Theater For Dan Savage
posted by on February 4 at 11:01 AM
The 5th Avenue has announced its 2008-2009 season, with another dubious pre-Broadway premiere (Shrek: the Musical) and The Drowsy Chaperone which Dan despaired of back in November:
The national tour of Drowsy Chaperone isn’t coming to Seattle, which is a damn shame. The show—which won the Best Musical Tony in 2006—is absolutely brilliant.
It’s not the tour that’s coming to the 5th Ave, but it’s something.
(Also, congratulations to Nick Garrison, who will star as the emcee in the 5th Ave’s upcoming production of Cabaret—it’s the role he was born for.)
He must have been born twice then...
He was great as Hedwig (Hansel)
Wow, Drowsy Chaperone sounds really... compelling.
Seattle. America's theatrical practice space.
It won't matter if it sucks, way up here in the northwest with our impenetrable rain clouds.
Not so, JC.
One of the reasons so many pre-B-Way tryouts have come here in recent years ("Hairspray", "The Wedding Singer", "Young Frankenstein" - among the shows that actually opened - and throw in the execrable "Princesses" and the slightly-less-shitty-but-with-totally-wack-leading-man "Lone Star Love") is because Seattle audiences have developed a well-deserved rep as being very savvy and discriminating.
"Princesses" was not only thoroughly and righteously excoriated by the local press, but audience feedback was equally scathing, by all reports.
And even for shows that did make successful transitions, comments from local audiences resulted in significant changes to scripts and scores ("The Wedding Singer" was probably the most significant benefit of this audience-creator dialogue) during Broadway previews.
If "Shrek" truly does suck, rest assured, audiences in Seattle, along with the critics, won't pull punches; if the show REALLY sucks (unlikely given the creative team, and the fact that Disney is backing it, so they'll throw as much money into it as required to turn it into a bona-fide hit), then local audiences have the power to ensure that significant changes are made prior to opening in NYC.
And the national press WILL be watching, so whatever happens, we'll be the ones setting the standards by which the show is judged a hit or a miss.
musicals are so gay.
well, it's going to be a Gay Old Spring at the 5th Avenue...Mame, followed by Cabaret?!?!?!?
What, they couldn't manage to fit in La Cage?
I'm hoping this production of Cabaret will echo the edgy 90's revival production and not the corny, dated original version...more alan cumming-ish and less joel grey-ish.
Shrek the Musical?! My God. Is Broadway basically the Ice Capades, sans ice, now?
uh, according to the press release at the 5th Avenue site, it IS the national tour of The Drowsy Chaperone that's coming in November...
And if you don't want to wait until March to see Nick Garrison in action, check him out in the locally-made horror flick Creatures from the Pink Lagoon. It's the movie he was born for! ;-)
http://www.creaturesfromthepinklagoon.com
Musicals and Theatre: Yawn.
Shrek: The Musical? Holy God. I know that musicals are making a comeback, which I enjoy, but damn, are they that low on ideas?
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).