#1
Posted: 8/15/06 at 7:33pm
Well here we go folks...another season, another opennin', another show! Let the reviews roll.
The first is mixed to fairly positive from TALKIN BROADWAY.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/kikiherb.html
Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway
Theatre Review by Matthew Murray - August 15, 2006
Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway Created and executed by Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman. Scenic design by Scott Pask. Lighting design by Jeff Croiter. Costume design by Marc Happel. Sound design by Brett Jarvis.
Theatre: Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue
Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes, including intermission
Audience: May be inappropriate for 12 and under. (Strong language; adult themes.) Children under the age of 4 are not permitted in the theatre.
Schedule: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday through Friday @ 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, Sunday at 3pm. Limited engagement through September 10
Ticket price: $87.50
Tickets: Telecharge
The reports of their deaths have been greatly exaggerated. Kiki and Herb's disappearance following their landmark 2004 Carnegie Hall concert did not mean, as some feared, that one of New York's longest-standing (and longest-drinking) institutions had sashayed elegantly off this distressing mortal coil. It's now clear they were merely lying in wait, gathering their strength, and preparing for the greatest challenge of their careers: their Broadway debut.
In their quest to knock audiences dead, they've come to the Great White Way prepared. Perhaps, dare one say it, overprepared. Only their most ardent of fans, who can't feast often enough on Justin Bond's shattered, chattering chanteuse Kiki, or on Kenny Mellman's demonically driven piano player Herb, will be well equipped to not just survive the laudanum-infused spectacle at the Helen Hayes, but thrive on it. Just about everyone else can expect Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway to be an enigma inside a puzzle swathed in studded satin.
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This allows to them to milk each moment for all it's worth. A sloshed Kiki mounting or dismounting an onstage tree that looks as decrepit as she does (Scott Pask designed the absurdly autumnal set) ranks as priceless physical comedy on its own; later, when she diverts from the planned program with a special number for "the children," the nonsense she's singing can't quite compare to Herb's forehead-slapping exasperation at her over-indulgence.
________________________________________________________________
Even when their drawn-out antics bore or frustrate most, it's hard not to admire - perhaps even love? - the giddily insane perpetrators. As Kiki points out, it's much more difficult to love than it is to die, which means that's some sort of an accomplishment. Not that they have yet mastered either, and if they don't learn by September 10, when Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway is scheduled to close, then perhaps in the future. Even if these two never return to Broadway, one can't help but feel they'll never go away again.
The first is mixed to fairly positive from TALKIN BROADWAY.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/kikiherb.html
Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway
Theatre Review by Matthew Murray - August 15, 2006
Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway Created and executed by Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman. Scenic design by Scott Pask. Lighting design by Jeff Croiter. Costume design by Marc Happel. Sound design by Brett Jarvis.
Theatre: Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue
Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes, including intermission
Audience: May be inappropriate for 12 and under. (Strong language; adult themes.) Children under the age of 4 are not permitted in the theatre.
Schedule: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday through Friday @ 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, Sunday at 3pm. Limited engagement through September 10
Ticket price: $87.50
Tickets: Telecharge
The reports of their deaths have been greatly exaggerated. Kiki and Herb's disappearance following their landmark 2004 Carnegie Hall concert did not mean, as some feared, that one of New York's longest-standing (and longest-drinking) institutions had sashayed elegantly off this distressing mortal coil. It's now clear they were merely lying in wait, gathering their strength, and preparing for the greatest challenge of their careers: their Broadway debut.
In their quest to knock audiences dead, they've come to the Great White Way prepared. Perhaps, dare one say it, overprepared. Only their most ardent of fans, who can't feast often enough on Justin Bond's shattered, chattering chanteuse Kiki, or on Kenny Mellman's demonically driven piano player Herb, will be well equipped to not just survive the laudanum-infused spectacle at the Helen Hayes, but thrive on it. Just about everyone else can expect Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway to be an enigma inside a puzzle swathed in studded satin.
________________________________________________________________
This allows to them to milk each moment for all it's worth. A sloshed Kiki mounting or dismounting an onstage tree that looks as decrepit as she does (Scott Pask designed the absurdly autumnal set) ranks as priceless physical comedy on its own; later, when she diverts from the planned program with a special number for "the children," the nonsense she's singing can't quite compare to Herb's forehead-slapping exasperation at her over-indulgence.
________________________________________________________________
Even when their drawn-out antics bore or frustrate most, it's hard not to admire - perhaps even love? - the giddily insane perpetrators. As Kiki points out, it's much more difficult to love than it is to die, which means that's some sort of an accomplishment. Not that they have yet mastered either, and if they don't learn by September 10, when Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway is scheduled to close, then perhaps in the future. Even if these two never return to Broadway, one can't help but feel they'll never go away again.
Updated On: 8/15/06 at 07:33 PM
