What did I do this weekend theater-wise?
1. I went back to SPEECH & DEBATE, a truly wonderful Off-Broadway play that was easily worth a second look.
2. Did a phone interview with Kelli O'Hara. This will run as a short Q+A in the paper about her Lincoln Center concert, but I'd like to type up the transcript of the whole conversation and post it here.
3. Went to two of the Times Talks events, one of which was with James Levine of the Metropolitan Opera, interviewed by Anthony Tommassini. Levine looks good physically, considering the surgery he went under a few years ago, and how overweight he looked only a few years ago. (He's lost some 50 pounds lately.) Unfortunately, the event wasn't too exciting. Tommassini was far too reverential to Levine, and it didn't make for a very interesting or lively conversation.
4. The 39 Steps. My review will come out on Wednesday.
5. Happy Days at BAM. Wasn't too filled. But you can bet that when Endgame plays in two months, it'll be packed. It was announced yesterday that Elaine Stritch will be in the cast.
OTHERWISE, Let's go over some of the best lines spilled over LITTLE MERMAID
These quotes are culled from New York Theater Guide:
"But in a perverse process of devolution “The Little Mermaid” arrives on Broadway stripped of the movie’s generation-crossing appeal. Coherence of plot, endearing quirks of character, even the melodious wit of the original score (supplemented by new, substandard songs by Mr. Menken and the lyricist Glenn Slater) have been swallowed by an unfocused spectacle, more parade than narrative, that achieves the dubious miracle of translating an animated cartoon into something that feels like less than two dimensions"
Ben Brantley
New York Times
"Kids, especially girls and young women who grew up adoring the movie, will be enchanted by all the bright colors and nonstop motion. But others, including musical-theater lovers, won't find much satisfaction here." & "The production is busy, not exciting; mechanical, not magical."
Joe Dziemianowicz
New York Daily News
"Oddly enough, it's George Tsypin's settings and Tatiana Noginova's costumes - with their breathtaking vulgarity and equally breathtaking confidence - that give this "Little Mermaid" a certain flap to its flippers in a sea of almost calculated mediocrity." & "Underneath all this baroque ornamentation was a tiny, tinny little musical struggling for its life."
Clive Barnes
New York Post
"For all of its expertise, "The Little Mermaid" is extravagant kids' stuff, even by Disney standards."
Michael Sommers
Star-Ledger
"The new Mermaid is ultimately less than the sum of its impressive parts, offering neither the richly imaginative spectacle of The Lion King nor the old-fashioned vitality and charm of Mary Poppins." & "Wright, Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater ... have developed the tale of a young mermaid's longing to live among humans into an endearing, if rather conventional, love story."
Elysa Gardner
USA Today
"It is even harder to fall in love with the show. In fact, the most amazing part of Disney's latest musical is its amazing shortage of originality - not to mention magic or cross-generational wit." & "Doggedly conventional, well-performed, middling bore of a show." & "Deep-sea living is represented by what looks like shredded plastic shower curtains. The show has a seashell-soap-dish aesthetic, sprinkled with pearlized fixtures from a kitsch '50s bathroom."
Linda Winer
NewsDay
"Disney has turned "Mermaid" into the latest of its high-gloss screen-to-stage projects — and the result is almost exactly half as clever and touching and tuneful as the film."
Eric Grode
New York Sun
"For adults these structures (the sets), sparingly enhanced by projections and limited use of film, certainly make for a lot of elegantly lit plastic onstage. (The set occasionally looks like the ultimate '70s disco.) But for the smaller ticket-holders in the audience - including my companion, a savvy 7-year-old named Rachel - they create a very convincing aquatic landscape." & "It's important to remember that this is a Disney musical, so the accent is on the show's longevity: There are no popping star turns to be missed when the actors move on. Every role can be smoothly filled ad infinitum. The two romantic leads, Boggess and Palmer, are especially bland, though perfectly competent."
Jacques le Sourd
Journal News
"Under the direction of Francesca Zambello, whose background is in opera, the show is static. Instead of scenes flowing into one another and the story building, you have the sense of watching a series of barely connected sequences, each one designed to present a song. "The Little Mermaid" isn't bad; it's bland. It's done well enough that kids up to age 8 or so might enjoy the color, the music and the elemental mermaid-meets-prince story. But even they might be puzzled by some of the creative decisions." & "The dozen numbers that Menken wrote with lyricist Glenn Slater for the show are, with a couple of exceptions -- especially "I Want the Good Times Back" -- not very notable. The love songs are particularly dreary."
Robert Feldberg
The Record
"The Little Mermaid" - tail intact - amiably swims along on good cheer and charm. " & "This musical, buoyed by one of the best Disney film scores and a delightful new leading lady, succeeds as enjoyable family entertainment. And, yes, the sets are big, but then, so is the ocean."
Michael Kuchwara
Associated Press
"Disney's uneven procession of theatrical adaptations of its beloved film properties hits a sour note with this charmless rendition of its smash 1989 animated film." & "Far worse, even such classics as "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" ... are delivered here in fussily staged renditions that fail to come close to the film's originals." & "Most egregious is the production's visual conception, with Tatiana Noginova's over-the-top costumes and George Tsypin's stylized set designs more often than not simply ugly to look at."
Frank Scheck
Reuters
"This is a show of chiefly juvenile distractions. Stronger on color than design cohesion, its gaudy kitsch has neither the dazzling stagecraft of "Lion King" nor the impressive scale and storybook quaintness of "Mary Poppins." & "The overall effect is that of a department store holiday window conjured by some display queen with artistic pretensions and a plastic fetish -- rarely of a mysterious world fathoms below."
David Rooney
Variety
http://www.newyorktheatreguide.com/reviews/littlemermaid08.htm#press