Profile for Up In One

I can see all these new musical ticket buyers running away from these  middling musicals and willingly paying Cabaret ransom prices for quality over quantity. 

Old Bway wisdom always had B'Way audiences building is stages, 1) Locals 2) Bridge & Tunnel 3) Tourists. That Bridge and Tunnel crowd could be counted on to keep a show open a year while the rest of the world caught up. A 17% drop since pre-pandemic days - what does all this suggest for the Spring with its onslaught of productions, especially the musiclals?   

 

Broadway takes massive hit as NYC suburbanites steer clear over ‘safety concerns’

I sat to the far side E3 stage facing,  not side, and it was a great seat, a perfect view. A really nice take for the moment they break the 4th wall and a great view of the set changes, especially the act two reveal. 

I was thinking more about the safety of the troupe, God forbid someone should need a doctor or hospital while on tour and they encounter a homophone or religious zealot. The State cannot guarantee their safety. Would be the equivalent of touring in a war zone - they shouldn’t want the responsibility or possibility of injury.  

In light of Gov. DeSantis signing an extreme “License to Discriminate” Healthcare Bill where doctors can now deny medical services to LGBTQ+ citizens, should Broadway tours suspend performances in Florida? I would think this presents a health risk to the touring casts and crews. The trade unions should be all over this. 

Kad said: "Can’t help but wonder what Tony Kushner would’ve done with this."

Doubtful anyone could craft a workable book for todays audiences around the Camelot score. Yes pretty at times. But dull and untheatrical by todays standards. Why is it revivals allow tinkering with books but never the music and lyrics?

Isn’t this based on the City Crnter Encores staging a few years back? Didn’t it have two Eva Perones? Younger/Older Evitas. 

Saw White Girl In Danger Friday night - the earlier reported running time of 3 hours and 15 minutes has been pared down to 2 hours and 40 minutes including the intermission and it’s still too long.  Where Strange Loop was personal and filled with genuine catharsis, White Girl in Danger plays more like a thesis dissertation, a concept in search of a stage format. In WGID Michael R Jackson examines and comments on the history and future of black female TV characters and actors, in a Candide-like satirical cavalcade. He envisions the character types and tropes of the past handing off their passive and abused history to their present and future more empowered versions. By presenting much of it as satire we are distanced from the character attachments made in Strange Loop until very late in the 2nd act when gears switch into sermon mode and the under-developed author/writer character literally stops the show to explain the point of the previous two hours. If only that heat and poetic specificity had been sprinkled throughout the proceedings, we may have had something that packed the punch of an Ain’t No Mo’- please someone bring that back before Tony’s.

In WGID we get a satire staged as a farce at break neck speed that doesn’t have the time to breathe and build our buy in. Rather than take us on a ride it seems to have left us in the bleachers to watch the characters careen around the track exhibiting moments of brilliance if we don’t blink. Those moments of brilliance are surrounded by repetitive bits that are either annoying or let the audience get ahead of the actors, leading to impatience. The idea of using three white girl types puts a structure in place where we quickly realize we are going to have to sit thru many scenes played out three times over with less pay off at each iteration. The effect might have been to build on a laugh but in the end it slowed down the proceedings, adding to the overlong running time.  In an attempt at camp or severe underlining, the terms “All White” and “Blackground” are used in practically every line spoken. It not only gets in the way of many line deliveries but steals emphasis from new points being made. Because the satire is aimed at soap operas, sitcoms and Fox and CW nighttime series of the 90’s it also drops a laundry list of actor’s names as if dropping the names were enough to qualify for a laugh. The use of those names suggests some universal knowledge of the actors and characters they played. Between the triple replays of the three white girls, the over use of All White and Blackground and the name dropping they could have shaved 40 minutes form the play and used that time to make the piece more effective.

In his second time out with a musical, Jackson’s music is proving to be more serviceable to his concepts than interesting musically on their own. Except for his takeoff/rip off of the gospel number from Hairspray there are no exceptional “musical” moments to support why this should be a musical. The staging is more like air traffic control and choreography does not elevate things. This was the first time I’ve noticed inadequate lighting in a show. Perhaps it was due to last-minute changes, but many times actors were not lit. The sound mix for the musical numbers was also very frustrating, it emphasized the band over the lyrics. We had moments where you could not hear the lyrics and you could not see the face of the actor singing the lyrics.

As far as the performers were concerned only Tarra Conner Jones registered as exceptional. She plays the mother type (Mammie, Marla Gibbs, Nell Carter, Diahann Carroll) and has a lopsided amount of the song distribution. Her character’s purpose is to show how black female characters developed over time and Jackson makes her one in the same person on a journey not of her own making. In that one character and Tarra’s performance you see what could have been developed if the cyclone of concepts and bad comedy writing were not also whirling around the stage for 160 minutes. I do question where the dramaturg and director were in the development of this production. I wonder if a George C Wolf could have made better stage sense out of it.

They have two weeks until opening, I’m not sure enough can be done while also in performance. I think minimally they need to cut enough to allow the cast to slow down and still get everyone out of the theater at a decent hour. I am attaching a link to a September 2017 description of the show by the author before he was about to unveil the play to the public. Based on this I would say he has fulfilled the brief in presenting evidence but has yet to make it work on stage. PS: They should cut the pre-show and intermission videos - embarrassing. 

White Girl In Danger at Adelphi University Performing Arts Center and Joe’s Pub 9/24 & 9/25 2017

Of everything I’ve seen this season Titanique is the only show worthy of a repeat visit. Comic genius. The transfer to a traditional proscenium configuration only improved the focus and hilarity. Did Xanadu tour? This is funnier and probably would appeal to a broader audience. 

I guess it depends on what you gravitate towards - if you are more of a musical fan see Kimbo  If creative staging and design excite you see PI. If you enjoy historical drama and rather the spoken word and the balance of the shows you seeing are more upbeat then see Leop.