A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Revival Financial Prospects

Posted on December 13, 2009 by David Fick

Variety has offered up some speculations about the financial prospects of the revival of A Little Night Music. They think things look good:

In its first two weeks, the production has grossed more than $1.5 million, a solid sum for seven-perf weeks in a smaller house like the Walter Kerr Theater. For the week ending Dec. 6, it played to auds at 96% capacity. Such sales seem to indicate strong audience interest in the title…. And it helps, of course, that the production is toplined by high-profile thesps Catherine Zeta-Jones (in her Main Stem debut) and Angela Lansbury…. [T]his version, capitalized at a relatively low $4.8 million, will have to pull off recoupment in an economic climate where auds are far more cautious in their spending.

Of course, the reviews haven’t come out yet. I wonder what effect they will have on the show’s ticket sales.

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NEWSFLASH: Best Theatre of the Decade

Posted on December 13, 2009 by David Fick
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

To purchase the Original Broadway Cast Recording of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, click on the image above.

Only two musicals have been featured in the “The Best Theatre of the Decade” list in the Sunday Times: Avenue Q and La Cage aux Folles.

The London production of Avenue Q – by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty’s modest little musical that beat out Wicked for the Best Musical Tony Award in its debut season on Broadway ranked 15th out of the 20 shows listed:

A kind of Sesame Street for adults, this dotty, silly and frequently very rude musical concerns a New York neighbourhood inhabited by such characters as Lucy the Slut and Kate Monster. Years on, you will still remember the lyrics to “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” and picture two life-size puppets going at it on a kitchen table.

The revival of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage auz Folles ranked 19th:

The Menier spruced up this pocket musical a treat: the chorus line’s antics alone are worth the price of entrance. Then they went and made it a world-class event by casting Douglas Hodge as Albin, the drag star, a sassy scrapper whose falsies conceal a truly tender heart.

Congatultions to all involved in both shows!

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NEWSFLASH: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES’s Return to Broadway

Posted on December 13, 2009 by David Fick
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

To purchase the Original Broadway Cast Recording of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, click on the image above.

La Cage aux Folles is being revived on Broadway for the second time this decade. The 2004 revival received mixed notices, but managed to pick up the Tony Award for the Best Revival of a Musical (over Pacific Overtures and Sweet Charity, neither of which offered particularly stiff competition) and ran for 6 months before closing in June 2005.

This time around we’re seeing the much acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory production, which transferred to the West End. As it did there, the production will star Douglas Hodge as Albin, who will be joined by Kelsey Grammar as Georges after Mandy Patinkin passed over the role in favour of Paradise Found. No complaints in that regard from me. So the buzz is on and here we go with another revival for a show that’s been revived or staged previously in this decade. Except that La Cage aux Folles isn’t half the show that Gypsy is.

Yes, it’s true: I’ve never felt passionately enthusiastic about Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman’s La Cage aux Folles. I’ve always wanted to like the show – perhaps even felt obligated to, sometimes – and certainly I’m a huge fan of George Hearn’s performance of the show’s big theme tune, “I Am What I Am” from the Tony Awards, which always gets me all sad and teary. (This performance is available on the Broadway’s Lost Treasures DVD series, which any musical theatre fan should have in his or her collection.)

SIDE NOTE: Am I the only one who thinks that the largely unnecessary American remake of La Cage Aux Folles (The Birdcage, which starred Robin Williams and Nathan Lane) could have been better all around if it had been an adaptation of the stage musical? I guess the late 1990s predated the current movie musical renaissance, but with this cast in place in seems like it would have been an obvious choice at the time. Still, the film received generally favourable reviews and remains one of the top-grossing LGBT films in the USA, so…? Well, it was just a thought.

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Elaine Stritch: SINGIN’ SONDHEIM… ONE SONG AT A TIME

Posted on December 13, 2009 by David Fick

Elaine Stritch will present a new cabaret of Sondheim songs next year at Cafe Carlyle, with the first performance set for 5th January 2010. Here’s what Stritch has to say about it:

Well, the sign is up out front on Madison: Elaine Stritch: At Home at the Carlyle — yet again…. God help me!

I wonder what will be on the playlist.

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Corbin Bleu in IN THE HEIGHTS

Posted on December 12, 2009 by David Fick

Playbill announced this week that High School Musical alumnus Corbin Bleu would play Usnavi in In the Heights from January through April next year. Some impassioned reactions to the casting on various musical theatre discussion forums around the Internet have caused some controversy, with some questioning rather vehemently the casting of an African American as a member of the Latino community represented in the cast.

The show’s creator (and original Usnavi) Lin-Manuel Miranda popped in at BroadwayWorld to weigh in on the comments, writing a rap-style approval of Bleu’s casting:

First of all, thank you for taking the time
to write a message in full sentences, much less make it rhyme.
You’d be amazed at all the horrid punctuation I see
e.g. “I-L-Y, ROTFL, OK G2G.”
Now as for Corbin Bleu, chalk it up to ambition.
The dude came in and straight SMASHED his audition.
But can he “hold the flow?” Well, I know the part, I did it.
We’d NEVER cast someone unless they proved that they could spit it.
When he came in the room, I ain’t think that he would get it.
He won us over, pa. You can tell the haters I said it.

Now THIS is sensitive, and I’m hesitant to begin again
But I’m a Puerto Rican-Mexican; I PLAYED Dominican.
And everyone’s from everywhere, we are reppin’ so many things
Andrea’s Venezuelan and Jewish, Karen’s like twenty things
So yes, I see your point, but ethnicity’s just a factor
They’ve gotta play the part: in the end, dude is an ACTOR.

Javi is amazing. Jon Rua is too.
Michael Balderrama makes the drama ring true.
They’re big footsteps; I wrote a really big shoe.
This one is Lin-approved: Mr. Corbin Bleu.

Bleu thanked Miranda publicly on December 10th via Twitter, also stating: “And I promise everyone that I will be working my ass off!” I’m certain Bleu will deliver on his promise; let’s all hope it translates into a stunning performance!

Purchases from Amazon.com

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
1. In the Heights Original Broadway Cast Recording CD.
2. In the Heights Original Broadway Cast Recording MP3s.
3. In the Heights Vocal Selections.

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WICKED Pop-Up Book

Posted on December 12, 2009 by David Fick

Following a musical theatre trend established by the recent pop-up book of The Sound of Music, Wicked has its own pop-up book just in time for Christmas:

WICKED Pop Up Book

If you go to Amazon.com, you can see a little video trailer of how it looks on the product page. It looks pretty neat as far as show merchandising goes.

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Stephen Sondheim Award for Angela Lanbury

Posted on December 12, 2009 by David Fick

The Signature Theatre has created the Stephen Sondheim award, which will benefit Signature Theatre’s artistic, education, and community outreach programs. The award will be presented annually to an individual for his or her career contributions to interpreting, supporting, and collaborating on Stephen Sondheim’s music works. The first recipient of the award is Angela Lansbury, who was of course named as the ultimate Sondheim diva by yours truly in this blog ages ago.

Playbill offers the following reactions from Sondheim himself:

Angela Lansbury’s first appearance on the musical stage was in a show called Anyone Can Whistle, for which I wrote the score. That appearance was a gift to the musical theatre, although perhaps not such a gift to her, since the show only ran for nine performances. I am thrilled that Signature Theatre is helping me make it up to her by giving her the first Stephen Sondheim Award.

As well as from Signature Theatre’s Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer:

I’m thrilled that Angela will be the first recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award, having appeared aurally on our stage as The Giant in Into the Woods. She is a major force in the American musical theatre and we look forward to saluting her endless talents.

This is wonderful. Lansbury is exactly the right person with whom to inaugurate this award.

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First Look at “Send in the Clowns”

Posted on December 11, 2009 by David Fick

Here’s a first look at Catherine Zeta-Jones’s rendition of “Send in the Clowns”, with Alexander Hanson as Fredrik, from the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music.

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First Look at “A Weekend in the Country”

Posted on December 11, 2009 by David Fick

Here’s a first look at the company performing “A Weekend in the Country” from the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music.

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First Look at Lansbury’s “Liasons”

Posted on December 11, 2009 by David Fick

Here’s a first look at Angela Lansbury’s rendition of “Liasons” from the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music.

Posted in Broadway, Musicals, Performances | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments