It’s the spring theater season and Matt and I have seen a ton of shows lately. Matt is fortunate to be a member of TDF, which provides discount tickets to lots of shows, so we’re able to see a lot of stuff.
Here are some things we’ve seen recently:
The Book of Mormon – Best show of the season. By Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the South Park guys) and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q). Hilarious and raunchy, with an entertaining score and a surprisingly sweet storyline at its heart. Andrew Rannells is a breakout star here. Not flawless, and not everyone will like it, but it’s a breath of fresh air: a funny, original musical.
Anything Goes – Delightful (delicious, d’lovely) revival. Sutton Foster gives a performance different from Patti Lupone in the 1980s revival, but it’s great in its own way. The first act finale is a great tap-dance number, the kind you don’t see on stage much anymore. It’s got a great supporting cast, including Joel Grey, Jessica Walter and John McMartin. This show also has a budding star, Colin Donnell, as romantic lead Billy Crocker. The guy can act, sing, and dance, and he’s good-looking; where’s he been all this time?
Born Yesterday – Revival of a 1940s Garson Kanin play. The best thing about this show is Nina Arianda‘s hilarious and intelligent performance as a ditzy blonde. Arianda is also on her way to stardom.
Catch Me If You Can – This musical is the biggest disappointment of the season. With Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Norbert Leo Butz, Aaron Tveit, and Kerry Butler, I was expecting theater magic; what went wrong here? The score is generic and uninteresting; Tveit (so wonderful in Next to Normal) can’t really carry this show. Shaiman and Wittman have taken a great movie and added a framing device: a 1960’s TV musical special. No idea why. It doesn’t work. Again, big disappointment. (“Disappointment” is subjective here; I expected Spider-Man to be bad and I’d heard negative buzz about Women on the Verge, so I was prepared for those. From this show I was expecting great things.)
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying – revival starring Daniel Radcliffe, a.k.a. Harry Potter. God, I was really rooting for him here, and you can tell he’s put a lot of work into his performance. He pulls off a great dance number near the end of the show, and he does a good American accent, but he’s not quite right for the part. Still, I had a good time. (I liked this more than Matt did.)
No tickets yet for Priscilla Queen of the Desert or Sister Act. Not as interested in the former since I learned it lacks an original score; would like to see the latter, though.
Coming up: Jerusalem with Mark Rylance; Company at Avery Fisher Hall with Neil Patrick Harris, Patti Lupone, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Christina Hendricks, and others (holy shit I can’t wait to see this); and The People in the Picture with Donna Murphy. Later in the spring, Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures.
Also, some rest.
