Trip Report July 2019

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/4/19 at 8:18pm

****Spoilers ahead for each show so if you haven't seen the particular title, skip ahead! And yes I know BWW has a spoiler toggle thing but this is where we are so let's accept it.****



Hello BWW, I just went on my first Broadway binge since last summer so I'd love to tell you about it.

I saw four shows over 3 days and I was pleasantly surprised at the TOTAL lack of phone/device problems at all four shows. Yay audiences! Onto the reviews:

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune on Monday, July 1 at 8pm

-I remember the last time this was on Broadway, the title had me so curious but I never saw it. I admit that this time around, I was hoping for an early closing so I could see something else since this show seems to be SOOOO unpopular. But I'm glad I saw it. The opening nudity scene was totally unnecessary and gratuitous. I'm sure there is some ridiculous way you could argue for its artistic merits but no. Just no. They could have easily had sex under the covers or at least limited Michael Shannon's dramatic pelvic thrusts into Audra to maybe 2 or 3. I sat there wondering why Frankie didn't just force Johnny to leave but that question got answered as the show went on. I was tempted to judge her but we have all definitely been helpless to what love and emotional insecurity can do to us and this play lays that bare. At one point Johnny said something about making a ketchup and butter sandwich and the girl behind me went "ewww" and I couldn't stop laughing for a while lol. I sat in the mezz for this show and I think if I were sitting in the middle of the row and the mezz was full, I would have had to stand in the back. It was without a doubt, the tightest Broadway seat I have ever experienced. Even though I sat on the aisle (and had someone right next to me through Act 1), I had SO MUCH ANXIETY because of how small the seats were. At intermission, the woman in front of me threw herself into her seat which caused the back of the seat to hit my knees and I involuntarily let out a loud OWWWWWWWWW! because it honestly felt like my kneecaps were crushed. She turned around and rolled her eyes and her husband apologized. At intermission, we were all (all 20 of us?) were able to move into the first 2 or three rows of the mezz. The ushers forced us all to sit in our official seats for Act 1 even though there were miles of empty seats everywhere you looked and the few people there were all sitting on top of each other. All in all, Audra was a dream and I feel so grateful to have seen her in another Broadway show. Why people are clamoring for tickets to see her is beyond me.

Oklahoma! on Tuesday, July 2 at 7pm

Well. first of all, I am an R and H purist and if these young whippersnappers think they can mess with the classics, well they got another thing coming! Or so I thought going into the CITS Theater. I loved the harsh house lights, the Party City decorations, the anachronistic cookers on the tables. I also loved that everybody around me seemed to all be saying "I don't get it? What is this play about again?" I have strongly liked, (not loved) this show since high school. Every production of it that I've seen has been more or less the same. When I first heard of this concept, I thought hmmm ok what kind of dark side can Oklahoma really have? The farmer and the cowman are NOT really friends after all! The horror! But after having seen it, I totally get it. I think I got it the minute I saw all the guns on the walls. I cannot begin to say how much I adored this show. Rebecca Naomi Jones. Rebecca Naomi Jones. Wow. I want to be her, I want to get advice from her. i want to hang out with her. I want her to be my life coach. One of my favorite songs from Oklahoma has always been Many a New Day and the way she sings the **** out of that song floored me. I haven't stopped listening to the song on youtube ever since--every word, every line, she brings new meaning into it just by the way she sings it. I just loved it. But even better, when the girls started singing with her and their harmonizing? I had NEVER HEARD harmonizing like that (for this song) before. It's on the new recording for sure, but live it is even better. I just about melted into my seat when the girls started to harmonize. And sorry, I just don't hear it on the previous recordings. Especially on the line "Somebody else just as sweet as he" is an example. I had to resist the urge to stand up and go "hold on hold on, which one of you ladies is singing the harmony? Cuz that ish is amazing. Can you guys do the song again?" And as if that weren't enough, the director. Oh my my my the director. One of his most brilliant choices was-------during the harmonies of Many a New Day. Having the girls actually being ANGRY about the guys and bringing an ironic twist to the song was a stroke of genius. Going back to watch the movie version where all the girls were clearly directed to "ummm stand there and watch Laurey sing and kinda react here and there" was such a letdown. Daniel Fish had already established the phallic imagery/symbolism of the corn, and then he has the girls cracking the phallic corn in half, getting more and more angry with each crack of the phallic corn. It was just perfect. The scenes in blackout were appropriately scary and off-putting, just like they should be. I also appreciated things like Jud being onstage when Curley talked badly about him, so as an audience member you weren't sure if Jud had heard, or if it's just the actor sitting there. But of course the character did hear, because that's how life is---gossip always gets around. I did have Sasha Hutchings as Ado Annie and she was hilarious and empowered and she wore her thottishness as a badge of honor, like any Ado Annie (and a lot of us) should. The staging and direction here really laid bare how uninspired and boring most productions of Oklahoma really are. I really hope I get to see this original cast again before they leave. Isn't this show going to tour? I feel like this is one of those shows that is going to lose a lot in a touring house. But then again, this director is a genius so maybe he can make it work. Oh, one last thing: the Dream Ballet. I *get* it. Interpretative dance is an uphill climb, agreed. But I would say about 60 to 70% of the Dream Ballet just did not work. The part with the camera on Jud and Curley worked, as did the parts of the Ballet where you could see the thematic connections to the show. But then it just went on and on and on. And every time the dancer got close to the door, you could feel the audience sighing with relief that she was FINALLY going to leave the stage, but then she went and ran to the opposite side again. and again and again. Don't know how that made it out of previews in that state. But OTHER than that, the show is an absolute gem and it has made me LOVE Oklahoma for the first time.

The Prom on Wednesday, July 3 at 2pm

I was not interested in seeing this until I heard everyone saying how positive and uplifting the message was. Hmm. I enjoyed the first scenes with Brooks and Beth satirizing obnoxious celebrities and Broadway in general. I wished that could have been explored more. But then I thought wait a minute, isn't this show about a prom? What is going on. Well, when they finally got to this Indiana high school, there's where the show became blah for me. The choreography and the direction of the high school students was unacceptable for a Broadway show. The high school boys especially. The girls seemed to know what they were doing, and acted as more than one dimensional characters. The boys, however, were either poorly directed or just bad actors. It was a lot of "Hey here is my confused face. Here's a sad face. Here's a happy face!" I just did not see any directorial or actor intent behind their choices. What I saw was amateur theater, where the director has to say things like "ok everyone, when the lead says A, you act B, when the lead says C, you act D." and that's all this show really was---when it came to the HS kids. The adults were hilarious and interesting and talented. Beth Leavel---could she do something with Audra?, because they are both so entertaining. Every line, every movement was perfection with her. It was so fascinating to watch her character dynamic through the show. The choreography was pedestrian and distracting. It reminded me of Disney's High School Musical, which if you don't realize, is a huge diss. I did not want to see that on a Broadway stage.

The Phantom of the Opera on Wednesday, July 3 at 8pm

My 72nd time seeing Phantom on Broadway. I got to my seat a little past 7:30 and I observed the usher in my aisle seating people and man was he having a bad day. He would say things like "Ok you're the 3rd row, not the 5th row, the 3rd row, on the right (while pointing right then left), 4 seats in, after the 1st seat". I don't know if he was just saying too many numbers or what, but he was confusing everybody and it wasn't all sorted out until the around the time the elephant came onstage because people had to keep getting up and moving because the house was completely full but everybody was in the wrong seat. I've been hearing great things about Ben Crawford and I was really looking forward to his Music of the Night and he did not disappoint. I love a Phantom who can fully sing out the final word of the song and hit that hard T at the end of night with a full voice and he sure did that. I had gotten so used to James Barbour's just ok take on the part that it was so exciting to see someone new. I always thought of the end of the title song as being as close as the Phantom can get to having sex, since he explains that his fate has "denied him the joys of the flesh" so it was cool how sexualized Ben behaved (without it being creepy) while imploring Christine to keep singing for him. Something was up with Jay Armstrong Johnson though. Either he had a hoarse voice, or his mic was broken or a combo of the two. I could not hear his lines, which turned Wandering Child back into a duet. It was so distracting and I felt like it messed with the performance in general to have a Raoul so off his game like that. If it was a mic problem, I'm sure they could have fixed it, and if it was his voice, well, they should have put an understudy on. I sincerely hope that isn't his real performance on a nightly basis. Otherwise the show is in fine shape. One of my favorite parts of seeing Phantom is hearing new audience members oohing and aahing over the show. When the Phantom put his hand over the angel and revealed that he had heard Christine and Raoul's All I Ask of You, the audience let out a loud gasp--it was great. When the porter with the gun stood in the pit, I think ever single person in the theater giggled and pointed and urged the person next to them to look in the pit. And when Raoul jumped into the lake, wow everybody was just looking at each other going "how did he do that!!! What just happened??" It was so great. I know this board likes to make fun of Phantom's 1980's-era special effects, but i'm telling you, they still work.

[PatrickDC]

Posted: 7/4/19 at 11:11pm

I saw PotO for the first time in years and years in April. (I saw the wonderful restaged Vegas version in its last year but that seemed like a new experienced from Broadway, London and tour versions.) I was curious to see how the show was holding up. It is still glorious — Maria Bjornson, you are so very much missed — but the surprises are gone for me of course after five or six viewings. I felt the cast was either having an off night or they are just tired overall. Professionals, yes. But they lacked a collective spark.

I’m surprised patrons were being seated during the auction and Hannibal. I’d think the Majestic staff would be better trained to wait for a break. I think the mirror and transition to the catwalks and lair is the first official break for late seating.

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/5/19 at 12:39pm

No they always seat latecomers at the end of the auction, but the problem was that everybody was in the wrong seats, so it took a looooong time to get it all sorted out.