“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” at Wharton Center, East Lansing (Review) is a Dream December 9, 2009
Posted by ronannarbor in Entertainment, Theatre.Tags: David Elder, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Kelly O'Malley, Megan Sikora, musical comedy, musical theater, Randy Skinner, Steve Bogardus, Tap Dance, White Christmas
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Okay, let me state this for the record: I have seen White Christmas, the musical, 7 times now – between San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, and East Lansing. I love this show, and am not going to review the show itself…This is the 2009 Tour that made a one-week stop at the Wharton Center at MSU, East Lansing.
The show is a dream – and the cast is one of the best I’ve seen since the initial production in San Francisco (still my favorite cast – but maybe just because I saw them first and could brag for a year until other people started to see the show in it’s season incarnations). Stephen Bogardus and Kerry O’Malley reprise their roles from the NYC 2008 production. David Elder and Megan Sikora play their dancing-fool sidekicks, and they are dandy together. This production features the best-danced “I Love a Piano” that I have seen in four different incarnations. The Elder/Sikora “Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing” is perfection. The tap dancing throughout this production is spectacular by the entire cast. Stephen Bogardus brings charm and style to his role, while Kerry O’Malley is just plain lovable.
What is currently a drought of productions and jobs on Broadway has resulted in one of the most talented dancing casts in ages — there are folks in this show that normally play leads in other musicals. It all lends a wonderfully polished perfection to the show as a whole. Lorna Luft makes a fine Martha Watson and sings her heart out in her big show-stopper number. Her stardom in no way overshadows any of the cast members, and she appears to be having the time of her life.
For those who saw the show at the Fox Theatre, be warned that it’s a different creature at Wharton Center — featured as part of it’s Broadway tour season, the performances are near sold-out throughout the run. There appear to be balcony and scattered rear orchestra seats available for some performances this week — but don’t expect you can walk up to the box office like you could at the Fox and just get great seats. Not the case here.
For those not in the know – this is just a holiday treat — a big, colorful, Randy Skinner tap-dance filled extravaganza. It could really play at any time, not just Christmas time — it’s a full-blown Broadway musical with spectacular dancing and a fine familiar book and score. Filled with classics like “White Christmas”, “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep”, “Snow”, “Blue Skies”, “Sisters”, “I’ve Got My love to Keep Me Warm” and a half-dozen others. It moves at lightning pace, and it’s a musical lovers musical, much like “42nd Street” or “Babes in Arms”.
Go, have fun, and see a spectacular cast. On a final note — beware the weather. I don’t know which was more exciting on Tuesday night — opening night at White Christmas, or the spectacularly dangerous drive home to Ann Arbor for an hour in some of the worst driving weather you could imagine — snow, turning to sleet, turning to ice. I hate driving, and I particularly hated driving home after the show. Luckily I had the White Christmas cast album on my iPhone to play through the car stereo system to keep me in a good mood. Check the weather reports before you head out this week. I leave for Florida tomorrow, or I would have seen the show a second time if I could. But I’m glad I will be out of this weather in less than 24 hours for a week. For those of you left behind in this Michigan weather — go enjoy this “warm cup of hot chocolate” musical. Go see a Broadway show.
And that’s the view from Ann Arbor this week.
Musicals that are appropriate for small venues (Musical Theater 101) August 25, 2009
Posted by ronannarbor in Entertainment, Theatre.Tags: Annie is not appropriate for a small venue, Choosing an appropriate musical, musical comedy, musical theater, musical theatre, Musicals, Musicals for large venues, Musicals for Proscenium, Musicals for small spaces, Musicals for small venues
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Seeing the announcement of yet another inappropriate musical in a small venue local theatre, I thought I would help them out by listing, from a directing and design point of view, musicals that are appropriate for small venue theaters and those that are not. I list appropriate shows in alphabetical order, followed by inappropriate shows in alphabetical order. In most instances, trying to force a large-venue proscenium show into a small theatre space not only looks claustrophobic, breaks with the integrity of the piece, and in general doesn’t work in that small venue. From time to time a theatre might “pull it off” (a theatre in Connecticut recently did an almost set-less production of The Producers in the round! that worked)…but for the most part, they don’t work. Here’s some help for this small venue local theatre that keeps picking inappropriate shows… The following is nowhere near a complete list, but its a good start. Note that most small-venue shows will almost always work in larger venues. Larger venue shows will almost never work in smaller venues.
Musicals Appropriate for Small Venues
Adding Machine
Aint Misbehavin’
The All Night Strut
Allegro
All Shook Up
Altar Boyz
Always, Patsy Cline
Amour
Aspects of Love
Assassins
Avenue Q
Baby
Bat Boy
Bed and Sofa
Beehive
Brooklyn
Blood Brothers
Bright Lights Big City
Buddy
Cabaret
Candide
Caroline or Change
A Catered Affair
Charlotte Sweet
Chess
Closer than Ever
Company
Dames at Sea
A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine
Debbie Does Dallas, the Musical
Dessa Rose
Diamonds
The Drowsy Chaperone
Ernest in Love
Evil Dead, the Musical
Falsettos
Falsettoland
The Fantasticks
Floyd Collins
Forever Plaid
Frogs
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Goblin Market
Godspell
The Goodbye Girl
Grand Hotel
Grease
The Great Trailer Park Musical
Grey Gardens
Grind
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hello Again
High Fidelity
Honk
I can Get it For You Wholesale
Irma la Duce
I Love My Wife
I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change
I Remember Mama
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Jane Eyre
Jerry’s Girls
Jerry Springer the Opera
The Last 5 Years
Little Shop of Horrors
Little Women
LoveMusik
Lucky Stiff
A Man of No Importance
March of the Falsettos
Marie Christine
Moby Dick the Musical
My Favorite Year
Naked Boys Singing
A New Brain
Next to Normal
Nunsense
Oh, Coward
On a Clear Day You can See Forever
Once on this Island
110 In The Shade
Pacific Overtures
Passion
Pump Boys and Dinettes
Putting it Together
Rent
Ring of Fire
The Rink
The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd
The Robber Bridegroom
Rocky Horror Show
Romance, Romance
Scrooge
The Secret Garden
Seesaw
She Loves Me
Shout, The Mod Musical
Side by Side by Sondheim
Snoopy
Songs for a New World
Spring Awakening
The Story of my Life
Stop The World, I Want to Get Off
Summer of ‘42
Sunday in the Park with George
Sweeney Todd
The Sweet Smell of Success
Taboo
Tell Me on a Sunday
They’re Playing Our Song
The Thing About Men
3 Guys Naked from the Waist Down
13
Tick Tick Boom
Title of Show
Triumph of Love
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Urinetown
Violet
Weird Romance
The Woman in White
Working
A Year with Frog and Toad
You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown
Xanadu
Musicals Inappropriate for Small Venues
The Act
Aida
All Shook Up
Annie
Annie Get Your Gun
Anything Goes
Applause
Babes in Arms
The Baker’s Wife
Barnum
Beauty and the Beast
Bells are Ringing
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Big
Big River
Bonnie & Clyde
The Boyfriend
The Boys from Syracuse
Brigadoon
By Jeeves!
Bye Bye Birdie
Camelot
Carousel
Carrie
Cats
Chicago
Children of Eden
A Chorus Line
A Christmas Carol
Cinderella
City of Angels
The Civil War
Copacabana
Crazy for You
Curtains
Damn Yankees
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Dreamgirls
Evita
Fame
Fiddler on the Roof
Finian’s Rainbow
Fiorello
Flower Drum Song
Follies
Footloose
42nd Street
Fosse
Frankenstein the Musical
The Full Monty
Funny Girl
George M!
Ghost
Greenwillow
Guys and Dolls
Gypsy
Hair
Hairspray
Half a Sixpence
Hello Dolly
High School Musical
High School Musical 2
High Society
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
I can Get it For You Wholesale
In the Heights
Into the Woods
Jekyll and Hyde
Jesus Christ Superstar
Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat
The King and I
Kismet
Kiss Me Kate
Kiss of the Spider Woman
La Cage aux Folles
The Last Starfighter
Leader of the Pack
Legally Blond
Les Miserables
The Light in The Piazza
The Lion King
A Little Night Music
Mack and Mabel
Mame
Mamma Mia
Merrily We Roll Along
Man of LaMancha
Me and My Girl
Meet Me In St Louis
Memphis
Metropolis
Miss Saigon
The Most Happy Fella
Movin’ Out
The Music Man
My Fair Lady
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
My One and Only
Nine
9 to 5 the musical
Notre Dame de Paris
No No Nanette
Notre Dame de Paris
Oklahoma
Oliver
On the Town
On the Twentieth Century
On Your Toes
Once Upon a Mattress
Over Here!
Paint Your Wagon
The Pajama Game
Pal Joey
Parade
Peter Pan
Phantom
Phantom of the Opera
Pippin
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirate Queen
The Producers
Promises, Promises
Purlie
Rags
Ragtime
7 Brides for 7 Brothers
70 Girls 70
Shreck
Song of Norway
Sophisticated Ladies
Sunset Boulevard
Saturday Night Fever
Seussical the Musical
Shenandoah
Showboat
Side Show
Singin’ in the Rain
Showboat
Smile
Song and Dance
The Sound of Music
South Pacific
Spamalot
Starlight Express
State Fair
Steel Pier
Sunday in the Park with George
Sweet Charity
Swing!
Take Me Along
A Tale of Two Cities
The Tap Dance Kid
Tarzan the Musical
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Timbuktu
Titanic
Tommy
Two Gentlemen of Verona
We Will Rock You
The Wedding Singer
West Side Story
Whistle Down the Wind
White Christmas
Wicked
The Will Rogers Follies
The Witches of Eastwick
The Wiz
The Wizard of Oz
Woman of the Year
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
CITY OF ANGELS at Croswell is jazzy and “reel” fun… August 1, 2009
Posted by ronannarbor in Entertainment, Theatre.Tags: Adrian, Bruce Hardcastle, City of Angels, COH, Croswell Opera House, Cy Coleman, Emily Tyrybon, James Swendsen, jazz, Jonathan Sills, Joshua Glassman, MI, musical comedy, musical score, musical theater, regional theater, Sarah Lynn Nowak, Stephanie L. Stephan, summer stock
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Croswell Opera House has a doozy of a show in the Tony-winning CITY OF ANGELS currently playing in Adrian.
Considered by many to be Cy Coleman’s best score, from the rhythmic driving beat with scat vocal quartet accompaniment to the patter of “Everybody’s gotta be somewhere” and the lush jazzy “It needs work” the score is a masterwork, that sounds utterly fantastic in the hands of musical director Jonathan Sills and his more than able orchestra. It’s more than just accompaniment in this show, it’s the drive and energy to which the piece is set, and it delivers from start to finish.
The cast is top notch – with special kudos to UM vocal performance student Joshua Glassman as writer Stine, whose vocal training is evident from his first note through his last, where his voice projects naturally and cleanly without ever seeming forced, even in big belt numbers like “Funny”. It’s a joy to hear, and this young man has a long successful career before him. See (and hear) him here first.
It helps that he and James Swendsen (alter-ego detective Stone) have a natural chemistry together on stage — they play off of each other in a fashion that truly delineates the creator/creature line and makes for a fun flip when the lines get blurred in later goings. Swendsen has a more pop-oriented sound to his voice, and the two of them match remarkably well vocally in their scenes together.
The women fare equally well in Sarah Lynne Nowak’s Donna/Oolie and Emily Tyrybon’s Alaura/Carla. Both have terrific stage presence and voices to match.
Bruce Hardcastle turns in an energetic performance as Buddy/Irwin. In a role that threatens to carom out of control on each turn, it doesn’t, and remains funny and consistently on character throughout. Other supporting players range from great (the quartet) to good. There are a few missed notes here and there by supporting players, but nothing that distracts from the overall skill level of this adept cast.
The set looks great and works well with it’s split level design, the show moves rapidly from scene to scene and set changes don’t miss a beat, and the lighting is appropriately bright and colorful for color-scenes and moody and shadow-strewn for the Black and White “movie” scenes. What originally seems a bit murky and dark in the opening sequences eventually establishes a visual design that just plain old works as the show progresses.
That it all hangs together so well, and so cleanly, is the wonderful work of director/choreographer Stephanie L. Stephan. She understands that this is a difficult story to follow, and directs with large, masterful strokes that allow the audience to easily follow the action on stage. No mean feat, considering the many plot turns, and the stage-convention of switching back and forth from real-life to alter-ego movie action throughout using the same actors. This was achieved on Broadway through miraculous (and at that time ground-breaking) instantaneous ability to drain color out of sets and costumes through lighting and paint technique. Here it is up to the director to make it work, and it works terrifically. This is a very difficult musical to design and produce, as other theaters can attest, from the passable production at University of Michigan a few seasons ago, to the disastrous Ann Arbor Civic Theatre production many years ago. Make no mistakes, this current production is in a league of its own. Congratulations.
The script and lyrics are smart and funny, with enough suspense thrown in to make it all work. I saw the production in its original Broadway run several times, and it becomes smarter and wittier with each viewing. Mix-in the tremendous musical score, the great performances, and swirl it all around by a top notch director and crew, and you have a tasty, jazzy, funny musical comedy treat at Croswell Opera House this summer, my favorite by far of this season’s offerings — not just at Croswell, but anywhere regionally this summer.
City of Angels continues this weekend and next weekend. Tickets at croswell.org or 517-264-SHOW(7469).
