B'way Update: Schmigadoon

The cast of TV's Schmigadoon.
Credit: Apple TV

Schmigadoon, the musical based on the spoofy Apple TV original series satirizing the Golden Age of Broadway musicals, is coming to its natural home, Broadway.  After a successful run at the Kennedy Center (before it became the Trump Palace of Low Culture), the musical will begin previews at the Nederlander Theater on April 4 with an opening set for April 20 for a limited run until Sept 6.  

Featuring a book and Emmy-winning score score by Cinco Paul (Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets), Schmigadoon follows a married couple trapped in the title magical town, where the residents burst into song at the drop of a hat. 

“Schmigadoon is a love letter to the Golden Age of movie musicals,” said producer Lorne Michaels. “It’s a little bit nostalgic and a lot of fun. We’re very excited to bring it to Broadway.” Casting and creative team will be announced at a later date.

B'way Review: Punch

Will Harrison (center) in Punch.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

It’s going to be very difficult to resist writing the obvious praise for Punch, James Graham’s hard-hitting British import presented by Manhattan Theater Club in association with Nottingham Playhouse on Broadway. Yes, it’s a haymaker, it’s a gut-punch, it will send you reeling and stunned out of the theater. But these accolades seem like hollow cliches compared to the visceral, emotionally rending experience of this show.

Based on Right from Wrong, the memoir written by Jacob Dunne the main real-life character in the play, Punch centers on the life-changing impact that a single blow struck in blind, unreasoning rage can have. Jacob (Will Harrison in a career-making Broadway debut) is an angry, working-class young man in England’s suffocating public housing jungle. During a marathon pub crawl, he punches a random stranger which results in a smashed skull, brain bleeding, and death. In cinematic terms, playwright Graham (who previously expertly covered Rupert Murdoch’s domination of the scandal press in Ink) and director Adam Penford explore the ramifications of the harrowing incident, both from Jacob’s point of view and that of Joan and David, the devastated parents of the victim (Victoria Clark and Sam Robards in heartbreaking, multilayered performances).

B'way Review: Waiting for Godot

Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in
Waiting for Godot.
Credit: Andy Henderson

The biggest box-office hit of the new, startlingly sparse Broadway fall season is, surprisingly, a revival of Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett’s classic comedy-drama of existential despair. Well, maybe, it shouldn’t be such as a surprise since the production marks the reunion of Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, co-stars of three popular Bill & Ted film comedies, and the Broadway debut of Reeves (Winter appeared as a child actor in The King and I and Peter Pan.) In addition, this weighty work on the question of man’s purpose in the universe has been marketed as a Seinfeld-like comedy about nothing, and the director is white-hot Jamie Lloyd whose Sunset Boulevard, Romeo & Juliet, and A Doll’s House have been innovative and controversial. 

Is this Godot worth the wait and the hype? It depends on your expectations. If you want to see two of your favorite film stars recreating their goofy screen antics, you may be disappointed. If you are familiar with Beckett’s text and are anticipating a deep examination of why we are here with some slapstick thrown in, you will be somewhat satisfied. Lloyd’s production is clever and well-paced, mounting the challenges of Beckett’s difficult script, wherein, yes, very little happens. But his two leads Reeves and Winter fail to fully flesh out the iconic tramps Estragon and Vladimir who seek to find meaning in the futile task of waiting for the enigmatic Godot. Brandon J. Dirden as the pompous wayfarer Pozzo who briefly interrupts their vigil, is much more vibrant, so much so that this revival would be better named Waiting for Pozzo.  

Batman Humor I Did Not Get as a Child

George Sanders as Mr. Freeze #1

Batman (1966-8) was my favorite TV series when I was a kid. But I thought it was a serious action-adventure thriller. Turns out it was a campy spoof. In rewatching several episodes, I've discovered so many jokes and pop culture references that went over my head.

Instant Freeze/Rats Like Cheese--In the cliffhanger, the Dynamic Duo are frozen solid by the cool, cruel Mr. Freeze (George Sanders, one of the few Oscar winners to play a Special Guest Villain, and the first of three actors to play this role on the series). The second segment starts with Batman and Robin in a "de-icing chamber" where the temperature must be raised slowly to save them. The delicate operation is performed by a doctor referred to by Chief O'Hara as Vince who over-emotes. I now know this was a reference to the highly dramatic Vince Edwards who played the lead on Ben Casey, a popular medical drama which was just finishing a five-season run.

The Bookworm Turns--Jerry Lewis pops out of a window as Batman and Robin are scaling an abandoned factory. What is Jerry Lewis doing living in a factory? 

The Clock King's Crazy Crimes--In yet another window cameo, Sammy Davis, Jr. appears in yet another abandoned factory. But unlike Jerry Lewis, he at least has an explanation for being there--he's rehearsing his act and begins "Birth of the Blues" as he closes his window. A rehearsal studio in a closed-down factory that makes watches? (Clock King's hideout). Also in the episode Batman and Robin go on a wild goose chase seeking a female accomplice of Clock King--Thelma Timepiece--at a drive-in where they munch on Bat-burgers. 

The Dynamic Duo with Samantha's Dad

The Puzzles Are Coming/The Duo Is Slumming--This time the window cameo made a bit more sense. The Dynamic Duo are scaling an apartment building rather than an abandoned factory, so it makes sense someone would pop out of a window to see what weirdoes were climbing up their building. But it's Santa Claus (the episode aired on Dec. 22, 1966) played by an uncredited Andy Devine, veteran comic actor who appeared in everything from John Wayne films like Stagecoach to Jack Benny's radio show. Santa promises to bring the caped crusaders a present if they'll reveal the location of the Batcave. Adam West looks right at the camera and says, "If you can't trust Santa, how can you trust" and then promises to call St. Nick at the North Pole with the secret spot. 

Also in this episode the villain was the Puzzler, played by Maurice Evans, best known at the time for playing Samantha's father on Bewitched. But he was a Shakespearean actor (winning an Emmy for playing Macbeth opposite Dame Judith Anderson) and he constantly quoted the Bard. Now at least I recognize the quotes. This was originally going to be a Riddler episode, but Frank Gorshin was tired of playing the role, so they rewrote his part as the Puzzler. How ironic this great British stage star is remembered for his appearances on American TV sitcoms and as Dr. Zaius on Planet of the Apes.

Book Review: Someone Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory

(Bought at the Strand Bookstore): A funny, imaginative collection of short fiction from the creator of the Netflix series Bojack Horseman which I really should go back to (I finished the first season and part of the second). These pieces artfully combine fantasy with realistic love stories. A rock group gains superpowers when they consume alcohol. A couple's wedding is disrupted when they balk at sacrificing goats (a satire of what I call the wedding-industrial complex when the rituals are more important than the marriage). A presidential-themed amusement park is the site of genetic experimentation and doomed romance. A break-up story told from the boyfriend's dog's POV. There are also non-fantasy stories with ingenious twists. A woman sees her family life re-enacted on an Off-Off-Broadway stage. A paralegal deals with the aftermath of an office affair. All are witty and moving.

Off-B'way Reviews: Saturday Church; House of McQueen; Jamie Allan's Amaze!

J. Harrison Ghee and Bryson Battle in
Saturday Church.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

While it feels a bit like an Afterschool TV Special, Saturday Church, the new Off-Broadway musical celebrating LGBTQ youth, is fun, infectious, and lively, and could very well follow the path of Rent, another New York Theater Workshop production, and make a Broadway transfer. The story is achingly familiar, but there is so much joy here, the predicability of the plot really doesn’t matter.

Based on the 2017 independent film with a cliched but compassionate book by the film’s screenwriter Damon Cardasis and Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames (Fat Ham), Saturday Church employs the tried and true trope of an alienated outsider kid finding self-acceptance and community and delivers enough zest and zip to overcome its flaws. African-American teen Ulysses (a vibrant Bryson Battle) longs to join his church choir, but his starchy Aunt Rose (intense Joaquina Kalukango) forbids it, claiming his flamboyant mannerisms are “too much” for the congregation. At home, Ulysses is dealing with the recent death of his loving dad and the frequent absence of his hard-working mom Amara (tender, conflicted Kristolyn Lloyd), struggling to make ends meet as a nurse. 

In a parallel story, Ebony (a sizzling and buoyant B Noel Thomas) is grieving the suicide of her friend Sasha and feeling overwhelmed as the organizer of Saturday Church, a weekly gathering for trans and gay youth who are experiencing little if any family support. Serving as a sort of supernatural narrator is Black Jesus (played with sparkling panache by J. Harrison Ghee), a fabulous non-binary deity figure. In a clever case of double casting, Ghee also plays the conservative pastor of Ulysses’ church. Ghee was so convincing in both roles, I didn’t realize it was the same performer until the intermission when I checked the program.

B'way Update: Let the Good Times Roll

Scott Davidson, Carmiña Monserrat, Tre Moore,
Miciah Lathan, and Gina Guarino in 
Let The Good Times Roll: A New Orleans Gumbo 
Credit: Billy Hardiman

After a run at the Phoenix Theater Company in Arizona this past summer, Let the Good Times Roll: A New Orleans Gumbo, will transfer to Broadway during the 2026-27 season. Conceived and written by Jack Viertel, the jukebox musical employs songs associated with the Louisiana city and such artists as Bessie Smith, Harry Connick, Jr., Dr. John, Randy Newman, and others. Six characters tell their stories and that of the city itself from the Great Flood of 1927 to Hurricane Katrina. Sara Edwards directs and choreographs. Music supervisor Sonny Paladino is responsible for the arrangements and orchestrations. 

“It was hugely satisfying to be given the opportunity to do this world premiere with the great folks at The Phoenix Theatre, and with Sara and Sonny. The results were beyond anything I could have imagined,” said Viertel in a statement. "We set out to create a joy machine, a human story and a piece where New Orleans itself would become a principal character. But the amount of joy the audience took from it every night was no doubt the best part of all. I’m excited and thrilled that we are moving on to New York and look forward to getting back in a rehearsal room full of wonderful people.”