Any book produced to be admired for its appearance rather than read qualifies for the description édition de luxe, and a good many others have had it applied to them for the not necessarily relevant reason that they were issued in a limited edition. It is appropriate that we use a French phrase, because the French have been, since the 17th century, past masters in the production of such books, which have always held the place of honour in French collecting taste.
The thing about Chess is, it's just not very good. It started life as a (successful!) concept album, and it probably should have stayed that way. It has a couple of really solid bangers, but in my opinion, even those have pretty awful lyrics. (And they're only bangers if you already like passionate disco nonsense, but luckily, I do.)
There have been a lot of attempts over the years to fix this show by rewriting the book. I am of the opinion that the problems run deeper than the book, but that doesn't matter because this revival very much did not succeed in fixing the book in the first place. So. Band-aid on a bullet wound.
That said, I had fun with this as a concert experience!
The three leads sang with incredible skill and passion. And I do like a lot of the music in this show--I'd even go so far as to say that I LOVE some of it--even if I think the lyrics are mostly pretty awful. Like, the first few lines of "Nobody's Side" (one of my favorite songs in the show, sung very well by Lea Michele in this production) sound almost like a parody of bad musical theater. But they're real!
Still, I had fun listening, and when I let go of trying to connect with the show about half way through the first act, I started having kind of a great time. The choreography for the big dance numbers was sharp. The set design wasn't my favorite, but it grew on me. The costumes...were, uh, costumes, I guess.
That said, man they whiffed it in terms of making this production come together as a cohesive whole. I think a show about two world-class chess players who grapple with being pawns for their respective governments isn't a bad premise for a musical, but even this newly-reworked show goes nowhere, does nothing, says nothing, indeed seems afraid to say anything except the odd joke about current US politicians.
There is no real tension (no tension! in a cold war show!) and no dramatic arc, which--there doesn't have to be a traditional arc for me to like something but I would like there to be some manner of shape to the drama. This just felt like a bunch of floating fragments to me.
All of that said, I had fun. I am having trouble deciding whether I liked this or Rocky Horror less, actually. I think Rocky Horror just scrapes by because I think of the two it genuinely tried to do something more interesting, it just didn't work for me. It had ambition, it had vision. It also embraced its own mess. Chess, on the other hand, feels like a big shrug in terms of ambition. It's like they were saying, we have a star cast, what more do you want!
idk man. This could be a show about how, at a moment when their personal lives are in shambles and the entire world is balancing on the edge of a knife, these two guys can still think of nothing but loving a game, or winning a game, or being the best at a game. I mean I guess it could be about anything. But it's just. Not.
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MEXODUS. What is Mexodus? Well, it's a show I saw last Tuesday in a fairly small theater where two guys, Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, completely floored me with their incredible skills.
Mexodus is a live-looped musical. That means that the performers would record a couple bars of music as they performed, and using a device called a looper they could play those bars back infinitely, adding new layers with new instruments as time went on. Eventually you end up with two men who, live and on stage, have created an incredible, complex, moving song employing a dozen instruments and multiple vocal tracks.
These two performers played and looped a stage full of instruments, ranging from harmonica to accordion to standing bass to a full drum kit (plus their own voices) to tell a story about Texas, Mexico, slavery, and freedom. It was one of the coolest musical performances I've ever seen live.
The show is a little bit history lesson, a little bit drama, a little bit art experiment. It is told with such clear passion and emotion--sometimes rage, sometimes joy, sometimes sorrow--that even without the genuinely amazing things the performers are doing with a looper, it would still be a really great show to watch. It's the story of an enslaved man, Henry (played by Robinson) who escapes across the Rio Grande and finds a new beginning with Carlos, a Mexican medic-turned-farmer.
In some ways, the show is structured like a standard modern piece of musical theater, with scenes played out in dialogue and moments like introspection or big dramatic actions portrayed in song. But the way those songs come together was so cool to experience?
But the looping genuinely does add another dimension to everything that's going on. There is one section where they're portraying a flood that was SO cool and inventive and sonically rich!
I thought there weer a couple of moments where the script was a bit awkward, but overall it was just so much fun to listen and experience this show. And the performers had amazing energy! They got us super hyped by the end! And that's especially amazing, considering this theater's seating arrangement was really uncomfortable (it's just a bunch of normal plastic/metal stacking chairs lined up in front of the stage).
I know there is a recording of this show available, and I don't want to say don't seek it out because I think these guys are really cool and want people to support them. HOWEVER, this was a really special show to see live. Hearing each song get built, piece by piece, one loop at a time, was something you just can't replicate with a recording. Unfortunately, it's closing soon...I feel really lucky I got to see it when I did!
Old man 1: Do you really think Amy is manipulative?
Me: (Oh this sounds juicy. Who is Amy. What did Amy do.)
Old man 2: I don't know. I think Laurie is a liar though.
Me: (The plot thickens, keep talking boys)
Old man 1: I don't think Amy should have burned Jo's papers, but I don't blame her for marrying Laurie. I don't think she's a puppetmaster. Jo said no. How is Laurie a liar?
I only have five of these write-ups to go, and I am going to finish them.
I was super excited to see Heathers last Monday. I am a bit lukewarm on the show as an adaptation of the film (which I love), but taken as its own thing I actually really enjoy it, warts and all.
I know there's a pretty intense fandom around the current off-broadway production in NYC, so I was hoping for an energetic audience, and I got my wish! Safely ensconced in the second-to-last row of the balcony, at times it was like I was at a straight-up concert, and it was awesome.
This was such a fun show. The energy was so high, it was propulsive: this production had small sets, a small(ish) cast, a small band, and it was in a smaller theater...yet the music was electric and the cast was on fire and audience was screaming, and everything felt huge. (BIG FUN.)
The cast was excellent, the choreography was tight, and I even got to see Lisa Ann Walter (Ms. Schemmenti on Abbott Elementary) as Ms. Fleming. Isabella Esler played Veronica--I understand she's fairly new to the role, but she could've fooled me into believing she'd been playing the part for years. Great vocals, and great physical comedy (and comedic timing in general), too.
Zan Berube was also excellent as Heather Chandler, which was kind of a surprise: I saw her as Anne Boleyn when Six was touring, and I didn't love her interpretation of the character. When I saw she was going to be in this production, I sort of prepared myself to be let down. But, in fact? She was amazing. No notes. Mean, hilarious, gorgeous, stage presence for days. Her ghost jumping around during The Me Inside of Me was one of my favorite moments of this whole trip.
In fact, the only negative thing I have to say about the show is that John Cardoza, who played JD, sometimes looked...a lot older than everyone else. Which, he is: he's in his mid-30s and has ten years on Isabella Esler, and it showed. His vocals were perfect for the role, though, and he gave a great performance in general, so if you just didn't look too hard, it was fine.
This was...maybe my most "fun" show? This or CATS, for sure. Jellicle Ball has some downbeats and demands more emotional investment, while this show was pretty much a party the whole way through, even when it was at its darkest. It was also my second-cheapest ticket (Mexodus was slightly less), which. SO worth it.
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After Giant, I went to see Oh, Mary!, which is a comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln in the last days of the Lincoln presidency.
I don't know what to say about this show that hasn't already been said. I had a wonderful time. Maya Rudolph was great as Mary: she played her totally bratty, and she made me want to see all of the other Marys we've had so far, who I am given to understand all brought something different to the role. I really regret not seeing Tituss Burgess in the role when I was in NYC last year! THE SOUTH OF WHAT
The setup was a little darker than I expected, as were some of the jokes, and despite knowing the basic outline of the show there were a couple of bits that managed to really surprise me! (In a good way.) The big finish was perfect. The audience was having a blast, my seat was great, everything was perfect, 10/10 would see again
In fact, this show is due to start touring this year and they still haven't announced who will be headlining it! I might see it when it comes to Chicago, if I can swing it.
My first show last Sunday was Giant, a play about Roald Dahl starring John Lithgow. The play is a very recent work--it was only written in 2024 by British playwright Mark Rosenblatt, and it transferred to Broadway from the UK earlier this year.
The play is a dramatization of the day preceding Dahl's deeply antisemitic comments to New Statesman journalist Michael Coren in 1983. The play's main conflict comes from two (Jewish) staff members at Dahl's UK and US publishers who have visited Dahl's home in hopes of convincing Dahl to apologize for (or at least soften) his recent antisemitic comments in a book review, all ahead of the publication of The Witches.
This is a complex play. There were things I liked about it, and things I didn't. The thing that was most stirring was John Lithgow's performance as Dahl; he was all jolly wit and old-man grumpiness, but in a flash his clever jokes would curdle into bullish cruelty, hatred, and incredible pettiness, which in turn would occasionally give a peek into a pathetic insecurity--and then we're whipped back again to jokes and sorbet. The play's tone turns on a dime, and Lithgow never lets up on the pressure, even when he seems to be acting friendly.
After the first or second time through this cycle, even light remarks or clever asides that seemed designed to break the tension actually only served to increase it. It was really masterfully done. By the end of the first act, it's clear that there's no emergency pressure release valve to be had at all, so we'd all better buckle the fuck up for act two.
The other actors were also excellent, especially Rachael Stirling as Dahl's second wife, Felicity. Eliot Levey as Tom Maschler, who worked for Dahl's UK publisher, was also a standout. Aya Cash as the staffer from Dahl's US publisher was a little weaker to me, but I think part of that was down to the writing.
Speaking of the writing, most of the things I didn't like about the show stem from some of the choices the playwright made. At times the whole show veered way too far into the didactic for my taste. So much of the show, especially the first act, was devoted to characters just basically giving impassioned speeches explaining their personal and political viewpoints, often in service of explaining how or why something could (or should, or should not) be understood as antisemitic. Like, they were arguing with each other, sure, and it's reasonable that people who have a lot to say would, well, talk a lot.
But for a play with such a naturalistic approach to depicting cruelty and bullying and hatred, the multiple minutes-long speeches from each cast member felt more like the playwright was trying to make sure every corner of every opinion was explored for the sake of the audience. Like it was trying to teach me what all the different views and stakes of this conversation are, or give me a chance to engage in some hypotheticals with the characters.
This was especially frustrating because I don't think this play was all that successful in, like, actually interrogating the larger concepts like Zionism or antisemitism; it was only when it dialed in on Dahl's specific antisemitism and his specific understanding of Zionism that I thought it really got anywhere, which made much of the speechifying from other characters feel...I don't know, almost like set dressing, or unnecessarily elaborate setups for other, more specific interactions.
The final section of the play was really excellently crafted, though. The quieter, tenser moments leading up to the phone call where Dahl makes the remarks to Coren were so unsettling, and all the hairpin-turn character work came together and you could see what was happening and how completely pathetic it was, and when the last dramatic turn comes it's all the more disturbing for it.
Also, side note, this was my least favorite theater (Music Box Theatre) that I visited. There seemed to be barely any rake to the orchestra seats, or else I was just surrounded by very tall people because I couldn't see well at all! And I wasn't particularly far back!
The last show I saw last Saturday was Ragtime. It's based on the novel of the same name by E. L. Doctorow (which I have not read), and it follows the stories of, well, a lot of characters and several fictionalized historical figures, but mostly Mother (a wealthy white woman living in New Rochelle), Coalhouse Walker Jr. (a successful Black musician living in Harlem), and Tateh (a Jewish immigrant from Latvia living, at least initially, on the lower east side of Manhattan).
The show's opening number ("Prologue: Ragtime") is pretty famous for how cleanly it introduces the show's rather large cast of characters and hints at its main sources of tension and conflict. It does this while using the orchestration to reinforce one of the show's central themes: that rather than flowing in a standard, regular beat, the turn of the 20th century in America is a place and period where time is moving in a syncopated push-pull rhythm. Concepts like "history," "justice," and "progress" are unstable. The people called it ragtime.
This production began life as a limited Encores! gala presentation in 2024, and after that it set up as a proper revival at the Lincoln Center, opening last fall.
I actually...hm. I liked this show a lot. I mean, I like the show of Ragtime itself an awful lot, so it would be hard to make me unhappy with even a competent production. And I think this production is more than competent! It's just that many of the sparse design decisions aren't my favorite, though I think I get why they did it. If nothing else, it stands in stark contrast to the original Broadway production, which was famously overwrought (fireworks!) and incredibly expensive to mount. Still, I would have liked a little more than the blank black circle of a stage.
But some of the performances in this show, especially Joshua Henry as Coalhouse, are so good that I do not even know how to write about them. Coalhouse as a role seems to me to be an incredibly difficult needle to thread: Henry plays him as patient and forcefully hopeful without being naive. His belief in justice inevitably feels tragic by the end, but there is not a hint of irony or cynicism in the portrayal, even in his last moments on stage, when there's rage burning in his voice and everything has gone wrong.
And his voice in general has such sensitivity, such a depth and richness of feeling that you don't even need to listen to the lyrics to feel the emotions the songs are carrying. I don't think this comes across in the cast recording the way it does live. It's the kind of performance that completely transports you, wraps you in the show, forces all other things from your mind.
The other two leads, Caissie Levy as Mother and Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh, are also excellent. Levy also gives a very subtle performance, imbuing many of her lines with a tension and discomfort her character seems desperate not to acknowledge. Uranowitz's Tateh spends the first act unraveling and the second soaring, and the actor was able to keep the character remarkably, recognizably consistent throughout the dramatic changes of station.
I will say that I think there are issues with the story and writing that have only become more stark with time (it is a story that hinges on violence and injustice committed against the Black characters, and its ending...reads pretty uncomfortably to me). People are calling this production "timely" and "of the moment" because of how it talks about issues like racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, but I personally prefer a "timely" "of the moment" production like Jellicle Ball, which offers a loud and defiant celebration of the beauty and power of queer Black and brown subcultures, bodies, and dance! Or a production like Mexodus, which I'll write more about later (it is a looping musical, written and performed by Black and Latino artists, about the thousands of enslaved Black people who escaped to Mexico in the 19th century).
I also think that the story is generally weaker for the inclusion of actual historical figures, though I admit I do enjoy Emma Goldman's role (and the actress playing her, Shaina Taub, gave a terrific, fiery performance). I also like that Houdini's there but I don't like how he's characterized, yearning actual supernatural experiences.
This was an amazing show to see live. I'll be thinking about it for a long time.
The second show I saw last Saturday was Every Brilliant Thing, which is a one-man show--it's essentially a 75-minute monologue with lots of built-in audience participation. When I saw it, Dan Radcliffe was the performer, but he has now handed the show off to Mariska Hargitay.
The show is a sort of meditation on mental health. The speaker talks about their own struggles with mental illness (to be clear, it's a show with an actual script written by someone else; Radcliffe is playing a part here, not recounting his own personal experiences) as well as their relationship with their mother, who killed herself. The audience participation comes in the form of a few improvised scenes and many scripted call-outs as the speaker talks about the list they began making after their mother's first suicide attempt--the titular "brilliant things."
The show itself is quite touching, if a bit saccharine for me at times. There is a proshot of a 2016 production available if you'd like to see it for yourself. It makes some salient points about suicide, grief, stigma, and depression while generally maintaining a sweet and cheerful tone, and the audience participation added a few unexpected laughs. At times it could have very easily veered into motivational speaker territory due to the whole list aspect, but Radcliffe steered us true and kept the feeling more "theatrical performance" than TED Talk.
It really is a show that lives and dies by its one performer. And Radcliffe absolutely nailed it. His energy was somehow simultaneously nervous, disarming, chaotic, and infectious: at one moment, he said he was going to high-five everyone in the (large, three-storey) audience, and started running around, and for a second I thought, my god he's actually going to do it. (He didn't, of course.)
I don't think the actual content of this show will live in my mind for a very long time. It was fine, but it wasn't anything revelatory or particularly striking for me personally. I know it has long been an important show for a lot of people because of its frank treatment of its subject matter, though, and I also suspect that a lot of people in the audience who came especially to see Radcliffe might feel really touched or changed just because he's the one delivering this message.
I mean, that's even true for me: despite the show not being all that resonant for me, it is a performance I'll remember.
For everyone who was interested in Jellicle Ball, of all of the promo videos I've seen (including today's performance on GMA) I think this one best captures the feeling of seeing the show, even though it's a bunch of very short clips.
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Death Becomes Her is a musical adaptation of the Meryl Streep/Goldie Hawn film from 1992. The show shoots for lots of glitz and old-fashioned Broadway charm (with a wink), with big numbers and broad comedy. It was...okay. I'm sure this is the musical for somebody, but it just wasn't for me.
I honestly found it really forgettable. I was really excited about it, so maybe my expectations were too high. Or maybe the fact that two of the three main cast members were out when I saw it had something to do with it (but I honestly didn't think the performances were the problem so much as the writing). I think the show itself was pretty bland.
There were pacing issues--I think the story strained a bit to fill 2.25 hours (the movie is 1 hour 45 minutes). The movie just piles one ridiculous thing on top of another, to pretty good effect--like we start in a pretty normal world with Meryl Streep having delusions of grandeur about her role in a terrible musical, and end up with her head on backwards, teaming up with her worst enemy fighting with Bruce Willis of the roof of a gothic castle. And the show follows roughly the same path (except this time it isn't made quite so clear that her "show" at the beginning is "bad" which seemed like a missed opportunity to me), but because even from the outset it's all so Big and Ridiculous, there's not the same contrast when the plot reaches its absurd apex.
The leads were neither likeable nor dislikeable in an interesting way. They are silly characters who exist as vehicles for silly comedy. The core relationship between the two leads did end up in a good place. I understand why they removed the "Goldie Hawn’s character is a hideous disgusting monster because she is fat" storyline, but they kept in the "Goldie Hawn’s character is so obsessed with vengeance that she’s committed to a ~mental institution~" storyline which isn't any better, as these things go.
There were a few good songs, but most of them were sung by Michelle Williams (who was pretty good in a much-expanded version of Isabella Rossellini's role from the movie), and they were sort of musical interludes--most of them didn't feel well-integrated into the plot, and instead seemed to serve more as a chance for exposition.
I was also really excited for the stagecraft for this one, and it was one of the reasons I chose to see it on this trip even though it'll be touring soon. I'd read a lot of praise of the big stairwell fall. But it, too, was only okay. I was in the mezzanine; maybe it's more impressive from the orchestra.
Sets were pretty good, though! And the costumes were terrific.
Last post before I hit the road! 8 days, 10 musicals, 4 plays, one immersive performance, and one opera. Now back to my Wisconsin life where money is real and I have to go to work.
I'm getting to be pretty exhausted (which is good because I'm going home tomorrow). My quick write-up of CATS: The Jellicle Ball is that (with two shows still to go) it is my favorite thing I saw this trip.
The basic premise of the show is this: without any major rewrites to the book, the entire show of CATS has been completely reframed as an NYC Ballroom competition, with categories like "Body" and "Opulence" and (my favorite part of the reimagined show) "Runway." The cats are now performing as they try to win their categories.
This production has performed a real magic trick. It took a show that is, famously, "about cats," pulled at the thematic through-lines of "existing on the margins of society" and "come one, come all" using rich stagecraft, costuming, and choreography, and turned what was previously a metaphorical interpretation of the show into bright and joyful text.
AND. Numbers that I hate in the original show are so good here? Bustopher Jones had me cheering. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer have maybe the best choreography of the show. Mr. Mistoffelees made me literally gasp. There is one song in the original show that I love (Skimbleshanks) but reframed in this way it's just one of many glorious moments.
Everything about this show feels like a celebration. It feels joyful and enthusiastic. It sparkles and glows. And the choreography is SO precise and SO evocative, and the emotional payoff, somehow, somehow??? feels SO earned. When the percussion really kicks in and Grizabella starts her final chorus, it's transcendent. It's like, it's why I love theater.
I hope lots of people see this show while they can. I loved it, but I don't think it'll be staying around for too long. I think Ragtime will win the Tony (even though I think this show should) and I just think this is a harder sell for tourists, especially since a lot of the reviews online are like "you should watch this documentary before you go," which might send even curious folks off to a simpler show (I think it's helpful to know what Ballroom is but they do provide a little primer and I don't think watching Paris is Burning is actually necessary).
I will also say: the fans you can buy at the show at expensive (about $40), but having one really increased my enjoyment of the show. The audience in general was rowdy and wild in a way that made me feel sad for the RHS show I'd seen a few days ago--this is what that production needed, this precision and energy and joy.
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Didn’t get a chance to post before the show. At intermission I can say this cast is excellent. Also I think the changes from the original broadway cast album are really positive!