2006 Tony Awards

Grade: B

Another year, another Tony awards. Although this year watching the show was a bittersweet moment since we’d seen so few of the nominees. I think Sweeney Todd is the only one we saw, probably our lowest total in a decade.

The show itself was a bit bland. Not having a host didn’t help the show, but it also didn’t hurt the show either. Also had quite a few disappointments–not in terms of people who should have won the award but in terms of what winners did afterwards. Like Leading Actor in Musical winner John Lloyd Young who gave possibly the worst speech of the evening. It sounded completely rehearsed and fake and is the only blemish against me wanting to see the show. Still, not enough to trump the good points including the great performance they did.

Speaking of performances, Harry Connick, Jr. was a bundle or nerves. Which really doesn’t make much sense unless he thought he was going to win (see Idina Menzel’s Tony performance when she won for Wicked). So I’m not sure if it was something else or if he actually was cocky enough to think he had a shot over this crowd (a very competitive crowd).

Other disappointing speech: LaChanze. Not entirely unexpected, since anyone who uses only one name is really full of themselves to begin with, but her speech utterly reeked of ego. The only time she mentioned her family was to point out that her girls didn’t know what being nominated meant–but now she could show them it meant that she won! Ugh.

The performances were all fairly good. Even Threepenny Opera looked interesting. Given the horrible reviews it’s received that means either they picked a good number to stage or I’m just really in theater-withdrawal. Connick was bad, but his co-star was very impressive and almost brought him back into the song. Almost. The worst performance part was when they presented two or three lines from each nominated play, set against some strange diarama of the stage. They spent more time showing the stage models than the actual show. Maybe there were some licensing issues, but if musicals can get 3 minutes for a song, you can at least give a play 1 minute to show a few good parts. They’ve done it before, hopefully they’ll bring it back.

Favorite TiVo moment, as pointed out by Mrs Hose: seeing the reactions on the losing nominees’ faces for Leading Actress in a Musical when the winner was announced. Best reaction: Sutton Foster, who immediately looked over with a mock “Oh, good for her, look” that probably looked a lot better in the mirror back home. No worries, Sutton, everyone in the room knows you can sing and dance circles around the other nominees–this just wasn’t your show to win again.

Biggest rob of the evening: Sweeney Todd not winning for revival. Yes, I haven’t seen The Pajama Game and it may be the bestest musical ever-ever! But Sweeney Todd completely reinvented the show using the same book and score. That takes something extra and it should have been recognized. The director and score won, which was perhaps their nod to the show, but that kind of innovation needs to be rewarded with the big revival prize, not the smaller ones.

Great (bad) review of In My Life

Frequent readers (all three of you) know how much I hated In My Life. It’s a horrible, horrible musical. Worst one ever, as a matter of fact, and that’s pretty hard to do since there’s a lot of bad stuff out there. So when Mrs Hose came across a fantastic review for the show, I had to pass it along. Check it out here. It gives a very funny and very true explanation of why this show is so, so bad. It’s a true shame this was ever produced.

Sides: The Fear Is Real…

Grade: B+

Clever collection of sketches about the auditioning process.

Off-off-broadway always has some fun experiences, and this show performed by
the Mr. Miyagi Theatre Company down at the 45 Bleeker Theatre certainly makes
for one of them. The show is a compilation of stories, allegedly true,
experienced by the actors during their auditioning lives in the acting world.
You see a number of easily recognizable characters: the
overly-impressed-with-themselves actor (plenty of those), the clueless actors
(even more), the actors who can barely speak English, etc. The harshest jokes
come at the expense of casting directors, far too easy a target for, let’s face
it, a group of actors performing at the 45 Bleeker Theatre.

The talent is mixed, but the frustration underlying the sketches gives the
show an energy that makes it a fun experience. Auditions are interview for
actors, and unlike the majority of the working world that may need to interview
for a handful of jobs over their lives, actors are constantly
interviewing/auditioning. And until they reach that elusive level of celebrity
where the work is easy to come by, it is a constantly demeaning experience. The
Asian group has a few sketches that play on the stereotype they face in the
industry, but also play into the stereotypes in more sketches.

Overall, the humor is laced with a healthy serving of reality, which makes
you feel bad laughing at their pain. But at least you’re buying a ticket and
seeing this young troop.

The Odd Couple

Grade: B-

Exactly what you’d expect–which isn’t saying much.

The penultimate trip in our latest NYC theater run was the much coveted
ticket to The Odd Couple starring Nathan Lane
and Matthew Broderick. We actually based our trip around this show, specifically
our being able to get tickets for the Saturday matinee. The show has broken all
kinds of records and generated a huge amount of buzz for being the first
Broadway show to completely sell out before a single performance. Given the
price of tickets these days, that’s pretty impressive.

Unfortunately, that’s the only thing that’s impressive about the show. Don’t
get me wrong, Lane and Broderick are extremely talented actors and are the hot
duo after The Producers. But like The Producers (the musical, not the old movie
or the new one), the audience makes this show better than it is. More
accurately, the audience tries to make this show better than it is. But even
they can’t do that.

The show was written back in the 60s and it feels old. They didn’t rewrite,
which has its own benefits and drawbacks, but they do try and infuse the show
with a bit more energy. Sadly, it just doesn’t work. Yes, everyone is excited
about seeing the hot show, but the show itself just isn’t that funny. Instead,
it’s a bit of a nostalgia play–hey, remember when this was considered cutting
edge comedy? Yeah, we’ve moved on.

Speaking of the audience, they are really into being at the show. When the
curtain goes up, they break out into thunderous applause. This despite the two
stars not being on stage and the only recognizable talent onstage being Brad
Garrett. Apparently all those Everybody Loves Raymond fans also enjoy Broadway.
Who knew?

But the applause doesn’t end there–when Lane appears, big clap. When
Broderick appears, huge clap. Then the first scene break occurs, so the curtain
drops, a few seconds go by while they reset the stage, then the curtain goes
back up. Lane and Broderick appear, HUGE clap. Like the audience thanking the
two stars for not leaving during the fifteen seconds between scenes. Come on
people, have some dignity.

And it isn’t as though the production company cares about the audience in the
slightest. There are far too many seats crammed into the theater, resulting in
less leg room than every other show I’ve seen (except, perhaps, for that other
Lane/Broderick production). And for a 1,000+ seat theater, I cannot understand
how it only has one bathroom for each gender–and that they’re both located on a
small landing with the only bar. The end result is that three minutes into
intermission the lines for both bathrooms have snaked around so that they are
crossing each other, leaving no room for people to get onto the landing or out
of the bathroom or to the bar. It was a logistical nightmare, and given the
average age of the matinee crowd, possibly a safety risk.

Moreover, the production company doesn’t seem to respect the audience much,
either. There is no late-comer seating policy, which usually serves to seat
latecomers at a break in the show to prevent the rest of the audience from being
disturbed. Almost all theaters do this to some extent–some even going so far as
to bar entry to latecomers. Not so for The Odd Couple–when you get there,
they’ll seat you. So when a huge block of 20 seats in the four rows in front of
Mrs Hose and I were
empty, this resulted in a disastrous first scene as clump after clump of
latecomer was seated in a slow, unorganized fashion.

In all honesty, I wasn’t a fan of The Producers (again, the musical). I can
see how Lane and Broderick made it a better show, but I didn’t think the music
was all the great nor did I think it was particularly funny. But it was still
better than The Odd Couple, which Mrs Hose says is The Producers
without music. I think that’s true, but I would add the note that it’s an older
show too. The Producers was based on old material, but it was made a bit more
contemporary. Not so with The Odd Couple. The end result is
that the physical comedy gets much more laughter than any lines. And while that
works for farce, it doesn’t work for a Neil Simon play.

Ashley Montana Goes Ashore in the Caicos

Grade: B-

Amusing collection of sketches that tries to be more than it is.

The second play of our
latest NYC run and the fifth show overall (#1 #2 #3) easily took the prize for
the silliest title. But surprisingly, the show is a hodgepodge of somewhat
clever sketches and ideas.

The problem is that it pretends to be more than just the collection of
sketches–it tries to become a statement about modern society, but that’s a cheap
cop out. It’s the thinnest veneer of plot where one isn’t needed. Instead, it
should have stuck to the sketches and tried not to be more.

There are more glancing blows than misses among the various pieces. But the
misses are big misses, and the best are not hilarious. Clever ideas like the
song “Nothing Rhymes With Ashcroft But My Heart” falls flat, even when performed
by the amazing Bebe Neuwirth (the best reason for seeing the show, as even the
worst seat in the tiny Flea Theater house is only 20 feet from her). The song
feels like a bad Saturday Night Live segment on Weekend Update from a year ago.
Which doesn’t make much sense given another song moment, recently fired FEMA
director Brown singing the blues (somewhat funny, actually). The timeliness of
the Brown bit makes the Ashcroft song and a few other scenes stand out as
recycled ideas to fill space.

The best moment sketch is geared as a quiz for recently graduated journalists
being tested on the latest buzz phrases. But it only lasts so long before
falling into somewhat silly looks at retirement in New York City and an extended
scene about the title of the show (taken from a Sports Illustrated swimsuit
edition cover some years ago).

Still, the Flea Theater is a fun off-off-Broadway venue to attend with a
small house and great stars (last trip we saw Sigourney Weaver, which was cool).
Their shows aren’t huge hits, but that’s not what off-off-Broadway is about.
Still, this show was a bit too muddied to earn a higher grade.

Doubt

Grade: C+

Overhyped play that would have been completely ignored five years ago.

I have high expectations for plays, expectations that I don’t have for
musicals and expectations which rarely are met, let alone exceeded. That said,
Doubt is one of those shows that failed to live up to my expectations.

Sure, it won the Tony award for best play last year. The cast also won a couple of the acting Tony
awards. But that just means it was among the best of what was released last
season. I still have high expectations for any play, no matter how weak or
strong the season may be.

Doubt just doesn’t live up to any expectations. The play is about a nun
accusing a priest of sexually abusing a boy, and his denying these allegations
forming the basis of the proof for the charges. If this was an episode of law
and order, the voiceover before the show would proclaim that this show was
ripped from the headlines, but not based on actual events.

The problem with Doubt is that it is too topical. It rests on addressing an
issue that’s on the minds of a lot of people, but it doesn’t really address the
issue. Instead, it addresses accusations of that issue, and not in a very
thorough manner. Add to the mix the fact that the play’s subtitle is “A Modern
Parable” and we’re left with a show that intends to teach us something, but
doesn’t. In fact, the author said that he wrote the last line to intentionally
make the show vague and debatable–that isn’t a parable. I think he intended a
particular outcome, hence the subtitle, but after seeing the discussion that
ensued after the play was workshopped he decided to keep it vague. The result is
a bit of a mess, and by no means a parable.

It’s also surprisingly slow for only a 90 minute play. The only fireworks
come near the end, and Cherry Jones is the only saving grace of the show saving
it from total suckage. Sadly, that’s not enough. Too little and way too
late.

Was it the best play of 2004? Maybe. I didn’t see enough to say otherwise.
But it doesn’t make Doubt a great play.

Sweeney Todd

Grade: A

Amazing musical, amazing cast.

Third on our recent trip to NYC was the Sweeney Todd revival starring Michael
Cerveris and Patti LuPone. I had a lot of interest in seeing this since I
realized that, despite seeing hundreds of musicals and plays in my life, I’ve
only seen one Sondheim show (Into The Woods back in 1989). So I was interested
in seeing another show by one of the giants in the genre. I was also interested
in seeing Patti LuPone after Mrs Hose watched a show with
Patti singing something from over a decade ago–she had an amazing voice back
then, so I wanted to see if she still had it.

Bottom line: she still has it. Michael Cerveris is also an amazing talent,
although he’s one of those spitting singers which makes sitting in the first few
rows a nerve-wracking experience. Watching the show, one wonders what Patti was
like twenty years ago in Evita–obviously age has had some impact on her voice,
but it’s still an impressive instrument.

The show itself has a creepy feel to it which helps set the stage. Supporting
roles were done very well, although some of the show suffered from edits that
chopped out some of the exposition. While this helps with timing, it hurts the
actual story. Not that it matters too much, since the basic premise of revenge
and murder are easy to pick up on.

The only quibble with the show is the choice made by the creative team in
foregoing an actual band and having the actors play the instruments. While this
move made sense in the recent Cabaret, it doesn’t fit in as well here. And where
in Cabaret you could hire musicians and teach them their limited acting parts,
here we have trained actors being shoe-horned into musical roles. Yes, most had
some musical instrument training, but it hurt having a non-professional blasting
the horn over one of the best songs in the show (Johana).

Still, a great show to see and experience in this rather tepid season.

See What I Wanna See

Grade: B+

Idina Menzel could sing the phonebook and it’d be amazing.

Let’s get this straight–Idina Menzel is the most talented musical actress in
NYC right now. Even if Sutton Foster had a show on, Idina would still give
Sutton a run for her money. Coming off the Tony win last year, and with the
movie of Rent coming out next month, Idina is have a very good couple of years.

See What I Wanna See is no exception to Idina’s recent record. The show is an
interesting take on three short stories written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, whose
most famous story, Rashomon, was adapted for the famous movie. The three stories
taken here all focus on issues of truth and lies: one through the lens of an
affair coming to a murderous conclusion, another through a vicious tale of rape
and murder, and a third within a story of faith and relationships.

As the show goes, it does tell an intriguing story. The story opening both
acts is the weakest, and also the furthest from the original story, but the
other two have some interesting parts and strong performances.

In My Life

Grade: F

Simply put, the worst musical ever. And I saw Capeman.

Having just returned from the final pre-baby vacation for
the Hoses, I now have seven theater reviews to add to
the blog. First up, appropriately enough, is the worst musical I’ve ever seen.
Actually, I shouldn’t be that kind. This is the worst musical ever. And I feel
like I can actually say that because I saw Capeman. I stayed for the entire
performance of Capeman. Capeman was previously the worst musical ever, but In My
Life takes the title hands down.

Let’s start with the plot. Again, I’m being generous by implying there is a
plot. As the Playbill article about the show says, In My Life is a love story
with a twist: the twist is that the guy has Tourette syndrome. Just to set the
record straight–Tourette syndrome is not a twist. It’s barely a complication.
And it shows up only twice in the show. This, however, makes sense since the
creater (and writer and producer and director) of the show says his son had
Tourette syndrome for a couple of years but is all better now. Somebody should
tell him it wasn’t Tourette syndrome–he was just going through puberty.

Back to the story. Guy meets girl. Guy curses at girl. Guy and girl sleep
together. Then an angel puts on a reality opera for God, so he gives the guy a
brain tumor. The guy’s dead sister appears to guy and tells him to get an
operation. Guy says no. Then guy goes blind, so he has the operation. God stops
riding his bicycle and tells his opera-producing angel to take away the tumor.
Happy ending.

I am not making this up. And I’m being much clearer than the actual show. I’m
not mentioning how the guy dreams of his dead mother (killed in the same crash
as his sister), and then later the sister (she’s dead, remember) has similar
dreams of her also dead mother. I guess the sister and mother are in different
heavens or something. But later they get together when the sister puts on a tutu
and does a dance. I’m not kidding.

Oh, and heaven is a giant white room filled with file cabinets. Again, I’m
being serious.

The only thing that kept us at the show, besides trying to wrench our jaws
off the floor, was that a number of theater critics were sitting
around us. Everyone was laughing at the show–and not at any jokes. It was funny
to see someone miss a note, or deliver a line and watch the critics start
scribbling away, sharpening their pens like knives before the carving.

At the end of the show a giant lemon drops onto the stage. Honestly. It’s the
most appropriate stage design you will ever see. Which, hopefully, you will
never see.

2005 Tony Awards

As one of my friends in New York loves to point out, I’m the only straight man she knows that watches the Tonys every year. Maybe it’s because I used to study playwriting, maybe it’s because theater is what brought my wife and I together, or maybe it’s just because my wife and I are serious theater fanatics, often flying out to New York or London and seeing more shows than the days we’re in those cities. Either way, every year we watch the Tonys. This was not an exception.

Initial thoughts after the show were that it was okay. Jackman was a decent enough host, but I’m not sure why they needed a host if he was only going to sing two songs. Granted, one was a bit longer and a medley at that, but the second was a bit off-key and sung with Aretha Franklin (who was also off). Otherwise I think he was on maybe 4 times and said a quick joke before turning it over. I guess that’s what passes for hosting these days, but you have to have someone to blame if the show sucks.

As for the awards themselves, I was a bit surprised that Light in the Piazza took so many technical awards, but given that it’s in a much more intimate theater space than the other big shows, not too surprising that voters would be swayed that way. Spamalot was nominated a lot, but didn’t come close to sweeping. There may have also been a subtle movement to give it less kudos than The Producers, which is a show close to the heart of Broadway theater-goers, even if technically speaking Spamalot is a much better musical comedy.

We were happy that Spamalot won for Best Musical and that Fogler took Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Putnam County Spelling Bee, even happier that Norbert won for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and thrilled that Sara Ramirez won for Spamalot. When we first saw the show we pegged her to win the Tony, then thought it would be great to see the show the week after the awards since her big song has a line about her never winning a Tony. Although with her comments during the broadcast, it certainly sounds like she’s been out sick a lot. Not too surprising–her songs are probably the most vocally challenging on Broadway in at least eight years (I’m thinking of Ragtime, in case you were wondering).

Not surprised that Doubt took so many awards, although not taking Best Actor was a bit of a shock, although I guess it would have been more surprising for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to not take even a single award. Still, somewhat surprising to see all the strong shows out there get shut out: Glass Menagerie, On Golden Pond chief among them.

The one award that ticked me off was Best Book of a Musical for Putnam County Spelling Bee. I had problems with that show, mostly the second act (which, when we saw it, was still part of the first act because they didn’t have an intermission–wonder if they do now?). I was ticked because the book for the show isn’t that good–it doesn’t drive the story at all and is just the jokes. Yes, it has all the punchlines, but as a book goes it’s pretty pathetic. This is akin to Sophia Coppola winning for Best Screenplay for Lost in Translation when at least half the movie was just improv by Bill Murray. That and the award prevented Eric Idle from getting his own award (and speech) was a true shame.

Billy Crystal’s win was the biggest lock in years, but his speech was great and his opening bits with Jackman were golden. Simply put, Crystal is the best awards show host out there. The Oscars should sign him to a ten year deal for a billion dollars. Well, maybe not a billion.

All in all, a pretty good year for the awards. If you’re a theater-goer and reading this (which is, what, two people?) then you should really go see Spamalot. I hear tickets are going for $250 each. That’s pretty steep, but I almost think it’s worth it. Personally, I’d see it again if I could get out there (which we might in October or so).

And now that you’ve read all this, you’re probably questioning whether any straight men watch this show.