NYMF 2009- Page 3

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/30/09 at 6:46pm

^ Whoa!

[JEB101]

Posted: 9/30/09 at 11:20pm

I'm soo excited for the NYMF! I am seeing:
FAT CAMP
ACADEMY
HURRICANE
I am also seeing a special event show called COUNT TO TEN. The logo looks cool and synopsis is interesting but i have know idea what it is about...does anyone have any idea if this is any good? I know a little about the other three!

[Dad'sOldRecords]

Posted: 9/30/09 at 11:49pm

I saw Whatever Man last night as well, and I was hugely disappointed. The general concept had so much potential that I was really looking forward to it, but even after opening number, I realized I had no idea where they were going with the plot... and I don't think I ever really figured it out. The book was all over the place and the songs were rather lackluster. The presence of the superbeings was sadly under-utilized, which was confusing as to why it was necessary for them to be there at all.

I'm optimistic about some of these other shows, though. There's a lot of potential this season.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 12:03am

Just got back from Under Fire and thought it was a very ambitious if flawed piece. It definitely had something interesting to say, and we were talking about the message all the way to the subway.

That is in between RAVING about Jack Noseworthy! The man has a pure voice of gold and nailed every song tonight. If you like his love duet with Kelli O'Hara in Sweet Smell of Success, you need to get tickets for his performance in Under Fire.

The show was too long, and a few of minor characters could be cut, but overall I'm glad I went, especially for Jack.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 12:05am

I'm seeing 7, which is the most I've seen in a few years... some I'm familiar with or chose based on the cast, others I know nothing about. I'll probably hate myself by the time it's over, but I'm looking forward to them!

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 12:09am

Last year I think I saw 6 and this year I'm seeing 19. I don't know what possessed me to go off the deep end over this, but I hope I can survive the next few weeks. (Plus there's all the normal Broadway and off-Broadway stuff I want to see!)

So far I'm 2 for 2 with being glad I attended!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 12:15am

I agree that Jack Noseworthy's performance was great. His voice is, dare I say, among the best among the living male NY theater actors today. I really hope he is on Broadway again sometime soon. What a tremendous talent...and such a nice guy too. Go see UNDER FIRE if you can...

[FeelingElectric]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 12:26am

I saw three more shows at NYMF today:

Whatever Man

I have to agree with the previous comments on this show. It's completely dis-jointed. The stories don't really don't go anywhere, and it dosen't pay off in the end. I was really hoping to like this, since I am a Colin Hanlon and Kristin Maloney fan. It was just a letdown.

Mo Faya

WOW!!!!!!!

Incredible show! The best one I've seen since Feeling Electric. So many great songs, an energetic cast, and a powerful social message that resonates from the African slum where the story takes place to so many cities in America at this time.

I highly reccomend this show. It deserves more of an audience than the 30 who were there for the 4:30 show.

A slight warning, it's 2 hours long with NO intermission (it was actually cut by 5 songs from 2:30 on the flight the cast and creative team took from Africa to NYC!).


The Greenwood Tree

Great concept, beautiful music, talented cast, the writing of William Shakespeare. I loved the first three, no so much the fourth. I was hoping that his writings would be more palletable to me in song, but I just didn't care for it.

If you are a Shakespeare fan, you will probably love this.


I have three more shows tommorow, Under Fire, Marrying Meg and Encore!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 12:28am

I really wanted to see Mo Faya, especially since part of it is performed in Swahili, which I think is such a beautiful language, but I can't make it to any of the performances. I'm really bummed.

[zerose]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 12:29am

I have to agree about "Whatever Man", the plot was all over the place, and the songs were dull. However, I want to note that Colin Hanlon has more numbers in the 2nd act than in the first. He sings those songs beautifully, and it made it worth staying for the 2nd act which moves a little faster than the 1st. I wanted to leave at intermission, but am glad I didn't. The total run time ended up being about 1 hour 45 minutes (with 15 minute intermission), and not the 2 hours it says in the program.

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 12:37am

Besides N2N and [title of show] , what other NYMF shows have made it to Broadway?

[hazellflagg]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 2:42am

omg. how can you have a hard time picking from unknown shows. this festival is a ridiculous and disgusting bust. a total abandon from respectful work to community productions to avoid real contract that have been cultivated for years in this city so other people can ply their craft. get with it. this festival steals all the rights from everyone to make a fair living. you fool yourselves if you think differenly and omg. hello...does nyc need community theatre. no. but apparently memebers of the professional theatrical setting here have no problem with it. so sad to see people who spend years to reach the top of their profession be taken advantage of. bummer

[RockTheaterLuvr]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 2:55am

So far, I've seen :

THE CURE
GAY BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

and loved them both. Both are certainly Rock shows, but GAY BRIDE is comic, more like Rocky Horror, and THE CURE is edgy, dark drama, like Spring Awakening, but with fangs!

[yeomansden]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 9:55am

@hazellflagg

Wow. I'm fairly new to these boards, and I've seen anti-gay comments, anti-ethnic comments, anti-[insert various stars here] comments. But an anti-theater comment on a theater message board? I don't think I've ever read anything as completely offensive as this. Offensive to the theater-going public, to the people who wrote and submitted shows (of their own free will), to the actors and crew who support and work on these shows (again, of their own free will),and to the people who created and organize this and other festivals to support new works and new artists. I'm not sure anyone else on this board has managed to insult as many people in one post as you have. Congratulations.

Updated On: 10/1/09 at 09:55 AM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 10:38am

Yeomansden- Pay no attention to hazellflagg, as he/she is just a troll.

The problem with "hazellflagg's" rant is that NYMF isn't "community theater," but rather a stage of the developmental process of these shows. I believe that NYMF states over 50 of their productions have gone on to other life in theaters around the country. They may not all end up on Broadway, or even off-Broadway, but NYMF provides a wonderful platform for these productions to receive feedback from an audience.

[yeomansden]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 10:48am

Thanks for the heads up, Whizzer. As I said, newer to the boards here, so haven't gotten a handle on the trolls yet. But that was just too much for me to just let pass by.

And I agree that the Festival does a great service for theater. (And even if it was "community theater", I think that that provides an important service as well.)

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/1/09 at 11:31pm

Saw two more shows today: Marrying Meg and Fantasy Football.

Marrying Meg featured a trio of former 9 to 5 actresses, Lisa Howard, Kathy Fitzgerald and the incomparable Tory Ross, who stole every scene she was in.

Unfortunately the show was kind of hit or miss. It was a little Brigadoon, a little Finian's and a peppering of Greenwillow. The songs were pretty decent, but some of the book scenes were dragging. A lot of stuff could cut.

There was also a focus problem in that they couldn't decide who to musicalize the most/who the main character was. It almost felt like they were trying to pull a Fiorello! and have the main character barely sing.

There was also a play within a play structure that was I guess necessary, but sometimes got in the way.

Still, the actors were all solid, and I had fun win the show came alive during the score.

The second show, Fantasy Football, was AMAZING!!!

This should easily be one of the hits of the fest. Pure camp, but still very, very funny. It almost reminded me of a [tos], but instead of esoteric musical theater references it was all about the early 90s, sports and technology.

A joke that killed me was they were going to a Christian musical festival called the Christ-bilee (kind of the opposite of a Jubilee!).

Another time a character bought his girlfriend City of Angels tickets and she looks out at the audience and says, "What? It IS 1991!"

The actors were great, especially Nick Splanger and Christine Pedi. I had a ball (Ms. Morrow) from beginning to end, and couldn't endorse this show more!!

[mrjason]

Posted: 10/2/09 at 12:47am

I saw Fat Camp last night......AMAZING.

[massofmen]

Posted: 10/2/09 at 9:18am

why was it "amazing"?

[yeomansden]

Posted: 10/2/09 at 9:58am

Seeing The Cure tonight. Will report back on it tomorrow, as there have only been one or two posts about it here from the opening performance...

[Holbee]

Posted: 10/2/09 at 8:11pm

I love how members of a show's team make up a screen name, come on here and post positive things about their own show. I've done it before in the past, however, I wasn't as obvious in JUST creating a screen name the day of the posting....

A note to would be writers/producers. Create a Broadway World account MONTHS before your show opens. Then post a couple times a week. It will give you more cred and not show you to be posting plant reviews.

Posted: 10/3/09 at 12:44am

well here's a brief review, from someone not involved in a show, not planted.

saw Fat Camp this afternoon. Show was really lovely, had a lot of heart and laughs. Some jokes fell flat... I really didn't agree with the choice of abruptly ending numbers robbing the audience a chance to applaud. I mean - it wasn't an artsy show - there were big pop-sounding numbers with high belting, and we wanted to clap! Some other nitpicky things, but anyway...

Cast was overall fantastic. No weak links, everyone had their moments to shine, which was great.

Fun afternoon at the theatre. The show needs work, but I'd be happy to see it have a future life.

[yeomansden]

Posted: 10/3/09 at 5:41pm

Okay, so I saw last night's performance of The Cure. And aside from some major sound issues that performance, I had a really good time. The show is not perfect by any means (in particular, the opening is a mess and hard to follow...), but overall, it's a pretty strong show. I have to admit, when I read the description of a rock and roll fable about vampires, I had my doubts...but writer Mark Weiser does a great job of mixing the dark and edgy with the light and fun to create some involving characters and an interesting plot...

I also really liked his music. A couple of songs didn't work so well, but mostly they fit the story well, and it was varied enough to be interesting (there were two duets that I can't get out of my head...they were amazing...)

And some of the performances were absolutely incredible! Michael Buchanan as Alex gives a stellar performance, and both his acting and his singing were top notch. From the minute he came on stage, I was like, wow! Hope I get a chance to see him in more (his bio mentions that he is going to play Hunter in [title of show] for the Arizona Theater Company...maybe I'll get to see him there)

Another impressive performer was Jen Sese as Unique. Her acting was really good, but her singing? Wow, this woman has a voice!

Most of the other performers are really good as well (though there were one or two I wasn't impressed with...) Overall, I really recommend going to see this one. Is it the best show I've ever seen? No. Will you have a good time? In my opinion, yep, you will. Is it worth the $20 for a festival ticket? Absolutely.

[TheresaG]

Posted: 10/3/09 at 8:15pm

I saw the Gay Bride of Frankenstein last week. It has some very catchy music in it and the cast is really good. Well worth going to see.

[trombonist]

Posted: 10/3/09 at 11:10pm

I just got in from seeing this evening's performance of Max Understood, and wow. I'm speechless in a good way. With Max you enter the world of a moderate to severely autistic seven year old boy as well as that of his parents as they try to deal with life with a special child. And it is done brilliantly and with poignancy and true heart. I was not surprised at all to learn that this comes from the creators' life experience as they perfectly capture our best guess at the mind of an autistic child. (Autism is growing in prevalence and with the new DSMV (which will be published in 2012), it is likely to be as high as 1 in 100 children will be diagnosed somewhere along the spectrum.)

The cast is brilliant. Marlon Sherman portrays Max, and he blew me away with how completely he became autistic for this performance; so much so that even as he left the theater, he had difficulty making and maintaining eye contact. Mary Mossberg and Michael Winther play Max's parents who are truly at the end of their ropes trying to cope with their special child and what his persence in their lives means; and how they come to appreciate exactly what Max does mean to them. Tricia Burns, Ramiz Monsef, Everett Quinton, and Ali Stroker make up the ensemble and they portray kids and others in the neighborhood who, in a parallel to The Wizard of Oz, Max's favorite movie, become "others" who help Max along on his journey from his home.

The music ranges from more traditional ballad to rap (including an amazing recitation of all the presidents of the United States up through Obama by Max - well-earned mid-song applause on that one!), and it's largely soundscaped to really take us into Max's world.

I found myself on the verge of and in tears on more than one occasion through this brief, 70-minute show. I honestly don't remember being this moved and affected by a first viewing of a show in a long time.

There are two performances left - tomorrow at 1pm and Wednesday at 8pm. I'd definitely recommend checking this one out. Brilliant!