It Sucks to be Mormon

It's no secret that original Broadway musical offerings have been beyond limp lately. So when the guys behind South Park teamed up with the composer-lyricist of Avenue Q, the theater kids obligingly whipped themselves into a frenzy of anticipation. Early enthusiasm has now been corroborated by reviews that exalt The Book of Mormon as the savior of the Broadway Musical. I was at opening last night, and it's pretty great, and very funny - but my my, how contrast elevates the very good to genius heights.

Time Out NY:
As you laugh your head off at perky Latter-day Saints tap-dancing while fiercely repressing gay tendencies deep in the African bush, you will be transported back ten years, when The Producers and Urinetown resurrected American musical comedy...

The Hollywood Reporter:
One of the freshest original musicals in recent memory. It has tuneful songs, clever lyrics, winning characters, explosive laughs and disarmingly intimate moments.

NY Magazine:
Mormon chipperly shitcans all pieties … except the sacred, mystic conventions of musical theater. And therein lies the real miracle: ...Parker and Stone—the sincerest, most serious-minded of social comedians—have effectively closed an irony wormhole that opened with Urinetown, grandpappy of all millennial metamusicals. After Mormon, I like to imagine, the Broadway musical might be free to be a Broadway musical again—even if it is balls-out funny and relevant to audiences under 85.

NY Daily News:

It's a show where you catch yourself laughing one minute, mouth agape the next, eventually wiping away tears, and, finally, cheering.

Meanwhile, Terry Teachout at the Wall Street Journal has a less rapturous reaction, and it's one that I can't disagree with. I really, really wanted to full-stop LOVE this show. Sadly, I didn't, and I find his review pretty spot-on:

Don't let anybody try to tell you that "The Book of Mormon" is suitable for anyone other than 12-year-old boys who have yet to graduate from fart jokes to "Glee." A couple of reasonably effective production numbers notwithstanding, it's flabby, amateurish and very, very safe... The creators of "South Park" like to call themselves "equal-opportunity offenders," but if you think there's anything risky about "The Book of Mormon," you're kidding yourself. Making fun of Mormons in front of a Broadway crowd is like shooting trout in a demitasse cup.

I'm back...

deal with it.

Here's a nice ice sculpture for you to look at.

Cee-Lo Green's album The Lady Killer drops in a couple weeks, but it's already huge. Check it.

New single "Bright Lights, Bigger City"

"Trauma recovery," an oxymoron, is the constitution of a new world that coexists alongside the absence of the one that has been shattered. This is the essential fracturing at the heart of traumatic temporality. -R. Stolorow

Dee Roscioli Rocks

"hey by the way you guys have mandy moore in here?"

For your consideration: Chris Klein, balding, on something, and available for your production of Mamma Mia!

Watch the tape here.

Legally Broke

Looks like the touring case of LEGALLY BLONDE won't be spending their downtime shopping like Elle Woods. The salary according to a recent breakdown is $375/week. What a disgusting slap in the face to actors, and a gross abuse of the musical theater system which innately has a very large supply of actors and limited demand.

Tickets for the tour's next stop in Newark are currently are priced at $75 top. Do you think the ticket prices will decrease when the actors' salaries are less than unemployment? I doubt it.

eat it, lea michele

Sounds like Lea Michele was up to her usual diva antics at the Time 100 gala. Girlfriend's voice may sound great autotuned on Glee, but she is notorious for this kind of stuff, and needs to be told her name is not Liza goddamn Streisand. From Perez:

According to witnesses at the Times 100 gala, the Glee star spent the entire dinner hour making out with her BF at the table. She made no time for any of the other high-profiled guests and when legenday celebrity photographer Patrick McMullan came over to take a picture, their exchange went a little something like this:

Patrick McMullan: What’s your name?
Lea Michele: [Rolls eyes.] Sarah Palin.
Patrick McMullan: [Laughs.] No, really, tell me your name.
Lea Michele: Taylor Swift.
Patrick McMullan: Fuck you.

[Exits.]

What a delightful girl, with such sizzling wit! Eat it, Lea Michele.

Update: Daily Intel has more.

New Flava for ya Ears

Here's the first single from The Pass's EP, I like these guys' Bowie-esque ways, and the video is pretty rad...

joan!

Spring has sprung, and in honor of her opening at the Carlyle last night, I submit for your enjoyment, Leslie Uggams!

mullally OUT

Nikki Finke reports that Megan Mullally is departing the Broadway production of Lips Together, Teeth Apart. Looks like her and Joe Mantello weren't seeing eye to eye - Finke says "Mullally simply had had enough of the abrasive manner of director Joe Mantello." The comments on Finke's post are pretty fun, including some rather spirited Wicked defenders that don't normally crop up on DHD.

La Cage Aux Conservatisme?

In this week's issue of New York magazine, Kelsey Grammer discusses his upcoming Broadway turn in La Cage Aux Folles, and the implications of being a Republican playing a gay role. From Adam Sternbergh's profile:

“It’s a great story about any couple. They all have the same dynamic: a heterosexual relationship, a homosexual relationship, a man-with-dogs relationship. There are universal events that take place: the differences, the angers, the insecurities, the histrionics. You would call it, I guess, a male-female dynamic. This just happens to be two boys.” I ask him about La Cage’s relevance today, given the Proposition 8 fight in California. He says, “Oh, right. Of course. You know I wasn’t even thinking of that. Isn’t it funny?” On the subject of gay marriage in general, he adds, “Why is the government involved at all? If two men marry or two women marry, fine, go ahead—it’s not my issue. But when governments get involved, it just becomes more confusing.”

Well! First off, the government is "involved" in the gay marriage issue because it is a legal issue. But Grammer surely knows that, and is just tiptoeing, quite deftly, around answering the question. Also... "man-with-dogs relationship"?? Really!?

It's tricky: being a pretty big supporter of gay rights, I want to support La Cage, buy tickets, and encourage others to do the same. The message is wonderful, I am what I am, blah blah blah. On the other hand, I don't particularly feel like turning out to see Grammer, an out "Republican in Hollywood" (and in my opinion, gigantic douche), play this role. I'm not saying his politics should have kept him from being cast - that would be a terrible road to go down. But in the power-of-the-consumer sense, this issue is really, really important to me, and the idea of watching this guy play that role feels all wrong. Thoughts?

not sexy

(Photo by Joseph Marzullo)

Million Dollar Quartet

What can be said about Million Dollar Quartet? Where to begin? This is a musical experience that would cozily fit into the Vegas circuit, prompting smiles and nods of recognition from oldsters reliving the heyday of Elvis, Johnny Cash, et all. Alas, it does not fit so comfortably on Broadway.

There's very little story, and yet what little narrative the anemic book does provide is nonsensical. The cast, I'm sorry to say, can't provide the necessary energy and charisma to elevate the experience to the dynamite one-night-only event that the production insists you are witnessing. Instead it feels more like a warmed-over impersonator cabaret. Oh, and Hunter Foster is there to narrate, which unfortunately does not help matters. An icky feeling hangs over the whole affair, as if a producer saw Jersey Boys and thought they'd throw the same ingredients together and manufacture an easy money-making hit. They were mistaken.

As a friend lovingly dubbed these recent productions, "Guys & Suck," "Not-so-Brighton Beach", and now "Four Dollar Quartet" - is the Nederlander the new Biltmore?

"My One and Only"

Dee Roscioli rocks this gorgeous song by Katie Thompson.