A Night With Janis Joplin: Broadway Show Review (Lyceum Theatre 149 W. 45th Street)

Broadway musical “A Night With Janis Joplin” is the first show that I’ve seen that is presented as more of a rock concert than a ‘traditional’ Broadway show. This isn’t a Glee-for-GenXers sing-along like “Rock of Ages” but the focus of the show is on Janis Joplin’s music and the blues singers that inspired her. Mary Bridget Davies, who plays Joplin, really connected with the sold-out crowd at the Lyceum Theatre, and this is the first time that I’ve seen a Broadway audience sway in their seats, wave their hands in the air and stand up to dance.

Davies is no stranger to the music of Janis Joplin as she sang with the reunited Big Brother and the Holding Company and toured with the Joplin musical “Love Janis” so she is able to channel both the passion and the edge to Joplin’s music. Stevie Nicks’ description of Joplin’s music is really what the show is about: “she mak[es] such a powerful and deep emotional connection with the audience…Janis put herself out there completely, and her voice was not only strong and soulful, it was painfully and beautifully real. She sang in the great tradition of the rhythm and blues singers that were her heroes, but she brought her own dangerous, sexy rock and roll edge to every single song.”

While Davies nails her portrayal of Joplin, the four blues singers give equally powerful performances. Nikki Kimbrough portrays Etta James and her version of “Tell Mama” transitions into to Joplin's rendition.  De’Adre Aziza portrays Odette (who sings “Down on Me”) and this song also transitions into Joplin's rendition.  Taprena Michelle Augustine, who portrays Bessie Smith, sings “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”. The most powerful performance of the four is the explosive duet between Allison Blackwell (who plays Aretha Franklin/Blues Woman) and Davies on “Summertime”

The set at the Lyceum is a recreation of a concert stage – where Davies and her backup singers (who also take solos as the blues singers that inspired Joplin) spend most of their show. There is also living room set on the right side of the stage where Davies, alongside her Southern Comfort bottle, take time to narrate the different events in Joplin’s life. Davies talks a lot about having the blues but there is no explicit mention of the demons that Joplin seemed to be exorcising by singing the blues. Having the blues seems to be an everyday occurrence for Joplin and causes range from ‘I got the blues because I don’t have the quarter for a bottle of wine’ to ‘the blues is just a good woman feeling bad’.

The narration isn’t much more than the basic back story for that particular point in Joplin’s life as there is no digging into Joplin’s booze and drugs addiction or her broken romances. Given this, the audience may not appreciate the symbolic reference in Davies’ performance of ''I'm Gonna Rock My Way to Heaven,”, which was a song intended for Joplin’s Pearl album but was never recorded due to the singer’s untimely death. All of Joplin’s crowd pleasing hits are performed along with a few blues numbers and the show ended with a standing ovation as the entire cast backed Davies through an a cappella rendition of “Mercedes Benz”. All-in-all, this is a feel good story about the power of music and the emotional connection between a singer and the audience.



“A Night with Janis Joplin” is currently running at the Lyceum Theatre (149 W. 45th Street). The show runs for two hours (not including intermission) and tickets range from $49 - $199. Tickets are on sale through March 30, 2014.

Links:
A Night with Janis Joplin

The Nance (Staring Nathan Lane and Jonny Orsini) - Broadway Show Review / Show Runs Through June 16th

When watching Nathan Lane star in the new Broadway play The Nance, it is hard not to make comparisons to Lane’s role in the 1996 film “The Birdcage”. While “The Birdcage” was a ‘feel good’ that ended with (pre-Tea Party) conservative Republican Senator Kevin Keeley (essentially) accepting that his new in-laws are a gay couple, Nathan Lane’s character in The Nance never breaks free of the stereotypes and bigotry of that era.

Douglas Carter Beane's The Nance recreates the raucous world of burlesque's heyday and tells the story of Chauncey Miles (Nathan Lane) and his fellow performers. In the 1930s, burlesque impresarios welcomed the hilarious comics and musical parodies of vaudeville to their decidedly lowbrow niche. A headliner called "the nance" was a stereotypically camp homosexual and master of comic double entendre - usually played by a straight man.

The Nance is a tale of Miles’ struggle to balance his belief that he can find happiness being a part of ‘mainstream/conservative’ New York with his onstage flamboyant persona and his offstage love affair with Ned (Jonny Orsini).  Miles’ strong conviction that both his onstage and offstage personas are a normal part of the social fabric during Mayor LaGuardia’s cleanup of New York and his self-loathing for being unable to be a part of mainstream society leads to him to sabotage both his personal and professional life.  Lane’s comic delivery is dead-on perfect as he puts a veneer of deliciously wicked wit over Miles’ self-loathing.  The audience can see Miles visible struggle with his two personas as he attempts to reign himself in onstage when City License Commissioner Paul Moss is in the audience one night at the burlesque house.  Ultimately, Miles can’t reign in his demons and he ‘turns up’ the nance act for Moss, which results in the theater being closed, and follows this by sabotaging his relationship with Ned.  The play ends where it started – with Miles alone and looking for anonymous sex.  In spite of the play’s bittersweet ending, Lane’s character makes it clear that he has the strength to survive another day.

The Nance opened April 15^th and runs through June 16th at the Lyceum Theater (149 West 45^th Street).  There are seven shows a week (in addition to Wed– Sat nightly shows, there are 2:00PM shows on Wednesday and Saturday and a 3:00PM show on Sunday) and tickets range from $37 - $127. 

Links:

The Nance

‘Golden Boy’: Broadway Review (Directed by Bartlett Sher)

Clifford Odets’ classic drama Golden Boy re-opened on Broadway on December 6th and Bartlett Sher (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, South Pacific) directs this 75th Anniversary production in the very same theater in which it premiered. Golden Boy was originally written in 1937 and a movie was made from the play in 1939, which marked William Holden’s film debut. In later years, the story was re-written to reflect the burgeoning Civil Rights movement and re-opened on Broadway in 1964 with Sammy David Jr. in the lead role. This 75th Anniversary production reverts back to the original story with Seth Numrich (Warhorse) in the role of Joe Bonaparte and Tony Shalhoub in the role of Mr. Bonaparte.

Odets’ son, Walt Odets provides the perfect introduction to the play in an essay he wrote entitled “With Music I’m Never Alone When I’m Alone”: “In Golden Boy, my father, Clifford Odets, gave Joe Bonaparte two possibilities. Joe could remain a violinist or he could follow the lure of money and public adoration to become a prizefighter. He could have an authentic, fulfilled life or an empty one. It is important that the authentic path offered is a life in music.”

Seth Numrich does a wonderful job capturing the inner-turmoil of an angry young man, desperate to make a name and a place for himself in the world. Bonaparte is a concert-level violinist but there is probably no opportunity for him to use this talent to break out of the Italian-American ghetto where he lives or to prove himself to his father. As such, Bonaparte, “the cockeyed wonder”, aggressively sells himself to down-and-out boxing manager Tom Moody. Once Moody gives Bonaparte his chance in the boxing ring, Bonaparte slowly moves to the ‘dark side’ in a familiar morality story. While Joe seems to be an adequate boxer, his key asset is that his opponents aren’t able to stand against his anger and rage, which manifest themselves with a mighty punch. Bonaparte continues to move down this path of no return and finally breaks after killing a man in the ring. This is Joe’s breaking point for he now sees what he has become and that the option of going back to his music is closed off to him.

Tony Shalhoub is brilliant in his role as Joe’s father – an uncompromising voice of right and wrong and the audience can feel his pain when Joe will not accept a violin that Mr. Bonaparte had scrimped and saved for. Given Mr. Bonaparte’s rigid morality, it is little wonder that he refuses to give his blessing to Joe to pursue a career as a boxer. The other standout role is Lorna Moon (played by Yvonne Strahovski), a self-professed “dame from Newark” who is also caught in her own moral dilemma – mistress to Joe’s manager who saved her from the streets so she feels a sense of obligation to him and her love for Joe.



Golden Boy is playing at Lincoln Center Theater at the Belasco (111 West 44th Street) and runs until Jan. 20th. Tickets are available through Telecharge and range from $37 - $122.

Links:
Golden Boy