I like Rebecca a lot. She's shown that she's grown a lot as an actress with her recent performances.
"The gods who nurse this universe think little of mortals' cares. They sit in crowds on exclusive clouds and laugh at our love affairs. I might have had a real romance if they'd given me a chance. I loved him, but he didn't love me. I wanted him, but he didn't want me. Then the gods had a spree and indulged in another whim. Now he loves me, but I don't love him." - Cole Porter
Sweet Charity- The sneering headlines practically write themselves: Christina Applegate nee Kelly Bundy, plays golden hearted hook-sorry, "dance hall hostess"-in the revival of hopelessly dated 1966 Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields song-and-dance spectacular. Gets smarting reviews from out-of-town critics. Breaks foot. Show cancelled. Raises cash, resurrects show herself. Vultures circle. Well, if they could see her know. No, Applegate hasn’t quite internalized her choreography-in trickier sequences, there’s a hesitancy that verges on panic. And no, she’s not the most powerful singer (though, unlike some of her carpet bagging Hollywood colleagues, she IS a singer). But- as previous Charity’s Gwen Verdon, Shirley MacLaine, and Ann Reinking can tell you- this isn’t a role you sing, it’s a role you sell. And Applegate, bless her visible heart, closes the deal. She’s perfectly winning not to mention impossible not to love. Shopworn yet naive-not to mention dizzyingly prefeminist-Charity even manages to miss the hottest number in her own show. (That would be 'Big Spender' which is staged, like everything else, in Fosse pastiche by choreographer Wayne Cilento-guy's lucky to have an incandescent chorus boosting his low-wattage routines) Our heroine's busy getting screwed out of her hard earned cash and harder earned ardor by the latest in a series of parasitic skeevsters. But when she meets neurotic Oscar (Denis O'Hare) in a broken elevator, Charity blooms and so does this production. O'Hare, adding to the kook’s gallery he's already amassed with his intricately ticcy turns in last year's Assassins and 2003's Take Me Out, has officially cornered the Broadway market on dented, adorable weirdoes. He absorbs the gag-o-matic cleverness of Neil Simon's book and rebroadcasts it as loopy but honest characterization. That he doesn’t steal the show from Applegate is a testament to her quietly formidable stage transaction. Not bad for an actress who, like Charity, is always just a foot from a fall. GRADE: B
The Light in the Piazza- It has sublime, emotional honesty-not to mention the most beautifully conceived set on Broadway- but this collaboration between composer Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins) and playwright Craig Lucas (Reckless) is so cautiously nuanced, musically, and thematically that it nearly dissolves into a golden mist. 'Light' follows a practical Carolina matron (Victoria Clark) and her daughter (Kelli O’Hara) through Florence in 1953, as the former grapples with a language barrier and her own impacted emotions to guide her "special" child through a love affair with the passionate Fabrizio (Matthew Morrison). Clark, carrying the show, displays wonderfully articulate heart, but the implied message remains: Love is best left to the very young, the very simpleminded, and the very Italian. GRADE: B
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee- And the geeks shall inherit the earth: A cavalcade of lovable loses populates Putnam County this seasons smallest, most adorably earnest new musical-from the dictionary obsessed Olive Ostrovsky to the histaminic William Barfee ("Its pronounced Bar-FAY!"). Creators Rebecca Feldman, Rachel Sheinkin, and William Finn have produced a terrific trifle of a show, a beautifully melodic bagatelle that one only wishes were more substantial. (Finn's score sadly doesn’t soar like his Falsettos.) Still, there’s plenty of fun to be had-even if you can’t spell 'phylactery'. GRADE: B+
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang- Dude, where’s my flying car? Fret not, for the onomatopoeic auto driving this frothy children’s musical (lifted from the 1968 film) takes flight right on cure: In the grand tradition of Phantom's chandelier, and Miss Saigon's helicopter, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ascends at the tail end of Act I to oohs and aahs. This T-shirt sales vehicle careens from Willy Wonka wackiness to Lemony Snicket malice, with Raul Esparza's unwitting invention at its charming gooey center and Jan Maxwell's child hating Baroness Bomburst providing comic relief. Did we mention there's a flying car? GRADE: B-
(Im crediting the magazine so I dont get in trouble :))
May 20, 2005 edition of Entertainment Weekly and um I dont know what else to credit it as. LOL. Lemme know if I cant post these and I will take them off ASAP. But if not, let me know if anyone wants reviews of Glengarry Glen Ross, A Streetcar Named Desire, Orson's Shadow, and Play Without Words)
Oh and also in the same edition of PEOPLE, in the "Star Tracks" photos, there is a pic of Matthew and Nathan singing in the rain for a scene from The Producers: The Movie Musical. Dont know what song...let me know if anyone figures out what song it is.
