Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The Glorious Music of Something Beginning


Review: Ragtime in Concert
Ragtime concert director Stafford Arima with stars Norm Lewis, Lea Salonga, and Manoel Felciano
 

There were many stars on the stage of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall during last night’s concert presentation of the Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens-Terrance McNally musical Ragtime, but over the course of the evening it became clear that the biggest star was the work itself.  A staggering masterpiece virtually unequalled by anything in the musical theatre cannon, Ragtime juggles its interweaving narratives with a breathtaking assurance that is a feat unto itself, with the Flaherty/Ahrens score serving up an unending parade of some of the most soul-stirring music ever composed for the Broadway stage.  When the writers joined the cast onstage for the final bow, the unassuming trio fittingly received a thunderous ovation befitting a work of this magnitude.

Ragtime’s score draws upon a host of distinctly American musical genres, all of which were excellently rendered by the 36-piece orchestra under the baton of conductor Sheilah Walker.  Few musicals manage to have the breadth and musical variety of Ragtime while remaining a sonically coherent whole, but between Flaherty’s writing and the orchestra’s excellent playing nary a note sounded out of place.  In addition to the principals, many of whom were past Tony winners, the ensemble was rounded out by veterans of various other Ragtime productions and a hundred-strong chorus which gave the sumptuous score with even more oomph than usual.  The cast’s rendition of the sprawling opening number was positively electric, as was their take on the soaring ballad “New Music” and the triumphant final reprise of “Wheels of a Dream” that serves as the show’s finale.  But the truly transcendent moment came during the Act I closer “Till We Reach That Day,” which steadily built from a mournful solo sung by the sensational NaTasha Yvette Williams into a roof-rattling crescendo with an emotional intensity that shook the audience to its very core.

Among the principals, Tony-winner Lea Salonga made the strongest impression with her gloriously sung and exceedingly well-acted Mother.  After a somewhat tentative start which perhaps stemmed from overplaying the character’s reserved nature, Salonga steadily grew in confidence and intensity throughout the night to deliver a stunning sucker-punch of a performance.  By the time she reached Mother’s big ballad “Back to Before” near the end of the second act, Salonga’s command of the stage and inner strength fully enveloped the cavernous hall, creating a genuine showstopper which was appropriately greeted by rapturous applause.

As Tateh, a poor Jewish immigrant pursuing the American dream, Manoel Felciano (Tobias in the John Doyle-helmed Sweeney Todd) brought tremendous warmth and a soothing tenor to his many ballads, with his rendition of “Gliding” proving particularly moving.  Felciano also shared a genuine chemistry with Salonga that made their two duets (“Nothing Like the City” and “Our Children”) immensely satisfying.  The gifted actor held everyone in rapt attention whenever he was onstage, and it’s a shame New York audiences haven’t had more chances to appreciate this gifted actor’s many talents.

Rounding out the show’s central trio was Norm Lewis as Coalhouse Walker, Jr., the black piano player from Harlem struggling to rise above the many indignities he faced at the hands of intolerant bigots.  Lewis seemed less assured than Salonga and Felciano, failing to fully convey Coalhouse’s quiet dignity and occasionally struggling to meet the demands of Flaherty and Ahrens’ score. Despite these problems he still managed to sell the rousing ballad “Make Them Hear You,” even if the performance failed to fully eclipse the ghost of Brian Stokes Mitchell in the original Broadway company.

Michael Arden did excellent work a Mother’s Younger Brother, communicating the restless aimlessness of youth while using his piercing tenor to effortlessly reach the back of the balcony.  As Father, Howard McGillin remained true to his character’s racist tendencies while simultaneously showing Father’s softer side, thereby keeping the character from descending into cartoonish villainy.  Tyne Daly was a veritable force of nature as real-life anarchist Emma Goldman, and young Lewis Grosso made for a charmingly precocious Little Boy.

Unfortunately, there was one obvious weak link in the cast, and that was the Sarah of Patina Miller.  Any actress tackling the role of Coalhouse’s doomed lover has the unenviable task of living up to the memory of Audra McDonald’s legendary Tony-winning performance, but even grading on a curve the Sister Act star failed to impress.  Her voice is ill-suited to the role, as the belting on which Miller’s made her name is stylistically inappropriate to classically-influenced show, and in attempting to avoid that trap she became too preoccupied to give a good performance.  “Your Daddy’s Son,” one of the show’s most gut-wrenching songs, fell oddly flat when Miller sang it, although the actress mostly regained control of the role after that initial (and major) misstep.

As the inaugural production of Manhattan Concert Productions’ Broadway Series, this Ragtime has set an exceedingly high bar for any future installments.  Hopefully the organization will continue producing star-studded mountings of shows whose size and/or subject matter make them risky commercial ventures but that don’t necessarily fit the obscure Golden Age offerings City Center’s Encores! specializes in.  Even with a few hiccups, the evening was a resounding success, and yet another example of the unfettered brilliance of Flaherty and Ahrens’ most famous work.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

A Steamy Southern Night, Minus the Heat


Review:  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
This latest Cat answers the age-old question, "What kind of man wouldn't want to sleep with Scarlett Johansson?"
 
As the curtain rises on the latest Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, you are immediately struck by two things:  the gorgeousness of Christopher Oram’s sprawling set, and the insignificance of star Scarlett Johansson in comparison to it.  Despite a valiant attempt to fill the cavernous Richard Rodgers Theatre, Johansson and her fellow actors never succeed in making their presence truly felt, resulting in an occasionally engaging but ultimately unsatisfactory production of this great American drama.

Set on the Pollitt family plantation in mid-century Mississippi, the drama’s primary conflict arises from the question of who will inherit the estate should family patriarch Big Daddy (Ciaran Hinds) lose his fight with cancer.  Big Daddy’s favorite son, Brick (Benjamin Walker), has developed quite the drinking problem since the death of his best friend Skipper, leading everyone to question his ability to run the massive estate.  Brick is also childless, a major sticking point between him and his dissatisfied beauty of a wife, Maggie (Johansson), who has her own opinions about what has prompted her husband’s sudden dependence on alcohol.

Williams’ script is a multilayered marvel of subtext and shades of gray, but the play’s delicate mood wasn’t designed to fill a theatre as large as the Richard Rodgers.  The producers really should have tried harder to secure a more suitable venue for this oft-performed classic (this production is the third time Cat has played Broadway in the past decade), and their choice of director seems equally misinformed.  A background in musical theatre has left Rob Ashford ill-equipped to guide his actors towards the sort of nuanced performances necessary to make such a familiar work feel fresh, and everything in this production seems oversimplified.  Ashford’s direction leaves no room for interpretation or debate, with even the big revelations being so blatantly obvious from the get-go that the characters seem inexcusably stupid for not recognizing them sooner.  There aren’t even any pretty stage pictures to look at, as Ashford’s collection of unmotivated crosses and forced stage business fails to result in even halfway innovative visuals.

The director’s shortcomings are particularly disappointing given that most of his cast is both talented and well-suited to their roles.  Johansson, whose Tony-winning work in A View from the Bridge remains one of the strongest Broadway debuts of the new millennium, possesses both the inner strength and effortless sexuality to make for a captivating Maggie.  But her normally luminous presence is curiously dialed back here, and her performance isn’t as fleshed-out and varied as it should be.  Johansson is by no means bad, but she also isn’t the triumph one would hope for, and you cannot help but think that a better director could have guided her towards a more effective performance.

As Brick, Tony-nominee Walker fares better, although his performance suffers from Ashford’s bluntness.  Brick’s possible repressed homosexual feelings towards Skipper, one of the key sources of conflict in the narrative, are now blindingly apparent to everyone.  Rather than slowly realizing the extent of his feelings over the course of the evening, this Brick seems fully aware of what’s going on from the outset, robbing one of the play’s main characters of his emotional journey. 

Among the rest of the cast, Hinds has an appropriate amount of Southern bluster as Big Daddy, and his extended scene with Walker in the second act is the closest this Cat gets to realizing the potential of Williams’ writing.  Debra Monk’s Big Mama is more overtly comedic than necessary, and the veteran actress’ performance has a tendency to drift towards shrillness.  Michael Park and Emily Bergl do serviceable work in the thankless roles of Brick’s brother Gooper and his sister-in-law Mae, although the pair is never quite as funny or loathsome as the characters really should be.

It is somewhat ironic that the show’s physical production displays a subtlety and attention to detail conspicuously absent from the acting.  Oram’s lovingly crafted bedroom set gives a full indication of the opulence of the rest of the plantation, and the costumes by Julie Weiss are suitably refined.  Neil Austin’s lighting quite handsomely highlights both the actors and the set, and his slight shifts in color and intensity provide more nuance to the action than many of the performances.  Sound designer Adam Cork has put a stunning amount of effort into creating realistic ambient noise, with the volume level rising and falling appropriately whenever a door is opened or closed (which is quite often).

There is enough that works about this Cat that it cannot be written off as a complete disaster, and any production that gives deserving thespians like Johansson and Walker the chance to display their craft is certainly welcome.  But thanks to a misguided venue choice and uninspired direction by Ashford, this revival never takes flight the way it could, making its existence difficult to justify.  The controversial all-black staging from a few years back ultimately did a better job of servicing the play than this misfire, which may be the most damning critique possible of a work so strongly tied to its pre-Civil Rights Southern milieu.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Long Road to Broadway


Review: Smash Season 2 Premiere
Jennifer Hudson and Katherine McPhee prove that once upon time, American Idol actually produced marketable talent.


NBC had a lot riding on Smash, the big, expensive musical drama about the creation of a Marilyn Monroe musical called Bombshell.  After a stellar pilot, the show somewhat undeservedly became one of the most mocked pieces of entertainment in pop culture, resulting in the firing of creator/showrunner Theresa Rebeck and several major cast members.  Following an extended hiatus to accommodate the show’s retooling, Smash has finally returned with a two hour premiere that largely resembles last year’s incarnation, although under the surface lurks a host of subtle but significant tweaks with the potential to radically increase the show’s overall quality.

Season two of Smash picks up right where season one left off, with the cast and creative team of Bombshell eyeing a Broadway transfer after a largely successful run in Boston.  Karen (Katherine McPhee) received glowing reviews for her performance as Marilyn, while critics also singled out director Derek (Jack Davenport) and composer Tom (Christian Borle) for their many contributions.  Unfortunately, the press wasn’t so enamored with Julia’s (Debra Messing) libretto, and the behind the scenes shenanigans that plagued Bombshell’s development now threaten to overshadow the final product.  Meanwhile poor Ivy (Megan Hilty) finds herself struggling to get back in Karen’s good graces after sleeping with the rising star’s boyfriend, a move that has caused the entire creative team to give her the cold shoulder.

One thing new showrunner Joshua Safran has repeatedly promised is that Smash 2.0 would focus more on the backstage drama and less on the character’s soapy personal lives.  The season premiere certainly supports that statement, with all unresolved interpersonal plotlines wrapped up by little more than a wave of the hand before new show-related conflicts are introduced.  While this is a welcomed bit of house cleaning, it eats up a large portion of the premiere’s first hour and makes that episode feel like a repeat of the misguided tonal shifts perpetrated under Rebeck’s guidance last year.  In fact, the first hour is so hamstrung by having to clean up last season’s mess that I’d wager the decision to have a supersized premiere was driven primarily by the network’s desire to trot out the second episode as a better example of what season two has in store.

The new storylines introduced during the premiere are actually quite interesting, and executed with a more consistent tone and pace than we’ve previously seen.  The Rebecca-inspired financial woes Bombshell encounters show promise, and illustrate that Eileen (Anjelica Huston) should really be more suspicious of her bartender boyfriend’s extensive bank account.  Having serial womanizer Derek hit with a succession of sexual harassment lawsuits is a stroke of genius that makes excellent use of the delightfully smarmy Davenport, and the addition of Jennifer Hudson as a Tony-winning actress/inspirational figure for Karen brings with it a welcomed dose of spunk and genuine star wattage.  (As expected, Hudson’s musical numbers are positively thrilling.)

But the storyline with the biggest implications for Smash’s future is the introduction of a competing musical being developed by struggling Brooklyn songwriters Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan) and Kyle (Andy Mientus).  It accomplishes the hat trick of providing a point of contrast by which to judge Bombshell’s progress, creating conflict by offering the possibility of key cast members jumping ship, and making Smash’s world seem more alive by not having Bombshell exist in the vacuum.  Bad-boy Jimmy also makes an intriguing love interest for Karen by virtue of being the only person who doesn’t immediately worship the ground she walks on, although right now the character is so aggressively off-putting it somewhat negates any narrative appeal he provides.

Speaking of Karen, the struggling artist from Iowa has emerged as the show’s most problematic character, a handicap made even more maddening by the fact that she is clearly intended to be Smash’s protagonist.  Her experience in Boston has replaced her wide-eyed naivety with an unearned sense of entitlement, resulting in diva-esque behavior that makes her increasingly hard to root for.  Karen now treats Ivy with the same disdain Ivy exhibited for poor, sweet Karen in season one, but whereas Ivy was eventually scolded and told to tone down her hatred the other characters are inexplicably willing to support Karen’s vindictiveness.  On the plus side, this has allowed Ivy to revert back to the insecure but likably ambitious woman she was in the pilot, becoming a much more compelling character in the process (and her budding friendship with Julia certainly doesn’t hurt matters).

Overall, the first two hours of this season of Smash give us a show that is slowly but surely recovering from the dark days of Bollywood-inspired fantasy numbers that marked season one’s low point.  The show still has its quirks, including an eye-roll inducing transition into a Derek-centric musical number and a couple of highly implausible plot contrivances (Karen is apparently the only actress in New York who still lists her physical address on her resume).  But many of last season’s most glaring problems are conspicuously absent – although I fear dearly departed Ellis may reappear further down the line – and replaced with a slicker, more coherent tale of backstage politics and rival projects.  The show has a vast untapped potential, and hopefully Safran and crew can harness it to create true must-see TV as the season progresses.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Podcast Episode 9: "Smash"-travaganza Season 2

Tonight's the night!  In honor of the highly anticipated return of NBC's musical drama Smash, the podcast discusses the announced changes for the new season and whether they will help or hinder the famously uneven show.  Do a new showrunner, a new musical (the younger, hipper Hit List), and the addition of Jennifer Hudson sound like music to Jared, Jessica, and Spencer's ears?  Find out below.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Podcast Episode 8: "Smash"-travaganza Season 1

Next week marks the much-hyped return of NBC's backstage musical drama, Smash.  In anticipation of this momentous event, Jared, Jessica, and Spencer sit down to discuss the strengths and flaws of the show's first season. Given the multitude of characters and abandoned storylines, there's plenty to discuss, and hopefully they can do it in a way that's more coherent than an awkwardly inserted Bollywood fantasy number. And be sure to tune in early next week for the Season 2 preview