Live Theater (but not on Broadway)

[SueFB]

Thought I'd create a thread for discussing live plays or musicals performed outside of Broadway, community theater, tours, etc. Many folks will never get a chance to go to Broadway but still feel connected to it by seeing nearby productions. I've never been a "theater person", but last year (inspired) I bought season tickets to a community theater in the resort town up the road from me. An excuse to go out and enjoy dinner and a show with my husband. We had so much fun last year that I renewed, and last night we went to the season's first production: [title of show].

I'd never heard of it, it's a musical about two guys writing a musical. Which reminded me, from the description, of The Drowsy Chaperone (seen last year) which is a musical about a musical within a musical. But the two couldn't be more different. Drowsy is full of big numbers and (intentional) kitsch while [title] has a sparse set and only four main cast members, backed by a piano. It actually translated really well to the small venue. It's hard for me to imagine it on Broadway (in 2008). It was at the Lyceum which I guess is pretty small for Broadway, still. Anyway, I was worried it might be too Broadway-insiderish for us and it did have a lot of esoteric references, but it was actually pretty great. We both enjoyed it a lot.

Surely one of the charms of the original show was that the performers were the actual writers, so it had a sort of "performance art" element to it. But the actors who played the parts here were quite good. The "Susan" character, and the actress who played her, stole the show. Kudos to all the people who have day jobs but still have the time and energy, and passion, to perform.

[SueFB]

For all the crap Hugh caught from certain theater purists for his rapping at the Tonys, I suspect that the quick sellout of this one-night performance at Pershing Square was at least somewhat aided and abetted by the rare "new publicity" that performance brought to the Music Man.

www.playbill.com/news/article/193453-Music-Man-with-Santino-Fontana-and-Laura-Osnes-Sells-Out-in-24-Hours-at-Transport-Group

[mamaleh]

Could be, but stars Santino Fontana, Laura Osnes (both original stars of the current Broadway production of CINDERELLA) and Andrew Keenan-Bolger (brother of THE GLASS MENAGERIE's Celia Keenan-Bolger) are big Broadway favorites, especially the first two. I think that had a lot to do with it. Plus it's a benefit for the Transport Group.

If Hugh were heading a benefit, I bet it would sell out in an hour, let alone a day.

[SueFB]

We had our first bad experience attending our little community theater the other evening, at a showing of ON THE TOWN. It's not that the performance was terrible ... it was not great but conveyed the cute and clever optimism of the story. But unfortunately, there was a row of younger people (even more unfortunately, seated directly behind us) who were clearly friends with the actor playing Gabey, and they hooted and hollered over his every move and facial expression - whether or not he was the focus of the scene - the entire show. After his songs, they chanted his name. Not only did it distract the audience in the small theater, but I'm certain it must have distracted him and the whole cast. He started out being my favorite performer in the cast, but by the end he seemed distracted and seemed to have a couple of flubs.

We were in a raucous audience last year for THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, and some of the people on that night knew the actor playing Aldolpho, whose performance stole the show, but the laughter was appropriate on that occasion. This was just awkward. At the end, there was no standing ovation (rare), except by that one row, and I thought the entire audience was just exhausted and turned off by it. Too bad those people couldn't recognize it's not a one-man concert. Luckily, it's an inexpensive evening. I can only imagine how I'd feel if somebody did something similar on Broadway, with how much those tickets cost.