Curtains Reviews — Page 3

Isn't Brantley saying the opposite about many of the cast. Most have praised Monk and Ziemba, while panning Paice?

"Ms. Ziemba, like Ms. Monk, is an appealing and polished veteran who never makes a technical misstep. But the original, star-defining wit that both actresses have shown on previous occasions never manifests itself here.

...And Jill Paice, as the classically winsome ingénue who captures Cioffi’s heart, subtly and deliciously sends up classical winsomeness."

Just more proof that he isn't professional enough to see beyond a pretty blonde soprano ingenue.

It's pathetic that a show can close on his reviews.

ETA: I'd tell you to get out of my head, D2, but frankly, it's obvious to anyone who reads his reviews regularly.

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Updated On: 3/22/07 at 11:05 PM

The reviews are good news so far! If I recall Drowsy's reviews were more mixed and I think Clive Barnes' was a pan...Curtains seems to actually be selling well. I overheard some people at the theatre tonight saying that they wanted to see it again, but they had trouble finding decent seats for any shows in the next few months.

ETA: I mean, many of the reviews are mixed but that doesn't spell doom....I was expecting worse honestly....I think the show will be successful.

Updated On: 3/22/07 at 11:22 PM

Wire Image has pics from the red carpet
Wire Image gallery

So, this board had given me the impression that there had been huge changes in the show since it was here in LA, but it sounds to e like Brantley saw the same show I saw months ago here.

John Simon is Mixed-to-Positive:

" We have here a jolly, old-style musical despite some incidental innovations, such as the conductor, David Loud, facing the audience for a brief but lovable song turn.

The convoluted and utterly preposterous story, more suited to operetta, finds the producers and performers of ``Robbin' Hood' being picked off by a mysterious murderer. The book is largely a funny, but not quite funny enough, parody of a turbulent musical production, such as the revival of ``Annie Get Your Gun,' for which Stone updated the book. The score is middle-drawer Kander and Ebb, barely suggestive of the team that gave us ``Cabaret' and ``Chicago.'
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And what a masterly humorist David Hyde Pierce is. As Cioffi, he doesn't merely sing and dance supermanfully, he is also a phenomenal comic actor who can contort his body and distort his face in intricate yet subtle ways and rattle off dialogue with effortless, dead-on aplomb.

Scarcely less funny is Debra Monk, as Carmen Bernstein, co- producer with her unfaithful and unprincipled husband, Sidney, of the show-within-the-show, and putting on quite a show herself. Monk can not only belt out a number Mermanfully, she can also squeeze out as much humor from a sung phrase as from a riotously tossed-off line.
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Other pleasures? Scott Ellis's savvy direction; Anna Louizos's decor, even if not quite up to her terrific best; William Ivey Long's costumes, storming the stage in breakneck profusion and dizzying variety; Peter Kaczorowski's dependably dazzling lighting. Also the fine orchestrations of William David Brohn and dance arrangements of David Chase, valiantly enhancing the score. You may even enjoy Edward Hibbert's outrageous camping as an arrogant, injudiciously imported British stage director.

All things considered, if you are looking for another Kander and Ebb classic, you won't find it here. If, on the other hand, you seek no more than some old-fashioned musical-comedy fun, formidably performed, look no further."



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a0yQCD7SrNgg&refer=muse

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Updated On: 3/23/07 at 01:11 AM

Let's not forget about Danieley's positive notices across the boards in the reviews that mention his name and "I Miss the Music," though I agree with Murray's review that his role should be bigger (as Brantley said in his review, Danieley's has the most beautiful tenor on Broadway).
Still loving the David Hyde Pierce raves.

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Updated On: 3/23/07 at 01:50 AM

Yeah, "mixed-to-positive" sums up my opinion of the show pretty nicely.

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Clive Barnes gives it Two out of Four Stars:

"Indeed, it's not so much a whodunit as a whydoit.

But the real mystery is what "Curtains" might have been like had the curtain risen on the musical Kander, Ebb and Peter Stone began writing. But Stone died, and so, too, did Ebb (with whom Kander wrote the megahits "Cabaret" and "Chicago"). Rupert Holmes ("The Mystery of Edwin Drood") was brought aboard to provide a new book and devise additional lyrics.

It must have seemed a good idea at the time.

You can't dump all the blame on Holmes - although, for a showbiz show in which a producer (the unsinkable Debra Monk) declaims, "I put on 'The Iceman Cometh,' and no one cameth," it's hard to be kind.

And, for that matter, Kander's music doesn't find him at his best - at times, he isn't searching very hard.

One crushing difficulty is that the musical within the musical - a cowboy extravaganza called "Robbin' Hood!" - is meant to be awe-

inspiringly bad, so bad that we'll find it campily hilarious.

I just found it awe-inspiringly bad. Unfortunately, it was difficult to discern just where the joke musical ended and the actual one began.

Part of the trouble was director Scott Ellis' failure to italicize sufficiently the inside comedy, but there probably wasn't much he could do.

The choreography by Rob Ashford was unnoticeable, the scenery by Anna Louizos uninterestingly ugly, while William Ivey Long unwisely saved his best and funniest costumes for the curtain calls."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03232007/entertainment/theater/curtains_not_a_draw_theater_clive_barnes.htm

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The Daily News is Mostly A Rave:

"It's no wonder "Curtains" is set in 1959. The era recalls the Golden Age of Broadway musicals, when many a show had hummable tunes, laugh-out-loud-able lines and adorable characters (even when they were horrible).

"Curtains" is that kind of show. Opening last night at the Al Hirschfeld, it brings a gust of giddy good fun to Broadway.
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"Curtains" is the first new show by John Kander and Fred Ebb to get to Broadway since Ebb's death in 2004. The score is lighter than "Chicago" and "Cabaret," but the legendary team has penned a show's worth of good tunes.

While the "Robbin' Hood" songs are frothy stuff, the other numbers focus on showbiz, celebrating and skewering actors, producers, even critics. Some of the sentiments have been expressed before, but director Scott Ellis stages the production with highly polished pizzazz.

William Ivey Long's delightful costumes are a mix of dressy '50s fashions and "Robbin' Hood's" Old West duds. Anna Louizos' clever sets for the show within the show add greatly to the appeal.

Choreographer Rob Ashford also deserves big credit. The dancing is athletic and intricate and will knock your socks off. (No, seriously, check your shoes.)"



http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/culture/2007/03/23/2007-03-23_curtains_draws_on_golden_age.html

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And the Tony goes to......Spring Awakening?

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Word of mouth is good, and it obviously has a healthy advance, as it's not an easy ticket to get for months ahead (weekends, at least).

As has been mentioned here, there are scads of pull quotes, and Boneau-Bryan Brown has been doing a tremendous job so far, I have no doubt that they'll take it to the next level now.

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I dont think curtains will win the tony but i have a sneaky feeling Legally blonde will(you can shout all you want but the fact is the show is bloody good and the reviews are strong out of town ,far better than curtains).

I dont think LB will win best book etc (that seems to be the real award) i think Grey Grdens or spring awakening will

good luck to them all though i say including curtains(its been a strong year for musicals)

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