| PRINCE OF BROADWAY Tonight | |
| Posted by: hugoP 12:44 am EDT 08/08/17 | |
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| well....if you love the KENNEDY CENTER HONORS performances, you will go crazy for PRINCE OF BROADWAY. Wonderful singers, hit songs, re-created (although in miniature) set pieces... but very little substance. And, to my frustration and confusion, very little insight into, well, Mr Prince. For some strange reason, the show doesn't focus on what Prince brought to these productions. The narration is strange and shallow, and it's being delivered (in first person...as Hal Prince!) by the cast members. I learned very little, and it all seems to come down to "Do the Work"....huh? The typical intro is "we got the best reviews of all time...and didn't sell a single ticket" or "the next thing you know, we made theatre history"... the stuff of cruise ship shows. There are many things that are (very, very) good: cast is wonderful. Loved them all, but standouts were Skinner (fantastic GIRLS UPSTAIRS, LADIES WHO LUNCH, SEND IN THE CLOWNS), Parham (CABARET, CAN'T HELP LOVIN DAT MAN), Yazbek (THE RIGHT GIRL, THIS IS NOT OVER YET from PARADE), Cooper (OL MAN RIVER and MY FRIENDS from SWEENEY) and Ziemba's SO WHAT?. As an ensemble, their COMPANY opening was wonderful...and I liked Xavier's BEING ALIVE (I'm in the minority, evidently). Uranowitz and Dacal made me want to see KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN again, now. And that is the hardest working band on Broadway-- they do right by the scores, even if they are dramatically under-resourced. Less good (to me, at least) was Cooper's Tevye, Ziemba's Mrs Lovett, Uranowitz' Emcee (using some of the more forced Alan Cumming inflections in WILKOMMEN, which is ridiculous in a Hal Prince revue) and a DAMN YANKEES number that falls flat. What just doesn't work: some strange song selections that are, at best, novelty numbers (IF YOU COULD SEE HER? from CABARET did no favors to that show, Mr Prince or the performers). The narration. The lack of an ensemble. And that final number...."Do the Work", which just sort of reminded me of that Kander and Ebb throwaway from THE ACT, "Little Do They Know". Again, if you love the KENNEDY CENTER HONORS this might be just your thing. It's a Broadway Hit Parade, and the performers are fun to watch throughout. I wasn't bored, though ending it all with PHANTOM was yet another strange choice in an evening filled with them. But then again, I will treasure Ziemba's SO WHAT, Skinners LADIES WHO LUNCH and Yazbeck's RIGHT GIRL. |
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