« February 2007 | Main | April 2007 »
Tuesday was a busy day. At the tail end of Property class, I jetted to the subway, got to Sardi's at 12:55, and at 1 had a 15 minute interview with Max and Laura, the winners of YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT, and will soon be Danny and Sandy on Broadway. I wrote it in profile form for Playbill, and it will be in a condensed Q+A form in AMNY tomorrow using content not in the prior article.
Here's a link to the playbill article.
As always at Bway By the Year, it was a smart, well-produced production. Unlike Bway By the Year 1928 last month, which featured Bob Martin and was more about jam-packed entertainment, 1938 was more about highlighting well-made, rare songs by the greats, such as Porter, Weill, and Rodgers & Hart. From Shannon Lewis and Sarah Uriarte Berry to Aaron Lazar and Hugh Panaro, it was probably also the most good-looking ensemble cast I've ever seen grace the Town Hall stage.
Here's the songlist:
ACT ONE
1. "Sing for Your Supper" of Boys from Syracuse
Christiane Noll
Sarah Uriarte Berry
Connie Pachl
2. "How Long Can Love Keep Laughing" of Sing Out the News
Hugh Panaro
3. "Spring is Here" from I Married an Angel
Sarah Uriarte Berry
4. "What Is That Tune?" from You Never Know
Aaron Lazar and Shannon Lewis
5. "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" from Leave It To Me
Connie Pachl
6. "This Can't Be Love" from Boys from Syracuse
Sarah and Hugh
7. "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" from Leave It To Me
Shannon
8. "My Heart is Unemployed" from Sing Out the News
Hugh
9. "There Had to be a Waltz"
Christiane
10. "At Long Last Love" from You Never Know
Ensemble
11. "One of These Days" from Sing Out the News
Martin Vidnovik
12. "No You Can't Have My Heart" from You Never Know
Barbara Walsh
13. "I Can Dream, Can't I?" from Right This Way
Aaron
ACT TWO
14. "Fuddle De Duddle" from Hellzapoppin
The Band
15. "I'll Tell the Man in the Street" of I Married an Angel
Martin
16. "Falling in Love with Love" of Boys from Syracuse
Christiane
17. "Tomorrow" of Leave it to Me
Ensemble
18. "I Married an Angel" of I Married an Angel
Hugh
19. "Lullabye of the Plain" of Girl from Wyoming
Ray McLeod
20. "The Dying Cowboy" of Girl from Wyoming
Martin, Hugh, Aaron
21. "Rink-a-Tinka Man" of Who's Who
Andy Blankenbuhler
22. "Nickle Under Your Foot" of Cradle Will Rock
Barbara
23. "Joe Worker" of Cradle Will Rock
Ray
24.'It Never Was Anywhere You" of Knickerbocker Holiday
Aaron, Sarah
25. "September Song" of Knickerbocker
Martin
26. "I'll Be Seeing You" of Right This Way
Emily Skinner
Max Crumm - Danny
Laura Osnes - Sandy
Matthew Saldivar - Kenickie
Robyn Hurder - Marty
Jose Restrepo - Sonny
Allison Fischer - Patty
Kristen Wyatt as Frenchie
Lindsay Mendez - Jan
Christina Sivrich - Understudy
Here are the Max and Laura bios:
MAX CRUMM (Danny), age 21, is a free spirit who definitely marches to the
beat of his own drum. Originally from Phoenix, both of his parents are
former performers. His father at one time owned a theatre company and his
mother is a jewelry maker. He moved to Los Angeles three years ago to
pursue acting and has since realized that musical theatre is a perfect fit.
Some of his theater credits include: the title role in The Grinch, Puck in A
Midsummer Nights Dream, Lysistrata, Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, Into
The Woods, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Anything Goes, Hello Dolly,
Titanic, Damn Yankees and two different productions of Grease, as Doody and
Kenickie.
LAURA OSNES (Sandy), age 20, has lived in Minnesota her whole life and was
already playing Sandy in Minneapolis, when she auditioned for "GREASE:
You're the One That I Want." All she has ever wanted is to be a Broadway
star and is unbelievably grateful for this opportunity. Some of her theater
credits include: Peter Pan in Peter Pan, Sound of Music, Annie. Her hobbies
include photography, star-gazing and playing the piano. She is recently
engaged and had to postpone her wedding because of the "GREASE: You're the
One That I Want" schedule.
Remember to tune in for the finale of NBC's YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT, when we find out who our Danny and Sanny are.
Here are some thoughts of mine, many of which I've neglected to express till now cause I've felt intimdated by Seth Rudetsky's extremely meticulous reviews of every episode over at Playbill.com.
-Everyone keeps saying that Max would make a better Doody than Danny. Chances are, of course, that he will win over Austin. Is he a better performer? Probably, but Austin "looks" like what we have been driven to believe is what Danny should look like. In other words, he looks like John Travolta. And that might not be too far off from the honest truth. After all, we're talking only about Danny Zuko, not a grand dramatic role like Sweeney Todd, or a role of complex emotion like Jean Valjean.
-From what I understand from Kathleen Marshall's comments, this revival will supposedly combine the best of the Broadway production and the film. Cute soundbite, but that original Broadway production is very, very different from the film. Moreover, the songs added for the film are of a completely different musical style - that being late 70s disco. There is no place in the show for "Grease is the Word." And though "Hopefully Devoted" is a great song, I truly do not believe that it expresses an emotion that Sandy feels toward Danny. It works somewhat in the film because Oliva Newton John delivers it in an abstract time setting where she deserts the action and the rest of the characters.
-They always tried to make David Ian into the Simon-esque judge. No offense to him, but he has NEVER produced a show on Broadway before. Therefore, his comments should have far less credibility than Jim Jacobs or Kathleen Marshall.
-Will they reveal the rest of the cast tomorrow too?
Why is it that I've followed the casting of this so avidly?
Sierra Boggess as Ariel
Sean Palmer as Prince Eric
Norm Lewis as King Triton
Tituss Burgess as Sebastian
Eddie Korbich as Scuttle
Jonathan Freeman as Grimsby
Derrick Baskin as Jetsam
Tyler Maynard as Flotsam
Cody Hanford and J.J. Singleton as Flounder
Sherie René Scott as Ursula
You know, this kind of makes Broadway look cheap. Or, at least comparatively less expensive.
Still, the credit of the Met and NYC Opera, they tend to have much more reliable standing room and rush policies than Broadway shows.
From Variety article on recent press preview - http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933095.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
"Marc Shaiman's Tony award-winning tunes"
Excuse me, but weren't those songs co-written between Shaiman and Scott Wittman?
A promo poster I recently saw also gave sole songwriting credit to Marc.
Lauren Ambrose of SIX FEET UNDER and Oscar Isaac, who performed in BEAUTY OF THE FATHER at MTC and THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA two yearse ago at Shakespeare in the Park.
Michael Grief's production of ROMEO AND JULIET will be the first of this year's two Shakespeare in the Park productions. The second, also to be a work by Shakespeare, will be directed by Daniel Sullivan.
Word on All That Chat is that it'll be replaced with KISMET, and assumedly with Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie, who were supposed to be in RAGTIME. They did KISMET last year at Encores, directed by the somewhat uninspiring Lonny Price. Not a bad choice, but not a great one. I say, do another contemporary musical instead. Do PARADE! It was good enough for Lincoln Center, and now for Donmar Warehouse.
The release:
Due to unexpected schedule conflicts of Frank Galati and Graciela Daniele, director and choreographer of City Opera's new production of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens' Ragtime, the company is postponing the presentation of the musical. The company had planned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the work by mounting a new production with the original Broadway team; music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, book by Terrence McNally, directed by Mr. Galati and with choreography by Graciela Daniele. Mr. Galati and Ms. Daniele are an integral part of this team and due to their unavailability City Opera is delaying its production until the entire team is available to work on the piece. The musical, which was scheduled to open at City Opera on April 8, 2008, will be replaced in the repertory by a musical theater work to be announced shortly.
Today marks the final performances of Roundabout's decent but forgettable revival of THE APPLE TREE. Will it be nominated for Best Musical Revival? It's probably that or LES MIZ, and I'd suppose it's more likely to go to LES MIZ.
It's also the final performance of MTC's well-performed but not really well-loved revival of TRANSLATIONS. I, who was conflicted whether to give it 3 or 2 stars and finally opted for 3, found it extremely well-directed, but hardly compelling in and of itself.
Last night was the final performance of the Philharmonic's MY FAIR LADY, which I really enjoyed when I attended on Thursday night. I have never seen Kelli O'Hara perform so incredibly well before. Kelsey Grammar, though in character, was always a few beats too fast for Rob Fisher's oversized orchestra. Still, an overall pleasure to hear Lerner and Loewe's masterpiece of a Broadway score.
And though it's not apparently official, today would appear to be the last performance of Bob Martin in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE before he treks to London to open the show there. Why the lack of fanfare? He'll probably return to the Broadway production eventually, so it might not be accurate to deem this his FINAL PEROFRMANCE in the Broadway production.
Ariel- Sierra Boggess
Triton- Norm Lewis
Ursula- Sherrie Rene Scott
Scuttle- Eddie Korbich
Sebastian - Titus Burgess
Chef Louie - John Tracy Egan
Prince Eric - Sean Palmer
Flounder - Cody Hanford
I went to Seth Rudetsky's weekly Chatterbox show for the first time today. This is actually surprising, cause I always enjoy his benefit concerts and piano appearances.
The guests were originally supposed to be Jonathan Groff and John Gallagher Jr. of SPRING AWAKENING, but they cancelled due to an impromptu vocal rehearsal. Instead, DREAMGIRLS composer Henry Krieger came as the interviewee.
What news did he share? Quite a lot. We also watched a clip of Gavin Creel singing the DREAMGIRLS title song alongside two other males. That took place recently on the Rosie cruise.
1. He is working on a Broadway musical of THE FLAMINGO KID with lyricist Susan Birkenhead and SPRING AWAKENING director Michael Mayer. He mentioned that workshop readings are in the works and that Santino Fontana, who opened in the role of Matt in the revival of THE FANTASTICKS, will likely take the lead role.
2. The entire creative team of SIDE SHOW has been offered the opportunity to remount the show at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre.
3. Broadway.com Bruce Glikas was said by Krieger to be the first person to think of using Jennifer Hudson as Effie. Rudetsky, however, replied as follows:
"I'm not saying I was resonsible for the movie being made and Jennifer Hudson being cast, but you do the math." (Rudetsky did a benefit concert of DREAMGIRLS in 2001 and also featured Hudson in his HAIR concert in 2004.)
4. Krieger claimed he doesn't care that he didn't win an Oscar for best song. In fact, he said that the decision to push for three songs from the film, rather than one, was done so that they could perform all three on the broadcast. Though this killed their chances at winning, he said that the screen time was more valuable. "I did it intentionally and I have no regrets," Krieger said. "I'm 62. I don't need an Oscar."
