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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for March 16, 2018

Wasting a night away in Margaritaville

March 16, 2018 by Terry Teachout

In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column, I review Escape to Margaritaville. Here’s an excerpt.

* * *

The jukebox musical, in which the back catalogue of a songwriter and/or pop star is repurposed as the score to a stage show, is one of Broadway’s staple items. Rarely are such shows any good, but some have been hits, and hope springs eternal in the cash-hungry hearts of theatrical producers and superannuated rockers. That’s why “Escape to Margaritaville,” whose score consists of 26 songs by Jimmy Buffett, has arrived on Broadway after preliminary runs in La Jolla, Chicago, Houston and New Orleans. Even though the 71-year-old Mr. Buffett is very old news—“Margaritaville,” his first and biggest hit single, was released four decades ago—a group of hard-nosed businessmen is betting that his amiable brand of what he calls “drunken Caribbean rock ’n’ roll” is still popular enough to rope in a slice of the tourists who couldn’t wangle tickets to “Hamilton.”

I wouldn’t care to bet against the folks who’ve sunk their own money into “Escape to Margaritaville.” On the other hand, I’m a critic, not a producer, and it’s my duty to report that they’re backing one of the most mediocre musicals ever to come to my attention….

“Escape to Margaritaville” is billed as being based on “the music and lifestyle of Jimmy Buffett,” which means in practice that it’s about a guitar-strumming beach bum (Paul Alexander Nolan) who makes his living rocking for the horny clientele of a crummy island hotel somewhere in the Caribbean. To this tattered paradise come two women, one of whom (Lisa Howard) is about to get married to a jerk (Ian Michael Stewart) who won’t tie the knot unless she loses weight. The other (Alison Luff), her best friend, is a priggish, workaholic environmental scientist who hopes to stop her buddy from spending her life with Mr. Wrong by encouraging her to have a fling with the dopey bartender of the Margaritaville Hotel (Eric Petersen)….

This brings us to Greg Garcia and Mike O’Malley, who write fourth-rate sitcoms (this is their first musical) and whose idea of a joke is embodied in the following one-liner: “You spend a ton of therapists and yoga when the cheapest and most common cure for stress is always a zipper away.” If you think that’s funny, stop reading—I’ve got a show for you!…

Mr. Nolan and Ms. Luff are pretty and forgettable. Ms. Howard is something else again. A sexy plus-size charmer with a warm, ripe voice, she came to my attention in “It Shoulda Been You,” a wretched 2015 musical in which she played the good-egg sister who couldn’t get a boyfriend. If the allegedly woke progressives in the entertainment industry really meant what they said about fat shaming, they’d be casting her in starring parts. Since they don’t, she’s relegated to tedious second-banana parts like this one…

* * *

Read the whole thing here.

The trailer for Escape to Margaritaville:

Or is it four?

March 16, 2018 by Terry Teachout

The latest episode of Three on the Aisle, the bimonthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening or downloading.

In this episode, Peter, Elisabeth, and I start things off by sharing our preliminary thoughts about the Broadway transfer of the National Theatre revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, which all three of us will be seeing in the next few days. After that, we’re joined by Chris Jones, the Chicago Tribune’s theater critic.

Says the Three on the Aisle web page:

The critics discuss the Broadway revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, plus the new book about the making of the show, The World Only Spins Forward, by Dan Kois and Isaac Butler…

Then Chris shares his thoughts on Hamilton in Chicago and the non-NYC productions of the hit musical. Has its move across the country dampened the show’s popularity, or is it as hard to purchase a ticket as ever?

We wrap up the episode by talking about shows that we’ve seen in New York, London, and Chicago. Some of them we liked, others…well, listen and learn.

To listen, download the eighth episode, or subscribe to Three on the Aisle, go here.

In case you missed any of the first seven episodes, you’ll find them all here.

Replay: Howard Da Silva sings “Little Tin Box”

March 16, 2018 by Terry Teachout

TV CAMERAHoward Da Silva sings “Little Tin Box,” a number by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock from the score of Fiorello!. This performance, introduced by Tony Randall, was seen on Standing Room Only: Showstoppers, originally telecast by HBO on June 22, 1980. Da Silva performed the song in the show’s original 1959 Broadway production:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

Almanac: Rex Stout on secrets

March 16, 2018 by Terry Teachout

INK BOTTLE“You should know that your only safe secrets are those you yourself have forgotten.”

Rex Stout, Death of a Doxy

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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