Well, it's Monday at 3pm as I sit at my dorm room typing in between completing my daily twelve hours of law school homework, but I wanted to share my theatrical adventures of this past weekend.
Friday night - THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED on Broadway. This review is set to run on Tuesday. I, for one, was very suprised to hear that this contemporary comedy would indeed make the move to Broadway, which was praised by some critics, myself included, mainly for Julie White's hilarious dynamic performance as a Hollywood power agent. Luckily, however, I enjoyed Douglas Carter Beane's satire on a whole a lot more. Read the review for more details.
Saturday night - MARY POPPINS. Well, it would be inappropriate for me to disclose my feelings on the show now, which doesn't actually open till Thursday night. I will say though...it seems pretty clear that Disney Theatricals has more than a style, but a philosophy - of style over substance. This show, however, attempted to add substance along with the style, but....well....read the review on Friday!
Sunday afternoon - EVITA. This was an undergraduate production by Cap21, a musical theater studio affiliated with New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, presented in the studio's small black box theater with basically no set, 22 actors and a small pit. Luckily, however, the cast was very, very strong and I had a great time. Though the work of Mr. Lloyd Webber has been disappointing since - well - JOSEPH, Evita has a very strong, extremely catchy score that mixes lots of different styles of music and rhythm, rather like JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.
Tonight, I am attending BROADWAY UNPLUGGED III at Town Hall, which has become a highlight attraction of the Broadway By the Year Series, which is produced by my talented colleague Scott Siegel, who is a critic with his equally perceptive wife Barbara for Theatermania.com and Talkinbroadway.com. If not BROADWAY UNPLUGGED tonight, I highly recommend that readers check out at least one BROADWAY BY THE YEAR concert later next season.
In terms of theater news, I was saddened to hear of the death of Broadway publicist Bob Fennell at 48 due to sudden illness. My experiences with him were essentially limited to emailing or phoning him to set up attending his agency's shows, which have lately included WICKED, SPELLING BEE, and THREE DAYS OF RAIN. He was very respected in the industry and had a gentlemanly reputation.