This marked my first time at the new Times Center auditorium, located in the new New York Times building at 41st Street and Eighth Ave. It's quite a nice space, especially for concert recitals.
Tonight's program, hosted by Liz Callaway as part of the traditional Merkin Hall Broadway Up Close series (relocated here for the fall while the Merkin space is renovated), introduced five new musicals that were purported heading to Broadway.
No offense, but only two of the five shows spotlighted have any Broadway potential. The first three, which made up Act One, were interesting, but merely filler.
Act One:
First up was THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW, a new revue by Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham of I LOVE YOU BECAUSE. It turns out that I already saw the developmental production of this two months ago at NYU. It ran an hour and had some pretty nice songs. Not as compelling as JRB's SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD, but it definitely showcased some well-made songwriting. Lisa Howard of SPELLING BEE performed one of the songs.
Next was THE TRAGIC AND HORRIBLE LIFE OF THE SINGING NUN, which was at NYMF this year but I didn't catch.
Then there was THE ROAD TO QUATAR!, a quirky, metatheatrical piece about the craziness of writing a musical like TITLE OF SHOW that will probably end up at NYMF or somewhere like that. Performing were Chip Zien, Mary Testa and David Hibbard.
Act Two began with VANITIES, which is already confirmed to open on Broadway next fall. Performing were Kelli O'Hara (could she do this show? probably not due to SOUTH PACIFIC), Erin Dilly (CHITTY CHITTY), and Sarah Stiles (AVENUE Q).
Last, but definitely not least, was EVER AFTER. I caught a reading of EVER AFTER during the summer, which was very well done. Heisler and Goldrich are a truly talented songwriting team, and it's definitely time they got their shot at Broadway. Performing were Jan Maxwell (who I saw in the reading), Goeff Packward (playing the prince role, which was done by Max von Essen at the reading), and Liz Callaway, who made a cameo to sing the young heroine's "I Want" song.