In the interest of full disclosure: With just one day to devote to the project and eight shows to sample, I arrived with the notion that if I found any first act, I would stay through the whole show.
August 17, 2006 (Press Release) --
Maybe it was a matter of disappointment by comparison. But after seeing the dazzling revival of "Gypsy" last weekend at the Ravinia Festival, the eight deeply flawed new musicals showcased in this year's Stages 2006 marathon at the Theatre Building seemed to suggest the artform has fallen on very hard times. None of the shows presented last weekend, whether in semi-staged or concert reading style, was ready for prime time.
In the interest of full disclosure: With just one day to devote to the project and eight shows to sample, I arrived with the notion that if I found any first act particularly compelling, I would stay through the whole show. Otherwise, I would move on. None of the shows kept me glued to my seat.
Curtain rises
First up was "Studio," which held promise, at least on paper, since it featured a book, music and lyrics by Broadway veteran Charles Strouse ("Annie"). In fact, it was a mess, with a heavy-handed book that mixed cliched show-biz chaos and Watergate-era politics. At the center of Strouse's tale is Ben (the appealingly boyish Andrew Weir), the grandson of a successful composer who is trying to workshop one of the man's forgotten works. Ben also is trying to straighten out his own life, and his choice between a career as a starving artist or a prosperous lawyer. Katrina Kuntz played the love interest; Gustavo Mellado displayed charm in the underwritten role of a Latin musician.
Next up: "Half the Sky," a song cycle more suitable as an offering for a human rights conference on the global oppression of women than for the musical theater stage. The goals of its creators -- Donna Trinkoff, Marsha Lee Sheiness, Luis Santeiro, June Siegel, Greer Woodward and composer Rick Cummins (who nicely tapped into some world-beat sounds) -- might be worthy and high-minded, but the scenarios were wholly predictable, with themes of wife-beating, sexual tourism and industrial "slavery." As in Eve Ensler's plays, the show also was hijacked by the notion that the truly oppressed women of the world can be lumped together with the overprivileged yuppies of our own time and place who feel their heads hitting law firms' glass ceilings. Joseph Anthony Foronda was exceptionally good as a quietly abusive Korean husband in the Sheiness-Santeiro song "Dried Fish and Women."
Any show bearing the title of "The Cotton Club" at least initially holds out the promise of a good time. And the presence in the cast of Michael Ingersoll (so terrific in "tick, tick ... BOOM!" this season) added to the anticipation factor. But Arnold Margolin's dreadful book unravels the musical -- about a smart young Irish-American who finds himself pressed into being a hit man and who falls for a black chorus girl working at the decidedly segregated club. Not even the periodically zippy and effective score (songs such as "Hotsy-Totsy" and "He Wants Me") could keep it on track. Ingersoll retained his easeful, natural charm, and Sharyon A. Culberson (as the dark-skinned wardrobe girl who wants to be onstage) and Melanie McCullough (as the "high yella" chorus girl) displayed plenty of verve.
Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted by Hedy Weiss
In the interest of full disclosure: With just one day to devote to the project and eight shows to sample, I arrived with the notion that if I found any first act particularly compelling, I would stay through the whole show. Otherwise, I would move on. None of the shows kept me glued to my seat.
Curtain rises
First up was "Studio," which held promise, at least on paper, since it featured a book, music and lyrics by Broadway veteran Charles Strouse ("Annie"). In fact, it was a mess, with a heavy-handed book that mixed cliched show-biz chaos and Watergate-era politics. At the center of Strouse's tale is Ben (the appealingly boyish Andrew Weir), the grandson of a successful composer who is trying to workshop one of the man's forgotten works. Ben also is trying to straighten out his own life, and his choice between a career as a starving artist or a prosperous lawyer. Katrina Kuntz played the love interest; Gustavo Mellado displayed charm in the underwritten role of a Latin musician.
Next up: "Half the Sky," a song cycle more suitable as an offering for a human rights conference on the global oppression of women than for the musical theater stage. The goals of its creators -- Donna Trinkoff, Marsha Lee Sheiness, Luis Santeiro, June Siegel, Greer Woodward and composer Rick Cummins (who nicely tapped into some world-beat sounds) -- might be worthy and high-minded, but the scenarios were wholly predictable, with themes of wife-beating, sexual tourism and industrial "slavery." As in Eve Ensler's plays, the show also was hijacked by the notion that the truly oppressed women of the world can be lumped together with the overprivileged yuppies of our own time and place who feel their heads hitting law firms' glass ceilings. Joseph Anthony Foronda was exceptionally good as a quietly abusive Korean husband in the Sheiness-Santeiro song "Dried Fish and Women."
Any show bearing the title of "The Cotton Club" at least initially holds out the promise of a good time. And the presence in the cast of Michael Ingersoll (so terrific in "tick, tick ... BOOM!" this season) added to the anticipation factor. But Arnold Margolin's dreadful book unravels the musical -- about a smart young Irish-American who finds himself pressed into being a hit man and who falls for a black chorus girl working at the decidedly segregated club. Not even the periodically zippy and effective score (songs such as "Hotsy-Totsy" and "He Wants Me") could keep it on track. Ingersoll retained his easeful, natural charm, and Sharyon A. Culberson (as the dark-skinned wardrobe girl who wants to be onstage) and Melanie McCullough (as the "high yella" chorus girl) displayed plenty of verve.
Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted by Hedy Weiss
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