New York, New York

 New York, New York
St. James Theatre
May 7, 2023 

Photo courtesy of New York, New York

Director/choreographer Susan Stroman has outdone herself with the Broadway musical New York, New York.  The production is extraordinary.  Her staging creates the city hustle of the post war era.  It is a city struggling to come back to life, filled with a diverse population of dreamers.  The scenic design by Beowulf Boritt is remarkable.  The book, by David Thompson and Sharon Washington, weaves together numerous stories that build with an amazing crescendo.  John Kander and Fred Ebb’s well known songs open your heart, while the new songs, with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, keep the story focused and moving forward.  

Anna Uzele & Colton Ryan
Photo courtesy of New York, New York

The main plot is very much like the movie.  Musician Jimmy Doyle (played by Colton Ryan) meets singer Francine Evans (played by Anna Uzele) at an audition.  He is immediately charmed by her, yet his overly confident demeanor turns her off.  Jimmy’s friend, Tommy Caggiano (played by Clyde Alves) encourages him to pursue Francine in a more romantic manner.

The magnetism of the city is illustrated by the numerous characters we see throughout the story.  Jesse Webb (played by John Clay III) is a trombone player who just returned from the war.  Mateo Diaz (played by Angel Sigala) is a percussionist who immigrated to New York from Cuba with his family.  Alex Mann (played by Oliver Prose) is a violinist who escaped from Poland.  He searches the city for Madam Veltri (played by Emily Skinner).  He longs to study violin with her.  She agrees to mentor him, while anxiously waiting for her son to return from the war. 

Clyde Alves, Colton Ryan, & Anna Uzele
Phtoso courtesy of New York, New York

As Francine’s singing career rises, Jimmy’s drinking starts to bring him down.  He gets a chance to manage a club on the upper west side.  This is where all the stories converge, as the characters forge bonds that create opportunities for them all to achieve their dreams. 

Colton Ryan is outstanding as Jimmy Doyle.  He fully embodies the character.  He is suave, bold, and lyrical.  His attraction to Anna Uzele’s Francine is visceral.  You will not be able to take your eye off Ms. Uzele.  She nails the two best known Kander & Ebb songs from the movie.  She makes them her own, both vocally and emotionally.

Photo courtesy of New York, New York

Colton Ryan and Clyde Alves create a genuine friendship between their characters.  Their backstory is strong.  It is filled with conflict and connection.  John Clay II, Janet Dacal, Oliver Prose, Angel Sigala, and Emily Skinner portray truthful and identifiable characters.  They have clearly defined goals and strive toward achieving them with every ounce of their soul.

This creative team has taken the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture and made it new.  It proudly reflects the ability of New Yorkers to bounce back and succeed.  It is an inspiring story for this post-pandemic time.  

Domenick Danza

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’

 Bob Fosse’s Dancin’
The Music Box
April 15, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Bob Fosse's Dancin'

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ celebrates the work of the legendary director/choreographer.  Some of the content is restaged from the original Dancin’, which ran on Broadway from 1978-1982.  Director Wayne Cilento, who appeared in the original production, staged a few montage sections, highlighting well-known pieces of Fosse’s work.  Fosse’s style was strictly adhered to in the creation of these sections.  A few of the classic pieces were reinterpreted to connect to a present day audience.

“Crunchy Granola Suite,” “Three in One,” “Dancin’ Man,” and “Benny’s Number” (“Sing, Sing, Sing”) are presented in full.  They remain effective and stylistically fresh.  “Mr. Bojangles” is recreated with a few variations from the original, yet lands with a strong emotional impact.  Although the choreography from “America” is fully remounted, it is reinterpreted.  The boisterous red, white, and blue design from the original is replaced with stark black and white, generating an entirely different feeling.  It is less humorous and celebratory, and reflects the nation’s current deep rooted conflicts.  “The Female Star Spot” (“Here You Come Again”) features four women and one man.  It leads with new dialogue, and explores a very different point of view. 

Photo courtesy of Bob Fosse's Dancin'

The dancers are truly phenomenal.  They are technically strong, and have perfected the Fosse style.  Peter John Chursin stands out stylistically.  He is a consummate actor and magnetic performer.  Kolton Krouse nails the Ann Reinking solo in “Sing, Sing, Sing.”  He is a powerful dancer and solid performer. 

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is pure entertainment.  It is a truly invigorating event. 

Domenick Danza

Life of Pi

 Life of Pi
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
April 9, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Life of Pi

The Broadway production of Life of Pi is a truly mesmerizing theatrical experience.  If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you know the story. This production takes it all to another level.  Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation is concise and engaging.  The illusions are spectacular.  The puppetry design by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell is inventive and precise.  The video design and animation by Andrzej Goulding combine with Tim Lutkin’s lighting and Carolyn Downing’s sound design to give the story dimension and life.  The cast and puppeteers are phenomenal, fully in sync and consistently unified. Director Max Webster pulls it all together to tell this tale of survival, faith, and persistence in the most remarkable way possible. 

Pi (played by Hiran Abeysekera) is the single survivor of a cargo ship that sunk on its way from India to Canada.  After over two hundred days in a life boat, he washes up on a beach in Mexico.  While recovering in a hospital, he is interviewed by Mr. Okamoto (played by Daisuke Tsuji), a representative from the shipping line, and Lulu Chen (played by Kristin Louie), the Canadian Ambassador to Mexico.  They need to document the facts surrounding the ship’s sinking.  Pi begins his story in India, where his family owned a zoo.  Due to diminishing attendance, Pi’s father (played by Rajesh Bose) purchases a Bengal Tiger to hopefully bring in the crowds.  To demonstrate how dangerous the tiger is, Pi’s Father feeds him a goat.  Pi witnesses the tiger kill and devour the goat.  The lesson is learned.  Pi fully understands.  

Photo courtesy of Life of Pi

When Pi’s family decides to emigrate to Canada to escape the political unrest in India, they take the animals with them on a cargo ship.  When the ship sinks during a storm, Pi finds himself on a life boat in the middle of the ocean with an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, and the Bengal Tiger.

Hiram Abeysekera portrays Pi as an impressive and ambitious seventeen year old.  His life in India is, as he says, “idyllic.”  He is educated, logical, and passionate.  He is eager and open to experiencing all the world has to offer.  Mr. Abeysekera enacts every detail of Pi’s story with agility, clarity, and precision.  He questions and explores.  He skillfully pulls back to draw the audience in, then freely opens up to relieve the tension.  He delivers a truly inspired performance.  The audience follows him, cares for him, and feels with him.     

Photo courtesy of Life of Pi

Every moment of spectacle in this production serves the telling of the story.  The audience is transported to a dangerous and mystical world.  

Don’t miss Life of Pi.  Get your ticket today!

Domenick Danza

Shucked

 Shucked
Nederlander Theatre
April 7, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Shucked

Shucked, the new Broadway musical with book by Robert Horn and music and lyrics by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, is wonderfully full of surprises.  It is a musical with an original story, not based on previous source material.  This is something we rarely see on Broadway.  The story builds and develops in ways that you won’t expect.  It is about the healing powers of love wrapped in knee slapping corn husks.  It is crony and heartwarming, boisterous and tender, raunchy and virtuous.  It is truly unique, and just what we need right now.  

The townspeople of Corn County are preparing for a wedding.  Maizy (played by Caroline Innerbichler) is about to wed her life-long love and best friend, Beau (played by Andrew Durand), when a tragic occurrence stops them.  The corn crop, which surrounds and protects the town, begins to wither and die.  The town relies on the corn for survival.  Maizy steps up and decides to leave and get help.  Her cousin Lulu (played by Alex Newell) tries to talk her out of it.  No one has ever left Corn County before.  Beau orders her to stay.  Maizy defies him and ends up in Tampa, where she meets Gordy (played by John Behlmann), a shyster Podiatrist who calls himself “The Corn Doctor.”  Gordy finds out that the stones in the bracelet Maizy is wearing are valuable gems.  Maizy’s Grandpa (played by Dwayne Clark) made it for her from the stones under their house.  Gordy sees this as an opportunity to pay off his loan shark, so he manipulates Maizy to take him back to Corn County.  Gordy promises to solve the corn problem in order to steal the stones.  Luckily, not all the townsfolk are as trusting as Maizy. 

Caroline Innerbichler (center) & the Cast of Shucked
Photo courtesy of Shucked

Caroline Innerbichler captures your heart as Maizy.  She is gullible and determined.  Andrew Durand is stubborn and vulnerable as Beau.  Together these two skilled actors create a genuine relationship that twists and turns in every scene.  They croon and swoon, then croon some more… and their crooning is out of this world. 

Alex Newell as Lulu
Photo curtesy of Shucked

Alex Newell rocks the house as Lulu.  She delivers every joke with a punch and a wink.  In Act I she brings the audience to their feet with her solo “Independently Owned.”  “Friends,” her duet with Ms. Innerbichler in Act II, is powerful and touching.  Her chemistry with John Behlmann (Gordy) is sizzling.  Lulu meets her match in this fast talking conman.  Their timing is spot on.   

Kevin Cahoon plays Beau’s brother, Peanut.  He delivers one corny pun after another.  They usually come in threes, and are followed by a dry take to the audience that extends the laughter even further.  His character defines the town and its inhabitants through his timing, rhythm, and simplicity. 

Photo courtesy of Shucked

Director Jack O’Brien finds the right, subtle tone and easy timing that allows Mr. Horn’s raucous writing to land as it needs.  You wait for the next joke, knowing it will be better than the one you just heard… and it always is.  Sarah O’Gleby’s choreography is sharp, energetic, and lively.  It sets the pace, encapsulates the setting, and keeps the show moving.

There are two kinds of stories to tell.  The first is when a stranger comes to town, and the second is when a character leaves home.  Shucked combines both.  A character leaves home and brings a stranger back to town, who upsets the norm in order to find what everyone was needing all along.  Go see this show! 

Domenick Danza

Fat Ham

 Fat Ham
American Airline Theatre
April 1, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Fat Ham

Playwright James Ijames adapted Shakespeare’s Hamlet to tell the story of finding happiness through self-acceptance.  The stunning outcome is his Pulitzer Prize winning play, Fat Ham.  It is set at a family wedding celebration / bar-b-cue in the "American south…a kind of limited space between the past and the present."  Director Saheem Ali skillfully sculpts the moments in this piece so they deliver hardy laughs, while distinctly highlighting the plot points of a bold and poignant story.  The action rises as the family holds back their secrets.  The tension builds to the point of no return.  

Tio (played by Chris Herbie Holland) is helping his cousin, Juicy (played by Marcel Spears), set up the back yard for a bar-b-cue / wedding celebration.  Juicy’s mother, Tedra (played by Nikki Crawford), married his uncle, Rev (played by Billy Eugene Jones), only two weeks after the death of his father, Pap.  Juicy is unsure of his feelings for the events, until he is visited by Pap’s ghost (also played by Billy Eugene Jones), who tell him that Rev had him killed.  Pap wants Juicy to avenge his murder.  Juicy knows what he needs to do, and also  knows he can’t.  He’s too “soft.”  Rabby (played by Benja Kay Thomas), her son, Larry (played by Calvin Leon Smith), and her daughter, Opal (played by Adrianna Mitchell), arrive for the wedding celebration.  They all eat Rev’s bar-b-cue, sing karaoke, and play charades.  During charades, Juicy and his team act out a book title that mirrors Rev’s guilt.  This propels events to unravel faster that anyone can handle.  Juicy pushes Larry to come out to his mother, which motivates Opal and Rabby to uncover their private sides.  Tio speaks of his marijuana-induced vision for finding happiness, and everyone faces the music. 

Photo courtesy of Fat Ham

Mr. Ijames’ play is brilliantly structured.  His characters are complex and complete.  They open up about themselves at precisely the right moments to emotionally pull you into the events as they evolve.  His incorporation of Shakespeare’s soliloquies is genius.  These moments are personal.  They heighten the action, while deepening the psychological layers of the characters.  They are skillfully directed and masterfully performed. 

Marcel Spears as Juicy
Photo courtesy of Fat Ham

Marcel Spears is excellent as Juicy.  He has an ease about him that lures you into his predicament.  The audience understands his indecision, and is fully on his side.  Nikki Crawford and Billy Eugene Jones are fierce as Tedra and Rev.  Their timing and chemistry are consistently in sync.  Chris Herbie Holland delivers sharp humor in the role of Tio.  His monologue in the later part of the show is wicked, wild, and touching.  Calvin Leon Smith portrays Larry as a strict conformist.  When he opens up, it is pure poetry.  Adrianna Mitchell catches your attention the minute she enters as Opal, and never lets you down.  Her character is determined and rebellious.  Benja Kay Thomas is funny as Rabby.  She imposes rules and expectations, then lets them all go for the good of her family.

Fat Ham is playing at the American Airline Theatre.  It is a MUST SEE!  

Domenick Danza

Vanities: The Musical

 Vanities
The Musical
York Theatre Company
March 25, 2023 

Photo courtesy of York Theatre Company

The York Theatre Company production of Vanities: The Musical is now playing at Theatre at St. Jean’s (150 E. 76 St.).  This show falls right into York Theatre’s mission of being dedicated to "developing and fully producing new musicals and preserving neglected, notable shows from the past.”  The vision of director Will Pomerantz for this production is sleek, sharp, and clean.  The flow of the action is continuous over the decades of the story.  The character’s growth is seen through the transformation of their relationship.  Their friendship deepens, pulls apart, then reunites.

Mary (played by Jade Jones), Kathy (played by understudy Olivia Kaufmann), and Joanne (played by Hayley Podschun) are popular cheerleaders in their small town high school and dating the boys of their dreams.  They cannot see themselves ever separating, and feel a bit of anxiety at the thought of not being in the same sorority, or even worse, not getting into the same college.  Luckily they do, which is where their experiences start to vary.  Joanne is planning her wedding to her high school sweetheart, who is preparing to enter law school.  Kathy’s heart is broken when her boyfriend gets another girl pregnant and marries her.  Mary is preparing to throw caution to the wind by traveling through Europe after graduation.  When they meet again six years after college graduation, their lives are strikingly different.  To be betrayed by a long-time friend is devastating for everyone involved.  These women are unprepared for what is ahead.

Photo courtesy of York Theatre Company

The singing voices of these three women (Jade Jones, Olivia Kaufmann, and Hayley Podschun) are phenomenal.  Not only do their individual vocal qualities work well for their characters, but they blend magnificently.  David Kirshenbaum’s music and lyrics ring beautifully.

Vanities originally opened Off Broadway in 1976 and ran for a remarkable 1,785 performances.  Playwright Jack Heifner collaborated with composer/lyricist David Kirshenbaum to develop his hit play into a musical.  It ran at Second Stage Theatre during the summer of 2009.  In 2016 the musical opened in the West End of London with new material not heard in the New York production. 

The York Theatre Company revisioning of this unknown gem is worth seeing.  It runs through April 22. 

Domenick Danza

This G*d Damn House

 This G*d Damn House
Chain Theatre
March 24, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Chain Theatre

Chain Theatre is producing the world premiere of Matthew McLachlan’s This G*d Damn House.  The play is a complex story of a family coming to terms with their truths.  The stakes are high and the clock is ticking as the characters do all they can to hold it together.  Director Ella Jane New works with an excellent cast to uncover the secrets that have kept this family together for years, and ultimately end up destroying them. 

Angie (played by Sachi Parker) has been evicted from her Florida home.  She has less than twenty-four hours to get out.  She called her son Jacob (played by Kirk Gostkowski) to do the heavy lifting.  He called his brother, Danny (played by Gabriel Rysdahl), a playwright living in New York City, to fly down to help him.  The brothers do what they can to avoid the memories they unearth as they work through the night sorting the trash and belongings Angie horded over the years.  When Angie’s teaching assistant, Hannah (played by Rica de Ocampo), arrives to lend a hand, it is revealed that Angie lost her job six months ago.  This begins a slow unraveling of the lies Angie has told about her eviction.  It is not until Jacob’s wife, Ally (played by Christina Perry), who is eight months pregnant, shows up at 3:30 AM that the full truth is uncovered and the unavoidable transpires. 

Sachi Parker, Kirk Gostkowski, & Gabriel Rysdahl
Photo courtesy of Chain Theatre

Sachi Parker beautifully portrays the complexities of Angie’s character.  In Act I she is witty and
charming.  Her slow, aging physicality is juxtaposed by her fast-paced, energetic, non-stop talking.  Her sly smile and enigmatic gaze seduce her sons into helping her in her time of need.  In Act II, after her pregnant daughter-in-law confronts her, she shows her true colors.  She is cold, cunning, and manipulative.  This scene between Ms. Parker and Christina Perry is riveting.  It is the key turning point of the play, and these two women skillfully deliver the potent punch that shifts the action for all the characters.    

The set design, by David Henderson, and set dressing, by David Kaplan, create an atmosphere that truly reflects Angie’s character.  At the top of the show, the set is filled with boxes and shopping bags.  Piles of dirty clothes are strewn everywhere.  The old, worn furniture is completely hidden.  As the characters pack up and empty the house, dirt and stains are revealed on the walls and carpet.  The truth of the house is uncovered.  It is filthy and repellent.  The house is Angie.  When Jacob loses all patience with his mother, he shows her the dirt on his hands and says, “This is you.”  Angie is the g*d damn house.

This G*d Damn House is playing at Chain Theatre (312 W 36th St. 4th floor, New York, NY 10018) through April 8. 

Domenick Danza