My Broadway Review

     The play titled, “The Philanthropist” stars actor Matthew Broderick has received mediocre reviews. Many say the feeling of the play reminds them of a “stuffy room,” that is filled with pompous characters in which the actors play. The play depicts the story of a truth binding man-hater who can’t stand the debutant aristocratic society in which he is apart of. At time the play can be gently funny to watch and has an erotically young student playwright. Since the play stars actor Matthew Broderick I would recommend to people to go see this play because at least you can get a chance to see a movie star do theater. 

This entry makes people think that this blog is only for products of serious or sad things, but this is one of the most interesting productions of the year.  It is the production of Wagners “Die Walküre”, the opera. The man who plays Wotan, James Morris, may be a little too old for the role, with his voice failing him at times. It’s also possible to think that this sound made him even more believable in the role, which shows that it’s not enough to have absolute power, but you must also have wisdom. In other words, the character has power but is also quite fallible at the same time. Similarly, his characterization fit that perfectly. Keep an eye on this production: it is at the Met and it’s one of the best.

The new play at Yale is an adaptation of Notes from Underground, the short novel by Dostoevsky. The work itself is very sad and despairing. It has a lot of disappointment and the main character clearly hates himself greatly. But he also doesn’t care that he feels that badly about himself. This interpretation of the show fits that style very well. It drags you down to see the dark depths of his soul and it will also give you a good sense of the feelings that the guy has. Diminutive it is. But it’s well done. Variety really enjoyed this show and decided that the show was fitting into the normal work by the director Robert Woodward. If you get a chance, and need to be brought a little down, then you can see this show and really experience something big.

To Kill a Mockingbird is back on the regional circuit. And the new production is breath of fresh air in a theater world that isn’t always the best place for good plays. Many plays try to do too much interesting stuff with their subjects. They will try to add extra technology or unusual characterizations. All very postmodern in a way, but also not the best way to do some shows. This show is a tough one, in which you are stuck with a fantastic film version that you have to measure up to without imitating it. But in this version, they are able to do good characters, fitting to the material involved and well-made. Simple staging. Good acting. It’s a very solid show!

The newest production of Our Town is playing in New York and it’s a very new kind of production. Some people go for it on the expectation that they will get a nostalgic feel that they don’t get from most other plays and movies. The new version is more of a modern feel with new kinds of people: it’s much more like a newer kind of town, rather than a 1950’s small town. It seems to work. Plus the audience is put in a place with the rest of the production. They sit pretty much on the stage, with actors in the audience at times, weaving in and out, or sitting down. Don’t worry though, they wont force you to play along the way some shows do. This is a great new interpretation of Wilder’s older show, a little edgy, but it still works for children and families as it always has.

It’s been awhile since we brought up the weekly grosses of the Broadway world. And things have turned around a little bit, at least if you look at the numbers only. But if you look at the particular shows that are doing well, a lot of the ones that are selling better are the same as those selling well back in November and December. But there are a lot more shows up than down. Our guess is that the reason for this is that a lot of the shows that were flailing at that time have since closed their productions. As a result, it doesn’t look so bad. Plus there are fewer shows to compete with one another, so people who visit to see a Broadway show, no matter what, have only x number of shows to choose from. Thus, the shows that remain will go up a little bit. The top two were Chicago and Speed the Plow.

The new musical “The Story of My Life” has been lauded again and again as one of the best shows of the year. But it was kind of odd that people aren’t really noticing what the show actually is. Some of the reviewers really don’t like this show. It has two people in the show, one of whom is an author that went to New York to pursue his career, while the other one is a friend from back home who hoped that he could be friends with the author still. But it didn’t work. But this is about all there is. The reviewers seem to think that the the characters are hard to believe and also just don’t accept very much in the way of the plot pieces. The actors are good, but the material is bad. Read more about Story of my Life.

Without much to think about on Broadway, we have continued to review things that may come to Broadway at some point in the future. Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is one of the exciting recent shows that is playing. Perhaps exciting isn’t the right world. But it’s definitely a great show, being performed well. It holds the fun irony that Chekhov apparently had in mind with this particular show, which explores way that unreasonable women can take the best minds and take them off their game. It’s kind of an interesting show and the acting is great. The only problem that the reviewer had was that the set was a bit impractical and distracting, being two stories high and kind of hard to use in the production. Otherwise, it seems like a worthwhile show to check out if you’re in the area.

A virtually unknown Rogers and Hammerstein show is being performed by the Encore! theater company. “Music in the Air” is one of the shows that you don’t hear much about. It is over 70 years old, like many of their early musicals. It is about two rural musical writers from Bavaria who go to Munich for their big break and end up stuck in the hidden world of musical theater. It’s a good show, because it allows the writers to sharpen their satirical chops. But the satire of that many years ago seems a bit overdone or hokey now. It’s kind of a sad thing to see such a good show get so worn down, but that’s natural after all that time.

As you surely know, Will Ferrell has been on Broadway this winter and into the spring in his “You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush.” People really this show! It is considered to be one of the better shows on Broadway at the moment. It is what SNL hasn’t been very much in many years. Clever. Pithy. Right on the mark. For the full 90 minutes, Ferrell entertains the audience and gets a lot of the issues out of the way that have happened over the course of the last 8 years. It’s sort of unfortunate that we have to make fun of leaders, but when you see someone all day every day for a long time, it gets easy. Ferrel has put all of that together into a fun concentrated bit of comedy.