nansiedrewbroadway

Bandstand takes place at the end of World War II and soldier Donny Novitski, returns home to rebuild his life. At first his hopes are high but he becomes discouraged when seeking employment turns up zero results. The reactions he’s encountering are a far cry from the joyous homecoming he and his fellow soldiers had initially received. As he struggles to get on his feet, he’s harboring survivor’s guilt due to losing his best friend to the war. Donny and Michael had made big plans to start a band together and head to New York City upon their safe return home. When NBC announces an opportuninty to win a music contest as well as a trip to New York, Donny takes it as a sign of what he must do and rallies together a bunch of misfit veterans to round out the band. Unfortunately Donny’s dream seems to hit a bump at every turn and as the two become closer, Julia is more persistent about wanting to know the details of Michael’s death. It is a truth that has plauged Donny but as he finds himself falling for Julia, he can no longer keep this secret... Corey Cott and Laura Osnes as the leads have a beautifully effortless chemistry. Cott is charming and heartbreaking as a broken soldier trying to make peace with his ghosts by making his dream a reality. While Osnes is lovely and witty as the widow trapped in the shadows of her old life. I finally caught the Tony award winning musical back in April when it streamed for a week. I'm overjoyed that Broadway On Demand has decided to stream this beautiful theatrical love letter to veterans. The music and the dancing are top notch. Gorgeous direction by Andy Blankenbuehler, lyrics by Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor and music by Richard Oberacker. You can order Bandstand through Broadway On Demand on Memorial Day, for $6.99. A live pre-show with Cott, Osnes and Blankenbuehler begins at 7:30pm followed by the musical at 8pm. Dont miss this! (source: TDF) A portion of the proceeds will go to the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), which supports those who've lost a military loved one. ♥️ Digital art by me, inspired by the musical, Bandstand.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a funny and clever two-person off-Broadway production currently playing at the Soho Playhouse.

After witnessing his brother's execution by hanging, Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that he feels will help mankind understand the mind of a madman. When the town rejects his idea, he decides to experiment on himself with some deadly results...

Writers and performers, Burt Grinstead and Anna Stromberg have wonderful chemistry and carry this play beautifully. Grinstead expertly plays both title characters and Stromberg seamlessly and humorously plays everyone else! She adapts different voices for each character along with quick costume changes. Just a handful of her characters include Dr. Jekyll’s sweet but feisty love interest, the Mayor and his wife, Dr. Jekyll’s best friend, and his faithful maid. Despite the absence of elaborate costumes, it's impressive how Grinstead not only transforms into Mr. Hyde, but we witness a daunting change in Dr. Jekyll. When he is first introduced, he is a prim, soft spoken and awkward scientist . Bespectacled and with hair perfectly coiffed. By the end of the play, his long blonde hair is undone, wet from sweat as he admits to becoming willingly seduced by the dark side. His Mr. Hyde wears a top hat and flicks his lizard like tongue and he is eerie but fascinating at the same time.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde will run through May 26th and is 90 minutes long with no intermission. The Soho Playhouse is located at 15 Van Dam Street. You can buy their tickets at https://www.sohoplayhouse.com/dr-jekyll-mr-hyde. You can also become a Showscore member (It's free) and the price of the ticket for members is $8.00.

“Two sides”, acrylic painting on canvas by me, inspired by the off Broadway production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (No crop iPhone app was used for the background.)

I had read quite a few positive reviews about the off-broadway dark comedy, The Biggot, and was curious to see it for myself.

I wasn't sure what to expect and was happily surprised that all the buzz lived up to my expectations.

The Bigot in this production is Jim, a curmudgeonly widowed man, who is desperately in need of a new liver.

His care taker and only visitor is his son, Seth, because Jim has managed to push everyone else away with his racist views...and Jim hates everyone. Seth, who is a history teacher, tries his best to challenge his father's beliefs with historical facts but Jim stubbornly refuses to see any other way but his own. He believes that slaves brought their situation on themselves. He is a chauvinist. He is a homophobe. He uses derogatory language towards everyone that isn't like him and his constant targets are his lesbian next door neighbors. One half of the lesbian couple, Aysha, recounts in horror that when she rides in the elevator with him, she's accosted by words she's never even heard of before! Her girlfriend, Paula, is an uber optimist. When an overwhelmed Jim asks them if they can check in on his father from time to time, Paula, to Aysha's understandable chagrin, jumps in with both feet and goes on personal quest to change Jim's mind.

Broadway actor, Stephen Payne stars as Jim and he is really wonderful in this. He manages to suddenly make you feel sympathy

for a man who on the surface seems to have no redeeming qualities. My favorite was Paula, played adorably by Jaimi Paige, who proves that even her character's optimistic light can be dimmed by ghosts from her past. The emotional shift she experiences toward the end is heartbreaking and excellently executed. Also very good is Dana Watkins who plays Seth. You can see how disturbed he is by what his father believes to be true but yet you sympathize with his desperation to want to save the life of his only living parent. Faiven Feshazion, who plays the meticulous Aysha is vibrant and also serves as the voice Of much needed reason.

I liked the set which splits between Aysha and Paula’s neat and cozy apartment to Jim’s messy and beat up one. (Nice details at Jim’s with all the clutter including messy newspaper and the Ronald Regan book, who is his favorite president, laying on the center table .) There are the two doors that face each other that the characters constantly walk through to each other’s apartments. (For the sake of the story I ignored that nobody locked their doors!)

There's an interesting reveal about how Seth's mother died and it ties into why Jim thinks the way he does. The last scenes are very sweet and unexpected. It is also so well acted that I felt the ending was justified.

The Bigot is playing at the Theatre at St. Clement’s on 423 West 46th Street (Between 9th and 10th Avenues) and will run until June 9th. The length of the play is 90 minutes without intermission. I am a member of Goldstar (free to subscribe), which often offers complimentary tickets to it's members. (*There is a surcharge.) You can also get tickets at www.thebigotplay.com.

Digital art by me titled, “Biased”, inspired by the off-broadway play, The Bigot.

Alice is desperate to get noticed as an artist. She agrees to do a commission piece for an obnoxious client but is suffering from artist block. On top of that, her relationship with her girlfriend is suffering as Alice ignores her in her quest for the perfect painting. When even her positive affirmation recordings turn on her, she agrees that the answer might be found if she actually goes through her canvas...which she does. Once there, she is introduced into a mysterious art world inhabitted by strange and curious characters. Like the gallery security guard whom she meets upon her arrival and takes his job a little too seriously; reprimanding her every time she points at a painting. She's shocked when her childhood drawings are on display but even more so when the mermaid in her drawing comes to life! The mermaid is super confrontational...and pretty bawdy too. In one of my favorite numbers the mermaid sings, What were you thinking?? A hilarious tune about the ridiculous way that young Alice has drawn her. Alice is confused but feisty and is hesitant to give in to all the craziness of this new town. (Except when she gets high.) Just a few of her encounters include, three individuals obsessed with social media and the perfect selfie, a young successful artist who took her own life, rageful artists at group therapy and a narator who has trouble making her follow the story he wants! When Alice finally meets the self-obsessed artist everyone has been talking about, she refuses to paint her. Offended by Alice's gall, she quickly has her face a judge (the self-obsessed artist of course) and jury. Towards the end of her fanciful journey it's up to Alice to decide if she can find a balance between art and love.

Painted Alice is an imaginative and fun production. Kudos to the creative team for constructively putting together a musical in a gallery space. All the actors are very good. Alice, played by Tana Sirois (In a cool outfit I want.) is lovely to watch. She has a beautiful voice and her duet with Meghan Ginley, who played her girlfriend (among others) was a standout. Their voices together were wonderfully melodic. I adored Molly Kelcher, who played several characters, including my favorite, the mermaid. Her comic timing is perfection. Also very funny were Adam B. McDonald (The narrator), Neal Davidson (the security guard) Jamie Shapiro (The doomed artist) and Craig Anderson (Also Narrator). All of them played several characters in the musical.

Painted Alice is presented by Long Island City Artists, Inc. in association with Greg Schaffert. It is written by William Donnelly and Michael Mahler. Book and lyrics by William Donnelly. Music and lyrics by Michael Mahler. There are still three performances left! April 26th, 27th and 28th! You can get your tickets at www.licartists.org. It is playing at Plaxall Gallery: 5-25 46th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101. You can follow LICArtists on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

...AND while you’re there check out all the amazing art! *Artistic Director of the Plaxall Gallery is Edjo Wheeler.

Art by me, inspired by the musical, Painted Alice.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be in the audience when magic happened. Carlos Heredia's one man musical, Challenge Accepted, bounced into my life. Heredia is very funny, no doubt, but also gentle in the way he expresses himself. His soft spoken approach makes you feel as if you're getting a pep talk from your best friend. Heredia engages us with the story of how he gave up on his dreams of being an actor and musician for a more secure job. He loves his wife and children, of that he makes clear, but his choice to turn his back on his talents had begun to haunt him. Heredia wants to do better and so he finds himself a therapist and even asks God to take away his creative gifts in exchange for something more practical. It is not that he isn't grateful but he wants to be an entertainer so badly that he can no longer take all the disappointments of not achieving this. Instead he ends up remaining at his janitor position for 9 years. Then one day, he has a revelation when he's called upon to clean the school bathroom. (I won't spoil it but I promise you, it's hysterical!) Heredia also speaks candidly about his battle with depression. In one especially moving monologue he becomes emotional upon sharing his fear of failing his children and how he’d wondered if things would be better without him. The room gets suddenly quiet and just as you were laughing seconds ago, you are crying now. Heredia's story is relatable because most of us have been there in one way or another. He shares his story but he encourages his audience too. Within one hour, you've laughed, cried, played music (some fun audience participation with musical instruments) and you've become inspired. More than following your dreams, his underlying message is to never give up on yourself.

Along with the monologue, Heredia wrote his own music for the show, which he also performs. Ironically he later tells the audience that the songs and script were written during a depression period. Yet, despite his doubts and struggles he does manage to eventually leave his job to pursue his creative passions. It couldn't have happened to a nicer friend.

Heredia is bringing Challenge Accepted on the road. His next stop will be Atlanta at Oglethorpe University on Saturday May 4th and then June 13 at Hollywood Fringe Festival in California. Then more stops in North Carolina, Portland and Colorado. Please check out his website, www.hiphipheredia.com for all the updates on upcoming shows. He is also set to make his debut in an episode of season four’s (episode 4) Queen of the South, airing in June. You can also follow him on his social media accounts: hiphipheredia on Instagram and Facebook.

Digital art by me inspired by the one man musical, Challenge Accepted.

As the audience arrives inside the theater and searches for their seats, we are introduced to the mother. She sits alone on stage on a very long white sectional couch. The words, " La mère", appear behind her, projected against a brick wall. She's flipping aimlessly through a magazine and drifting into her thoughts as she looks up at nothing in particular. She looks sharp and neat in a grey turtle neck and sleek long skirt. She is tiny and quiet but once the lights go down, mother is anything but.

The elegant french actress Isabelle Huppert, is mother, whose name, we learn is Anne. As soon as her husband, played by the handsome Chris Noth, (I know Mr. Noth has an extensive acting resume but let me have my moment of inner screeching. It's sex and the city's, Mr. Big!) gets home, she begins humorously jabbing at him in regards to his wandering eye. Father, who's named Peter, is beside himself. He can't believe the things Anne is saying. First accusing him of going on business trips as a façade to be unfaithful and then even going as far as admitting she prefers her son over her daughter. Anne is bored and restless and Peter marvels that she doesn’t do much of anything throughout the day.

What Anne does do is spend a lot of time obsessing that her son doesn’t visit and never returns her calls, so she is elated when he unexpectedly returns home late one night after having had a fight with his live-in girlfriend. Adorable Odessa Young plays several roles including the girlfriend, Peter’s lover and a nurse who possibly is Anne herself. (Anne also makes note that she looks like her daughter, though the daughter is never seen.) Anne is delighted with the possibility of their breakup. As far as she's concerned, he could live with her forever. Justice Smith plays the role of her son. I had the pleasure of seeing his remarkable debut performance as a disturbed teen in Yen And admittedly was thrown off at first by his quiet performance but later felt his performance was more detached, which seemed fitting. A direct result of his mother’s smothering nature. Anne struggles to keep him by seducing him with pills, slow dancing with him in an inappropriate red dress and later throwing herself on top of him. —Hm. Most of the the scenes between mother and son are uncomfortable with its incestuous undertones. I suspect done deliberately to show Anne’s unhealthy attachment to him but did their son really unexpectedly show up? Was Peter really having affairs? Did the son's girlfriend really pay them a visit? Throughout the play, certain scenes are repeated, each time adding a new perspective. In the end, it's left up to interpretation what was real and what was probably imagined by Anne's fragile state of mind.

Hubert is absolutely fascinating to watch with both her line delivery and her body language. I fully enjoyed her performance. The premise is interesting but I can't really say I liked the play as a whole. The supporting cast is good but their sole purpose is to react to everything Anne does, so you never really get a sense of who they are as individuals. The minimal set design works well with the play. The long couch symbolizing Anne's long stretch of days doing nothing. The mess of pills under the foot stool and the long mirror which might be a symbol of the much needed self reflection which Anne ignores.

The mother was well received by theatre critics and finished its run on April 13. It played at Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross theater on 336 west 20th street.

Digital art by me, inspired by The Mother offbroadway play.

All My Sons, will leave you theatrically satisfied despite its intensity. This is really good theatre and I can’t recommend it enough. The play opens with a view of a screen displaying the Keller family's home and a storm that has hit. (Nice special effects of flickering lightening and thundering sounds.) When the screen goes up, Joe Keller is calmly sitting reading the paper in the family's back yard in the middle of the mess the storm has left behind. It is an image which perfectly describes Joe, once we become privy to how he has tragically mishandled his authority. The storm has cut his son's memorial tree in half, which had been planted by the family in memory of the WWII pilot. Joe worries how his wife, Kate, will take the news. Their son has been missing for three years and is presumed dead by everyone but Kate. Joe's younger son, Chris, wants to marry his late brother's girlfriend, Anne, but is worried about how his mother will take the news. He's tired of living in his brother's ghostly shadow and is desperate to find happiness and pave his own future. He turns to Joe for some help but Joe doesn't want any part of upsetting Kate. Things for the Keller family take an even darker turn when Anne's brother arrives in town after visiting his father in jail. He’s desperate to take Anne away from the Kellers and accuses Joe of allowing his father to be the fall guy. At first Chris is stalwart in protecting his father's reputation but as the story unfolds, the ugly truth is revealed and more tragedy soon follows.

Tracy Letts is outstanding as the family patriarch, Joe Keller. Joe is endearing and funny, so much so that you’re left just as shocked and disappointed as his son, amicably played by Benjamin Walker, when the truth is revealed. Annette Bening is heartbreakingly wonderful as Kate, who holds on to hope that her son is still alive, but not for the obvious reason one might think. Also very good is Hampton Fluker as George, Ann's tortured brother. Having seen the truth, you can read it on his face how even he doesn't want to believe his loving childhood neighbors are responsible of such a betrayal.

The revival features black actors in the roles of George and Sue Bayliss. Chinasa Ogbuagu plays Sue, one of the ocupants in the home where George and Anne once resided. Ms. Ogbuagu also delivers a strong performance as the neighbor who knows the Kellers aren't as rosy as they paint themselves. Broadway news gives us a little backstory on the casting choices. https://broadway.news/2019/02/05/benjamin-walker-francesca-carpanini-hampton-fluker-join-all-my-sons-cast/

Also noteworthy is Douglas W. Schmidt set design accompanied by Natasha Katz' lighting design. The backyard serves as the play's main set with a side view of the back of the house, where the Kellers walk in and out of. It is visually beautiful but also projects its own story of family and being lived in for many years.

All my sons is playing at Round About Theatre Company's American Airlines theatre. Located on 227 west 42nd street (Between 7th and 8th Avenues.) The play is a limited engagement and will run until June 23rd.

April 7, 2019

It’s funny that my last post on tumblr was of Kinky Boots celebrating 4 years and now here we are, after 6 years, wishing it happy trails. (At least on Broadway. Kinky is still running on National Tour till June 16th! Keep the boots alive!)