ANYTHING GOES A REVIEW

Anyone looking for an old fashioned good time should run [not walk] to the Roundabout Theatre Company's wonderfully high spirited production of "ANYTHING GOES", and if anything it re -establishes Kathleen Marshall's reputation as one of Broadway's top director/choreogaphers. In the past few years Ms. Marshall's career has had it's ups[ ThePajama Game revival] and downs[The underpowered "Grease" revival]. With this show it's all ups and this 1934 chestnut looks and sounds as fresh as a daisy. Of course it helps that it contains Cole Porters classic score [augmented with a couple of other classic Porter songs], and further help is provided by a wonderfully talented group of performers who look like they are having a wonderful time and their enthusiasim is totally infectious and the audience I saw it with was beside itself with pleasure. This show also establishes Sutton Foster an a first class Broadway star.Ms. Foster has given many fine performances in the past most notably in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Shrek" Here she is totally incandesent belting out one Porter classic after another and proves that she is perfectly capable of carrying a whole show. She is a knockout. Joel Grey [returning to Broadway after too long an absence] is teriffic as a lovable gangster and seems to be truly enjoying himself. As already mentioned, the rest of the cast is at the top of their game and Kathleen Marshall's staging is lively and inventive and her choreography is a total knockout, most notably in the show-stopping first act finale. The sets by Derek McLane and the costumes by Martin Pakledinaz are colorful and handsome and the orchestrations by Michael Gibson and Bill Elliot are lively and swinging and James Lowe conducts the excellent pit band expertly. I forgot to mention the book. It's too nonsensical to mention anyway, so let us forget about it and be cheered by the fact that this revival of 'ANYTHING GOES" is capitol fun and a total delight. Go and have a blast. AT THE STEPHEN SONDHEIM THEATRE 124 WEST 43rd STREET N.Y.C.

DRIVING MISS DAISY A REVIEW

I was lucky enough to see the original Off Broadway production of " DRIVING MISS DAISY" in 1987. With a cast consisting of Morgan Freeman,Judith Ivy and Ray Gill it was Off Broadway at it's best, ran 1,195 performances and deserved evrey one of them. Two years later it became an excellent movie winning Oscars for it's leading lady[a marvelous Jessica Tandy], best picture, and best adapted screenplay so I was looking forward to the first`Broadway production of this Pulitzer Prize winning play by Alfred Uhry, but as sometimes happens, dissapointment was not long in coming. For one thing this sweetly touching chronicle of a 25 year friendship between a southern elderly Jewish lady and her Black middleaged driver has not aged very well, and also it was a small play with a cast of three people, and it was perfect in a 300 seat theatre. However even in a reletivly small 800 seat Broadway house the play loses alot of the intimicy that was it's charm and director David Esbjornson has added to many realistic touches that spells out for the audience what they should be allowed to discover for themselves. Still, there are good things, most notably in the perfomances of the three actors. Vanessa Redgrave is achingly effective as the southern Belle forced to give up her independence after a minor auto mis-hap, James Earl Jones is magnificently dignified as the driver hired to squire Ms. Redgrave around, and Boyd Gains is fine as the son looking out for Moms best interest. The sets by John Lee Beatty and the projections by Wendall K. Harrington have an overdone look about them, but Peter Kaczorowski's lighting is just right. So while "DRIVING MISS DAISY" seems somewhat dated and the production is overdone any time spent with the magnificent Mister Jones, Mister Gaines, and Ms. Redgrave can hardly be called wasted. AT THE JOHN GOLDEN THEATRE 252 WEST 45th STREET N,Y.C. thru April 9th.

THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ON THE PREVIEWING "SPIDERMAN"

So much attention has been focused on "SPIDER-MAN-TURN OFF THE DARK" since it went into rehersal last August, and the problems it has run into since going into it's never-ending preview period that many of the country's major theatre critics have already weighed in with their reviews. It was supposed to have it's official opening around Christmas. That got pushed back to January,then February, and now [tenetivly] March 15th. I have no idea what shape this large, ambitious, and noisy musical was in when it first previewed back on November 28th, but based on the preview I attended on Thursday evening it might be a good idea if it never opened at all.
I suppose that director Julie Taymor deserves high marks for ambition. After all she was able to take a mediocre show like "The Lion King" and turn it in to a magical theatre experience,but I doubt that she will be able to repeat the miracle with this one.
The main trouble is that the book and score are so inept, the sets so appalingly ugly, and for the most part performances that would not satisfy a second rate stock company. Even the much talked about flying sequences [ done on much too visible wires] seem blandly routine after the first 15 minutes.
I suppose that the only way that this show could ever work would be to take the whole kit and caboodle, toss it into the trash heap and start all over again. As of now there is so much wrong with it that it is probably unfixable.
It would be nice to to say that this is an "almost but not quite" because it is apparent that alot of hard work has gone into it, but as it now stands"SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK" is on track to become the biggest mega-bomb of all time, and at 65 million dollars a mighty expensive one.
AT THE FOXWOODS THEATRE 213 WEST 42nd STREET N. Y. C.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST A REVIEW

Anyone who thinks that Oscar Wild's 1895 comedy "THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST" is a musty old relic should not even think of missing the enchanting new production that has come here from Stratford Ontario where it received rave reviews and did landoffice business at last year's annual theatre festival.
This classic comedy of manners has been given a superlative new staging by the great classical actor Brian Bedford that plays the still witty comedy seriously, never camping it up, and in doing so has made an aging play as freshly funny as any new comedy could hope to be.
The play was originally done as a farce but is now a stylish romp and the acting company seems to be having a blast performing it. Mr Bedford [in a gender switch] takes the role of the rich and crusty Lady Bracknell playing it straight [ never campy] and delivering a classic comic performance and the rest of the cast is nothing short of superb.
The settings and costumes by Desmond Heeley are stunningly handsome and Duane Schuler's lighting is just right.
Summing up, this production of"THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST" is a pleasure to see and hear, and offers as enchanting an evening as this theatre-lover has had in too long a time. Go see it.
AT THE AMERICAN AIRLINES THEATRE 227 WEST 42nd STREET N.Y.C. THRU JULY 3rd.

LOST IN THE STARS A THOUGHT

I have always loved "LOST IN THE STARS". I saw the original production when I was very young and have distant but fond memories of it. Also saw the 1958 and 1972 productions and loved both of them. Now the excellent Encores series at City Center is offering a concert version of this problamatic but powerful 1949 musical, and if Maxwell Anderson's book and lyrics have always seemed a bit heavy and ponderous they contain moments of great beauty, and Kurt Weill's music is achingly beautiful. It is one of the most exciting scores ever composed for a musical.
Director Gary Griffin's staging is unexciting, but the choral work wonderful and most of the performances are good if not great. As usual. Rob Berman conducts expertly and the original Kurt Weill orchestrations are masterful.
It was very brave of Encores to do this difficult but wonderful musical, and " LOST IN THE STARS" is still capable of moving an audience deeply. Many thanks.
At THE N.Y. CITY CENTER 131 WEST 55th STREET N.Y.C. Feb. 3rd thru Feb.6th.

THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE A REVIEW

When Tennessee Williams play "THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANY MORE" was first presented on Broadway exactly 48 years ago I was in college and was reviewing plays for the school paper, and found this to be an overwritten ,relentlessly shrill, and heavy-handed bore. It was a failure closing after only nine weeks, and has not had much of an afterlife since,so I approached this production of it with strong missgivings, and was expecting another dull, endless theatre evening, and were my worse fears well-founded? Of course not.
This is mainly because director Michael Wilson has taken this dull vapid play and turned it into a powerful and sometimes stunning show that is beautifully staged and and is chock`full of wonderful acting.
It concerns a wealthy American widow who has detached herself from society and has retreated to her Italian mountaintop villa in order to write her memoirs when a handsome and mysterious visitor arrives to keep her company during her final days. It is a long and demanding role for any actress to play and in it Olympia Dukakis is positivly electrifying giving this tragic , unplesant woman a human touch that is ultimatly heartbreaking.
She is backed up by a beautifully chosen cast and [as already mentioned] Michael Wilson has staged it masterfully and Jeff Cowie's stage settings catch the mood of this elusive story perfectly.
So summing it all up, as a play " THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE" is no better than it was in 1963, but thanks mainly to Ms. Dukakis and Mr. Wilson it is a stunning and sometimes memorable theatre evening.
AT THE LAURA PELLS THEATRE 111 WEST 46th STREET N.Y.C.

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES A THOUGHT

There is no need to comment much on this turkey. It's called "GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES" and in it playwright Rajiv Joseph has come up with two of the most obnoxious people to land on a New York stage in years and since they are the only two people on stage this makes for as irritating an evening as I've had in a very long time.
Mr. Joseph's play[to use the term loosly] concerns two childhood friends who keep running into each other over a period of thirty years to compare the scars and physical calamities of their lives, and if you are bored reading about this that's ok because I am bored writing about it.
The usually talented Scott Ellis has provided routine stage direction and the two actors[Jennifer Carpenter and Pablo Schreiber] give the impression of just wanting it to be over.
"GRUESOME PLAYGOUND INJURIES" is flat, tastless and dull. One can only imagine what Mr. Joseph's next play will be will be like. It is called " Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo" and is due on Broadway in March with Robin Williams starring.
At The Second Stage Theatre 305 West 43rd Street N.Y.C.










'