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Martin Short "Fame Becomes Me" critics review

Martin Short "Fame Becomes Me" critics review

jimnysf
#0Martin Short "Fame Becomes Me" critics review
Posted: 5/11/06 at 1:02pm

From the San Francisco Chronicle:



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/11/DDGCSIONNQ1.DTL


"Martin Short is a very funny man. That's no surprise. He's also surrounded himself with some dynamic comic talents in "Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me," the Broadway-bound mock-solo-show musical comedy that opened Tuesday at the Curran Theatre -- triple-threat comedy, song and dance performers Brooks Ashmanskas, Mary Birdsong, Nicole Parker and Capathia Jenkins. What Short and his co-creators haven't done, at least so far, is put together a cohesive show.
...

It's also still something of a work in progress, as evidenced not only by Shaiman's quip about having written one of the songs the night before but also by the program insert providing a new song list. The "Fame" in the Best of Broadway season is the first stop on a shakedown tour that will hit Toronto and Chicago before arriving on Broadway in August. Given the talent involved and the loose concept, it could be a very different show by then.
...

It's already a high-energy, generally pleasant, at times hilarious and attractively packaged production. Jess Goldstein's brightly comical costumes complement the humor of Scott Pask's cartoon sets and Chris Lee's kaleidoscopic lights. Shaiman's tongue-in-cheek onstage accompaniment is bolstered by a crack pit orchestra under the baton of Charlie Alterman.

The lampoons range far and wide, from "Forbidden Broadway" turf to standard celebrity impersonations. There are passing jabs at "Peter Pan" (yes, Short flies), "Wicked" (Birdsong and Parker in a comically oversold duet), a Canadian knockoff of "The Wizard of Oz" (Birdsong and Short in the funny "The Farmer's Daughter" and "The Man in the Moon"), "Slava's Snowshow" and recent solo outings by Billy Crystal and Elaine Stritch.

Parker and Birdsong's parodies of Joan Rivers, a maternity-challenged Britney Spears and Celine Dion are good but unexceptional. Ashmanskas' turn as a super-sized Tommy Tune is a funny idea that hasn't been developed, but his dynamic, wicked parody of Bob Fosse (with Christopher Gattelli's incisive choreography) is brilliant. A hilarious tribal rock musical ("Step Brother de Jesus," complete with silly faux nudity) stops the show, as does Jenkins' full-throttle blues-diva delivery of "Stop the Show" (about every musical's need for "a big black lady" to sell the 11 o'clock number).

Some of Short's familiar TV characters -- Irving Cohen, Ed Grimley -- put in at least cameo appearances. Chubby, clueless celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick does more than that, taking over to non-interview someone plucked from the audience. It's a daring gambit that worked pretty well Tuesday, but one wonders if the producers have subjects of the caliber of comic Dennis Miller lined up for every show.

...

"Fame" isn't a bad show at this point. It's an enjoyable, safe evening that could be so much more.".





"I've lost everything! Luis, Marty, my baby with Chris, Chris himself, James. All I ever wanted was love." --Sheridan Crane "Passions" ------- "Housework is like bad sex. Every time I do it, I swear I'll never do it again til the next time company comes."--"Lulu" from "Can't Stop The Music" ----- "When the right doors didn't open for him, he went through the wrong ones" - "Sweet Bird of Youth" ------------ --------- "Passions" is uncancelled! See NBC.com for more info.

jimnysf
#1re: Martin Short 'Fame Becomes Me' critics review
Posted: 5/11/06 at 1:06pm

From the Contra Costa Times:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/14552332.htm

"Barbs fly furiously in comical 'Fame'
If Short can lose the 'nice,' softened edges, the already hysterical but uneven show will be wittier and sharper

...

The first half of the piece is a bumpy mix of towering hilarity (a delightful parody of "The Wizard of Oz," with a killer Judy Garland impersonation by Mary Birdsong) with what appears to be nothing more than gratuitous material, almost along the lines of "but seriously, folks ..."

There are some screamingly funny bits in the first act -- an elderly heckler, a Bob Fosse parody that turns a heart attack into choreography, and a deliciously cruel version of one of those overly sincere '70s Jesus musicals.

But the rocket really flies in the second act, after Short has been killed by a giant snowball (a reference to his native Canada, where he, Sisyphus of the Great White North, endlessly pushes a snowball up a hill).

The act opens with news that Short is in a coma and a request going out for someone to replace him so the underpaid members of the ensemble can earn enough to support themselves. Cast members Brooks Ashmanskas, Birdsong, Capathia Jenkins and Nicole Parker, along with onstage pianist and performer Marc Shaiman, go through a number of celebrity impressions before bringing the real Dennis Miller onstage for a guest turn. He is quickly guided into Short's hospital room, where he is joined by creepy celebrity worshiper/critic/interviewer Jiminy Glick (one of Short's best-known characters), and the two tear up the house with material that's only partly scripted. (Other celebrity and non-celebrity audience members will be used in this gag during the run of the show.)

The musical catches fire from there, flying across a winding road of near out-of-control comedy, which gives considerable indication of just how funny this show is going to be by the time it gets to New York. Short and crew are making constant changes (two songs have been replaced since "Fame Becomes Me" began previews a couple of weeks ago).".




"I've lost everything! Luis, Marty, my baby with Chris, Chris himself, James. All I ever wanted was love." --Sheridan Crane "Passions" ------- "Housework is like bad sex. Every time I do it, I swear I'll never do it again til the next time company comes."--"Lulu" from "Can't Stop The Music" ----- "When the right doors didn't open for him, he went through the wrong ones" - "Sweet Bird of Youth" ------------ --------- "Passions" is uncancelled! See NBC.com for more info.

jimnysf
#2re: Martin Short 'Fame Becomes Me' critics review
Posted: 5/11/06 at 1:13pm

From the Oakland Tribune...

http://www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_3809397

"Big laughs abound in 'Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me'

MARTIN Short's new Broadway-bound musical is goofy, silly, crass and crude. In other words, it's comedy heaven.
"Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me" had its world premiere Tuesday at San Francisco's Curran Theatre, and aside from all the laughs, one thing became perfectly clear: Life is just that little bit better when Short is onstage doing his thing.


And his thing is entertaining the way they did it back in the day. This is old-school, work-your-butt-off show business, and Short is one of its last great practitioners.

He sings, he dances, he flies across the stage on wires and he clowns around like Sid Caesar, the Three Stooges and Jerry Lewis all rolled up into one compact little Canadian body.

....

By the time "Fame Becomes Me" hits Broadway later this year (after stops in Toronto and Chicago), it'll be in even better shape than it was here, and that's saying something because it's awfully enjoyable now.

The comic engine backfires here and there, and the occasional joke sinks, but Short is the ultimate safety net. As long as he's onstage, the audience is happy.

...

The supporting cast is headed by Capathia Jenkins, who plays a feisty nurse in the first act who has no patience with self-indulgent one-man shows. Then, in Act 2, she stops the show with a number called, amazingly enough, "Stop the Show" about how it's customary in a Broadway musical to get the white folks out of the way and let the big black lady let loose with the best song of the night. And that's exactly what happens.

Short is given able comic assistance by a trio of accomplished performers.

Nicole Parker — the best thing on "MadTV" these days — shines at the top of Act 2 when she delivers crack impersonations of Paula Abdul, Ellen DeGeneres, Britney Spears and Celine Dion.

Mary Birdsong's Judy Garland impression on "The Man in the Moon" is so good it's scary, and her duet with Parker on the "Wicked" spoof, "The Lights Have Dimmed on Broadway," is as accurate as it is hilarious.

Brooks Ashmanskas, who could still use a good solo, gets to tap dance in his boxer shorts on "Would Ya Like to Star in Our Show?" and ably assists the cast in selling the number "Stepbrother de Jesus," a spoof of hippie musicals like "Hair" and "Godspell." Short plays Gary Christ, and costumer Jess Goldstein has found a marvelous way to create fake nudity.

Though he surrounds himself with appealing and talented performers, Short is the main attraction and never disappoints. He may be spending too much time flying across the stage, but he still manages to give us characters: a brief moment of Ed Grimley, a decent dose of aged songwriter Irving Cohen, a sublime bit as a plate-spinning Katharine Hepburn, a flash of Tony Bennett and a wonderful Liz Taylor and Richard Burton dirty limerick recitation.

But best of all, Short stops the show in Act 2 with the arrival of his greatest creation: noodle-brained celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick. And on opening night, there happened to be a celebrity in the house whom Jiminy could grill: Dennis Miller.

Squeezed into his fat suit and peering from behind Jiminy's giant glasses, Short is nothing short of brilliant doing improvised interviews in a voice that veers from bass growl to whiny tenor in a matter of seconds.
...

All of this goes to show that fame does indeed become Martin Short, and there's really nothing better than basking in his dizzy, show-bizzy glow.".



"I've lost everything! Luis, Marty, my baby with Chris, Chris himself, James. All I ever wanted was love." --Sheridan Crane "Passions" ------- "Housework is like bad sex. Every time I do it, I swear I'll never do it again til the next time company comes."--"Lulu" from "Can't Stop The Music" ----- "When the right doors didn't open for him, he went through the wrong ones" - "Sweet Bird of Youth" ------------ --------- "Passions" is uncancelled! See NBC.com for more info.

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EugLoven
#3re: Martin Short 'Fame Becomes Me' critics review
Posted: 5/11/06 at 1:51pm

Not bad. Not bad at all.

JerseyScoundrel
#4re: Martin Short 'Fame Becomes Me' critics review
Posted: 5/11/06 at 4:22pm

Very exciting!


"This is a stupid story. It never stops. But we keep making lemonade! We're opening the biggest f***ing lemonade stand you ever saw!" -Walter Bobbie after a long day of Sweet Charity Rehersals (Newyorkmetro.com)

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Mohawk
#5re: Martin Short 'Fame Becomes Me' critics review
Posted: 5/14/06 at 3:21am

'Fame' exposes its shortcomings
COMEDIAN'S LOVEFEST PERFECT FOR LAS VEGAS, NOT BROADWAY
By Glenn Lovell
Mercury News

Martin Short tells us his new show is Broadway-bound after stops in Toronto and Chicago. The elfin dynamo might want to adjust his sights. ``Fame Becomes Me,' now at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco through May 21, is a pastiche of song, shtick and recycled TV bits that belongs not on the Great White Way but on the Vegas Strip.

If ever a voice cried out for the accompaniment of noisy slot machines, it's this one. Short, a comic best known for his characters Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick, obviously trained at the Jerry Lewis School of Performing Arts, where the motto remains ``Can't sell it? Belt it! Whaaaaa!'

Conceived by Short and the songwriting team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (``Hairspray'), ``Fame Becomes Me' appears at first to be a send-up of Short's well-tended reputation as a performer who has never seen a spotlight he didn't want to hog. I say appears because, after a couple of songs about how egomaniacal and needy Short is, the show morphs into exactly what it says it's spoofing -- a narcissistic lovefest to an insecure entertainer.

How low will Short stoop to win the audience's approval? By the end of Act 1, he's doing Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan, pedaling through the air. At the end of what now passes for an Act 2, he pulls a Tinker Bell, shamelessly soliciting applause to bring his alter-ego back from the show-biz version of The Hereafter.

When the clapping does the trick, Short rewards the crowd with a mawkish ballad titled ``Glass Half Full.' It should be called ``You Love Me -- You Really Love Me!'

At moments, the show flirts with the idea of deconstructing the one-person format as practiced by Tracey Ullman and Jackie Mason, among others.

There's a heckler in the house, played by the wonderful Capathia Jenkins, who counsels Short to drop the tried-and-true -- the first-audition memories, the ``Born in a Trunk' showstopper, etc. -- and to sex things up with drugs, rehab and full frontal nudity (finally supplied in a charmingly chaste fashion).

Later, Jenkins returns to salvage a second act very much in need of salvaging. If your show needs some bling, she says, ``let a big black lady sing.' She then proceeds to stop the show by belting out ``Stop the Show.' It's a funny bit, but it says less about the state of Broadway now than about the state of this particular show at this particular juncture.

The satirical approach comes in and out of focus and finally is jettisoned altogether in favor of what only can be described as `` `All that Jazz' Meets `It's a Wonderful Life.' ' The moral -- after impressions by Short of Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Grimley and, in fat suit, celebrity leech Glick: Be yourself, Marty. They love you for who you are.

The humor? A succession of botox, Viagra and ``American Idol' one-liners. I lost count of the sight gags involving heaving breasts and undulating crotches.

The irony of Short's tribute to Short: For all the energy he expends -- and let no one doubt that this guy sweats gallons dashing between sketches -- the star is upstaged at almost every turn by Jenkins and three other backup performers who, among them, deliver dead-on impressions of Judy Garland, Ellen DeGeneres, Simon Cowell and Joan Rivers.

Brooks Ashmanskas' Tommy Tune (on stilts) and Bob Fosse (gasping for breath through a haze of cigarette smoke) are among the show's highlights. Musical director-composer Shaiman, almost as much of a ham as Short, provides on-stage accompaniment and hoists an ``Applause' sign periodically.

``Fame Becomes Me' is being billed as a work-in-progress. That's generous. In place of a second act, the show now offers Shaiman at the piano singing ``Stretch' (his mea culpa for baring his bottom earlier in the evening) and an extended Jiminy Glick routine, wherein Short as the porcine interviewer chats with a celebrity plucked from the audience.

As luck would have it, Dennis Miller was in the house for the press preview and proved a very good sport. Good thing. Without an honest-to-gosh celeb on the hot seat, this spot could cause a mass exodus.

Parents, beware. As you probably can tell from the above, ``Fame Becomes Me' isn't what you'd call family entertainment. If you're a die-hard Short fan and must partake, leave the children at home.


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