Musical Theater – Page 2 – Hudson-Housatonic Arts

Elizabeth Stanley and Paul Anthony Stewart with the cast of Kiss Me, Kate. Photo by Kevin Sprague.

Kiss Me Kate at the Barrington Stage Company

June 19, 2014July 23, 2016Nancy Salz

Just reading the program builds anticipation for the Barrington Stage Company production of Kiss Me Kate. The songs listed—“So In Love,” “I Hate Men,” “Wunderbar,” “Too Darn Hot”—are among the best from Broadway’s golden age. The first number, “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” adds more anticipation. Then the show builds and builds and builds until it is, unfortunately, way over the top. Barrington Stage Company, always so reliable for exceptional musical theatre, this year embellished a Cole Porter gem. They shouldn’t have. Kiss Me Kate gleams on its own.

The Bridges of Madison County – World Premiere Musical at Williamstown Theatre Festival

August 13, 2013July 23, 2016Nancy Salz

Few musicals head to Broadway with the pedigree and promise of The Bridges of Madison County: Music by Jason Robert Brown (Parade, which premiered at Lincoln Center Theatre), book by Marsha Norman (Tony winner for ‘night Mother and The Secret Garden), and directed by Bartlett Sher (South Pacific and many Metropolitan Opera productions). The show, based on a controversial best-seller of the same name by Robert James Waller, is currently having its pre-Broadway developmental performances through August 18 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. It is a privilege to be in attendance at the birth of this musical. Many aspects of the show are going brilliantly. But many need further work.

Oklahoma! At the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Colonial Theatre through July 20, 2013

July 9, 2013July 23, 2016Nancy Salz 1 Comment

For lovers of the American musical theatre there is no better reason for goose bumps than a large cast of energetic performers strutting toward the footlights singing the title song of Oklahoma!. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein set up this moment perfectly with a short, vocal solo followed by the full orchestra playing an eight note scale. Finally we hear the one-note crescendo and the familiar melody.

“Animal Crackers” Proves an Acquired Taste at WTF

July 3, 2013July 23, 2016Nancy Salz

When a musical is given a revival it is usually because of the music, the dancing, the subject of the story or a singular character at which the most talented actor of the day can take a turn. Sometimes all four (think The King and I or Gypsy). In the case of Animal Crackers the 1928 musical, it is the three S’s: shtick, slapstick and silliness.

Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town at Barrington Stage Company, June 12 – July 13, 2013

June 17, 2013July 23, 2016Nancy Salz 1 Comment

The “overture” to the Barrington Stage Company’s production of On the Town, the Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical, wasn’t written by the composer. The honors belong to John Stafford Smith, who with later lyrics by Francis Scott Key, wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.”

It’s an unexpected way to begin this hilarious and horny show about three sailors on a one-day leave in New York City, but the anthem creates the context of the time. The show occurs during World War II and was premiered in December of 1944. The national anthem was played before every performance of On the Town’s initial Broadway run and is now a tradition with director John Rando’s productions.

Far From Heaven: A New Musical based on the 2002 film at the Williamstown Theatre Festival

July 24, 2012July 23, 2016Nancy Salz 3 Comments

In 1957 society could be cruel to those who were different. Cathy Whitaker, a young Connecticut housewife and mother of two, is different. When her friends sing of once-a-week sex with their husbands, she is silent. Her husband Frank is different; he is gay. When Cathy learns his truth, she seeks solace with her sympathetic gardener, Raymond, also different, a “Negro,” a “gardening Nat King Cole.” Her neighbors gossip with relish. When Raymond takes her to his neighborhood café where he thinks they will be safe, she is ostracized because there, as a white woman, she is different. Cathy is trapped in a conformist marriage with repression, denial and pretense her only defenses.

Fiddler on the Roof at the Barrington Stage Company

June 23, 2012July 23, 2016Nancy Salz 1 Comment

It felt so good to return to the tiny village of Anatevka – to be uplifted by the heart-warming, brave inhabitants of this Russian, turn-of-the century shtetl, the hometown of Fiddler on the Roof. We get to spend a few hours listening to their songs and stories, and when they are exiled, we once again weep. We miss them and their way of life even before the curtain comes down.

Thanks to the Barrington Stage of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and its wonderful, if not quite perfect, revival of Fiddler, we can revel in the glorious Bock and Harnick score, see Jerome Robbins’ imaginative staging and dances and share the lives of Tevye, the dairyman; Golde, his wife; and their five daughters, three of whom are of marriageable age. Living with the imminent threat of Russian pogroms and the coming revolution, they hang tight to their Jewish traditions.

The Game, A Musical Version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Barrington Stage Company, closed August 28, 2011

September 1, 2011July 23, 2016Nancy Salz

Diabolical. That’s how the Monthly Review labeled Choderlos de Laclos’s novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses when it was first published in England in 1784. Two years earlier, when it debuted in France, the novel in letter form sold out its first printing of 2,000 copies in two weeks. Nearly two hundred and thirty years later this story of sexual and emotional manipulation continues to fascinate audiences as much in performance as it does on the page.