Profile for MazingerZ

Yesterday it was slightly less than three hours.

Saw the show today and it was not terrible, but it is neither great. This new concept with the cubes, is pretty bad. Very distracting and messy. And what is up with the actors kicking pieces of cubes (furniture!) in anger? Breaking sets, flipping furniture and tables, is such amateurish "acting" and direction. The cubes feel silly, and at moments it looks like the actors are playing at building Lego figures. And the cubes are ugly, grey, blah to look at. It was a distraction, and it took a lo...

What is it so exciting about The New Group taking government, private donations and foundations monies, to do a show that first opened 50 years ago, and has been revived in NYC repeatedly as short as 10 years ago on Broadway and a noted production in Harlem a few years ago at Aaron Davis Hall? What is so innovative, riske and avant about that? They should be using all that money to produce new work by emerging writers, and providing opportunities to new designers and emerging actors, rather t...

* The 1994 revival of "Grease". (So cheaply produced and badly performed, that it broke my heart. First disappointing Broadway experience I ever had.) * John Doyle's Productions of "Sweeney Todd" and "Company". (I thought that the actors playing instruments on stage was a distraction, and it got on the way of the tension, and realistically telling the story. It also ruined the full-orchestrations of two beautiful scores.) * Both revivals of "Follies". (The staging in 2001 was ugly, and it lac...

I always check www.entradas.com. It is a fairly good website that lists shows in all of Spain's cities and provinces, incl. Madrid and Barcelona. Most musicals are in Spanish or Catalán, but I did see the 2005 production of "Beyond The Rainbow" ("El Diluvio Que Viene) in Madrid, and it did have English supertitles projected above the stage. Check the listings, the ads, and even contact the theater directly to ask. (Although in my case, if I want to see a show abroad, I just show up. Language ...

Another one of the most overrated actors in New York. Just like Kelli O'Hara, and a bunch of others that Casting Directors keep hiring all the time. They look great, they sound great, yet their performances are so uninteresting to watch. There is nothing truly unexpected, surprising or genuinely spontaneous about their work on stage. They are all style, technique, and looks - brilliant, of course, but boring. Other actors with far less recognition in New York are by far more interesting to ob...

No one should replace Ricky Martin. This is a bad production of "Evita" with and without him. I think that this show should close as soon as he is out, so in 10, 15 or 20 years, it could get the revival that it deserves, or the original production could be re-mounted. It has been done with "West Side Story" and "A Chorus Line", among other shows that have been re-mounted (rather than re-invented), due to the brilliance of their original staging.

The show that I saw tonight is reflected in the reviews by the NY Times, AMNY, NYPost, and definitely Talkin' Broadway. Bravo for them. The production was out of focus, and a mess. The performances were on average bland and uninteresting. How can they put so much money into something like this? I agree with Talkin' Broadway that the Wolf "eating" Red Riding Hood as in giving her oral sex, was too much and unnecessary. Also the narrator being a kid, doesn't work. The reviews that I mentioned a...

"Ghost" to play final Broadway performance on Aug. 18th? THANK GOD!!!!! The show was awful. I hope that all other mediocre shows of the season follow, mainly "Evita" and "Nice Work". So nice that "Priscilla" is already gone, and soon "Sister Act" and "Memphis", all from previous seasons, will disappear. All terrible shows. Please, keep them vanishing!!!!

Ricky Martin's rendition of "Oh What a Circus" brings Broadway to a new low. Overall, Elena Roger and the production come across as flat. No passion, no true emotion, no point of view, no specificity. Everything sounds so stylized and technical, but no fire. This cast album can put one to sleep. Evita used to work because the larger-than-life intensity of the lead characters, reached almost operatic proportions. In this version, they just sound so casual, measured, and bland, that it is truly...

I think we should all send Emails to the Tony Awards/The Wing, expressing our dislike and concern. They have a link for feedback that we should all use. Let's inundate their office with Emails! The link is http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/feedback/index.html

Am I really reading correctly? "The Tonys usually overlook the GREATNESS of some Disney musicals". "Aida should have been nominated. If not have won". "[The Tonys] opt for the trendy flavor of the day, no matter how horrible it is - like they did with a similar horror, PASSION, over another far better Disney show - Beauty & The Beast". I must be going crazy. To read statements like these in a forum supposedly written by theater enthusiasts and professionals, definitely concerns me. Did people...

One of the best original Spanish cast recordings out there is "Houdini: La Magia del Amor", music by Antonio Calvo, lyrics by Patricia Perrin. The show opened to much acclaim in 1997, in Mexico City. The CD was recorded live at the Benito Juarez Theatre. I recommend it because in terms of structure, the score is very well developed and fits well the format of a book musical. The lyrics are smart and some songs like the quartet called "Mi Decisión" (My Resolution) are fascinating to follow. An...

My favorite "Evita" is a tie between Paloma San Basilio and Patti Lupone. Both performances have a raw quality, that makes them very interesting. There is something so powerful in both these Evas, that transcends one-dimension. They are both well-crafted performances, rich in specificity, humanity, and clear, larger-than-life points of view. These performances would be very rare today, in this era of political correctness, stylized performances, and so called "realism" over raw human emotion.