YANK! The Musical-off-broadway- Page 2

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 3/4/10 at 8:25pm

Fun YANK! tidbit for luvtheEmcee:

When YANK! debuted at the NY Musical Theater Festival about five years ago, it had a scene of soldiers watching a movie. We never saw the "film", but just heard the voices of two actors in it. The voices were supplied by Mr. Kudisch & Mr. Esparza. :)

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 3/5/10 at 1:00am

For the record, I have never had the pleasure of meeting Nancy Anderson, or anyone else associated with the show (except Andrew Durand, whom I ran into on the Columbus Circle uptown IRT platform on my way home from the show, and was very gracious when I told him how much I liked the show).

Greatwhiteway3: you might want to check out an old MGM or 20th Century Fox musical from the 1940's. Look at Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Vivian Blaine, or even Carmen Miranda's figure. These women were considered sex symbols of their day, but none of them have the rail-thin figures of female sex symbols of today. That look didn't come around until the 60's with Twiggy. Women of the 1940's and 1950's had curves and looked like...well, women! Now, I don't think for a second that Miss Anderson is overweight, but since you do, perhaps you should consider the era in which the show is set, and that her voluptuous figure is more appropriate than all the gym-toned bodies of the soldiers. Look at pictures of shirtless soldiers and sailors during WWII and you won't see many who look like the guys in this show

Posted: 3/5/10 at 12:52pm

"the only thing missing was Ivan Hernandez's penis"
oh well... would love to have seen that!!!
Updated On: 3/5/10 at 12:52 PM

[Greatwhiteway3]

Posted: 3/5/10 at 2:02pm

Oh hushpuppy... Please read my post before
you respond ... Did I say Nancy was too
curvey?? On the contrary she is
thin.. Just OLD. I did say she had skin hanging over her shorts
but that wasn't from being overweight, it's from getting long in the tooth

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/5/10 at 5:29pm

Do shut up, greatwhiteblowhard.

You made your nasty point 17 times already. How many times do you think you have to repeat it until we hear it: You think Nancy Anderson is old. fine. Well, we think you're an asShole.

Seeing it tonight and I'm really looking forward to it--including the gas-mask dream ballet!

[GatorNY]

Posted: 3/5/10 at 7:39pm

Have fun at the show...Joey. Please post your thoughts. I have a ticket to go back on 3/21....which was originally the final performance...but I heard today that it has been extended to 4/4.

[Q]

Posted: 3/5/10 at 10:57pm

Just bumping this to be available for PJ.

We saw the production in San Diego, and were charmed.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:29am

LOVED it.

I was moved to tears, I laughed, I cheered... I was completely absorbed and utterly charmed by the show.

Bobby Steggert turns in an award-worthy performance. He delivers in a way that captures every important aspect of the journey his character is on. Bravo! My heart belongs to Bobby! (And Stu. Such a rich character!)

Adored Nancy Anderson. ADORED.

Following the show, my friends and I went for a drink and we couldn't stop talking about it and discussing all the aspects of the performance.

Am thrilled that the show has extended, and hope to see it again. I went in with high expectations, and they were surpassed.

[Q]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:33am

Yay, Addy!

I'm so happy this show continues to grow and live.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:35am

I'm going to be delighted to watch the journey of this show. I don't think this is the last stop!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:42am

Tulita - I remember that! I think that was actually how the show first came to my attention, ha. I've been wanting to see it since the NYMF run, though, for many reasons past that, but unfortunately I didn't get to. Tomorrow will be my first time!

[Q]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:43am

You'll have to let us know what you think, Em.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:44am

...I want to go again!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 2:35am

Will do for sure!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 7:05am

The show is selling out every night by the way...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 10:41am

While I thought I would like it, from what I knew of and had heard of the performances, I was unprepared for the high level of quality of the savvy, witty and intelligent writing and for an emotional experience that was as deep and affecting as that.

First off, Bobby Steggert, whom I had not seen in Ragtime, 110 in the Shade or Master Harold, is giving a Tony-award winning performance in a show that most likely will never get to Broadway. The writing requires the actor to go from shy closeted awkwardness to experiencing first love to exuberant self-confidence to despair, expressed by monologues, dramatic singing and even tap dancing...all of which he does with a completely sweet and winning charismatic innocence. It is a dramatic performance on the level of an Alice Ripley or a Raul Esparza--and I'm not sure either of them can tap-dance!

The other performances, while not quite at that incredible level, continually raise the material above the two things it might have been: a camp nostalgic pastiche show or one of those "gay" musicals that have become a parody of a parody of a parody of themselves.

Before I praise the writing, a word or two about Nancy Anderson, who has been unnecessarily slimed in this thread for her age. The poster in question makes an idiotic point, since she is playing some dozen or so different characters, each in a vignette that comments on the action, none particularly requiring that the audience invest themselves in a romance between her character in the vignette and any of the guys onstage. Therefore, the character, identified in the program only as "Woman," could have been played by a woman of any age, although very few female performers under the age of 35 could probably pull it off, for the following reason:

What is extraordinary about Nancy Anderson's performance is that she subtly differentiates between each of the female characters in the vignettes, and each one is astonishingly true to the period, in vocal stylings, characterization and emotional mood. I'm not sure many young singers, with the exception of someone like cabaret singer Molly Pope, would even know the difference between Dinah Shore and Vera Lynn, let alone be able to sing in the spirit of each (and others), let alone be able to do so while commenting on the action, let alone be able to do all that seamlessly and act various small parts that are crucial to the emotional arc of the play (like the general's secretary). She gives a tour de force performance and with a lesser singer, the show would descend into cabaret performances of pastiche songs. In Nancy Anderson's hands, a world is created.

To carp about her age is reminiscent of the classic theatrical anecdote of the wardrobe mistress who was given two last-minute tickets to the opening night of Oklahoma by the theater producer who suddenly couldn't go. The next morning, after reading the glowing reviews in every paper and speaking to his excited friends and colleagues on the telephone, he he asked his longtime wardrobe mistress what she thought of the groundbreaking show.

"Seams!" she snorted. "You call those SEAMS?!?"

Case closed.

My thoughts on the writing. For various reasons, I am not one to be kind or overly generous to writers of new musicals, so my praise is not easily won. Yank could have been those two genres I mentioned earlier: a pastiche show or a "gay" show. Somehow, though sheer force of intelligent dialogue, songwriting and structure, the Zellnik brothers have created a complex, entertaining and deeply emotional musical that is simultaneously an homage to WW2-era romances (like Vincente Minnelli's The Clock) and an intelligent delving into the issue of pre-Stonewall gays-in-the-military--a subject that, on the face of it, could NEVER be handled in a musical with anywhere NEAR the complexity it requires.

Are the men "gay"? Are they just soldiers bonding? We know there were tens or hundreds of thousands of them, but what was it like for them? Did they experience romance the way that heterosexuals experienced romance in the 1930s and 1940s, as exemplified by Hollywood and popular songs? Or were they deeply closeted, and frightened by the risk of humiliation and dishonorable discharge? Or were they all that at once?

The Zellniks cover all that and make you CARE--not only about Bobby Steggert's character, but also about the more emblematic characters like Mitch, the love interest who is both effortlessy out and deeply closeted, or "the Polack" or "the boy from Tennessee" or the delightfully written and played "girls in the steno pool." They strike only a few false notes--an anachronistic political use of the word "gay" (we could argue about how that word was used in code for hours), but these are offset by insights like one line to the effect that it's okay in that world for mem to perform sexual acts with each other but it was wrong for them to WANT to.

And the way they write the pastiche songs is remarkable. They sound remarkably like Harry Warren or Jule Styne songs from the period without ever descending into camp for camp sake's--except for a few times when it's fun and actually comes out of character. There are perhaps one or two too many "soldiers-bonding songs," but the fact that they can find ways to include two tap-dance numbers and a dream ballet (now performed beautifully sans gas masks), would make me raise my hat to them, if anyone still wore a hat.

Hopefully, for everyone involved, the timeliness of the issue in the public discourse will help get this show beyond the York. But even if it doesn't, the writing is so strong and the musical so easily produce-able that it will have more life.

The direction and choreography were flawless, the music sounded great...I am still smiling about it as you can tell from the RIDICULOUS length of these comments.

The evening was a wonderful gift from a dear friend, and I want to see it again, either here at the York or in its next incarnation, which is it absolutely have.

But see it with Bobby Steggert if you can. It's a good, old-fashioned star performance. Just like Bette Davis.

(Inside joke for those who've seen it.)

Updated On: 3/7/10 at 10:41 AM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 10:46am

It is a dramatic performance on the level of an Alice Ripley or a Raul Esparza--and I'm not sure either of them can tap-dance!

Ok, I already love Steggert but you just got me more excited AND made me laugh. :)

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:00pm

Reading everyone's responses to this show has made me very excited to see it. Just purchased a ticket for the 26th as I wasn't able to use my ticket for this past Thursday evening. Come hell or high water I'm going to be there this time. SO glad they extended.

[RoslynReynolds]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:43pm

The pastiche songs are utterly bottom-drawer. When you
think of something like Follies, which tips its head to
an earlier era of songwriting and simultaneously makes
it fresh, you begin to appreciate the mediocrity of Yank.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 1:57pm

Thanks for that beautiful summing up, PJ! I'm so glad you, AdGal and other fans of the show share my enthusiasm. I was also unprepared for YANK! when I caught its last perfomance at the NY Musical Theater Fesival in 2005. I, too, expected a gay campy tribute to 1940s musicals - I wasn't prepared to be so riveted and thrilled by a true gay romantic muscal, or to have my heart broken at the end. I was a big ole mess of tears at the end, but my first thought upon leaving the auditorium was "I wonder if they have CDs in the lobby? I HAVE to hear this fabulous score again!" I've been following (obsessing?) over the show ever since.


The score to YANK! is superb - carefully crafted, lushly melodic and lyrically witty and moving. Brilliant as they are, the FOLLIES songs have an intended ironical twist to them. While the YANK! songs reflect the action, they specifically lack that knowing flavor - they could be actual 1940s Hit Parade toppers.

Updated On: 3/6/10 at 01:57 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 2:01pm

When you think of something like Follies, which tips its head to
an earlier era of songwriting and simultaneously makes
it fresh, you begin to appreciate

Funny you should say that, because I am almost the cliche of the nothing-is-as-good-as-Sondheim-and-Follies crank and I was utterly charmed--and moved!--by the score.

I think your reaction is knee-jerk and short-sighted, Roz. It's better than you judge it.

Updated On: 3/6/10 at 02:01 PM

[Luscious]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 3:33pm

YANK has quietly extended for two weeks to Sunday, April 4. Unfortunately, I'm completely booked through March and Easter weekend doesn't work for me. I really want to see this show! Even more so after PJ's review. What do you think the chances are of it extending a second time?

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 10:41pm

I MUST see this. Hoping it extends or transfers.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 3/6/10 at 11:14pm

PalJoey, your comments should be sent to the show! They are a wonderful love letter to the cast, writers and production team!

...and I agree with all of it!

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 3/7/10 at 12:02am

Guess what, NYAdGal?

I sent it to them!