ANYTHING GOES Reviews- Page 2

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:17pm

Brantley is a rave and total love letter for Foster.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/theater/reviews/anything-goes-with-sutton-foster-joel-grey-review.html

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:19pm

Times is a rave with a love letter for Sutton:

"Even tapping frenziedly with a chorus line, she seems to be conducting a happy, quippy dialogue with her fellow dancers, an implicit call-and-response between a perfectly in-sync star and a great ensemble. (“Can you top this?” “Oh, yes I can.”) At such moments Ms. Foster’s Reno becomes an evangelist of musical-comedy joy. When she turns her toothy, triumphant smile on the audience there’s no doubt that she’s made many converts."

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/theater/reviews/anything-goes-with-sutton-foster-joel-grey-review.html


Edit: Ljay, I am obsessed with our almost simultaneous postings and use of the phrase "love letter to Sutton". Updated On: 4/7/11 at 10:19 PM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:23pm

Variety is also positive with another rave for Sutton:

"Why, one wonders, should Roundabout see fit to trot out "Anything Goes," the frequently produced 1934 musical chestnut? Turns out it has a compelling reason: Sutton Foster. She doesn't just deliver those Cole Porter hits, she knocks 'em out of the park. Joel Grey gives his happiest performance in years as Public Enemy #13, and director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall has a field day, outdoing herself with several rousing dance numbers. This new "Anything Goes" is a daffy, shipshape romp."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117944987

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:26pm

USA Today is mixed to positive and is very on the fence about Sutton:

"Foster sings those tunes efficiently and is, as usual, vivacious and likable. She also dances circles around either of her aforementioned predecessors — an asset that director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall cannily exploits in her exuberant production numbers.

But Foster fails to project something more crucial to Reno: a sense of been there, done that — and underneath it, of frustrated longing. Even in Martin Pakledinaz's spectacularly spangled costumes, which frequently show off her gorgeous gams, the star can seem like an earnest maiden masquerading as a jaded vamp.

...

So despite a leading lady who isn't a natural fit — and to some extent, because of her joyful commitment —Anything Goes offers its share of delightful, de-lovely moments."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2011-04-08-anythinggoes08_ST_N.htm

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:31pm

Hopefully this means better Tony chances for the production itself and for some of the performers. Perhaps Patina has more competition than we originally thought...

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:31pm

Hollywood Reporter is a rave:

"At first, Marshall seems to hold back on the choreographic elements, but the steady build just makes the seismic tap-dancing explosion of “Anything Goes” at the close of act one even more exhilarating. While the audience is still recovering after intermission, Marshall wallops them again with the wild evangelical orgy of “Blow, Gabriel, Blow.” Leading that one-two punch must be like running the New York Marathon for Foster, but she makes it look easy.

The girl’s definitely got it and this gorgeously sung, buoyantly staged show is bliss."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/anything-goes-theater-review-176133

[Trish2]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:32pm

I'm sorry, but with that love letter from Brantley, Patina doesn't stand a chance.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:34pm

Yah, Sutton basically just locked up her second Tony...

Another rave from TheatreMania:

"Marshall deserves high praise here for her staging, notably her inventive choreography and readiness to reference classic Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers numbers if they serve her needs. Furthermore, she takes care that her large cast smartly negotiates the various set-pieces aboard Derek McLane's ocean liner. Kudos as well to Martin Pakledinaz for his glittering costumes, the wittiest of which is the flames-of-hell outfit he lacquers on Foster and her "angels" for "Blow, Gabriel, Blow."

In the end, Anything Goes offers what many theatergoers are looking for today: a lot of bang for the bloated Broadway buck and a chance to see a true star in action."

http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/04-2011/anything-goes_35763.html

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:36pm

I don't necessarily think Sutton is a lock at this point, but I would certainly be okay with her winning. Thought she was terrific. Brantley disliked Patina somewhat in London based on his brief review of her, but who knows?

Anyway, good for them for getting such great reviews!

[fflagg]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:36pm

It's no surprise that the Times fag would love Sutton. She is one of his pets along with Kristin. Sutton still has the star power to fill a thimble.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:40pm

I agree fflag.

NY Mag is positive (though he says something I VERY MUCH disagree with: "At the helm this time is Kathleen Marshall, whose sure and unfussy hand is even steadier here than it was on the tiller of The Pajama Game.") Pajama Game was MUCH better.

"In a show about pretense and hypocrisy, if it’s about anything (and let’s not fool ourselves: Anything Goes isn't about much), Foster is the most genuine merchandise on deck. Wry, mischievous and goofy under her peroxide, that sly smile curling up one side of her mouth, she never once seems to be trying to hit the high-water belt mark that's chalked on the back wall of the Sondheim. (At this point, I suppose it belongs to Paul Reubens.) What’s the world coming to? In olden days insane vibrato would set all our hearts staccato but now, God knows: Sutton just glows."

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/theater_review_just_about_ever.html

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:43pm

Ask Tonya Pinkins what happened at the Tonys the year she got a love letter from Brantley.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:46pm

(Well... and Donna Murphy. But I feel this year is different as there isn't a handful of leading ladies is big profile musicals a la Wicked. If Tonya Pinkins were nominated this year alongside Sutton, I bet she'd win).

Faster Times is mixed (almost mixed to negative) and actually comments on the dumb racist bit that should be cut:

"There is one dated conceit in the musical, the weird racist shtick involving two Chinese characters, which should be retired from all future productions. But, more generally, there is around this production what lyricist Lorenz Hart called (in a different context) “the faint aroma of performing seals.” The dance numbers are not just the top, they’re the over-the-top – no question exciting, but almost as if the show will do anything to make us forget our troubles."

http://thefastertimes.com/newyorktheater/2011/04/07/anything-goes-review/

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:48pm

I had a heck of a good time at Anything Goes, and thought it far superior to How to Succeed so I'm pleased the rave from Brantley should help it win the revival Tony.

I wouldn't quite throw Foster the actual win just yet- but the leading actress category just got a lot more interesting.

I still think the regional Tony voters will likely go for Patina Miller.
Updated On: 4/7/11 at 10:48 PM

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:49pm

After reading all of these reviews, I seriously hope that they make a cast recording!!

[Trish2]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:50pm

True, but Caroline,or Change is not Anything Goes. Two different animals.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:50pm

And I hope that it extends after these reviews. I'd like to go back, but it probably wouldn't be until after July.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:51pm

I hope they do, Michael Bennett.

Philadelphia Inquirer is mixed (he hated Act 1 but liked the title number and Act 2):

"The show, which opened Thursday night at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, sailed out of port to a rocky start at the preview I saw Wednesday afternoon. Singers were too often off-key, the dancing - particularly a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers wanna-be - was only workable, and the show had a tired feel when it didn't seem simply under-rehearsed.

Then, the ship suddenly changed course. In the eighth and final scene of Act 1, the indefatigable Sutton Foster delivered the first lines of the tile song: "Times have changed, and we've often rewound the clock..." The clock, Foster couldn't rewind. But at Anything Goes, times had changed for sure."

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/119409504.html

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:54pm

You'd think Ben Brantley would know the date of the last revival of Anything Goes, especially when he linked to a review.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:54pm

True, but Caroline,or Change is not Anything Goes. Two different animals.

Right. One's mindless fluff, the other was serious theater. Caroline Thibodeaux was a much better role than Reno Sweeney.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 10:55pm

Ouch. Bloomberg is a pan with negative comments about almost everyone in the cast, and especially Sutton:

"Reno is the role that made Ethel Merman a star and was played, in a performance still ripe in the memory, by Patti LuPone in Lincoln Center Theater’s smashing 1987 revival.

Yet this appealing performer generated more heat being wooed by an ogre in “Shrek” than she does here. With her eyes constantly darting around as if unsure of her place on the stage, Foster seems uncharacteristically out of sync both physically and vocally with her partners.

This may be due to a fatal lack of chemistry with her charmless partner, Colin Donnell, as the striver Billy Crocker. What she sees in him, I’ll never know and anyway, Billy’s in love with the heiress Hope Harcourt, played by Laura Osnes with strained earnestness."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-08/sutton-foster-barely-sizzles-in-anything-goes-jeremy-gerard.html

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 11:00pm

AP is mostly positive, with the tiniest of criticisms regarding the direction:

"Marshall's choreography in the big numbers is exuberant, as it was in "The Pajama Game," the hugely successful 2006 revival, also by the Roundabout, that won her a Tony for best director. Outside the ensemble numbers, though, when her actors are singing alone, one feels they sometimes could be moving in more interesting ways."

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13324959&page=1

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 11:05pm

"also by the Roundabout, that won her a Tony for best director."

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. John Doyle won.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 11:06pm

Matthew Murray is mixed to negative:

"On some level it is — this formula always works as long as you don’t ponder it too much. But to fully escape the book’s cobwebs, each individual element must be above reproach, and that’s not quite the case here. Take Foster, for example: The brash and likeable Tony-winning star of Thoroughly Modern Mille and more recently Young Frankenstein and Shrek is keen triple-threat casting, but she doesn’t entirely convince as the hard-as-nails after-hours evangelical, and her voice is more a blazing bugle than the gold-plated foghorns of Merman or Patti LuPone (who recreated Reno in the LCT revival). She excites on a technical level, especially when leading the frenzied, tap-drenched Act I finale or the steamy revival meeting just after intermission, but can’t send the thrills much deeper than that."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/index.html

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/7/11 at 11:07pm

I don't think you can really compare the merits of the roles of Caroline and Reno Sweeny. Total apples and oranges; though I think you could certainly make a case for some saying Reno, who gets to be funny, sexy, dance and sing the best songs Cole Porter ever wrote is a lot more fun to play than Caroline.

Patti Lupone has said on many occasions she greatly preferred playing Reno over Eva Peron...

So better role is pretty subjective Updated On: 4/7/11 at 11:07 PM