so we were disappointed not to get the chance to see her in action.
We do want to highlight one other performer we have never seen before: Maya Lagerstam. This young woman, who plays Lianne’s daughter in the show, has a clarion voice that is both beautiful and powerful. A real find!
While this strong musical, which had the opportunity to get up on its feet for the first time in NY, has its flaws, they are not prohibitive and they are entirely fixable. More than that, it’s musicality, intriguing story, and talented cast all speak to the elements we all love in a musical. We foretell that it’s fate will be another longer, critically acclaimed run!
