Another Season Come and Gone...

As I've said before, this is my first full theatre season here in New York and it was one packed full of exciting shows. The jump from off-Broadway to Broadway of In The Heights and Passing Strange is reason enough to celebrate. Finally, Broadway is starting to nurture talent that is a little more in touch with today's pop culture. And while I'm still not entirely convinced to drink the Kool-Aid and join the throng of Spring Awakening fans, the show coupled with Heights and Strange, offer hope for my ipod. (It is a little embarrassing to be bumping "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" on the C train.)

And as for my Tony predictions this year, while not any where accurate, I feel I had a respectable score; 16/26. Which seems like a lot. But it is more then half. I credit my inaccuracy to the fact that I didn't see the juggernaut, South Pacific in action and also, my unfamiliarity with some of the design aspects.

And while I was sad that Passing Strange didn't win more awards (it's single win was for Best Book of a Musical? The spoken dialogue is hardly the selling point of the show) nothing was terribly upsetting.

Here is to seeing every Broadway show in the next season. [title of show], the first show of the 2008-2009 Broadway season, starts previews July 5th.

2008 Tony Award Predictions

After the Tony's last year, I was dead set on seeing every show the next year so I can have an "informed" opinion when I watch the next years broadcast.

And while I didn't see every show, I was able to see a vast majority, and have a pretty good sense of the season as a whole. So below are my predictions for the 2008 Tony Awards as well as those who I think should win, but maybe won't. Well... come June 15th we'll see how right or wrong I was.


Choreography

• Andy Blankenbuehler - In The Heights will win...
• Rob Ashford - Cry-Baby should win...

Orchestrations

• Alex Lacamoire & Bill Sherman - In The Heights will win..
• Jonathan Tunick - A Catered Affair should win...

Book of a Musical

• Xanadu, Douglas Carter Beane should and will win...
• A Catered Affair should have been nominated...

Original Score

• In The Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda will win...
• Passing Strange, Stew and Heidi Rodewld should win...
• A Catered Affair should have been nominated over The Little Mermaid.

Scenic Design (Play)

• Anthony Ward, Macbeth will win...
• Todd Rosenthal, August: Osage County should win...

Scenic Design (Musical)

• David Farley and Timothy Bird & The Knifedge Creative Network, Sunday in the Park with George should and will win...

Costume Design (Play)

• Katrina Lindsay, Les Liaisons Dangereuses will win...
• Peter McKintosh, The 39 Steps should win...

Costume Design (Musical)

• Catherine Zuber, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific will win...
• David Farley, Sunday in the Park with George should win...

Lighting Design (Play)

• Kevin Adams - Macbeth should and will win...

Lighting Design (Musical)

• Donald Holder, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific will win...
• Howell Binkley, In The Heights should win...

Sound Design (Play)*

• Adam Cork, Macbeth should and will win...

Sound Design (Musical)*

• Acme Sound Partners, In The Heights will win...
• Sebastian Frost, Sunday in the Park with George should win...

Direction (Play)

• Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County will win...
• Maria Aitken, The 39 Steps should win...

Direction (Musical)

• Arthur Laurents, Gypsy will win...
• Sam Buntrock, Sunday in the Park with George should win...

Featured Actor (Play)

• Raul Esparza, The Homecoming will win...
• David Pittu, Is He Dead? should win...

Featured Actress (Play)

• Rondi Reed, August: Osage County will win...
• Sinead Cusack, Rock 'n' Roll should win...

Featured Actor (Musical)

• Boyd Gaines, Gypsy will win...
• Daniel Breaker, Passing Strange should win...

Featured Actress (Musical)

• Laura Benanti, Gypsy will win...
• Andrea Martin, The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein should win...

Actor (Play)

• Patrick Stewart, Macbeth should and will win...

Actress (Play)

• Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County will win...
• Amy Morton, August: Osage County or Kate Fleetwood, Macbeth should win...

Actor (Musical)

• Lin-Manuel Miranda, In The Heights will win...
• Tom Wopat, A Catered Affair should win...

Actress (Musical)

• Patti Lupone, Gypsy will win...
• Faith Prince, A Catered Affair should win...

Play Revival

• Boeing-Boeing will win...
• Macbeth should win...

Musical Revival

• Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific and Gypsy should both win... it's too close to say...

Play

• August: Osage County by Tracy Letts should and will win...

Musical

• In The Heights will win...
• Passing Strange should win...
• A Catered Affair should have been nominated in place of Cry-Baby.

*first year award is being given out.

Anyone out there agree or disagree?

2008 Tony Nominations

The nominations for the 2008 Tony Awards were announced yesterday. I had planned on waking up early and watching them, but alas, the night before I was out late with friends and was in no mood to wake up for a 8:30am anything!

To see a complete list of nominations, click here.

As I expected, In the Heights and August: Osage County both received lots of nominations, 13 and 7 (a sizeable amount for a play.) The revivals of South Pacific and Sunday in the Park with George also received a lot of nominations, 11 and 9, both including Best Revival of a Musical.

For some, the shows that didn't get nominated are always more interesting then the shows that did. The Little Mermaid, Catered Affair, and Young Frankenstein were only nominated for design or supporting actor awards (Little Mermaid did pick up a best score nod, but I doubt it will win, half it's score is from the movie.)

Also, I'm sad that Is He Dead? only received one nomination and only for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Play (David Pittu). The show was extremely funny and there is no reason why it shouldn't still be running today.

I really hope In The Heights and Passing Strange win big. Since moving to New York, these are the only two shows that I've been really passionate about and hope that even if they don't win big, that the broadcast will be enough of an advertisement for them to run for a long time. August: Osage County is doing well after it's Pulitzer win and is a shoo in for Best New Play.

As it gets closer to June, I'll post a Tony awards predictions list.

No Pare! Sigue, Sigue!!!

In the Heights opened last year around this time Off-Broadway. It got pretty rave reviews, and despite not being able to find a strong audience way out in a theatre on 37th and 10th, the producers decided to take it to Broadway, where it started previews on Feb 14th. It opens officially on March 9th.

I saw the production early in it's run Off-Broadway, and instantly fell in love with it. It was exactly the kind of show that I loved. The music was fresh and fun, I laughed and cried, and I felt like a part of a community when I left the show. I urged all my friends to go see it, and even took some friends to see it (mostly so I could see it again myself!)

The show is one of the freshest, coolest things out there right now, and the composer/lyricist, and star of the show, Lin-Manuel Miranda can be considered a major force among young up and coming composers today.

Now, this is the first show that I've seen where I've seen it make the transfer from Off to the Great White Way. So it was exciting for me to see it on Broadway because I heard there were a few changes to the score and book, and of course some costume and set changes.

But what is interesting is, what time will do to the memory of a show.



As I've mentioned before, seeing a show again changes your opinion of it. When I saw Next to Normal a second time, I loved it. Legally Blonde was different for me this time too, and I actually was able to like it more for some reason.

But with this, I had such fond memories of the show, I wonder if it could have lived up to them.

The show follows a group of people in the Upper, Upper West Side neighborhood of Washington Heights. The title In the Heights, takes on different meanings, with the image of flight or being in the sky comes up often and also in referring to the neighborhood name itself.

It uses a mix of Latin beats and melodies, Hip-Hop and Broadway Pop as the basis for the score. Quite simply, this score is one of the best I have heard in a very, very long time. The lyrics are always interesting. Miranda uses rhymes that are simple but come off as unexpected, and often reference other literary or pop culture items. ("You probably never heard my name/Reports of my fame/Are greatly exaggerated")

I think what happened with myself was I hyped it up in my head. It's basically the same show. But I was looking for the same experience on Broadway as I got Off, and it was impossible to get. (For one, sitting in the Mezz of the Richard Rodgers is not the same as the intimate 37ARTS, the theatre where In the Heights played Off-Broadway.) I should have known better then to do this to myself.

I recommended this show like crazy last year, and will continue to do so this year. Despite whatever little dislikes of the show that I have in it's current Broadway incarnation, this show is wonderful, and better then most of the stuff out there! GO!

Three Shows in a weekend...

I know that I recently talked about seeing multiple shows back to back and how I don't like it. Well... I somehow managed to see three shows this past weekend, Debbie Allen's staging of an all African-American production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the new Off-Broadway transfer Passing Strange, and the so-sweet-it'll-give-you-a-cavity, Legally Blonde.

Usually when I see multiple shows in a close amount of time, they always end up, sometimes surprisingly, having themes that somehow reinforce one another. (The similarities of Steppenwolf's epic drama August: Osage County Second Stages' rock musical Next to Normal are remarkable) but I was at a loss at trying to put these three together :)

This revival of Cat is fairly straight forward. The only difference is the use of an all African-American cast. Terrance Howard is making his theatrical debut as Brick. Anika Noni Rose is Maggie, and Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones as Big Mama and Big Papa.

So, basically... the cast is great. I went in loving everyone before I even saw it. It was too cool to see all these people live. But as the play went on and I became less star struck, to my surprise, they were all great!

The use of an all African-American cast is an interesting one. The first time this has been done on Broadway, but there have been some all-Black casts at some professional regional productions. What was interesting about it was the fact that it didn't really change anything all that much. I expected possibly some new light to be shed on the characters, but besides a few lines here and their taking on a new meaning, not much changed. I mean... what did I expect? I don't know. And I'm not really complaining. Because just the chance to see these actors do these roles was such a treat.

I hope Terrance Howard comes back to theatre. While his Brick was very good, Brick doesn't do a lot to talking. Mostly listening... It would be nice to see him in a more active role.

After the matinee of Cat, I saw Passing Strange in the evening. I was very excited about seeing this show as I heard really good things about it when it played at the Public last year, but missed it. So I jumped at the chance to see it now on Broadway.

The show is a new rock musical that follows a young singer/songwriter as he finds himself and his voice as he grows up in Los Angeles, then moves to Amsterdam, Berlin and then eventually comes back.

A coming of age story isn't new ground by any means, but what makes this story remarkable is the way that it's told. Half rock concert, half play, the band is on stage surrounding the actors who play around them. There is no set, just a few chairs. (and I realize that the whole no-set-just-chairs-and-band-on-stage thing isn't really new either, but this just feels so fresh!)

The show is oddly postmodern and so groundbreaking, not the kind of thing you expect to see on Broadway. And I don't mean that as an intentional knock at commercial theatre. But the show is so cool and so different then everything else out there! The music is great, and despite my grumblings about rock musicals (see here) it works really well.

The show is narrated by the guitar player and composer, Stew (gotta love anyone with one name), who sometimes steps in for his younger self to sing major songs. It is a convention that turns out to be extremely powerful at times.

This is first show that I'm really excited for this year. I just hope it's able to find an audience. It's not a traditional show, and isn't going to attract a traditional audience. But I'm sure once the reviews come out it'll be packed, as when I saw it Saturday night there were some empty seats.

At Legally Blonde meanwhile, there was hardly an empty seat Sunday night. I've seen Blonde before, (and on MTV) a co-worker's husband got free tickets, and she invited me to come, and I'm not going to pass up a free show!

And the show was fine, not spectacular, but full of energy and bubble gum gusto you can't help but smile at times. If you've only seen it on MTV I will say it's much better in person. Christian Borle is a fantastic actor and I fell in love with him all over again as Emmet (the Luke Wilson character in the movie.) Laura Bell Bundy as Elle Woods was satisfactory, but her voice was so shot by Sunday night (Legally Blonde has a four show weekend) that I just felt bad for her. Take the matinees off girl!

I'm going to see In the Heights this Tuesday. It's no secret to the people who know me, that I love this show. I can only hope that being in a big Broadway house doesn't change the show too much.

Rock Musical...? meh...

Something has been bothering me for the past little while. It started after the huge success that Spring Awakening enjoyed with transferring to Broadway, then winning all these Tony's, including Best Musical. Also, the rock musical Next to Normal just opened at Second Stage. With that the "rock musical" sort of came back into people's theatrical peripheral vision, or at least mine.

As it was fluttering around in mine, I came to the conclusion: I hate rock musicals.

Now that said, there are about a million exceptions to what I just said.

My first cast album was The Who's Tommy (and even as a child opted for the 2 disk complete recording, not the highlights.) And I am a big fan of Rent, Hairspray, Dreamgirls, and countless other shows that use pop or rock music in their scores. But rock musicals are problematic for me.

I ended up seeing Next To Normal again recently. I had to give it another shot. And to my surprise, where before I just kinda liked it, this second time I loved it. But I think I liked it because I was able to listen to it this second time around.

Rock music is designed to do just that, rock. It is all about the 2 and the 4, and throwing down and having a good time to the beat. (And when I say rock, I am generally referring to popular music, including rock, pop, gospel, etc. Basically anything with a beat and not something classified as a "showtune".)

Now when a musical uses rock music to tell it's story, and when the song rocks, I mean truly rocks, it stops telling a story. Because in the end, rock music doesn't serve the show. It's about the beat.

There are countless examples. When you go to a show and a character is singing a song that rocks the house, and people start cheering what is happening? People end up cheering for the song, the beat, not the story.

I remember seeing an advanced screening of Dreamgirls where everyone there was so excited to see it. Basically the kind of crowd where even if the movie turned out to be crap, we were all going to like it no matter what! The audience was abuzz, and you knew that every person in that theatre knew the lyrics to every song.

But a strange thing happened. When Jennifer Hudson was half way through "And I Am Telling You (I'm Not Going)" and she was belting the hell out of it, people started cheering and clapping. And while it can be argued that people are cheering for the character, at the same time, aren't we just cheering the virtuosity of the performer and the music? Should at the end of that scene we think "wow, that poor girl just got dropped by her group" or "dang, that girl can sing!"? (It doesn't help that it was a movie, so why are people even cheering to begin with!?!)

Another example, I played in the pit for a production of Gospel at Colonus. It's a retelling of the Greek Tragedy Oedipus at Colunus, set in a Pentecostal Church. The show uses gospel style music to tell the story of Oedipus' death and redemption. The show is totally thrilling and uplifting, and the music is good, like really good. But so much of the story is in the lyrics and when people in the audience are clapping and stomping and literally dancing in the aisle, whose listening to the story?

The playwright Bertolt Brecht often collaborated with Kurt Weill for songs for his plays. And it's interesting to note that most of Weill's music for Brecht plays is largely overlooked, but Brechts plays live on. Some people have speculated that Brecht, being the self centered person that he was, chose Weill because his songs weren't catchy. Basically, that they weren't going to distract from his lyrics. If this is true or not, I don't know. But it brings up an interesting point about what is more important, the lyrics or the music?

In seeing Next to Normal for a second time, I was able to bypass the beat, and go straight to the lyrics. Of course, I guess it's just a matter of being able to absorb it all in one sitting. I know for me personally, it can be a little much.

So what am I saying? Should rock music not be used? No not all. I just think with a rock score, there needs to be a balance between the lyrics and the music.

It's totally safe to say that rock music isn't going anywhere. Nor is gospel or pop music. And it's continued use in musicals is here to stay. Hip-Hop, which is even more about the beat, is finally making it's way to a legit, family friendly musical In The Heights which begins previews tonight at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. (I'm seeing it on the 19th. I saw it Off Broadway and it's SO good. I can't wait!)

And even though I think rock music is an awkward fit in a musical, I will put Rent in my playlist any day over Light in the Piazza. So, call me a hypocrite, but at the end of the day, I totally forget all the theory and academic stuff about musicals because I am just not going to sit there and listen to all those strings... I need a beat!