| 3 Shows, 2 days (DEH, War Paint, Bronx Tale, Spoilers and such herein...) | |
| Posted by: JohnPopa 04:59 pm EDT 10/22/17 | |
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| I slid into NYC for a day and a half or so and caught a couple shows. DEAR EVAN HANSEN: First off, it was the matinee so Ben Platt was out. So was Laura Dreyfuss. Their replacements were great, though, so I don’t feel like I missed out much. DEH is an interesting show but I don’t think it works nearly as well as a lot of other people do. The first act is pretty effective - a song like ‘For Forever’ is incredible in context and the Act 1 finale is as good a number you’ll see. The second act isn’t nearly as strong mainly because there’s really no reason for most of the songs to be there. They just sort of happen but whatever’s covered in the dialogue before, during and after says everything. The dad’s song about baseball is particularly cringe-worthy, as is the mother’s late number that comes right after Evan’s big confession and is a moment where the last thing the show needs is another song (especially that one.) Act 2 also tends to replace real drama with a lot of people yelling at each other, there really aren’t any new story or character elements introduced. So much of what works is intoxicating, though, that it’s easy to want to forgive the show its failings. Mostly. SPOILERS FROM HERE ON IN: Really, though, my problems with the show aren’t related to the song spotting as much as they’re related to the story itself, most notably, the Evan/Zoe relationship. Basically, my issue is that Evan manipulates the situation he finds himself in to hook up with Zoe. It’s crass and selfish and that’s perfectly ok IF the writers handle it. But they don’t. When Zoe and Evan kiss at the end of act 1, it’s clear that Evan knows it’s the wrong thing to do but he does it anyway. And that’s great, that makes sense, he’s not emotionally equipped to handle the situation and makes the wrong choice. But the writers don’t do anything with it. He’s a little insecure about the situation but the two of them sing a drippy (and useless) duet in Act 2 that doesn’t explore anything. It’s a vapid teenage love story dumped into a far more complicated story. Zoe’s never given anything to do except be the girl Evan pines for. When he finally meets her after years of imagining what she’s like, to make her a blank slate is lazy and superficial. As effective as “Words Fail” is as a performance piece, it’s still a pretty selfish exploration of the situation on Evan’s part. He doesn’t REALLY apologize to the family he’s been misleading, he just rationalizes the situation so WE can relate to him better. In fact, the family leaves in the middle of the song and most of the catharsis is between Evan and the audience. Again, an amazing performance and there’s some insight in the lyrics, but it doesn’t propel the character anywhere, he just goes home and cries to his mama. The final scene is equally problematic. Zoe calls Evan to the orchard to see all the good he’s done. Sure, we’re led to believe that he hasn’t had any contact with anyone in a year but, still, he doesn’t step up and own anything that happened and Zoe isn’t given anything to say either. So why does the scene happen, other than it’s a kind of creative way to create the last image? Don’t get me wrong, the show is generally a wonderfully emotional experience, I just wish it didn’t sag under its own weight so much as it goes on. Because the good parts really are that good, especially “You Will Be Found.” On to “WAR PAINT.” (SPOILERS LACED WITHIN, NOT THAT IT MATTERS BECAUSE NOTHING HAPPENS ANYWAY) Well, this was a strange show. Also, it’s not a good show. It’s the story of makeup moguls Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, who ruled the cosmetic world around the World War II era. First (of many) problems: By making it a show about Christine Ebersole (as Arden) and Patti LuPone (as Rubinstein,) it means starting with the women already established as the top dogs in their industry. Which is ok, it doesn’t have to be a ‘rags to riches’ story but, at the same time, by starting with our grand dames at the top of the world already, we aren’t really left with much drama. It also makes the two protagonists fairly inert in terms of moving the story along. Things happen to them, but they don’t really amount to much. For example, the Act 1 finale is that each woman goes in front of the FDA and ends up having to start labelling their ingredients on their makeup (I know, heavy stuff.) The women piss and moan about it but that action has absolutely no effect on anything that happens to them. There’s no indication it causes them to lose business, or that it strains their relationships or anything. It just happens and they’re irritated by it. Good thing they’re already rich as hell. Really, though, the plot problems are secondary to all the musical theater problems the show has. For one thing, since the show has two mega watt stars, it feels like the production team worked overtime making sure not one woman gets more time or action than the other. In fact, nearly every song has either Arden or Rubinstein do a verse, there’s a bit of transition and then the other has the same thing happen to them. It doesn’t take long to get ahead of the construct. The songs are universally pretty weak too. They don’t build well and a few times, especially in Act 1, the show had moved on to a new song and I didn’t really notice the previous one had ended. There was no build or sense of accomplishment. In fact, the only song that stuck was a song called “Fire & Ice” sung by the supernaturally attractive Steffanie Leigh in a helluva dress. She’s a secondary character but at least the song had some energy and popped a finish. If you’re going to write a big musical for two top Broadway divas, at least give the audience the money numbers they’re expecting, right? The two leads have loads of material but the big songs are rambling and underwhelming. Especially if your gimmick is that the two leads will never interact until the last scene, there needs to be some fireworks between the two before then. I’m sure the writers thought they delivered it, but, well, they didn’t at all. The first act was generally inoffensive but tolerable but act two turned into an endless dirge. Thank god for chorus girls to distract me! Ebersole and Lupone were both fine. Lupone was fighting with a Polish accent so she was even more incomprehensible than usual. She’s also struggling through a bad hip so really had trouble getting around, it was getting uncomfortable to watch by the end. Still, she was better at milking responses out of her material, Ebersole’s character was terribly passive which, in its own way, made her more unlikable. Lupone’s Rubinstein was obnoxious but at least she owned it. Oh, and there’s a song called “Dinosaurs” in Act 2, sung by the two men in the show who work for the leading ladies. Not only is it one of the worst songs ever to flop around a Broadway stage, at the end, the actors did weird Velociraptor impressions because, you know, the songs about dinosaurs. It was just awful. Anyway, on to ... A BRONX TALE: THE MUSICAL. I’ve never seen the movie version of “A Bronx Tale” or seen the one man show. I know the gist of it, though. I mean, it’s a New York sort of mob story, those are all about the same, right? Without seeing the show before to be sure, I think I can safely say the musical version is a MUCH more polite and wide-eyed version of events. Not only did the producers steal the set from “Newsies” they also kept the Disney tone throughout, even though the story dabbles in everything from murder to hate crimes. It just does so in a really nice way. The score is by Alan Menken who’s rarely at a loss for a catchy tune. There’s no big hit here, but Menken’s heart is generally in the right place. The mobsters generally sing lightweight Frank Sinatra tunes, the kids sing the pop music of their eras (lots of doo wop) and the African American characters Motown it up a bit. Still, on more than one occasion Menken sacrifices that general conceit in favor of a standard Alan Menken pop tune. Glenn Slater’s lyrics are workman-like and predictable with lots of references to making decisions with your heart and choosing love over fear. There’s an odd decision for the Act 1 finale, which is mainly the protagonist’s father sort of saying he’s going to fight the mobsters for his son’s attention but he really doesn’t end up doing much of that. In fact, he doesn’t pop up again until almost halfway through Act 2, if I remember correctly. Still, despite a fairly frothy view of its events, “A Bronx Tale” is pretty enjoyable as it moves along. Nick Cordero was great as the lead mob guy and everyone else does their job with style (although Bobby Conte Thornton is a bit from the Michael Cerveris school of strange diction in musical theater.) While the material may be slight, it’s catchy and the show chugs along and shows off its characters and story with a good dose of Broadway pizzazz. I can’t see a lot of people coming into the theater dying to see “A Bronx Tale” but I also can’t imagine too many people would leave it having had a bad time. I know I enjoyed myself the entire time. Sometimes, that’s all we can ask for, right? |
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