B'way Review: Gypsy

Joy Woods and Audra McDonald in
Gypsy.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

The sixth Broadway production of Gypsy, the classic musical based on the memoirs of legendary stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, is a theatrical miracle. Not only does it outfit an oft-produced warhorse with totally new, shining armor, but also provides Audra McDonald, the winner of six Tony Awards, with the means to achieve an unprecedented seventh by  delivering a towering interpretation of the King Lear of female musical theater roles, the unstoppable Mama Rose. Both were thought to be impossible feats, but director George C. Wolfe and McDonald have done the impossible.

Let’s tackle the first accomplishment. Gypsy (1959) is the Holy Grail of Broadway musicals. Every leading lady worth her salt has tackled it. But up until now, all five previous reproductions have largely employed Jerome Robbins’ original direction and choreography. The late book-author Arthur Laurents, recreating Robbins’s work, has directed every Main Stem restaging with the exception of the 2003 production which was helmed by Sam Mendes. All of five have employed Robbins’ 1959 dance steps. George C. Wolfe has applied his prodigious theatrical imagination to the smart and insightful book by Laurents and evergreen score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, while retaining Robbins’  basic flow of scenes and framing them as acts in a vaudeville show. Wolfe has placed his own clever stamp on such iconic moments as the transition between Baby June and Her Newsboys from tots to teens, the riotous “You Gotta Get a Gimmick,” Rose and company’s trek from Seattle to L.A., employing a delightfully delapidated vintage automobile, and many others. Santo Loquasto’s suggestive backstage sets, Toni-Leslie James’ versatile costumes, and Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer’s jazzy lighting all contribute to creating the atmosphere of an endless series of one-night stands and cheap boarding houses.

Audra McDonald and Joy Woods in
Gypsy.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Camille A. Brown has the distinction of being the first new choreographer for the show since Robbins and she also plants her own flag on familiar territory. Her dances are inventive and fresh, particularly her staging of Gypsy’s racy interpretation of “Let Me Entertain You,” climaxing in an erotic rite set in the Garden of Eden, marking her arrival as the star of the strip tease. Brown’s quirky, angular moves, sensuously executed by Joy Woods as Gypsy (Louise) and a lively chorus, evoke Josephine Baker’s eccentric banana dance that made her the toast of Paris in the 1920s. Brown’s staging of “All I Need Is the Girl” is more elaborate than Robbins’, and Kevin Csolak as Tulsa makes it in a show-stopper in an evening of musical explosions. Brown even incorporates Woods as Louise into the number correctly. She is still clumsy, but joyfully joining Tulsa in the big finish, not immediately picking up the steps but following along as best she can. (Woods and Csolak are prime candidates for the 2025 Chita Rivera Awards for Best Broadway dancers.)

B'way Update: Dead Outlaw to Transfer

Trent Saunders, Andrew Durand, and 
Eddie Cooper in Dead Outlaw.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Dead Outlaw, which had an award-winning run Off-Broadway earlier this year, will transfer to Broadway in time for the Tony Awards, beginning previews at the Longacre Theater April 12 in advance of an April 27 opening. The fact-based musical about a petty criminal in the Wild West whose corpse found its way onto a 20th century California amusement pier, features a book by Itamar Moses and a score by David Yazbeck and Erik Della Pinna. David Cromer repeats his direction from the Off-Broadway run at the Minetta Lane Theater. Dead Outlaw received Best Musical Awards from the Drama Desk and the New York Drama Critics Circle, as well as Best Off-Broadway Musical from the Outer Critics Circle. 

The Longacre will soon become vacant due to the early closing of Swept Away, another musical involving dead bodies.

Politics Not as Usual

Trump and Musk:
The new Tsar and Rasputin?

I've been avoiding writing about the political scene because it's so damned depressing. Trump is not even in office yet and he is already sowing seeds of sedition and destruction. He and his Rasputin Elon Musk are trying to sink a budget deal and shut down the government. He won a settlement from ABC over George Stephanopoulos's calling him an adjudicated rapist. (I guess George should have said he was gulity of sexual assault and left it at that.) Trumpy is suing an Iowa newspaper for publishing a poll putting Kamala Harris slightly ahead of him during the last months of the election. These last two are the most dangerous. ABC settled the suit for $15 million, fearing reprisals and a possible loss of their license from Trumpy once he was in office. Trump is now emboldened and ready to sue any press outlet that made him look bad (as the Iowa poll did.) This will have a chilling effect on a free and open press. If you're worried about revenge from the President, you tend not to criticize him. Trumpy is probably hoping one of these cases may go to the dictator-friendly SCOTUS and they'll reverse the Sullivan v. NYTimes decision, making it easier to sue unfriendly journalists. Also Trump and his minions are making noises about charging Liz Chaney with something. What did she do that was illegal except oppose Trump? As Anne Applebaum of the Atlantic has continually reminded us, these are the first baby steps towards authoritarianism.

But Trump supporters don't seem to care about that. They want lower grocery prices and tighter borders. (Those were the two big issues which put Trumpy over the top and defeated Harris, according to a relative visiting over the holidays, reporting what his Trump-voting friends said.) But what will happen when the Orange Hitler imposes his tarriffs and deports everybody and their grandma? Prices for eggs and gasoline are probably not going to go down any time soon. Even Trump admits that. And when millions of undocumented workers are snatched away from the labor market, who will pick the crops, clean our hotel rooms, build and renovate our buildings, and mow our lawns?

Maybe our democracy can weather four more years of Trump's fascistic tendencies, but with everyone from Morning Joe to Jeff Bezos to even some Dems such as Fetterman caving in to him to one degree or another, what will be left when he's finished in 2028?

 

State of the 2024 Film Awards Race

Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain is
the only sure-thing front runner
for the 2024 Oscars.

This year I have not seen as many Oscar contenders as last year. With the summer of Barbieheimer in 2023, there were two clear front-runners for the top awards (Barbie and Oppenheimer). This year, we've only got Glicked--Gladiator 2 and Wicked--as top blockbusters and Gladiator 2 is receiving only lukewarm praise. Neither is a lock for the Oscar Best Picture. Wicked might triumph on the strength of its box office, but several independent critics' darlings who have who scribblers' awards could sneak in. These include Anora, The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, 

The acting categories are almost all wide open. The only candidate who seems to have the Oscar all wrapped up is Best Supporting Actor front-runner Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain. The Succession star has won a majority of pre-Oscar awards and nominations and is this year's Da'vine Joy Randolph whose Supporting Actress performance in The Holdovers totally dominated the 2024 field. Lead actor is a four-way race between Adrian Brody (The Brutalist), Timothee Chamalant (A Total Unknown), Coleman Domingo (Sing Sing), and Ralph Fiennes (Conclave). Best actress probable nominees include Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Marianne Jean-Bapiste (Hard Truths), Angelina Jolie (Maria), Mikey Madison (Arona), and Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Perez). The Supporting Actresses include Ariana Grande (Wicked, in the supporting field to avoid competition with Erivo), Isabella Rosellini (Conclave), Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson) and Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez). Although Rosellini's possible nomination is a mystery to me. I didn't think she was that impactful.

Still to come are the SAG and BAFTA nominees and the National Society of Film Critics which always goes their own way.

Below is a list of potential 2024 award-winning films I've seen so far and a breakdown of winners and nominees (so far). I have not included every single regional critics award because I have a life. In recent years the number of such movie reviewers' groups has proliferated to a ridiculous extent. It seems every major city in the US has one and some have two (one for traditional media and the other for online scribes.) Maybe I will get to including more of them eventually.

B'way Review: Eureka Day

Bill Irwin and Jessica Hecht in
Eureka Day.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

When Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day opened Off-Broadway in 2019, the dark comedy about the vaccination debate at a high-toned private school in Berkeley, California, was alarmingly relevant. Now, a new equally funny and moving Broadway production from Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman (after a London staging in 2022) is ever more timely. Between the two NYC productions, we’ve had the COVID pandemic which shuttered schools nationwide and notorious vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to head Health and Human Services. The question of to vax or not to vax has never been more impactful.

Spector’s script and Anna D. Shapiro’s staging are equally hilarious and moving. Each of the five characters has a stake in the outcome of the conflict over the school’s vaccination policy and all are fully-fleshed-out people, not spokespeople for particular viewpoints. “No one is a villain,” as principal Don (a comically on-edge Bill Irwin) says. That’s true here and the clash of ideologies reaches giddy satirical heights in a brilliantly staged remote meeting where the bubbled comments of parents sent via computer are blown up on a giant screen (David Bengali is credited with the effective projection design.) The only problem was the audience was laughing so hard at the comments, I couldn’t hear much of the spoken dialogue.

Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Bill Irwin,
Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz and Jessica Hecht 
in Eureka Day.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

The play begins with some easy laughs at the school’s executive board meeting. (Todd Rosenthal designed the primary-color school library set.) In attendance are Don and four parents, each of the five competing to be the most socially aware, woke and politically conscious. The action really take off in the next scene when there is a reported case of the mumps in the student body and the board of health orders the school closed for quarantine. The school’s policy of optional observance of recommended vaccinations comes under fire. The earnest camaraderie among the board soon deteriorates as each makes their pro or con stance known, often for very personal reasons.

Irwin is riotous as the principal attempting to please all sides and gradually becoming unglued as the emotions escalate. Jessica Hecht is particularly outstanding as the seemingly all-smiles parent Suzanne. Every word and gesture is loaded with meaning as she offers links to websites to support her opinions and unwittingly exposes her own prejudices despite her liberal platitudes. Her matter-of-fact delivery of a shattering monologue explaining her anti-vax views is heartbreaking.

Thomas Middleditch,
Amber Gray and
Bill Irwin in
Eureka Day.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

Amber Gray is equally strong as a mother taking the opposite side of Suzanne and Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz give off sparks as clandestine lovers, setting up playdates to conceal their trysts. Yakura-Kurtz also has a very funny scene where she knits with increasingly intensity to conceal her suppressed rage. 

Eureka Day is that rare production filled with equal parts laughs and pathos while addressing a contentious issue which concerns all audiences.

Dec. 16—Feb. 2, 2025. Manhattan Theater Club at Samuel J. Friedman Theater, 261 W. 47th St., NYC. Running time: 100 mins. with no intermission. telecharge.com

Book Review: Tommy's Tale

(Given by friends once they were finished reading it. Free.) Actor Alan Cumming (Cabaret, The Good Wife) wrote this amusing novel in 2002. Tommy is a 29-year-old bisexual London party boy teetering on the edge of maturity as he must start to take responsibility for his relationships beyond casual sex and constant drug use. About to turn 30, he suddenly realizes he wants to be a father but has no idea how to go about it. Former girlfriend India wants to meet up again. Current boyfriend Charlie and his young son Finn want more of a commitment. Whimsical roommates Sadie and Bobby offer support. 

The story is punctuated with metaphorical fairy tales, commenting on the main action. It's funny and involving. An excerpt of Cumming's memoir Not My Father's Son and a new introduction for this 2014 edition. This volume proves Cumming is as inventive a writer as he is an actor.

B'way Review: Sunset Blvd.

Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis in
Sunset Blvd.
Credit: Marc Brenner

While appearing on The View talk show, Patti LuPone described Sunset Boulevard (or Blvd. as it is titled in the current Broadway revival) as a “lumbering” musical. LuPone originated the role of Norma Desmond in London in 1993 for this adaptation of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film classic and was subsequently replaced by Glenn Close for the Broadway premiere. The “lumbering” adjective is an accurate description of Trevor Nunn’s original staging of this mammoth show which heretofore has mainly been a vehicle for whoever played the leading role of a faded, mad silent film star desperate for a comeback. Lonny Price’s 2017 revival, also starring Close in a totally different performance, stripped down the elaborate set and got closer to the raw emotions of Don Black and Christopher Hampton’s book. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s symphonic music which captures the creamy film-score style of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the snappy, pop-jazz of the 1950s, also emerged more vibrantly. Jamie Lloyd’s inventive, multi-media production, now at the St. James after winning several Olivier Awards in the West End, goes even further than Price’s and makes Lloyd and the production itself the real stars.

Tom Francis and Nicole Scherzinger in
Sunset Blvd.
Credit: Marc Brenner

To be sure, former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger delivers an electric, galvanizing performance as Norma, but Lloyd’s staging is so fresh, startling and gripping, he deserves equal praise. Eliminating conventional scenery and props, the action takes place on a mostly bare stage apart from a few chairs and a giant screen. Jack Knowles’ noirish lighting design creates the proper shadowy atmosphere. Costume designer Sutra Gimour who also designed the starkly minimalist set, has dressed the company in black and white to evoke the monochromatic tones of the original film and the noir efforts of its era. Cast members with cameras and lighting equipment intermittently film the principals and their images are simultaneously projected on the screen. (Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom are credited with the impressive video and projection design.) There are even opening and closing credits, just like in the movies.