POL, PLEASE GO TO SEE THE OLD MARK HELLINGER THEATRE THAT IS NOW THE TIMES SQ CHURCH. IT IS OPEN MOST TIMES OF THE DAY BUT IT WILL BE A MAJOR HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR NEW YORK TIME!!!! 51st and Broadway!
Mama you are dead right, what you said above, this shipwreck of a musical is all at sea. Disney have lost there magic since marvels like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins.
The set is one of the most awful one I have seen and truly not good enough to grace a Broadway stage, you could replicate this set for a school production, all you need are various shower curtains, go for ones with seashells or seahorses on it for authentic pleasure, an oversize Christmas tree top decoration and a XXL seashell shaped lilo, hey voila you have the same as the mess that is being presented on Broadway, this show needs a big oil slick to get rid of those annoying seagulls!!!
Why have I gave this 2 stars? Because some of the Lyrics by the late Howard Ashman are great, I wish the ones by Glenn Slater lead a similar theme, they didn't. Also great Performances by Chelsea Morgan Stock as Aerial and Norm Lewis as King Triton especially after getting overdue closure notices.
Suffering from jet lag now after only a hour sleep on the plane, I will do a West Side Story review and a New York overview when I have rested.
What ever can I say about the best musical written for stage, with the sublime music by Leonard Bernstein and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, this musical stands the test of time, just as South Pacific has.
What really stood out for me was the direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins, how he molded perfection in the fight scenes and 'the gym', Karen Olivio was excellent as Anita, lot has been made out of her performance justifiable, but the Argentinian debutant Josefina Scaglione as Maria and Matt Cavenaugh as Tony were equally excellent.
The Spanish lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, from In the Heights fame gave it a certain latin feel, it would of been effective if I could speak Spanish, the two Spanish songs Me Siento Hermosa and Un Hombre Asi were both stirring.
A very good production, to round up my New York break.
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