Hamilton Zealotry – Can We Have a Real Discussion About This Musical?

Over the last month or so, I have been encountering (on certain social media sites), debates regarding the musical Hamilton. The debates I’m referring to were not over whether Hamilton is good, bad, revolutionary, or flash-in-the-pan (though there is plenty of discussion about that as well), but about people feeling slighted or attacked over differing opinions about the musical itself. Is this really where we have devolved to? Are we so assured of our own opinion that we cannot remember that theatre has always been a personal experience, thus rendering it a subjective one? Hamilton and its phenomenal success has incited a zealotry amongst its fans (and a backlash amongst naysayers) that has put everyone in a position where we cannot seem to have an honest discussion about the musical.

The Robber Bridegroom – A Review

In 1975, Alfred Uhry and Robert Waldman constructed a foot stompin’, knee slappin’ good time with the musical The Robber Bridegroom. It played two short stints on Broadway, one in ’75 (with Patti LuPone) and the other in ’76 (starring Barry Bostwick who won a Tony Award). Since then, The Robber Bridegroom has been mostly relegated to regional and college productions, but a new revival by Roundabout Theatre Company in their Off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre is so delightful that it makes you wonder why we don’t see this musical more often. What makes this production such a darn good time can be credited to three things: a catchy, energetic score, an ensemble working in perfect synchronicity, and the smart and steady direction of Alex Timbers.

1776 – A Rarely Heard Work?

New York City Center Encores! celebrates the rarely heard works of America’s most important composers and lyricists. Conceived in 1994 as concert performances, Encores! gives three glorious scores the chance to be heard as their creators originally intended.” This is directly quoted from the City Center website as the explanation and purpose of the Encores! series. It’s a worthy mission and goal, and one most of us would embrace. Their most recent concert of Vernon Duke and John Latouche’s Cabin in the Sky is an excellent example of a show richly deserving of this treatment. It was also an electrifying production of a show that will most likely never receive a full-scale production after again. Amazing music combined with a dated, mediocre book, and Cabin in the Sky was the right fit for the criteria of “rarely heard works.”

She Loves Me: A Review

Lately, I have been bemoaning the absence of pure joy in musical theatre. In fact, it seems that most Broadway musicals have to be emotionally eviscerating or screaming, over-microphoned, power belting diva battles to succeed. If comedy is attempted, musical theatre has to be salacious, mean-spirited or vulgar. Sometimes it is nice to go to the theatre and just get absorbed in a delightful plot, a comedy of errors with characters who make you smile and songs that stick in your brain because they actually have a melody. Is it any wonder, then, that I find myself in a state of euphoria over The Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of the 1963 Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, and Joe Masteroff musical She Loves Me.