Limelight--The Story of Charlie Chaplin --thoughts

[dented146]

Posted: 9/12/10 at 2:55am

Tonight was the fifth preview performance and I had no idea what to expect.

This new musical is extremely good. I'm very reticent about making comments like that as the later media reviews often differ from my opinion but they won't this time.

How do you, in 2hrs. 15 min., tell the life story of someone from the age of 5 until old age and completely entertain. The characters are beautifully connected. The score is quite lovely and also moves the story forward. It is touching, cute, and often quite heartfelt.

Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan created a fabulous book. And Warren Carlyle and Michael Unger, the directors, move the musical forward about as slick as you can imagine.

The actors were all just wonderful. But Rob McClure as Chaplin was truly phenomenal.

It will be interesting to see what changes are made. I always expect to see glaring problems but this time I'm at a loss. I guess one is that the older Chaplin is far too tall for the role but I feel petty even mentioning it.

I was quite impressed.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 9/12/10 at 5:58am

Grrrrrr after reading this, I am getting closer and closer to just driving the 3 hours to see it.

[Wicked Fanatic]

Posted: 9/12/10 at 2:01pm

I'm going on Sept. 25th after previews so will weigh in then with my thoughts. This has such a good cast which I'm eager to see. dented146 could you please post a list of songs that are in previews now?

[Popular]

Posted: 9/12/10 at 2:16pm

Where is this playing? Chaplin is my dad's hero, I would love to take him.


or, I could just google it LOL
http://www.lajollaplayhouse.org/ Updated On: 9/12/10 at 02:16 PM

[dented146]

Posted: 9/12/10 at 5:28pm

Prior to the performance they announced that several changes have been made that day. At this point it is certainly a work in progress. The opening is Sept. 19.

The list of songs last night:

Act1

The Music Hall
Look at All the People
Vaudeville Dream
Far From London
Tramp Shuffle
Change Your Story
Mildred's Change the Story
Someday

Act 2

Just Another Day In Hollywood
The Life You Wished For
When It All Falls Down
A Man Of All Countries
The Exile
Where Are All the People
What Only Love Can See
This Man

What I found quite interesting about the songs is that they are inserted into the musical with little or no fanfare. With the exception of Someday at the end of Act 1, no one just stands there and belts out a song. They just flow into the scene like the dialogue. It's very well done.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 9/12/10 at 5:35pm

I wish I was back in LA so I could see this.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 9/12/10 at 8:23pm

I am so pleased this is well received. I'm sure Rob is excellent in the role of Chaplin. He's a talented guy. So happy for him. Keep the reviews coming.

[dented146]

Posted: 9/12/10 at 10:19pm

I wouldn't exactly call my one review as " well received" referring to the public. But I and the people around me were very impressed. Mc Clure was truly fabulous.
Updated On: 9/12/10 at 10:19 PM

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 9/13/10 at 2:41am

I saw the show tonight. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it. The songs were pleasant but generic. The staging was definitely not at a Broadway level but it did its job. The standard by the numbers ultra-condensed biography was interesting to the audience members who were not familiar with Chaplin's biography. On the plus side, the cast were all very good- with Jenn Collela stealing the show IMHO as Hedda Hopper. It was a perfectly entertaining night at the theatre but this is definitely not a show that could make it on Broadway. It should sell well in San Diego but I don't see an extended life for the show.

[Wicked Fanatic]

Posted: 9/26/10 at 2:47am

I posted my thoughts in the other thread in the LA message boards but I'll also post it here.

I saw this show this afternoon and here are my thoughts:

Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin with music by Christopher Curtis, book by Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan and directed by Michael Unger, will play at the Mandell Weiss Theatre and will run from September 7 - October 17, 2010. The show will star Robert McClure (Avenue Q) as Charlie Chaplin and Ashley Brown (Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast) as Oona. Other castmembers include LJ Benet (You Again, Diary of a Wimpy Kid) as "Young Sydney," Jenn Colella (Broadway's Urban Cowboy, The Times They Are A-Changin') as "Hedda Hopper," Eddie Korbich (Broadway's The Drowsy Chaperone, The Little Mermaid) as "Karno," Janet Metz (original company of Falsettoland, Playhouse's Harmony) as "Hannah," Brooke Sunny Moriber (Broadway's Follies, The Wild Party) as "Mildred," Ron Orbach (Broadway's Chicago, Laughter on the 23rd Floor) as "Mr. Chaplin," Roland Rusinek (Broadway's The Phantom of the Opera, A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden) as "Alf," Jake Schwenke (title role in Broadway's Billy Elliott) as "Young Charlie/Jackie," Matthew Scott (Broadway's Jersey Boys, A Catered Affair) as "Sydney" and William Youmans (Broadway's Wicked, Playhouse's Dracula the Musical, Randy Newman's Faust) as "Older Charlie." The ensemble includes Aaron Acosta, Courtney Corey, Matthew Patrick Davis, Justin Michael Duval, Sara Edwards, Ben Liebert, Alyssa Marie, Jennifer Noble, Kürt Norby, Carly Nykanen, Jessica Reiner-Harris and Kirsten Scott.



Sad to say that the one I bolded is the only one here not in the play. The program had him listed as Older Charlie, but there was an insert with the current songs and the cast and he was gone. At the after show discussion which I stayed for I found out why. He was one of three Charlies in the previews but after the last preview which was the dress rehearsal they decided to take him out. It was apparently too jarring for audience members who after seeing Robert McClure playing Charlie for the entire play and then in the final scene suddenly see someone new and much older with Oona White his 4th and last wife. Because of audience feedback Wicked's first Dillamond got the heave ho. Needless to say I wasn't happy. Since I had never seen him in the OBC I was excited to be able to see him in this but in the end it didn't happen.

Thoughts on the show:

Beautiful scenic design using panels to reveal scenes which seem to be used a lot in plays that I've seen recently. Especially loved the beginning in which there was a movie screen with a Charlie Chaplin title and then out of it stepped a young Charlie Chaplin. At the end of the play they reversed it with older Charlie stepping into the screen into one of his classic films.

Original music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis are good but nothing that made me leave the theatre humming any songs. I liked "Vaudeville Dream", "Just Another Day in Hollywood", but the two best were the "Tramp Shuffle" and "Where Are All the People" which brought the house down. And dented146's song list is the same for 9/25/10.

No big dance numbers except for the fun "Tramp Shuffle" which got huge applause. It's actually a clever re-creation of a famous look alike contest in which Charlie actually came in third.

Now for the cast of 22:

Rob McClure as Charlie was fabulous. He embodied Charlie Chaplin's famous Little Tramp from his sad-sack demeanor and playful orneriness to the shuffling gait as he swings his cane along with the customary Chaplin pratfalls. His singing was sensational especially when he delivered the powerful "Where Are All the People" in the 2nd act after his celebrity stature was destroyed by the hateful and despicable gossip columnist Hedda Hopper who used "Red Baiting" to destroy his career in America. For those of you too young to know what "Red Baiting" is or who she was Google her and find out how powerful the lies she printed were. It was a **** performance by McClure. I can't believe how far he's come from his first venture on Broadway in Avenue Q. Hopefully this vehicle will get him a second and bigger gig on Broadway.

Then there's Ashley Brown who was the main reason I went. If I had gone expecting her to be the big star I would have been very disappointed because she's not. She actually plays two roles. First is Charlie's mother at the beginning of the play who was a vaudeville entertainer who was committed to an insane asylum and then doesn't reappear until the end of the play when she is Charlie's fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill. She may not have been in it as much as I wanted but when she was she was exquisite especially in her duet with McClure, "What Only Love Can See", "The Music Hall" in which I giggled to myself when she pulled out and unfurled an umbrella and "Look At All the People" in which she hands Charlie a piece of theatrical advice that winds up serving him well. *** for Ashley

Supporting actors are really good and many play more than one or two characters. The best is definitely Jenn Colella as the vindictive gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. She appears briefly in act one which gives the supposed reason why she would hate Chaplin and then her evilness is unveiled in full force in Act 2. For me she was the star of the second act and brought the house down when she sang "When It All Falls Down". **** for Jenn

Matthew Scott was GR8 as Charlie's brother Sydney Chaplin. I kept looking at him and trying to figure out where I had seen him before. It wasn't until after the show that I discovered that he was in Sondheim on Sondheim which I had seen on my last trip to NYC. In that show he was really one of the lesser performers since they gave all the good songs to the older stars but in this show he was really good. I loved his singing voice which Sondheim on Sondheim didn't do justice to at all. His performance earned *** 1/2.

Several Wicked vets were in this show playing multiple parts in the ensemble: Courtney Corey from the LA production who also does lots of shows in SoCal and one of my favorite Boq's Ben Liebert. I can still see him as a rope walker in the show; nice guns he has! Bryan Perri, the music director for Wicked in Los Angeles and San Francisco is the MD for this show, but unfortunately he must have had the afternoon off since he wasn't the conductor for the show that I saw.

All in all, it was a great afternoon of good musical theatre and hopefully it will be lighting up a marquee on Broadway this season perhaps in the Spring! And from what that discussion leader intimated I can see it happening whether it's ready or not!

**1/2 out of 4 for me.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 9/26/10 at 12:04pm

Thank you for posting such an indepth personal review of Limelight. I hope more comments and reviews come forward here.

Rob is posting some things on facebook and seems thrilled to be part of this project. He's an extraodinary young talent and really deserves much recognition for his efforts in character roles. Thanks again.

[hanginoutca]

Posted: 10/12/10 at 3:05am

We loved it. I thought the songs were great and memorable. I did not know anything about Chaplin and I was engrossed and Rob mclure was great!!! It's become a big hit at la jolla I wish them well!