IF THE SHOE FITS… (The Shoebox Files) Part 1

IF THE SHOE FITS…

(The Shoebox Files)

Part 1

Shoeboxes are more than just places to put one's shoes. In my case, they work as overflow storage for my theatre programs until a larger, more permanent solution can be found. Most of the programs in my shoeboxes are relatively recent, but not all. So to start off a new series, I'll chat about a brilliant revival that brought new life to, in my opinion, an indifferent show in its first incarnation; a return visit to what could become the most successful musical of all time, still regularly selling out after nearly fourteen years (at the time of this writing); the first preview of a Noël Coward play starring a beloved star in a much-anticipated return to Broadway; a revival of the musical about a helicopter, imported from London; and, finally, some thoughts on, arguably, the most hyped show ever. Let's begin, shall we?

THE COLOR PURPLE – Jacobs Theatre, New York

November, 2016. I saw the Equity tour of The Color Purple when it rolled through Chicago years ago during its national tour. Despite an outstanding performance by its leading lady, I found the show bloated, static, a bit dull, and just plain overworked. So when this overhauled revival crossed the Pond from London, I was hesitant about seeing it. Fortunately, I listened to my niece, and, impressed by its selection on that summer's Tony Awards broadcast, we went to the TKTS booth on a crisp November day and were rewarded with fifth row, just off center seats. Sparse, yet elegant in design, this production was everything the original was not. It was wasn't bloated; it wasn't static; it wasn't overworked. Instead it was filled with heart, humanity, and unabashed joy. There is a moment in this exquisite revival of The Color Purple when the audience holds its collective breath and then bursts into ecstatic, screaming applause. And that moment is when Tony-winning star Cynthia Erivo brings to a rapturous close her eleven o'clock number, the jaw-droppingly wonderful "I'm Here." This is why live theatre is truly a gift from the gods. Add stunning performances by Danielle Brooks (Taystee in Orange is the New Black) and Broadway legend Jennifer Holliday. (And, yes, there is a reason she is a legend.) And all of it topped off with a beautiful supporting cast of talented actors. It made me glad to be alive. – at the Jacobs Theatre, New York

WICKED – Gershwin Theatre, New York

March, 2017. When I first read that they were going to make a musical out of Gregory Maguire's fascinating take on what happened in Oz pre-Dorothy, I was curious to see how they would condense Maguire's complex story into a two-and-a-half hour musical. Bottom line? They didn't. And, to their credit, they didn't really try, though there was a nod here and there to Maguire's book. Our niece, Colleen, works backstage at Wicked as a swing dresser and a wardrobe day worker (and during Sheryl Lee Ralph's tenure, a favorite dresser). That day Colleen was working the Sunday night show as the dresser on the Nessarose/Boq/Dillamond track, and since we hadn't seen the show in over a decade, during its initial Chicago run, we thought we'd check it out. Armed with 9th row center seats, thank you, Box Office Guy, we settled in and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Professional, technically amazing, beautifully designed (those costumes!!), and slick as snot, librettist Winnie Holzman and composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz's Wicked is a triumph of style over substance. And let's be honest, there are reasons why Avenue Q won Tonys for Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score over Wicked. It simply was, and is, the superior show. As the central characters, Jennifer DiNola (Elphaba) and Kara Lindsay (Glinda) were both wonderful and sang the songs without screeching. (Take note, Ms. Menzel.) The divine Sheryl Lee Ralph (one of the original Dreamgirls) chewed scenery with delicious abandon as Madame Morrible. (Met her afterwards. Class and elegance!) Remember the TV live version of "The Sound of Music"? Well, Michael Campayno, who played Rolf, was a very fine Fiyero. (Met him afterwards...nice guy.) PJ Benjamin was a competent, if unexciting, Wizard. Big orchestra, adoring audience. We had a blast. - at the Gershwin Theatre, New York

 The show curtain from the cross-over aisle in the stalls.

 The dragon's impressive in its brief time onstage. Impressive backstage as well.

Upstage. Lots of lights.

 Here we are with Sheryl Lee Ralph. Elegant. Cordial. A diva is the most complimentary sense of the word. 

Did I say how much we enjoyed meeting her? 

Sidebar: Even after nearly fourteen years, a hopeful crowd gathered outside the theatre to see if they won that performance's lottery, and a line had already begun for cancellations. Inside the theatre was a virtual Wizard store, everything anyone could possibly want pertaining to the show, including photos against an Oz background (actually a green screen, so I'm guessing here.) And people were buying the stuff like it was going out of style. In over fifty years of theatregoing, I have never seen merchandising at this level. Insanity. A cast-proof show, Wicked shows no sign of slowing down, and for the producers and creatives, this continues to be a money machine.

Sidebar 2: The 2004 Tony Awards actually were not very kind to Wicked when all is said and done. Director Joe Mantello didn't even get a nod, unusual for the director of that season's must-see smash, and out of Wicked's ten Tony nominations, it would only win three: Best Actress (Idina Menzel), Best Scenic Design (Eugene Lee), and Best Costume Design (Susan Hilferty). People may be surprised to learn that Wicked was pretty much panned upon its Broadway opening. Many critics found the show bloated and unfocused with an indifferent score. Hard to believe considering the show's off-the-charts popularity. (Mamma Mia! was panned. So was Cats. See a trend here?) Wicked's loss to Avenue Q must have been particularly hard for composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz. Despite penning the ubiquitous Godspell (blech!), the never-done Doug Henning musical, The Magic Show (1900+ performances, a financial goldmine, if not exactly a critical darling), the very fine Pippin (the revival was superior to the original), and what I consider his best score, the closed-out-of-town The Baker's Wife, and despite making buckets of money along the way and employing hundreds, hell, thousands of theatre professionals in his shows, Schwartz has never won a Tony Award. He's won three Academy Awards and the Isabelle Stevenson Award (a special Tony), but never an actual in-competition Tony Award. I'm not sure how he feels about that, but, let's face it, with Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked, he's laughing all the way to the bank.

PRESENT LAUGHTER – St. James Theatre, New York

March, 2017. The discussion after the interminable first act was whether we should jump ship or not. We stayed and it got better, even had a really first-rate and very funny scene in Act 2, but overall it was pretty dull and lifeless. Thank god for Kate Burton, Kristine Nielsen, and Cobie Smulders because, bless their hearts, they gave the show most of its sass and fizz. Kevin Kline was surprisingly underwhelming, lacking the charisma and charm the part calls for, and was hard to both hear and understand. At 69, he's really too old to play a fading matinee idol, and some of the scenes with the young wannabe actress bordered on creepy. Now, having said all this, we saw its first preview performance, so perhaps that accounted for some of the restrained delivery. However, since the producers deemed it proper to charge full box office prices for previews, I think it's only reasonable to expect a show to be ready for an audience. Or perhaps it's simply that "Present Laughter" is second drawer Coward. A miss. - at the St. James Theatre, New York

Sidebar: Things must have greatly improved at the St. James by the time it opened a few weeks later. The reviews were mostly positive with glowing words for Kevin Kline. He was rewarded with the 2017 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

MISS SAIGON – Broadway Theatre, New York

March, 2017. Last minute TKTS pick. This production crossed The Pond with three of its leads, all excellent. I'd heard this was a more intimate version than the rather tattered-looking tour-tired production I'd seen in Chicago years ago, but it looked pretty damn elaborate to me. Sensational physical production, and the famed helicopter was impressive and, I'll admit, cool, the climax of the really well-done fall of Saigon scene. With more than the occasional nod to that musical about barricades, the Boublil/Schönberg score was beautifully sung. Jon Jon Briones, was suitably slimy and his "The American Dream" was a home run…sleazy, creepy, and a show-stopper. Tony-nominated Eva Noblezada as Kim and London import Alistair Brammer as Chris gave their considerable all and did what they could with those vapid roles, and I still have issues with the character of Kim, but, honestly, character development is all but non- existent in Miss Saigon, so there is that. All in all, though, a satisfying evening. - at the Broadway Theatre, New York

Sidebar: Like the original production, this version of Miss Saigon met with its share of controversy. Instead of the focus being on casting, however, the controversy this time around concerned itself with stereotypes and racism. You may or may not agree with the issues being brought up, but isn't it terrific that people are actually using theatre as a springboard for intelligent, thoughtful discussion?

HAMILTON – Richard Rodgers Theatre, New York

November, 2016. The most brilliant thing about Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton isn't the insanely successful PR machine which convinces folks that this is the Second Coming, and not just a musical, and dupes them into plucking down nearly $850 per ticket for an orchestra seat in New York and a staggering $500 for the same in Chicago. (see Sidebar) It even isn't Miranda's remarkable score that seamlessly integrates rap, hip-hop, and good, old traditional musical theatre into a cohesive whole. It isn't Thomas Kail and Andy Blankenbuehler's superb staging and choreography that keeps everything going at a brisk pace, but has the good sense to slow down every now and then. It's none of those. Instead, the most brilliant thing about Hamilton is the ethnically and racially diverse casting that, instead of looking like stunt casting, is natural, unforced and, really, isn't that the way casting should be? Now…what about the show itself? First, let me preface this by saying our seats were in the second-to-last row of the rear mezzanine at the Rodgers. Terrific sightlines, if a tad distant, but, unfortunately, directly under a speaker that delivered extraordinarily loud, often muddy sound (due to the proximity of our seats to the speakers?). Diction was not everybody's friend (especially Okieriete Onaodowan, whose diction throughout the entire show was so awful, I barely understood a word he said/sang), though overall it seemed to improve somewhat in Act Two. And please don't tell me I wasn't familiar enough with a) the score, b) hip-hop, c) rap, or d) all of the above. That's nonsense. I shouldn't have to be familiar with a musical's score or study it in advance to understand it. (Case in point, a few years earlier we saw American Idiot, Green Day's rock musical, a score I had never heard before, and it was rare when I didn't understand what was being sung onstage, so that blows that theory.) And finally, the audience acted as though they were at the Coliseum throwing Christians to the lions instead of at the theatre, and screamed at a feverish, frenzied pitch at absolutely everything that happened onstage, good, bad, or indifferent. I know everyone was excited beyond words to actually be seeing Hamilton, but the rock concert behavior took away from the show. Moving on…Javier Muñoz as Hamilton was so, so good. Seriously. Props also to Michael Luwoye's Aaron Burr (filling in for Brandon Victor Dixon), Nik Walker's George Washington (filling in for Christopher Jackson), and Rory O'Malley's delicious King George. Unfortunately, the ladies didn't fare as well. Though professional and competent, neither Jasmine Cephas Jones (Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds) and Mandy Gonzalez (Angelica Schuyler) made much of an impression. Lexi Lawson, making her Broadway debut as Eliza Hamilton in the role originated by Phillipa Soo, was, frankly, a disappointment. With an underwhelming stage presence, she had her moments, but, for the most part, barely registered in a part that should have crackled with electricity. This was most evident in the magnificent "Burn," Eliza's glorious Act Two song, which never got above the "simmer" setting. I do wish Mr. Miranda would have given us less hip-hop/rap and more dialogue, because the strict rhythmic requirements of both genres made things often sound, well, the same, lacking vocal dynamics and nuances. Verdict? Hamilton is a good musical, a very good musical. I'd like to see it again. It is not, however, the be all to end all. And, under no circumstances, worth those New York and Chicago premium prices. – at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, New York

Sidebar: It's not an overstatement to say that Hamilton is over-hyped. It is. For the first year of its run, if someone so much as farted backstage at the Richard Rodgers, that news was posted with breathless verbiage on TheaterMania.com, Playbill.com, broadwayworld.com, chat boards, fan sites, etc. etc. And while it is probably the most over-hyped show in history, that claim to fame is primarily due to the way shows are marketed today, utilizing all the various tools available: press, television, radio, and most especially the Internet and social media. But hype isn't new. Looking back over the decades, it seems that since the mid-1950s, at least, a show comes along roughly every twenty years that causes a box office feeding frenzy and PR firms working overtime. Consider the following.

On March, 15, 1956, My Fair Lady opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre to ecstatic reviews. This prompted long, long lines at the Hellinger box office, ticket unavailability for the foreseeable future, and unprecedented media coverage. The was the greatest musical, the biggest hit ever! All the hype even warranted a nod by humorist/playwright Jean Kerr in her book Please Don't Eat the Daisies: "Do you mean to suggest that down through the echoing corridors of time there will never be a Wednesday night on which two seats will be available? I don't wish to inject an empty note of pessimism but even you, in the first flush and fever of success, must concede that there is a possibility at least in theory that sometime, say in 1962, you might be willing, even anxious, to sell two seats." My Fair Lady would close in 1962 after a record 2717 performances.

Jump ahead nearly twenty years to 1975. A Chorus Line opens at the Public Theater on April 15, 1975, is a critical and audience sensation there, immediately sells out, and transfers to Broadway's Shubert Theatre opening in July, 1975. The press goes wild. This is the greatest musical ever! So innovative, so unique, so brilliant. Long, long lines at the Shubert box office. Sold-out for the foreseeable future. Sweeps the Tony Awards. Closest rival Chicago, which opened at the 46th Street Theatre six weeks earlier, is shut out, winning nothing. Even wins the Pulitzer!   A Chorus Line rules! The musical runs and runs and runs, finally closing after fifteen years and 6137 performances, a new record. (In an ironic twist, a revamped and "slimmed-down" Chicago opened in 1996, is still running today, and at 8587 performances, as of July 30, 2017, has long surpassed its former rival.)

Just over twenty years later, in January,1996, a new rock musical called Rent, now inexplicably called RENT, began preview performances at the New York Theatre Workshop under tragic circumstances. In the early morning hours before the first preview, Rent's author/composer/lyricist Jonathan Larson died of an aortic aneurysm. In true show business tradition, the show went on, became an off-Broadway sellout, transferred to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre, bringing new life to that previously undesirable house, and opened on April, 29,1996, to critical acclaim, lines at the Nederlander box office, sold-out status, and Rent-heads, those obsessed uber-fans who camped out in front of the theatre both in New York and on tour stops (yes, Rent-heads even on Monroe Street in front of the Shubert to get those scarce tickets) to snatch up the handful of $20 tickets sold before each performance. (In New York, this policy changed to a lottery about 18 months into the run, becoming Broadway's first show to use a lottery.) Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Jesse L. Martin, Taye Diggs, and Indina Menzel were in the original cast. Critics hailed it as a landmark musical, a Hair for the 90s, a show that truly spoke to today's generation, a musical that "shimmers with hope for the future of the American musical." No day but today! Rent rules! It even picked up a Pulitzer. And some Tonys. It closed after 5123 performances after making a crapload of money. Not bad for a show whose central characters whine about paying rent.

And we're full circle. Nineteen years years after Rent, Hamilton. Another Pulitzer. Lots of Tonys. People camping out in front of the theatre in hopes of scoring tickets on the cancellation queue. (The Hamilton lottery, as in many lotteries today, has gone digital. No need to spend your entire day braving the elements in front of a theatre.) Tickets remain scarce, even with a replacement cast, and over two years into its run, is still regularly selling out those astronomically priced premium seats, with seats on Ticketmaster's Verified Resale Tickets, i.e. legalized scalping, going for much higher. The media overload has died down somewhat, but every cast replacement seems to be greeted with cries of ecstasy on fan sites and, like it or not, Hamilton will be the ruler of the theatre scene for a least a few more years to come. (Sorry, Dear Evan Hansen.)

And remember…if the shoe fits. Until next time.

© 2017 Jeffrey Geddes