Review: Seance on a Wet Afternoon at the New York City Opera

Seance on a Wet Afternoon is Stephen Schwartz's first opera and it straddles the line between musical theater and opera. This is no surprise, as Stephen Schwartz is the composer and lyricist of such musicals as Pippin, Godspell, and the mega-hit Wicked. As someone with an admittedly limited knowledge of opera, I found Seance on a Wet Afternoon more accessible than other operas I've been to because of those blurred lines between opera and musical.

The opera, playing at the New York City Opera through May 1, is directed by Schwartz's son, Scott Schwartz. It's based on the 1964 film of the same name (which was based on a novel by Mark McShane). Myra Foster (Lauren Flanigan) is a medium who has a plan to get the recognition she thinks she deserves. She convinces her husband Bill (Kim Josephson) to kidnap a young girl (Bailey Grey) so that Myra can be a hero when she uses her visions to find the girl. As things start to spiral out of control, the story becomes darker and more disturbing, but it's also gripping and the 2 hours and 45 minutes go by very fast.

Schwartz's lyrics are fairly straightforward, making the story easy to follow, but they are also not terribly original or profound. The music, however, is lovely. There are some moments, such as when the reporters gather around the house to sing about the scandal, that are reminiscent of "No One Mourns The Wicked" and other big ensemble numbers in Wicked, but that's not to say that Schwartz is simply repeating what he's done before. He's taking a risk here and it mostly pays off.

He is helped by getting a visually striking production. Heidi Ettinger's sets have an ominous quality. The Foster home, with it's pointy roof, looks like a witch's house out of a fairy tale. A curtain looks like rain falling from the sky creates the backdrop.

The cast is excellent all around. Flanigan really captures Myra's undoing and instability. Josephson plays Bill with a tenderness and torment that makes him the most fascinating character. It's refreshing to see two young actors, Grey and Michael Kepler Meo as the ghost of Myra's son Arthur, who are so capable of commanding the stage.

If rock operas are still considered musicals, then I see no reason why an opera with hints of musical theater can't still be an opera. Ultimately, I'm more concerned with how a show makes me feel than what to label it.

Photo credit: David Bazemore

Broadway Recycled at Joe's Pub

Now in its second year, The Broadway Recycled concert at Joe's Pub, presented by At Hand Theatre Company and Broadway Green Alliance, is quickly becoming one of my favorite annual theater events. As you may have guessed from the name, it's an evening of cut songs from Broadway musicals. Usually, these songs were cut for good reason, but where else would you have the opportunity to hear a song like "Washing the World," written as a finale to Hair, during which the cast would wash the audience with sponges and eventually make their way into the streets?

Directed by Jennifer Ashley Tepper, the concert balanced songs from new and classic musicals as performed by a mix of Broadway regulars, up-and-comers, and composers and backed by Julie McBride (piano, music direction), John Davis (drums), Larry Corban (guitar), and Ken Dow (bass). Some numbers were written for characters who were cut from the show entirely. According to the program notes, The Agent was originally intended to be the emcee of Chicago, but the creatives cut him when they realized his function was too similar to Matron Mama Morton's. Though it's obvious they made the right decision, "Ten Percent" was a hilarious showcase for Jeff Hiller at last night's show.

A character that is mentioned but never seen in RENT is Alison (Muffy), Benny's wife, but she did appear in the 1994 workshop. Adam Kantor, Sean Bradford, and Tracy McDowell (as Alison) sang "Real Estate" from that workshop, allowing the audience get a glimpse of the progression from a workshop to the musical we know today.

Not all songs are cut because they are bad. Jason Robert Brown never wanted to lose "Being a Geek" from 13. The song was in the Los Angeles production, but when the show came to Broadway, the powers that be put in an intermission and cut the song because it was too much of a downer. Eventually, the intermission went back out but the song didn't make it's way back into it the show (though from now on it will be included in all productions). Hearing Brown speak about the process shed a little light into why 13 was in some ways doomed from the start. Plus, there's something special about hearing a composer sing his own work. Brown only appeared at the 7 p.m. concert and Joe Iconis took his place at the 9:30. Michael Friedman was supposed to sing a cut song from Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, but he was mysteriously absent. I'm not sure if he attended the 9:30 or not, but I was really looking forward to hearing him perform. That was the only flaw in the evening.

Another highlight was "Comet On Its Way," performed by the male characters in Spring Awakening and later replaced with the show-stopper "The Bitch of Living." Again, ultimately, the creators made the right choice, but "Comet On Its Way" is lovely and it's a shame it had to go. I filmed Andy Mientus, Matt Shingledecker, and Taylor Trensch (with Freddy Hall on guitar) performing the number, but unfortunately, my camera cut off before it finished. Update: here is a link to a video of the full song.



Here's the complete set list:
1. I Said It And I'm Glad (Subways Are For Sleeping)- Kate Pazakis

2. That's The Show Biz (Ragtime)- Jessica Lee Goldyn, Bryan Knowlton

3. Real Estate (Rent)- Adam Kantor, Sean Bradford, Tracy McDowell

4. Being A Geek (13)- Jason Robert Brown

5. Travelin' Light (Guys and Dolls)- A.J. Shively

6. She's Gone (Side Show)- Natalie Joy Johnson

7. Ten Percent (Chicago)- Jeff Hiller

8. Comet On Its Way (Spring Awakening)- Andy Mientus, Matt Shingledecker, Taylor Trensch, with Freddy Hall

9. Play Game (Tick Tick Boom)- Lance Rubin

10. Spread A Little Joy (Betty Boop)- Liz Larsen

11. Tenterfield Saddler (Boy From Oz)- Kevin Michael Murphy

12. Proud Lady (Baker's Wife)- Andy Karl

13. Washing The World (Hair)- Andrew Kober, Kate Rockwell

14. Play The Princess (Bloodsong of Love)- Katrina Rose Dideriksen, MK Lawson, Kate Pazakis, Tracy McDowell

Nina Arianda, Show Stealer

When the show curtain rises at the current Broadway revival of Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday, there are gasps and applause for John Lee Beatty's delectable hotel room set. Nina Arianda proceeds to wipe that set floor with everyone on it. Anyone who saw Arianda in Venus in Fur, knew they were seeing a star in the making. Now the 25-year-old delivers another unforgettable performance in her Broadway debut (her name is already above the title).

Arianda plays former chorus girl Billie Dawn in the 1946 comedy. Billie and her junk tycoon boyfriend Harry Brock (Jim Belushi) are new to Washington, D.C. so that Brock can get richer by working some shady deals with a senator (Terry Beaver), the details of which are hard to follow, but it's really only necessary to understand the basic gist. Brock thinks that Billie is too dumb to make a good impression on Washington types, so he hires reporter Paul Verrall (Robert Sean Leonard) to educate her.

The play gets off to a slow start, especially since there is a lot of talk between Brock and his lawyer Ed Devery (Frank Wood, in a role not dissimilar to the one he played in Angels in America earlier this season), but once Arianda shows up, the pace really picks up. From her distinctive nasally voice and laugh to facial expressions that seem vacant, but don't betray the fire that Billie has underneath, every choice Arianda makes is the right one. In one of the best scenes, Billie and Brock play a card game, and suffice it to say it's best to keep your eyes on Arianda at all times. Though she deserves a lot of the credit, so does her director, Doug Hughes. If her co-stars don't make as much of an impression, it's only because her performance is such a tour de force, but that's not to say that she isn't ably supported. Belushi balances the humor of Brock's ignorance with a temper that leaves the audience slightly on edge about what he is capable of. Leonard is the perfect straight man in the least showy role. The only thing missing is more chemistry between Leonard and Arianda.

Kanin's script still draws big laughs, especially from Billie's one-liners. (For example, "This country and its institutions belong to the people who inhibit it.") The show holds up, not only because sleazy bargains and corrupt politicians will always exist, but because a well-constructed comedy with a talented leading lady will always entertain.

Photo credit: Carol Rosegg

Does Love Song Live Up To Its Trailer?

With so many shows opening this month both on and off Broadway, it's hard to narrow down the options. After seeing the trailer for John Kolvenbach's Love Song, I added it to my list (marketing matters). The lines in the trailer are taken directly from the play, but they are more compelling with the striking footage in the video, which makes me wonder when Love Song will be turned into an indie film. As for the play, the writing can be distancing, but Andrew Pastides's performance makes it easy to get sucked in.

The show begins with a dimly lit Pastides sitting in a chair as a lamp lowers towards him. He moves out of the way, sliding across the chair in what becomes a sort of dance with the lamp. It's a beautiful scene (Kolvenbach does double duty as director), one that the rest of the play doesn't quite live up to. We learn that the man in the first scene is Beane (Pastides), a slightly unstable introvert whose only human interaction seems to be with his sister Joan (Laura Latreille) and her husband Harry (Ian Badford). One night he comes home to discover a woman, Molly (Zoë Winters), in his apartment, robbing him for what little possessions he has (not much more than a cup, hat, and spoon). He falls instantly in love with her and their relationship changes both him and his family. Though the writing can be annoyingly quirky for the sake of being quirky--Molly and Beane's romantic exchanges include lines like, "I will live among your teeth, I'll build a house on your molars"--the play redeems itself in the surprising tenderness displayed between Joan and Harry and Beane and Joan.

At first, Latreille tries too hard as an uptight workaholic, but as her character loosens up, the actress also seems to get more comfortable in the role. But Pastides's performance is so engaging that the other actors don't make as strong an impression.

Be A Broadway Star...In Your Living Room

Last night, Ken Davenport held a game night in his offices for the Be A Broadway Star board game. It was a chance to play the game, meet other theater enthusiasts, and eat pizza.

The game is basically Life meets Monopoly with a Broadway twist. Players start out in acting school and as they move across the board, they audition, join Equity, hire an agent, etc. They may even win a Tony. The object of the game is to have the most fans at the end of the game. You do this by getting "fan cards." The rules are a little complicated, but like most games, you get the hang of it once you start playing. If you love theater and board games (as I do), you will no doubt enjoy this game, but you don't need to have extensive theater knowledge to play. There are some bonuses that require to you to sing from a show and you may have to answer a few trivia questions, but winning the game mostly has to do with luck and fortunately for me, nothing to do with singing talent.

Lyrics and Lyricists Downtown: David Yazbek

Though he has only written the score for three Broadway musicals--The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown--David Yazbek is one of the best musical theater composer/lyricists of the 21st century. I'm still bitter that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels didn't win a Tony for new musical or score in 2005 (sorry Spamalot and The Light in the Piazza). Yazbek has a true gift for writing clever lyrics (it's the rare modern score that doesn't contain lyrics that make me cringe), so he was a perfect choice for the series Lyrics and Lyricists Downtown at 92YTribeca, despite his claims that he doesn't like writing lyrics.

Yazbek was joined on Monday night by director Jack O'Brien (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, and currently Catch Me If You Can) for a casual and intimate evening of conversation and music, backed by a terrific band--Marco Paguia (music director, piano), Brian Hamm (bass), and Dean Sharenow (drums). They began by talking about how The Full Monty came about. Interestingly, it was Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza) who suggested Yazbek to O'Brien, because "his music has edge and he knows the hook of a song." If you didn't know that before, the performances throughout the evening proved it.

Patrick Wilson and John Ellison Conlee from the original cast of The Full Monty were joined by Sean Altman (best known for Rockapella) for "Big Ass Rock," a song about being such a good friend that you'd help your friend commit suicide (it's a lot funnier than it sounds). As somone who wishes I had seen The Full Monty on Broadway, this was quite a treat. "You Walk With Me" (Altmen and Yazbeck), "Man" (Wilson and Conlee), and "Breeze Off The River" (Wilson) were also performed. After that last song, O'Brien told Wilson not to stay away from musical theater too long, and I hope he takes those words to heart.

O'Brien and Yazbek described the process of working on the show as a joyous one and this was obvious from the easy rapport between both them and the actors. One of the highlights of this portion of the evening was Yazbek explaining that he didn't want to write a ballad or an "I want" song (he ended up writing both), so he tried to write an "I'm stuck" song. Wilson gave us a sampling of that song from the wings. ( "Standing in the middle of a parking lot.")

The next segment focused on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. This time, it was Yazbek who wanted to do a musical based on the movie and he teamed up with bookwriter Jeffrey Lane, who subsequently wrote the book for Women on the Verge. Mylinda Hull (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) performed "Here I Am" and Yazbek mentioned that that there were some moments in that song where he was patting himself on the back while writing them--the two main ones being, "Sort of in a spin since Cincinatti," and, "This nice sincere sancerre is French." Those pats on the back were deserved.

Setting up the song "Like Zis/Like Zat," which Hull and Altman were going to perform, O'Brien was explaining how original Broadway cast members Joanna Gleason and Gregory Jbara weren't dancers, but choreographer Jerry Mitchell said he could get them to dance for the dance break. There were some exclamations from the audience, and it turns out Jbara was in the audience, wanting to make it known that he could hear everything they were saying. Altman ceded the microphone to Jbara, who ended up joining Hull for a surprise highlight of the evening. It says something about the relaxed atmosphere of the evening that he would go up and perform unrehearsed. I still say that Andre is the role Jbara should have won the Tony for, let alone have been nominated for, but that's neither here nor there. Because O'Brien and Yazbek spent so much time talking about how the actors influenced the work in The Full Monty, I would have liked to hear about how this came into play with Norbert Leo Butz and John Lithgow, but there was a lot of ground to cover in one evening.

When they moved on to Women on the Verge, Yazbek made it clear he is very proud of the show, which was largely panned by critics. He sang a cut song, "My Crazy Heart," the Spanish-flavored original opener which was better than most of what made it into the show, but will be a bonus track on the cast recording. Hull sang "Lovesick" and although I thought Women on the Verge was very flawed, hearing the song out of context made me think that maybe there is a lot to the score that I misjudged. Laura Benanti performed the show-stopper "Model Behavior" in all its manic glory and it was a joy to see and hear again.

The evening ended with some of Yazbek's non-musical theater music, which is just as entertaining. I can't wait to see/hear what comes next from Yazbek, and maybe in a few years we'll get Lyrics and Lyricists Downtown: David Yazbek part 2.

Review: Blue Man Group (finally)

When I was a college student in the Boston area, it was all the rage to usher for Blue Man Group. That might be a slight exaggeration, but I do remember people constantly talking about it. As much as I wanted to see it/volunteer usher, somehow or another, I never got around to it. When I moved to New York, there was always something new to see, so I would always forgot about those long-running shows. About a week ago, I finally had a chance to see what I've been missing at the Astor Place Theatre, where Blue Man Group has been playing since November, 1991.

Blue Man Group was created by Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, and Chris Wink, who still perform in the show, along with a rotating cast (there are three Blue Men in each performance). It is immediately obvious why this show has lasted so long. It's appropriate for all ages and you don't need to speak English to understand as the Blue Men don't speak. They do, however, create art using gum balls and marshmallows, make music, and make appealing messes. The Blue Men are like inquisitive children and their sense of wonder is contagious, so even a roll of toilet paper can be the source of entertainment. By the time the show ends, audience members are out of their seats and dancing, but unlike other shows where the party atmosphere feels forced, here it feels natural.

For those weary of audience participation, there is plenty in this show. Luckily, all I had to do was hold a bowl of cereal and two flashlights for a few seconds. One woman had to have a dinner of Twinkies on stage with the Blue Men, but she seemed to enjoy herself.

The show has been revamped and even not having not seen the show before, I could pick out the modern additions, such as a Lady GaGa song and giant iPads, and though these did get laughs, contemporary references aren't really necessary to the show. There is something timeless about the Blue Men where even something as simple as paint on a drum will always make people laugh. You know what they say, if it ain't broke...

Contest: Win Tickets to Tomorrow Morning

Update: The contest is now closed. Congratulations Gayle! I will contact you shortly with details on how to claim your tickets.

Currently running at the York Theatre Company, Tomorrow Morning is a new musical with book, music, and lyrics by Laurence Mark Wythe and starring D.B. Bonds, Autumn Hurlbert, Matthew Hydzik, and Mary Mossberg. It follows a young couple about to get married and their older selves ten years later. I am pleased to offer one reader a pair of tickets to the show. Answer the following trivia question in the comments section for a chance to win tickets:

Tomorrow Morning was first produced in London in 2006 and then in Chicago in 2008. What award did the musical win for its 2008 Chicago production? Hint: The answer can be found on the show's website. I have temporarily turned on comment moderation and will wait until the contest ends to post the comments. Please include your e-mail address or Twitter handle so you can be contacted if you win. A winner will be selected randomly from the correct entries on Friday, April 8.

Photo credit: Carol Rosegg

Hogwarts Comes To Times Square

If you notice a lot more muggles in Gryffindor ties and wizard cloaks than usual in Times Square, they might be headed to see a singing/dancing Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed, or they might be on their way to see Radcliffe's quidditch robes up close in Harry Potter: The Exhibition at Discovery Times Square on 44th Street.

The exhibit is a touring collection of props and costumes from the films and will be in New York--the last U.S. stop on the tour--through September 5. The $25 adult/$19.50 child (13 and up are considered adults) price tag is steep, especially for families, but for huge fans of the movies, it's worth it. I did see someone handing out discounts on Broadway, so you may be able to shave a few dollars off the price.

Guests are first taken into a room where they have a chance to be sorted by the sorting hat (only a few per group will be chosen, so be sure and raise your hand quickly if you want to participate). It's a little bit of a cheat, because they ask you your favorite house and everyone gets into whatever house they say. The exhibit is nicely laid out and very easy to follow. You can purchase an audio tour for an additional $7, which has interviews with the costume designer, producer, and others, but I don't think this portion is necessary to enjoy the exhibit.

When watching the movies, you don't really see the details on the props, such as the carvings on the wands that make each unique. The exhibit allows you to get a closer look and see how much artistry is involved. Some of the props you'll see include Harry Potter's acceptance letter into Hogwarts, the Marauder's Map, and the time turner (if these objects don't mean anything to you, this exhibit probably isn't for you). I particularly enjoyed a notice board from the Gryffindor common room, which was full of hilarious flyers that I never noticed in the films. You are likely to find costumes worn by your favorite actors/characters, as even secondary characters are represented in some capacity. There are also original models used to create the CGI characters like Buckbeak and Kreacher.

Most of the exhibit is look don't touch, but there are a few interactive activities, such as a game where you can throw quaffles into hoops. Some props may be scary for young children, especially the Death Eater masks, but overall, I think it's appropriate for children (and adults) of all ages. As the release date of the final Harry Potter film approaches, the exhibit is a reminder of why so many fell in love with the books and the movies to begin with.

Review: The Promise at 59E59

It is possible to not enjoy watching a show and still see the value in it. That is how I felt about The Promise, a one-woman thriller by Douglas Maxwell and directed by Johnny McKnight at 59E59. As much as I admired Joanna Tope's performance, I have difficulty with one-woman or one-man shows. My mind is more likely to wander and I miss the human interactions. I know I could have just written a review without mentioning this, but I wanted to explore why I felt bad for not liking the show more, though I personally don't think anybody should have to apologize for their taste. I'd love to hear thoughts in the comments on liking versus admiring a show or any specific examples you'd like to share.

Tope plays Maggie Brodie, a former schoolteacher who is brought in to substitute for a day at a school in London. One of the students is a six-year-old student from Somalia, Rosie, who refuses to speak, and Brodie is appalled by members of the community who believe Rosie is possessed. Tope's performance is fearless in that she is not afraid to delve into her character's demons and show the ugly side of her. At the same time, when she speaks to her students in a soft-spoken but not condescending voice, you can imagine what a good teacher she was. Details such as coats being added or removed from cubbie holes in Lisa Sangster's realistic classroom set and Tim Reid's innovative video projections are effectively used to signal the coming and going of children. Karen MacIver's music is a little too melodramatic and occasionally Maxwell's writing suffers the same fate.

How To Succeed on Broadway While Really Trying

Whether or not you've seen or care about the Harry Potter movies, Daniel Radcliffe is sure to charm the pants of you in How To Succeed On Business Without Really Trying, currently playing at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

How To Succeed, with a score by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, originally opened on Broadway in 1961 and is one of eight musicals to receive the Pulitzer Prize for drama (it also won the Tony for best musical). Radcliffe plays J. Pierrepont Finch, a window washer who gets a job in the mailroom at World Wide Wicket Company and uses the book How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying to move up the corporate ladder. He is so consumed with his mission that he doesn't have time for the romantic advances of secretary Rosemary Pilkington (Rose Hemingway). Because there has been much comparison with previous Finches, at this point I feel it is necessary to disclose that I had never seen a production of the musical, so I'm only going to address what I saw on stage that night. Radcliffe's natural charisma and youth make it easy to sympathize with the character, even while he fools others to get ahead. He has a surprisingly pleasant singing voice and for someone who claims to have never taken a dance lesson before being cast in this show, he is quite agile. He doesn't make it seem effortless, but that doesn't make it any less of a pleasure to watch. He is well-matched with both the sweet-voiced Hemingway and a grumbling John Larroquette, making his Broadway debut as the president of the company, J.B. Biggley (owing somewhat to their height difference).

It is hard not to be reminded of choreographer/director Rob Ashford's Promises, Promises of last season, with its brightly-colored '60s nostalgia, and he even brought along some of that ensemble with him, but unlike that production, here the dance numbers energize the show. Some of the jokes are dated and the sexism might be hard for some to take. But for a show with a song called "Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm" where Rosemary sings, "I'll be waiting until his mind is clear while he looks through me. Right through me.," it's actually the women--particularly Ellen Harvey as Biggley's secretary Miss Jones and Tammy Blanchard as his mistress Hedy La Rue--who get the bulk of the laughs. Mary Faber, who was just seen in American Idiot, was the biggest surprise in a sassy turn as another of the secretaries, Smitty. I would be remiss if I closed this review without mentioning Rob Bartlett's crowd-pleasing performance as Twimble (he also plays Wally Womper) in the "The Company Way"--one of those old-fashioned numbers led by a character actor that one doesn't see enough of on Broadway these days.

Photo credit: Ari Mintz

Review: Macbeth at The Duke on 42nd

Fans of Macbeth have plenty of chances to see Shakespeare's tragedy this spring. Cheek by Jowl's version starts its BAM run at the beginning of April. Punchdrunk's Sleep No More, in which audience members wander through a hotel as actors reenact scenes from Macbeth, is currently running, as is Theatre For a New Audience's staging of the Scottish Play at the Duke. I caught the latter this weekend.

John Douglas Thompson plays the Scot and is once again directed by Arin Arbus (I sadly missed their previous collaboration, Othello, which earned rave reviews). This is a pretty straightfoward production of Macbeth, aside from a few quirks such as casting bearded men (Tommy Schrider, Andrew Zimmerman, Saxon Palmer) as the witches. If you want to see a non-gimmicky approach to the play, that might be reason enough to see it with all the other options, but if that's not enough, the scenes between Thompson and his Lady Macbeth (Annika Boras) should be. TFANA Playbills include a page of quotes about the show called "Perspectives." One in particular stood out to me: "In the ritually bloodstained, all-male warrior world of Macbeth, achieving any male-female relationship as close as that of the Macbeths is an anomaly. The tragedy at the heart of this play isn't just that they destroy Duncan, and Banquo, and Macduff's family, however shocking and affecting those losses are; it's that they destroy their own marriage in the process."-Michael Dobson; "Portrait of a Marriage"

I agree with this assessment, but have never seen it so fully realized. When Macbeth returns home towards the beginning of the play and greets Lady Macbeth, Boras and Thompson are convincing as a couple genuinely in love. It is this chemistry at the beginning that makes their undoing tragic. There is fine restrained acting all around, but the other standout is Albert Jones as Macduff, whose pain upon learning of the death of his family adds to the real and human feel of this production.

Contest: Win Tickets To How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

Update: The contest is now closed. Thank you so much to everyone who entered. I wish I could give you all the tickets. The winner was selected randomly. Congratulations Sara! I will be e-mailing you shortly with details on how to claim your tickets.

Daniel Radcliffe stars as J. Pierrepont Finch in the 50th anniversary revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The musical, with a score by Frank Loesser, follows window washer Finch as he tries to move up the corporate ladder. I'm very excited to offer one lucky Pataphysical Science reader the chance to win a pair of tickets to see the show between March 29 and April 28 (certain performances excluded). All you have to do is answer three trivia questions (don't worry--they're not difficult).

Daniel Radcliffe made his Broadway debut in 2008. What was the name of the show? Who was the author? What was Daniel Radcliffe's character's name? Answer all three in the comments section for a chance to win tickets to the show. I have temporarily turned on comment moderation and will wait until the contest ends to post the comments. Please include your e-mail address or Twitter handle so you can be contacted if you win. A winner will be selected randomly from the correct entries on Monday, March 28 at 10 a.m.

Click here for a special offer on How To Succeed tickets.

Photo credit: Ari Mintz

Q & A With Matt roi Berger

A certain big-budget Broadway musical was supposed to open on March 15, but for those theater folks who needed to be at the opening of a spider-themed musical that day, there was Spidermusical, running through March 21 at the Mint Theater. Composer Matt roi Berger took time out from the busy opening week to answer a few questions about the show, how someone with an indie rock background writes a musical score, and more.
Q: How did the idea for Spidermusical come about? How long have you been working on it?
A: Spidermusical is the brain love child of Timothy Michael Drucker and Randy Blair, perhaps the two strangest, most talented people I know. I got a call in the middle of the night, if I remember correctly, and I could hear Randy laughing in the background, and Tim says something like, "The three of us are doing a new musical. Here's what it is." We hadn't talked in around a month--it felt like getting the band back together. Let's see. Since late January? I think that's when I got the first 20 pages or so. It was a pretty condensed writing period. I was drinking pretty heavily. I may be forgetting a week.

Q: You worked with Timothy Michael Drucker (director, book) and Randy Blair (book, lyrics) on Fat Camp. What's the typical writing process like for the three of you? Why do you think you work so well together?
A: Tim and Randy are incredible. If it works, that's why. Randy's lyrics immediately convey what a song needs to do--my part's easy from there. My background is not musical theater, it's rock and indie music, and they embrace that. I'm in the room with two of my best friends, writing music. It's just a lot of fun. Usually, I'll get Randy's lyrics and we'll bounce some ideas around. Then I'll record and arrange and send a demo their way. If we're having trouble with a song, we'll meet at Tim's and they'll play me a musical theater track off of YouTube, and say, "It's like this." Then I'll go, "Oh, you mean like this," and find them a recording of a pop or rock song, and we go from there. For Spidermusical, which was a very quick process, I sat down with the lyrics and my guitar and recorded as I wrote, going back for edits. I'd mail the boys a song and then get started on the next one. There was a night when we knocked off 6 songs in one sitting. I thought it would be rough working that quickly, but I'm really proud of what we did. I'm a perfectionist, but I'm also a drunk, which balances (ying yang).
Q: What can you tell me about the show? Is it going to be more of a spoof of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark or just a different interpretation of the Spider-Man story?
A: It's our story, entirely. I think if we'd been approached to do a Broadway musical of a comic book and they'd said, "Oh, and here's 65 million dollars," we'd have written the same thing. It's not a parody. I love the meta-story here, as well. This is what you can accomplish with a group of smart and talented people. This is what live theatre can be when it's not trying to be film/spectacle: exciting, entertaining and engrossing.

Q: Are you a comic book fan?
A: I was. I am? I still have about 400 issues in a closet at my mom's place in Virginia. Some superhero titles (nearly the entire run of Excalibur--why?), but mostly indie press. I was really into Bone, Akiko, Castle Waiting, Usagi Yojimbo. I still pick up a graphic novel every so often.

Q: Have you seen Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark?
A: Nope. I didn't want to see it while we were working on Spidermusical. I'm sort of bummed that it'll be retooled by the time I get a chance to catch it. I wanted to experience Julie's vision (spiders stealing shoes).

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about what the music will be like for the show and what your influences were?
A: It's got a lot of rock influences--it's very up-tempo and angular--but I had a lot of freedom to explore other sounds as well. Fat Camp, our other musical, is very much solid garage and indie rock, built to voice raw, emotional teens. Here there's an entirely different set of voices, and I had fun with spices from all over. Our arranger, Adam Wachter, is incredibly talented, and his additions are fantastic.
Q: There are three other Spider-Man musicals playing next week: Turn Off the Dark, The Spidey Project, and Spidermann. Are you afraid it's going to be overkill? Why should audiences see yours with all these choices?
A: I know nothing about the other productions, so I can't compare. I wish them the very best. I will say we have an amazing cast--Alex Brightman, Sara Chase, Kate Weatherhead, Randy Blair. The backbone of any production is the passion and energy on stage, and I can guarantee you that with Spidermusical.

Q: After this week of performances, do you think that's it for this show? Or do you think it will have a life elsewhere?
A: I hope so. I have massive gambling debts. If this doesn't fly, it's kidney number 2.

Q: What else are you working on these days?
A: I play guitar in Teen Girl Scientist Monthly. I wrote a song each and every week last year and I'm always posting something or other on my website.

Photo credit: Monica Simoes

Review: Kin at Playwrights Horizons

Family dramas are standard off-Broadway fare. In fact, Bathsheba Doran's Kin is the third family drama at Playwrights Horizons this season (the others being A Small Fire and After The Revolution). Yet, Kin feels fresh through honesty, quirky humor, and original design elements.

Anna (Kristen Bush) is a poetry scholar, working on her dissertation (later book), Keats's Punctuation. She has a habit of dating jerks until her best friend Helena (Laura Heisler) suggests that she change the criteria in her online dating profile. Anna starts dating Sean (Patch Darragh), an Irish personal trainer, and the play deals with Anna and Sean's relationships to their families and each other over the course of several years. Changes in time are signaled by where Anna is at with her book and other small details, but it's never explicitly stated when scenes jump forward in time.

Maybe it has to do with where I am in my life, but I found the conversations (some of which never go anywhere) and characters extremely relatable (credit where credit is due--the fine ensemble is a huge reason for this). Anna and Sean's relationship is realistic--they have problems and don't seem completely happy together, but they still want to make it work. I would have liked to see more of the development of their relationship--we never really know what they see in each other in the first place--but this is somewhat rectified with a flashback scene towards the end.

The main piece in Paul Steinberg's versatile set is a frame that becomes different locations based on the backdrops used or its position (it rotates, sometimes while a scene is taking place). Those with allergies should be aware that there is a lot of fog in the production, but the results are worth it, for perhaps the most effective use of fog ever in a play.

Special KIN offer for Pataphysical Science blog readers:

Order by March 21 with code KINGR and tickets are only:

· $40* (reg. $70) for the first 16 perfs (Feb. 25 – March 10)

· $55 (reg. $70) for all remaining performances March 11 – April 3

HOW TO ORDER:

· Order online at www.ticketcentral.com. Use code KINGR.

· Call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 (Noon-8pm daily)

· Present a printout of this blog post to the Ticket Central box office at 416 West 42nd Street (Noon-8pm daily).

*A limited number of $40 discounted tickets will be available for purchase. Subject to availability. Valid only in select rows.

Q & A With Joe Iconis

You may recognize the characters in Things To Ruin, a collection of songs by Joe Iconis (Bloodsong of Love, ReWrite, The Black Suits). They may remind you of yourself, your friends, an ex, or someone you grew up with. Iconis took some time out to answer questions about why he likes to write about real people, where he goes for inspiration, what jobs he may have to fall back on, and more. You can catch Things To Ruin at Le Poisson Rouge through March 28.

Q: Were all the songs in the show written specifically for Things To Ruin? I know it's been around for a few years, but can you tell me a little bit about the origins of the show?
A: Things To Ruin started life as just an evening of my songs--stand alones and songs from musicals. It was the first thing I ever really did in New York--the first time my songs were heard on a stage. We did it at Ars Nova in the summer of 2006 and it marked my first collaboration with director John Simpkins, a collaboration that has changed my life. When we first started, it really was just a very theatrical concert. We did it two more times in the subsequent years at Joe’s Pub, and dropped a couple of songs and added some more. Every time we did it, it began to take on more and more of a shape and feel more and more like a piece of theater. In the fall of 2008, we completely revamped the show and did it at the now defunct Zipper Theater. This is the version of the show that is reflected on the cast album and the version that is now playing at Le Poisson Rouge. A lot of the songs were written as stand alone pieces, but many of them deal with the same themes/types of characters, so putting them together felt kind of natural and then anything I rewrote was informed by the rest of the songs in the piece. A few were written specifically for Things To Ruin. "Never Heard Nothing" was a song I couldn't have written had I not been specifically trying to write something to wrap up Things To Ruin and serve as a bookend for "Born This Morning." "Mamma, Cut Me Deeper!" was the last song I wrote for the show. I wrote it during a very crazy and stressful week of my life, and the experience of writing it was fairly wrought--which I think you kind of hear in the song itself. I didn't finish until hours before the first show. Eric William Morris was learning bits of it as I was writing them, and everyone involved in the show contributed to it in some way.

Q: Congrats on the album! How did that come about? Where you approached by Sh-K-Boom Records?
A: Thanks! I'm very proud of the album and can't take any credit for it sounding as good as it does. I've had the good sense to surround myself with people who are far more talented than I and the album is a product of that. As far as how it came to be, I had vaguely known the folks at Sh-K-Boom for a while and they were familiar with my work. They came to see Things To Ruin at The Zipper and asked if I wanted to make an album of it and we did.

Q: A lot of the songs in Things To Ruin seem to be about, for lack of a better word, losers, or people who are down on their luck. Is that a conscious theme?
A: Not sure if it's a conscious theme, but I definitely gravitate towards writing about people who don't usually get songs written about them--at least not theater songs. I like to write about everyday, normal folks--unremarkable people. It's very interesting to me to see how seemingly tiny, insignificant events can feel huge to people. That's something I return to time and again. I love people who are "losers," because I think everyone's a loser, or, at the very least, everyone has felt like a loser at some point in their lives. That's what is relatable to me. I like people who are scrappy, who have to fight for what they need to survive.

Q: Is there a song in Things To Ruin that has the most significance to you or that you're proudest to have written?
A: I try to be honest when I'm writing--honesty is the thing that is most important to me. And I feel like "Never Heard Nothing" is a very honest song. I'm proud to have written that one because I think it's a song where I allowed myself to write 100% from the gut, without thinking about structure or rules or being too sappy or being too clean. I like that it's a big fucking mess of a song--it's too long and it's all over the place. But I think it's exactly the type of song that I wanted to write and I think I was being completely true to myself when I wrote it.

Q: Where do you get your inspiration from typically?
A: I get my inspiration from actors I love, from things I overhear at Dunkin Donuts. I frequently write in Dunkin' Donuts and it breeds creativity in a way that Starbucks never could. From bartenders. From the autumn. I'm very inspired by movies or songs or plays that I love. Nothing revs me up like seeing a really incredible work of art.

Q: Who are some of your biggest influences?
A: Robert Altman, Dolly Parton, Kander and Ebb, The Carousel of Progress, The Country Bear Jamboree, Harry Nilsson, Elton John, The Muppets, Alfred Hitchcock, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, horror movies, Sondheim, John Waters, Times Square from 1940-1987, and Jack Daniels.

Q: You tend to work with a lot of the same actors. Were you friends first and you started putting them in your shows? Or did you just like working with them so much you kept using them?
A: I love great actors and I love the idea of people sticking together. A lot of people say things to me like: “Oh, you are so loyal to YOUR actors” but to me it has nothing to do with loyalty and everything to do with community. I think theater is a community and it makes sense to me that artists should stick together and make art with like-minded people. To speak specifically to the actors I frequently collaborate with (and who are commonly referred to as The Family), I am just the world’s biggest fan of each and every one of them. They are all people who I’ve kind of stumbled upon at various stages in my life. I think there’s the impression that all these folks who perform with me are friends of mine from high school or college days--that’s definitely not the case. They are all actors who I was a fan of and started working with. It’s not like I’m choosing people--everyone who has stuck around has been someone who has clicked with me and the group. We found each other. I like to think that people find each other. I respond to actors who are human, period. There’s a sort of artificiality to a lot of musical theater performance that I really don’t like. It’s distancing to me. I like actors who have personality. I like actors who aren’t afraid to take chances. I long for the days where great fearless actors with huge personalities like Barbara Harris or Len Cariou or Dorothy Loudon could be the big Broadway stars. I feel like it's so hard for that to happen today. Who the hell would Len Cariou play in Mamma Mia!? Is there a Dorothy Loudon role in Spider-Man? I am less concerned with whether or not a particular girl can belt a high E, American Idol-style. If you can belt a high E, good for you, but unless there is a reason why you are belting that high E, I really don’t give a shit. I am proud that the actors I work with (and, for the record, they’ve all got wonderful voices and are deliriously sexy) are all real people, on stage and off. And it doesn’t matter if it’s someone who is freshly out of school or someone like Annie Golden, who is a Broadway legend. I work with people who care about the work and who have a passion to make some art. And have some fun doing it. And who like to go to the bar after rehearsal. That is a huge part of it all.

Q: As a composer, what do you think about the state of musical theater?
A: That's a tricky one. It's a scary time and it's an exciting time. There's lots of great stuff and lots of garbage being produced, and there's lots of great stuff and lots of garbage not being produced. I don't think it's as easy as: "Big Broadway musicals suck and little musicals that can't get out of development hell are all great." All I know is, I love musical theater. I think it's an important and miraculous art form that deserves to thrive and be nurtured. I think it's worthy of that. There are so many humongous musical enterprises that feel cynical to me and some original musicals that could very well be jukebox musicals. The ones that feel like they were written by committee or by exit polls or something. It seems like it's harder and harder to be a young writer with something new to say. Especially if the new thing you have to say isn’t based on a movie or a property with name recognition. There’s part of me that longs for the old days when a writer could open a weird, small musical on Broadway, cross their fingers, and hope for the best. When it seemed like the commercial theater was a little more open to certain kinds of projects. But there’s also part of me that thinks, “OK. What I am trying to do is different. It’s an uphill battle and everyone is telling me that I’m crazy for wanting to do this thing. But I’ve got an army of people who are fighting with me and we all believe in our hearts that what we are doing is worth damn. So we are gonna do everything in our power to make it happen. We are going to get to where we want to be and we are gonna do it by being true to ourselves.” Which is kind of what Things To Ruin, as a whole, is about. It all comes from a place of passion. A place of believing in something so much that you’ve got to try to make it happen with every ounce of your being.

Q: I loved Bloodsong of Love. Are there any plans for another production or a recording? Please tell me there is a future for this show.
A: That does my heart so good to hear. I couldn't be prouder of Bloodsong, and it is currently my life's mission to get another production of it. We learned so much from the world premiere at Ars Nova and I am itching to make some changes to the thing and unleash it on the world in an even bigger way. I don't want to record it until we get our next production because of the changes I want to make. We just need a producer or a theater who is willing to take a shot on the show and who believes in it as much as we do.

Q: If you could write a song for any actor/singer and have them perform it, who would it be?
A: Ah, there are so many. I'd love to have John Goodman sing one of my songs so much. That's kind of a dream. I'd love to write a duet for Shelly Duvall and Martha Plimpton. I've also been really into Laura Benanti lately--wouldn't be awesome to see her do something where she murdered people? I wanna write a murder song for Laura Benanti. I also want to write a very old-timey love song for Sasha Grey. Something you would have heard sung at Sardi's in 1952.

Q: What's coming up for you after Things To Ruin?
A: I'm poor these days, I need to find someone to pay me to do something. Maybe I'll become a milliner. Or a prostitute. Who knows?

Hamlet Just Got All Sexypants

A couple of years ago, I wrote about this HarperTeen print of Wuthering Heights, packaged to look like a Twilight book. The other day I was killing some time at Borders, when this cover caught my eye. Look at how cool Hamlet looks with his tousled hair and tight pants. Even the font and colors of the title look like they are appealing to a younger audience, and the book was prominently displayed in the teen section (a different floor than the plays). At first I thought it was some updated version, but it's the original Shakespeare text.

Hamlet has that brooding damaged appeal and he was recently played on Broadway by Jude Law, so I can see where they're going with this cover. Plus, it isn't as patronizing as the Wuthering Heights cover, which assumes that teens will only read it if it has a connection to Twilight. I'm left wondering if repackaging classic literature does get young adults excited to read (and I have no evidence that it does or doesn't), which can only be a good thing, but I do wish publishers would give teens more credit.

A Little Something When You're Feeling Blue

The Gallery Players in Brooklyn once again presents a Broadway musical on a small scale without losing the integrity of the piece. The Drowsy Chaperone, with music and lyrics by Greg Morrison and Lisa Lambert and book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, opened on Broadway in 2006, but if you missed it then, you can see this production (now with a Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark joke!), directed by Hans Friedrichs, through February 20.

Man-in-Chair (Craig Treubert) invites the audience to listen with him to his favorite show, The Drowsy Chaperone, a (fictional) musical from the '20s. As we listen, the characters take over his living room while he provides running commentary. Star Janet Van De Graaf (Whitney Branan) is about to marry Robert Martin (Eric Weaver), but her producer (Robert Anthony Jones) is trying to stop the wedding so that she won't have to give up show business. The show contains jokes that were stale in 1928, but the humor comes from Man-in-Chairs knowing asides. The play-within-a-play aspect involved more elaborate set pieces on Broadway, such as staircases appearing in the living room, but Jared Rutherford theater-memorabilia filled apartment uses a few doors just as effectively.

It's not really fair to the cast that the memories of the Broadway originals are still so fresh. Branan is appropriately deadpan and a fine dancer, but her "Show Off," a highly-acrobatic number about how she wants to leave show business while performing for reporters, isn't the show-stopper it was with Sutton Foster. Standouts in the cast are the endearing Treubert, Weaver as the dashing and vacant leading man, and Edward Juvier, hilarious as the over-the-top Latin lover Adolpho.

Man-in-Chair loves The Drowsy Chaperone because it accomplishes what musical theater is supposed to do, pick you up when you're down and transport you. By these standards, this production succeeds.
Photo credit: Bella Muccari

The Wii Plays at Ars Nova

Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man just got its third extension at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage I, but you can also catch his short play Alien Monster Bowling League as part of The Wii Plays at Ars Nova.

As you may have deduced, each of the 12 plays takes its title from a Wii game. The plays were written by the 2010 members of Ars Nova's writer's collective, Play Group. Playwrights are chosen through an open submission process and membership lasts two years. The 2010 collective reads like a who's who of hot up-and-coming playwrights: Chad Beckim, Jenny Connell, Kara Lee Corthron, Kristoffer Diaz, Tasha Gordon-Solmon, Amy Herzog, Samuel D. Hunter, Matthew Lopez, Molly Smith Metzler, Gregory Moss, Janine Nabers, and Joe Tracz. Every year, members select a theme for their final project. The previous themes were The Wikipedia Plays, Playlist, and Missed Connections NYC.

A wide range of games are represented here, from Wii Tennis to Bob The Builder: Festival of Fun, and the way the plays relate to their titles is sometimes more obvious than others. The band Super Mirage provides pre-show entertainment and a soundtrack to the plays. Six actors (Jenni Barber, Andrew Garman, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Christopher Jackson, Zach Shaffer, and Robbie Collier Sublett) make up the casts. The plays run through February 12 and all tickets are $15.

A Few Thoughts On Chicago Fan Day

These days, when a new Broadway show is announced, you can expect a Facebook fan page and Twitter account to follow, often even on the same day. It seems that once the account is made, marketing teams sometimes struggle with how best to use it. Short-lived shows like Ragtime, Elling, and The Scottsboro Boys had Facebook and Twitter pages, but they clearly didn't help with ticket sales. A few months ago, Chicago announced the first ever Facebook Fan Day. If 10 of your Facebook friends "liked" Chicago on Facebook, you would get a free ticket. The event was held yesterday and though I was slightly worried when I received my general admission ticket in the mail that it would be chaos, the afternoon went smoothly.

I heard accounts that people started lining up as early as 9 a.m. for the 2:30 show, but I arrived closer to 1. Apparently I should have arrived earlier for pizza, but I did get a cupcake and coffee. Everyone received a commemorative shirt and a plastic bowler hat. Perhaps the trick to keeping everyone civilized was free stuff. When they opened the doors around 2, everyone walked in an orderly fashion, and we were able to get a perfectly fine seat in row G of the orchestra, next to Vincent Pastore and two rows behind Karen Ziemba. There were plenty of Chicago alumni in the house, including Chita Rivera. I wish it would happen more often, but seeing a show with a packed and energetic crowd is a thrill and the cast was clearly loving it. They even added a few Facebook references.

This was a smart marketing move. The end of January is traditionally a slow time for Broadway, especially now with all the snowstorms. Chicago has been running for close to 15 years, so they can certainly afford to give away all the seats for one performance. They received tons of publicity from the theater sites that covered the event, as well as fans tweeting about it and writing about it on Facebook. Fans commented on Facebook about how incredible the show was and how grateful they were to be there, adding to the sense of goodwill. Chicago currently has 19,259 Facebook fans, enough to fill the Ambassador Theatre about 17 times. Time will tell whether this will translate into increased grosses.

An event like this would be harder to pull off for newer shows, but I think the key is to recruit new fans, while being interactive and engaging the fans you already have, which this event accomplished. I look forward to seeing where technology takes Broadway in the future.