Broadway...who cares?

[skynyc]

Or should this thread have been called

Idiot Fences Easter

 

This was a busy week in NY theater as shows opened every night in order to make the Tony Awards deadline. And it's always pretty easy to get discounted tickets because producers want every seat filled while critics are watching. LOTS OF SPOILERS!

 

The reason I called this thread "who cares" is because interestingly enough the shows I saw this week featured flawed folks who challenged the audience to give a damn.

Tuesday night I saw American Idiot, the musical by the once radical and now fairly mainstream band Green Day. It tells the story of three disenfranchised kids who wanted to get out of their humdrum existence so they head to the big city. Well, two of them do; just as they are about to leave the third, Will, learns his girlfriend is pregnant, so he just retreats to the couch. Johnny and Timmy head off. It isn't long before Timmy has joined the army and headed off to Iraq. Johnny stays and becomes addicted to a girl whose name he never learns and to heroin. Ninety fast-paced moments later, I emerged from the theater thinking "Wow, what a bunch of jerks. Wow, I really liked that show."

So I spent the next couple days trying to figure out what happened. I have/had no patience for these spoiled kids who expect the world to give them answers and satisfaction. Johnny, whose mantra is "I forgot to shower....again." is such a pill, and manages to kick his heroin addition in the course of one song, right before the finale. And yet, the music is really pretty great, the performance of John Gallagher, Jr. (who won a Tony for Spring Awakening) is incredible; full of energy and excitement. And it is directed and choreographed within an inch of it's life. Vital and evocative, it was interesting and exciting to watch. The curtain call consists of the entire cast of 19 with acoustic guitars playing "The Time of Your Life". So while I recount the story to folks, it sounds like a terrible night, but I had a great time and would recommend it. Oh, yeah...it's REALLY LOUD, too!

 

Promises, Promises comments are on the thread of that name.

 

Fences was really pretty amazing. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis both provide tour-de-force performances. Set in 1957, Denzel plays Troy Maxon, a sensational ball player in the negro leagues, who spent 15 years in jail for murder, missing any opportunity to play in the major league. Settling for a job as a garbageman in Pittsburgh, he is bitter and angry, and while he has a strong relationship with his wife Rose, he is cold and disconnected from his sons, one a jazz-playing loafer from a previous liaison and the other (Cory, his son with Rose) a young football hopeful anxious for a scholarship. He is resentful of Cory's possibilities and does everything to thwart them, eventually driving Cory away. But the scene in the second act when he tells Rose that he is having an affair with another woman and that she is expecting his baby is monumental. THe original prodcution from the late 1980s was riveting, and won both James Earl Jones and Mary Alice (as Rose) Tony Awards. But James Earl Jones was so much larger than Ms. Alice and Courtney Vance (who played Cory) that he was frightening and overwhelming. I didn't mourn him at all when we hear of his death in the last scene. Here, Mr. Washington is more a tragic figure. His ego and anger is frightening but saddening. And both performances add significant competition to Tony categories that are all ready incredibly tight races.

 

So this was a week of shows about unpleasant people: Troy Maxon in Fences, Johnny in American Idiot, and most of the characters in Promise Promises. Who cares about any of them. But the week also featured an event that proves Broadway Cares.

 

The 24th Annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet contest was Monday and Tuesday afternoons and raised more than 3 1/2 million dollars for numerous important causes. (The money is raised in various ways, but most notably with curtain speeches and bucket campaigns at many theaters.) In the two hour show there were almost twenty skits, songs and dances that gave Broadway and Off-Broadway performers a chance to perfrom for their own community. Several offerings were pretty silly, while others were very poignant, (the cast of Billy Elliot did a number saluting the 29 minors who were killed three weeks ago in West Virginia.) There were many folks involved as judges, hosts and announcers and it was a great "dentist appointment"...or that's what I told my boss. ;^P

[+ Lucky]

...and I first thought you said that the cast of Billy Elliott did a number saluting the 29 minors who have played the role!

Thanks for the great report. You always have the inside view.

[+ purplekow]

Not usually part of the spelling and grammar police but it was miners that were killed. None of them were minors.