My Top 10 Theatre Experiences: Part 2

A few weeks ago, I started to publish a list of my Top 10 theatrical experiences of all time.  This list includes the shows that have had a profound impact on my theatre-going life, and the ones that have remained the most vivid in my memory since initially seeing them.  You can read the first article for a more thorough breakdown of the criteria I've used, but basically for a show to make the list it had to play Broadway and be solid from top to bottom (excellent star turns in mediocre shows have been left off).  And the list is alphabetical, because coming up with a numbered ranking for these 10 shows would just be too hard.

So picking up where I left off:

The Book of Mormon

Andrew Rannells and the original Broadway cast of The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon holds a distinction that I do not give out lightly; despite my hesitancy to rank the shows on this list, almost 3 years after my first viewing I can safely say that The Book of Mormon is the best night I've ever spent in the theatre.  The energy inside the theatre was palpable during the early March preview I attended back in 2011; though highly anticipated, the show was shrouded in secrecy.  The producers had only released four production stills, there was no video or audio available, and the program purposefully lacked a song list or even a basic scene breakdown.  None of us quite knew what we were getting into, and the experience was all the better for it.

As a huge fan of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (easily among my favorite films of all time), I had enormous expectations for this show, and it handily exceeded every one of them.  By the end of the opening number I was grinning from ear to ear, and soon after that I was howling with laughter.  The show was every bit as gleefully offensive as you could imagine, and crossed a couple of boundaries even I wasn't sure they were allowed to.  And yet the show was so hilarious, and more importantly so heartfelt, that it didn't matter.  The show had a soul, and a soul that not only respected but embraced the traditions of the glitzy book musicals of days past.  There are rousing production numbers, comic duets, and second act power ballads that manage to both gently mock the absurdity of such things while at the same time being excellent examples of those troupes.

Simply put, The Book of Mormon is one of the best constructed musicals of the new millennium, as well as one of the funniest.  But what made this experience truly transcendent for me was the absolutely extraordinary original cast.  Everyone, from the principals to the ensemble members, was an extremely talented triple threat with spot-on comic timing and amazing chemistry.  While Josh Gad was rightly praised for his scenery chewing turn as the hopelessly awkward Elder Cunningham, I think Andrew Rannells' supremely smug Elder Price was the show's true revelation.  Rannells managed to play straight man to Gad's comic genius while remaining hilarious in his own right, and turned what could have been a thoroughly off-putting character into a beacon of charisma and old-school showmanship.  (Also, Rannells' pop-tenor is nearly flawless.)  Tony-winner Nikki M. James provided the show's heart and soul as Ugandan tribeswoman Nabalungi, and Rory O'Malley led one of this decade's great production numbers with his showstopping "Turn It Off" (which incidentally includes my favorite sight gag in the entire show, and one that made me audibly gasp in delight when I first saw it).

The Book of Mormon is rightfully one of the hottest tickets in town, commanding upwards of $450 per ticket for the premium seats.  It is the only show running I would even consider paying that much money for, and I will continue to recommend it to any and everyone who will listen.

Follies (2011 Revival)

The "Loveland" sequence from the 2011 revival of Follies

Stephen Sondheim's utter mastery of the musical theatre form is sometimes taken for granted, and I often call him the Shakespeare of the musical stage.  Like the Bard, Sondheim's works have the remarkable ability to reveal new facets of meaning with each subsequent viewing, and have proven able to withstand a wide array of reimaginings and concept-based stagings.  But sometimes, as the breathtaking 2011 revival of Follies proved, all you need is to do the show the way it was written.  Grandly opulent and utterly heartbreaking, this revival took a show I had always found intriguing and skyrocketed it up my personal list to the point where I consider it one of the finest musicals ever created.

The show, centered around the reunion of the last remaining performers of a Ziegfeld Follies-esque spectacle, is simultaneously about nothing and everything.  There is very little plot, and yet over the course of the evening the show manages to make deeply poignant observations about growing older and regret while still celebrating the vast amount of beauty to be found in life.  Sondheim's score is a parade of pastiches that include some of the greatest ballads ever written, including cabaret standards like "I'm Still Here" and "Losing My Mind."  The most expensive musical ever produced at the time of its original premiere, Follies requires an elaborate physical production and enormous cast, and this revival hit both of those elements out of the park.

Bernadette Peters' performance as Sally Durante-Plummer is probably one of the more divisive in recent Broadway history; I personally loved her, and found her character's slow unraveling to be a fascinating portrait of the cost of unmet ambitions.  But nobody could argue with the stunning brilliance of her onstage husband Danny Burstein, who was a revelation as Buddy Plummer and robbed (ROBBED!) of a justly deserved Tony Award.  And Jan Maxwell's pitch-perfect embodiment of the jaded, bitter Phyllis Rogers-Stone was such a masterclass in musical theatre acting that I can still vividly recall her two big numbers ("Could I Leave You?" and "The Story of Lucy and Jessie").  The only reason I am okay with her not winning a long-overdue Tony is because that year's victor was Audra McDonald for Porgy and Bess, which was one step beyond perfection.

Finally, Follies has what may be one of the most thrilling theatrical climaxes of any musical I've ever seen.  Watching the main quartet of characters finally reach their breaking point, triggering the 20-minute long "Loveland" sequence in which each character is deconstructed in an elaborately-staged Follies-style production umber, had me on the edge of my seat in the way few shows ever had.  I can still see that initial reveal, with the downstage drop curtain falling to floor to reveal the dazzling Loveland set, as if it had happened this morning.


That's enough for today.  Hopefully I will be a little more regular on the blog postings, but even if it takes a while I promise the rest of this list is coming!

Hollywood is Calling

Well, that was quick.  Just a month after winning the Best Actress Tony for her work in Venus in Fur, Nina Arianda is headed off to Hollywood to star as Janis Joplin in a biopic about the late singer (re: try really, really hard to win an Oscar).  And I’m pretty damn upset about it.

Now, I’m a huge fan of Arianda and want her to have a successful career; I just want that career to be in the theatre.  Live theatre is one of the most difficult forms of entertainment around.  You don’t get to go back and do another take if you make a mistake, and you have to reach the same level of emotional intensity night after night since there’s no camera around to preserve your performance.  Being able to do that is a rare gift, one that Arianda is blessed to have, and if she decides to focus on a film career it is a gift the Broadway community will be deprived of. 

I understand the allure of film.  Even if you don’t subscribe to the romanticized and glamorous notions of Hollywood portrayed by the media, the simple truth is there’s just more money in film work.  You can make the same amount of money in a couple of months that it would take a year or more to make in the theatre, and if your movie/television show becomes really popular you can make a pretty penny by collecting residuals from work you’ve already done.  You can also reach a much wider audience more easily, increasing your fan base and thus your industry clout (the more people who like you, the more likely producers are to cast you).

However, when a Broadway actor starts their film career, I don’t see all of the opportunities that stand before them.  I see the amazing stage performances they won’t be able to give, and the great theatre that won’t get done because they were focusing their talents elsewhere.  Despite both falling under the blanket term “acting,” film and stage work are such different skillsets that excelling at one in no way guarantee success at the other, meaning a talented performer like Arianda could end up wasting years in a medium that doesn’t really suit her.  And on the flip side, what if she does turn out to be a brilliant film actress?  Then she might decide to focus exclusively on film (after all, that’s where the real money is) and never set foot onstage again, which would be an enormous loss for Broadway.

It is especially disappointing when someone abandons theatre for film and ends up in works not worthy of their immense gifts.  Take Kristin Chenoweth, who after her massive success in Wicked began doing film work that has rarely utilized her to her full potential.  Most of her movie and television roles fall under the supporting category, and the two examples I can think of where she had a starring role (her self-titled sitcom and GCB) were hardly successful.  Yes, she did eventually win an Emmy and seems to be respected by the film community, but it is nowhere near the level of acclaim she receives on Broadway.  If Chenoweth had continued to work primarily in the theatre, she would have been the Star of pretty much everything she did, and I can virtually guarantee she would have won her long sought-after second Tony Award by now.  Think of all the great Kristin Chenoweth stage performances we missed out on because she was busy doing shows like Glee.

We’ve been seeing a lot of stage performers head off to Hollywood lately, and like Arianda the timing of these announcements make it seem like they are purposefully abandoning Broadway.  Already a darling of the New York theatrical community, I have to believe that winning the Tony would have opened up all kinds of interesting stage projects to Arianda, even if she still had to do some leg work to find them.  Sutton Foster, one of the greatest musical comedy actresses working today, left the highly successful Anything Goes revival early to film ABC Family’s Bunheads.  Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, after giving two of the funniest performances in recent memory and announcing the extension their Book of Mormon contracts into next February, both left the show last month to pursue TV projects.  We are losing our most promising new talents to the film industry, and they seem so eager to leave they aren’t even sticking around to the announced ends of their contracts.

I still adore all of the above mentioned actors, and I wish them nothing but success.  I just find it unfortunate that even the notoriously expensive Great White Way doesn’t pay well enough to encourage these talented folks to stick around.  At least in Arianda’s case I can take solace in the fact she chose movies over television, meaning there’s a better chance she’ll be able to squeeze in a play or two between gigs.  The grueling production schedules of a television series rarely leave enough time between seasons for an actor to rehearse and perform even a limited Broadway run, which is why Broadway went four long years without Audra McDonald while she was on Private Practice.  (The fact she returned with one of the most satisfying musical theatre performances of the decade does help make the wait seem more worthwhile.)

Hopefully Arianda and the rest will remember their theatrical roots and come back to visit once and a while.  The one positive of a film career (besides the increased bank account) is that it can result in enough fans that producers are able to sell tickets based on an actor’s name, which increases the chances said actor will actually get cast.  But I’m still hoping for a reversal to this trend, as Broadway cannot afford to continue losing our most promising talents to Hollywood’s cold, unfeeling embrace.

The Best Show of 2011

The Book of Mormon

Andrew Rannells in The Book of Mormon

“Hello.  My name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”

With those innocent words, set to an ingenious sing-song melody, begins one of the most outrageously offensive, entertaining, and expertly crafted musicals of the last 20 years.  The Book of Mormon has taken Broadway by storm, winning every best musical prize imaginable and becoming a sold-out sensation on a level not seen since Wicked. It’s understandable that those who have yet to see Mormon may be suspicious of its ability to live up to the insane level of hype surrounding it.  But I promise you that it not only meets, but handily exceeds any and all expectations you may have.

My first time seeing the show (it’s so good I’ve made the time to see it twice more, and am already contemplating a fourth visit) ranks as one of the most memorable nights of the theatre in my life.  The air of excitement was palpable, as nobody knew quite what to expect from this mystery-shrouded show.  No publicity stills had been released, only the vaguest of plot summaries was available, and the musical numbers weren’t even listed in the Playbill.  I personally was hoping for something pretty exceptional, because Trey Parker and Matt Stone proved with the South Park movie they know what an expertly constructed musical looks like.  But even I wasn’t prepared for how jaw-droppingly amazing Mormon turned out to be.

The show has everything.  It features an incredible score stuffed with inventive, catches tunes, played by a nine piece band that through some theatrical trickery I honestly don’t understand sounds like the large orchestras of Broadway’s golden age.  There are so many jokes, both obvious and subtle, that it’s impossible to catch them all the first time through.  At least once during the show, you will be genuinely shocked and/or offended by what’s happening onstage (even hardcore South Park fans cannot anticipate some of the things Parker and Stone have gotten away with).  And most gloriously of all, the show has heart.  I doubt anyone thought the words “sweet” and “endearing” would be applied to a show written by this pair, and yet those words perfectly capture the overriding spirit of a show that is ultimately a celebration of both old-school Broadway and the healing power of religious faith (although Mormonism certain gets lovingly lambasted more than once).

And creating this atmosphere of giddy farce is one of the hardest working, most talented casts to ever grace a Broadway stage.  From top to bottom, the cast is filled with true triple threats who manage to stand out without ever upstaging their fellow castmates.  Foremost among this talented bunch are Tony-nominated stars Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, both giving career-making performances as Elders Price and Cunningham.  It’s nearly impossible to decide who is funnier, although my personal vote goes to Rannells, who’s hilariously narcissistic Elder Price is a comic goldmine who doesn’t have the benefit of the kind of mugging allowed by the broadly written Cunningham.  They are so evenly matched that they likely split Tony votes enough to allow Norbert Leo Butz to walk off with this year’s Best Actor statuette. 

Also Tony-nominated without winning is Rory O’Malley, who brings down the house nightly with his performance of “Turn It Off.”  Without spoiling things for those who haven’t seen it, the number contains what is my favorite moment of the entire year (it involves vests).  It’s in essence an expertly executed sight gag (I still have no idea how they did it), and is the perfect illustration of why The Book of Mormon is so brilliant.  The show milks all of the expected humor out of a situation, and just when you think it’s out of ideas it comes up with one final, unexpected capper that thrills you with its ingenuity and leaves you rolling in the aisle.  I audibly gasped in delight when it happened, and being able to provide that kind of sheer, unadulterated joy is an example of musical comedy at its absolute best.

The one performer who did manage to win a Tony for her efforts is the absolutely radiant Nikki M. James.  Her Nabalungi is instantly lovable, a perfect Disney princess trapped in this warped version of the Third World.  She sings like an angel and grounds the evening with a genuine heart, especially evident during her earnest performance of the show’s big ballad, “Sal Tlay Ka Siti.”  Yet she is also capable of comic genius, and can play dirty just like the boys (her first appearance onstage is during a particularly offensive song about God).

I could go on and on about this show.  The direction is perfect, and Casey Nicholaw has graduated to the top tier of Broadway directors for his work on this show.  He expertly crafts the evening to yield the greatest possible number of laughs, while ensure that the show’s heart and message never get lost in the background or buried under too much shtick.  He has given the show a parade of ingeniously realized musical numbers, and keeps its madcap energy from flagging all the way through the final curtain.  The lighting, sets, and costumes are all phenomenal, supporting the story and setting without ever overshadowing it or becoming complex for spectacle’s sake.

I adore this show.  It may quite possibly be my favorite of all time, and that is not a title I hand out lightly.  It is easily the Best Show of 2011, and while tickets are hard to come by, they are definitely worth seeking out.  To paraphrase the opening number’s lyrics, this show could change your life.