Loney's Show Notes
Please click on " * " to skip to each subject in this index:Bill Shakespeare or Chris Marlowe's CORIOLANUS [*****] * Qui Nguyen's VIETGONE [****] * Horton Foote's THE ROADS TO HOME [*****] * E. Y. Harburg, Fred Saidy, & Burton Lane's FINIAN'S RAINBOW [*****] * Adam Bock's A LIFE [***] * William Finn & James Lapine's FALSETTOS [****] * Athol Fugard's "MASTER HAROLD" … AND THE BOYS [*****] * Nicky Silver's THIS DAY FORWARD [*****] * Signor Carlo Goldoni's THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS [*****] * Various Cooks Concoct PARTY PEOPLE [*****] * Richard Nelson's WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE: Play 3 of The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family [*****] * Lynn Nottage's SWEAT [*****] * Chazz Palminteri, Alan Menken, & Glenn Slater's A Bronx Tale [*****] * PASSING GLANCES AT SCENES SEEN: At The Red Bull Theatre at the Barrow Street Theatre: Bill Shakespeare or Chris Marlowe's CORIOLANUS [*****] Egotistical Mama's Boy Won't Show His Wounds To Vulgar Roman Public! Among the Bardic Tragedies with Roman Italian Roots, Coriolanus has always been a Problematic Production Project. Not Truly Tragic like Antony & Cleopatra or Julius Caesar… Defeating the Detested Enemy Volscians in Pitched Battle in their Capital City of Corioli, the Heroic Roman General, Caius Martius, is awarded the Honorific of Corolanus. Unfortunately, Caius Martius Coriolanus suffers an Epic Attack of Hubris. Refusing to show his Battle Wounds to the Vulgar Roman Public—which would have guaranteed him a Lifelong Sinecure in High Office—he is Exiled from Rome! Whereupon, he goes over to the Volscians to lead them in Triumphal Mode to the Gates of Rome. Only the Passionate Pleas of his Mother, Volumnia, are able to sway his Vengeful Course. This, of course, does not Turn Out Well. Fortunately, the Red Bull Ensemble's Current Production turns out very well indeed because the Actors are not really Acting. Instead, they are Inhabiting, Living, & Being their Assigned Roles! Not only in Named Roles, but also as various Citizens, Senators, Conspirators, Patricians, Plebians, & Random Soldiers! Michael Sexton has staged—in stark simplicity—an Admirable Cast which includes Patrick Page, Stephen Spinella, & Dion Johnstone, as Coriolanus. Plus the powerful Voluminia of Lisa Harrow! A Night To Remember! But it's also worth noting that the Red Bullers—even in their One Night Only Play Readings of almost forgotten Elizabethan & Jacobean Dramas—can make almost any Neglected Script Come Alive!
At The Manhattan Theatre Club at NY City Center's Stage II: Wrong War in Wrong Place Encourages Asian Playwrights! Are They Officially Represented by Agent Orange? A Refugee Internment Camp in the USA is a long way off from "Commie Infested" Vietnam, where American Forces have gone to turn back the "Red Tide" & bring the Blessings of Democracy. May Adrales has strongly staged Qui Nguyen's Family Drama—based on her Own Parents' True Story—with a Cast that includes Jon Hoche, Paco Tolson, Raymond Lee, Jennifer Ikeda, & Samantha Quan. Nonetheless, This Script still Needs Work…
Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre: Horton Foote's THE ROADS TO HOME [*****] Hallie Foote Keeps Her Dad's Harrison Texas Dramatic Legacy Alive! What would the Cherry Lane Theatre Experience look like if Hallie Foote were to appear as Amanda Wingfield or Blanche DuBois? Not To Worry! This Year is her Dad's Centenary, so a Charming Revival of Roads To Home is entirely In Order. What's More is that Hallie Foote, Harriet Harris, & Rebecca Brooksher honor Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright Horton Foote with a Spot On Group Portrait of Three Women living in Houston, far off from their Native Harrison. Where is "Down Home," when you are Transplanted to Houston? Could Be Worse: How about Dallas? Michael Wilson has sensitively staged this Strong Cast, which includes Devon Abner, Dan Bittner, & Matt Sullivan. But we have Agnes de Mille to thank for encouraging Horton Foote to write about the Plain Folks in Harrison, which he continued to do for Many Years!
At The Irish Repertory Theatre: E. Y. Harburg, Fred Saidy, & Burton Lane's FINIAN'S RAINBOW [*****] Purloined Crock of Gold Sparks Rainbow Rich Multi Ethnic Song Fest in Mythical Missatucky! Ken Jennings is an Irish Mick Delight as the Gold Thieving Finian, who has brought the Mythical Crock of Gold to the Immediate Neighborhood of Fort Knox, where The Powers That Be keep all those Millions & Millions of Dollars Worth of Gold Ingots! But Irish Rep's Charlotte Moore is the Real Heroine of Finian's Rainbow, for she herself has not only Adapted & Directed this Jolly, Tuneful, & Multi Ethnic Musical Satire, but she has managed to fit it all into the somewhat Limited Space of the Irish Repertory Theatre, over on West Twenty Second Street. Not only that: Charlotte Moore has also enlisted the Charm & Vitality of such Talents as Melissa Errico—a Lovely Sharon; Mark Evans—a Spritely, Leprechaunish Og; Lyrica Woodruff—a Silent, Signing Susan, who miraculously learns to Speak, & Ryan Silverman—a Guitar Playing Woody. Thanks to Barry McNabb, Charlotte Moore also has Dynamic Choreography in a Very Small Space. But even if this Finian were only In Concert, just think of the Lyrical & Musical Riches: Old Devil Moon, Look To the Rainbow, Necessity, The Begat, This Time of the Year, If This Isn't Love, Something Sort of Grandish, & When The Idle Poor Become The Idle Rich… Not to Overlook that Wistful Musical Question: How Are Things in Glocca Morra? Historical Note: There was a Yiddish Version: How Are Things with Uncle Morris? Next Irish Rep Challenge: James Joyce's The Dead, to be produced on Fifth Avenue—opposite the Met Museum—in a Handsome Historical Irish Mansion, with the Audience feasting along with the Cast on Irish Gourmet Cuisine!
At Playwright's Horizons at The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre: David Hyde Pierce Had to Die To Make This Play Possible: Coroners On Alert! Would a Lesser Luminary than David Hyde Pierce been that much of a Draw for this Self Referential Revelation of the Private Musings & Sexual Adventures of Playwright Adam Bock? Adam Bock has already had an Amazing Career: Awards Galore! A Guggenheim Grant! Yaddow! NEA Fellowships! What's even More Amazing: Adam Bock has had the Temerity—in A Life—to Pad Out his Play with his Own Endless Lists. Why are we listening to all this Astrology Anxiety? Well, because Adam Bock is Hung Up on Zodiacal Computations… Here's what Adam Bock has had to say about his Philosophy of Composition: Well, anyone who knows me knows that I'm like—I'll talk to everybody about Astrology. I'll talk to everybody about their Love Lives. I'll talk to everybody about, um, Group Therapy. What puzzled me, listening to David Hyde Pierce maunder on & on about Astrology & that Hair Salon & Bead Shop up in Providence [RI] was: Why Are We Being Subjected to All These Listings? Because The Lists are the Core of what Adam Bock has to Share… Adam Bock is also very generous in sharing Sexual Adventures, including One Night Stands of the Same Sex Sort, as well as Short Term Set Ups. But there is something Really Terrifying about the Idea of Being Alone & Friendless in an Indifferent Manhattan. What happens to a Gay Guy when the End Comes? When David Hyde Pierce goes into Terminal Arrest, the Focus shifts to a Manhattan Morgue, with its Accompanying Accommodations. Adam Bock & David Hyde Pierce! Mercury is Rising in Taurus! Do not eat Asparagus this Month! Avoid Excursions to New Jersey Anytime—especially not to the Paper Mill Playhouse…
At The Walter Kerr Theatre: William Finn & James Lapine's FALSETTOS [****]
Sing Out! Sing Out! It's Great To Be Gay When The Vice Squad Is Out of Business! Long, long ago, way down in Greenwich Village, Composer/Lyricist William Finn—ably abetted by Book Author James Lapine—created a Serendipitous Stir by concocting some Gay Settings of Existential Agonies. The current Vision & Revision at the Walter Kerr is Handsomely Mounted, but it still may be Something of a Shock for Donald Trump's Ordinary Americans to see Two Men Kissing Onstage, especially when One of Them is a Married Dad! Oh, Oh! Think of Fun Home! Nonetheless, Christian Borle & Andrew Rannells—as Marvin & Whizzer—do make a Handsome Twosome. But how would you relate to Your Dad's Best Buddy if you were only a Little Kid? As Jason, Anthony Rosenthal shows us how to survive this Family Fracture. Survival & Accommodation are not so easy for the Former Mrs Marvin. Fortunately, Lapine & Finn provide a Therapist! But this is not exactly Musical Therapy… If Donald Trump gets Comp Tickets to Falsettos, will he—in Rash Anger—decide to Build a Stonewall across Greenwich Village? Just Asking…
At The Signature Theatre: Athol Fugard's "MASTER HAROLD" … AND THE BOYS [*****] An Awkward Moment in Apartheid South Africa: Bad Behavior in a Port Elizabeth Tea Room! It's a Difficult Role for Noah Robbins—playing "Hally," or "Master Harold"—for Playwright/Director Athol Fugard requires him to Spit in the Face of a Wise & Kindly Black Father Figure, who is trying to help Hally grow into Decent Manhood. As Sam—working in Hally's Mother's Port Elizabeth Tearoom—Leon Addison Brown is a Tower of Strength in a Nation Divided. It's clear that he loves the Lonely, Neglected White Boy, dressed in Elitist Public School Attire. But he is also Good Natured enough to try to teach his Co Worker, Willie [Sahr Ngaujah], some Good Moves on the Dance Floor to attract Lively Black Ladies. We never see Master Harold's Mother, but you can bet she is a Piece of Work, even for British & Boer White Folks, when "Whitey" Ruled the Roost. That was BM: Before Mandela! Thanks to an Early Exposure to the Apartheid Oriented Dramas of Athol Fugard, I made a Drama Safari to South Africa, especially to see works at Johannesburg's famed Market Theatre. But, arriving initially in Cape Town, I was Mugged in the Main Street on My First Day… I never got to have Tea in Port Elizabeth, but it is the Last Stop of the famous Blue Train that runs from The Cape onward Eastward. But The Blue Train isn't just some Old Railway Coaches painted Blue. No, Indeed! It is the Last Word in Last Century Train Transportation. Couples or Singles have Their Very Own Luxury Suites! In the Middle of the Night, you can take a Full Tub Bath in your Luxury Bathroom! You can have Gourmet Meals stylishly served on Your Own Private Dining Table! Most Historic Rail Travel Enthusiasts, however, prefer to join the other Big Spenders in the Luxuriously Appointed Vintage Dining Car for Breakfast, "Elevenses," Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, Dinner, & Late Night Snacks. There's also a Blue Train that runs from Pretoria to Cape Town. This is the Rolling Hotel that I took on my return from a Sight Seeing Safari to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, where I stayed in a Jungle Hotel just inaugurated by the Self Appointed Dictator Robert Mugabwe. Departing Pretoria—where there is a Statue of Om Paul Krueger, the Boer Founder—we stopped for a few hours in Diamond Rich Kimberley, Site of the Deepest Mine Pit in the World. My late, lamented Cousin Charles Stocks—a Mining Engineer from formerly Gold Rich Grass Valley, California—is Buried here, but we didn't have Time to visit the Local Cemetery…
At The Vineyard Theatre: Nicky Silver's THIS DAY FORWARD [*****] No Sex on Wedding Night in Posh Hotel: Bride Loves a Garage Mechanic–Not Her Jewish Groom! Forget about Falsettos, Marching or Otherwise! Outrageously Naughty Nicky Silver has been Out There with Satirically Themed Gay Frolics for Some Sexy Seasons. How about Linda Lavin in The Lyons? As a Long Island Long Suffering Wife, she is impatiently waiting for her Gasping Hubby—on Tube Infested Hospital Life Support—to Definitilvely Expire, so she can Redecorate! Then there were Fat Men in Skirts, My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine, Wanton Lust, & Fit To Be Tied. Holly Fain is Hilarious as the Reluctant Bride, Irene. She is dressed in a Lovely Bouffant Wedding Gown, but she is Not a Happy Camper! She actually is attracted to Emil [Joe Tippett], a Garage Grease Monkey, with whom she has already had Spectacular Sex. Unfortunately, Emil is Off Limits, as far as Irene's Ambitious Jewish Parents are concerned. But Michael Crain's Fussy but Real Estate Rich Martin is Another Story! Initially, we find ourselves with Irene & Martin in a Lavish Bridal Suite of the St. Regis Hotel, in Manhattan in 1958! There is a Handsome Fruit Basket for the Newlyweds. As well as Piles of Towels, with Maids & a Busboy to Match… Later—2004, to be Exact—we are in the New York City Apartment of Noah, Martin & Irene's Son [also played by Michael Crane], who is Outrageously Gay. Well! You can just imagine what happens, being a Nicky Silver Satire down at the Vineyard! Mark Brokaw directed, with Stunning Settings by Allen Moyer & Kaye Voyce's Appropriate Costumes.
At The Polonsky Shakespeare Center of The Theatre for a New Audience: Signor Carlo Goldoni's THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS [*****] Traditional Italian Commedia Improvisata Is Hilariously Trump Updated Over in Brooklyn: "Most Outstanding Ensemble" Award for the Liveliest & Funniest Show in Several Seasons! Split Second Timing & Juggling Talents worthy of Cirque du Soleil & Bill Irwin—as well as Colorful Costumes & Doll Like Make Up—make The Servant of Two Masters a Modern Masterpiece of Commedia dell'Arte. As the Trickster Clown, Truffaldino, Stephen Epps is a wonderfully wiry Force of Nature. He's also a Double Dipper, guarding the Huge Trunks of Two Masters, one of whom is actually a Mistress—not a Mattress, as one Verbal Gag would suggest. Yes, there are Mistaken Identities, Doubles Entendres, & Silly Slapstick, worthy of the Marx Brothers, who were Commedia Inspired. Originating at the Yale Rep & raucously staged by Christopher Bayes, Servant of Two Masters has already been shown at the Guthrie Theatre, with a Broadway Transfer from Brooklyn devoutly to be wished. There are Sight Gags Galore, not to overlook some Gaudy Props & Lighting Tricks & a Fake Proscenium. Huzzahs for the Ingenious Designers: Katherine Akiko Day [Scenic Effects], Válerie Thérèse Bart [Costumes], & Chuan Chi Chan [Lighting]! Multi Kudos to Adina Verson, Liz Wisan, & Emily Young, as Clarice, Beatrice, & Smeraldina, with Resounding Cheers for the Stereotypical Ethnics, Brighella [Liam Craig], Pantalone [Allen Gilmore], & Dottore [Andy Grotelueschen], all Italianate Historic Types long before Carlo Goldoni imposed some Structural Strictures on what was previously Grab Bag Shtick. Orlando Pabotoy—as Lover Boy Florindo—is a Stylish Study in Passionate Self Regard. If Servant of Two Masters moves to Broadway, will there be a National Company, as with Hamilton?
At The Public Theatre's Anspacher Space: Various Cooks Concoct PARTY PEOPLE [*****] Black Panthers Sing & Dance & Organize & Agonize & Preen & Mythologize Themselves— But, Once Again, A Would Be Revolution Devours Its Own Children… Only This Time, The Ritual Cannibalism Occurs in a Flurry of Backward Looking Videos… Sorry! I know I should care more about what happened to The Black Panthers—especially with All That Energy Expended Onstage & all those Big Video Screens—but I'm still Stuck in Time with Cinque, Patty Hearst, & the Symbionese Liberation Army… Now that we have a Musical Retrofitting of The Panther Saga, who remembers that there was once a Musical based on Patty Hearst's Brief Encounter with Cinque & Crew, including that Bank Robbery which sent Patty to Prison? This was Mario Fratti's Tanya—which failed to foreshadow his Epic Success with Nine. Now that Black Lives Matter so very much, it is something of a Throwback to see a Young Inheritor of the Panther Legacy making Video Interviews with a View to Reuniting All Those Revolutionaries at a Major Event, possibly with a Mass Healing in Prospect. What those who have never heard of Huey Newton may not realize is that not all the Dissident Panther Revolutionaries were Black… Some of them demanded a Free Puerto Rico. Some of those Angry Latinos—not in this Public Production—even shot up the US Congress. One of the Many Problems in Animating a Revolution is that the Protestors & Activists often have Diverse Demands… Nonetheless, the Dedicated Cast of Party People relives those Long Ago Passions with Fury, Frenzy, & Fantasy. One Forlorn Dissident was writhing in Sorrow & Pain right beside me, on a Bleacher Stair that No One save Me could see. There was even some Attempt at Audience Interaction—which unfortunately Did Not Work. Had I been asked for an Opinion or Reaction, I would have responded: La Lucha? No Hay Remedio…
At The Public Theatre's LuEsther Merz Space:
Ordinary People Leading Ordinary Lives in Donald Trump Land—But Not Bigots, Nor Bashers… What a Wonderful Acting Ensemble Author Director Richard Nelson has assembled for the Metaphoric Capstone of his Gabriel Family Pyramid! Highest Praise for Maryann Plunkett, Roberta Maxwell, Meg Gibson, Lynn Hawley, & Amy Warren—All of them Women of a Certain Age, with the Masculine Exception of Jay O. Sanders, who provides a kind of Earthy Ballast in Trump Terrorism Times, when the Gabriels must depart from the Longtime Home they have lost, thanks to a Sub Prime Scam. Where do Infirm & Aged People Go when there is No Longer a Home Base & a Loving, Supportive Family There for Them? Golden Acres for Golden Agers? Sierra View for Senile Seniors? As a Senior Single, Living Alone in New York, now approaching 88 Years of Age, this Quintessential Question has occasionally Occupied My Waking Thoughts & My Midnight Nightmares… Anxiously Awaiting Election Returns, the Gabriels are Taking Stock, looking through Old Journals, Family Records, Random Jottings, & Treasured Keepsakes… Is there No Wifi in Rheinbeck? Why are these Women not checking their Respective e Mails? As this is Election Night 2016—when they really need to Check the Returns—their Flat Screen TV must be in the Front Room? Women of a Certain Age, for those who Have Other Things To Do than While Away an Entire Evening at Joe Papp's Public Theatre—now Dynamically Programmed by The Honorable Oskar Eustis—is fortunately limited an Intermissionless 109 Minutes. This is Silently Strung Out in the Opening Minutes by having the Entire Cast bring Onstage Various Props & Foodstuffs which will be variously Diced & Sliced & then Boiled, Baked, Roasted, & Toasted to a Fare Thee Well! Indeed, it all Smells Good Enough to Eat Hey, Chef Richard! Why not invite Your Audience to Chow Down on some of those Favorite Gabriel Recipes? Take a Page out of Charlotte Moore's Irish Cookbook! When Irish Rep revives James Joyce's The Dead up on Fifth Avenue—across from the Met Museum, in a Victorian Mansion dedicated to Irish Issues—the Entire Audience, seated with the Entire Cast, will eat a Catered Irish Gourmet Feast along with the Equity Actors. If Irish Gourmet Cuisine is not a Contradiction in Terms… No One may have noticed, but Playwright Director Richard Nelson is something of a Neo Con! No, No, No! Not an Angry, White, Fascist Trumpian Neo Con! Rather, Nelson—with his Apple Family & Gabriel Family Ongoing Dramatic Franchises—seems to be an Apostle of a New Naturalism! When Naturalism surfaced in the Late 19th Century—as a Deliberate Reaction to the Prevailing Diet of Rousing Romantic Dramas, High Flown Verbal Tragedies, Frothy French Farces, & Elegant Drawing Room Comedies—its Diving into the Lower Depths of Nitty Gritty Actuality worried our Premier American Novelist, Henry James [Pace! Edith Wharton!], who actually lived & loved in England, not in Washington Square. What, James wondered, would American Audiences make of such Stage Fare as: The Tragedy of The Broken Teacup? The Adventure of a Walk Around the Block? Fortunately, both Ibsen & Chekhov were ready to beat back the Rising Tides of Naturalism. But, What, I wonder, would be the Dramatic Effect of Moving Our Beloved Hallie Foote to Rheinbeck, NY, & Shipping the Entire Gabriel Entourage off to Harrison, TX? Just Asking… Donald Trump would be glad to ship a Lot of Ordinary People Out of State, as long as they were Not Trump's Kind of Angry Ordinaries.
At The Public Theatre's Martinson Hall: In 2000 AD, Working Class Jobs Disappear in Reading, PA, as Shareholder Profits Multiply: Angry Victims of Globalization, Factory Friends Turn on Each Other, Often with Violence… There are No Holds Barred in this Powerhouse Production with a Supercharged Cast dynamically staged by Kate Whoriskey! Working with Playwright/Partner Lynn Nottage, Whoriskey spent some years in Reading, getting to know many of the Factory Workers & Families who were Reduced to Despair & Drugs, or even Effectively Destroyed, by Wall Streeters who moved their Factory to Mexico. But the Powerful Portraits of Cynthia [Michelle Wilson], Evan [Lance Coadie Williams], Jason [Will Pullen], Oscar [Carlo Albán], Chris [Khris Davis], Stan [James Colby], Tracey [Johanna Day], Jessie [Miriam Shor], & Brucie [John Earl Jelks] are not Interview Specific. Rather, they are Everyman & Everywoman: they could be Anyone of Us, if we had been Wage Slaves way back in the Dawn of a New Century, the Onset of Millennial Horrors for Donald Trump's Ordinary People. With Projections & Video by Jeff Sugg & a Riotous Bar Setting by John Lee Beatty—where most of the Non Stop Action: Violent, Affectionate, Confrontational, Confidential, & Otherwise occurs—we are whisked by Kate Whoriskey from Lafayette Street/Astor Place off to Reading, with Flashbacks between 2000 & 2008. It is now almost 2017 & the Born in America Working Class has been almost Destroyed. Some of the Once Property Proud Middle Class are now Sleeping in the Woods… Lynn Nottage doesn't need to say so, but Donald Trump is not going to Bring Jobs Back to Reading. Nor to Detroit, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Omaha, or Little Rock… Fortunately, there are still Jobs in Ashland, Oregon, where Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, commissioned & produced Sweat, which was also shown at the Arena Theatre, in Our Nation's Capital, soon to be Occupied by the Thumping Trumpers. If you cannot get a Ticket for Sweat down at the Public, don't break out into a Sweat yet. Hamilton at the Public moved on to Broadway & Beyond! How about a Manhattan Transfer for Sweat? Unfortunately, few, if any, Working Class Theatre Fans can afford Broadway Prices… President Elect Trump! How about some Free Tickets for Dispossessed Americans? Instead of a Chinese Wall across the Mexican Borderlands?
At The Longacre Theatre: Chazz Palminteri, Alan Menken, & Glenn Slater's A Bronx Tale [*****] Nick Cordero Is a Casual Killer & a Man To Fear Up in the Italianate Bronx of Long Ago… The Mega Talented Mini Actor, Hudson Lovero, dynamically embodies a Basic Bronx Boy—who knows Not To Snitch. This wins him—as the Young Calogero—the Patronage & Quasi Parentage of the Impeccably Tailored Sonny, who has taken a Sage Page from Niccolo Machiavelli's Advice to Princes: Rule by Fear! But when Calogero—now played by Bobby Conte Thornton—comes into his Young Manhood, falling in Forbidden Love with a Charming Black Girl [Ariana DeBose] from African American Dominated Webster Avenue—his is in Unknown Territory. One Thing Is Certain: If you are going to Amount to Anything, you have to Get Out of The Bronx! That Is Still True Today! Even On or Off Broadway… Fortunately for all the Lucky Bronx Tale Ticket Holders, the Colorful Bronx imagined by Scenic Designer Beowulf Boritt is Wonderfully Mobile, its Street Façades revolving to suggest both Webster Avenue & Belmont Avenue, where Sonny holds sway & Calogero's Dad is an Honest & Decent MTA Bus Driver. When you have a Doo Wop Quartet to Set the Scene—as well as a Police Line Up of Kooky Criminals with names like Eddy Mush, Frankie Coffeecake. & Jojo the Whale—you are On the Money with Costumes by Broadway's Favorite, William Ivey Long! Yet another Tony for Billy? Unlike some Old Fashioned Broadway Musicals which have hopefully Hit Songs set among Swatches of Plot Advancing Dialogue, Bronx Tale is a Sparkling Lyrical Seamless Fabric. But what else would you expect of Music & Lyrics by Alan Menken & Glenn Slater? Menken has long been Very Big over in Disney Territory: Think about The Little Mermaid! But then there's also The Little Shop of Horrors… Slater shares Credits with Menken on The Little Mermaid, but he's Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's Go To Guy for School of Rock. Best of All: This Dynamo Show has been Split Second Co Directed by Robert De Niro & Jerry Zaks. But neither Bobby nor Jerry could have devised all by themselves all that Colorful Ethnic Choreography. That is the Kinetic Genius of Sergio Trujillo, who gave Broadway Jersey Boys—which is somewhat Visually Echoed with the Doo Wop Guys. Do See This Tony Prone Show!
Copyright Glenn Loney, 2016. No re-publication or broadcast use without proper credit of authorship. Suggested credit line: "Glenn Loney, New York Theatre Wire." Reproduction rights please contact: jslaff@nytheatre-wire.com.
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