City Center's 24-25 Season: Ragtime, Urinetown, LaChiusa's Wild Party, Love Life — Page 17

It's a serviceable production/staged concert of a great show.  But not a great production of a great show.  The direction and complete comedy is not there missing jokes and timing.  Nothing new or inventive.  Hildreth and Styles walk away with the show.  Fisher is too earnest and misses a lot of possible comedy as do others in the cast, including Mann whose lines are pitched too high & hard to understand. She sounds great on the upper parts of songs.  Casting Little Sally as child without full understanding of the comedy is a miss. She is too earnest as well. Wilson doesn't make an impression and feels miscast. This is was the most disappointing sound of an Encores show in many years.  Too quiet & questionable execution.  Much was hard to understand on Saturday night. These elements are on the director's shoulders who is fine for a regional theater.  Not so much for prime time.

It would be great to see Urinetown on Broadway again with different direction and a fully capable cast of comedian singers.  The precision of the Rando direction is hard to beat. If you are unfamiliar with Urinetown you will still enjoy the show itself.We were glad to see the show again but this is not the production for transfer.

Agree that understudy announcement as show starts felt sneaky if legal with it posted in the first lobby.  Many disappointed comments around us, before and after show, with Settle's absence.  She seems to be the draw.

Updated On: 2/9/25 at 03:04 PM

Tiffany Mann is on again for Pennywise this afternoon. An announcement was made at the top of the show.

Definitely enjoyed this but wouldn’t say I loved it. The ensemble was great, and at the talkback after, the director discussed choosing idiosyncratic performers. To me, that really made a difference. Each had their own version of crazy, and they worked together perfectly. I also thought Jordan Fisher was great. His Run Freedom Run was fantastic.

As much as Keala might be vocally unreliable, I missed a belt on Privilege to Pee. Tiffany sang most of it in falsetto, and it just didn’t work for me. Not enough power. I don’t fault her at all with 3 hours of prep time, but I really feel like that would’ve made me enjoy the show even more.

Updated On: 2/8/25 at 06:49 PM

Just returned from seeing the show tonight, and I loved it. Is it a perfect production no? Is that now the purpose of Encores! to have a perfect revival? It is a really good revival that maybe doesn't go far enough. Hildereth, Styles, Fisher were all superb. Mann was lovely as Pennywise, enjoyed her vocal placement and didn't miss the belt. She is the understudy after all and a powerhouse. Wilson is serviceable and does just fine in the role. It's a fine interpretation of Cladwell. My director note is, even in this camp comedy, it's okay if we hate him even while laughing at him. The jokes all worked for me, the choreography is pretty fantastic. I don't think that people should miss it, if you're a fan of the show or the score. I think if this were to remount given where we are in the world, this show could pack a truly powerful punch on Broadway right now, if marketed well and some slight directorial adjustments. It needs to be full out and smack dab in your face, it does work though. I wish they could make the adjustments and would have a Bway run. Go see it!

Updated On: 2/8/25 at 11:13 PM

Scarywarhol said: "The guy playing the senator in cahoots with Cladwell (sorry I do not have a program) walked away with the show this afternoon for me."

Josh Breckenridge!! Yes he’s spectacular in this.

 

Updated On: 2/9/25 at 07:36 PM

Keala was back tonight.
But this was such an odd evening at the theater for me. I hadn't seen a production of this since the original almost *Cough a quarter of a century ago Cough* and I've always said it was one of the funniest things I'd EVER seen, and it really was. So I expected to just relive that tonight and....I laughed some, I guess? I need to say the cast was all great and the production itself was, also. So I guess it's just the material that's not as great as I remembered it? I just don't know but it's going to bother me, I know it will. 

Thanks for that, Philly. And sitting her trying to process the night, what you said makes a lot of sense and I think I agree with most of it and could be why I felt the way I did (and you as well, apparently). I think I was just so thrown by not getting the laugh until my sides hurt comedy I've been remembering for so many years now, that I couldn't really process it all in the moment. 

As for Little Sally, there were a couple bits throughout where I thought it was funny because she was a little girl but yes, they needed an adult for that - very curious why they chose not to. Speaking of, whatever happened to Spencer Kayden and Jeff McCarthy???

I was there tonight and echo much of the same. I think the material holds up but you need a director who understands the humor. This production lacked such a director. 

Thank goodness for Stephanie. She was a star and truly understood the material and her character.

Jordan sounded fantastic but an actor he is not… I really don’t think he understood what makes Urinetown so funny and I was very underwhelmed with how he played the character. Perhaps with a better director he could get there. But his vocals on Run Freedom Run were superb.

Keala was back but she did indeed mark her vocals. Which is fine. What was belted out in the rehearsal videos was all done in head voice tonight. If your voice is recovering, we don’t need you to hurt yourself. She still sounded great and it worked. She was missing fire and the comedic chops for me. Overall I was still wanting more from her performance and can’t help but wish we had Bonnie Milligan or Jen Simard (who is obviously busy).

Little Sally… cute kid. It’s not her fault. But it needs to be an adult who is a stellar comedian. Sally’s material is some of the funniest in the show and helps the audience understand what the tone should be. It was all missed tonight.

The rest of the cast was really great and with better direction could’ve really shined.

I’m glad I went and I still had a good time. I hope this production sparks more interest in this material and maybe someday it gets the revival it deserves. 

Holy crap Amy would be AMAZING 

Jordan Catalano said: "Just announced “Wonderful Town” stars Anika Noni Rose as Ruth and Aisha Jackson as Eileen.


So thrilled to get Anika in another musical."

As I plan my May trip, this exciting casting means I'm going to go to my first Encores! show!!!

inception said: "Imagine if Little Sally was played by someone like Kathy Griffin - don't know if she can sing? It's a mistake thinking because the character is young that the actress has to be young.

Or Amy Poehler. She would be perfect."

Kathy has sung an auto tuned title song to her short lived talk show, but I do believe she can carry a tune. Amy can hold her own with harmonies, I bet character singing would be a breeze for her honestly. 

Jordan was out for the matinee today. Anyone know if he's out for tonight, too?