Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals

Young Frankenstein: Insane Ticket Prices

This is friggin' unbelievable.

Top ticket prices for Young Frankenstein will be -- get this -- $450 on Friday and Saturday night. "Premium" seats will be $375. The lion's share will be $120, and seats in the balcony will be $60 to $80. The price scale will be somewhat less usurious the rest of the week, but the top price will still be $350. There will be a select few seats available to "most performances" for $25.

What a bunch of greedy motherf*ckers.

I can hear their defense now: "We've changed the price structure to allow more people to see the show at a lower price, and we've allowed those willing to pay extra for premium seats the opportunity to do so."

But what this means for me, someone who frequently pays full price to see a show in previews, is that I'll have to settle for rear or side orchestra. Because -- and I want to make this excruciatingly clear -- I will NEVER pay $450, or even $350, to see a Broadway musical. EVER. I wouldn't pay that much to see Barbra Streisand, or to have a one-on-one audience with Stephen Sondheim himself, or to witness the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Mel Brooks, Susan Stroman, and anyone else connected with this overpriced affair: Shame on you.

Company Revival Will Be Filmed

The soon-to-close revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company will be filmed this coming Saturday for a Great Performances PBS broadcast. Viewers will be able to judge for themselves whether director John Doyle's actor/musician approach truly works for this show, and whether Raul Esparza and Barbara Walsh deserved the acclaim that they received. (Read my review of this production here.)

This continues a longstanding practice of preserving Stephen Sondheim's work for posterity, most likely because he's the preeminent musical-theater artist of the past 40 years. (Or something like that.) Already available are recordings of the the original casts performing Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Passion, plus the DVDs of Follies and Sweeney Todd in concert and the Company cast recording sessions.

I've periodically heard people wonder why all Broadway shows aren't recorded. Well, many of them are, but those recordings are only available at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and even then only to serious researchers.

But think about it: how many people, given the choice, would pay $100-plus to see the show live when they could wait and watch it on PBS, or buy the DVD for $20? Yes, I know: the true theater queens would want to see the shows live. But would we be the exception or the rule? Broadway producers are justifiably reluctant to announce that their shows will be recorded for fear that attendance will suffer.

Don't get me wrong: I buy every Broadway show that comes out on DVD, even Victor/Victoria and Jekyll & Hyde, not because I enjoyed these shows (because God knows I did not) but rather to do my part to prove that there's a market for these recordings. Often I'm pleasantly surprised, as I was with the wonderful little gem of a show Tintypes. Other times I'm quite disappointed, as I was for the overrated Sophisticated Ladies.

Those interested in judging for themselves the merits of recording stage performances (as opposed to full-blown Hollywood movie releases like Dreamgirls or Chicago) might also want to check out the videos of Pippin, Fosse, Working, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado. And, for the sake of completion, I should probably include a reference to Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Oh, and Oh! Calcutta! [shudder]

Anything I'm missing, dear reader? I mean in terms of commercially available recordings. Because upstanding TQs such as we would never traffic in pirated videos, now would we?

Would we?

Footlight Records: R.I.P.

I'm wearing black today. Footlight Records is closing for good July 4th.

My fellow cast-albums aficionados will no doubt recall that the venerable Footlight Records closed its brick-and-mortar store a while back, and has now announced that it will be shuttering its Web shop for good as well.

It used to be that on my frequent trips to New York I would make my standard side trips down to Union Square to browse through the offerings at Footlight, pick up a few cast albums, and bask in the ambiance of out-of-print LPs from Ambassador, Drat! The Cat!, and Philemon. Now I have to make do with the admittedly robust but nonetheless marginalized Broadway section at the Virgin superstore in Times Square.

Where shall we get our beloved cast recordings now? Well, fortunately there are still some fairly reliable online sources of new releases, including Amazon and CD Universe. And eBay remains a valuable font of random esoterica and out-of-print titles. For foreign cast albums, I have found Dress Circle, Sound of Music, and Musical Shop quite fruitful, but the shipping costs and currency conversion rates can make this an expensive prospect.

But does the demise of Footlight reflect a larger trend in the music industry? Oh, yes, indeed. Even larger companies such as Tower Records and Virgin have had a tough time staying alive in the music business, largely owing to MP3 downloading and file sharing. In the not-too-distant future, will we receiving all of our show music in digital form?

The horror.

I'm not typically much of a Luddite, but I'm hanging on to the ever-diminishing hope that my beloved CDs won't become quaint museum pieces. (Eight-track tapes, anyone?) I simply can't imagine not having something physical to hold, even if it's not a CD. I want liner notes. I want lyric sheets. I want cast pictures by Martha Swope.

Of course, digital distribution is less expensive, so we're likely to get more marginal cast recordings. But right now iTunes doesn't appear to traffic much in the obscure, just the stuff you can obtain readily elsewhere. Occasionally you get such digital-only release as The Capeman or the soundtrack to the movie The Boyfriend. Or the occasional bonus track, like Adam Guettel singing selections from The Light in the Piazza.

For once, technology will need to drag me kicking and screaming into the future.

LoveMusik on CD and Overseas

The Manhattan Theater Club presentation LoveMusik has closed on Broadway, but it won't be going away completely. A recent article on Playbill.com says that a cast recording is "in the works" and that there are already concrete plans for international productions, including one in Japan starring someone named Masachika Ichimura. There won't be any commercial Broadway transfer, as if anyone was expecting one.

Here's my problem with future productions of the show: there were two reasons that the Broadway production was worth seeing, and they were Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya and Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill. Without them, I really can't see the show working. As I said in my review, the book is plodding and the direction pedestrian. I'll certainly be getting the CD, because I adore Kurt Weill's music, and the cast performs it splendidly.

I got a call the other day from someone at the MTC looking for a donation or something, and she started off by asking me what I thought of LoveMusik. I told her.

"Ouch," she said. "I guess you didn't like it, huh?"

No, I didn't like it. I was supremely disappointed in the work of Hal Prince and Alfred Uhry, both monumentally talented men. I told her that I commended the MTC for taking a chance on such an ambitious undertaking. I mean, if Hal Prince says he wants to do a show, you do it, right? And the MTC is not typically known for producing musicals, so they were taking a risk. But without serious and significant rewriting, any future productions of LoveMusik will likely fall flat, as the Broadway production did.

Disney's Tarzan Closing

It's actually a bit surprising that the show ran this long, but Disney recently announced that its critically excoriated, publicly maligned, and Tony-less Tarzan will close July 8. The show will have played 486 performances and 35 previews.

Against most expectations, the show ran for more than a year, and business frankly wasn't all that terrible. The show has been playing to about 75% capacity and grossing around $500,000 a week, which seems pretty healthy. depending on the weekly nut of the show. Given Disney's reputation as a bunch of cheapskates...er...I mean...financially prudent producers, chances are they were making money, just not the kind of hand-over-fist money that Disney is used to. The average ticket price for the show has been around $60, which means there's been heavy discounting.

To their credit, the Disney folks have actually admitted their disappointment in the show's performance. Often when a show closes, producers do their best to put whatever positive spin they can on it.  They were, however, quick to point out that the Dutch version of the show has been doing blockbuster business in The Hague, and that there are plans for other foreign versions as well. One presumes that Disney will also trot out a US touring version to  cash in on the family-entertainment-starved populace in places where people don't read the New York City reviews.

On the plus side, the show's shuttering makes the highly desirable Richard Rodgers Theater available for another, hopefully higher quality, show to land on Broadway next season. Will it be a musical, such as In the Heights, A Catered Affair, or Jason Robert Brown's 13? Or maybe the Broadway transfer of the London hit revival of Equus? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Disney's quest to conquer Broadway continues this fall with the stage version of The Little Mermaid.

Drowsy Chaperone: Musical Chairs

The Drowsy Chaperone only just opened in London (see Steve on Broadway for a compendium of the reviews) and already the producers are announcing the replacement for star and author Bob Martin.

British television star Steve Pemberton will take over for Martin in July. Pemberton was part of the insanely talented cast of the darkly funny BBC show "The League of Gentlemen." Since that show wrapped up its three-season run, League members have been showing up on the London theater scene. Fellow gentleman Reece Shearsmith was Leo Bloom in the London cast of The Producers towards the end of its run. I really wish I'd been able to see Shearsmith, but by the time I noticed he was in the show, I was too late in my London trip to catch it.

The very busy Bob Martin will next be appearing in the Toronto run of his hit show, which starts this fall. That's a fitting start to the show's national tour, since that's where Martin and his cohorts developed the show. No word yet on whether Martin will appear in any additional cities on the tour.

I know this show sharply divides TQs (theater queens), but I am unapologetic in my admiration and affection for this delightful show. (Read my reviews of the original and replacement Broadway casts.) It's one of only two shows that I actually paid to see twice on Broadway. (The other was Thoroughly Modern Millie, another show of which I'm unapologetically fond.)

I urge anyone out there who hasn't seen the show to catch it when it hits your town, or the next time you're in New York or London. It's funny, heartfelt, and energetically performed. And it's basically a love letter to the Broadway musical. What's not to love?

Michael Ball in London Hairspray

Veteran British actor and erstwhile heartthrob Michael Ball will play Edna Turnblad in the upcoming London production of Hairspray. I guess he's put on a few since Les Miserables and Aspects of Love.

Here's my question, though: Why did it take five years for this show to open in London? The show is showing signs of winding down its Broadway run (stunt casting = jumping the shark), and has even started showing up in regional theaters such as the North Shore Music Theater, which is just outside of Boston. Plus, the movie version is coming out next month, although perhaps it's not being released yet in th U.K.

It will be interesting to see just how successful the London production is given its delayed bow.

Speaking of the Hairspray movie, I am seriously having second thoughts about paying to see it in the theater now that star John Travolta has said publicly that he agrees with superfreak Tom Cruise on the subject of psychiatry and psychotropic drugs. I'm not even going to mention the name of their crackpot "religion" because these nut jobs have a history of attacking anyone who questions them in public.

Note to Tom and John: your job is to look pretty and collect too much money for appearing in bad movies. Keep your misguided, unfounded, and downright dangerous misconceptions to yourself.

Cheyenne Jackson Joins Xanadu

The delectable Cheyenne Jackson, previously of the short-lived Elvis Presley jukebox tuner All Shook Up, is joining the Broadway cast of Xanadu, now that leading man James Carpinello has injured his foot. Evidently this is a temporary replacement, until Carpinello recovers. But Jackson will be donning the skates on opening night, so he's the guy who'll be eligible for any Tony Award. The show has also pushed back its opening night two weeks until July 10th, most likely to give Jackson a chance to learn the role.

Attendance so far for Xanadu has been so-so, hovering at about 75% until last week when it shot up to 87%, but last week was a better week for Broadway shows overall, most likely because of the after-Tony rising tide that seems to be lifting most of the boats. But Xanadu's average ticket price has been steadily less than $50, which is painfully low, and which means most people are getting their tickets through TKTS or other discount means.

Would the show be doing better had the producers been able to get Jane Krakowski to star? Hard to say, but she probably would have had a bit more of a box-office draw than current star, the talented and lovely Kerry Butler. The cast also includes Mary Testa, Tony Roberts, and Jackie Hoffman, so there's plenty of talent on stage. And the book is by Douglas Carter Beane, author of the hysterical play The Little Dog Laughed.

Even so, I'm getting the feeling that I should get down to New York pretty quickly to catch this show.

Kiki and Herb: Alive from Broadway

I got one up on the Tony voters.

Last night I caught Kiki and Herb: Alive from Broadway presented under the auspices of Boston University's Huntington Theater at the Calderwood Pavilion. Kiki and Herb lost the Tony for special theatrical event to Jay Johnson: the Two and Only, which I also saw. (Read my review here.)

So, unlike many of the Tony Voters, I'm actually in a position to determine who really should have won. ("What's that you say? The august members of the Tony community vote even when they haven't seen all the shows?! Slander! Libel!")

The bottom line: Kiki and Herb was robbed.

Kiki is more than just a drag queen. She amounts to nothing less than a bravura acting achievement on the part of Justin Bond. Bond does more than merely portray the boozy cabaret star Kiki; he embodies her. Bond's ministrations are fierce, frenetic, and above all funny. But the show isn't just a wildly comic spoof of chanteuses of a certain age. It's also a timely political tract on everything from the Iraq war to the Catholic church to gay marriage, apropos of yesterday's landmark vote in the Massachusetts legislature.

As both Kiki and Herb consume vast quantities of alcohol, the show also gets increasingly moving and downright existential. Despite the fact that neither of them is really consuming anything alcoholic, the act becomes gradually, almost imperceptibly looser as the show progresses. Bond evinces one of the most credible drunks I've ever seen, and the results are both hysterical and heartbreaking.

Kenny Mellman as Herb matched Kiki's intensity with a smarmy, obsequious rendition of the classic cabaret pianist, but I could have done with a little less screaming into the microphone. We get it: the guy's deaf. Does the audience need to be as well?

Speaking of which, one major note to the production staff: the sound overall was wa-a-a-a-ay too loud. I'm not sure if this is part of the intent of the creators, but the decibel level was over the top, jarring, and at times painful. The Wimberly Theater isn't that big: we don't need the sound system to go to eleven.

But I encourage any fans of cabaret or musical theater to make their way to the Calderwood Pavilion before June 30th.

Earplugs in hand, just in case.

Cat Destroys Phantom 2 Score

It sounds like something out of The Onion, but apparently, Andrew Lloyd Webber's six-month-old cat Otto has managed to delete the entire score to the composer's proposed sequel to Phantom of the Opera. Lloyd Webber had apparently programmed the score into the memory of his electronic grand piano, and a frisky Otto somehow pressed the right buttons to delete the whole damned thing.

So the cats are striking back at the phantom, now that the latter has surpassed the former.

Poetic justice? A message from the gods? You be the judge.

Same-Sex Marriage in Massachusetts

Today the Massachusetts legislature meets to determine the future of same-sex marriage in our commonwealth. This isn't a political blog, but I am a political person. And because I filter pretty much everything in my life through a musical-theater sensibility, I will sum up my take on gay marriage by quoting lyricist Lynn Ahrens from her marvelous show with composer Stephen Flaherty, A Man of No Importance:

You just have to love who you love

People can be hard sometimes
And their words can cut so deep
Choose the one you choose, love
And don't lose a moment's sleep
Who can tell you who to want?
Who can tell you what you were destined to be?
Take it from me

There's no fault in loving
No call for shame
Everyone's heart
Does exactly the same
And once you believe that
You learn how to say
I love who I love who I love
Then just go and love who you love

I live in the wonderfully progressive commonwealth of Massachusetts, and for that I'm thankful. My hope is that our elected officials won't abandon that tradition by caving in to a bunch of hypocritical hate-mongers.

[UPDATE: They didn't! The proposed ban on same-sex marriage was defeated! Yee-friggin'-haw!]

Company Revival Closing

The Tony fallout has officially begun.

The Tony-winning revival of Company will close July 1st. (Radio Golf will also close, but blah blah blah, it's a play.) Company will have played 247 performances and 34 previews.

No word yet on whether the show recouped its investment. It wouldn't surprise me if it didn't, because it's been playing to half-empty houses, but then again, it's so economically produced that it just may have possibly eked out a profit, much in the same way that director John Doyle's actor/musician Sweeney Todd did, although the latter show did play about 100 more performances.

As I said in my review, I found the Company revival admirable but bland. The show needs to be neurotic with a sense of urgency, and I got none of that from this cast. Raul Esparza sang the hell out of the role of Bobby, but I didn't really feel any of the requisite inner turmoil. Likewise, I was disappointed in Barbara Walsh as Joanne. It pains me to say it, because I genuinely admire both performers.

So the first post-Tony shoe has dropped. How long will it be before the next shoe?

After the Tonys: Who's Got Legs?

As is typically the case, the Tony Awards have provided a lift at the Broadway box office. Best-musical winner Spring Awakening, which had been pretty much limping along since it opened last November, saw about $1.3 million in ticket sales the day after the broadcast, compared to its usual daily take of about $150,000.

But the rising tide will not apparently be lifting all boats. The New York Times reported yesterday that, despite the Tony uptick in sales, Broadway faces a "summer of closings." Here's my decidedly subjective take on how this season's musicals will fare over the summer months:

TONY SUSCEPTIBLE:
- Grey Gardens might see a bit of a sales lift with its two acting wins, but the question is, what will happen when Christine Ebersole's contract expires in the fall? She's headed for the London production sometime after that. Can anyone successfully replace her -- either artistically or financially? It pains me to say this about my beloved Grey Gardens, but I just don't see that happening. Unless the producers can pull off a major casting coup -- something comparable to bringing in Reba McIntyre to replace Bernadette Peters in Annie Get Your Gun. (Although I'm certainly not suggesting that Reba play Edie/Edith. I mean, honesty. Can you imagine?)
- Curtains will likely continue to run, with its relatively strong, if not overwhelming, ticket sales. At least as long as David Hyde Pierce is in it. When Hyde Pierce leaves, look for some stunt casting to keep this worthy and funny show afloat.
- Company has been anemic for weeks. It won best revival, but then so did La Cage aux Folles, which closed very shortly after winning. And now that Raul Esparza didn't pick up the best actor statue, as many had anticipated, I can't see the showing staying around much longer.

TONY RESISTANT:
- Legally Blonde appears to have legs of more than one kind. Although the show was ignored by the Tonys, it will likely continue to attract the bridge-and-tunnel female teens that comprised most of the audience the night I saw it. Then on to a moderately successful national tour.
- 110 in the Shade is a limited-run show, although it was extended to July 29th. Will it be extended again? If Audra's schedule allows it, I would imagine it's possible. It's no blockbuster, but is has been doing solid business.
- LoveMusik is a likewise limited run, ending June 24th. Perhaps the show might have extended as well had the Tony take been better, but now the show will likely shutter as planned and fade into obscurity.

TONY IMMUNE:
- Mary Poppins will continue its mindless onslaught on the youth of America. "Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious..."
- A Chorus Line will be unaffected by its lack of Tonys. There's not one original thought or performance in this literal re-staging of the Michael Bennett original, but there are apparently enough people who've never seen the original, or who want to re-experience it, to keep this show running well into profitability.
- Les Miserables will likewise soldier on despite not receiving a single tony nomination, let alone an award. Despite the show's originally announced six-month run, producer Cameron Macintosh will probably keep this pared-down version running as long as the tourists are willing to keep it open.   

Spring Awakening Wins Eight Tonys

There weren't a lot of surprises last night on the Tony Award Broadcast. As many people were predicting, Spring Awakening was the big musical winner of the evening, coming away with eight awards in total. Grey Gardens came in a distant second with three awards, and Curtains, Mary Poppins, and Company each scored one tchotchke each, to use Julie White's word.

Speaking of Julie White, her scoring the best-actress-in-a-play award was one of the biggest surprises of the night. The insanely talented White was un-f%$@ing-believable in The Little Dog Laughed, and I was totally rooting for her, but I thought maybe because the play had closed that voters might go for someone in a still-running show. White also gave the most lively acceptance speech of the night.

But, anyway, that's plays, right? Let's get back to the stuff that really counts: musicals.

David Hyde Pierce scored the major musical upset of the night when he snatched the best-actor-in-a-musical Tony from the figurative hands of the odds-on favorite, Raul Esparza. (Did you SEE the look on Esparza's face when they announced the winner? Ouch.) Esparza is a very talented guy, but I wasn't  blown away by his performance in Company. Hyde Pierce was, for my money, robbed of a Tony nomination for Spamalot, and as good as he is in Curtains, I have a feeling some of the Tony voters were thinking of his hysterical turn as Sir Robin and his show-stopping "You Won't Succeed on Broadway (if You Don't Have Any Jews)" when they cast their votes.

Thankfully, my beloved Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson took away their well earned Tonys for MY best musical of the year, Grey Gardens. The show's third Tony went to William Ivey Long for his witty and period-appropriate costumes. Long summed up my general feelings for the season in his acceptance speech when he thanked the voters and the theater public for embracing the two "little musicals that could," Grey Gardens and Spring Awakening.

But why, oh why, oh why did Mary Poppins get best set for a musical? Were we throwing Disney an undeserved bone after snubbing Tarzan entirely? Or did the voters genuinely think the slow-moving behemoth that is the Banks house actually constitutes good design? Note to the Tony voters: bigger isn't better. Otherwise Starlight Express would have won best set, which it thankfully did not.

More later this week on the Tony results, as the spirit moves me.

Zippel Joins Lloyd Webber for Phantom Sequel

Lyricist David Zippel has joined forces with Andrew Lloyd Webber to create the previously announced sequel to Phantom of the Opera. Apparently, the ignominious failure of their The Woman in White wasn't enough for them.

Now, Zippel is a very talented guy, but he hasn't had a hit in years. Actually, he's only had one hit to date, City of Angels, which premiered in 1989. But the same could have been said for Rupert Holmes prior to Curtains -- he had a modest success with The Mystery of Edwin Drood back in 1985. But Curtains seems to be doing decent, if not blockbuster, business, so anything's possible.

I've already weighed in on the artistic and financial potential of Broadway sequels, or considerable lack thereof. And there's something a bit pathetic about Lloyd Webber, a man who hasn't had a hit in years (well, since Phantom, really) falling back on the old Hollywood dictum: "Well, if they liked it the first time..."

My personal choice would be for Lloyd Webber to return to his idea of turning Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita into a musical, but he's more recently indicated that he's been having trouble turning it into a musical. But it would make for a far more interesting -- and professionally challenging -- project than a Phantom retread. Perhaps a gun-shy Lloyd Webber doesn't think he's up for the challenge.

Guys and Dolls: Again

It's probably a good thing that I'm not a Broadway producer, at least a producer of musical revivals. Every time someone announces that they're bringing back a classic musical, my first reaction lately has been, "Again?"

I thought it was way too soon to bring back A Chorus Line, Les Miserables, and The Fantasticks. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. (I also questioned the wisdom of bringing back Sweet Charity, but at least in that particular instance, I turned out to be right.)

So readers will be justifiably skeptical of my reaction to the recent announcement that the hit London revival of Guys and Dolls will be coming to Broadway in 2008. Michael Grandage (a Tony nominee for Frost/Nixon) and Rob Ashford will repeat their duties as director and choreographer, respectively.

I didn't see this production, mostly because when I was in London, the original Sky Masterson, Ewan McGregor, had left and Patrick Swayze had taken his place. (Um, no thanks.) Swayze was later replaced by Don Johnson. Had the show lasted I'm sure the next logical choice would have been Erik Estrada or Vanilla Ice.

And therein lies my problem. The London production needed to engage in stunt casting to survive. Do the producers really believe that a prospective Broadway production will fare any better? Guys and Dolls is a classic, and justifiably so. It's a near-perfect jewel of a show. (I'm not a big fan of "More I Could Not Wish You."  Who is this guy, why is he singing, and why do we never see him again? Plus it's a dull song.) But, as Gerard Alessandrini put it so well in Forbidden Broadway:

I know I've seen this show before
In some old high school gym
On someone's basement floor

Now, if they can get Ewan McGregor to repeat his role, I'll be there in a heartbeat. Otherwise, well, it will sort of depend on what else there is to see when I'm in New York. I said I'd never see the A Chorus Line revival, and I did. But it's not like I'm champing at the bit.

Pirate Queen Goes Under

It's certainly no surprise, but yesterday the producers of The Pirate Queen announced that the show would be closing June 17th. At that time the show will have played 85 performances and 32 previews.

Why is it no surprise? Well, the show played last week to 54% capacity. Broadway had a bad week overall, but even so, The Pirate Queen had an average ticket price of $56, which is painfully low for a full-scale musical with 42 cast members. The $400,000 it managed to scrape up in ticket sales couldn't possibly have met the show's nut.

The show didn't receive a single Tony nomination, not even for the terrific Stephanie J. Block in the title role. Plus, the show just outright sucks, as I pointed out in my recent review. One hopes that one day Block will land a role worthy of her considerable talents.

Another reason The Pirate Queen's closing is not a shock is that rumors have been circling for weeks that the new Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein would soon occupy the Hilton Theater, apparently sometime around Halloween. Brooks recently confirmed those rumors, as well as cast members Shuler Hensley (the monster), Sutton Foster (Inga), Megan Mullaley (Elizabeth), Roger Bart (Dr. FRAHNK-en-STEEN), Christopher Fitzgerald (Igor), and probably Andrea Martin (Frau Blucher ["whinny...whinny..."]).

Producers of closing shows nearly always try to put a positive spin on premature departure, and The Pirate Queen's producers are no exception. They insist that there has been great interest in staging the show in Europe. Considering that Dance of the Vampires has been a huge hit across the pond but flopped on Broadway, there might be some logic in that.

Present Laughter at the Huntington

I'm going to stop apologizing for occasionally writing about plays. Plays have every right to claim the attention of the theater-going public, I just don't happen to be interested in seeing very many of them. But there are some plays that have an almost musical quality to them: The Lion in Winter, for example, or Angels in America. The heightened emotion and aria-like passages in these plays make them seem as though the characters, at times, are singing.

The same can be said about the plays of Noel Coward, which brings me to the point of today's post, my take on the current production at Boston's Huntington Theater, Coward's Present Laughter. Director Nicholas Martin has amassed an impressive cast of Broadway-caliber talent for this very sharp and funny production.

The show takes place entirely in the living room of English actor Gary Essendine. You know you're in the provinces when the set gets applause. (Please, Boston, we're better than that.) The set was admittedly stunning, an art deco extravagance suitable to Essendine's ego and countenance.

The wonderful Victor Garber plays Essendine in this production and he does a bang-up job. I had the great pleasure of seeing Frank Langella in this part in the most recent Broadway revival. Garber is a formidable performer, and he can almost hold a candle to Langella. Almost. But comparisons are odious, and Garber masterfully embodies the role with the requisite bluster and histrionics.

The rest of the cast is a bit of a mixed bag. Martin seems to have directed everyone to be overly mannered and larger than life, which is very drawing-room-comedy, but it distracts from the one character who needs to be, Gary Essendine.

A notable exception is Brooks Ashmanskas as the starstruck (lovestruck?) Roland Maule. A surprise Tony nominee this year for Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Ashmanskas at first seemed a bit much: lots of not-so-subtle mugging and physical comedy. But by act 2, he had won the audience's collective heart, mine included. Plus, he became the source of one of the most extended and hearty laughs I've ever witnessed and enjoyed in the theater.

So, overall a strong production of a very funny play. The show runs until June 17th. Catch it if you can.

110 in the Shade: The Definitive Recording

What a thrill it is to finally have a first-rate recording of the glorious 110 in the Shade.

The original Broadway cast, which has been out of print for years, has significant limitations, mainly the dramatically challenged Inga Swenson in the lead role of Lizzie. Her line readings on the spoken parts of the album are unbelievable and amateurish. Plus the break between her chest- and head-voice is jarring. On the recent concert-cast recording, the otherwise redoubtable Karen Ziemba is miscast in the Lizzie role, at least with respect to her upper range.

Finally, we have Audra.

What more can be said about the dazzling Audra McDonald? I was out to dinner with my dear friend Richard Carey the other night (Ricky: "After twenty-five years, it's nice to know..."), and he made the claim that with 110, Audra has officially joined the pantheon of musical-theater legends, demonstrating not merely the gravitas of her four Tony-Award-winning performances (Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, and Raisin in the Sun) but also the charming playfulness of Mary Martin and the eye-catching ability to fill an entire stage merely with her presence, like Chita Rivera or Gwen Verdon.

Hear, hear.

As for the other key performers, Steve Kazee, whom I found underwhelming on stage, acquits himself partially in the recording studio. His presence seemed small in the theater, but on the CD his voice is somewhat richer and his intonation is a bit more accurate. He's still not the magical Starbuck that the role requires, but he's at least serviceable. Christopher Innvar's smoldering (to borrow Ben Brantley's word) performance as File doesn't quite come through on the CD, but Innvar remains vocally rich and highly sympathetic.

Overall, this CD for me becomes the definitive recording of a glorious and underrated show. The score is chockablock with gorgeous and heartrending pieces (including "Is It Really Me?," "A Man and a Woman," "Old Maid") as well as rousing character numbers ("Melisande," "Wonderful Music"). There are a few superfluous songs (including "Little Red Hat"), but for my money, 110 in the Shade ranks with any of the better-known musical theater classics, and in many cases surpasses them.