Friday, February 4, 2005

The Ol' Razzle-Dazzle

Time for a theater review. The Reprise! series here in L.A. is doing Pippin, the 1972 Broadway show which starred Bob Fosse's staging. The story has something to do with the son of King Charlemagne, Pippin by name, who tries to find some meaning in life via various means. He tries study and war and drugs and since this is a Bob Fosse musical, he tries sex a number of different ways. Mostly, he tries singing "Corner of the Sky" every eight minutes. His life, as it evolves, is told by a nimble narrator character called Leading Player who was originally played by Ben Vereen, and who in this production is played by Sam Harris. As near as I can tell, what you have is Harris playing Vereen playing the Leading Player who plays God and Bob Fosse, not necessarily in that order. (Pippin is played by a gent named Michael Arden, who I never saw before but he's awfully good. Most of the cast is awfully good, especially Conrad John Schuck as King Charlemagne and Mimi Hines in a brief star turn as Pippin's Grandma.)

So did I like it? Yeah, some of it. But there was an awful lot I didn't like, most of it in the second act when Pippin's rather simple-minded quest to do something "extraordinary" with his life seems to ramble and move in contrived directions. By the last twenty minutes, I was squirming in my seat and wishing someone would just tell Pippin to grow up, then bring Mimi Hines out to do her wonderful number from Act One again.

As far as I can tell, my problems with it were with the basic play, not with this expert production of it, which was directed by Gordon Hunt. Gordon, who I used to work with at Hanna-Barbera, did something more extraordinary than poor Pippin ever achieves, just by getting this show up and running and looking as polished as it does, all in the limited rehearsal time of a Reprise! staging. I guess I admired everything about the show but the show, itself.

• Posted at 11:51 PM · LINK

Beached Boys?

Around 14 months ago, Jackie Mason opened a new musical on Broadway to lethal reviews and quick closure. One critic wrote, "It's only worth paying if you want to be able to say you've seen the worst musical comedy on Broadway in recent memory." And that was one of the better notices.

It's a sad fact of the business that every year or so, one such show comes along — and I'm not even saying that these shows are as awful as they say...only that they're saying it with a painful, overwhelming unanimity. The latest example seems to be Good Vibrations, a show stitched together from classic Beach Boys tunes. It just opened and as you can see here, the critics didn't just find it disappointing. They seem to have all felt it was their duty to trash it in such a way that you'd feel foolish to go buy a ticket...not unless you're the kind of person who wants to go and cackle at how dreadful something is. There are, of course, such people. A certain segment of those who profess to love theater seem to love to hate it, to live for the bitchy comments about the people involved, and to generally delight in failure. There's a song in the recent hit, Avenue Q, called "Schadenfreude" and, boy, do theatergoers know about that.

I haven't seen Good Vibrations and at this rate, it's not likely that I will...at least, not in New York. I have a hunch — based on the premise, not the execution — that it may not disappear forever, the way a show that gets that kind of critical reaction usually does. It may or may not be as rotten as they say but an evening of those songs certainly sounds like just the right thing to offer the folks who buy tickets to musicals these days. That's the age bracket that would love to hear "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" and "Fun, Fun, Fun" and all those Top 40 parts of their childhoods. Moreover, the show looks like something that would be very easy for regional theaters to stage — no huge sets, no elaborate costumes, a small orchestra, a young cast, a note of campiness so audiences can forgive a little amateurism...and mostly familiar material. There are scenes in swimwear so it can be as sexy as the local market will bear...and there's probably not a choreographer alive who wouldn't think they could work wonders with the numbers and the dance styles of that day. Grease has been ubiquitous at community colleges for many of those same reasons.

So here's a prediction from afar about a show I haven't seen. I have no idea how long it will last on Broadway — probably not long, depending on how aggressively they try to keep it running, and how badly some other show wants to open at the Eugene O'Neill Theater. But assuming it goes on a national tour and later becomes available for local productions, it will become one of those shows, like Smokey Joe's Cafe and Grease and (soon) Mamma Mia!, that eventually play every theater that ever houses musicals. Good Vibrations may be bad but its demographics are perfect...and lately, that's what theater is all about.

• Posted at 9:20 AM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

This weekend in the overnight slot, NBC is scheduled to rerun the 4/22/78 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Steve Martin. This is the one often cited as "the best episode ever" of the series. I don't know if it's that or not, but it does include an opening with the Blues Brothers (introduced by Paul Shaffer playing Don Kirschner), Martin singing "King Tut," a sketch with the Czech brothers, the "Dancing in the Dark" dance with Gilda Radner and Mr. Martin, and a few other gems of note.

This early A.M. timeslot provides a rare opportunity to see old episodes of SNL in their original, 90-minute lengths. The show's rerun package, currently airing over on the E! Network, trims out the weakest material to bring each program down to an hour. Sometimes, this involved the omission of some real treasures.

And sometimes not. Lately, they've been reaching back to the classic "first five years" and reairing episodes that were nominated for the Emmy Award. Last week, it was one hosted by Candice Bergen; the week before, Eric Idle. Though they were well worth TiVoing and watching at a decent hour, I have to admit that they weren't as wonderful as I'd recalled — not as funny, not as professional. Maybe the one this weekend will be otherwise. It airs some time between Saturday night and Sunday morning...beginning at 3:01 AM on my set, but consult your TV listing to make certain.

• Posted at 8:14 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

My old pal Joe Brancatelli informs us which airlines and airports have the best and worst track records, which ones are most likely to lose your luggage, and other things you might like to know.

• Posted at 12:12 AM · LINK