Broadway Watch - The Pajama Game
Fri, 24 Feb 2006, 03:42 pmWalter Plinge1 post in thread
Broadway Watch - The Pajama Game
Fri, 24 Feb 2006, 03:42 pmThe Pajama Game
Music & Lyrics by Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
Book by George Abbott & Richard Bissell
Based on the novel “7 ½ cents” by Richard Bissell
Directed & Choreographed by Kathleen Marshall
Opened 23rd February 2006
Extracts from various reviewers:
“Can't wait for Mardi Gras? Fear not: You can now substitute a trip to the American Airlines for a trip to New Orleans. For the next couple of months, you'll hear plenty of Big Easy easy listening: It is, apparently, the only way Harry Connick Jr. can sing… But cast a contemporary crooner like Connick, a New Orleans native, and certain allowances must be made.”
“Tone, for example, though let's forgive him his myriad liquidy notes - theatre singing isn't his natural milieu. Accuracy, though, is another matter… when there's still a full show ahead, you start praying that someone who knows what he's doing will take over.
“That would exclude most involved with this monumentally clueless Pajama Game” She's [Director, Kathleen Marshall] an erratic talent… this time around, she's directed two shows, neither of them good.”
“Sid, Babe, and most of the characters surrounding them are realistically, if dryly, rendered. But McKean, Benson, Chittick, and especially Lawrence all behave like rejects from Hanna-Barbera cartoons - all slick surface frivolity with absolutely nothing happening underneath.”
“That would matter less with a dynamic Sid and Babe at the show's center. But Connick, who sings stiffly and looks as though a strong wind gust would break him in two, can't help. Nor can O'Hara… must belt blandly through her songs and deliver her lines with dispassionate, disinterested tones usually reserved for discussing finer plot points from Brady Bunch reruns.”
“…choreography is at best functional and forgettable, especially in the usually boiling second-act opener, "Steam Heat," which is danced by here by Chittick, David Eggers, and Vince Pesce as though they were caught in a snowstorm. Her other numbers are also too busily staged, usually with props that suggest she doesn't trust the songs to land on their own.”
“Most importantly, why can't the songs be sung by people just playing people? Musicalgoers seeking out classic works this season don't have many options: They either get the gallumphing grotesques of John Doyle's Sweeney Todd or Marshall's wild-eyed cartoons. If the choices don't get much better than these, you'll have to forgive me if, like Babe, I'm not at all in love.”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“Connick makes a strong, strapping Main Stem bow as Sid Sorokin… doesn't seem entirely at home yet; there's a certain awkwardness to his bearing in some of his moments on stage. But he has a confident stride at other times, and Marshall has seen to it that he looks fine in the dance numbers.”
“When Connick does seem ill-at-ease, it actually enriches character; this is a Sid Sorokin who has banged around in so many jobs that he's lost a little self-confidence, even though women drool at the sight of him. Connick goes at a ballad more like Frank Sinatra with a slight catch in his throat than like John Raitt, the creator of the role, who had a more "legit" Broadway sound. When he croons, the audience swoons; "Hey There," which Connick as Sid sings with himself thanks to a handy Dictaphone, is a highlight. And just watch how he fixes co-star Kelli O'Hara with a simmering stare throughout his rendition of the seductive "Small Talk." It's a true weak-in-the-knees moment.”
“O'Hara is a wow.”
“Making their bid for Tony Award consideration by virtue of all-around sparkle are Michael McKean as time-study man Hines, Roz Ryan as no-nonsense executive assistant Mabel, Peter Benson as nerdy grievance committee member Prez, Joyce Chittick as "Steam Heat" sizzler Mae, and squeaky-voiced Megan Lawrence as Hines's girlfriend Gladys, keeper of the all-important company books. Every one of them is ushered center stage for at least one show-stopping turn. And how about a hand for David Eggers and Vince Pesce, who add their steam to Chittick's in "Steam Heat?" Their dancing would have made original choreographer Bob Fosse nod in approval.”
“The near-perfection of this production extends to McLane's fluid set, which features pairs of pajamas flying by on pulleys; Martin Pakledinaz's costumes, delightful throughout and especially in a closing-number fashion parade”
“Seeing this show in 2006, one has to concede that Sid Sorokin's behavior around the office might be taken for sexual harassment nowadays. Otherwise, the musical is only dated in its unquestioned respect for unions and its advocacy of the wearing of pajamas… This show is tops.”
Theater Mania – David Finkle
“The best news about Kathleen Marshall's eager, puppyish new revival of the 1954 musical The Pajama Game is that the old-fangled machinery of Broadway musicals still purrs along just fine… Even the casting of crooner Harry Connick Jr., in his Broadway debut, fits this sense of continuity with the past.”
“The show's generic professionalism ultimately makes this starched and pressed Pajama Game resemble a road-show museum of the mid-century American musical, with players who know all the old moves but not what they signify.”
“Connick, for one, is much more at home with his role's vocal demands than its acting requirements. But what are those acting requirements, actually? … Connick is asked for two colors--brooding and frisky--and he delivers both, more or less, with the unshaded bluntness of the green actor.”
“O'Hara cuts a lovely period silhouette and is in fine voice, but what her thinly conceived role demands is personality, not interpretive sensitivity. Michael McKean is such an affable, mildly rumpled presence that it may not occur to us right away how woefully miscast he is as a short-fused, anal-retentive flunky.”
“Marshall here musters a passable and utterly unsurprising Fosse pastiche, which only serves to remind us--as does too much of this neatly stacked Pajama Game--of other, better shows. Connick and O'Hara in Guys and Dolls, anyone?”
Broadway.Com – Rob Kendt
Next Broadway Musical opening – Ring of Fire – 12th March
Music & Lyrics by Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
Book by George Abbott & Richard Bissell
Based on the novel “7 ½ cents” by Richard Bissell
Directed & Choreographed by Kathleen Marshall
Opened 23rd February 2006
Extracts from various reviewers:
“Can't wait for Mardi Gras? Fear not: You can now substitute a trip to the American Airlines for a trip to New Orleans. For the next couple of months, you'll hear plenty of Big Easy easy listening: It is, apparently, the only way Harry Connick Jr. can sing… But cast a contemporary crooner like Connick, a New Orleans native, and certain allowances must be made.”
“Tone, for example, though let's forgive him his myriad liquidy notes - theatre singing isn't his natural milieu. Accuracy, though, is another matter… when there's still a full show ahead, you start praying that someone who knows what he's doing will take over.
“That would exclude most involved with this monumentally clueless Pajama Game” She's [Director, Kathleen Marshall] an erratic talent… this time around, she's directed two shows, neither of them good.”
“Sid, Babe, and most of the characters surrounding them are realistically, if dryly, rendered. But McKean, Benson, Chittick, and especially Lawrence all behave like rejects from Hanna-Barbera cartoons - all slick surface frivolity with absolutely nothing happening underneath.”
“That would matter less with a dynamic Sid and Babe at the show's center. But Connick, who sings stiffly and looks as though a strong wind gust would break him in two, can't help. Nor can O'Hara… must belt blandly through her songs and deliver her lines with dispassionate, disinterested tones usually reserved for discussing finer plot points from Brady Bunch reruns.”
“…choreography is at best functional and forgettable, especially in the usually boiling second-act opener, "Steam Heat," which is danced by here by Chittick, David Eggers, and Vince Pesce as though they were caught in a snowstorm. Her other numbers are also too busily staged, usually with props that suggest she doesn't trust the songs to land on their own.”
“Most importantly, why can't the songs be sung by people just playing people? Musicalgoers seeking out classic works this season don't have many options: They either get the gallumphing grotesques of John Doyle's Sweeney Todd or Marshall's wild-eyed cartoons. If the choices don't get much better than these, you'll have to forgive me if, like Babe, I'm not at all in love.”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“Connick makes a strong, strapping Main Stem bow as Sid Sorokin… doesn't seem entirely at home yet; there's a certain awkwardness to his bearing in some of his moments on stage. But he has a confident stride at other times, and Marshall has seen to it that he looks fine in the dance numbers.”
“When Connick does seem ill-at-ease, it actually enriches character; this is a Sid Sorokin who has banged around in so many jobs that he's lost a little self-confidence, even though women drool at the sight of him. Connick goes at a ballad more like Frank Sinatra with a slight catch in his throat than like John Raitt, the creator of the role, who had a more "legit" Broadway sound. When he croons, the audience swoons; "Hey There," which Connick as Sid sings with himself thanks to a handy Dictaphone, is a highlight. And just watch how he fixes co-star Kelli O'Hara with a simmering stare throughout his rendition of the seductive "Small Talk." It's a true weak-in-the-knees moment.”
“O'Hara is a wow.”
“Making their bid for Tony Award consideration by virtue of all-around sparkle are Michael McKean as time-study man Hines, Roz Ryan as no-nonsense executive assistant Mabel, Peter Benson as nerdy grievance committee member Prez, Joyce Chittick as "Steam Heat" sizzler Mae, and squeaky-voiced Megan Lawrence as Hines's girlfriend Gladys, keeper of the all-important company books. Every one of them is ushered center stage for at least one show-stopping turn. And how about a hand for David Eggers and Vince Pesce, who add their steam to Chittick's in "Steam Heat?" Their dancing would have made original choreographer Bob Fosse nod in approval.”
“The near-perfection of this production extends to McLane's fluid set, which features pairs of pajamas flying by on pulleys; Martin Pakledinaz's costumes, delightful throughout and especially in a closing-number fashion parade”
“Seeing this show in 2006, one has to concede that Sid Sorokin's behavior around the office might be taken for sexual harassment nowadays. Otherwise, the musical is only dated in its unquestioned respect for unions and its advocacy of the wearing of pajamas… This show is tops.”
Theater Mania – David Finkle
“The best news about Kathleen Marshall's eager, puppyish new revival of the 1954 musical The Pajama Game is that the old-fangled machinery of Broadway musicals still purrs along just fine… Even the casting of crooner Harry Connick Jr., in his Broadway debut, fits this sense of continuity with the past.”
“The show's generic professionalism ultimately makes this starched and pressed Pajama Game resemble a road-show museum of the mid-century American musical, with players who know all the old moves but not what they signify.”
“Connick, for one, is much more at home with his role's vocal demands than its acting requirements. But what are those acting requirements, actually? … Connick is asked for two colors--brooding and frisky--and he delivers both, more or less, with the unshaded bluntness of the green actor.”
“O'Hara cuts a lovely period silhouette and is in fine voice, but what her thinly conceived role demands is personality, not interpretive sensitivity. Michael McKean is such an affable, mildly rumpled presence that it may not occur to us right away how woefully miscast he is as a short-fused, anal-retentive flunky.”
“Marshall here musters a passable and utterly unsurprising Fosse pastiche, which only serves to remind us--as does too much of this neatly stacked Pajama Game--of other, better shows. Connick and O'Hara in Guys and Dolls, anyone?”
Broadway.Com – Rob Kendt
Next Broadway Musical opening – Ring of Fire – 12th March