Archives for 2011

“For one thing, creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity; the ditchdigger, dentist, and artist go about their tasks in much the same way, and any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.”
John Updike, Picked-Up Pieces

I review The Book of Mormon and Ghetto Klown in today’s Wall Street Journal. Neither show passed muster with me. Here’s an excerpt.
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Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the naughty boys of “South Park,” have teamed up with Robert Lopez, one of the co-creators of “Avenue Q,” and the results of their collaboration are pretty much what you’d expect: slick and smutty. “The Book of Mormon” is the first musical to open on Broadway since “La Cage aux Folles” that has the smell of a send-in-the-tourists hit. Casey Nicholaw (“The Drowsy Chaperone”) has staged the musical numbers with cheery energy and the cast, especially Nikki M. James, is terrific. But don’t let anybody try to tell you that “The Book of Mormon” is suitable for anyone other than 12-year-old boys who have yet to graduate from fart jokes to “Glee.” A couple of reasonably effective production numbers notwithstanding, it’s flabby, amateurish and very, very safe.
The plot is exiguous. Two shiny-faced young Mormons (Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells) are sent to Uganda to evangelize the natives, promptly discover that life in Africa is more complicated than they thought, and prevail by being geeky and lucky. This is, in other words, a one-joke show, the joke being that Mormons are unworldly nerds who think that “bullpoop” is a deletable expletive. Most of the other jokes in the show are derivative of this one and are just as obvious, including the Obligatory Song About a Closeted Gay Mormon: “Being gay is bad, but lying is worse/So just realize you’ve got a curable curse!” This being a “South Park” spinoff, we also get several other songs which operate on the mistaken assumption that four-letter words are automatically funny when sung, plus an assortment of AIDS-in-Africa “jokes” that are to black comedy what pies in the face are to screwball comedy.
The creators of “South Park” like to call themselves “equal-opportunity offenders,” but if you think there’s anything risky about “The Book of Mormon,” you’re kidding yourself. Making fun of Mormons in front of a Broadway crowd is like shooting trout in a demitasse cup….
John Leguizamo has turned to straight autobiography in “Ghetto Klown,” his fifth one-man show. No, his parents didn’t understand him. Yes, he became an actor and started getting work in Hollywood, albeit in stereotypical wisecracking-Latino-with-an-Uzi roles. Yes, he started writing one-man stage shows in order to understand himself. Yes, his screen career went into the tank, in part because of his undisciplined behavior and general mouthiness. No, his first marriage didn’t work out. Yes, his second marriage did, which gave him the courage to write “Ghetto Klown” and return to the stage after an eight-year hiatus…but enough already! Mr. Leguizamo is an energetic and resourceful performer and “Ghetto Klown” has its moments. The problem is that you’ve heard them all before…
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Read the whole thing here.

“Nature goes her own way, and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.”
Goethe, Conversations with Eckermann

Danse Russe, my latest operatic collaboration with Paul Moravec, opens in Philadelphia on April 28. It’s a backstage comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring (we call it a “vaudeville”) whose four characters are Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Pierre Monteux. If you’ve ever wondered how the greatest composer of the twentieth century might have done the old soft shoe, this is your chance to find out.
Commissioned by Philadelphia’s Center City Opera Theater, Danse Russe is part of a triple bill called “Rites, Rhythm…Riot!” that also includes the local premieres of Renard, a one-act opera by Stravinsky, and Ragtime, a newly choreographed version of Stravinsky’s 1918 homage to American popular music that will be performed by Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers.
You’ll only get three chances to see Danse Russe, twice in Philly and once in Camden, New Jersey, so you’d better make plans now if you don’t want to be left out in the cold. To buy tickets or find out more about the production, go here.

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:

• La Cage aux Folles (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• The Importance of Being Earnest (high comedy, G, just possible for very smart children, closes July 3, reviewed here)

• Lombardi (drama, G/PG-13, a modest amount of adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Angels in America (drama, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, closes Apr. 24, reviewed here)

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• Play Dead (theatrical spook show, PG-13, utterly unsuitable for easily frightened children or adults, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• Driving Miss Daisy (drama, G, possible for smart children, closes Apr. 9, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• Molly Sweeney (drama, G, too serious for children, closes Apr. 10, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN WASHINGTON, D.C.:

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (drama, PG-13/R, Washington remounting of Chicago production, adult subject matter, closes Apr. 10, Chicago run reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.:

• Ghost-Writer (drama, G, closes Apr. 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY IN SARASOTA, FLA.:

• Twelve Angry Men (drama, G, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• Black Tie (comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)