All tagged Michael Rupert
The composing team of Kander and Ebb are typically first remembered as the creators of the edgy, flashy, razzle-dazzle music of such shows as Cabaret and Chicago. It would be wrong, however, to think that this was all that they were capable of. In fact, the team’s work often tended towards a reflective, gentler style of musical comedy found in such shows as Zorba and The Rink. One show that really seemed to embrace this subtler, character-driven approach to storytelling was 1968’s The Happy Time.
About a month ago, I celebrated the great divas of Broadway with a tribute to their careers. This month, I thought I’d share a video montage of the men who have shaped Broadway with their talent and larger-than-life personalities. I hope you enjoy curling up and watching these twenty-five videos of the stout-hearted men of Broadway doing some of their finest work.
With the recently-confirmed Lincoln Center revival of Falsettos set to bow at the Walter Kerr Theatre this October, and with original director and librettist James Lapine (once again) at the helm of this William Finn masterpiece, it is interesting to look at how the world has changed in the 23 years since its original Broadway production. Is Falsettos as relevant today as it was back in the early 1990s? This story of a gay man named Marvin who leaves his wife and son for a male lover, and then loses him to a spectral illness that is presumably AIDS, was cutting edge and timely musical theatre for 1992, but does that translate for contemporary American audiences where gay marriage is now arguably a societal norm and AIDS, despite its continued threat, has somehow become a marginalized disease that doesn’t inspire quite the same fear? The answer is an astounding yes, but for very different reasons than in 1992.
