Curtains

We met our friends Dan & David before the show at Bar Centrale on restaurant row. It’s an unmarked place (no sign - you have to know it's there) on the second floor above Orso (and owned and operated by Joe Allen). Neat little find if you just go for a $7 beer. But the wine and drinks are outrageously priced and the tiny food is a rip-off. But we were in a booth across from director Jack O’Brien (Hairspray, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Coast of Utopia) and director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde, La Cage, Hairspray, DRS, Gypsy, Never Gonna Dance, Rocky Horror Show).

The show was (unfortunately) a bunch of pro performers in a second-tier show. I wanted to love it. Kander & Ebb are a great team and I love some of their other shows (Cabaret, Chicago, 70 Girls 70!)

The performance started off on the wrong note. The whole theatre talked throughout the overture. I was shocked and annoyed. Thomas Meehan (book of Annie, The Producers, Hairspray) and his wife came in to their prime center orchestra seats as the overture was finishing and the curtain was going up. Bad form for anyone and particularly a theatre professional.

Corny, old-school musicals can work beautifully, but not this time. I was hoping for something in the tone of Crazy for You or Thoroughly Modern Millie. Instead it was just long and only occasionally involving. The show was missing a sense of fun and never made me care about the characters much. There were too many characters which caused a lot of forced exposition in the final scenes to tie it all up.

Second Act was much stronger than the first. Two good numbers (Show People & It’s a Business) and the rest of the songs were either okay or a little embarrassing. They would have done better to drop some of the "show within a show" western Robin Hood stuff. It was supposed to be a fake musical that was so bad it was good. In reality it was just sub-standard stuff.

Nice costumes (I expect nothing less from William Ivey Long). Solid, serviceable but unexceptional choreography from Rob Ashford. Sets! So nice to see a show with some actual sets.

Debra Monk was great in her big number. I hope she gets to do it on the Tony's but they will likely go with something that spotlights the better known David Hyde Pierce. Monk's character was a little too severe. She should have been either a completely over-the-top monster or shown to have some heart and vulnerability before that final scene with David Hyde Pierce. Shame her name is above the title on this one. She might have scored a Featured Actress nod on the strength of "It’s a Business," but chances of Best Actress nod are slim. DHP was better than in Spamalot but I think his stage speaking voice is still a bit weak. The Boston accent was a touch distracting.

Edward Hibbert had great lines and tossed them left & right like the pro he is. Karen Ziemba was a complete pro as always, but the part wasn't clearly defined in my opinion. Jason Danieley has such a beautiful voice. I wish they had given him a better number to sing. Jill Paice was fine but didn’t sparkle the way an ingénue should. Noah Racey was fine in a role that was a bit beneath him. Ernie Sabella – why did they even bother with the character? He makes me nervous on stage. I’m always scared he’s going to collapse or have a heart attack. He just looks unhealthy. Michael McCormick and Michael X. Martin made quite a bit out of minor roles. John Bolton does nothing for me.

I imagine they cast the chorus older so that the principals didn’t look like a seniors club up there. I loved seeing slightly older chorus boys instead of the usual pumped up Chelsea Boys. Nice to see handsome men instead of pretty boys up there. On the other hand, some of the chorus girls just looked a bit long-in-the-tooth and a few of them looked like drag queens.

I hated the “everyone in cowboy clothes” curtain costumes. My first thought was, “Well, there’s a few hundred thousand they didn’t have to spend that they’ll never make back.”

John sent flowers backstage to our wonderful Karen Ziemba. The stage door guy came out and yelled “Tenneson! Tenneson!” as we stood outside. John was escorted in, came back out for us, and in we went to see Karen in her dressing room. She was lovely as always and we had a nice chat with her in her dressing room. It helped make a mediocre show seemquite a bit better.