Weekly Margin 2024, W25: Titanic, Follies in Concert

6/18/24: Titanic

What: New York City Center Encores! series presents the Maury Yeston and Peter Stone musical about the ill-fated ship.

And? This cast is unreal. So rich in talent that you can't imagine even if it got itself a commercial transfer, that the whole cast would journey with it. It's a gift to hear this score with this many glorious voices, though a show like this you really do feel what you're missing by having a concert staging rather than a full staging. Glad I finally got to see this done professionally, after all this time (I'd seen a high school production ages ago, but we don't need to count that).

A.J. Shively, Emilie Kouatchou, Jose Llana, Chuck Cooper, Brandon
Uranowitz, Andrew Durand, and Samantha Williams as Charles Clarke,
Caroline Neville, Thomas Andrews, Captain E.J. Smith, J. Bruce Ismay,
Jim Farrell, and Kate McGowan, with the cast of Titanic.
Photo by Joan Marcus.

6/20/24: Follies in Concert

What: Transport Group presents a star-studded concert of the Sondheim/Goldman musical about nostalgia and faded dreams.

And? Apparently this concert sold out within an hour of the tickets going on sale. I feel a bit bad I didn't clock how lucky I was when I bought my ticket, but don't think I took it for granted once I was there in beautiful Carnegie Hall. Preshow, I even broke from my usual sit-there-quietly-and-read to talk with fellow patrons, knowing we were all equally excited to be there, and enthusiastic about theater.

Hosts Ted Chapin (author of Everything Was Possible) and Kurt Peterson (Young Ben in the original Broadway cast of Follies) kept the night flowing between songs with some choice anecdotes as well as brief context for each song (and introducing each performer, as the program did not indicate who would be performing what, outside of the Mirror dancers). It feels foolish to try to pick highlights from such a special night, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Full list of who performed what is below as well.

Highlights:

• Seeing Michael Bennett's original choreography for the Mirror dance in "Who's That Woman" -- show-stoppingly good (and standing ovation worthy), and I finally understand what makes that song so special.
• Norm Lewis and Nikki Renée Daniels sounding heartbreakingly beautiful as they duetted "Too Many Mornings." How lucky we are to hear them sing.
• Thom Sesma reminding us how charming and charismatic he always is.
• Michael Berresse's emotional dance/breakdown in "The Right Girl," so effective that everyone onstage applauded as he slowly walked off.
• Jennifer Holiday doing what she does best with "I'm Still Here."
• Seeing the kids from Kimberly Akimbo (three of the teens, one of the understudies) be adorable with the Loveland quartet "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow"/"Love Will See Us Through."
• Kurt Peterson wielding John McMartin's original cane as he graduated to play Old Ben and sing "Live, Laugh, Love."
• Kurt Peterson's final anecdote: when he spoke to Hal Prince days before his passing, Prince said that Follies was his favorite show (and McMartin his favorite Ben); then in a private Zoom reunion of Follies, Sondheim said that it was his favorite score; and finally, the actor who originated Young Buddy said to him that he hoped his tombstone said "Here lies Harvey Evans. He was in Follies." There wasn't a dry eye after that.

Michael Berresse performs "The Right Girl." Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Borrowing the collected list from my friend Michael Dale (who sourced his list from Seth Christenfeld):

Act One

Weissmann monologue: Hal Linden

"Beautiful Girls": Christian Mark Gibbs

"Don't Look at Me": Katie Finneran and Marc Kudisch

"Waiting for the Girls Upstairs": Thom Sesma, Stephen Bogardus, Barbara Walsh, Carolee Carmello, Grey Henson, Ryan McCartan, Julie Benko, and Hannah Elless

"Rain on the Roof": Klea Blackhurst and Jim Caruso

"Ah, Paris": Isabel Keating

"Broadway Baby": Adriane Lenox

"The Road You Didn't Take": Alexander Gemignani

"In Buddy's Eyes": Christine Ebersole

"Who's That Woman?": Karen Ziemba with Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, Ruth Gottschall, JoAnn M. Hunter, Dana Moore, Michele Pawk, and Margo Sappinton, as well as Lauren Blackman, Julianna Brown, Jessica Chambers, Candice Hatakeyama, Alicia Lundgren, Abby Matsusaka, and Erin N. Moore (original Michael Bennett choreography, restaged by Mary Jane Houdina)

Act Two

"I'm Still Here": Jennifer Holiday

"Too Many Mornings": Norm Lewis and Nikki Renée Daniels

"The Right Girl": Michael Berresse (choreography by Mary Jane Houdina, based on the original staging by Michael Bennett)

"One More Kiss": Harolyn Blackwell and Mikaela Bennett

"Could I Leave You?": Beth Leavel

"Loveland": Vocal Ensemble with two unnamed soloists speaking the unsung lines

"You're Gonna Love Tomorrow": Fernell Hogan and Olivia Elease Hardy

"Love Will See Us Through": Nina White and Miguel Gil

"Buddy's Blues": Santino Fontana with Lauren Blackman and Sarah King

"Losing My Mind": Kate Baldwin

"Lucy and Jessie": Alexandra Billings

"Live, Laugh, Love": Kurt Peterson

Weekly Margin 2024, W24: The Great Gatsby, Suffs, Uncle Vanya, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

6/11/24: The Great Gatsby

What: A new musical adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic about class, wealth, and excess in 1920s New York.

And? Meh. I don't think this production has made up its mind whether it takes place in the 1920s or the 2020s. Baz Lurhmann knows how to toe that line; here it just feels like they're afraid to make a strong choice. What I always found striking about Fitzgerald's novel is the charismatic but enigmatic figure of Gatsby, how the world seems to mold itself around him. Here, there's a void in both the writing and the performance of the role that never convinces me he's anything extraordinary--he's just a man out of touch with reality, who never got over his first love. Of course, the writing here is also mostly lacking Fitzgerald's gift with prose, except when it directly quotes the novel.

The projection design is good.

Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

6/12/24: Suffs

What: The Broadway transfer of Shaina Taub's musical about Alice Paul and her allies' fight for women's suffrage in the U.S.

And? This is a great example of how much a work can improve when you're unafraid to really dig into rewriting and reshaping a piece. This show is worlds better than what I saw at the Public, which then felt overbloated and dull. It's still not a fantastic show, but it's a much better show. It's solid, it's entertaining, and it's chock-full of talented performers. I'm glad I gave it a second chance so I could see how much it's improved.

Shaina Taub, center, as Alice Paul, with the cast of Suffs. Photo by Joan Marcus.

My Procrastinated and Inaccurate Tony Predictions

Anthony Martinez-Briggs and Brenson Thomas in The Wilma
Theater's 2023 production of Fat Ham. Photo by Joanna Austin.

 Hi, this past year has been terrible for your friend Zelda. Like, objectively terrible and subjectively terrible and feeling like it got worse each month (bonus: I'm now on antidepressants and they're helping ... somewhat). Part of what this meant is I was very late to the game on getting tickets to see some of the shows. Some I skipped deliberately (The Heart of Rock and Roll, Spamalot; oh, and I guess I skipped the Broadway transfer of Days of Wine and Roses), some I didn't realize I missed the full run of (sorry, Doubt). Some I ended up seeing against my better judgement (Uncle Vanya, Cabaret). But yeah, here we are. I think my biggest excitement for this year's Tonys is the Regional Theatre award going to Wilma Theater, a fantastic Philly-based company who's been putting consistently good work online since 2020 so that those of us who aren't local can partake (I am a digital subscriber to their season). They're where the Pulitzer-winning Fat Ham started, and it's nice to see them get this big recognition.

Okay, let's do it!

What will win. Zelda's choice.

Best Play

Jaja's African Hair Braiding, Jocelyn Bioh

Mary Jane, Amy Herzog

Mother Play, Paula Vogel

Prayer for the French Republic, Joshua Harmon

Stereophonic, David Adjmi

This is such an unfair list. All five of these were great, both in the writing and the production. I think Stereophonic, with all its buzz, will probably win, but I'd rather Jaja's African Hair Braiding or Prayer for the French Republic win.

Sarah Pidgeon, Juliana Canfield, and Tom Pecinka as Diana, Holly, and Peter
in Stereophonic. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

Best Musical

Hell's Kitchen

Illinoise

The Outsiders

Suffs

Water for Elephants

Honestly, none of these really won me over fully, but this should probably go to The Outsiders.

Sky Lakota-Lynch, Joshua Boone, and Brody Grant, center, as Johnny Cade,
Dallas Winston, and Ponyboy Curtis, with the cast of The Outsiders.
Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Weekly Margin 2024, W23: Mother Play, Mary Jane, The Outsiders, Hell's Kitchen, The Wiz

6/04/24: Mother Play

What: 2nd Stage presents Paula Vogel's memory play about growing up with a negligent but charismatic mother, and her unbreakable bond with her brother Carl.

And? As a longtime fan of Baltimore Waltz, I was really glad to see Carl again. Seeing his stuffed bunny was a bit of a gut punch. Vogel is always so good at these adaptations of people from her life, showing both what makes them loveable and what makes them monsters (see: her molesting uncle in How I Learned to Drive). Phyllis is an awful parent. But you can also see why Carl keeps returning to her, why he wants her love so desperately. And oh, the love between Martha (Vogel's stand-in) and Carl is so powerful and full. Your heart breaks anew for the fact that he's gone, that he's long gone, even as you're grateful that Vogel keeps finding ways to bring him back, to keep him present tense. It's apt that the framing device for the play is the family's ability to pack up their lives and unpack them again with efficiency, each time they have to move home: Vogel expertly unpacks and excavates her memories of her teen years and beyond. The performances of the three leads--Jessica Lange, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jim Parsons--as they span many ages, are ones I feel lucky to have gotten to see (CKB will good at playing children until she's ninety). Jill BC Du Boff's sound design, paired with Shawn Duan's twitch-making projection design and Jen Schriever's precise lighting design, craft a careful space: real, precise, and yet with the exaggerations of childhood memories.

Celia Keenan-Bolger and Jim Parsons as Martha
and Carl. Photo by Joan Marcus.

6/05/24: Mary Jane

What: MTC presents Amy Herzog's new play about the mother of a two year old boy born with severe disabilities (he is unable to breathe on his own, or speak). Though she manages as best she can to maintain her optimism and silver lining approach to her life, things keep getting harder.

And? Stunning work, and absolutely heartbreaking. Rachel McAdams is perfectly cast as Mary Jane, a woman who takes the many challenges of managing her son's health in stride, with a smile that would feel foolish if we didn't know how hard-won it was. Also of special note is April Mathis, always a standout, in her dual roles as Sherry and Dr. Toros. I talk sometimes about spaces transforming, and how the audience can unconsciously crave that (I learned that from Tomi Tsunoda). The Herzog Doll's House adaptation last season demonstrated that principle ably. As good as Stereophonic is, I did spend the show hoping for a similar transformation, or recontextualization that never came. The transformation here, as designed by Lael Jellinek, is stunning. The world we thought we were in is revealed to be so much more fragile, floating on nothing, really, but hope and watered-down bubbles. And its final move, irrevocable, tells us where we've been, and where we've been headed all along. I'm avoiding giving spoilers but damn, it was a really good move.

Susan Pourfar and Rachel McAdams as Brianne and Mary Jane. Photo by
Matthew Murphy.

Weekly Margin 2024, W22: The Notebook, Home, Stereophonic

 5/29/24: The Notebook

What: The new musical adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, about an aging couple looking back on their love story: Allie has Alzheimer's, and doesn't remember who Noah is, but he tells her their story in the hope of bringing her back.

And? I'm kind of annoyed that this was as good as it was, primarily because I don't like to give credence to Nicholas Sparks stuff (and I thought the movie was overrated). But this was good theater. Bekah Brunstetter's book works pretty well, Ingrid Michaelson's score is slightly more pop than musical theater, but it's tuneful, Michael Greif and Schele Williams's direction is effective, and the scenic design by David Zinn and Brett J. Banakis is mobile and unobtrusive under Ben Stanton's romantic lighting design. The use of the younger selves as memory echoes, effectively drawn with both the color palate of Paloma Young's costume design and the gesture work (choreography Katie Spelman), is the kind of theatrical storytelling I'm always up for. And it's especially heartbreaking to see that mirroring with Maryann Plunkett's aging Allie, unable to remember the selves she used to be. (Plunkett and Dorian Harewood absolutely deserve their nominations for their work here, my goodness)

Maryann Plunkett, Joy Woods, and Jordan Tyson as Older Allie, Middle Allie,
and Younger Allie. Photo  by Julieta Cervantes.

5/30/24: Home

What: Roundabout presents a revival of Samm-Art Williams's three-hander about a Black man in the Carolinas who leaves home after his imprisonment for refusing to fight in Vietnam, but cannot find peace in the new places he tries to call home.

And? Stunning work. Poetry and rhythm and three people so in sync that you trust them fully. A relentless yet kind story of this man's life, with a sweet healing calm at the end. Tory Kittles, Brittany Inge, and Stori Ayers are forces to be reckoned with, and I'm glad to be introduced to Samm-Art Williams's work, even if it unfortunately comes so soon after he passed away.

Stori Ayers, Tory Kittles, and Brittany Inge as Woman Two, Cephus Miles,
and Woman One. Photo by Joan Marcus.