Liz Smith's Page Six: "Xanadu See It"

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 6:59am

Hello all. I read this Liz Smith Page Six column today about her visit to "Xanadu".

'APART FROM the known and the unknown, what else is there?" asks the playwright Harold Pinter.

THIS IS what I know. When you ask to go backstage to congratulate any or all of the cast members in the musical "Xanadu," you are advised that they dress and undress together in a very small space and there's no room for anyone to "visit" with them.

So last week, when some of us wanted to greet Whoopi Goldberg after the show, we and our menfolk had to stand near the stage, still in the audience, after the crowd filed out. In time, the cast trooped out to mix and mingle with us. There was the sexy all-American leading man, Cheyenne Jackson, who declared, "Well, tonight was sure boys' night out in this theater. Oh, hell," continued Cheyenne, who'd had his mighty legs in short shorts on display all evening, now covered up, "every night here seems to be boys' night out!"

The mighty Mary Testa, who blows everyone else off the stage as the "evil" Melpomene, appeared in our midst as sweet as pie. She makes a formidable "pal" onstage for our Whoopi, who doesn't go about on roller skates, as I'd thought, but underplays dramatically with Testa as another evil genius, Calliope. (Their ridiculous interplay with some of the audience, who actually sit onstage throughout, is just the funniest.) I adored the show's leading lady, Kerry Butler. This little blond minx of a muse called Clio, tiny as she is, remains the staunch thread that holds this entire "plot" together.

The story is about Greek gods coming down to mix with mortals in Venice, California. So, shades of the genius Cole Porter, who often used the same idea. While "Xanadu's" plot and music don't come up to the classic Cole, there is a distinct similarity here to Porter's "Out of This World."

Cheyenne plays the manly, '80s-era hippie mortal who doesn't "get" pop-culture references about such bygone stars as Errol Flynn, or mentions of "vaudeville," and other arcane matters.

I was hoping to see Tony Roberts, who segues between playing Zeus and a hard-driving old businessman, but he must have escaped through another exit. He is merely marvelous dancing, singing and bopping around, playing in emphatic contrast to his youthful, whizzing, "gee whiz"-type roller-skating cast members.

CONTINUED

By now we had added the grand Oscar-winning actor Joel Grey to our party. He'd been in the audience to see Whoopi. When Ms. Goldberg appeared, she said she was soaking wet from her exertions and was raring to get out and get home. But she stopped to kiss us and show us some new shoes she had discovered. (Whoopi always has some fashion accessory or artifact she has just uncovered!) We all burst into applause for this giant, big-hearted star before she went on her way to raging crowds awaiting her at the stage door on 44th Street.

What a night! "Xanadu" is SRO only these nights, but even after Whoopi departs to go back to normal, this will be the musical on Broadway you want to go see if you simply want to have the time of your life.

from RC in Austin, Texas
Liz Smith's Visit to Xanadu

[singingbackup]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 5:11pm

"the musical on Broadway you want to go see if you simply want to have the time of your life."

And that, in a nutshell, is why we love it!

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 6:37pm

I smell Cubby written all over this.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 11:33pm

I guess Liz Smith doesn't know that the Helen Hayes theatre doesn't have SRO.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 11:48pm

no but friends of the cast, producers, staff, etc ARE standing in the mezz almost every show because there aren't seats.

[singingbackup]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 1:29am

I am sure she meant Standing Room Only, as in the place was full to capacity. More as a figure of speech than actual seating policy at HH.