I've been a little bit in love with this video of Gavin Creel singing Pasek and Paul's "Do You Remember?" for a while now.
It's a really sweet song (one of several written for an abandoned Peter Pan musical project) and Gavin Creel does it beautifully. (I've also never seen his hair look better.) The video is from a showcase of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's music at the Zipper a few months ago. It seems as fitting a note as any on which to wrap up 2008. Happy new year!
"...when another artist asked what I had against actors, I said writing for them was like painting not in oils but in colored mice; after the painting was finished the mice began running around. It was dawning on me that I was perhaps not a theater man." — William Gibson, The Seesaw Log 9:35 PM | (1)
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I went back and updated my post about who I'd vote for in the Tony Awards from last month to reflect the actual winners. I batted about .400 this year, in sync with the Tony voters on 10 of the 25 competitive awards. (I did slightly better last year.) I enjoyed the telecast a great deal, but even more, I enjoyed the company in which I watched and our eclectic buffet—including Chuck's "American Theatre Wings", Larry's spare-ribs and my eggrolls and "Little" lamb kebabs—along with a lot of wine. 11:02 AM |
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The unprecedented Chicago production of Wicked will close in January, while it's still on top. Capitalized at around $10 million, it is expected to have earned over $210 million during the run. 11:49 PM |
The nominations for the 62nd Annual Tony Awards were announced this morning and, like last year, I'm going to go ahead and weigh in with my picks. Please note that these are not predictions. I'm awful at those. These are the people and productions for which I'd vote given an opportunity.
Update, June 16: It's the morning after, and I've added the actual winners from the Tony Award's telecast in brackets below.
Choreography: Andy Blankenbuehler gave In the Heights some really nice moments, and Rob Ashford's work on Cry-Baby was the best thing about the show, but my nod goes to Dan Knechtges for Xanadu. +1 difficulty for skates and a tiny stage. [Andy Blankenbuehler, In the Heights]
Orchestrations:A Catered Affair is a really sweet, gentle musical and Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations were lovely, but I'd vote for Jason Carr, whose work on Sunday in the Park with George let me hear a familiar, brilliant score in a refreshing new way. [Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman, In the Heights]
Book of a Musical: Not a strong year for the new book musical. Points to Douglas Carter Beane for making soup from the bones of Xanadu, but my vote goes to Quiara Alegria Hudesa for In the Heights. [Stew, Passing Strange]
Original Score: A close one here, with Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights a strong favorite. Ultimately, though, I'll go with the surprising serendipity of Passing Strange by Heidi Rodewald and Stew. [In the Heights, Music & Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda]
Scenic Design: (play) Todd Rosenthal's ginormous house and environs for August: Osage County was spectacular; (musical) I left Young Frankenstein humming Robin Wagner's scenery, but would vote for Sunday in the Park with George. The only misfire: Calling down the lights before we get a good look at the completed painting at the end of Act One. [Play: Todd Rosenthal, August: Osage County; Musical: Micheal Yeargan, South Pacific]
Costume Design: (play) Katrina Lindsay's gorgeous work for Les Liaisons Dangereuses was tops in my book, although I didn't get to see Cyrano de Bergerac, which is usually a playground for a costumer; (musical) David Farley, Sunday in the Park with George. (Yes, I tend to favor showy period productions in this category.) [Play: Katrina Lindsay, Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Musical: Catherine Zuber, South Pacific]
Lighting Design: Tough choice this year, in which nothing really jumped out at me among the noms. Most everything seemed fine and workmanlike. (play) Howard Harrison's work on Macbeth was quite lovely; (musical) Howell Binkley, In the Heights. [Play: Kevin Adams, The 39 Steps; Musical: Donald Holder, South Pacific]
Sound Design: Same here. (play) Mic Pool, The 39 Steps; (musical) Acme Sound Partners, In the Heights. [Play: Mic Pool, The 39 Steps; Musical: Scott Lehrer, South Pacific]
Direction: (play) No question about this one: Anna Shapiro for August: Osage County. I enjoyed all four nominated productions, although I generally feel playwrights shouldn't direct their own work. Conor McPherson's guidance of his own script for The Seafarer was okay, but the play would have benefitted from a second voice. (musical) I'm kind of torn here between Sam Buntrock for Sunday in the Park with George and Bart Sher for South Pacific. Both helmed exquisite revival productions, but I'll give it to South Pacific by a hair. (Sorry Mr. Laurents. Gypsy was not your best work, and certainly not the best of the season.) [Play: Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County; Musical: Bartlett Sher, South Pacific]
Featured Actor, Play: I loved Bobby Cannavale in Mauritius, and that's about all I loved there, but my vote's with Conleth Hill for The Seafarer. [Jim Norton, The Seafarer]
Featured Actress, Play: An extremely strong field this year. Rondi Reed, Sinead Cusack and Martha Plimpton were all great, but the always-marvelous Laurie Metcalf stood out in the otherwise mediocre November. She gets my vote. [Rondi Reed, August: Osage County]
Featured Actor, Musical: All gave fine performances, but Christopher Fitzgerald was the only actor on stage in Young Frankenstein who seemed to remember he was in a musical comedy and thus rescued the otherwise dishwater evening for me. Nice to see him in a meatier role than Wicked's Boq, that's for sure. [Boyd Gaines, Gypsy]
Featured Actress, Musical: No doubt here, I give my nod to Laura Benanti in Gypsy, the best Louise I've ever seen on stage. [Laura Benanti, Gypsy]
Actor, Play: Patrick Stewart in Macbeth. Absolutely riveting. Make it so. [Mark Rylance, Boeing-Boeing]
Actress, Play: I missed Come Back, Little Sheba, but really, my choice comes down to the two leading ladies of August: Osage County. Deanna Dunagan was just fierce as the gritty matriarch, but in a squeaker, I'd vote for Amy Morton, whose work I've admired for years, as the suffering sister. [Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County]
Actor, Musical: Tough one! Paulo Szot gave one hell of a performance in South Pacific, but I was charmed by Lin-Manuel Miranda's Usnavi in In the Heights. He certainly wrote himself one hell of a Broadway debut role, then played it to the hilt. [Paulo Szot, South Pacific]
Actress, Musical: Another rough decision, really, and so I'm cheating with two votes. Patti LuPone in Gypsy and Kelli O'Hara in South Pacific. As far as I'm concerned, these two are tied for the most thrilling female performances on Broadway this year. (I do think Ms. LuPone will go home with the statuette, however.) [Patti LuPone, Gypsy]
Revival of a Play:Macbeth. The whole production was just perfect. [Boeing-Boeing]
Revival of a Musical:South Pacific. Ditto. Although the plane was a little much. Just because it's in the budget, Bart... [South Pacific]
Best Play: Tracy Letts' August: Osage County. Honorable mention to Rock 'n' Roll, which I kind of loved, but this isn't Stoppard's year. Mr. Letts deserves every accolade he's gotten for this grueling, gorgeous soaper. [August: Osage County]
Best Musical: Fresh but strangely conventional, my nod has to go to In the Heights. I had the best time overall here of the four nominated shows. [In the Heights]
I guess we'll see how tuned in to the Broadway pulse I am. The Tony Awards will be broadcast on CBS next month, June 15.
Miss Birdseye, Miss LuPone and misplaced criticism
A piece in the souvenir program for the current Broadway revival of Gypsycasts some aspersions on Ethel Merman's performance as Rose, attributing to Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim assertions that the Merm's acting wasn't up to snuff. (I heard Sondheim talk extensively about the original staging of "Rose's Turn" at the Jewish Book Fair here a few years ago, including the same sentiments that Merman was a rote actress.)
It's a shame that anyone feels the need to disparage a prior—and in this case iconic—performance in an attempt to promote a new one but in the end, these are simply opinions and shouldn't diminish the star's legacy. For my money (and I've spent a fair amount of it, seeing Patti LuPone in three different productions of Gypsy now), both Merman and LuPone were thrilling in the role. Different, yes, but thrilling nonetheless.
Last Tuesday, we speculated about creating a new musical called The Little Merman, about a brassy Broadway belter who makes a bargain with a wicked queen to give up her big, big voice, in the hope of winning the love of a handsome prince named Ernest. (Hey, it couldn't be worse than what's on stage at the Lunt-Fontaine just now.)
Earlier today—and entirely sober, mind—we envisioned a musical set in a dystopian world where an evil monopolist named Cladwell sends a robotic Officer Lockstock back in time to kill a young boy named Bobby before he can grow up to foment a revolution against pay toilets. We call this one Urinator: The Josephine Strong Chronicles.
Of course, that's assuming the protocol Skynet uses is IP.
After a tryout in Seattle this fall, Lone Star Love is planned to come into New York for a Broadway run beginning November 1. The show—which ran off-Broadway a couple of seasons back in a slightly different version—got a major overhaul at The Rep in 1989 after its debut at Houston's Alley Theatre, when it was still known as just The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas. We had a rollicking time with the Red Clay Ramblers, who would jam at the (late, lamented) Backstage Club after the show well into the small hours. I'll be looking forward to the show's Broadway bow, with Randy Quaid, Robert Cuccioli and Rep alum Dee Hoty. (Here's some more background on the history of the show; it's been a winding road.)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame has enjoyed only one prior production—at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville in 1997. The score was praised and, at one point, the show was talked about as a likely prospect for Broadway. But potential producers ran into opposition from Disney Theatricals, which was pushing its own version of the Quasimodo-as-cathedral-recluse story. The Disney show never made it to Broadway, perhaps now clearing the coast for DeYoung, who has a big fan base. DeYoung says he is revising the show extensively for the Bailiwick production.
And since I have to be in New York for a meeting week after next, I'm squeezing another 12 hours into the trip to see both Xanadu and the closing night of Patti LuPone's City Center engagement as Rose in Gypsy. Of course, I saw Ms. LuPone in the role last summer at Ravinia and it was hands-down one of my most thrilling nights in the theatre ever. There was no way I could miss seeing here again in New York, and surrounded by such a marvelous cast. I'll be there on the aisle, just waiting for that extraordinary overture to begin again. And I've secured seats on stage for Xanadu, where I am assured by friends in the know that I will have the best view in the house, which is to say that of Cheyenne Jackson's backside. Woof!
Tonight I saw The Orange Girls' production of Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter; it was the last of a Wasserstein memorial trifecta in St. Louis this season, beginning with New Jewish Theatre's The Sisters Rosensweig and our The Heidi Chronicles.
These three plays, taken together, can be seen as something of a trilogy. Written over a decade, they're probably Wasserstein's most well-known works. For my money, An American Daughter is the weakest of the three; it was written last and feels a lot like a rehash of the themes, characters and political locales of the preceding two. The story concerns the nomination of a driven, privileged, family-oriented woman to be United States Surgeon General and the media-manufactured scandal that imperils her confirmation. The central question here, as in Heidi and Rosensweig: "Is it possible—or even desirable—for a woman to 'have it all'?"
There are some very good performances in this production, notably Jeff Wright as the conservative gay go-getter, Morrow; Monica Parks as accomplished and conflicted best friend Judith; and the wonderful Mary Schnitzler as the woman at the eye of the storm, Lyssa Dent Hughes. Scott DeBroux's set packs a lot of living room into the COCA black box, and Brian Beracha's sound design along with Daniel Lanier's lights complement it nicely.
“… we’ve relinquished … imagination to the marketplace.”
Well worth a read to remind us of the importance of the arts—all of them—to our lives and society, these remarks by Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, at Stanford University's commencement. A snip:
The loss of recognition for artists, thinkers, and scientists has impoverished our culture in innumerable ways, but let me mention one. When virtually all of a culture's celebrated figures are in sports or entertainment, how few possible role models we offer the young.
There are so many other ways to lead a successful and meaningful life that are not denominated by money or fame. Adult life begins in a child's imagination, and we've relinquished that imagination to the marketplace.
Actor Frank Langella, accepting his Best Actor in a Play honor, gave the best Tony Award speech earlier tonight, the best in several years of my recollection:
There's a line in Frost/Nixon which says, 'Success in America is unlike success anywhere else. That feeling when you're up...it's indescribable.' And I'm very grateful to the theatre community, to my colleagues in Frost/Nixon here and overseas, and to the New York theatregoing public for allowing me that feeling this season.
The line in the play then goes on to say, 'But there's another feeling when it's gone, to somewhere else, to someone else.' And I know that feeling. Everyone in this room knows it. I suppose we can't stop people from putting us into competition with one another, and once we're here, I suppose we all want to win. But I think we must honor the common bond in us, the struggle, the striving for success, because that's a race you simply can't lose.
I am very proud and very honored to work and live among you splendid people. Thank you. Thank you for giving me that indescribable feeling. I wish it for you all.
While I'm loathe to turn down a request from a hottie reader, here's the thing. I don't do predictions. I suck at them. I mean really, really suck.
So half a bargain? Here's who and what would be taking home Tonys if I were king of the forest:
Lighting Design: I'd give it to Chris Akerlind for 110 in the Shade; Chris always does wonderful work, but he really hit it out of the park here. It was just gorgeous. I'd give three trophies to Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Psner and Natasha Katz for The Coast of Utopia trilogy. [Musical: Kevin Adams, Spring Awakening; Play: The Coast of Utopia]
Costume Design: William Ivey Long for Grey Gardens, and Ti Green and Melly Still for Coram Boy. [Musical: Grey Gardens; Play: Catherine Zuber, The Coast of Utopia]
Scenic Design: Bob Crowley and Scott Pask for The Coast of Utopia; Christine Jones for Spring Awakening. [Musical: Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins; Play: The Coast of Utopia]
Orchestrations: Jonathan Tunick for LoveMusik, closely followed by...Jonathan Tunick for 110 in the Shade. [Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening]
Choreography: Kind of torn here, since I loved what Jerry Mitchell did with Legally Blonde, but I'd give the nod to Rob Ashford's work on Curtains. [Bill T. Jones, Spring Awakening]
Direction of a Musical: John Doyle for Company. He really pulled the whole production together, and his conceit of actors-as-orchestra worked ideally here. [Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening]
Direction of a Play: Another toughie, but my award goes to Michael Grandage for Frost/Nixon, a superlative production all around. [Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia]
Featured Actress in a Musical: Karen Ziemba in Curtains. (As I noted before, I'd love to see her up for a leading lady Tony sometime soon.) [Mary Louise Wilson, Grey Gardens]
Featured Actor in a Musical: John Gallagher Jr. for Spring Awakening, closely followed by Christian Borle in Legally Blonde. [John Gallagher Jr., Spring Awakening]
Featured Actress in a Play: Jennifer Ehle in The Coast of Utopia. [Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia]
Featured Actor in a Play: Stark Sands in Journey's End. [Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia]
Leading Actress in a Musical: Man alive, this is the hardest category for me to choose, because each of the nominees gave performances that knocked me out, but I'll go with my first choice, which is Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens. [Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens]
Leading Actor in a Musical: Raúl Esparza in Company. Hands down, no contest. Best. Bobby. Ever. [David Hyde Pierce, Curtains]
Leading Actress in a Play: I loved Eve Best in A Moon for the Misbegotten, but I really want the Tony to go to Julie White from The Little Dog Laughed. She split my sides. [Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed]
Leading Actor in a Play: Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon. An amazing, mesmerizing performance. [Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon]
Best Theatrical Event: Alas, I missed both nominees, but Kiki & Herb are my sentimental favorite. [Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!]
Best Revival of a Musical: If Company wasn't in the running, this would be 110 in the Shade's award. But I gotta go with Mr. Sondheim's masterpiece under Mr. Doyle's direction. Almost perfect. [Company]
Best Revival of a Play: Journey's End. [Journey's End]
Best Original Score: Spring Awakening. [Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, Spring Awakening]
Best Book of a Musical: Spring Awakening. [Steven Sater, Spring Awakening]
Best Musical: While acknowledging that Spring Awakening has the edge here, my award would go to Curtains for sheer fun. [Spring Awakening]
Best Play: Mr. Stoppard's marathon The Coast of Utopia, trailed by Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon. [The Coast of Utopia]
I've been trying to organize my thoughts about the theatre season just passed but they're about as jumbled as the stack of ticket stubs on my desk. I've spent more time in New York this season--on trips short and long--and since I seldom let a night in the city go by without seeing a show, that means I saw nearly everything worthwhile that opened on Broadway, a rare year for me. I got to see a lot of shows elsewhere too and, of course, we produced a few. Herewith some non-comprehensive notes:
The very best things I saw on any stage this season were both limited-run, concert editions of favorite shows. I sat gleefully third row at Ravinia in August to see Patti LuPone as Rose and Jessica Boevers (now Bogart) in the title role of Gypsy. This was hardly a scaled-down production, however; for a "concert", it was pretty fully-mounted. It was simply thrilling, absolutely, and one of those nights in the theatre I'll treasure forever. (I strongly suspect it was an event that will become like Woodstock and, years in the future, thousands upon thousands will claim to have been in the park that night witnessing LuPone's "Rose's Turn".)
Neither snow nor rain nor flesh-eating bacteria or any other unlikely fate that might have befallen me could have kept me from Encores! concert of Follies at City Center. I wrote a few lines about that show while still basking in its afterglow.
Company: I first saw this show in Cincinnati with our pals at the Playhouse in the Park; I documented my thoughts on the production pretty well here at the time. I'm pleased to report that the show (which did, in fact, transfer to a Broadway run) held up to my expectations in New York. I saw an early preview and another performance a few weeks ago. It remains, of the many, many I've seen, my favorite production of the work and I am certainly pulling for Raul Esparza, the best damn Bobby I've ever seen, to take the Tony Award this weekend.
Journey's End was the best drama I saw in New York this season, and The Little Dog Laughed was the most entertaining (if unevenly wrought) comedy. I also adored The Year of Magical Thinking, and Vanessa Redgrave's performance therein. Not forgetting, of course, The Coast of Utopia; I had seen Voyage in London several years ago and ran the marathon at Lincoln Center this spring. It's a sweeping drama in a class on its own.
I also explored the fine line between pain and pleasure by sitting through an early performance of Terrance McNally's Deuce, easily one of the most poorly constructed plays I've ever seen. It was redeemed only by marvelous performances by Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes. Delightful as they were, they couldn't improve the material, but I consider my ticket price a worthwhile investment for the hug I received by Ms. Lansbury at the stage door while reminiscing about her performances at The Muny.
Repeat performances: I made another trip to see The Drowsy Chaperone, since I'd missed Sutton Foster on an earlier visit. Bob Martin's performance at the Man in the Chair was as witty as ever, but the show as a whole doesn't hold up terribly well on repeated viewings. I also dropped in again on the New York production of Altar Boyz; call it field research.
After I saw Spring Awakening, a friend asked for my impression and I said what I've repeated often since: "I'm not in the target demographic." That said, I enjoyed the heck out of the show (probably helps that I'm a Duncan Sheik fan) and was delighted to see a younger audience in attendance than at any other production all season. I've had the cast album in my car stereo for weeks. It's not revolutionary (as it occasionally has been hailed), it's not a Rent or a Hair in either its ambition or its realization, but it is a great evening of theatre very well-performed.
I suppose I am in the demo for Legally Blonde, aimed as it is squarely at teen/tween girls and gay men, and I have to say I had a great time with it. The whole show starts at a sprint and never slows down, the music is bouncy, some of the choreography is amazing and all in all, the show is a lot of fun. What it doesn't do--unlike, say, Hairspray--is reveal anything particularly new about the material; if you've seen the Reese Witherspoon movie, there's nothing here to surprise you. I certainly wasn't surprised about one other thing: Laura Bell Bundy's performance as Elle Woods. She is fierce. Snaps to her.
I loved Grey Gardens, and will not be at all surprised or disappointed if Christine Ebersole takes the Tony Award for her dual role at big and little Edies. The show isn't for everyone and I have some questions about how well it will tour, but I found the show--especially Act Two--astonishing.
Likewise, as a Kurt Weill fan, I thoroughly enjoyed LoveMusik, which I saw at an early preview and hope to revisit now that it's more settled. Donna Murphy and Michael Cerveris give--surprise, surprise--amazing performances. Murphy, in particular, just disappears into Lotte Lenya. It's another show that is not particularly commercial and probably wouldn't survive outside the rarified world of non-profit theatre, but I'm so glad I saw it.
I saw two revivals at the Roundabout this year, The Apple Tree and 110 in the Shade. This was the third production of The Apple Tree I've seen in the past few years and while I enjoyed Kristin Chenoweth's performance, I don't need to see another one for a great while, I think. 110 in the Shade, on the other hand, was a joy. New pal Bobby Steggert (who was in our production of Shakespeare's R&J last season) is going to be a big star, mark my words. Audra McDonald was perfection as Lizzie. Forget the naysayers who opine that she's too beautiful to play a plain old maid. Lizzie isn't necessarily actually plain, she just needs to believe that she is. McDonald makes you believe she believes and, of course, she sings the hell out of the role. I had some goose bumps.
I've saved the best for last. A few years ago, when I first saw Hairspray, folks asked my opinion of it and I honestly said it wasn't the best musical I'd ever seen but it was, hands down, the most fun I'd had in the theatre in a long time. I am now saying the same thing about Curtains, the Kander and Ebb (and Holmes et al) musical at the Hirschfeld. If you're a fan of musical comedy--a real, diehard, dyed in the cotton musical theatre fan--hie thee to Telecharge and get the best seat you can. The songs, the jokes, the production numbers, the inside jokes...it all added up for me. I left dancing onto 45th Street and wishing I could see it again right away. David Hyde Pierce, Debra Monk and Karen Ziemba (someone get this gal a lead, please!) deserve all the awards they can carry. I'm gushing? So kill me. This show did.
I'm leaving out of a ton of things I saw and, to varying degrees, enjoyed, but that'll have to do for now. Perhaps I'll roundup some favorites from the day job and other local theatres in a day or so.
I've been to a marvelous party with the Weismann Girls. Follies last night at City Center was a performance I'm going to remember for a long time, and was certainly the best damned Encores! production I've ever seen.
One of the reviews I read said something to the effect that even if the cast had performed only the last four numbers, it would still have been an outstanding production, and that's so true. Michael McGrath as Buddy doing "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues", Victoria Clark as Sally singing "Losing My Mind", Donna Murphy and the men's ensemble tearing up "The Story of Lucy and Jessie" and Victor Garber breaking down "Live, Laugh, Love"...I don't think I've had a more thrilling 20 minutes or so in the theatre in years.
Being closing night with a lot of repeat guests, every number was greeted with thunderous and mostly deserved applause. After Arthur Rubin, who has still got amazing pipes, brought on the cast with "Beautiful Girls", I really thought the show would run an hour longer just for the ovations. By the time Anne Rogers and Robert Fitch did their first dance specialty with "Rain on the Roof", I had a smile on my face that didn't fade all night.
JoAnne Worley as Stella was a scream (literally!), and lord, lord, lord, lord, lord, that woman and all the Weismann girls danced the hell out of "Who's That Woman". Donna Murphy lost a shoe midway through the number and kept right on tapping with one, then reclaimed it and held it over her head triumphantly come the final break.
I've heard a lot against Christine Baranski as Carlotta but I have to say, she created a perfectly consistent portrayal of a woman getting by the best she can with what she's got and what life dealt her. If she didn't exactly hit the final note of "I'm Still Here", I wouldn't have expected her Carlotta to do so. Yvonne Constant (Solange) and Mimi Hines (Hattie) were perfect, and I don't believe I've heard any old and young Heidi (Lucine Amara and Leena Chopra) blend better singing "One More Kiss".
From top to bottom, though, the show belonged to Clark and Murphy. I'm so sad the production wasn't recorded, because I'll have only my memory of their fantastic performances of "Could I Leave You?", "In Buddy's Eyes" and their two 11 o'clock numbers. But what a memory!
The house Monday night was sold out to the rafters, and the show began about 20 minutes late because of a will-call line that stretched all the way down 55th. There were even more stars in the audience than on stage; I spied Fred Willard, Bernadette Peters, Martin Short, Nathan Lane, Alfred Molina, and Matt Cavanaugh, as well as Paul Rudnick, John Doyle and, of course, Mr. Sondheim himself, who was all smiles. At the intermission, Sarah Jessica Parker, with Matt Broderick in tow, came up to me on the sidewalk to ask for a light. Of course, it was fun sitting with my pal Hunter and what seemed like most of the cast of [title of show]
As I was leaving, I spotted Donna McKechnie and Barbara Cook chatting and both looking radiant. Seeing those two former Sallys together was the perfect coda to my evening. And like Sally, I'm so glad I came.
Brad L. Graham is a writer, editor, riverboat gambler, fashion consultant, softshoe dancer, professional assassin, freelance factotum and singer of sentimental ballads.The BradLands is his home on the web.
Choreography: Andy Blankenbuehler gave In the Heights some really nice moments, and Rob Ashford's work on Cry-Baby was the best thing about the show, but my nod goes to Dan Knechtges for Xanadu. +1 difficulty for skates and a tiny stage. [Andy Blankenbuehler, In the Heights]
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Brad L. Graham is a writer, editor, riverboat gambler, fashion consultant, softshoe dancer, professional assassin, freelance factotum and singer of sentimental ballads.The BradLands is his home on the web. 
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