My Favorite Things

MarqueePolitics is turning two this month, and this blogger is turning the big 27. With these milestones on the horizon, it got me thinking.

I’m often asked about my favorite performances, and to identify which ones made the biggest impact on me.  With my birthday right around the corner, I thought that this would be an appropriate time to reflect on the performances that have never quite left me.

Phantom/Miss. Saigon/Cats

“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

All it took was: a crashing chandelier, helicopter landing and dancing cats.  These were first shows I ever saw (ages 3, 6, 7).  Their combination of: high emotions, grand spectacle and memorable pop scores sent my young imagination soaring.  I often call them the holy trinity of musicals, because it was these three shows that introduced me to the great love of my life, the theater.

Evita – 1979 Original Broadway Cast Recording

I had an epiphany in high school, and it was the first time I ever listened to the original Broadway cast recording of Evita.

The rock opera’s themes of politics, revolution and media manipulation hooked this young politico at age 16.  Evita was further electrified by Patti LuPone’s fierce portrayal as Argentina’s First Lady and her ambition to succeed at all costs.  Despite having the album for the 11 years, not a week goes by when LuPone and the original Broadway cast of Evita can been heard from my apartment, giving this show a touch of star quality!

Elaine Stritch at Liberty – 2002 Broadway Production

Rare, intense, humorous, honest and a triumph of the human soul.

I was lucky enough to attend the last Broadway matinee performance of this show.  From that Sunday afternoon, I learned that human’s can triumph over any adversity as long as we don’t stop fighting.  Accompanied by a songbook of classic Broadway hits, Stritch walked the audience thru her: fights with alcoholism, struggles with love, triumphs working with Noel Coward and Stephen Sondheim, and life’s journey from being raised in Detroit to having her name adorn Broadway marquees.

Great actors leave it all out on the stage and Stritch set the bar for generations to come.

 Company – 2006 Broadway Revival

Company, more than any other show, changed my perspective on life.

My parents split when I was very young, and what understanding of marriage I had came from television.  Because of that, I never understood the emotional complexity involved when two people enter into a relationship, and what I did know was very one-sided.   Company threw cold-water on that idea, teaching me that relationships are about sharing your life with somebody, not just some-body.  Theater is often a reflection of life through art, and its through art that we learn so much about ourselves as individuals.

The Audience

The one constant in all these productions is the audience, and I’ve been lucky to have always had a supporting audience of my own.  While I won’t use their names, I want recognize the friends and family who have encouraged my love of the theater: My parents who introduced me to the musical at age 3, grandparents who were always game to see a show on Broadway – even if they didn’t quite “get it”, Chief of Staff, and dear friends living across the country in: New York, Pittsburgh, Rockville, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, DC.  All of which I owe a debt a gratitude for indulging in my life’s great passion!

The cast albums to all shows mentioned above are available on amazon.com.

Furthermore, video productions of: Cats, Company, Elaine Stritch at Liberty and Phantom may also be found at amazon.com.

SPECIAL TONY AWARD EDITION – Here’s to the losers!

“And the Tony Award goes to…” (Watch the video, how many faces do you recognize?)

These will be the final words dozens of nominees hear tonight before: hearts’ break, dreams’ shatter and the realization sets in that they lost the American theater’s highest honor to someone else.

While everyone says, “It’s an honor just to be nominated,” no one believes that BS line.

However, time has shown that winning a Tony Award doesn’t make one a star, it’s the audience who makes that judgment call.  To those who will lose tonight, I’d like to console them with two actresses’ stories who confirm that it is the performance, not the accolades, that history ultimately remembers.

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly – 1957 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical

Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolitte in 1956’s My Fair Lady.

It’s hard to believe that Julie Andrews has never won a Tony Award, especially given that her name is synonymous with one of Broadway’s masterpiece’s My Fair Lady.  She was only 21 when the show opened in 1956, and a relative unknown, but her performance of cockney-flower girl Eliza Doolittle earned her cheers from audiences and critics.  Although, not from Tony Award voters who gave the 1957 Best Actress in a Musical Award to Judy Holliday for Bells Are Ringing.

What’s remarkable is that even though she lost the Tony, and even the film role to Audrey Hepburn, no actress has ever been to escape Andrews’ shadow as Eliza.  Many actresses have tried, but none have come close.  Fortunately for us, Andrews’ performance as Eliza was preserved on My Fair Lady’s original Broadway and London cast albums.

While a Tony Award for Andrews would have been great, it must be especially loverly knowing that 58 years onward, people are still cheering her performance!

Don’t Rain on My Parade – 1964 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical

How does one justify the fact that Barbra Streisand won an Oscar for her portrayal as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, but lost the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1964 for that very same role?  In reality, despite giving a knockout performance, Streisand had the misfortune of being nominated against another iconic actress/role, Carol Channing as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!  History though had other plans!

Streisand was Funny Girl, and till this day her performance is still talked about! Don’t believe me, give the YouTube clip a list and prepare to be blown away!

Yes, this is aided by her performance in the 1968 film adaption of Funny Girl.  But since the original Broadway production of Funny Girl closed in 1967, no actress has ever come close to matching Streisand.  So great is the memory of Streisand’s performance, than many potential Broadway revivals have failed to materialize simply because of the memory of her.  Quite simply put, don’t rain on Streisand’s parade!

 A word to the nominees

Yes, it stinks to lose.  But Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand’s examples demonstrates that history and the audience will ultimately judge who was the best that season.  Great actors don’t let awards define them; they allow their performance to do just that.

As for yours truly, I am a 2009 Tony Award holder.  And yes, the Tony medal feels great to carry!

The Art of Storytelling Part II

The nature of love and the meaning of life are two abstract concepts which Broadway shows seem to be in a constant struggle to forever define.  Fortunately, I saw two shows on my recent trip to Broadway which employed unconventional methods to answer these unconventional questions.

Pippin – The Music Box Theatre

The theatre was pitch black, the curtain a dingy tent flap and from the orchestra a faint piano could be heard as a slinky black shadow slithered toward the audience beckoning, “Join us…”

It’s easy to hook an audience with a great opening number, and Pippin has one of the best in “Magic to Do.”  But it’s also easy to lose an audience when trying to define an abstract question, which is what Pippin is all about.

The musical follows the story of a boy named Pippin as he searches for the meaning of life.  It’s a quest everyone in the audience is familiar with, both personally and on-stage, for Pippin’s journey is not unlike Princeton in Avenue Q or Candide in Candide.

What makes Pippin’s journey different from those before (and after) him is the honesty with which life’s choices are laid out.  Pippin, like many of us, searches through life’s all too familiar phases including: military glory, sex, politics, family and even ordinary life before finally arriving at what he views as the best way to make his life extraordinary.

The emotional and physical choices Pippin must address are conveyed by the fact that the show is performed by a troupe in a circus like atmosphere.  This troupe not only breaks the fourth wall in addressing the audience, but uses the circus setting to symbolize the hoops one must jump through and the beams one must walk across to find the answers to life’s most complex questions.

Life as circus is not an original metaphor, but it is an honest one.  And Pippin’s quest to find life’s meaning is an innocent and honest enigma we all try to solve.  Pippin’s greatest attribute as a musical is the clarity in the portrayal of life’s choices through its spectacles.

The Last 5 Years – Second Stage Theatre (Off-Broadway)

Countless musicals have told love stories on linear paths regardless of their ending.  But what about telling the story from two different angles and time perspectives?  That’s what makes The Last 5 Years a modern classic.

The Last 5 Years is a one act, two character, 90 minute show.  It tells the story of Jamie and Cathy over their five-year relationship, from the first date to their divorce.  Now, I’m not spoiling the ending, because the audience learns of the couple’s demise within the first song.  But the real question is how did they get there?

To answer that question composer Jason Robert Brown, who also directed this magnificent production, told their story in two distinct directions.  The songs alternate between Cathy and Jamie, with Cathy starting the show at the end of the marriage, and Jamie starting at the beginning of the relationship.  When the show concludes, it is Jamie who laments the marriage’s demise while Cathy is celebrating their meeting.

The real joy in watching The Last 5 Years is seeing this one-story told in two different and opposing emotional directions.  Even more fascinating is that both characters only meet and appear onstage together one-time throughout the show.  That happens mid-way thru when both stories intersect, at their wedding.  The scene is both heartbreaking because you know what’s coming, but also thrilling because you see the joy in their eyes.  Now, that’s great storytelling!

Finale

I saw The Last 5 Years and Pippin on the same day, one at the matinee and the other in the evening.  It was perhaps one of the greatest days in my theater-going journey, and reinforced what I love so much about the American theater: its ability to tell a story and the creativity involved.

The Last 5 Years will conclude its limited run on May 18, tickets are available by clicking here.

Pippin currently has an open-ended run, tickets are available by clicking here.

The Art of Storytelling: 2013 NYC Broadway Recap

Warning: This post will contain plot spoilers for the show’s mentioned.  Proceed at your own risk!

MarqueePolitics has been busy traveling and just returned from a whirlwind weekend in New York City seeing four shows: Matilda, The Last 5 Years, Pippin and Cinderella.  And while each musical was different in its style and staging, one thought kept popping into my head.  Sometimes it’s not the story that counts, but how you tell it!

Matilda – Shubert Theatre 

Matilda sailed into Broadway from London last month with a lot of hype and dazzling reviews.  Yet, it was the most anticlimactic-boring musical I have sat thru in a long, long time.  I arrived at this summation when heading to the men’s room at intermission, thinking about the Act I Finale and simply saying, “That’s it?”

Based on the Roald Dahl book, Matilda centers on an extremely intelligent five-year old girl. Despite having parents who hate her, and a nasty headmistress, she’s able to conquer life’s problems using her intelligence and, later on, telekinetic powers.

The problem with the telekinetic plot twist is that for a good 70% of the show, Matilda uses her intelligence to outwit those who wish her ill-will.  This shtick maybe cute, but by Act II it becomes quite predictable.  When Matilda’s telekinetic discovery finally is made,  it arrives in the form of Matilda knocking over a glass of water.  This discovery had a feeling of suspense comparable to hanging wallpaper.

I know the British are stereotyped as being rather dull, bloated and uptight, but that’s exactly how Matilda came off.  It was charming, yet dreadfully dull.  Good stories hold your attention, Matilda forced my attention to think about which bar I would frequent after the show.

Cinderella – Broadway Theatre

If Matilda was prim and proper, than Cinderella was its musical sibling of an adverse nature.  Originally a 90-minute Rodgers & Hammerstein (R&H) television musical, the show was elongated by one hour for its Broadway debut this spring.  To fill the gap, the producers imported music from other R&H shows and commissioned a new book (the spoken text of a musical) to be written.

The result was a mismatched narrative of a show, akin to wearing a tuxedo shirt and jacket with gym shorts and flip flops.   Cinderella is a classic fairy-tale where formality, elegance, manners and grace are as essential as the white ball gown and glass slippers.  Yet the words being spoken out of the characters mouth placed them in a B-movie comedy circa 2002.

While the new book attempted to freshen-up the show’s well-worn plot, the use of modern slang and colloquialisms not only cheapened the characters, but a lovely musical.  Cinderella is a reminder that in musical theater, music and lyrics simply don’t tell the story.  They ONLY work when combined with a well written book.

Storytelling maters….

Despite technological advances in stagecraft, Matilda and Cinderella confirmed that nothing can overrule a well told story.  Matilda and Cinderella were nice productions, but lacked the essential tools of drama (Matilda) and eloquence (Cinderella).

In Part II of this post, I’ll explore two shows which redefined the art of story-telling in vastly different ways including: forwards, backwards and with a little bit of magic to do!

Some Enchanted Recording

It was some enchanted evening on April 7, 1949 when South Pacific opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre.  So culturally significant was this event that last week the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.  While this blogger, and millions others, have always recognized the Rodgers & Hammerstein show for its cultural significance, the Library of Congress has now also taken note.  Now future generations of American’s will know what it is like when ‘you see a stranger across a crowded room.’

To be selected for the National Recording Registry is an immense honor.  It not only signifies a recording’s popular appeal, but more importantly it’s cultural significance to the heritage of the United States.  The recordings aren’t based on trivial matters such as: “weeks spent at #1” or “total # of albums sold.”  Rather, selections are because the albums “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”

Each year the National Recording Registry Board accepts nominations in 23 different categories for an album’s inclusion into the Registry.  Those categories include: Documentary/Broadcast/Spoken Word, Heavy Metal, Rap/Hip-Hop and Broadway/Musical Theatre/Soundtrack.  From the nominations, the Board then chooses roughly 25-50 recordings to be preserved by the Library of Congress.  In addition to original cast album of South Pacific this year’s list also includes: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, Van Cliburn’s 1958 rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 and a D-Day radio broadcast by journalist George Hicks.

The Registry is a who’s who of American political, entertainment and religious culture.  While Congress usually gets jeered, I feel that this is one occasion where they should be cheered.  For none of this would be possible had it not been mandated by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000.

Going back to South Pacific, I don’t think it was picked solely because of its success on both stage and screen.  Yes, the show won 10 Tony awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has been produced around the world, but it also represents something more.  On the eve of the American Civil Rights movement, South Pacific unapologetically proclaimed, “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.”  This statement is still as bold now as was when it was first sung in 1949.  That declaration alone is reason enough why South Pacific should be preserved, and listened too for generations to come.

Springtime for….

Peter Pan used to tell children that if they wanted to fly, they must think “Happy” thoughts.  Well I’m applying the same logic to staying warm this winter, and so my thoughts are turning to the new crop of Broadway shows opening in March and April.  Below are the productions I’m most excited to see on Broadway this spring!

Pippin – We’ve Got Magic To Do!

Music  Box Theater – Opening Night April 25^th

The revival of this 1972 musical is about a boy prince hoping to find his way in the world.  Throughout his travels, he goes on to basically do ‘sex, drugs and rock n’roll’ all in the hope of discovering fulfillment in life.  With a score by Stephen Schwartz (better known to millenials as the composer of Wicked) this production couldn’t better timed.  With too many millenials still questioning traditional social values after the 2008 financial collapse, hopefully they’ll learn from Pippin’s example about how to make life extraordinary.

Cinderella – A New Rodgers & Hammerstein Musical?

Broadway Theatre – Opening Night March 3^rd

“How can this be,” you’re asking yourself!  “I saw this same musical on television with Julie Andrews?”  True, Cinderella was originally a television musical with Julie Andrews.  In fact R&H wanted to work with Andrews so badly they wrote Cinderella just for her.  The music however has never been heard on the Broadway stage, till now.  Featuring an updated and elongated book, this production of Cinderella will be the first time these R&H songs have been heard on the Broadway stage in a legitimate production.

Matilda – A Non-Spectacle British Musical?

Shubert Theatre – Opening Night April 11^th

It’s fascinating to me watching the transformation of the British musical.  In the eighties it was all spectacle with shows like Starlight Express and Miss Saigon.  Now, with shows like Billy Elliot and Matilda, the musicals are becoming more character driven.  That being said Matilda, a musical based on the beloved Roald Dahl novel, is coming to American via the Royal Shakespeare Company and a lot of theater buzz.  It will be exciting to see whether this shows turns out to be like London productions that had a lot of buzz and flopped (Chess) or still have their marquee burning bright (Phantom).

The Last 5 Years – My First Time…

2^nd Stage Theatre – Opening Night March 7^th

I’ve never been off-Broadway, but if there was ever a reason to go, it would be to see a production of the heart-breakingly beautiful musical The Last 5 Years.  This two-person show is about a couple and the story of their marriage.  The husband and wife alternate singing every-other-song, with the wife starting at the end of the marriage and the husband starting after their first date.  They respectively go forward and backwards, only meeting once and that’s in the middle of the show at their wedding.  This show had a brief off-Broadway run a decade ago, but has since become a modern classic.

As for what makes a show an off-Broadway show?  Off-Broadway are theaters that can house 100-499 seats, thus making them smaller then Broadway theaters.  Many off-Broadway also tend to be out of the realm of the theater district in mid-town Manhattan.

My Cabbage Patch Doll, The Phantom and I

When I was a kid, the basement of our house used to flood after every major thunderstorm.  Naturally, I would become paranoid that the Phantom of the Opera was going to kidnap me.  This fear was instilled in me at age three when my parents took me to see my first-ever musical, The Phantom of Opera.  Over the weekend, the Broadway production of Phantom celebrated its 25^th anniversary, a remarkable milestone for the show that embedded in me, along with so many others, a love for musical theater.

After the smashing success of Phantom on Broadway and in London, the producers decided to launch two America touring productions and a sit-down production in Toronto, Canada.  In 1989 my parents scored tickets to see the show with its original Canadian cast in Toronto.  Despite only being three, and ignoring the fact that the main character was a deformed madman, my parents decided to introduce me to live theater.  To calm my fears, they bribed me into good behavior by allowing me to bring my cabbage doll named Hannibal (ironically enough, that’s also the name of the first act opera in Phantom).

What my parents failed to tell me was that our seats were two rows from the stage, center orchestra.  Due to the proximity of our seats to the stage, my three-year old self was introduced to live theater by: having a chandelier rise and fall on-top of us, the stage get set on fire, fireballs shot at us from the Phantom himself, the Phantom taking his curtain call without his mask – thus waving at me with his deformed face, and the infamous gondola journey to the underground where he takes Christine to his lair.

Poor Hannibal, he got squashed that evening by me hugging him so tightly.  After that night, and after every rain storm when our basement would flood, I was terrified the Phantom would come and kidnap me, like he did Christine, in his gondola.  Growing up I had numerous sightings of the Phantom in our basement, although none were ever confirmed by my parents.

It wasn’t until the movie version of Phantom came out, when I started re-listening to the cast album and finally decided to revisit the show.  When the tour came to Pittsburgh the next year, my father scored two tickets for my mother and I (Hannibal stayed home).  Same seats, second row, center orchestra, and this time I loved every minute.

Prior to the show, Mom and I went for dinner at a restaurant near the theater.  Sitting at the table next to us was a young boy (age 3) and his mother.  We started chatting with them, and the boy proceeded to talk non-stop about the show, movie and cast album.  This was his first time seeing the show and he could barely contain his excitement.  Leaving dinner, I turned to the woman and said, “You’re not going to believe this, but that was mom and I 15 years ago.”  My mother and I got up and then proceeded to the theater.

I am so proud of Phantom’s 25^th anniversary, and even prouder that it was the first musical I ever saw.  Since originally opening in London in 1986 (three months after I was born), the show has been seen by more than 100 million theatergoers in 150 cities located worldwide in 25 countries.  In a world so wrought with division, Phantom’s success reminds me of the power of the arts to unify us.  We all may have seen the same show, but our takeaways are all different and this allows us to have a dialogue and forge relationships we might have otherwise passed up.

I was unable to attend Phantom’s 25^th anniversary gala in New York City, but could not be happier for their milestone.  With each year that passes, and each performance where the chandelier crashes, I am constantly reminded how special this show is as fellow fans return again, often bringing along their children and continuing the tradition.  The Phantom never did come and kidnap me with his gondola through our flooded basement, but as the years pass I have gone back to the Opera Populaire many times to revisit my old friend and remember how I fell in love with the music of the night.

For tickets to Phantom, please visit: http://www.thephantomoftheopera.com/

The Opera Ghost’s Special Day

This Saturday, January 26 2013, the Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera will celebrate its 25 anniversary.  Not only is the production the longest running show in Broadway history, but Phantom is also the first production in American theater history to be consistently playing for 25 years.

Phantom’s creative team likes to say, “It’s the Broadway musical all others are measured against,” and they couldn’t be more correct.  It was for a whole generation of thespians (including yours truly), the show that made them fall in love with Broadway.  On Monday, I’ll be posting my tribute to Broadway’s most haunting love story, but for now I’m posting several videos to remind us how we fell in love with the music of the night.

The Overture and Raising of the Chandelier – For sooooo many phans, it was that heart-stopping overture and the raising of the chandelier which forever hooked us to the show.  Below is a clip of both from the show’s 25^th anniversary concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

In All Your Fantasies, You Always Knew – What made Phantom great was that the show could be terrifying one minute, and intensely romantic the next.  Combined with the exquisite set design, and chemistry between lead actors Michael Crawford (Phantom) and Sarah Brightman (Christine), it’s easy to see why so many fell in love with the story of a disfigured composer and his muse.  Here’s a clip from the 1988 Tony Awards with Crawford and Brightman.  (Sorry for the bad quality, there was no HD in 1988.)

By The Numbers – This is a wonderful clip made by the producers to highlight the show’s success around the world.  One of my favorite scenes is of a young and beautiful Princess Diana receiving a red rose from the Phantom.

A WORLDWIDE Phenomenon –  A major part of Phantom’s success has been its ability to travel the world, literally.  Early on, producer Cameron Mackintosh made the decision that the same show which played on Broadway, would also tour the world.  This meant that the sets/costumes, special effects and orchestra would all be the same.  The show would not be scaled down.  At the time, this was a revolutionary concept for musical touring productions, and an expensive once.  However, it is safe to say that the show’s investors made their money back.

Below is a great clip from the Chicago Tribune taking phans behind the scenes to see exactly how Phantom tours the world.

Behind the Mask – People tend to forget the struggle to launch Phantom.  The show’s special effects, controversy behind the affair/casting of Lloyd Webber’s wife Sarah Brightman and unflattering coverage by the press almost doomed the musical before its London opening.  In 2008, the BBC did a great hour long documentary called Behind the Mask about the show’s creative process.  Below is part one, with all the other parts available on Youtube.

For tickets to Phantom and more information on the show, please visit: http://www.thephantomoftheopera.com/

Review: War Horse, A Journey Back to Childhood

Growing up in the theater during the 1980’s I was a child of the mega-musical: an era where productions used special effects to enhance shows with simplistic plots. The last show I ever saw do this to do great effect, was the first national tour of Miss Saigon. That is until I saw the current touring production of the Tony award winning Best Play, War Horse, currently performing at Washington, DC’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

War Horse’s plot is simple; a boy grows attached to his horse named Joey, Joey gets shipped off to the front during World War I and the boy joins the army to find Joey.  As one theater friend recently stated to me, “It’s the story of Shiloh retold with a horse.”

What makes War Horse so special is how the production team tells the story. Rather than using real horses (to0 tricky), stuff animals (too camp), they instead use puppets to great effect. The horse is life-size and the design is so successful that you feel the audience’s emotional attachment to Joey. For a non-speaking puppet, there was no doubt as to the kind of horse Joey would be in real life.  I took a friend who was raised on a ranch in Nebraska to see War Horse, and even she remarked that what made the show so believable was the puppet’s behavior was so realistic.

Enhancing War Horse, and adding a sense of epic urgency to the story, is the fact that much of Act I and all of Act II takes place in the battlefields of World War I. Using a combination of lights, sounds and projections, the creative team takes the audience on Joey’s journey through War without using a literal stage design and going overboard on set pieces.  This challenges the audience, in a good way, to use their imaginations to enhance Joey’s surroundings at the British and German fronts.

Watching War Horse I was transported back to my childhood when crashing chandeliers, a turntable, dancing cats and helicopters landing on stage brought the theater to life. Despite its critics, the mega-musical fueled my imagination and forever bonded me to live theater. War Horse doesn’t have a complicated story, what it has is a heart.  And for one theatergoer, it was a journey back to childhood, all thanks to a life-size horse puppet named Joey.

To learn more about War Horse, or to purchase tickets, please visit: http://warhorseonstage.com/tickets/us_tour

Review: The Book of Mormon

The message on religion was enlightening and the production quality stellar, yet with dated jokes and lacking memorable songs, The Book of Mormon falls flat and is anything but God’s gift to musical theater.  I know, I know…this was supposed to be the greatest musical ever!  Regardless, I entered the theater really hoping to like it, but two acts and one intermission later, I found myself completely bored.

For those who don’t know, The Book of Mormon is about two young Mormon missionaries assigned to work in Uganda.  Their task is to spread the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to a country ravaged by war.  The show has the potential to be both a comedic masterpiece and a prophetic statement on faith in the 21^st century.  And yet, The Book of Mormon fails in both areas because of three key problems: direction, humor and music/lyrics.

The Book of Mormon’s plot is solid; however the direction of the show is what keeps it from being more than mediocre.  Much of the show’s problem is that it never seems to define itself.  Is The Book of Mormon a, critique of the Mormon faith, personal statement on faith in general, satire of religion/religious missionaries or musical farce?  With a solid creative team that includes Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park) and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q); it’s tragic to think the writers couldn’t provide the show with greater guidance.

Adding to the misdirection are the show’s jokes, some of which are good, but most seem like old-school shtick you’d expect to see in a second-rate lounge act in Atlantic City.  This includes mispronouncing foreign names, mocking religion and jokes about homosexuals misinterpreting their sexual identity.  Some of the jokes can be cruel, but most seem like material that failed to the make the cut of a South Park episode.

And if the jokes were bad, the songs weren’t any better.  Sounding like someone threw Avenue Q, Wicked and Spamalot into a blender, The Book of Mormon’s music and lyrics lack originality.  Yes, there is a song which says ‘F&$% You God in the A$$,’ but much like the jokes, the songs are second rate.  Once you move past the shock value, there isn’t much that’s really there.  It’s a disappointment since the same creative team also gave us such phenomenal musical numbers as “Blame Canada” from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and “America (F&$% Yeah)” from Team America: World Police.

I went into The Book of Mormon really wanting to love it. Entering Los Angeles’s Pantages Theater, I couldn’t have been more thrilled and excited.  Leaving, I was bored and felt ripped off.  All this hype and it wasn’t worth it.  If the show has one redeeming quality, it’s the message about a person’s own relationship with the idea of faith.  For a show charging upwards of $60 to sit in the last row of the theater, faith alone wasn’t worth the price of admission.

The Book of Mormon is currently on Broadway, touring the United States and preparing for a London Production.  To get tickets or to learn more, please visit: http://www.bookofmormonbroadway.com