I like Jesus Christ Superstar. I will happily sit through a production of it whenever it comes to town. I saw it at Madison Square Garden in 1992 with Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson and Dennis DeYoung. And in 2000 at the Ford Theater. So I was looking forward to this production that had its genesis at Stratford in Canada. But at the end of the day, I was a bit disappointed in this production. The pre-show announcement was amusing, "if you feel the need for a candy, open them any time, the score will drown you out." For the most part, true, since the score is BLASTED through the Neil Simon's sound system. Not true for the time the woman next to me decided to rustle in her bag during one of the few quiet numbers ... read more

I started writing this after seeing the show, but before it posted its closing notice. I have never seen the movie On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, or listened to either the Broadway cast recording or the movie soundtrack. I did of course know the title song, and the basic plotline (person goes to a psychiatrist, psychiatrist regresses patient to a "former life", psychiatrist is attracted to that person....). In the original 1960s version, Daisy Gamble is the patient, and her past life was in 18th century England. In this version, Daisy is now David, with a past life as Melinda Wells, a 1940s jazz singer. As one can imagine, this causes some interesting complications when Dr. Bruckner (Harry Connick Jr looking very nice in a suit) finds himself attracted to Melinda (Jessie Mueller ... read more

After seeing Memphis for the first time, I did not recommend it to friends. But now, after seeing it a second time, I will actually recommend it. The main reason for the change? Adam Pascal is now playing Huey Calhoun. But there might be a secondary reason. Due to some mess up by the theater last time, we missed the first few minutes of the show and had to stand for part of the opening. Which may have colored my feelings of the show, but I think I was trying to give it a fair shake even so. I don't want to spend this time contrasting Chad Kimball, the original Huey, to the new one, so I'll just try and review today's show on it's own merits. Memphis tells the story of Huey Calhoun, a man ... read more

David Henry Hwang is a playwright whose exploration of Chinese (and the intersection of Chinese and other countries's) culture I found fascinating in both the plays of his I have seen. In Golden Child, a Chinese-American man explores his family's past. In Chinglish, an American business man travels to China to try and sell signs to a new cultural center. But things turn complicated pretty quickly. The play is told in flashback form, starting with businessman Daniel Cavanaugh (Gary Wilmes) addressing an Ohio business group. As he tells them that the most important thing for them to remember is to bring their own translator, we are transported to China, where Cavanaugh hires Peter Timms, a British born English teacher as a business consultant and translator. Unknown to Cavanaugh, Timms has an agenda of his own, as ... read more

This was a fun Sondheim theater weekend. Saturday night was a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum performed by The Blue Hill Troupe. Blue Hill is a theater group of talented people who put on two shows a year, a Gilbert and Sullivan show in the spring and a non G-S musical in the fall. I've been attending their shows for a few years now (though I missed last year's Little Shop) and every year have been throughly entertained. Forum is a show I'd seen on Broadway, with both Nathan Lane and Whoppi Goldberg. Alan J. Abrams seems to be chanelling Nathan Lane's Pseudolus a bit, but it works. Michael Macaione as Hysterium was also quite enjoyable. All of the courtesans were fun, and the choreography for them and for ... read more