Theater Thursday: Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast Albums

Just for a change of pace, and because I haven’t done a “Top Ten(ish)” post in a while, here are my Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast (OBC) albums.

Yes, it skews heavily towards the 70s-90s. This is not a judgement. There are a lot of current new shows I enjoy songs from. It’s just that I don’t listen to cast albums the way I did back then, so these are the ones that are the most ingrained.

Note: these are my favorites, chosen for emotional/sentimental reasons.

Note 2: cast albums, not live shows. In high school I didn’t have many opportunities to get to Broadway, so cast albums were my only way to experience the shows (other than occasional Great Performances airing on PBS).

So, in no particular order, my Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast albums:

1.      1776.  William Daniels, Ken Howard, Howard Da Silva, Betty Buckley, Ron Holgate … Okay, so I fell in love with the movie version first. My father bought the OBC that summer instead of the movie cast. “Sit Down, John,” “The Egg,” “But Mister Adams,” “The Lees of Old Virginia.” I even took a stab at “He Plays the Violin” (but changed “he” to “she” when anyone was listening as any closeted boy would do back then.

2.      BARNUM. Sorry, Greatest Showman fans. While I’m sure this 1980 musical was no more historically accurate than GS, it’s the Barnum musical I grew up on and will not be supplanted. The odds of it ever coming back to Broadway are infinitesimally smaller now that GS exists, but I guess I can hope for a City Centers Encores! production at some point. This was my first encounter with the wonders that are Jim Dale and Glenn Close.

3.      PIPPIN. Another “Saw the movie first” or rather “saw the film of the stage play on VHS first.” I love that filmed version (with William Katt as Pippin, Chita Rivera as Fastrada, and Martha Raye as Berthe) and was, admittedly, slightly disappointed at first the OBC had other folks in those roles. But I warmed up to them (John Rubenstein, Leland Palmer, Irene Ryan) and wore that vinyl (as with the two above) out.

4.      ASSASSINS. Okay, maybe this is cheating because it was Off-Broadway, but something just clicked with me the first time I heard that cast: Victor Garber, Jonathan Hadary, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, Lee Wilkof, Greg Germann, Patrick Cassidy, Annie Golden. Dark humor was definitely my jam in 1990.

5.      HAMILTON. I may not listen to OBCs quite the way I used to … but I think the Hamilton OBC was in the CD player of every rental car I got for my work travel in 2016-17. This was probably the last time I so obsessively listened to an OBC album for a show I hadn’t yet seen.

6.      SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. Another case where I’m almost positive I saw the televised version of the stage play before hearing the cast album, got obsessed, bought the vinyl, played it incessantly. To my mind, there will never be a better Mrs. Lovett than Angela Lansbury, and I’m split as to whether Len Cariou or George Hearn is the better Sweeney. And oh, look … there’s Victor Garber making his second (but not last) appearance on this list.

7.      JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. Another entry that’s kind of a cheat. Someone gave me a cassette of the 1971 US release of a 1969 Decca Records recording of a 39-minute version of the show, with an all-male (or mostly male) cast including David Daltrey as Joseph and Tim Rice himself as Pharoah. I don’t remember who sang the Narrator, as that cassette tape got worn out and turned out to not be replaceable. Of course, when the OBC album came out, I picked it up. Which was after (I believe) a high school trip to see it.

8.      DOONESBURY. In the early 80s, Garry Trudeau decided it was time for his characters to graduate college, enter the work force, and start aging the way real people (as opposed to comic strip characters) do. To accomplish this … he put them in a Broadway musical. Another show I never got the chance to see, but man did I love this album (which I believe has only ever been issued on vinyl). There’s so many quippy, snarky, at-the-time-topical lyrics. The political stuff was fun, but songs like “Another Memorable Meal” (making fun of Mike’s cooking inability, which I pretty much share), “I Came To Tan” (Zonker’s ode to his tanning career), and “I Can Have It All” (Boopsie’s ode to the modern woman) still take up space rent-free in my brain. Also, the cast included Mark Linn-Baker, Lauren Tom, Gary Beach, Kate Burton, and Keith Szarabajka. Also never revived.

9.      MAYOR. Another Off-Broadway cheat, another show that has never been revived and probably never will be (even for City Center Encores! this would be a stretch), given how precise a look at a certain era of New York City it is. I believe “You Can Be a New Yorker, Too!” is a cabaret favorite amongst the NYC theater set. I also love “Hootspa,” “What You See Is What You Get,” “I Want to Be the Mayor,” and “The Last I Love New York Song.” The original cast included Lenny Wolpe as The Mayor.

10.  CITY OF ANGELS. Oh, look, another Cy Coleman musical that’s never been revived on Broadway. Fairly sure my obsession with this one is my father’s fault. He bought it for the jazzy score and Manhattan Transfer-like “Greek chorus.” I kept it in constant rotation on CD because it was about the golden age of Hollywood and a writer and his private eye creation. My two favorite songs are “You Can Always Count on Me” (which I now love singing a gender-flipped version of) and “Funny,” which was one of the songs my college voice teacher (the late, great Professor Joe Cook) assigned because while I didn’t have faith I could sing it, he did. And I still can. Also, look at that cast: James Naughton, Gregg Edelman, Rene Auberjonois, Randy Graff, Dee Hoty, Kay McClelland, Carolee Carmello.

11.  CHESS. Okay, yes, I know you’re thinking “now you’re really cheating, that’s a concept album!” And I loved that concept album, played the vinyl constantly, pretty much wore out the CD as well – but I also loved (as many people apparently did not), for all its flaws, the OBC cassette tape I had with Phillip Casnoff, Judy Kuhn, David Carroll, and Harry Goz. If nothing else, it was the first time I heard “Someone Else’s Story,” which was not on the concept album; it’s been a favorite song ever since.

12.  CAMELOT. Another one that I came to through the movie. Took me a bit to get used to Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet in place of Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero, but again: I warmed to them quickly enough. And surprise surprise (to me): in the play version, Mordred (played by Roddy McDowall) has a song all about how being naughty is more fun than being good! (“The Seven Deadly Virtues” is not the greatest villain song ever written, but I will choose it every time.)

13.  INTO THE WOODS. A world in which all the fairy tale characters not only co-exist but interact, and some of them are related to each other? I was already a fan of cohesive fictional universes (thanks Edgar Rice Burroughs, Philip Jose Farmer, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics) by the time this musical debuted, and I was smitten from first listen. There have been some excellent revival casts, but give me Chip Zein, Joanna Gleason, Danielle Ferland, Robert Westenberg, Bernadette Peters, Kim Crosby, Ben Wright, and Tom Aldredge any day.

14.  A CHORUS LINE. I mean, when your mother yells at your father to “stop playing that song where the kids can hear!” (I’m looking at you, “Dance Ten / Looks Three”), of course you need to listen to the whole cast album every time she’s not home. (She’d have had apoplexy over certain parts of “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love” as well, if she’d paid attention). And maybe my obsession with “I Can Do That” should have been a sign of things to come (spoiler alert: not that I’d be a dancer. I can’t dance.)

15.  JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR/GODSPELL. Ending the list on a tie. These two shows are so inextricably linked in my mind not only because they tell the same story from different directions but because songs from each wound their way into our high school chorus and church folk group performances (Yes, I was in the folk group at my Roman Catholic church. Are you shocked?) I may not have listened to either straight through as much as I did the other entries on this list, but those songs were part of the soundtrack to my high school years and after, so I can’t leave them off. (And there’s Victor Garber, showing up for a third time!)

Honorable Mention: OKLAHOMA. My father owned a stack of 78 RPM vinyl, even though the format had long since been discontinued. Among them were the cast albums (plural, yes) of the original Broadway cast of Oklahoma. Alfred Drake, Howard Da Silva, Celeste Holm … I didn’t know who most of them were at that time, but this is probably the earliest Broadway cast album I can recall listening to, so it holds a special place despite not being listened to as much as the others (piling all those thick 78 vinyls up took effort, man!)

 Now, how about hitting comments and letting me know what YOUR favorite Original Broadway Cast Albums are. No judgement! I woke yuck your yum if you don’t yuck mine!

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: Water for Elephants

I love watching gymnasts and acrobats do their thing. I love creative puppetry. I enjoy tightly harmonized folk-pop music. And I’m partial to stories about the circus/carnivals. So Water for Elephants piqued my interest when it was announced, even before I found out that Grant Gustin, my second-favorite television Flash (sorry, Grant fans, John Wesley Shipp will always have the number one spot there … but that’s a post for another time), would be making his Broadway debut in the lead role. My goddaughter also wanted to see it, so off we went to the Imperial Theatre a week or so before the 2024 Tony Awards.

Based on the novel of the same name by Sara Gruen, which my office book club read shortly after it came out, with book by Rick Elice and music and lyrics by Pigpen Theatre Co., Water For Elephants is a memory play: elderly nursing home patient Jacob Jankowski attends a nearby traveling circus and regals the staff with his own tale of joining Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Circus during the Prohibition years.  Jacob becomes the circus’s veterinarian and falls for Marlena, the horse trainer, running him afoul of the owner/ringmaster (and Marlena’s abusive husband), August, and his trusted assistant Wade.

The gymnastics/acrobatics in this show are stunning: pole work, ringwork, aerial silks, tumbling, death-drops, trapeze … and probably a dozen other moves I don’t know the names for but love watching. Most of the full ensemble numbers, from “The Road Don’t Make You Young” to the act one closer “The Grand Spec,” from “Zostan” at the start of act two to the various show-ending reprises, feature multiple gymnastic/acrobatic components happening concurrently. Many of these are also performed at top speed. The cast must be exhausted by intermission and burnt out by the end of the show. (I can’t imagine what a two-show day feels like). The seamlessness in which all of them interweave without collisions, without missing timing … it really blew me away. Of particular note: the aerial silk work of Antoine Boissereau during “Easy” is so stunning it brought me to tears (okay, the lyrics, sung beautifully by Isabelle McCalla as Marlena, also helped the tears to flow).

The animal costuming/puppetry work is also wonderful. Since the setting is a circus, the animals have to be represented somehow. Puppet designers Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman, and Camille Labarre, alongside costume designer David Israel Reynoso, went in a different direction from that other long-running Broadway show where humans play animals (The Lion King). Rather than fully-articulated and detailed puppet costumes, they went for broad details that imply – allowing the actors playing those animals to have greater range of movement, which benefitted the show greatly, especially in the climactic stampede scene.

Speaking of that scene – Bradley King’s lighting design is great throughout the show but spectacular in that specific moment. Combined with the way the scene is staged and the cacophonous music, the lighting puts the audience as close to being in that stampede as you can be without leaving your seat.

I’ve given praise to the ensemble’s athleticism. Now, the leads: Gregg Edelman (who I will see in just about anything) is heartbreaking and loveable as the lonely, wistful elderly Jacob. He is counterpointed by Grant Gustin’s earnest performance as the youthful, also lonely and heartbreaking, somewhat naïve younger Jacob. As mentioned, Isabella McCalla is Marlena; her voice is sweet, soaring, and beautiful. Paul Alexander Nolan’s brutish/conniving/charismatic turn as August might have been my favorite villain turn of the season so far.

The supporting cast were equally enjoyable: Stan Brown’s Camel, the man who takes younger Jacob under his wing, is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time; Joe De Paul’s Walter, the circus clown/comedian, is just hysterical; Sara Gettelfinger steals every scene she’s in as Barbara, who runs the “exotic dancer” sideshow, with a wonderful acerbic wit. And as Wade, August’s right-hand-man-without-a-conscience, Wade McCollum made the part more than just a one-note sidekick.

Pigpen Theater Co’s music is period-appropriate, a nice blend of ballads and folk/pop with lyrics that are emotive and build on character. In the moment, pretty much every song hits the right spot, whether that be infectious joy or deep loss. I must admit, though: after the show was over, I had a hard time calling any particular song to mind. I usually leave a musical humming/trying to remember the lyrics of at least one song. Your experience may be different, of course.

Despite that one little (very personal, not true for everyone) complaint, I would say that if you love the circus, acrobatics, puppetry, and strong vocal performances … see Water for Elephants. I know that as I post this, Grant Gustin is nearing his final performance and Joe De Paul has already left, but don’t let that stop you.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS

The Broadway portion of this year’s “Books and Broadway for my Birthday” trip into New York City was the revival of Once Upon a Mattress playing for a limited engagement at the Hudson Theater. I was originally supposed to see this production when it was at New York City Center as part of the Encores! series, but work travel got in the way and I sold my ticket to a friend, who loved the show. So I was especially excited when it transferred to Broadway and the Hudson (where we saw Merrily We Roll Along last year) with most of the City Center cast.

The production maintains the music and lyrics of Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer, with Amy Sherman-Palladino adapting the original book by Jay Thompson, Marshall Barer, and Dean Fuller. I’ve only seen one other production of Once Upon a Mattress, and that was a middle school production with my niece in the cast. Of course, I’ve seen the clips of Carol Burnett as Winifred in the original 1959 production. But my memory of the show was dim, so I have no idea what changes Sherman-Palladino may have made. So for me, it was very much like seeing the show for the first time.

You won’t be shocked to hear if you know me at all: I loved it! Absolutely the best choice of show to see after a full day of hiking around Manhattan buying books (when the security guard waved his flashlight into my backpack, he raised his eyebrow. I said “yeah. It’s books all the way down.” He laughed.). The show is light, funny, touching; the music swings from the romantic to the goofily energetic and back multiple times. Great Prologue by the Jester, great opening number (“Opening for a Princess”), fun act one finale (“Song of Love”), etc.

City Center Encores! productions typically have the orchestra on stage with the cast rather than under the stage or visible at the sides of the stage, highlighting that the music is as important as the talking, singing, and dancing. For this production, the orchestra is slightly above and behind the action. Conductor Annbritt duChateau and her musicians were such a natural part of the staging that I sometimes forgot they were there. They sounded fantastic under Mary-Mitchell Campbell’s music supervision. Lorin Latarro’s choreography was terrific – frenetic when it needed to be (“Spanish Panic”) and subtle when it needed to be (“Yesterday I Loved You”). I believe Lear deBessonet has directed most of the Encores! productions that have transferred to Broadway in the past few years. She directed the Encores! production of Oliver! last year that I loved so much (and reviewed). She has a wonderful knack for picking the right person for each role and teasing great performances out of them, and this production was no exception.

Sutton Foster. Much has been made of Carol Burnett saying that Sutton is the perfect choice among current Broadway performers for Princess Winifred, and I can’t disagree with her. She was endearing, walked the line between slapstick and over-the-top slapstick (which can be precarious) perfectly. Her “Shy” was brassy and loud, her “The Swamps of Home” more subtly comedic, her “Happily Ever After” sweet. I am hard pressed to think of another musical where the lead character’s “11th hour number” isn’t a song but a three-minute-long piece of pantomime (as Winifred tries to fall asleep but just can’t get comfortable); Sutton delivered the silent physical comedy goods without veering into overblown physicality. (This was my first time seeing Sutton on stage. I know. I know. It won’t be my last, I’m sure.)

Michael Urie is adorable as Prince Dauntless. Not an easy task with the way the character is written for most of the play (henpecked, spineless, a bit dim) but he made it work. Musically, he gets to shine in the act one closer (“Song of Love”) and in the middle of act two (“Man to Man Talk”). In the first number, he is adorably infatuated with Winifred; in the latter, he is adorably slow to pick up what his father is silently trying to tell him. What I’m saying is that Michael Urie is adorable. Always. But especially as Dauntless.

Ana Gasteyer plays the willful, controlling Queen Aggravain. I really, really, really disliked the Queen – which tells you that Gasteyer is brilliant in the role. David Patrick Kelly has perhaps the hardest part in the show, making us care for King Sextimus the Silent without ever uttering a word. It’s a role that in other hands could be (here’s that phrase again) over the top and possibly even offensive but in Kelly’s hands is subtle and lovable. Nikki Renee Daniels and Will Chase as the young lovers Lady Larkin and Sir Harry complimented each other well (both of their duets, “In A Little While” and “Yesterday I Loved You” were sweet, earnest highlights).

If anyone comes close to stealing the show from Foster and Urie, though, it is Daniel Breaker as the Jester. His delivery of the Prologue (“Many Moons Ago”) set the stage for the evening, but his “Very Soft Shoes” pretty near broke my heart. The number is a paean to the Jester’s father, who preceded him in show business. The Jester is surrounded by dancers (including one who is a vision of the father), but I don’t think my eyes left Breaker once during the number. His body language, facial expressions, and vocal delivery all touched me and brought back memories of my father (who was not a dancer, but that’s beside the point). Not gonna lie – I got very emotional.

Once Upon a Mattress runs at the Hudson Theatre in New York until November 30, 2024, after which it is apparently transferring to the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles. Don’t be “Shy” – go see it!

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: Back To The Future The Musical

Sometimes, you need a little spectacle. Back to the Future: The Musical provides it, in great heaping doses.

I feel like the Winter Garden Theater usually goes out of its’ way to make the house feel like part of the set/show. For BttF:TM, they’ve rigged flashing computer circuits from the stage out along the box seats and across the ceiling to at least midway above the orchestra seats to keep you in mind of a mad scientist’s crazy plan. (If you’re sitting along the outer edges of the orchestra, as we were, this makes reading the Playbill before the show exceedingly difficult, but it definitely sets a mood.) The front scrim (instead of a curtain) shows the show’s logo when it isn’t reminding you that photography during the show is prohibited because it would mess with the space-time continuum (pretty cute).

The staging is heavy reliant on special effects (the front scrim and back display do a lot of the heavy lifting on that score) both for the time travel scenes (including Doc’s number, “21st Century,” that opens Act Two) and for just moving around town or even around the school. The car, of course, is the big draw and it looks and sounds great (the car even gets a bit of KITT-like personality, although I scoured the Playbill and could not find out who voices her).

Casey Likes is a likeable Marty McFly. He’s got a great singing voice and sells both the ballads (his “Got No Future” was particularly moving) and the rock numbers (“The Power of Love” and “Back in Time”). But if I’m being totally honest – his dialogue often sounded like he was trying too hard to be Michael J. Fox. Which, okay, that’s not a horrible thing, but I would have liked to see Likes make the part more his own.

Which is what Roger Bart did with Doc Brown. There was little of Christopher Lloyd’s mannerisms or inflections in Bart’s performance, and I absolutely loved it. He was just as “over the top” as Lloyd, but in a vastly different way, and was clearly enjoying every moment he was on stage. He also knew exactly when to tone it down. I will go on record here that Bart’s Act Two ballad, “For the Dreamers,” made me tear up and is hands-down my favorite original song in the show.

The chemistry between Likes and Bart is palpable. They’re a great pair, all of their scenes together crackle. I may be mistaken, but I think there are a few moments where they improvise, and there was one moment where they both broke slightly. It was as much fun to watch their scenes together as it was as a kid to watch Harvey Korman and Tim Conway crack each other up on the Carol Burnett Show.

We had understudy Becca Petersen as Lorraine Baines McFly, alongside Evan Alexander Smith as George, and they were both fantastic. Petersen played the difference between 1985 alcoholic bitter Lorraine and 1955 romantic lusty Lorraine wonderfully; Smith doesn’t get to show that same type of character change until the final scenes but his nerdy, anxious, underdog George is someone you can’t help but feel sorry for and want to see succeed (something I don’t think I ever really got from Crispin Glover in the movie). I totally believed Lorraine falling for George after he punches Biff and when he shows himself to be a gentleman at the dance.

I feel a little bad for Nathaniel Hackmann, as Biff is not really given a chance to be anything beyond the stereotypical villain. He does have a solid “villain song” in Act Two (“Teach Him a Lesson”), and physically he looks more like Thomas F. Wilson than any of the other actors look like their movie counterparts. I’m not saying bully Biff should have been given any kind of tragic backstory (as we see with so many classic villains who get their own movies these days), but I wonder if the show couldn’t have added a little more depth or at least given Hackmann a bit more variation to play.

A great surprise in the show was understudy Kevin Curtis as Goldie Wilson. His “Gotta Start Somewhere” was the showstopper of Act One, with at least a full minute of applause. I love it when a supporting character gets a spotlight moment and delivers on it. Curtis has an incredibly voice; I hope wonderful things are in his future.

There are some parts of the film that just couldn’t be adapted to stage, even with the incredible special effects. So the skateboard-and-car chase of the film (that ends with Biff and his cronies covered in manure) is replaced here with a foot chase through the school, full of slapstick pratfalls, all while Lorraine sings “Something About That Boy.” It’s a strong end-of-Act-One full cast number, although nowhere near as funny as the movie chase.

Ultimately, Back to the Future: The Musical is exactly what it claims to be: feel good fun for the whole family, special effects and sound effects heavy, with a couple of original songs that might stick in your head (alongside classics by Chuck Berry (“Johnny B. Goode”) and Huey Lewis (The Power of Love” and “Back in Time”) that are required when adapting Back to the Future). It doesn’t pretend to be anything else. Go in with the expectation that you’re just going to have fun, and you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: OR, WHAT SHE WILL

I think my first encounter with the writing of Liz Duffy Adams was as part of the writing staff for Serial Box’s (now Realm’s) four seasons of Ellen Kushner’s Tremontaine (the prequel audiobook series to Kushner’s “Riverside” fantasy series). I really enjoyed her episodes (but that’s a whole different blog post at some point). She’s been a playwright for far longer than I’ve been aware of her, and I began seeking out her published scripts, many of which are neo-Restoration or touch on that period.

I finally got to see a live performance of one of her works when Red Bull Theater produced a reading of OR (retitled Or, What She Will) at the Sheen Center Shiner Theatre in New York City on May 6, 2024 (yes, I’m behind on my theater reviews. Forgive me.) The reading was directed by Gayle Taylor Upchurch, and featured Kelly Curran as Aphra Behn, b as Nell Gwynne and others, and Santino Fontana as King Charles II and others.

This was an incredibly fun, high-energy evening. All three actors were wonderful; I was extra impressed when I found out they’d only had one rehearsal, that afternoon. They made effective use of a handful of props, including masquerade masks, and b and Fontana were a master class in transforming from one character to another, sometimes mid-sentence, through body language and vocal inflections. Fontana’s King Charles II and William (a former lover and fellow spy of Aphra’s) were equally earnest and slimy; b’s Nell Gwynne was sexual and sensual, her Maria the epitome of hapless and long-suffering. At the center of it all, Kelly Curran’s performance as Aphra Behn was captivating.

For those who may not know, Aphra Behn was a poet and former spy for King Charles II during his exile. She was one the first English women to make a living by writing, moving into playwriting after her time as a spy. Some of her early life is shrouded in mystery, as is whether she actually went to debtor’s prison and who paid off her debts to free her. She did eventually go to work for the King’s Company and the Duke’s Company, theatrical troupes that would have brought her into contact with famed actor Nell Gwynne.

OR attempts to answer some of the questions of Behn’s adult life in the form of a neo-Restoration comedy, postulating romantic/sexual liaisons between Behn and King Charles II, Behn and Nell Gwynne, and giving a possible origin point for the affair between Nell Gwynne and King Charles II. There’s lots of bedroom farce type comedy, characters being shuffled from room to room or being forced to hide in wardrobes to keep them from seeing each other, as Aphra Behn tries to juggle not just visits from three different present and former lovers but also from Aphra’s elderly servant woman Maria and from Lady Davenant, patroness of the Duke’s Company, from whom Aphra hopes to secure work after being released from debtor’s prison.

I can only imagine what a fully staged production of OR would look like, with all the slamming of doors, hiding in wardrobes, and quick costume changes with two actors playing the majority of the roles. During the reading, the cast did a wonderful job of implying all of this physical comedy without much in the way of actual movement.

The script allows for the possibility of Lady Davenant, who enters in a breathless rush and delivers a two-and-a-half-page monologue without pause before sweeping out again, to be played by either of the performers who are not playing Aphra. In the reading, Santino Fontana delivered the energy and the comedy perfectly – although as is the nature of readings, he lost his place mid-monologue and turned finding it again into a bit that had the audience laughing along with him.

OR, set in the 1660s, is particularly topical right now, dealing as it does with, as the program notes state, “a cyclical view of history: against a background of drawn-out wars and a fervent counter-culture of free love, gender fluidity, political optimism and pastoral lyricism…” that we’ve seen in the 1960s and are seeing currently. Written during the early years of the Obama administration, it feels even more contemporary in the political climate of Fall 2024.

If you can find a performance of OR in your area, I highly recommend seeking it out. I may as well also mention here that Liz Duffy Adams’ Born with Teeth, about the professional and personal relationships between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, is playing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival through the fall. I have yet to read the script or see a production, but it sounds as interesting as OR.

A full list of the works of Liz Duffy Adams can be found on her website.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: N/A

I got to check another name off my “actors I’d love to finally see live on stage” list at the end of June: Holland Taylor. I was trying to fit one more show in in June, knowing that July would be hectic with work travel, and N/A was in previews at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center.

In N/A, Holland Taylor plays “N” and Ana Villafañe plays “A.” “N” is a life-long member of the House of Representatives, a former Speaker of the House and now Minority Leader. “A” is a newly elected Representative (“of the Bronx and Queens!”), the youngest woman ever elected to the House. While they are part of the same political party, and share many goals and ideals, their philosophical and strategic disagreements place them at odds even on common ground. The characters are clearly based on Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, although neither woman’s name is spoken during the roughly 90-minute performance (nor is any other politician’s name, although when they discuss “that man” it is equally clear who they are referring to). Taylor and Villafañe both delivered powerhouse performances during the preview I saw. There were a few small gaffes, but hey – that’s what previews are for. Reviews I’ve seen online since the show officially opened have all been positive, regardless of the age of the reviewer (I’ve seen reviews from a 13-year-old actor to a 70-year-old frequent theatregoer).

Taylor’s “N” is all quiet control, occasionally condescending (and quite aware of when she’s doing it, and to who) but also willing to acknowledge when that condescension is misplaced, leveraging decades of compromise and slow progress to institute positive change. She moves carefully across the stage at all times, regardless of her emotions. Villafañe’s “A” is boundless energy, also occasionally condescending (in that “youth knows better than age” way), striving to do the Right Thing even when it’s not the most politically expedient thing, swinging for the substantial changes over the incremental. At times, she veritably ricochets from one end of the small set to the other, and in one highly effective moment she conveys movement without moving or speaking, trembling in place. They balance each other very well – or perhaps I should say, in the playwright’s words, they orbit one another well, literally and figuratively dancing around each other and the issues that concern them. Most of their scenes are together, although each gets at least a few moments on stage alone. Those moments are as telling, as informative about the characters, as when they are verbally sparring.

Mario Correa’s script mixes actual conversations and sound bites from the real “N” and “A” with conjecture about what they may have said to each other in private in various meetings between 2018 and 2022. The playwright gives each woman equal weight, neither idolizing nor vilifying either one. The audience the night I saw the show seemed evenly distributed age-wise, obvious in the response to N’s lines about disaffected youth who spend all their time trying to raise their social media cachet and A’s lines about older people who think “close enough” is “good enough.” (I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the point.) I personally came out of the show with a greater appreciation of what it takes to accomplish anything in Washington, playing what Otto Von Bismark called “the art of the possible” (a quote I have to admit I mostly know because Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice based a song around it in Evita), a greater appreciation for how even people who broadly want the same thing can have very specifically different ways of attaining it.

N/A is a classic two-person show, perfect for the more intimate Newhouse space where the audience surrounds three-quarters of the stage. The set is minimalistic, the few pieces of furniture see-through plexiglass, allowing the focus to stay on the actors. The passage of time and change of locations is indicated through photos and words projected on the rear wall, including some well-known photos from our recent history. Fair warning: there are some fast-flashing lights and loud sound cues, especially in the scene that takes place on January 6th.

N/A runs at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center through September 1st (the run was recently extended). I highly recommend seeing it.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: WITHOUT YOU

Based on his memoir of the same name, Anthony Rapp’s “one man with a band” show Without You is a tour-de-force look at grief, chronicling Rapp’s friendship with playwright/composer/lyricist Jonathan Larson, Larson’s unexpected death just as RENT was opening, and the slow decline and death from cancer of Rapp’s mother. It’s an emotional 90 minutes of theater, filled with a combination of Larson’s music and original songs written by Anthony Rapp with David Matos, Joe Pisapia, and Daniel A. Weiss, and Rapp holds nothing back emotionally. It’s clear throughout that he is still in touch with the raw emotions of the highs and lows of that period of his life, even if he has made peace with it.

The show is not all doom and gloom. There are cathartic moments of humor spread throughout, and lots of joy at the happier moments. Rapp’s warmth, and his love for his family and friends, shines through even the darkest moments, and he is a fantastic storyteller. From the start, his voice and his body language draw you in – you want to hear his story, and you want to hear it from him. Still, as a cancer survivor myself and as someone who was primary caregiver to my mother during the final three months of her battle with cancer, some moments hit hard. But those moments also allowed me to accept that grief is never-ending, to shed some of my own long-pent-up tears … and also to celebrate my mother as Rapp was celebrating his.

The set is minimal: a few chairs and rolling tables that Rapp moves around throughout the show stand in for his New York City apartment, the RENT audition/rehearsal/performance spaces, his mother’s home and hospital room, and other sundry locations. Photos are projected onto the walls of the set (which evoked memories of the RENT set) at key moments, and the lighting and sound design perfectly complement and support the story Rapp is telling without overwhelming the actor himself.

The band is on-stage throughout. For the off-Broadway run at New World Stages, which I saw in May of 2023, that band was composed of Daniel A. Weiss on keyboards, Clérida Eltimé on cello, Paul Gil on the bass, Jerry Marotta on drums, and Lee Moretti on guitar. They were terrific, very well meshed.

During the run at New World Stages, most performances concluded (after the bows) with Rapp being joined on stage by a friend or industry peer for a duet of a number from RENT. The night I saw the show, the effervescent Jessica Vosk joined Rapp for a high-energy, incredibly funny rendition of “Tango Maureen.”

Since closing off-Broadway, Anthony Rapp has been intermittently touring the show. He had some dates in Japan in March and is playing at the Wimberly Theatre in Boston through April 14th. If you can get to Boston to see the show, I highly recommend it! (I have no idea if the post-bow duets happen during the tour, but how awesome if they do!)

Side Note: I saw the evening performance of Without You at New World Stages the same day I saw the matinee performance of Oliver! at New York City Center (My review of Oliver! can be found HERE). That was quite the heavy day of theater!

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: SWEENEY TODD (2023 Revival)

With the current revival of Sweeney Todd due to close in just over a month (May 5th), I thought it was high time for me to post my thoughts about the performance I saw back in January.

Ticket sales for Sweeney, by all accounts, dropped quite a bit between the final performances of Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford and the first performances of Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster – and that’s a shame, because the cast we saw was unequivocally fantastic. This prevailing attitude that understudies/standbys/replacements aren’t as worthy of attention as “big name” stars is sad, in my opinion.

Nicholas Christopher’s Sweeney was everything you’d want Sweeney to be: gruff, obsessed, forlorn and yet at times kind of likeable despite, you know, the whole slitting throats thing. Christopher’s rendition of “My Friends” was moving, his “Epiphany” downright frightening. His portion of the “Johanna” sequence in act two was heartbreaking. He played the arc from revenge-driven to murder-obsessed to accepting of his fate beautifully.

Jeanna de Waal’s Mrs. Lovett was equally as layered and was the highlight of the show. I have never been a fan of “By the Sea,” but she made it an enjoyable character moment for me, the eye into just how obsessed Lovett is with Sweeney that I think the song was always intended to be, imagining a future we as the audience know is unrealistic to a fault. And boy, did she sell “The Worst Pies in London,” not just with her voice but with physical humor and facial contortions that stopped short of being over-the-top. “Wait,” a song I tend to forget even exists until it starts, displayed a subtler side of how convincing Lovett could be.

And needless to say based on the preceding two paragraphs, in the hands of Christopher and de Waal “A Little Priest” was every bit the dark, disturbing comedic tour-de-force it should be. It brought down the house.

In my opinion, the Beggar Woman is one of the more thankless roles in this or any show: the character doesn’t have any huge show-stopping number to showcase an actor’s chops. She is easily written off as more plot device than character, spending half the play being vulgar and the rest practically screaming. Ruthie Ann Miles imbued the part with the right levels of mania and anguish for us to see the Beggar Woman as a real, extremely damaged, person and thus elicit pity.

“Not While I’m Around” is my personal favorite song in the show, and Daniel Marconi as Tobias Ragg delivered it sweetly and innocently. If I have any complaint about this production, though, it’s that Marconi’s Tobias felt a little too cunning/wily while enticing customers during “Pirelli’s Magical Elixir,” at odds with the simple-minded boy who sings “Not While I’m Around.” Tobias is supposed to be a slow-witted victim, both of Pirelli’s obvious emotional and physical abuse and Mrs. Lovett’s condescension and treating him like a pet (“Isn’t it a sweet boy” – it, instead of he), which makes his awareness of Sweeney’s evil that much more of a surprise. Still, Marconi’s interpretation of Tobias’ love for his “rescuer,” Mrs. Lovett, and of his mental breakdown at the end of the play, were spot on.

Rounding out the main cast, Daniel Yearwood as Anthony and Maria Bilbao as Johanna were perfectly matched – earnest, infatuated young lovers who are obsessed with each other as Sweeney is with revenge and Lovett is with Sweeney. If I have a second complaint, it’s that I felt Jamie Jackson’s Judge Turpin, obsessed with Johanna and power, lacked any real sense of menace (although he did still come across as creepy/slimy), and that John Rapson’s Beadle Bamford was almost too flamboyant (an interpretation of the character I’ve never seen before). That said, “Pretty Women” was a highlight of the show, and “Parlor Songs” was humorous.

Full credit to the great Thomas Kail for his direction. He has a fantastic sense of when to focus on the spectacle (the final sequence) and when to focus on the characters. The set design by Mimi Lein is a minimalistically steampunk aesthetic, perfectly juxtaposed with Emilio Sosa’s period-appropriate costumes. I know there’s been some negativity about Steen Hoggett’s herky-jerky, swaying choreography but I found it to be intriguing and exactly right for the mood, especially in the opening and closing “Ballad of Sweeney Todd” numbers where it was mesmerizing. This is, after all, a horror story.

So – while you can, heed the words of the Ballad. Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd, at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater through May 5. (I would gladly see it one more time if finances and time permitted.)

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: OLIVER! at City Center May 2023

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

I saw the City Centers Encores! production of Oliver! On May 6, 2023. Encores! productions traditionally run for only two weeks (although in 2024 they’ve increased that to three), and I managed to see the opening Saturday matinee performance, which included a cast-and-crew “talkback” after the show. With Encores! runs of Into the Woods and Parade having transferred to Broadway shortly after closing, I had hopes that this would follow suit, but we’re well into 2024 with no announcements so that’s probably not happening. A shame because this production deserved a larger audience.

The character of Fagin, and the original performances by Ron Moody and Clive Revill (we had the movie and Broadway cast albums in my house growing up, and I loved both), makes such a large impression on the audience that it is easy to forget Fagin doesn’t appear until near the end of Act One. Raul Esparza’s Fagin was equal parts gleeful and woebegone, every number a real treat (none more so than his “Reviewing the Situation,” where he interacts with the first violin as another character (all in his head, of course). I realized during the talkback that Esparza was fighting something (a head cold? The flu?) but you would not have known it from the performance he gave.

Tam Mutu’s Bill Sikes was perhaps the scariest interpretation of the character for me since Oliver Reed in the 1968 film. (Oliver Reed had a habit of scaring the pants off me as a kid – I’ve still not been able re-watch The Curse of the Werewolf. I really should…) Brad Oscar and Mary Testa provided pitch-perfect comic relief as Mister Bumble and Widow Corney (as did Thom Sesma and Rashidra Scott as the funereal Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry), not necessarily easy in a show that gets as dark as Oliver! does. Still, Oscar and Testa’s “I Shall Scream” was dysfunctional courtship at its finest, and as I am a fan of dark humor, I really enjoyed Sesma and Scott’s “That’s Your Funeral.”

But the standout among the adults, for me, was Lilli Cooper as Nancy. Her “As Long as He Needs Me” must be the new standard to strive for when performing the song. Her Nancy is strong, self-aware (she knows exactly what kind of relationship she’s in with Sikes), but also stuck in the pattern society allows for a woman of her socioeconomic status and making the best of terrible things. Her “It’s a Fine Life” and “Oom-Pah-Pah” are full of the joy of life, and her interactions with Oliver, Dodger and the boys in “I’d Do Anything” were as loving and sweet as Fagin’s during “You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket or Two” and “Be Back Soon” are self-serving and skeevy.

Speaking of the kids. Julian Lerner’s comedic timing made it easy to be charmed by his Artful Dodger, the leader of Fagin’s group of extremely energetic and talented group of boy dancer/singers (who were all wonderful, but I have to call out the incredibly acrobatic Michael Cash, whose in-place high-speed back-flips during “Who Will Buy” got a huge response from the audience when he was done. I have no idea if he can tap-dance, but if Billy Elliot comes back to Broadway before Cash gets too much older, he’s got to be a shoo-in for the lead). Benjamin Pajak’s performance as Oliver was every bit as innocent and lovable as one would want, with a crystal clear, emotive voice. His “Where Is Love” stopped the show, and everyone around me had tears in their eyes (including me). Oliver, like Annie and Matilda and Billy Elliot, is on stage for most of the show, and Pajak shouldered that responsibility with energy, poise, and genuine emotion. He more than held his own on stage with some Broadway powerhouses, and I’m sure he’ll be working consistently (as he seems to be with showcases and staged readings of various musicals featured on his Instagram).

I also really enjoyed the talkback after the Saturday matinee performance (photo below). I cannot recall the name of the City Center producer who read questions submitted in advance by audience members,  but the talkback featured director Lear DeBessonet, musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, most of the adult leads (Esparza, Cooper, Mutu, Oscar, and Testa), and Michael Cash representing the kids in the cast. (I assume Pajak and Lerner, being leads, had mandatory relaxation time between performances.) The cast were frank in their discussion of the darker themes of the play – misogyny, child abuse (Oliver is sold into child labor; the orphan boys are trained by Fagin to steal), domestic abuse (Sikes’ physical and emotional abuse of Nancy is not downplayed or avoided, although thankfully her death occurs off-stage), among others, and DeBessonet was open about her discussions with the cast and creative crew in how to present those sensitive issues to a modern audience. Esparza and DeBessonet also talked about how the show portrays Fagin’s Jewishness in comparison to the original novel (in which Dickens employed every horrible stereotype he knew, and usually referred to the character simply as “the Jew”), and how they worked to not make this Fagin a stereotype. Esparza’s story about being at the sitzprobe (first meeting of cast and orchestra), hearing the violin intro to “Reviewing the Situation” and saying “Oh, a Klezmer band! So we’re doing this…” got a great reaction from the audience (and as mentioned, his interactions with the first chair violin were perfect).

Oliver! is one of my favorite shows, for the music alone, and a sentimental favorite because I auditioned for (but was not cast in) a production at An Evening Dinner Theater back in the early 80s. Yes, the book has problems (Act One is almost completely songs, which is fine, but the transitions between those songs are awkward at best; and again, there’s those dark themes that aren’t explored as fully as they could have been). But I’m glad to have seen the Encores! production with this terrific cast.

Theater Thursday: ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

production photo by JULIETA CERVANTES

“Hell is empty … and all the devils are here,” Patrick Page intones, tapping his chest portentously, in the Instagram ads for his one-man show tracing the history of Shakespeare’s villains. Those two lines, delivered in Page’s basso profundo growl, should be enough to get you to the DR2 Theatre in New York City before All the Devils Are Here closes on March 31st. But if the ad alone, or Page’s multiple social media appearances and online interviews about the show, haven’t convinced you, I hope this review will. Especially if you’re an actor, or a writer interested in exploring the characterizational depths of villains, or “just” a reader or theatergoer who loves Shakespeare.

I’m not the first to describe All the Devils Are Here as a Master Class in Shakespeare, and I’m sure I won’t be the last – but that’s exactly how I felt after the seeing a performance back in December (yes, I’m slow on posting reviews. If you read the blog regularly, this does not surprise you), and doubly-so since the performance I attended was followed by a “talkback” with Page where the audience got to ask him questions about performing and interpreting Shakespeare. Page packs a ton of history, biography, soliloquies, dialogue (playing both roles in the conversation), and memoir into 90 minutes of stage time. I was breathless and exhausted (in all the best ways) by the end of the performance. Page’s energy was full-on and commanding throughout, even in the quietest moments and throughout the talkback.

The play is structured mostly chronologically, following the development of Shakespeare’s villains from the early, simple “maleficent” / “deal with the devil” type characters based on the plays the Bard would have seen as a child through the more complex characterizations of characters like Shylock of The Merchant of Venice and the sociopathic Iago of Othello. Page’s thesis is that our modern fascination with villains is all Shakespeare’s fault, as the playwright worked to create antagonists who were not just one-dimensionally evil but who had depth and nuance, who had reasons (or justifications, at the least) for every evil choice they make. Along the way, Page also charts Shakespeare’s own history and how it influenced the characters he wrote and the plots he crafted. I say the play is structed “mostly chronologically,” because Page very effectively uses Macbeth to bookend the performance, opening with Lady Macbeth’s “unsex me now” speech and eventually delivering Macbeth’s “is this a dagger I see before me” soliloquy when the play turns up in true chronological order. I loved this, as Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play. (Like Page, I seem to gravitate to the Shakespeare plays that feature strong villains – Macbeth, Othello, Richard III.)

In between soliloquys and two-character scenes, Page’s tone turns conversational. Yes, this is a one-man show, but Page invites the audience to be a part of it by talking to us as though we were at a meet-and-greet or dinner with him instead of sitting on the other side of the footlights. Of course, this conversational tone turns into a true conversation during the post-performance talkbacks. I do not recall every question that was asked, and I’m still a little bummed that I could not think of a question I considered good enough to ask, but his response to one question has stayed with me. I’m paraphrasing, but the question was something along the lines of “how do you prepare for playing a clearly villainous role?” Page’s response focused on understanding that the villain doesn’t usually think of themselves as a villain, so the actor must figure out what it is the character wants, and he used Macbeth as an example: what Macbeth most wants is to conquer his fears: fear of the witches, fear of killing Duncan, fear of losing the power he has gained, fear of death. Page talked for several minutes about what Macbeth wants and how that leads to his ultimate end, and it gave me new insight into one of my favorite literary characters (and a role I’d love to play some day if I’m ever in a position to act again).

Page also makes effective use throughout the show of simple costume changes (the donning and doffing of a jacket, the addition of a pair of reading glasses) and a small handful of props (a staff, a goblet, an oversized leather-bound volume of Shakespeare’s works) to supplement his performance, and full credit must also be given to lighting designer Stacey Derosier and sound designer Darron L West for the way their work melds with Page’s onstage presence. It’s a shame Off-Broadway works aren’t eligible for Tony Awards, because the director, acting, and lighting and sound work are all the highest caliber. (Also, I’m not sure who decided on the pre-show playlist, but full marks on an incredibly eclectic mix of songs that feature the Devil or devils in general.)

I’m posting this on Thursday, March 7th, which gives you still a solid three weeks to catch Patrick Page’s bravura, moving, entertaining and educational show. Never mind “hie thee to a nunnery,” hie thee to the DR2 Theater!