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August 20, 2004
TT: Six Flags over Transylvania
I got a trifle intemperate in today's Wall Street Journal, where I reviewed Dracula: The Musical, not very affectionately:Frank Wildhorn, the Rodney Dangerfield of Broadway, is no more likely to get any respect for "Dracula: The Musical," which opened last night at the Belasco Theater, than for his previous shows. I don't wish to inflict needless pain on innocent bystanders, so if you actually liked "Jekyll & Hyde" or "The Scarlet Pimpernel," my suggestion is that you stop reading now, since I bring not peace but a sword -- or, rather, a wooden stake.
Actually, Mr. Wildhorn's watery score isn't the worst thing about "Dracula." His is more a sin of omission, since he has neglected to write any tunes capable of being remembered for longer than 10 seconds at a time, meaning that you forget them before they're over. (Believe me, it's better that way.) No, the villains-in-chief are Don Black ("Bombay Dreams") and Christopher Hampton ("Sunset Boulevard"), who share blame for the cliché-crammed book and lead-footed lyrics. It's possible to ignore the music, but there's no way to get around the awful words that gush from the stage like blood from a severed artery....
"Dracula: The Musical" is more the sort of show you'd expect to see at a theme park with money to burn -- and nearly every cent of it spent on special effects. When he's not plunging through trapdoors or crawling out of coffins, Count Dracula (Tom Hewitt) is zooming through the air with the assistance of Flying by Foy, the folks who brought you "Peter Pan." Alas, Des McAnuff, the director, has yet to figure out that even the most eye-catching trick reaches a point of diminishing returns after the first dozen or so repetitions.
Did I mention the orchestra? Well, there isn't one, only three instrumentalists and three synthesizer players who labor mightily to produce sounds better suited to accompanying a discount video game....
On the other hand, I had good things to say about Horton Foote's The Day Emily Married, now playing at Primary Stages' 59E59 theater complex:
The near-nonagenarian playwright, better known to the public at large for his screenplays (including the Oscar-winning "Tender Mercies"), has reached into his trunk of unproduced scripts and pulled out this tough-minded tale of domestic woe, in which the twice-married Emily (Hallie Foote) and her greedy second husband, Richard (James Colby), move in with Lyd (Estelle Parsons) and Lee (William Biff McGuire), Emily's aged, fast-failing parents. Things get bad, then worse, and before long it becomes clear that the only one with any hope of redemption is Emily -- and that the only way she can seek it is by wounding her parents beyond the possibility of healing.
"The Day Emily Married" is far from original (it's two parts "Little Foxes," one part "Glass Menagerie"), but Mr. Foote mixes his familiar ingredients with the practiced skill of a veteran druggist, and the results are both well made and finely played. Ms. Foote, the playwright's daughter, is especially good, investing Emily with the vinegary edge of a frustrated woman on the brink of a lonely middle age. Michael Wilson directs with self-effacing precision, and Jeff Cowie's set, two rooms of a small-town farm house by the highway, is wholly true to life. (The creaky screen door alone deserves a prize for authenticity.)...
No link, so go buy yourself a Journal to read the whole review. Or subscribe to the online edition--an excellent idea, if I do say so myself--by going here.
Posted August 20, 2004 10:52 AM
