Summer Broadway Round 3 - Promises, Promises

Finally, my sister came to visit me during my second-to-last weekend in NY, and what did we decide to see? Well, she saw Next to Normal, which I saw last Thanksgiving (AWESOME show, by the way, though it will leave you in tears).

But THEN we decided to see Promises, Promises, as we are both Kristen Chenoweth and Sean Hayes fans.

Promises, Promises

Music and Lyrics by: Burt Bacharach and Hal David (Book by Neil Simon)

Basic Story: Chuck rents out his apartment to his superiors at work for their illicit affairs, but things get complicated when his dream girl turns out to be involved with his (very married) boss.

Score: As a performance? A-, but as a musical? C

Top Songs: I have many issues with the soundtrack, but I suppose "Where Can You Take a Girl?"

Actors to See: Kristen Chenoweth as Fran, Sean Hayes as Chuck, and Katie Finneran as Marge

Cons: The music. It's repetitive, boring for the most part, and at some points doesn't even match the plot. It's only redeemed by the amazing talent singing it. The show would be much better as a play.

Summer Broadway Round 2 - A Little Night Music

So, my summer progressed on, and I didn't make it to the Broadway theatres as often as I had planned to. But when I heard the news that Catherine Zeta Jones was being replaced by Bernadette Peters, I knew I had to get myself to see A Little Night Music.

Yes, Elaine Stritch replaced Angela Lansbury. More on what I thought of that later...

A Little Night Music 

Music and Lyrics by: Stephen Sondheim

Basic Story: Set in Sweden, at the beginning of the 20th century, hilarious chaos ensues as everyone begins to realize they're with the wrong person. Liaisons and sex-capades abound! 

Score: A

Top Songs: Honestly? The whole soundtrack. Each one will be stuck in your head for ages. But if I have to choose: "A Weekend in the Country" and "The Miller's Son"

Actors to See: Bernadette Peters as Desiree Armfeldt and Lee Ann Larkin as Petra

Cons: I'm going to get so much crap for this but... Elaine Stritch. A Broadway legend, yes, but, as I'll mention later, she was the one crack in an otherwise flawless production.

Once again, all pics come from the shows website.

Summer Broadway Round 1 - West Side Story

That's right, no spoilers warning. And I know what you're thinking. "Broadway? What's that? I vaguely remember Sarah mentioning something about Broadway shows a long long time ago..."

Well, guess what. Since I'm still catching up on the TV I missed this week at the beach, I thought I'd distract you all with some extremely missing reviews I had promised. As I was in NYC for the summer, and am a long time musical fan, I just had to be all cultured in my free time and pick up a few shows. So here's the run down, chopped into nice easy to handle pieces.

And, duh, there are spoilers. I'm going to talk about plot, characters, all that good stuff. But I'll post a mini review bite up here above the "read more" line..

West Side Story
Music and Lyrics by: Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim

Basic Story: Romeo and Juliet between two gangs in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, back when that was not a nice part of town.

Score: B+

Top Songs: "I Feel Pretty" and "Gee Officer Krupke" 

Actor to See: Karen Olivo as Anita

Cons: To be more true to its roots, the revival has the Puerto Rican characters more often speak and sing in Spanish. This isn't a con for me, as I've taken 4 years of Spanish; in fact, it enhanced the performance. But if you aren't familiar with Spanish like my viewing buddy at the time, you might feel a little out of place and confused. However, fluency is most certainly not required.

A Very Potter Musical (Plus news about the Sequel!)

SPOILERS: .... NONE unless you count basic info on the musical and books

Natalie's comment on my last post reminded me - musicals! Well, this one wasn't on Broadway - in fact, due to copyright law, the creators couldn't even charge for people who saw the performance live. But Team Star Kid,a group of friends from the University of Michigan, put together a wonderful musical parody based off all 7 Harry Potter books.