Category: Broadway

Hottest Ticket in Town

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Late last year my Mom mentioned to me that the writer of In the Heights, one of my favorite Broadway shows, was working on a new Broadway show about the founding fathers. So basically my two favorite things in one. In the Heights is known for it’s hip hop score and down-to-earth portrait of immigrant culture in New York City.

Hamilton

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Lin Manuel-Miranda applied a similar treatment to the story of Alexander Hamilton in his new show Hamilton. He read a biography about Alexander Hamilton during his run of In the Heights, and loved Hamilton’s story so much that  he bought the rights to the book and began consulting with the author to write the musical.

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Hamilton is technically Off-Broadway right now, but to say it’s getting buzz would be an understatement. If you tell any Broadway fan that you’re going to see Hamilton, the first thing they’ll ask is how you got tickets. The good news is that it just solidified it’s opening on Broadway on July 13th.

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So the question is: did it live up to the hype? Of course! The contemporary interpretation meant a multi-cultural cast, a script written in modern American English, and a combination of hip-hop and more traditional Broadway music. Manuel-Miranda turned stuffy, historical caricatures from American history into accessible people with the daunting task of founding a nation.

Not only did I love the music, dance numbers, and hilarious characters; I felt like they were sneaking vegetables in my mac and cheese. I learned a lot about American Revolution history. I am a colonial era fan, and I love seeing more focused vignettes of the period because it gives so much more context to some of the larger events. Alexander Hamilton is big name because he’s on currency, but I doubt you know a lot about him. Go see this ASAP, and then you will!

PS- I cannot wait for the soundtrack to come out!!

Gigi at the Kennedy Center

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I saw an article a couple months ago about Gigi the musical being revived on Broadway this spring. I love Gigi the movie and have seen it several times, so I was excited to hear it was coming to the stage. Then I heard that they were planning to preview the production in DC for a couple months before it went to Broadway. Bingo!

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Since my parents are also Gigi fans, it was a perfect excuse to trick them into visiting me. We had a quick but tasty pre-theater dinner at District Commons in Foggy Bottom, then headed to the Kennedy Center for the show!

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The big name in the production is Vanessa Hudgens who stars as Gigi. I believe this is her big Broadway debut (or at least debut in a leading role on Broadway). Hudgens is of course known for her role in High School Musical and other Disney productions. She does all her promotional shots in that black dress but it’s actually not in the production, it’s her curtain call dress. It’s not really true to the period which explains why it isn’t in the actual show, but I’m not sure why they decided it was a good look for the promos… Besides Hudgens, there are a few Broadway names, but no other headliners.

First of all, I enjoyed the production. Second of all, they made some rather significant song changes that threw me for a loop. In the movie version, Maurice Chevalier plays Honore LaChaille, the narrator and wise older uncle to Gaston Lachaille (the leading man). He sings one of the signature songs: “Thank Heaven for Little Girls.” In this production they gave that song away to Gigi’s Aunt Alicia and Grandmother Mamita, and it lost a lot of the Chevalier charm in the process.

Also, in this production, Gaston is interested in science and technology and spends a lot of time at the “Exhibition.” I’m not quite sure why they made that addition because outside of a little dialogue here or there it doesn’t do much to the plot at all.

Of course every revival is going to have changes, but overall I thought it was a solid production. Hudgens was good, and I think Corey Cott who plays Gaston has potential. His songs always ended really strong but he needs to be a little more consistent throughout. In the movie Gaston is played by a much older Louis Jourdan but it was clear that they wanted to make the Gaston/Gigi relationship a little more plausible for the current audience (apparently a 30 year age gap just isn’t the norm anymore…).  I thought the costumes and sets were great and made several nods to the original movie which was nice.

Though it might have lost some of that “je ne sais quoi” from legends like Leslie Caron, Chevalier, and Jourdan, and I think it’s definitely worth the trip. It’s a great love story and period piece that makes me want to watch the movie again!

Beautiful

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The day after the Tony Awards this year, I called my mom and requested that we see the musical Beautiful for my birthday in August. Since Jessie Mueller, the lead in Beautiful, won the Tony for best actress, my mom moved quickly and got two tickets right on my birthday.

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Last week was my birthday, so here’s the scoop! I enjoyed it! It’s basically a juke box musical about Carole King’s early life/career. I am a big Carole King fan, so I can listen to her music all day long. I will say, however, that the show was a little long, and dragged during the first act. They performed every song in it’s entirety and sometimes twice. I think that was a little much. They could have cut down the length of the songs, or done a couple of medleys to save some time and the audience’s attention span. They did some huge hits, but they also picked some B records. I think the lesser songs were meant to help with the plot, but I had less patience sitting through those performances.

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This show is a similar concept to Jersey Boys since it’s about the life of singer/songwriter, and the songs are worked into the show relatively organically as actual performances. Jersey Boys, however, had a much more compelling plot to fall back on, where as Beautiful was basically about Carole King marrying her writing partner, having about ten difficult years of marriage, then getting divorced and moving to California. I think the large number of songs in the show took time away from developing the plot further.

All that being said, there are four main characters in the show who are all fantastic. They play Carole, Gerry Goffin (her writing partner/first husband), Cynthia Weil, and Barry Mann (another set of writing partners who are friends and competitors with Goffin and King). There were a lot of funny jokes between the four of them.

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I thought Jessie Mueller was great, but I also thought Jarrod Spector, the Barry Mann role, was especially funny and has a really good voice. And guess what. I looked up his bio, and he set the record for doing the most performances as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys on Broadway. I am nothing if not consistent!

I think it’s definitely worth the trip if you’re a Carole King or 1960’s music enthusiast. If you’re not a Carole King or 1960’s music enthusiast, you might want to re-evaluate your life choices up to this point.