Behanding La Cage on Sondheim

[skynyc]

Spoilers. Beware.

 

Tuesday I saw Behanding in Spokane and I was very disappointed. I always have to watch McDonough's plays through my fingers anyway, because usually they're so bloody...and with a title like this I was sure it would be more of the same. Then why do I go? I find the playwright's ability with dialogue so remarkable that I don't won't miss his works. Well, this one was missable, for me. It was fun seeing Christopher Walken on stage, and he was great, and Sam Rockwell was also pretty great, but the play was absurd to the nth degree. His stupid folksy characters who seem believable in backwater Ireland, were unfathomably dense in contemporary Washington. The were some very funny moments, mostly involving Walken, but all in all I was glad when it was over. I suspect that this will be nominated for Best Play, and may win as a political freebie since he should have won a couple years ago for The Pillowman. It would not be at the top of my list.

 

Wednesday I saw the new revival of La Cage aux Folles. Kelsey Grammar is okay, but the guy playing Albin is terrific. The cagelles are lovely, but it's so clear that this is much more authentic of what a drag club would be in the 1970s. A little seedy, with only the most flaming queens comfortable enough to be performing. One can see that their lives aren't easy, and they bump into each other and preen shamelessly for the audience, with whom they are probably hoping to trick after the show. One of my fundamental problems that I have always had with this show is the son is a despicable character, but the kid playing him here almost made him sympathetic. The whole production is pretty bare bones, but that just highlights the performance of Douglas Hodge as Albin/Zaza. He will be a front runner for the Tony.

 

Thursday was Sondheim on Sondheim at Studio 54. Not to be missed if you are a fan of the man, or just of the musical theater in general. Seeing Barbara Cook sing is a pleasure and is worth the ticket price, and the whole rest of the show is basically gravy. Rich and delicious gravy, though, with hunky Tom Wopat (reputed to be very skilled with an astounding endowment--but that's for another forum) and Vanessa Williams as the other headliners. But the five other singers are also terrific. Leslie Kritzer is again a marvel, and Norm Lewis is marvelous. They songs are interspersed with both classic and contemporary interview clips with Sondheim himself, and it's fun to hear him talk about the two songs that were the finale for Company before Being Alive was written, and to hear all three of them in sequence. There was even some material that I had never heard. And three complete songs from Merrily We Roll Along: Now You Know, Opening Doors and Franklin Shepherd, Inc. It is rumored that the Roundabout is hoping to open the new Sondheim Theater with a new production of this and Kritzer is basically auditioning for the role of Mary every night. Please cast her. Not only were the songs interesting choices, but there were great new arrangements of the real standards. I will certainly purchase this CD when it is made available.

 

My bonus this week was a lovely concert at Carnegie Hall celebrating the music of Lerner and Loewe. The New York Pops were terrific with a full 80 person chorus and special guests Kelly O'Hara and Paulo Szot. (Gosh, I am glad I didn't have a ticket to South Pacific that night.) There were also several numbers sung by a terrific new (to me) tenor named Michael Slattery. It's amazing to hear the lush music of Camelot, Brigadoon and My Fair Lady being played by a seventy-five piece orchestra. And the commaraderie/chemistry between Szot (an out of the closet Hunk of remarkable talent and looks) and O'Hara was a joy.

 

Four more this week, reports to come.

[+ sf westcoaster]

Thanks for posting your thougths on both of these shows. I will be spending a week in NY in May catching a number of shows and your reviews (so far) are very helpful. Look forward to your reviews of the four show to come.

[+ Lucky]

Nice title for the thread, skynyc.