Noises Off

In what might be the most anticipated production of the season, Roundabout's 50th Anniversary, Noises Off hits the boards this week at the American Airlines Theatre.

I saw the last NYC incarnation of this gem 14 years ago - Click Here - with Peter Gallagher, Patti Lupone, Katie Finneran, TR Knight, Faith Prince, and Edward Hibbert.  Needless to say I have fond and vivid memories of the hilarity that ensued.  Of course when I saw the show for the first time I had no idea what was going to happen - this time around, I sort of knew what was going to play out.

This time around, the indomitable Andrea Martin (Dotty) brought her physical comedy to the stage.  Campbell Scott (Lloyd Dallas), tackles the prickly and frustrated director. David Furr (Garry Lejeune), Megan Hilty (Brooke Ashton), Kate Jennings Grant (Belinda Blair), and Jeremy Shamos (Frederick Fellows) tackle the interlopers.  Tracy Chimo (Poppy Norton-Taylor) and Rob McClure (Tim Allgood) tackle the stage crew roles and Daniel Davis (Selsdon) is the bungling alcoholic burglar.

Anyone who knows anything about Nothing On (the play within the play) knows it is a physical comedy inside the physical comedy Noises Off - Three progressively "worse" acts repeated with disastrously funny consequences.  Timing is more than half the battle and tuning the characters just right is the rest.  I'd say they did a great job at the first part - the timing and physicality was nifty. The set (Derek McLane) was quite literally exactly what I remembered it to be - as if they pulled it out of storage.  What the production lacked, I thought, was a sense of mad-cap pace and hilarity.  It was almost very deliberate and plodding.  Certainly Ms. Martin had moments of glory - mostly in Act I as she labored over the sardines and later when she got tangled in the phone cord.  I remember TR Knight having a bigger part than Mr. McClure - and I don't know why.   Ms. Hilty delivered those stilted and quite literally memorized lines perfectly - and by perfectly I mean at just about the most incorrect time and always mugging to the audience like her character is supposed to.   This time around Mr. Scott walked around the entire theater including the mezzanine with his booming director's voice and I don't remember Mr. Gallagher doing the same except for right down front.  There were plenty of stars in this production although none of them shone overly brightly.  There was plenty of talent and great timing in this production, but nothing transported me.  That could be a bit of the 2nd time around syndrome, or it just might possibly be that the production seemed a bit more farcical and deliberately physical than it needed to be.

In the end, it doesn't much matter.  The family behind me had no idea what was going to happen and half my fun was listening to their reactions in Act 2.  I enjoyed this production but not quite as much as I enjoyed my first one.

Honeymoon in Vegas

In what might be one of his smoothest moves yet - the always slick and sexy Tony Danza seems to have been a part of bringing a show to Broadway starring.... well, none other than himself!  Honeymoon is delicious fun and a delightful escape from a cold and snowy New York City night.

Modeled after the movie, Andrew Bergman and Jason Robert Brown have penned an entertaining evening in the theatre.  Colorful, Vegas-style costumes and lighting fill the theater, while the large cast fills the stage with dancing, frivolity, and a whole lot of heart.   Don't get me wrong - the show ain't gonna win a Pulitzer price for literature or drama in any stretch of the imagination.  It's simply pure, unadulterated entertainment for just about 2 ½ hours.  And why didn't anyone think of this sooner - Vegas show girls, gangsters, a mad-cap plot, and a couple you know - right from the start - have got to end up together.

If Mr. Danza is selling the tickets with his name (and still handsome looks), the secret weapon this show wields is Rob McClure.  When he graced the stage in Chaplin, I believe it was the wise Newsday journalist who penned "Welcome to the show that's going to make you a Broadway star". And a star he is indeed.   Mr. McClure is both nebbish and infectiously adorable.  He can sing to the rafters, dance, and of course act the pants off this rom-com that graces the Nederlander stage 8 shows a week.  While another Tony nod wouldn't be out of bounds, this show may not carry as much weight being a silly movie remake and all but if talent rules the day, he's a shoe-in.

I had a slightly difficult time thinking that Brynn O'Malley (Betsy Nolan) was actually the age they claim in the show, but that minor detail aside, she was a terrifically talented on-stage pawn in the game of Mr. Danza and Mr. McClure.

With a fine ensemble cast including Raymond J. Lee, George Merrick, Zachary Prince, and Nancy Opel (Bea Singer), if this show can sustain the winter blues, it just might make a splash this spring in the fun department in what is already lining up to be strong in the musical department.

 This is a show that will tour well even if it doesn't succeed on Broadway.  Des Moines - look out!

Chaplin

Roma, once again, was right!  Rob McClure is the shining centerpiece of this charming and delightful new bio-musical by Christopher Curtis & Thomas Meehan.  Chaplin is an audacious look at the entire life of Charlie Chaplin, a.k.a. the Tramp, from his birth in the London streets to his meteoric rise to fame in America in silent pictures, to his controversial political ideas during the Red scare in the '50s all the way up to his triumphant return to America in 1972  - filled with the untold tales of his many private sorrows and joys in addition to the many public achievements and scandals we already knew.

The entire score is lush, playful, and engaging.  But what captured my eye and earned my praise from the first moment to the last was the degree to which Beowulf Boritt's ingenious sets, Amy Clark and Martin Paklediaz's pastiche of vintage costumes, and Ken Billington's brilliant lighting design completely and thoroughly captured the monochromatic emotion and feel that the entire black and white era evokes in our memories.

Rob McClure, already crowned the break-out triple-threat star of the season, most assuredly captured Chaplin with great care and aplomb in a fairly demanding role both physically and vocally.  His swan song 'Where are All the People?'  is undoubtedly the icing on the proverbial cake of the show to which Mr. McClure decisively and deservingly earned that rare event, a standing ovation, mid-show.   Stand-out cast members include Jenn Collela playing the well dressed, down-and-dirty Hollywood gossip columnist and radio show host, Hedda Hopper including a fine interpretation of the lyrical lilt to her unique voice and Wayne Alan Wilcox, playing Charlie's rock-solid and steadfast brother Sydney Chaplin.

The show has already announced a national and international tour starting in 2014 despite posting an early closing on Broadway January 6, 2013 - largely due to some mixed reviews compounded by the inability to overcome a box office slump during Hurricane Sandy.

If you can, RUN, DON'T WALK to catch this one before it quietly takes off on it's world tour.