Broadway Top-Ten Wishes for 2015

Broadway Top-Ten Wishes for 2015

Mark Robinson
Top Ten

2014 has been both an exciting and disappointing year for me in regards to Broadway musicals, with shows I deeply loved closing quickly and others that I felt lacked content and artistry plugging away. For me, the hardest thing to digest was the premature departure of The Bridges of Madison County, a piece I found both musically haunting and arresting in its simplicity. We move ahead, however, and file productions like "Bridges" in our hearts and memories, to recall when we are faced with the next big musical machine void of nuance or real emotion.

With Christmas just a few days away and the New Year poised to ring in, my Top-Ten List for this week is an itemized list of my wishes for 2015 and what I hope it will hold in terms of musical theatre.

PIPPIN - The Extinguishing of "One Perfect Flame"

PIPPIN - The Extinguishing of "One Perfect Flame"

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance

With the once-deemed "impossible to revive" production of Pippin completing a successful run and in it's final weeks on Broadway, I wanted to devote an article to this musical (one of my favorites) and to this production (which I count as the finest and most inventive I have ever seen on Broadway). I cannot help but feel that this production, successful as it is, should have run longer. For me it is the reigning example of how dance, music, inventive staging, a finely tuned concept, and sheer theatrical energy can come together to produce a heightened magic that makes theatre addictive and life-changing.

The Top Ten Cy Coleman Songs Written for Broadway Musicals

The Top Ten Cy Coleman Songs Written for Broadway Musicals

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance

Never has a composer been more eclectic in style and worked with such a variety of lyricists than the late-great Cy Coleman. Coleman had a long career in musical theatre, spanning decades, with a wide range of successes, almost hits, and flops: Wildcat (1960), Little Me (1962), Sweet Charity (1966), Seesaw (1973), I Love My Wife (1977), On the Twentieth Century (1978), Barnum (1980), City of Angels (1989), The Will Rogers Follies (1991), and The Life (1997).

Stage to Screen - The Original Annie Film

Stage to Screen - The Original Annie Film

Mark Robinson
Stage To Screen

With all of the talk about the revised and updated film version of Annie set to be released on December 19th, 2014, it prompted me to start thinking about the original 1982 film adaptation that I grew up watching. It is true that this version is misguided by director John Huston and the adaptation from stage to screen does nothing to lessen the amount of sugary optimism that comes at you like a molasses enema. I still, however, have a fondness for portions of the film, especially the deliciously droll comedic turns from Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, and Tim Curry.

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