Lysistrata Jones

What's that sound?  I think it's Walter Kerr turning over in his grave.  I've been disappointed on Broadway before and I'm sure I will again.

Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn have crafted a mediocre yet clever book and score that seems vaguely Xanadu-like yet wildly inferior to it's predecessor.  The show is not lacking talented performers, but the young and talented performers are lacking a Broadway-quality product to perform in.   I'd gladly pay $20 or $30 to see this show off-Broadway where it belongs, but when a gaggle of greedy producers gets together and thinks that this crap can sell and be profitable on Broadway at $120 a ticket I wonder what on earth they were smoking!

No stars above the title, not even Lysistrata herself. None of the rest really deserving of the privilege either - not that there weren't incredibly sexy kids on stage - but it takes more than a hot, sexy jock (Josh Segarra) and his occasionally shirtless basketball teammates and a dumb-acting high school girl (Patti Murin) and her geek sidekick (Lindsay Nicole Chambers) to ignite a Broadway barn-burner.  Jason Tam, adorable and cute, gets my award for the character most likely to be seen on the next episode of Glee.   Sets were colorful (read, bright collegiate orange and blue) but how creative can you really get with the inside of a school gymnasium?)  Lighting was colorful and bright but seemed to serve as a mask, not an enhancement to the empty performances.  Occasionally when i looked up at the band (up above the performers on a catwalk - kinda cool - they seemed to be having a lot of fun with the airhead pop-laced tunes.  I wished I was too.

Truth be told I walked out at the intermission.  I can't give this one a legitimate or thorough review.  What I can tell you is not to waste your money in the first place.  The show is off-Broadway quality at best.  And that's not a BAD thing - except when you try to charge $120 a ticket on a Broadway stage.  That's the real sin here.  I hope the producers and creatives behind Bring It On learn a lesson from this one and bring us more than Ms Jones has.

A Chorus Line

We all know the story - and many of us have seen the movie. But despite this - the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line is destined to stay around on Broadway for another long run.

The bare stage, the spotlight, the empty theater, the solitary white line painted down the middle of the stage, the dancers, the stories and emotion all add up to... A singular sensation! (ok, i just had to say that!).

Each of the 17 dancers has something to share and each of them makes you feel like the story and the struggle is personally theirs. Many a show has an ensemble cast - and the story within this story is about the very same thing - The desire to make it on "the line". The hopes and dreams not to become "the star", but just to "make it" and then shine thru! This ensemble cast takes you there!

I found myself in awe at how the dancers (we all know they must be TOP notch to have been cast in the show) switch back and forth between the hesitancy and awkward nature of their characters, the tears, the "learning the routines" to the flawless execution of the dance routines in the show numbers. I just have one comment to Bob Alian (the show is still in previews, so changes can officially be made) -- Bring down the mirrors at the end and let the darn cast come out for another bow!

It takes hard work and a lot of rejection before you "get there". The 17 dancers showed us all through their individual stories that this fall's revival of A Chorus Line is going to be "The One"!