My Broadway Review

Following the line of canceled musicals that has preceded them (Hairspray and Legally Blonde), Wicked and Spamalot will be no more once February of 2009 dawns. Wicked will be leaving it’s place of origin (Chicago) on January 25th and Spamalot will no longer be seen at Shubert Theatre after January 17th. Due to low ticket sales, Spamalot will not be able to continue. Wicked, on the other hand, has a much different reason for leaving Chicago.

British playwright Catherine Johnson has taken all of the ABBA songs that you loved so dearly and placed them inside of her smash musical hit “Mamma Mia!” However, it would be more applicable to say that the ABBA songs are the driving force of the show. Inspired by their songs, Johnson created a fictional story to serve as the backdrop to put ABBA on display once more. Since its opening in 1999, the musical has garnered over 2 billion dollars and continues to delight theatre goers. Join up with more Mamma Mia fans at mammamiafans.com.

To Be or Not to Be has closed on Broadway. As of November 16th, the play about an acting troupe in Poland at the beginning of the Second World War has been closed on Broadway. It’s not that it was selling particularly poorly, but its reviews were somewhat less than stellar and didn’t impress people the way it was expected to.  I guess it just couldn’t compete with the Jack Benny version from the late 40s. It’s a nice story though, of Polish actors who dare to perform a play that is a satire on Nazism as the Nazis start moving in. It is a dark comedy, and perhaps people just don’t want a dark comedy these days.

That little boy who danced his way into our very souls is now ready for the big time stage. “Billy Elliot” the critically acclaimed movie about a mining boy who discovers the joys of dancing, opened last night on the stages of Broadway in New York City. While it was a huge success in London (critically acclaimed by some as the best musical in London ever), how did it fair in the New York City Premiere? Go here and three normal women of varying ages will tell your the definitive truth.

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is well into its 7th decade of performing.  Every year, there are many performances of this very famous show, which features lots of dancers and many singers and other actors and everything.  Don’t forget the Rockettes, though, they are considered some of the biggest stars of the show. We can enjoy watching them and hearing the music every year.  People flock to see this show in large numbers.  The music includes some traditional songs and Christmas themes (like the Nutcracker) and also some new original songs written for the show.  It’s told that it is fun for the whole family and a nice way to kick off the Christmas season.

Without a doubt, “Wicked” has become of the biggest broadway hits in the past few years. Taking the familiar story of The Wizard of Oz and setting this play in the pre-Dorothy days has enthralled the audiences. The storyline follows the wicked witch of the west during her not so wicked days. She actually was a decent person at one point, with a heart full of love, but then Dorothy came and gummed up the works real good. Check out the official Wicked website and find out more about this smash hit musical.

The Canadian two-actor musical The Story of my Life has been confirmed that it will begin on Broadway next year.  The show just finished a preliminary run off-Broadway and was found to be good to go bigger.  The Story features music and lyrics by Neil Bartram and a book by Brian Hill. The story explores the nature of lifelong friendships and how those develop during one’s lifetime.  The two characters are named Thomas and Alvin.  Alvin is dead and Thomas is to give the eulogy; in preparing, Thomas goes through their lives together to see what it was like and to think about what it meant.  It’s supposed to be a good show, so don’t miss it!