A Little Night Music

A charming and elegant evening at the Walter Kerr Theatre.  I'd never heard anything about the show before i saw it - so i was a blank slate ready to be impressed by Mr. Sondheim and this cast.   And impressed I was.    Catherine Zeta Jones was magnificent.  I won't say her rendition of Send in the Clowns was the best i'd ever heard, but it was solid and heartfelt.  A great actress she is, no matter what the medium.  Angela Lansbury is a gem and it's a pleasure to see her no matter what the medium.   Although she did just get off a run of Blythe Spirit where she owned the entire stage from end to end - this show is a bit different.  She plays the aging matriarch in a wheel chair the entire evening - so dare i say - she could do this one for quite a long time - 8 shows every week!

I did some reading about prior productions of this show - and if i believe what i read - this production was quite elegant - unlike the prior incarnations.  Brought to mind another Sondheim show, Company, also an elegant reincarnation a few years past.

I won't say the show itself is a draw.  It's a bit old fashioned and predictable.  The main draw is Angela and Catherine - for sure.  Aaron Lazar and Erin Davie certainly add to the evening with their charmed performances.   Sondheim's Every Day a Little Death seen live on stage was a treat.

Not sure this one will last beyond Angela's go at it.  Maybe someone can replace Catherine Zeta Jones, but nobody can replace Angela.

Applause

A classic film, All About Eve, staring Bette Davis, begot this Comden & Green musical in 1970 at the Palace Theater staring Lauren Bacall (and later in 1973 on TV starring Bacall and Larry Hagman). In it's endeavors to bring the less-known musicals back to the stage, Encores! ended up with something less than brilliant, bombastic, super and fantastic.

Don't get me wrong - even recovering from the Asian bird flu (or something like that), Christine Ebersole was above average in the leading role. It certainly was a disappointment to see her at less than "full speed". However, the problem was casting, not performance. As a good friend of mine said, "Could Christine Ebersole have been more mis-cast in the role of the aging Margo Channing?" I think not.

Certainly a brief but memorable performance from Mario Cantone and Kate Burton, but nothing in all of this would suggest it's anywhere close to a Broadway revival ala Gypsy with Lupone - (the last success story from Encores!) My favorite scenes were perhaps the full cast numbers -the show's title number "Applause" and "But Alive". Ebersole seemed to be having as much fun mixing it up with the gays as Bacall in this 1973.

It seemed appropriate for an "all star" semi-staged reading, but I'm going to guess that we won't be seeing Applause on Broadway again any time soon.

Broadway Sings the Phone Book

Since Broadway is on Strike and I lost my tickets to see a show tonight - I found free tickets to this little ditty - turns out it was a benefit for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Hosted by Tony award winner, Julie White, it was cute, silly, and entertaining. Based on the old adage - "Oh, he's so dreamy - he could sing the phone book to me and I'd love it"

Well they did - and it was. Now let's hope this strike is over soon!

Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens is Christine Ebersole's show to shine in. And boy-oh-boy - did she ever! This recent transfer to Broadway is the story of Edith Bouvier Beale, her daughter, Edie, and their extreme relationship. The show is filled with wealthy family drama, the back-story of their connections to the Kennedy Clan, their extreme transformation with age, and of course a good dose of music - something Edith herself used to fill the many voids in her life.

Act I portrays the gay days (taken both literally and figuratively!) of the family in 1941 at the Beale Summer House - Grey Gardens - out in the Hamptons. This is the time period that young Edie meets and almost marries a young Joe Kennedy. Christine plays Mother Edith - the strong willed, powerful, yet extremely vulnerable matriarch of the Beale Family (while her husband is off fooling around on Wall Street and cheating on his wife). Kudos go out to John McMartin who plays a wonderfully entertaining Father to Edith - Major Bouvier.

In Act II Christine transforms herself into her own daughter - and Mary Louise Wilson takes over as her aging Mother in 1974 - - in what can only be described as the extreme decline of Grey Gardens. She is a recluse, the house is falling apart and they are both quite eccentric and have become locally infamous for the squalor they live in - - So much so that Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis actually made several public statements on the situation of her aunt and cousin.

The quick witted and sharp tongued Ebersole tears thru both acts with gusto. Showing us at first her desire as Edith to impress and entertain - and then later her personal struggle as Edie with having her life "ruined" by her mother. In the end - she's not strong (or sane) enough to leave - despite her regrets, anger, and desire to do so.

The feelings of gaiety and lyrical music turn to hopelessness, desperation, and squalor in a mere 3 hours on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theater on West 48th.