Blogs: Posts Tagged ‘ broadway across america ’

  It was something of a surprise when the unpretentious Memphis beat out both the indy-rock spectacle American Idiot and the afrobeat fantasia Fela! for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical: the latter two musicals had generated a lot more buzz (if not box-office receipts) than this modest, earnest, and generally enjoyable tale...
Read more »

  Weirdly, I’d never before seen a version of the original Peter Pan before last night’s opening here in San Antonio: yes, I’d witnessed postmodern Peter Pans (such as the American Repertory Theater’s deeply flawed Peter Pan and Wendy) and manic mash-ups (such as Peter and the Starcatcher, currently enjoying a healthy run on...
Read more »

Well, the Wicked Stage was perfectly ready to spread some snark after discovering that the first national tour of Catch Me If You Can was—horrors!—non-Equity (that is to say, non-union): that’s the sort of cost-cutting measure usually reserved for a tour that has seen a few go-arounds. But for all of our wickedness—and venom...
Read more »

Christopher Sieber may strut upon the stage in high heels and a feather boa, but it’s George Hamilton who’s sort of a drag in an otherwise effective revival of La Cage Aux Folles. And that’s a shame, because Sieber is so talented and so winning that he pretty much pulls off the evening in...
Read more »

The highest compliment one can pay to a film-to-stage transfer is that it doesn’t feel like a film-to-stage transfer: that it has a life, and radiance, entirely its own. So I’ve never watched Stephen Daldry’s film of Billy Elliot partly because I’ve been so enchanted by his musical of Billy Elliot, which seems to...
Read more »

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost twenty years since I saw the Blue Man Group at the small Charles Playhouse in Boston; my memories are a bit hazy, but I recollect plenty of liquids, regurgitation, percussion, and toilet paper. (I do hope these are memories of the Blue Man Group.) So I...
Read more »

The eternally-touring production of Fiddler on the Roof has now parked itself at the Majestic for a one-week run, with John Preece celebrating his 1800th (!) performance as Tevye, everyone’s favorite dancing milkman. And while the sheer longevity of this tour had me worried about the production’s freshness, the opening strains of “Tra-di-tion!” soon...
Read more »

It’s crude! It’s loud! It’s terribly constructed! And it’s polarizing! Well, that last phrase is my own editorial comment, but the authors of Rock of Ages actually advertise the first three in the evening’s oddest moment, in which a gyrating, leather-clad narrator pulls out a Playbill of Rock of Ages and explains to sweet-faced...
Read more »

Ah, nothing like a the-ah-ter weekend in New York City, particularly after the Tony nominations are announced: productions are at their tiptop best as potential voters flood the theater. My quick takes, in order: WARHORSE: A transfer from Britain’s National Theater, WARHORSE tells the story of a boy and—surprise—his horse, drafted into service in...
Read more »

A newly updated version of West Side Story waltzes—or rather, mambos!—into the Majestic, with some startling revisions to what may be regarded (in iPad terms) as “the look and feel” of this cornerstone of American musical theater. Gone are the day-glo hues of the original ’50s production and film; in their stead are gritty,...
Read more »

It’s rare for a nationally touring musical to feature a production that differs significantly from the Broadway incarnation; after all, it’s on the basis of a (usually healthy) Broadway run that a tour gets a green light at all. So it’s both an opportunity (and, to be frank, a curiosity) that San Antonians can...
Read more »

After last season’s surprise cancellation of 101 Dalmations — a production so troubled it actually closed on the road — Broadway Across America has substituted a return engagement of Beauty and the Beast, the eternally heart-warming tale of compulsory exogamy.
Read more »