Tag: Joe Mantello

‘Assassins’ Benefit Concert at Studio 54

Back in 2004, I had made plans to see the 5-time Tony-winning revival of Weidman and Sondheim’s Assassins just after Roundabout announced an extension through the fall. Within a couple of weeks, the extension was rescinded and I ended up not being able to get there. Whenever the production was mentioned in conversation over the next 8 years, I felt a slight tinge of regret – something I don’t feel very often when I don’t see a particular show. I had been an admirer of the original off-Broadway cast album, and found Sondheim’s exploration into the psyche of assassins and would-be assassins compelling, chilling and ultimately fascinating. So I often kicked myself for having missed it.

Late one night this last August while loafing around on Twitter, an announcement came through my feed that Roundabout would be presenting a one night only benefit concert of Assassins reuniting the entire 2004 cast, with Joe Mantello returning as director and Paul Gemignani as musical director. I don’t know that I’ve ever dropped more than a $100 on a theatre ticket, but decided I would treat myself to a rear mezzanine seat for $150. (Others paid much, much more for the privilege). I figured, especially since at the time I had only just recounted my regrets of missing the production, that this was something I had to see. No excuses. And as it would turn out, my buddy, Twitter maven, Sondheim enthusiast and professional crier Tyler Martins, bought a ticket for the seat right next to me.

As we took our seats for the concert, I couldn’t believe that more than three months had passed and the evening was finally here. To say I was excited would be an understatement. The evening was a staged concert with music stands and binders, with actors attired in all-black mufti and the orchestra (playing Michael Starobin’s excellent orchestrations) onstage. However, with a book this strong and a score this astounding – to say nothing of the brilliant company (with a game Annaleigh Ashford filling in for Mary Catherine Garrison as Squeaky Fromme), it didn’t matter.

The cast was superlative. Becky Ann Baker was a show-stealing riot as Sara Jane Moore, Mario Cantone was an appropriately loose cannon on Samuel Byck’s mad-man ramblings. My first experience seeing Denis O’Hare on stage was this summer in the Shakespeare in the Park revival of Into the Woods. While I thought he less than ideal as the Baker, he is gobsmackingly brilliant as Charles Guiteau, the unsettlingly upbeat shooter of James A. Garfield (his song is based on the actual poem he delivered at the gallows). Michael Cerveris, who won a Tony as John Wilkes Booth was excellent in the Lincoln scene, but utterly astounding in the final scene with Lee Harvey Oswald (Neil Patrick Harris).

During “Another National Anthem”  Harris exited the stage and returned wearing a white tee-shirt as Oswald. This final scene, the culmination of the evening, is a fantasia in which the assassins past and future visit Oswald in the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas on November 22, 1963 to urge him to kill President Kennedy instead of committing suicide. Director Joe Mantello recreated the famed Zapruder film projection on Harris’ shirt, while the orchestra played the warped carnival waltz version of “Hail to the Chief.” This leads into “Something Just Broke,” a brilliant rumination by the show’s small chorus on the impact these assassins had on the rest of the world; how a major tragedy rattles us as a nation, leaves vivid memories like scars of where we were and what we were doing, and ultimately how we carry on (for me, I haven’t lived through an assassination attempt, but it brings to mind the events of 9/11).

I left Studio 54 numb, though I would have gladly paid for an encore.

“The Normal Heart”

It’s been 25 years since Larry Kramer took NY theater by storm with his seminal play The Normal Heart, simultaneously an indictment of those who turned a blind eye to AIDS in the epidemic’s infancy as well as a cry for someone to, as the character Dr. Ellen Brookner implores, “Do something!” Agitprop tends to date quickly, but in this sincere, simplistic revival currently playing the Golden Theater, Kramer’s play and message feel timelier than ever.

In short: The Normal Heart ripped out my heart and stomped on it in the best possible way. This revival is the sort of production that reaffirms why I love live theater. To call this galvanizing experience a must-see would be the grossest of understatements. The play is set between 1981 and 1984, and offers a no-holds barred look into the earliest days of the disease: the fear, the uncertainty and, most aggravatingly, the blind-eye the government, press and pharmaceutical companies turned toward the issue.

Joel Grey directed the high acclaimed benefit reading that inspired this production earlier in the fall. It was producer Daryl Roth who made this Broadway engagement happen, and for that we should all be most grateful. Since Mr. Grey has been busy in the hit revival of Anything Goes, George C. Wolfe has stepped in to stage the production. Even with limited rehearsal time and a brief preview period, The Normal Heart features one of the most exceptional ensembles in recent seasons. I found myself impressed across the board by the powerful performances of each and every actor onstage.

At the center of the play is Joe Mantello, as Ned Weeks (based on Kramer himself) in an exhaustively nuanced performance. Mantello has spent the last fifteen years or so as a director, but with all due respect, I think he’s a far better actor than director; his performance here only shows what Broadway has missed since his last appearance in Angels in America. John Benjamin Hickey provides the play’s emotional center as Ned’s lover Felix, who wastes away before our eyes during the play’s second act.

Lee Pace and Jim Parsons make stellar Broadway debuts as fellow founders of a GMHC-type foundation. Also on hand are Patrick Breen, Luke MacFarlane, Mark Harelik, Richard Topol, Wayne Alan Wilcox and the lone female, Ellen Barkin as Dr. Brookner, the stern but compassionate doctor who finds herself the only one of her profession responding to the illness. Barkin is also making a Broadway debut, and is sensational in her second act tirade (which received the kind of showstopping applause you usually expect across the street at Billy Elliot). To play favorites would be criminal, because they all are so utterly spectacular.

This marks the first time in my theatregoing experience that I’ve witnessed an audience leaving a show in total silence, as though departing a church service. But that’s most appropriate, as the play’s final moments project the names of thousands of victims over the stage and walls of the theatre; The Normal Heart is now not only a call to action, but also an elegy for the 35 million people the world has lost to AIDS in the last thirty years.

On the sidewalk, a young man handed me a letter with some startling statistics on the nature of AIDS in contemporary America. Despite progress that has been made, the disease is still incurable and is still an international pandemic. The play onstage reminds us all how terrifying it once was, but the reality is, there is still a long road ahead.

The Normal Heart is at the Golden Theater until July 10 – a strictly limited engagement. Do not miss this.

Well, they made a musical…

“Everyone knows how to fix everyone else’s show.”

Those words were imparted to me after the Wednesday evening performance of 9 to 5 by a journalistic acquaintance. The musical version of the 1980 film of the same name was one of the more anticipated Broadway shows this past season. However, it was met with critical negativity and audience indifference, in spite of a score by Dolly Parton and a leading lady turn by Allison Janney. The show closed yesterday after 148 performances. I decided to take in the show before it closed just because I was curious to see just what went wrong, and also to see Ms. Janney onstage.

The show is a mess, there’s no getting past that. However, in the ruins of the musical there lies the promise of what could have been a better production. The fault lies mostly with director Joe Mantello, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler and librettist (and co-writer of the original screenplay) Patricia Resnick. The original film is an amusing satiric fantasia of three women (Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton) enacting revenge on their repugnantly chauvinistic boss (a delightfully crass Dabney Coleman). The film holds up as an amusing period piece, even if its Oscar-nominated title song is probably better remembered than the movie itself. The musical tries very hard to be the film, but without making the necessary changes needed for it to be a fully functional musical – namely, a well-structured, clever book and a score that serves the story – it falls considerably short.

As the lights go down, that famous vamp starts up, setting off a series of cheers from the audience. Suddenly I was very innervated as the show curtain (cleverly made up entirely of telephone cords – remember those?) rose for the opening/title song. My disappointment was almost immediate as the first line of the song was sung by… a man? It was clear from the get-go that the show was lacking some sense of focus. “9 to 5” may be a recycled show tune, but it was still the best song in the score (a la “Never on Sunday” in Illya, Darling). The rest of my night was figuring out ways to fix the show to make moments like that actually work. (My idea for the opening? Cut the chorus from the first minute and a half of the song, give the lines to the three ladies as they prepare their mornings and bring the ensemble into the street scene).

In fact, the chorus pretty much sings and dances innocuously throughout. Assisting where they are not needed, including offstage singing back-up during “Backwoods Barbie” or filling out “I’m Gonna Shine Like the Sun” to close the first act. It didn’t help that they were given generic “look ma, I’m dancin'” choreography by Tony award winner Andy Blankenbuehler. In fact, most of the dancing was uninspired and at times, rather pathetic. Office scenes aside, the chorus padded out the rest of the musical numbers for the sheer idea of giving them more to do. You could easily streamline the show and cut the chorus without much loss to any of the musical numbers – at most

Onto the most prolific person behind 9 to 5 the Musical, Dolly Parton. What more is there to say about this diminutive titan of the music industry? Composing hundreds of songs for herself and other artists, selling countless records and one of the most recognizable figures in the world, Dolly decided to take on the arduous task of writing a musical theatre score. If the score fails to meet the expectations of a Broadway musical, I am wary of putting the entire blame on Ms Parton. If her lyrics tended to be generic and more than frequently cliched, the melodies were mostly hummable and there was at least some considerable effort on her part as both composer and especially as the show’s champion. With the exception of librettist Resnick, Ms. Parton was surrounded by Tony-winning musical theatre professionals who should have known better.

What made the musical entertaining were its three leading ladies. When they were onstage there was some sparkle and excitement in spite of the quality of the show around them. Megan Hilty was all beauty and heart as Doralee Rhodes, taking on the role originated by Parton in the film. While the performance is more impersonation of Parton than an original characterization, the young actress made the most of it especially with “Backwoods Barbie,” one of the better numbers.

There is surprisingly very little to the character of Judy who goes from dejected insecure housewife to defiant independent working woman. Part of the problem is that there isn’t much of an arc for the most dynamic of the three leading ladies – it’s obvious she changes but we never really see how. However, the part was well sung by Stephanie Block, who was given the eleven o’clock number, “Get Out and Stay Out.”Judy tosses her husband out halfway through the song, and delivers a powerhouse finish, but I wish the director had thought to keep the character onstage so she would have someone to play to. It’s like taking a production of Follies and having Ben walk out on the line “Wait, I’m just beginning” as Phyllis continues ‘Could I Leave You?’ by herself.

Then we get to the star of the production. Ms. Allison Janney is well known for her four time Emmy winning role of C.J. Cregg on The West Wing, but she also has innumerable film and stage credits to her name. In the months leading up to my visit to the show, I’d read that Ms. Janney can’t sing and can’t really dance but that it didn’t matter. Vocal and dance limitations aside, Ms. Janney can hold a tune and moves well and walks away with the show whenever she is onstage. This is probably the best musical debut debut of a non-musical performer since Lauren Bacall opened in Applause. (By the way, Encores, Janney is your Tess Harding. Now dust off Woman of the Year). In the eleventh hour, Janney stopped the show with a feminist tirade that would have made Dixie Carter proud. On top of that, she also looked like she was having the time of her life singing and dancing and giving one hell of a star turn.

As for the men, well there haven’t been such thankless roles for men in a musical since the divas of Mame mopped the floor with them in 1966. Marc Kudisch has the most to do as Franklin Hart, Jr., the boss from hell, a role he performed with gusto. However it seemed redundant to give him not one but two songs expressing his vulgar misogny. Andy Karl is the younger accountant with a romantic interest in Violet. Karl, who was part of Legally Blonde, has little to do aside wear period glasses and duet with Janney on a real dud, “Let Love Grow.”

Then there was Kathy Fitzgerald, bless her heart. I first became aware of her in The Producers where she played several bit parts, most notable Shirley Markowitz, the lesbian lighting designer with the basso profundo voice in “Keep it Gay.” In 9 to 5, Fitzgerald played Roz, the busybody executive secretary whose unrequited love for the boss has her doing his bidding without question or pause. Ms. Fitzgerald got some of the biggest laughs of the evening, though her first number was too long.

One of the main problems is that there was too much of what was bad and too little of what was good. The main thing about adapting a property to the musical stage is that you want to be able to say something that hasn’t been explored in any previous incarnation, whether it’s a novel, play or film. One of the major problems with 9 to 5 was a slavish adherence to the film’s screenplay, and certain things just didn’t adapt well. When The Producers and Hairspray were adapted for Broadway, their great success was in finding a new way to tell the story (and it didn’t hurt that both had Thomas Meehan on hand to assist). First-timer Resnick could have used a pro like him to help her with the structure and pinpointing the reason why these characters were bursting out into song. Oh – and not to mention two groan inducing moments: quoting “No good deed goes unpunished” and “I will always love you.”

From the opening number onward, and well past midnight after getting home, I couldn’t help but play show doctor. I made mental notes and ran the show over and over in my head thinking of ways to fix it and make improvements. The mental results I came up with would make for a sturdier show, but the more I think about it, did 9 to 5 really need to be a musical? However, I hope Dolly doesn’t desert Broadway altogether – I think the combination of the two was a nice touch (then again, how can you not like Dolly?!) but I hope if she ever comes to town with a show I only hope she’s got a creative team that won’t let her down.