Newsies - The One without Christian Bale

Newsies

Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Jack Feldman, Book by Harvey Fierstein

Based on the film written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White

Nederlander Theatre, New York, NY

October 18, 2013

Let's be honest: if you didn't like the 1992 film Newsies starring Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall, and Ann-Margret, you're not going to like the stage version, either. But if that's true, we're probably not friends and you're likely not reading this. 

Waiting to get into the theatre tonight, I was singing arguably the worst song in the film: "High Times, Hard Times." I knew this song didn't make the cut for the stage version, but it was the one stubbornly stuck in my head while waiting for the show to begin. The replacement version, "That's Rich", is arguably better, but the best songs in the show are some of those that were originally in the film. Making Joseph Pulitzer a singing character was a good choice, but turning him occasionally silly is unnecessary at best. 

Of all the noticeable changes, the morphing of the reporter character (played by Bill Pullman in the film) and the love interest into one person - who is also Pulitzer's daughter - was wholly artificial. I understand the need in theatre to cut the casting down to the bare essentials, but this change didn't read well. Since the conflict inherent in Pulitzer's daughter being involved with the strike leader is never fully developed or discussed with Pulitzer, her character change was unnecessary. The script speaks of the children's crusade and the need for the newsies to speak for all exploited child workers, and it speaks of the support of all those other child workers, but we never see anyone besides the newsies themselves. Wouldn't this have been a logical place to incorporate her (and more female characters)? 

From the purely selfish perspective of a high school theatre director, I wish the stage version had found ways to incorporate more women. This production has a cast of 28, large by Broadway standards. Four of the twenty-eight are women, with three of the women playing two roles. This is not viable for my students, even if I just cast some of the newsies as girls. In a show that high school kids go crazy for (and they were the main demographic in the audience tonight), this is disappointing.

 (I went back for a better marquee pic)

As my friend Beth has pointed out, there is no counting the number of times we watched this movie in high school. As a fan of the film, the stage version does not disappoint. The singing was strong, the choreography exciting, and the familiar songs lit up the audience. There are a few self-serving script changes I would make, but they didn't diminish an enjoyable evening of musical theatre.

Pippin

Pippin

Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Roger O. Hirson

The Music Box, New York, NY

October 17, 2013

I saw Pippin in London at the Menier Chocolate Factory a year and a half ago (sitting behind Stephen Schwartz --squee!), and I thought the production concept was very clever and staged in an interesting space. A boy who plays too many video games finds himself suddenly inside one of them and has to get through all the levels of life. Of course, that the actor who played Pippin was playing the original Super Mario Bros at the entrance to the theatre helped, too: a nice shot of nostalgia sets up audience reactions nicely.

When I came back from London and found a different production of Pippin opening on Broadway, my reactions were mixed. 1)Ooh, but the video game was so much cleverer than the too-obvious circus. 2) So much Pippin right now! For a show that nearly disappeared after the '70s, it's making quite the resurgence. 3)I really liked the version I grew up watching on video disc with William Katt and Ben Vereen. (That third reaction was less germane to the story...but who doesn't like remembering videodiscs? Nostalgia, see?)

My reactions were not mixed after seeing the Tony-winning production at The Music Box. A combination of Cirque du Soleil and musical theatre, from a performance standpoint not much could be more visually stunning. Twirling, twisting, climbing, juggling--with and without fire, upside-down singing: Pippin has it all. Patina Miller as the Leading Player is a rock star. I've had an inexplicable crush on Terrence Mann since the film version of A Chorus Line, and he played an interesting Charles. Matthew James Thomas as Pippin was adorable, but at times his singing was drowned out by the orchestra. As in the London production (and probably all good productions) Pippin's grandmother Berthe stole the show. Tovah Feldshuh singing "No Time at All" while swinging upside-down on a trapeze is not something to be missed. 

While I still think the London production was conceptually cooler, this production is much more fully-realized and engaging. The bits of circus acrobatics alone are worth the price of the ticket, but any day that includes "Corner of the Sky", "Simple Joys", and "With You" is a better one.

Les Mis: You Had Me at the Prologue

My most memorable birthday is my eighth. Not to say it's all been downhill from there, but I can tell you most things about that day. I can describe my dress, the restaurant where we ate in Omaha, and my joy in feeding the swans in the Old Market. Most importantly, however, it was the day my parents took me to see my first professional show: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I won't pretend this show is my favorite, but it will always have a special place for me because it was the first. Similarly, I'll always remember that the first show I saw in New York (ON BROADWAY (squee!)) was Phantom of the Opera (no idea why Andrew Lloyd Webber gets to be involved in both of these important firsts). That also is not a show I'm super fond of today, but I can tell you of many afternoons where I sat at the piano and played and sang through its entire songbook.

Somewhere in between those two important firsts, I saw Les Misérables and it changed the course of my life. I don't mean that in an overused, meaningless way: I was in eighth grade, the first chord of the orchestra brought tears to my eyes, and I said (whether aloud or in my head I don't know) "This is what I want to do in my life." Granted, in eighth grade, I thought I would try to get a job playing my flute for the orchestra--but the band geek in me didn't win out. Theatre has become the most consistent passion in my life and I revisited that this evening when I saw the most recent incarnation of Les Misérables on its national tour.

Les Misérables
Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, Original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel
Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis
Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The thing is, I can't even tell you how many times I've seen Les Mis on stage. It is a show that, whenever it's around and I have time, I'll go see. I didn't buy tickets to see this particular tour, but when I didn't have very much to do on this Wednesday and I got another Facebook reminder that rush tickets were available, I went.

Mostly I was annoyed by the crowd before the show even started. Statements like "Oh, this is that movie with Wolverine. I didn't know they made it into a musical" and "I don't know how this Javert could be as good as Russell Crowe" made me want to punch my fellow theatre-goers prior to taking my seat. I didn't. And I don't espouse violence. But, honestly. When I took my seat, I remembered why I don't like seeing touring productions very much. People who never go to the theatre and subsequently assume it's like seeing a movie come out of the woodwork...and always sit near me. They constantly whisper to each other, update Facebook, and critique the performance on stage while it is happening. I have no problem with the critiquing, but keep it in your head and off your phone until intermission. It turns out that most of the people here didn't come to hear your old-lady-church-whisper about singing "I Dreamed a Dream" when you were in high school, ma'am. But I digress.

Cool projections (particularly during the sewer scene) aside, I don't like this current staging of Les Mis as much as the original turntable. It feels too slick and stripped down, unlike the grandiose, ever-changing staging of the original. I'm sure this is more cost-effective while touring, and it was certainly still very impressive (the thirty-person cast is massive by today's standards), but the original staging's overwhelming spectacle seemed to fit the massive scope of the story and Hugo's novel more effectively. This opinion probably has too much to do with my emotional attachment to this show, but I'm OK with that; I know my childlike disbelief at the sheer size of the set has stayed with me. When the two giant halves of the barricades folded down at the top of Act Two, there were no words to describe my wonder.

The faces of today's eighth graders will undoubtedly be filled with as much visible awe as mine upon first experiencing this production. True to form, I cried through the first fifteen minutes of Act One before I pulled myself together. I thought I was all cried out until "A Little Fall of Rain"--I've always most closely identified with Éponine--and then I cried from "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" (beautifully staged) pretty much through the end.

If you've always loved Les Misérables, this national tour will not disappoint. If you've never seen it, the spectacle will overwhelm (but you should probably read the synopsis in the program before the curtain--some of the lyrics were difficult to understand). If you think you're going to a movie and will see Hugh Jackman or Russell Crowe or Anne Hathaway, let me suggest Redbox or Netflix. The rest of us will thank you for not talking through the performance. Enjoy your phone and conversation on your couch at home--or put your phone away (just until intermission!) and allow the performances to overwhelm you.

Beauty and the Beast

Something magical can happen when seeing a big-name, big-budget show for the first time. That magic is compounded if you're lucky enough to see a show with impressive costumes, sets, lighting, and special effects in its permanent home. So unless it's the first run of the national tour or it somehow has a phenomenal budget, something gets lost in translation for many touring shows. That said...

Disney's Beauty and the Beast, 
Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman & Tim Rice

Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN

I think I saw Beauty and the Beast in the movie theater twelve times when it came out in 1991. That's not even an exaggeration; my friend Beth and I went every Sunday night for months, and there was at least one week when we sat through both the 7:00 and 9:00 showings. It is safe to say that I love Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I have seen the stage production before and fell in love with the clever costuming, over-the-top production numbers, and faithfulness with which the animated film was translated to the stage. I had no doubt that I would thoroughly enjoy what I was going to see at the Orpheum tonight. In fact, I laughed, I cried, and I came home happy.

My only qualm with this touring production has to do with its special effects. I know that they're probably not going to be everything I want them to be in my head and that mounting a travelling production has its own special set of challenges. I even know that I was probably so captivated by the stage adaptation the first time I saw this show that I wasn't as critical as I might otherwise have been. At the same time, merely going briefly black before revealing a magical transformation does not make me believe in theatre magic. It makes me glance around to see if everyone else is as nonplussed by the attempt. The audience members should not giggle during the Beast's transformation into the prince because it is so ridiculous (even though I don't really like that scene in the movie either--the light shooting from his fingers is weird). These things take away from what is an otherwise delightful evening of theatre.

When I saw The Wizard of Oz at the Orpheum a couple of years ago, I was startled at the number of little girls in blue gingham dresses or sparkly red shoes. Tonight there were more little princesses than I could count, and some of the princesses' moms were startlingly fancy as well. All the joy and nostalgia Beauty and the Beast has to offer is there in this production, but that's in large part owing to Alan Menken's music and the original animators. The production is fun and entertaining, perfect for a child's first theatrical experience.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast is playing at the Orpheum Theatre until October 21, 2012. Click here for ticket information.

Next scheduled show: Our Town at Andover High School. Can that be? My show is up next? Good heavens, I hope not.