Big Fish: World Premiere

I didn't love this movie, but also hadn't seen it in so long that I forgot why. Luckily, the movie was on TV the other day, so it gave me a chance to remember the cause for my distaste. It wasn't that the movie was so bad; a cast comprised of Ewan McGregor, Alison Lohman, Jessica Lange, Billy Crudup, & Albert Finney with direction by Tim Burton couldn't really be that bad. It’s that Daniel Wallace’s short story was not a great cinematic fit; luckily this short story was created for a musical theatre adaptation; the artistry, interpretation, & performance quality of this production not only exceeded my expectations, but set a new Broadway bar in my book. The grandiose story-telling & picture-painting in this musical is reason why the musical exists: sometimes there are moments & emotions so substantial that nothing short of a song preformed in a setting of suspended reality will suffice to communicate them. 

10 REASONS WHY BIG FISH RULED: 

• PRE-BROADWAY WORLD PREMIERE: It is a rare & awesome opportunity to see a pre-Broadway tour that everyone should take advantage of whenever possible. 
• REMINISCENCE OF CLASSIC MUSICALS: Musicals are not islands. A Great American Musical cannot exist without influence from an authentic theme & its’ predecessor musicals. Big Fish’s most notable musical influences derived from: the schmoozy traveling salesman dynamic + all-American, Pleasantville set from The Music Man; Side Show’s freak-show/circus dynamic; Whistle Down the Wind’s sad,  Southern, & hopeful sound; & the contemporary sound/energy of Spring Awakening. 
• WATERLAND by GRAHAM SWIFT: Waterland is one of my favorite novels of all time. The basic premise is that, just as our bodies are 90% water & 10% mass, our beings are 90% past & 10% present. Will Bloom [Edward's son] presented a similar metaphor: 10% of an iceberg shows over the ocean while 90% still swims under the sea. It is strange how the imagery surrounding swamps, cycles, & water consistently serves to force us to re-visit our pasts & picture our futures, but it is an effective & dynamic image that was utilized impeccably in this production. This water/reality is a interesting theory in which I have always found truth & I was excited to find one of my universal truths present in this bright, new musical. Go read this book after you see the show!

• SUSAN STROMAN: Ms. Stroman is an all-star who has won 5 Tony Awards for direction & choreography, most notably nabbing a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards for a little show called The Producers (which also made its’ pre-Broadway debut in Chicago). But, more importantly, she & I share Wilmington, DE as our home-town. Thank you for representing women in theatre from the greatest little city in the world, Ms. Stroman! [if you are reading this, Ms. Stroman, let’s go get some meatball sandwiches from Wawa, Italian ice from Rita’s, or a Bobbie from Capriotti’s…anytime, my treat.]
• CHOREOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR DYNAMIC: Playwrights frequently turn director, but the case is not so frequent for choreographers turned director. Personally, I think that choreographers make excellent directors: they make their staging choices are more inventive, exotic, excellent, & (above all) GRACEFUL. That grace was especially necessary for a show with such extensive sets.
• THE SETS: Seriously, there were 30 sets & they weren’t cop-out sets that incorporated slight changes to differentiate…they were fulfilling, imaginative, differing sets that used every inch of stage space & every application of creative & contemporary innovations. We were taken to the inside the belly of a giant fish, a daffodils field, a circus ring, split-set hospital rooms, a witch’s woods, scooping elephant’s poop behind the circus curtain, the list goes on & on & on...

• KATE BALDWIN as Sandra Bloom: In the film, the role was shared by Alison Lohman & Jessica Lange, but Ms. Baldwin played the role in it’s entirety in the musical adaptation. She is a truly stunning woman & almost reminded of me a young Glenn Close [I’d also like to see her play Mother in Ragtime]. She belted beautifully & performed with an ageless grace that lit up the stage every time she appeared. 
• NORBERT LEO BUTZ as Edward Bloom: In the movie, Albert Finney played old Edward & Ewan McGregor played young Edward; in the musical, Butz played the role alone in its’ entirety. Butz made his Broadway debut in the original cast of Rent & grew into something of Broadway royalty. He has won 2 Tony Awards [Catch Me if You Can & Dirty Rotten Scoundrels] & originated the role Fiyero in Wicked. Edward Bloom is an extremely demanding role that only a seasoned actor like Butz could conquer & conquer it he did. His singing was strong, his acting was poignant, his storytelling was engaging, & his performance was overall impeccable. I predict Mr. Butz will be adding a trophy to his collection this year. 

• ANDREW LIPPA: Mr. Lippa won me over with his score for The Wild Party & re-affirmed by love with The Addams Family (another pre-Broadway Chicago opening).  His musicals tend to have an upbeat, almost jazzy, borderline rocker vibe that always remain true to classic musical theatre sound. 
• THE FATHER DYNAMIC: Tim Burton's [movie director] father died from a heart attack,which was a motivating force in his choice to make this film. Andrew Lippa [music/lyrics], & John August [book] both lost their fathers to cancer. So did I; as the child of a cancer-killed father, it was difficult to sit through the final minutes of this production, but I have to applaud their authentic interpretation of this intense, insane, & indescribable personal hell. It was difficult, shocking, & beautiful musical finale, but don’t the adjectives difficult, shocking & beautiful describe every quality musical you've ever seen?

Both John August & I lost our fathers to cancer a few years apart. So when we wrote the final scene of the play we withheld that scene from ourselves & let the desire to write that scene build up over a very long period of time. One day, we were in a hotel room, I cannot even recall where because we used to meet all over the country & work on the show. We sat in the room & John said, “This is what I want you to do, I want you to talk about your relationship with your father, things that made you sad & things you wish you had done or said.” We both started talking about our fathers & burst out crying & became incredibly emotional, and then he looked at me & said, “Okay, go write the song right now.” And I did, right there with John in the room. He was working on the scene & I was working on the song, it’s called ‘How It Ends.’ It speaks to a truth about how we feel about our own lives & how we feel about our fathers.

New City 4.4.13 Dennis Polkow 

WICKED RETURNS.

BroadwayInChicago has announced WICKED, Broadway's biggest blockbuster, 

will return to Chicago in celebration of its 10th anniversary on Broadway 

for a limited 8-week engagement:  Oct. 30 to Dec. 21, 2013.

Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One - born with emerald-green skin - is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. WICKED tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, and how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. Based on the best-selling 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, WICKED, winner of 35 major awards, including a Grammy and three Tony Awards, is the untold story of the witches of Oz. It is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone. WICKED has "cast quite a spell" (Washington Post) throughout North America, breaking box office records in every city that it has played, including Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Boston to name a few. WICKED has been declared "A Cultural Phenomenon" by Variety and "The Best Musical of the Decade" by Entertainment Weekly. There are currently 7 productions worldwide: New York, London, Holland, Japan, Australia/New Zealand, and two concurrent North American Tours. Globally, WICKED has amassed nearly $2.9 billion in ticket sales and has been seen by 36 million people worldwide in its 9-year history.

~TheatreInChicago

I am sad to say that I am not one of the 36 million people who have seen WICKED. But that doesn't mean it hasn't had a substantial effect on my theatrical education & upbringing. I've loved this musical for a long time because it's unique, funny, thematically intriguing, & catchy; it also has had a substantial effect on musical theatre as a whole. The idea behind the musical was genius: everyone loves the Wizard of Oz, so there was a built-in audience base. Re-imagining the traditional story had already been achieved with The Wiz, but offering the prologue to the traditional story was just genius [sidenote: I've always wanted there to be a revival of The Wizard of Oz on Broadway where the entire cast/set were in black & white (a la Pleasantville) until Dorothy landed in Oz. It would be a smash hit]. WICKED is show that set trends & jump-starts careers. The original Broadway production starred Idina Menzel as Elphaba (who replaced Stephanie J. Block~ read that that story at the bottom of this blog) & Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda. Idina Menzel had already won a Tony for her performance as Maureen in RENT, so she was already a Broadway baby. Kristin Chenoweth has achieved fame that straddles film, stage, & screen, but she still relatively unknown when cast as Glinda. I had seen Kristin Chenoweth in her 1997 Broadway debut in the short-lived musical Steel Pier. The show didn't find much success on Broadway, but I vividly remember being wowed by the tiny, blonde soprano belter. Both of these women deserve all the success they have achieved & being the original leads in WICKED production staff certainly played a pivotal part in the development of both of their careers. 

TRENDWATCH: THE FLYING ACTOR

[extended version; she takes off for flight @ 6.08]

I am not a fan of spectacle for the sake of spectacle, but I really love that contemporary technology has allowed actors to FLY. This trend is 100% due to the trailblazing staging efforts of WICKED. Due to the parameters of the story, it is so essential for Elphaba to actually fly & I'm glad they faced the challenge head-on instead of concocting some strange artistic cop-out. Two musicals that have also incorporated this trend are Mary Poppins & Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. I saw Mary Poppins on Broadway & the show ends with her flying over the audience all the way up to the 2nd balcony & disappearing into the ceiling of the theatre. It was a pretty awe-inspiring finale & allowed the production to maintain the same quality it exhibited with choreography, costumes, & casting. Just like Elphaba, an essential element of Spiderman's character was his ability to fly; Spiderman has gotten so much bad press for actor injuries, but, after YouTubing when the 99% of the time that the flying went well, I was pretty impressed. Just like any trailblazing technology, putting actors in the air is a risk & backfires. Things didn't go so well for Aladdin & Jasmine, but, overall, I'm grateful that Elphaba paved the road for other actors to defy gravity as well. 

THE AWESOME ANTHEM: "FOR GOOD"

[If this video seems familiar, it's because I posted it in my Wicked DreamCast, but I love it, so whatever.]

I lived just outside of Boston when the book Son of a Witch was released & attended a talk by author Gregory Maguire & composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz. During this talk, Stephen Schwartz recounted writing my favorite song For Good: he was talking on the phone to someone & trying to figure out how to conquer the duet between the witches to anchor the end of the second act. While on the phone, he said something along the lines of wanting to acknowledge that both women were permanently effected by their friendship. But instead of saying permanently, he said "for good." He immediately realized the double meaning in that phrase & started writing the show's amazing concluding duet For Good. He also acknowledged the fact that writing this song was an exciting challenge & unique responsibility since a blockbuster musical centered around two women's friendship is a rare gem. This has always been one of my favorite parts about WICKED; there is a sense of familiarity that I am positively not alone in feeling when listening to this soundtrack. The only other musical I can think of that centers on a non-sexual relationship between 2 women is Side Show [which tells the true story of Siamese twins Violet & Daisy Hilton's career in vaudeville]. I loved Side Show [click here for my DreamCast], but it was a flop. WICKED proved that women can carry a musical; I don't know if that was ever a conscious intention, but it certainly was a nice side effect. 

WICKED & CHICAGO

It should be noted that WICKED has a special history with the city of Chicago. WICKED first played a limited engagement from April 29-June 12, 2005 at the Oriental Theatre. The producers decided to extend it to and open-ended run, which made it the first non-Broadway on-going production. It re-opened at the Oriental the day after the tour was set to end & closed Jan. 25, 2009 after over 1,500 performances. WICKED returned for a special limited engagement from Dec. 1, 2010-Jan. 23, 2011. This upcoming, 10th-Anniversary limited engagement will run from Oct. 30-Dec. 21, 2013 [hopefully with the option to extend]. Tickets are currently available for groups of 15+ by calling (312) 977-1710; individual tickets will be available at a later date. 

It is my personal theory that a great deal of the success of Broadway in Chicago is due to WICKED's overwhelmingly successful run. It identified Chicago as a city where theatre is not only well-received, but has an audience base that allows it to stand the test of time. While WICKED was running in Chicago, they utilized the lottery system for tickets that RENT employed on Broadway. A lottery was offered on the day of the show & the winners could purchase $25, front-row tickets. To incorporate a lottery means the tickets were in consistent demand, which speaks well for the production as well as it's audience members.

 [sidenote: this option has recently been made available for The Book of Mormon as well]

Thrifty Theatre-Goer: Part III

I have found that customer loyalty always pays off. 

Buying season tickets is a great way to save money, but there are other customer-loyalty incentive programs 

that can offer a greater amount of savings and/or bonuses that are worth exploring. Here are three such programs: 

Steppenwolf RED Card

If you are under 29, $100 will get you get a card worth 6 tickets to use however you'd like (that comes out to less than $17/ticket & a 78% savings). You can use the tickets for yourself and friends, but it can't be given as a gift. RED holders also get $1 off any drink at any of the theater's bars & will receive special offers such as social events & 2-for-1 ticket offers in the e-mail updates. You can visit the RED card member page for more information & check their Facebook & Twitter pages for updates. The card expires when the holder turns 29 & can be re-filled after seeing 6 shows. 

Broadway in Chicago Audience Rewards Network

Audience Rewards turns your ticket purchases into points like an airline frequent flyer program. This program offers more incentive for Broadway than Broadway in Chicago, but hopefully that will change as Broadway in Chicago continues to flourish. Once you join, you can earn ShowPoints by buying tickets, looking for bonus point offers, or getting (minimal) bonus points by playing theatre trivia games (my favorite part), telling friends about a show, or shopping at a variety of stores by visiting AudienceRewardsMall.com. The points can be used to earn free tickets, save on tickets, upgrade seats, & buy Broadway merchandise. 

Rogers Park FlexPass 

For $50, you get 4 tickets to any show at Theo Ubique, Lifeline Theatre, Raven Theatre, or  side project theatre company. Considering that 1 full-price ticket at Lifeline costs $40, this is a really great deal. The FlexPass also comes with year-round the following discounts @ nearby restaurants: 10% off @ Act One Pub,Charmers Café/Dagel & Beli, Gruppo di Amici, & Morseland AND 15% off @ The Heartland Café. The passes expire on August 31, 2013.

And a warning...

I love Broadway in Chicago. So far, I've seen FELA!, Les Miserables, The Addams Family, Bring It On, I Love Lucy: Live on Stage & never paid more than $25 thanks to rush tickets. For some strange reason, I was really drawn towards the recent production of Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. So, I searched the Cadillac Palace on Saturday morning, saw a bounty of available seats, & called the theatre to double check that student and/or rush tickets were available. NOPE! Not for this show. WHY? Who knows. This decision was in very poor taste, but I blame the production & not Broadway in Chicago. Rush tickets are an awesome deal, but apparently inconsistent. Moral of this story: call the theatre if you are planning to buy Broadway in Chicago rush tickets. 

The Thrifty Theatre-Goer Series:

HotTix & Goldstar // Chicago Theatre Week // Thrifty Theatre-Goer Part II

Broadway in Chicago Summer Concert

 

This ruled. Here's why:

• It was FREE. 
• Senate Bill 937 (Live Theatre Production Tax Credit) went into effect in July. This bill allows a tax break to pre-Broadway shows opening in Chicago, which will expand the quality/amount of shows brought in by Broadway in Chicago.
• The concert served as a centennial celebration of the Nederlander Organization, whose work has made this world a much more beautiful place in my book.
• CYNDI LAUPER. She performed a number from her new musical Kinky Boots & made my night. 

THE SHOWS: 

+ Les Miserables: It was nice performance of the most random & downer number: Bring Him Home. I get that they could only produce one song & it’s best for it to be one of ValJean’s. What about WHO AM I??? It’s his defining moment, it’s uplifting, it’s more approachable, applicable, & enjoyable for audiences who don’t know Les Mis already. Nice performance quality, poor song choice.
+ I liked Catch Me If You Can more than I expected. The music was catchy & the lyrics seemed to have quality & content. It is a cool story with awesome artistic potential, so this one might actually end up being pretty good.
+ Million Dollar Quartet: It was fine, but less striking/impressive than I expected.
+ Cinderella: WHY IS THIS MUSICAL STILL BEING PERFORMED?
+ Peter Pan: I know Cathy Rigby was an Olympian, but it's just weird for a 50-something woman to be playing a little boy.

+ War Horse was awesome. I love anything that comes from the National Theatre & this performance provided heightened degree of artistry compared to the other performances. This is one I definitely want to see.
+ Sister Act was fun & had strong vocals. The ensemble was a little muddled, but it'll probably be a fun, entertaining show.
+ Potted Potter: I didn’t like it. I don’t know the Harry Potter series that well, but I’d be 100% more interested in an authentic Harry Potter musical rather than a spoofy one.
+ Besides War Horse, I Love Lucy was my favorite performance. It is such a great idea for a musical & seemed to true to the original show (which I'm predicting means there is going to be a huge, built-in audience-base & probably make great ticket sales)