Some New York Theater Reviews

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The_Doge spent the week of October 5th, 1998 in New York City, soaking himself in theater. Here's his report.]

"New York", as they sing in On the Town, "is a helluva town." It's also something of a Mecca for lovers of musical theater. We all bow towards it and try to make pilgrimages there periodically.

I made mine this year during the first week in October, in conjunction with the Internet World trade show (what, you thought I did this for a living?), managing to cram in three musicals and a visit to another cultural Mecca, the Metropolitan Opera. Had I been so inclined, I could easily have seen a show every night.

My first night found me at the Lunt-Fontanne for a performance of Titanic. It wasn't my first choice, but the last-minute cancellation of the performance for which I already had a ticket - the Roundabout Theater Company's revival of the 1962 Cy Coleman gem Little Me - left me a bit at sea and I went with the metaphor.

I've had the original cast recording of Titanic for some time now and found Maury Yeston's score appealing and intelligent. On stage it's still all of that, but Peter Stone's book fails to match it. The usually insightful author of 1776 and The Will Rogers Follies (among others) seems to have no clear idea of what he wants to say about the Titanic tragedy or of how to end the show. There are wonderful individual scenes - especially those involving Radioman Harold Bride (Martin Moran) and Isidor and Ida Straus (Larry Keith and Alma Cuervo) - but the whole is rather less than the sum of its parts.

Titanic will be at the Fox in August of 1999. It's worth seeing, but don't expect to be overwhelmed.

If you get to the Big Apple soon, however, do expect to be overwhelmed by the Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty musical Ragtime, based on the quirky novel by E. L. Doctorow. Part historical pageant, part social and political critique and just a bit fantastical, Ragtime captures the wonder, horror, and inevitable decline of the mad optimism that began this century. It should be required viewing for those right-wingers who would have us believe that turn of the century America was the best of all possible worlds.

Librettist Terrence McNally (Master Class, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Rink and many others) can't cram more than a fraction of Doctorow's characters, events, and connections into the show's three-hour run time. But the ones he does give us are lovingly and compellingly presented. The score nicely complements McNally's book with memorable melodies and wonderful ensemble scenes. And the fin de siecle marble-and-brass ambience of the renovated Ford Center for the Performing Arts couldn't be more appropriate.

After the high-mindedness of Ragtime and Titanic, the satirical review Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back! - where no show is too critically acclaimed and no actor too beloved to escape a virtual pie in the face - was a welcome change of pace. The brainchild of Gerald Alessandrini (who still writes and directs), "FB" has been through 12 incarnations over 16 years. It's currently housed in lower level of the Stardust Diner at Broadway and 50th - an intimate cabaret in which there are no bad seats to speak of. The Diner offers a limited but tasty American menu and "FB" offers nearly two hours of continuous hilarity.

Lampooning everyone from Julie Andrews to Mayor Giuliani, "FB" takes no prisoners. Memorable bits include "Less Miserable", parodies of Chicago and Rent, and a sketch that nails both the film and stage versions of Titanic. I didn't find tickets difficult to obtain, and it was definitely worth the price (around $44 as I recall, not counting dinner).

My last stop was a musically exemplary but dramatically appalling production (by Robert Wilson; I should have known..) of Wagner's Lohengrin at that secular temple of the operatic muse, the Met at Lincoln Center. The opera house is an elegant experience all by itself, but at $130 top ticket price I'd advise checking the reviews before deciding on what to see.

Picture a bare, dimly-lit stage, occasionally punctuated by illuminated slabs that come and go with no apparent logic. Picture singers in stylized poses, only their faces illuminated, who never interact with each other and periodically glide around the stage for no discernable reason. Now picture four and a half hours of this.

As Henry Higgins says in My Fair Lady, "I'd prefer a new edition/ Of the Spanish Inquisition".

In general, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to see a great deal of musical and non-musical theater in New York with a minimum of planning. With the exception of blockbusters like The Lion King, even the most popular shows seem to have seats available, especially on weeknights. And while prices can be steep (up to $85), you can find half-price tickets for most shows at the TKTS booth in Times Square - if you're prepared to spend some time waiting in line.

I could go on about the variety of excellent restaurants, cabarets, and lively street life of the theatre district, but this virtual slide show has gone on long enough. Let's just leave it at this: "Disneyfication" has not ruined Times Square, The Theater isn't dead, and New York is still a helluva town.