Oscar E Moore

Can it be possible?  Can MOTOWN, the musical produced and written by Motown’s founder Berry Gordy (an excellent Brandon Victor Dixon) run off with many of the musical awards this season? 

Coming in under the radar and without big name stars portraying some of the biggest names in Motown musical history – Diana Ross (the sensational, brilliant and beautiful Valisia LeKae), Smokey Robinson (Charl Brown),  Marvin Gaye (Bryan Terrell Clark), Mary Wells (N’Kenge) and Stevie Wonder (Ryan Shaw) – MOTOWN succeeds brilliantly with its incredible cast who all deliver terrific performances.  Sometimes we feel that they are the actual stars so fine are their portrayals.  Portrayals that never become clichés or caricatures of these most famous and larger than life personalities.

There is also a very young boy with an old soul – Michael Jackson – portrayed magnificently by Raymond Luke (alternating with Jibreel Mawry) who has that same sparkle of genius and rouses the audience to a fever pitch in Act II.

MOTOWN the musical, from its very first notes fires up the audience and never lets its entertainment values diminish for almost three jam packed, hit parade hours of the famous and beloved songs that came out of the small independent studio founded by Berry Gordy in Detroit Michigan.

A man who had a dream and who would never let go of it, until he arrived on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to showcase and to remind us all of those fabulous songs that many of the audience sang along with.  It’s that kind of show.  And it’s wonderful that so many people know and admire and feel the love coming across the footlights and honor the artists by sending their love back to them in tribute to all their fine accomplishments.

This is not a traditional book musical.  The book, as it is, is merely the connective tissue to lead us through the musical history and legacy of Motown’s extensive catalog – a legacy of love.  And it shows. 

From the incredibly inventive set by David Korins to the eye popping costumes by Esosa (especially the gowns for Diana Ross), the masterful lighting design by Natash Katz (there seem to be as many light cues as there are notes of music) and the inventive choreography by Patricia Wilcox and Warren Adams that time travels through the years starting in 1938 to 1983 where the show begins with the 25^th Anniversary celebration of Motown where all of its stars are gathered to pay tribute to the egotistical, creative and stubborn man of the hour Mr. Berry Gordy who may or may not be attending.  That’s the set up under the inspired direction by Charles Randolph-Wright.

What follows is the truest form of celebration that grabs the audience immediately and never lets up.  Berry Gordy wanted to be loved and to share it with everyone no matter what their race or color.  If we don’t discover the deepest details and if he comes out unscathed it matters not.  MOTOWN the musical is a marathon of pure entertainment and deserves the sixteen million dollar advance and sold out houses.  MOTOWN is a blast – signed, sealed and delivered.

www.Motownthemusical.com  Photos:  Joan Marcus

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The much ballyhooed, highly hyped, multiple award winning Royal Shakespeare Company musical MATILDA has opened on Broadway with four young girls alternating in the part of the highly intelligent, telekinetic, precocious and somewhat naughty heroine Matilda Wormwood – an extremely hard working ten year old Milly Shapiro at the Saturday April 13 matinee that I attended, looking somewhat like Eloise.

It’s a case of The Emperor’s New Clothes – we are led to believe this is a great show lest we be considered incompetent when in reality there is not much to admire.  In fact, after Act I was finished, so was I.  In fact, I was livid.

Livid over the fact that I could not understand what was being said on stage from K101.  A combination of British accents, impossible diction and horrible sound design by Simon Baker – leaves most of the audience in the dark as to what is being uttered on stage.

MATILDA the musical is simply unintelligible.  And loud, beyond belief.  In fact, one song is titled LOUD.  One would think that being so loud one could hear what is being said and sung.  And that’s not right.  It’s a shame.  And inexcusable.

Based on the 1988 novel by Roald Dahl, Dennis Kelly has adapted the book and Tim Minchin has supplied music and lyrics for the many tunes.  Only one is memorable “When I Grow Up”.

The usually gifted director Matthew Warchus has lost his golden touch aided and abetted by Peter Darling as choreographer whose choreography borders on the robotic.

There is a mixture of styles and tone.  There are multiple story lines all fighting each other for the spotlight and to be heard.  And Act II opens with that dreaded audience inclusion.

Matilda Wormwood’s parents are horrible.  The over the top mother (Lesli Margherita) is a ballroom dancer forever rehearsing with her Latin partner Rudolpho (Phillip Spaeth) and her dad (Gabriel Ebert) a dishonest used car salesman who berates her for being born a girl – they would have preferred another son (Taylor Trench) who is a dead head and addicted to the television unlike Matilda who loves words, and books and numbers and wants to change her life and be kind to others and to do the right thing.  Everything her cartoon parents do not want to do. Or have her do.

And so she tries to escape at school where she meets the lovely and caring Miss Honey (Lauren Ward – looking very much like J.K. Rowling) and a kind librarian Mrs. Phelps (Karen Aldridge – looking very Jamaican bringing to mind Harry Belafonte’s huge hit). 

Matilda makes up stories and tells them to Mrs. Phelps – in installments.  And here is where we miss most of the dialogue – in the storytelling which makes for a long and tiresome evening despite the special effects thrown is to keep our attention from lagging.  Unfortunately all these tricks don’t work.

The whistle blowing headmistress of the school is a nasty evil woman with quivering ultra sensitive nostrils who hates children – “maggots” – and thinks nothing of verbally and physically abusing them.  She is played by a he.  Miss Trunchbull, an Olympic Medal winner for hammer throwing, is played by Bertie Carvel in a one dimensional, one note un-glam drag performance that didn’t do much for my admiration for the production as a whole.

The set design by Rob Howell is quite attractive and suitable, not so his costumes.

Matilda might have been speaking Russian.  For that matter she does.  Supertitles or a crash course in lip reading might help.

I was so disappointed.  And livid.  At the Shubert Theatre.

www.matildathemusical.com  Photos:  Joan Marcus

NOTE:  I think it is also inexcusable that the Shubert Theatre does not have a convenient restroom for handicapped people who have to cross the street to Sardi’s to relieve themselves.  How humiliating.  Matilda would never put up with that!

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Can a bevy of high kicking and singing drag queens led on by Lola (a phenomenal Billy Porter – a composite of Tina Turner, Shirley Bassey, Whitney Houston and Effie from Dreamgirls) save the Price & Son shoe factory about to go under in Northampton England?  You bet your booty!

Not only is Billy Porter gorgeous when all done up but he has a heart and a soul that runs deep and touches us with the passion he has for all that he does.  A passion that he slowly instills in his co-star Stark Sands who portrays Charlie Price – the son of the owner of the shoe factory down on its heels, ready to close – putting many dedicated workers out of a job until he accidentally meets up with Lola and they forge an unlikely partnership.

The talented and handsome Mr. Sands’ part is far less flamboyant – in fact he plays straight man to Lola for much of the evening until he discovers and gets to follow his real passion, letting loose on the runway in Milan where a delightful Adinah Alexander rules with an iron Italian fist.

Charlie is torn between his fiancée Nicola (Celina Carvajal) a bridezilla type with her own agenda and saving his dad’s factory (nicely designed by David Rockwell) that he would rather not be a part of. 

His foreman, George (a standout performance by Marcus Neville) and Lauren – the other woman in Charlie’s life (Annaleigh Ashford – who manages to steal every scene and song she is in) pitch in to help when Lola is hired as head designer of “Kinky Boots” to fill a much needed “market niche” – supplying shoes for men who dress as women.

And please take note of the tallest and thinnest of Lola’s Angels (Charlie Sutton) – with a wild mane of hair and attitude that commands the stage especially during the boxing match.

Of course there are obstacles along the way including a heavyset worker Don (the fine Daniel Stewart Sherman) who doesn’t much care for the bloke in high heels even when he dons male garb and tries desperately to fit in.  Lola as Simon shares a most heart wrenching song with Charlie “I’m Not My Father’s Son”.  But it is as Lola that Porter has us cheering him on with each of his star turns.  It’s a magnificent performance.

Cyndi Lauper has written a fabulous score that has a modern immediacy with some great and memorable hooks that will get you all afire once the book by Mr. Fierstein gets the all too necessary exposition set up and in place.  Then the show really takes off and raises the roof of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and has the audience cheering throughout the bravo inducing production which is a feast for the eyes, the ears and the heart as directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell.

Costumes by Gregg Barnes are a knockout.  Hair design by Josh Marquette is fabulous.  And those kinky boots!  They become characters unto themselves.  KINKY BOOTS is a combination of La Cage, Pricilla Queen of the Desert, The Full Monty and Dreamgirls – It is the best of the best.

If you can only see one show see KINKY BOOTS – a life affirming, passionate ode to finding the way – being accepted and accepting each other  – done with professionalism and a flair for what’s most entertaining.  Go and celebrate each other! 

www.kinkybootsthemusical.com  Photos:  Matthew Murphy

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Full speed ahead!  And the pace never lets up in this respectful yet disappointing expose of tabloid journalism by Nora Ephron circa 1985.  We are barraged by the cast with short, loud machine gun blasts of narrative spiked with profanity while beer and whiskey are devoured by the almost all male cast who portray the cronies of one Mike McAlary – ace reporter for The Daily News and The Post (ping ponging back and forth between the two) and Newsday where he started as a cop reporter in this bio-drama with some really funny lines that show off a sharp wit – Ephron’s trademark – but nary enough to call LUCKY GUY entertaining.   Headache inducing is more like it.

As brave as Mike McAlary was to take on the New York City Police Department Tom Hanks is equally brave to take on Broadway – and they were and are successful up to a point. 

Hanks is Hanks – wisely charming the audience from the outset as the real McAlary wasn’t such a great guy.  A guy with an enormous ego who loved the spotlight and was hungry for fame and his own column.  A guy who had connections, and sources, and the gift of gab that got people to open up to him. 

Not considered a great writer he eventually got a Pulitzer for his prose regarding the sodomizing by a couple of cops of Abner Louima (Stephen Tyrone Williams) in an all too brief scene that captures our interest where most of the other rapid fire and jarring short scenes do not.

Despite the heroic efforts of director George C. Wolfe (projections, actual news footage, a smoke machine to fill the stage with the ubiquitous cigarettes used, desks and chairs on wheels and some excellent casting in all the supporting roles) to make LUCKY GUY palatable it just doesn’t do it.

There’s the Tylenol case.  The Mafia.  Crack.  The Fake Rape Scandal – where we get definitive definitions of sperm and semen.  The aforementioned Abner Louima.  Jimmy Breslin – who is merely mentioned – now there was real drama between those two.  His rocky marriage to Alice (a grounded and sympathetic Maura Tierney) – all hit upon briefly.  Told.  Not shown for the most part. 

There’s his lawyer, Eddie Hayes (Christopher McDonald) who sells him his first unaffordable house and then manages to get him raise after raise when others thought he was over rated and over paid.

Act II fares better as we get to delve deeper into his life after a near fatal accident.  But his recovery is as fast paced as the rest of the show until he is diagnosed with the cancer that killed him at age 41.  The morphine drip scene is a highlight if one could call a morphine drip scene such.

With such a boisterous barrage of words, not many of them register as well as they should.

Deirdre Lovejoy is outstanding as sewer mouth reporter Louise Imerman and then as Debby Krenek – Chief Editor of The Daily News who has a tough decision to make.  Yours is whether you want to see Tom Hanks, Hollywood A-list star live in his Broadway debut doing what he does best or not to sit through a grueling speed through reading of LUCKY GUY.

At the Broadhurst Theatre.   www.luckyguyplay.com  Photos:  Joan Marcus

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Most everything about the new musical HANDS ON A HARDBODY is wonderful.  Everything, that is, except its title.  A title that doesn’t sing – doesn’t say this is a musical.  

A title that is a bit confusing and a hard sell to the average theater going public.  If you do not know that it is based on a 1997 documentary of the same name you might think that it has something to do with the Medical Examiner’s Office on a CSI episode. 

So forget the title and get yourself a ticket to see this most original, tuneful, exciting, tender and touching show with an exceptional cast portraying a cross section of Texans going through some hard economic times and having to enter a contest held by The Floyd King Nissan Used Car Dealership in Longview Texas to realize their dreams in a land of Walmart’s, Walgreen’s and Wendy’s.

HANDS ON A HARDBODY is about living the American dream that features center stage a 20,000 dollar, cherry red, Japanese pick-up truck as the grand prize.  All that the ten contestants (whose names were chosen randomly from a hat) have to do is hold on to the truck with gloved hands as long as their faith, persistence and stamina hold out.  Last sleep deprived person standing wins.  They do get some breaks. 

But the rules are strict and tough as we soon discover through some great story songs written by Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green who as lyricist is fond of the triple rhyme. 

Trey, a founding member of Phish is most welcome with this, his first Broadway show delivering a score that features bluegrass, gospel, country western ballads and some soft rock which should make for a great cast album. 

The vocal arrangements and musical direction by Carmel Dean are exceptional as are the orchestrations by Trey Anastasio and Don Hart which are all enhanced by the well balanced sound design of Steve Canyon Kennedy.  On an almost bare stage good lighting design is most important and Kevin Adams does not disappoint.

The show is well written and constructed by Doug Wright who does a masterful job at introducing the characters and allowing their back stories to evolve through song.  It’s directed with a keen eye by Neil Pepe who keeps the show and truck moving along nicely allowing for some creative and clever choreography by Sergio Trujillo as the contestants cannot remove both hands from the truck lest they be disqualified.  One hand must remain at all times on the pick-up. 

Unforgettable characters abound.  And they are portrayed perfectly. There is not a weak link and you will be surprised by them, laugh with them and feel for them as they attempt to change their troubled lives.  Might even be annoyed by them.

But I have to single out Keala Settle as Norma Valverde who has the almost impossible job of starting her big number “Joy of the Lord” in silence as she listens to her head phones and slowly begins to giggle, resulting in a glorious number with the entire company rhythmically banging on the truck.

Keith Carradine and Hunter Foster are terrific.  They are all terrific:  Allison Case, Jay Armstrong Johnson, David Larsen (patiently wait for him to explode) Jacob Ming-Trent, Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone, Mary Gordon Murray, Jim Newman, Connie Ray (spot on manager of the dealership whose motto must be “dress for success”) John Rua, the raspy voiced and very funny Dale Soules, Scott Wakefield and William Youmans. 

They will touch you, one and all, and you will not soon forget them.  Or the musical with that odd title.  Highly recommended.  At the Brooks Atkinson Theatre

www.HandsOnAHardbody.com  Photos:  Chad Batka

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In the opening moments of this disjointed, noiresque, bummer of a production the question is asked, “Where is she?” referring to the heroine of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S – Holly Golightly – the self created, self centered, stylish, phony party girl whose favors for men pay her rent in 1940’s New York City. 

It’s a good question as the actress chosen to portray Holly in this sluggish new adaptation by Richard Greenberg of Truman Capote’s poetic ode to the odd Holly – namely Emilia Clarke – the character of Ms. Golightly is missing in action. 

It appears that Ms. Clarke has also been unsuccessfully trying to find Ms. Golightly in this darker new take on Holly.  Coming up with a combination of Veronica Lake, Katherine Hepburn not Audrey and Lea Michele.  It’s an odd and annoying performance which I hereby nominate for “The Elena Roger (Evita) Miscast Person of The Year Award.”   We simply don’t care enough about her to invest our time. 

Watching a very unstylish (despite some nice period costumes by Colleen Atwood) and listening to the bizarre and grating mixture of accents emanating from Ms. Clarke for two and a half hours is akin to hearing cats howling in the alleyway.

And speaking of cats, the adorable ginger tabby named Vito Vincent, rescued by Holly looks as bewildered as we do in trying to figure what is going on up there on the Cort Theatre’s stage and practically steals the show.

A show which features the Narrator (an excellent Cory Michael Smith) almost more than its heroine.  She has named him Fred after her beloved brother and he is infatuated with her antics while attempting to become a published writer and come to grips with his sexuality.   However, his speeches lifted directly from Capote’s novella seem to be at odds with Mr. Greenwood’s new dialogue.  There are two different styles going on here and never the twain shall meet.

George Wendt comes up professional as Joe the Bartender, dispensing martinis and listening to Fred’s sad tale of the missing in action Holly as we watch her downward spiral into self destruction as absently and awkwardly directed by Sean Mathias.

There are a bevy of fine supporting characters that enliven the proceedings but not enough to make this a must see event.  Included are:  Suzanne Bertish, Lee Wilkof, Kate Cullen Roberts and Pedro Carmo.

There is a naked bathtub scene between Fred and Holly that seems out of place in this endless production that just gets worse as it goes on and on and on giving us a case of “The Mean Reds” an  anxiety ailment that Holly suffers from.  To cure them she goes off to Tiffany’s.  See you there.

www.BreakfastAtTiffanysonBroadway.com     Photo:  Nathan Johnson

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It’s not diamonds that are a girl’s best friend but booze in this admirable but creaky revival of HAPPY BIRTHDAY by Anita Loos who is most famous for writing “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”.  It is produced by The Actors Company Theater celebrating its 20^th Anniversary “dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely produced plays”. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY was written especially for Helen Hayes who was tired of portraying serious, stuffy characters.  She desired to do something different.  Something fun.  She wanted to cut loose up on stage.  Anita Loos obliged and gave her the opportunity to get sloshed every night for 600 performances and winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1947.

It truly is a star vehicle with a slew of colorful supporting players – 14 to be exact.  The play is presented without intermission and follows the exploits of one Addie Bermis (Mary Bacon) a shy tea-totaling librarian who is trying to break away from her abusive and drunken father Homer (Anderson Matthews). 

Wearing her finest footwear to attract the attention of her favorite bank clerk Paul Bishop (Todd Gearhart) who is engaged to Maude Carson (Victoria Mack) – the Lorelei Lee type stand in – Addie arrives on a rainy night in April at the Mecca Cocktail Bar, Newark, New Jersey 1946, Mecca for all the local drinkers.  Sort of like CHEERS.  Addie has her very first Pink Lady and imbibes many more which gives her enough gumption to cut loose and to pursue her dream man banker.

She even gets to sing “I Haven’t Got a Worry in the World” written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, producers of the original production.  She dances a tango, imagines bottles of liquor talking to her and that the dreary bar has become some kind of wonderland.

As much as I admire the talent of Mary Bacon who makes a gallant and admirable effort she doesn’t quite fill the shoes of Miss Helen Hayes who must have been sensational.

Director Scott Alan Evans does his best to perk up the proceedings with a couple of surprising effects which I won’t spoil by giving them away.  He has cast the play exceptionally well.

Standouts include:  Darrie Lawrence (Tot) and Nora Chester (Emma) two friends who have arrived after seeing Jane Russell in a movie and egg Addie on, Anderson Matthews as a drunken Judge and Addie’s dad Homer, Tom Berklund as Don Hosmer dancing a mean tango – the son of Gail Hosmer owner of the bar – a magnificent Karen Ziemba, an excellent Todd Gearhart as the banker Paul Bishop who gives warmth and charm to his character and the lonely Myrtle (Margot White) whose actual birthday it is.  

Unfortunately her boyfriend’s wife and she share the same birthday.  Most men come up short here especially Mr. Nanino (Joseph Masi) who promises with a most exaggerated  accent not heard for some time in this here town to meet with Maude (gal of Paul) after he returns from the hospital where his wife just gave birth.  Bottoms up!

www.Tactnyc.org  Through April 13^th 

Talk-Backs with the cast after every Sunday Matinee

Visit www.TalkEntertainment.com  Photos:  Hunter Canning

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Is this really how the Me-Generation, the I-Generation, the I-Pod, I-Pad Generation thinks and acts to survive and get ahead to achieve what they think they want? 

The answer from young playwright Paul Downs Colaizzo making his New York debut with REALLY REALLY, an MCC production that has been extended through March 30^th at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, is a depressing and resounding yes. 

You won’t soon forget this group of friends, and I use the term loosely nor will you leave the theatre elated.  As the expression goes, “With friends like these who needs enemies?”

The producers have pulled out all the stops and added bells and whistles to help this effort (it’s part of a trilogy “Want, Give, Get”) succeed by hiring ace and hot director of the moment David Cromer and Zosia Mamet (dad is David Mamet) to portray Leigh (the ruthless catalyst) and set designer David Korins who has supplied a dizzying set that is reformatted for each scene to show the two apartments with different perspectives (plus other locations) that allow the audience not a moment to be bored.   

Added into the mixture are the rest of the attractive young cast with a couple of guys with enviable well defined muscles and abs on display throughout.

After a night of wild partying where everyone was drunk it’s questionable what really went on as Leigh – who wants it all (an excellent Zosia Mamet) accuses rich and studly Davis (Matt Lauria) of taking advantage of her (read rape).  She’s had the hots for him forever and her boyfriend Jimmy (Evan Jonigkeit) is away for the weekend.   He said.  She said.  With unexpected surprises and revelations.  Really.

Cooper (David Hull) Davis’ roommate dispenses his theories on how to succeed in today’s world as does Grace (Lauren Culpepper) Leigh’s roommate (who Jimmy detests) with her speeches to her fellow Future Leaders of America.

Johnson (Kobi Libii) is not as well off as the others and so he treads more carefully with his allegiances.  Haley (Aleque Reid) arrives in Act II – to help her sister Leigh with her insane manipulation of her friends and evil machinations in tones so soft most of her words are lost (Mr. Cromer please take note).

Well that’s the lot off them.  Act I holds our interest but comes to a jarring close that leaves the audience in stunned silence wondering what happened.  Act II fares less well and perhaps the play would benefit with some cuts that make it into a one act with no intermission.  Really?  Honestly.

www.mcctheater.org  Photos:  Janna Giacoppo

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June 28, 1969.  It’s a hot and muggy night and the gays and lesbians of Greenwich Village New York City have been shattered by the death of their beloved icon Judy Garland – Patron Saint of all those who are searching for love and sex and drugs and a good time to blow off steam in a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. 

They have been under the thumb of the cops and the mob and are discriminated against and taunted and brutally beaten and embarrassed by having their names printed in the paper if they get arrested during one of the raids on the bar by the local pigs.

That night they finally had had enough and fought back thus starting the gay revolution.  We’ve come a long way but people are still committing suicide when their sexual orientation is discovered or they are dismissed by their families and bullying is on the rise for those who would just be themselves.

In Ike Holter’s uneven yet emotionally grabbing new play, HIT THE WALL, he puts us right in the middle of it all at the small, intimate Barrow Street Theatre that somehow manages to present the facts with a cross section of the gay community capturing the essence and mythology of that infamous night.

Director Eric Hoff has made great use of the small space and with the help of his fight director J. David Brimmer has staged the play beautifully and brutally.  The dance sequence in the bar with its loud music and strobe lights is particularly affecting as the half naked men go wild when the raid commences and flows out onto the streets of Greenwich Village igniting what was to become the beginning of the movement for gays and lesbians to be treated equally as human beings and not as outcasts.

It was a time where you could be arrested for wearing inappropriate clothing – women dressed as men and drag queens were the favorite targets of the cops.  One of the most terrifying scenes has the cop (Matthew Greer) interrogating a butch dyke, Peg (a terrific Rania Salem Manganaro) and Carson (the outstanding Nathan Lee Graham) who has been mourning the death of Garland in full drag and physically assaulting them.  It truly is frightening and in your face theatre.

One might argue that the characters are stereotypes.   There is the Newbie (Nick Bailey) an innocent youth who manages to be picked up by the guy in a suit A-Gay (Sean Allan Krill), loose his virginity, take cocaine and run naked through the streets brandishing a garbage can all in one day.

There is the butch dyke, her straight laced sister Madeline (Jessica Dickey) who attempts to talk Peg out of being who she is, offering money and therapy to cure her while she avoids those two friends sitting on the stoop Tano (Arturo Soria) and Mika (Gregory Haney) who are very territorial with sharp tongues and fingers that snap.  We have Roberta (Carolyn Michelle Smith) trying to rally all for her cause of women’s rights.  And finally the drag queen Carson who is at the center of this docu-drama holding forth with humor, toughness, eloquence and elegance who captures the heart of Cliff (Ben Diskant) a back pack traveling hippie with a stash of weed.

A trio of Hippie musicians Jonathan Mastro, Ray Rizzo and Indigo Street add guitar, bongo beats and tambourine accompaniment to composer Dan Lipton’s original music.

It is a true ensemble piece filled with passion and quite unsettling and exciting to witness.  HIT THE WALL demands to be seen.  Ninety minutes straight through.

www.BarrowStreetTheatre.com  Photos:  Matthew Murphy

OFF-BROADWAY’S NEW PLAY

“H I T   T H E   W A L L”

LAUNCHES TALKBACK SERIES

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20^TH

AT BARROW STREET THEATRE

FIRST TALKBACK TO BE MODERATED BY

WBAI RADIO HOST

DAVID ROTHENBERG

PANEL INCLUDES ORIGINAL JUNE 28, 1969 STONEWALL ACTIVISTS

DANNY GARVIN & MARTIN BOYCE, WITH COMPLETE CAST & DIRECTOR ERIC HOFF

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There’s a ball, a banquet, a bachelor looking for a friend, a newly empowered Ella, a flying fairy godmother, Venetian glass slippers, dancing trees, a fox, a raccoon, an election, a wedding and of course a happily ever after ending in this magical makeover of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s originally made for television special CINDERELLA.

There has been a refreshing major magic wand at work here in this newly revamped, sweet and lovely and funny Broadway production appearing at the massive Broadway Theatre with a new book by master humorist Douglas Carter Beane and the vintage, very tuneful score by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.  There is a lot to be said for reprising a memorable melody so many times that one actually leaves the theatre humming a tune.

There’s a bit of “Into the Woods”, “Shrek”, “Spamalot”, Sleeping Beauty (the Ballet), “The Bachelor” and  “Once Upon a Mattress” as niftily directed by Mark Brokaw and choreographed by Josh Rhodes resulting in a brand new up to the minute interpretation of this age old story that is now an enchanting musical for all ages.

The lovely Laura Osnes is the optimistic and kind lass with dreams of a better life and Kingdom and some newfound sass who puts up with her harridan of a stepmother (Harriet Harris) and her step-sisters Charlotte (Ann Harada) and the nicer of the two Gabrielle (Marla Mindelle) who has her sights on the rebellious firebrand Jean-Michel (Greg Hildreth) joining forces to open a soup kitchen for the poor.

Ms. Osnes looks and sings beautifully and goes from rags to riches literally in seconds before our eyes – twice – thanks to the gorgeous and inventive costumes of William Ivey Long who has outdone himself in this his 65^th design for the Broadway stage.

He, along with Anna Louizos who has supplied the elaborate storybook sets with the aforementioned traveling trees, make CINDERELLA a wonder to behold.

As Topher – short for Christopher – Santino Fontana as the Prince under the droll and sarcastic thumb of Sebastian (Peter Bartlett) has carved himself a new category of actor – character leading man – and has done so with flying colors – giving this Prince equal weight with that of his co-star Laura Osnes.  At times goofy and sincere he has a strong singing voice, finally finding his way in life and standing tall.  They make captivating modern day partners.

CINDERELLA wouldn’t be CINDERELLA without a fairy godmother and the wonderful Victoria Clark imbues her character with a soaring voice and a quick and quirky humor instilling in Ella the belief that she can be all that she wants to be while being kind, a very good thing to liberate and empower little girls.  And boys.

This CINDERELLA is a sure fire crowd pleaser.

www.cinderellaonbroadway.com Photos:  Carol Rosegg

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