My rant against Broadway plays

[Rabrrrrrr]

Had a crappy week in relation to Broadway plays - my cousin and her hubbie came to visit last week, and we had planned on seeing a number of shows.

So, I get a flyer in the mail for "Sixteen Wounded", a play that's made the rounds in other cities to critical acclaim, and which was starring Judd Hirsch. I love Judd Hirsch, and wanted very much to see him on stage, and the play was a very serious one about a Jewish guy and a Palestinian radical who end up befriending each other. Totally hepped up about this play.

Friend of mine was in a show, Ministry of Progress, a fantastic rock musicial that wasn't your typical shitty rock music, but actual and real rock music. It was wonderful: funny, great music, INCREDIBLE performances by everyone, including the band which was brilliant, and the play also had some depth to it. I saw it a few times, and was very excited to bring my cousin to see it. All she gets in her neck of the woods are touring crap shows, like Cats, Phantom, Aida, etc., so I was excited to have her see a real bona fide bit of art.

And then there was Sly Fox, with Richard Dreyfuss, Rene Aberjenois, Bronson Pinchot, and a number of other famous people (the guy who played opposite Tom Hanks in Bosom Buddies, the guy who played Stephanie's boyfriend in Newhart, and some others). I was excited about this one because it sounded very funny (and it is!), and because I really, really like Dreyfuss and the chance to see him on stage was too good to pass up.


So, situation this:

my friend's musical: cancelled mid-March, so she didn't get to see it.

Sixteen Wounded: cancelled the Sunday before my cousin came (thanksfully I get a refund, except, of course, the $8 per ticket ticketmaster charge), so we didn't get to see it.

Sly Fox: Richard Dreyfuss, the real reason we decided to go see this play, hurt his back so he wasn't performing. It was still wonderful, and Aberjenois (however that is spelled) played Dreyfuss' role, and was fantastic, as was the whole cast, but still - I was *excited* about seeing Dreyfuss live on stage.

ARGH!

:argh:

Reminds me of the time I managed to get a tciket to see Cecilia Bartolia sing in Cosi fan Tutti at the met and then she was sick (as were two other leads - NYC had a NASTY flu nailing everyone, so for a month or so at the Met lots of performers were sick). It was still a brilliant performance, but the ONLY reason I went is because I wanted to see (and hear) her live at least once in my life.

Oh, well. Things could be worse: I could be homeless, sick, unemployed in a way that mattered, blah blah blah, so in the end, not seeing Dreyfuss isn't all that important. At least I'm in a position that I can pay for tickets so who am I to complain? I'm especially bummed about missing Judd Hirsch, been a fan of his since Taxi, and not seeing that play, which sounded like it was very moving and profound, which is probably why it only lasted a couple weeks.

[unblock]

1. peter scolari -- the other 'bosom buddies' guy

these days, he probably feel pretty much the way pete best does....

[ithacan]

2. stick with off-off broadway shows

you'll never be disappointed...

[Bunny]

3. Well, sounds like a bummer for you.

And I'm sorry to hear that.

But as a born and raised denizen of Hooterville, I'd give anything to see an actual Broadway play, with third, fourth, fifth, or sixth rate actors.

I have GOT to get my act together enough to make a trip to NYC and see some things!

[unblock]

4. i saw the producers

of course, i bought the tix when matthew broderick and nathan lane were starring in the hit of the century. 8 months later, the two leads were played by two different people.

then, to pour salt in the wound, broderick and lane return for a few months. grrrrrrr.


that being said, the producers was phenomenal, even mrs. unblock, who HATES broadway plays, musicals especially, loved it. if i never knew who was SUPPOSED to be headlining, i'd honestly have nothing to complain about.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. I hate musicals (generally) as well, and have seen the Producers twice

With both non-Broderick non-Lane casts, and I love the show! I've hardly ever laughed so much, so continuously, through any show or movie.

The Producers, the Beavis and Butthead Movie, Toy Story I and II, and Mosnters, Inc. are the ones that I remember laughing the most at.

Bummers about you getting the tickets then missing the numero uno cast.

[rusty charly]

5. if it makes you feel any better

16 wounded closed because it was bad. and very simplistic "chico and the man" approach to a very complicated issue.

cecilia bartoli is a congenital mugger onstage and is much better in recordings

ministry was supposed to be great though

from the nytimes:

From the moment in the first scene when the fiery young Palestinian crashes through the shop window of the curmudgeonly old Jewish baker, life moves at a disorientingly fast clip in Eliam Kraiem's ''Sixteen Wounded,'' the political melodrama with the pace of a sitcom that opened last night at the Walter Kerr Theater.

After meeting cute, if bloody, amid shattered glass in Amsterdam in 1992, Hans (Judd Hirsch), the baker, and Mahmoud (Omar Metwally), his unexpected visitor, sit down to a cozy game of backgammon and almost instantly develop a friendship that bridges a vast ethnic divide. Oh, sure, there are some rocky moments early on, as when Mahmoud realizes that Hans is a Jew and spits on the mezuza nailed to the old guy's door.


http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?html_title=Sixteen%20Wounded%20(Play)&tols_title=Sixteen%20Wounded%20(Play)&pdate=20040416&byline=Ben%20Brantley&id=1078134675663



But they both get over that uncomfortable episode quickly as Mahmoud, a medical student, agrees to keep working for Hans in the bakery shop where the grumpy but warm-hearted old fellow has cloistered himself. Even when weightier things come between them, like a time bomb, they're able to reach inside themselves and discover their abiding mutual affection. That's just the way these lovable if tragic lunkheads are. And when Nora (Martha Plimpton), Hans's spunky and sexy employee, shows up, you know it's just a matter of very limited time before she and the hunky Mahmoud fall for each other.

Basically, there's not a major emotional reversal -- and they happen with head-spinning frequency in this play, directed by Garry Hynes -- that couldn't be clocked with an egg timer, with a minute or two to spare. Yet as the characters race through their frenzied, predestined dance of friendship, love, loss and destruction, the overall effect is of a turtle race in slow motion. And while the theme of Arab-Jewish relations is normally guaranteed to whip up passionate feelings, ''Sixteen Wounded'' generates less urgency than your average episode of ''Friends.''

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Well, then, perhaps it wasn't worth seeing!

Sounds bad, indeed. :-)

Thanks for the review!

I really liked Ministry of Progress, and not just because I had friends who were in it and wrote it. It had a few plot problems, but overall it highly entertaining and one of the tightest, most professional ensembles of actors and musicians I've seen. Really too bad it closed.