Two shows yesterday! "Little Women" and "The Foreigner." Most people probably have a basic knowledge of each show's plot so I'm not going into that. But I have some thoughts...
"Little Women"
Sutton Foster is amazingly talented. Even when the material she is given is not the greatest, she rises to the occasion and gives 120%. The cast around her is also great, and boy, is Danny Gurwin a cutie. The woman who plays Amy is rather annoying, but it can't be perfect. And perhaps she's just made a decision that Amy is really annoying and should be played as such. But when there was a little vignette of Jo's writing brought to the stage, and she played a troll, well... it fit.
The score? It drags sometimes. It sounds sort of like the love-child of a Jason Robert Brown score and "Les Miz." It doesn't really seem to have anything to do with the period, at least not for me. The orchestrations were nice, but there were (as I frequently complain, when discussing Broadway) volume balance issues. There was at least one point where I felt that the underscoring was intrusive.
The adaptation? Well, I (gasp!) have never read "Little Women" so I can't really say, but it seems to work, to me.
The worst part? Probably the audience. Coughing up about 500 lungs during the course of the show, and unwrapping what had to have been 10,000,000,000 candies. I swear, there was no respite from the freaking wrappers. They gave Sutton a standing ovation, though, but it was clear that it was an audience of 99% tourists.
Whatever theatrical malaise I had, though, was cured when I went to "The Foreigner" in the evening. Good God, can you imagine what the state of American comic theatre would be if Larry Shue hadn't died in that plane crash? The man was brilliant. And we're lucky to have such a brilliant cast in this revival. Matthew Broderick is so funny. He actually caused Mary Catherine Gallagher to lose it more than once. Miss G. was laughing so hard. Kevin Cahoon was awesome as Ellard, and what can you say about Frances Sternhagen? My mom was in awe of her range as an actress, because she only knows Ms. Sternhagen from her role as Trey's fiesty mother from "Sex and the City."
Anyhow, if you want to laugh your ass off, try to get a ticket to "The Foreigner."
The other highlight of the day was flirting with the waiter during dinner -- in front of my mother, no less. Luckily, the restaurant was noisy and the table rather big. Mother had no clue what was going on, but my sister was very amused. I'll be more amused if I actually get to hang out with him after I return from my trip. What is it about me and liking waiters, I have to ask?
Anyhow, have to get ready for work and the trip! Talk to you soon.
Posted by Jon at December 30, 2004 01:09 PM | TrackBack