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.
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| 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.
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| Shaina Taub, center, as Alice Paul, with the cast of Suffs. Photo by Joan Marcus. |
6/13/24: Uncle Vanya
What: Lincoln Center presents Heidi Schreck's new adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.
And? It's fine. I see why William Jackson Harper was nominated for this. He's electric onstage. But I think Chekhov just isn't for me.
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| William Jackson Harper and Alison Pill as Astrov and Sonia. Photo by Marc J. Franklin. |
6/14/24: Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
What: The new immersive revival of the Kander and Ebb musical about 1930s Berlin.
And? The transformation of the August Wilson Theatre into the Kit Kat Club is great--I love when the proscenium breaks--as are the preshow antics. The staging within the small turntable arena feels a bit stymied by its lack of imagination, however (a lot of "this line delivered to this half of the audience, then I'll turn and deliver the next line to the other half"), and the lack of subtlety makes it clear they don't trust the audience to Get the Show. I will say, it's a rare production of Cabaret where you walk out thinking mostly about Fraulien Schneider and Herr Schultz, but Bebe Neuwirth and Steven Skybell are so excellent that it feels inevitable in this case.
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| Steven Skybell and Bebe Neuwirth as Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider. Photo by Marc Brenner. |
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