paul's Broadway Musicals watch - October 2004
Fri, 29 Oct 2004, 10:01 amWalter Plinge4 posts in thread
paul's Broadway Musicals watch - October 2004
Fri, 29 Oct 2004, 10:01 amAs far away from Broadway as most of us are, here is an update of what musicals are currently on The Great White Way.
One Musical opened in October
Brooklyn
New Musical by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson (Broadway debuts)
Directed by Jeff Calhoun (Big River 2003 revival; Grease 1994 revival)
Featuring:
Cleavant Derricks – Double Tony Winner: Best Actor in a Musical 1982 “Dreamgirls”; Best Featured Actor in a Musical 1986 “Big Deal”. TV - “Sliders”.
Kevin Anderson – Nominee 1999 Tony Best Featured Actor “Death of a Salesman”
Sixteen other Musicals still running:
Dracula (Original 2004 Broadway Production)
Bombay Dreams (2004 Broadway version of London Production)
Fiddler on the Roof (2004 Revival)
Wonderful Town (2003 Revival)
Wicked (Original 2003 Broadway Production)
Avenue Q (Transferred from Off-Broadway in 2003)
MovinÂ’ Out (Original 2002 Broadway Production)
Hairspray (Original 2002 Broadway Production)
Mamma Mia! (2001 Broadway version of London Production)
42nd Street (2001 Revival – Closes 2 Jan 05)
The Producers (Original 2001 Broadway Production)
The Lion King (Original 1997 Broadway Production)
Chicago (1996 Revival)
Rent (Transferred from Off-Broadway in 1996)
Beauty and the Beast (Original 1994 Broadway Production)
The Phantom of the Opera (1988 Broadway version of London Production)
One musical closed in October
The Frogs - Only had a limited engagement.
Top Three Shows by Attendance (last four weeks)
Wicked – 57888
The Lion King – 55416
The Producers – 49798
Top Three Shows by Capacity (last four weeks)
Wicked – 100%
Avenue Q – 99.7%
Mamma Mia! – 98.6%
Bottom Three Shows by Attendance (last four weeks)
Dracula – 19722
Avenue Q – 25395
Rent – 29685
Bottom Three Shows by Capacity (last four weeks)
Dracula – 59.9%
Bombay Dreams – 62.2%
Wonderful Town – 65.7%
Coming Up
Pacific Overtures (Revival / Broadway version of Tokyo Production)
La Cage Aux Folles (Revival)
Little Women (New Musical)
Good Vibrations (New Catalogue Musical)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (New Musical)
Monty PythonÂ’s Spamalot (New Musical)
All Shook Up (New Catalogue Musical)
The Wiz (Revival)
The Light in the Piazza (New Musical)
Sweet Charity (Revival)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Broadway version of London Production)
One Musical opened in October
Brooklyn
New Musical by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson (Broadway debuts)
Directed by Jeff Calhoun (Big River 2003 revival; Grease 1994 revival)
Featuring:
Cleavant Derricks – Double Tony Winner: Best Actor in a Musical 1982 “Dreamgirls”; Best Featured Actor in a Musical 1986 “Big Deal”. TV - “Sliders”.
Kevin Anderson – Nominee 1999 Tony Best Featured Actor “Death of a Salesman”
Sixteen other Musicals still running:
Dracula (Original 2004 Broadway Production)
Bombay Dreams (2004 Broadway version of London Production)
Fiddler on the Roof (2004 Revival)
Wonderful Town (2003 Revival)
Wicked (Original 2003 Broadway Production)
Avenue Q (Transferred from Off-Broadway in 2003)
MovinÂ’ Out (Original 2002 Broadway Production)
Hairspray (Original 2002 Broadway Production)
Mamma Mia! (2001 Broadway version of London Production)
42nd Street (2001 Revival – Closes 2 Jan 05)
The Producers (Original 2001 Broadway Production)
The Lion King (Original 1997 Broadway Production)
Chicago (1996 Revival)
Rent (Transferred from Off-Broadway in 1996)
Beauty and the Beast (Original 1994 Broadway Production)
The Phantom of the Opera (1988 Broadway version of London Production)
One musical closed in October
The Frogs - Only had a limited engagement.
Top Three Shows by Attendance (last four weeks)
Wicked – 57888
The Lion King – 55416
The Producers – 49798
Top Three Shows by Capacity (last four weeks)
Wicked – 100%
Avenue Q – 99.7%
Mamma Mia! – 98.6%
Bottom Three Shows by Attendance (last four weeks)
Dracula – 19722
Avenue Q – 25395
Rent – 29685
Bottom Three Shows by Capacity (last four weeks)
Dracula – 59.9%
Bombay Dreams – 62.2%
Wonderful Town – 65.7%
Coming Up
Pacific Overtures (Revival / Broadway version of Tokyo Production)
La Cage Aux Folles (Revival)
Little Women (New Musical)
Good Vibrations (New Catalogue Musical)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (New Musical)
Monty PythonÂ’s Spamalot (New Musical)
All Shook Up (New Catalogue Musical)
The Wiz (Revival)
The Light in the Piazza (New Musical)
Sweet Charity (Revival)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Broadway version of London Production)
Re: paul's Broadway Musicals watch - October 2004
Tue, 2 Nov 2004, 10:42 amWalter Plinge
Paul Treasure wrote:
>
> As far away from Broadway as most of us are, here is an
> update of what musicals are currently on The Great White Way.
>
> One Musical opened in October
> Brooklyn
> New Musical by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson (Broadway
> debuts)
> Directed by Jeff Calhoun (Big River 2003 revival; Grease 1994
> revival)
> Featuring:
> Cleavant Derricks – Double Tony Winner: Best Actor in a
> Musical 1982 “Dreamgirls”; Best Featured Actor in a Musical
> 1986 “Big Deal”. TV - “Sliders”.
> Kevin Anderson – Nominee 1999 Tony Best Featured Actor “Death
> of a Salesman”
And here are some of the reviews of the show...
David Finkle, Theatermania:
“Rampant are Tobin Ost's eye-popping costumes -- especially the sheath worn by a singer called Paradice, constructed of black refuse bags, duct tape, and police caution strips, with a matching hat!… Then there's Ray Klausen's set, depicting the underbelly of a Brooklyn Bridge on-ramp where brick arches crumble, chain-link gates swing, and weight-bearing I-beams jut.”
“…there are five trumpet-voiced singers who could bring down the walls of Jericho if they were ever rebuilt.”
“[Eden] Espinosa, a thin young woman with sleek black hair and a pale and fragile face, comes through for them all. She's got the same range and control that rocketed Mariah Carey onto the charts -- and even more charisma. In "Once Upon a Time" and "Streetsinger," she sends notes into the air for seeming minutes without losing the sense of the lyrics.”
“Flash is often a substitute for substance, and that's the case with Brooklyn.”
“Bromides about love and people changing abound in the often treacly dialogueÂ… Clichés also bloat the lyrics, although the Schoenfeld-McPherson melodies have sufficient power-ballad ballast. “
“Brooklyn is the sort of synthetic confection that it's unwise to question… Brooklyn struts its street-trash stuff with enough razzle-dazzle that audiences may never catch wise to its gooey center.”
Matthew Murray, TalkinÂ’ Broadway:
“When's the last time you saw junk on a Broadway stage? No, not Dracula The Musical, but real, honest-to-goodness trash that looks as if it could have come from one of the dumpsters next to a Broadway theater? If it's been a while, you now have your chance with Brooklyn, the new musical that just opened at the Plymouth.
“Director Jeff Calhoun, set designer Ray Klausen, and costume designer Tobin Ost have spared every expense to create utter verisimilitude for this show about five homeless street performers putting on a musical play at a street corner under the Brooklyn Bridge. And with old mattresses and chain-link fences functioning as scenery and trash bags and duct tape comprising one of the show's more adventurous costumes, does the creative team ever deliver!
“You can choose to look beyond the show's singular physical style if you like, but I don't recommend it. Buried beneath the rubbish of the show's outward appearance is just more rubbish, albeit in the guise of a book and score (by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson) similarly incapable of rising above the esprit debris. When a show makes continual fun of its own concept - the sets and costumes are often used as intentional laugh-getters - how can the material be taken seriously?”
“Then there's the score of mostly second-rate '80s-style tunes and lyrics, banal even by the standards of those who swear by the artistic merit of American Idol music. Every song is a pop song… they're on hand only to provide jolts of energy rather than enhance plot or character.”
“The cast, though, is packed with talent. Eden Espinosa, if alternately abrasive and flavorless in her acting choices, is a vocal powerhouse…”
“But no one can compensate for the vapidity of what they must speak and sing, and their superb singing voices - all predictably over-amplified by sound designers Jonathan Deans and Peter Hylenski - can only take them so far.”
“With Brooklyn you're seeing the very best garbage your theatregoing dollar can buy.”
Eric Grode, Broadway.Com
“Someday audiences who saw Brooklyn, The Musical will be able to boast of seeing Eden Espinosa and Ramona Keller in the show that launched their careers. Those who missed this sight will take comfort in the fact that they were spared the experience of seeing Brooklyn, The Musical.”
“This misbegotten hybrid of Brecht, story theater, Amelie and American Idol fails so dismally on so many levels that the prevailing impulse is to look away from the stage.”
“And yet...collectors of formidable musical-theater performers will undoubtedly flock to Brooklyn to see two highly promising actresses in their fledgling stages. Espinosa and Keller have yet to develop their acting chops sufficiently, but they have charisma to burn and huge vocal gifts. With even half-decent material to work with, they will be stars.”
“But gimmicks only get you so far. Who needs dramatic momentum or remotely interesting characters, the argument seems to go, when you've got a dress made out of police tape and Hefty bags?”
“…the road to theatrical hell currently leads through a certain outer borough.”
[Ouch!]
He he he I should go through and get the reviews for Dracula as well!
Paul Treasure
Show Queen and Broadway Geek
>
> As far away from Broadway as most of us are, here is an
> update of what musicals are currently on The Great White Way.
>
> One Musical opened in October
> Brooklyn
> New Musical by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson (Broadway
> debuts)
> Directed by Jeff Calhoun (Big River 2003 revival; Grease 1994
> revival)
> Featuring:
> Cleavant Derricks – Double Tony Winner: Best Actor in a
> Musical 1982 “Dreamgirls”; Best Featured Actor in a Musical
> 1986 “Big Deal”. TV - “Sliders”.
> Kevin Anderson – Nominee 1999 Tony Best Featured Actor “Death
> of a Salesman”
And here are some of the reviews of the show...
David Finkle, Theatermania:
“Rampant are Tobin Ost's eye-popping costumes -- especially the sheath worn by a singer called Paradice, constructed of black refuse bags, duct tape, and police caution strips, with a matching hat!… Then there's Ray Klausen's set, depicting the underbelly of a Brooklyn Bridge on-ramp where brick arches crumble, chain-link gates swing, and weight-bearing I-beams jut.”
“…there are five trumpet-voiced singers who could bring down the walls of Jericho if they were ever rebuilt.”
“[Eden] Espinosa, a thin young woman with sleek black hair and a pale and fragile face, comes through for them all. She's got the same range and control that rocketed Mariah Carey onto the charts -- and even more charisma. In "Once Upon a Time" and "Streetsinger," she sends notes into the air for seeming minutes without losing the sense of the lyrics.”
“Flash is often a substitute for substance, and that's the case with Brooklyn.”
“Bromides about love and people changing abound in the often treacly dialogueÂ… Clichés also bloat the lyrics, although the Schoenfeld-McPherson melodies have sufficient power-ballad ballast. “
“Brooklyn is the sort of synthetic confection that it's unwise to question… Brooklyn struts its street-trash stuff with enough razzle-dazzle that audiences may never catch wise to its gooey center.”
Matthew Murray, TalkinÂ’ Broadway:
“When's the last time you saw junk on a Broadway stage? No, not Dracula The Musical, but real, honest-to-goodness trash that looks as if it could have come from one of the dumpsters next to a Broadway theater? If it's been a while, you now have your chance with Brooklyn, the new musical that just opened at the Plymouth.
“Director Jeff Calhoun, set designer Ray Klausen, and costume designer Tobin Ost have spared every expense to create utter verisimilitude for this show about five homeless street performers putting on a musical play at a street corner under the Brooklyn Bridge. And with old mattresses and chain-link fences functioning as scenery and trash bags and duct tape comprising one of the show's more adventurous costumes, does the creative team ever deliver!
“You can choose to look beyond the show's singular physical style if you like, but I don't recommend it. Buried beneath the rubbish of the show's outward appearance is just more rubbish, albeit in the guise of a book and score (by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson) similarly incapable of rising above the esprit debris. When a show makes continual fun of its own concept - the sets and costumes are often used as intentional laugh-getters - how can the material be taken seriously?”
“Then there's the score of mostly second-rate '80s-style tunes and lyrics, banal even by the standards of those who swear by the artistic merit of American Idol music. Every song is a pop song… they're on hand only to provide jolts of energy rather than enhance plot or character.”
“The cast, though, is packed with talent. Eden Espinosa, if alternately abrasive and flavorless in her acting choices, is a vocal powerhouse…”
“But no one can compensate for the vapidity of what they must speak and sing, and their superb singing voices - all predictably over-amplified by sound designers Jonathan Deans and Peter Hylenski - can only take them so far.”
“With Brooklyn you're seeing the very best garbage your theatregoing dollar can buy.”
Eric Grode, Broadway.Com
“Someday audiences who saw Brooklyn, The Musical will be able to boast of seeing Eden Espinosa and Ramona Keller in the show that launched their careers. Those who missed this sight will take comfort in the fact that they were spared the experience of seeing Brooklyn, The Musical.”
“This misbegotten hybrid of Brecht, story theater, Amelie and American Idol fails so dismally on so many levels that the prevailing impulse is to look away from the stage.”
“And yet...collectors of formidable musical-theater performers will undoubtedly flock to Brooklyn to see two highly promising actresses in their fledgling stages. Espinosa and Keller have yet to develop their acting chops sufficiently, but they have charisma to burn and huge vocal gifts. With even half-decent material to work with, they will be stars.”
“But gimmicks only get you so far. Who needs dramatic momentum or remotely interesting characters, the argument seems to go, when you've got a dress made out of police tape and Hefty bags?”
“…the road to theatrical hell currently leads through a certain outer borough.”
[Ouch!]
He he he I should go through and get the reviews for Dracula as well!
Paul Treasure
Show Queen and Broadway Geek