Murder Ballad Takes No Prisoners

All is not fair in love and war. This old adage could not ring any more true to the new Off-Broadway musical Murder Ballad over at Manhattan Theatre Club New York City Center.

This stunning production consisting a four-person cast of seasoned and award winning theatre royalty vets. Throughout the 80 minute performance the narrator, Rebecca Naomi Jones (American Idiot) tells the story of a love triangle involving of a woman named Sara (Tony Award Winner Karen Olivo) who starts a steamy affair with her ex rocker boyfriend Tom (Will Swenson Hair and Priscilla) after becoming dissatisfied with her life with her patient, loving and nerdy husband Michael (John Ellison Conlee) and daughter with a major twist at the end. The entire show is sung with beautiful and enticing book and music by theatre newcomers Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash and flawlessly directed by Lynne Meadow gives the production its sharp edges that make it so incredible to watch. The brilliant cast performs in a bar setting, interacting with the onstage audience throughout the shows duration giving it a sense of realism by breaking the fourth wall that it makes the simplicity of it so beautiful so that your sole focus in on the actors and the gripping story they are telling.

As stated earlier the whole cast is phenomenal. Rebecca Naomi Jones is a fierce and edgy narrator with the pipes to match.  John Ellison Conlee gives a heart wrenching performance of doting husband that makes your heart break when all comes to fruition. Will Swenson brings out the vixens in all of us with his electrifying performance as Sara’s’ ex and lover Tom. The always amazing Karen Olivo delivers a standout, captivating and flawless portrayl of the torn woman Sara dare I say it is perfection in her return to New York City Theatre.

Their performances all bring a different element to the production, showcasing the writers beautiful story and lyrics flawlessly. They don’t water it down and talk down to the audience quite the opposite. They interact with onstage audience members the entire time and deliver the story with the sharpness of a knife. Its edginess is what makes the production so stunning and captivating to watch. You leave the theatre replaying scenes in your head and wanting to know more about these characters who are just everyday people, which is what makes them intriguing.

The story hits home to some but it doesn’t leave an audience member too quickly after final curtain. It stays with you and makes you think, wonder and question. That is what makes it a beautiful piece of theatre, something that we need to see more of-bold new and different pieces that leave you with a question or thought.

Murder Ballad is gut wrenching and the creators knew exactly what they wanted to achieve and that is exactly what they did. They have reinvented and revitalized their very particular genre in the world of theatre that does not disappoint.

"Here Right Now"-Ghost review

Hello my lovely readers! So, in case you all didn’t know tonight Ghost the Musical based off the iconic Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore film plays its final Broadway performance. I got to see the show recently on the shows bloggers night and I will be honest I wasn’t exactly mesmerized but parts of the show were absolutely stunning. First off, a shout out to Rebecca Cohen who organized this event as well as the bloggers night that I went to to see the riveting and equally thrilling Venus in Fur a few months ago. If your are ever invited to a bloggers night seriously go, they are so much fun!

Like I stated above the musical which is based off the film by the same name tells the story of a young couple, Sam and Molly who are madly in love until they are torn apart by Sams’ murder. Sam, who worked as a banker had noticed some inconsistencies in certain accounts before his death stays as a ghost instead of moving on by staying with Molly and doing all that he can in his power to protect her from his killer and the impending danger from him. Throughout the show with the help of psychic Oda Mae Brown and other ghosts, Sam is able to protect Molly while finding is killer, which was a hired killing by his best friend and co-worker Carl while resolving the issues at the bank.    

The cast, which includes Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy in the lead roles from the London production, has its moments. Richard and Caissie have incredible chemistry and you can really feel the love between Sam and Molly as well as Molly’s’ pain and grief after his death. However, the standout performance of the show was Da’vine Joy Randolph who plays psychic Oda Mae Brown (the Whoopi Goldberg character in the movie). She was absolutely hysterical and whenever she opened her mouth the audience roared with laughter. The book written by Bruce Joel Rubin is so-so with mediocre lyrics by Rubin, Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard set to decent music that had its great and thrilling moments by Stewart and Ballard. The musical does have some aspects that are just beautiful to see, as it is a very visual show such as the CGI boards that provide shots of New York City as well as interior backdrops such as banking offices. However, I felt that they were overused in a sense, as the audience doesn’t need to see them constantly throughout the show. While these effects are part of what made this show visually stunning but a little less would have made a big difference as we know what we can do with our technology today but seeing it in practically every scene was a bit overdone for my taste. On the other hand some of the additional effects were executed beautifully such as the portrayal of Sam as a ghost, watching him go through doors and seeing objects being thrown around on the stage by themselves. Now while we can piece together how these bits are pulled off what made them so lovely was how they were executed. They didn’t look cheesy or campy but instead they fit so well into the show because of again how they were performed. All in all the show was mediocre, it didn’t blow me away, leave me stunned or emotional after the final curtain. It can use some work but with a little retooling before any of the international productions open will do the show some good.

Promoting a Show Godspell Style

Hello, my lovely readers! I hope that you all enjoyed my previous post about child actors in theatre. This time I’m focusing on the production/promotion aspects of a show. Now, this is from what I have learned over the years and from talking to people who are very knowledgeable about this subject..

         When a show is prepping for a Broadway opening producers look for ways to sell the show so they can draw audiences in, convincing them to buy a ticket. A billboard in Times Square, advertisements around the city in subway stations, bus stops and atop of taxis as well as TV spots and a Twitter and Facebook Pages are all very common and useful for shows. For some shows that is all they need, as they might have gotten great reviews, which make for great pull quotes in advertisements or they might have a big celebrity that is drawing hoards of people in.

         For most shows however it’s not that easy, unfortunately not every show is as popular as Book of Mormon and Evita. Like I stated above most shows have a Facebook fanpage and a Twitter account. How each show uses theirs is different but some really utilize this social networking tool, providing their followers with trivia and contests for a chance to win free tickets and merchandise. This helps the get the word around about the show in a day where social media is prominent and the free goodies are a nice little plus.

         When you are in Times Square you always seem to see people dressed up trying to give you flyers to a show right? Well those people are part of the street team for a certain show who walk around Times Square possibly singing and/or dancing while handing out flyers to usually have a discount printed on them to possible patrons. This is common with both new shows and long running ones like Chicago who will gladly inform tourists who aren’t that familiar with theatre about their show, ticket pricing etc.

         Now is there some show out there that does a totally different take on this-absolutely, it’s the recently closed revival of Godspell. Godspell took a completely different take while promoting the show making them stand out in that aspect. From the get go they had fun, catchy tweets about the different cast members and further into the shows run near their closing date they rolled out a bunch of new advertising/promotions in attempt to draw a crowd. The show was struggling and they desperately needed to sell more seats. So, they used different techniques from the Godspell Cast of 2032 night, Godspell Easter Egg Hunt, pay your age night and fan appreciation days (with pizza and fun prizes). Now, why offer these events, which usually included ways to get discounted tickets when the production was on the brink on closing? It’s to keep the show talked about on the theatre websites with their special events nights and as a method to hopefully draw you back again or to tell a family member or a good friend about it so that way they will buy a full-priced ticket.

         You might be wondering why I am going on and on about a shows advertising and promotional methods when it did not help the show. The answer is simple, the show was unfortunately not doing well with or without these special events, but it is something that lots of shows can take a page from. When these events happened they created buzz and were talked about and other shows can learn from it as Godspell opened up a different way of promoting a new show that not only makes theatre more accessible to some but creates some more hype for a show in a different and creative way. So, I end this with a thank you to the producing/ promotion team and everyone else that was involved in these truly spectacular Godspell events you all are amazing!

Bwaygirl828

Child Actors on Broadway

I’m so thrilled to post my first installment of my new series. This column focuses on child actors and what goes on during the run, why and when they leave and what happens after their run has ended.

Earlier this week I was re-watching one of my favorite and in my mind one of the most interesting show documentaries called “Life After Tomorrow.” The film explores the lives of the little girls who played Annie and the orphans in the original Broadway production and National Tours of Annie post-show. Over the course of the documentary many of the former orphans opened up and discussed their experiences with the show, what it was like coming home after their contracts ended and what life has been like since then. The movie explored both the positive and negative aspects as well as establishes some very valid points that I wanted to explore more.

         The film opens up with Julie Stevens, director of the film and as she describes “I was one of the lucky ones who got to play and orphan in both the Broadway cast and National Tour of the show.” Lucky she was. Growing up most of us probably dreamed of that. I mean who wouldn’t want to be an actor who was in a huge hit, signing autographs and making special appearances. But, on the flip side as it was described in the film what happens after their contracts end?

         In the world of Broadway and most professional theatre companies children have to fit a certain criteria to be in a show. Children cannot be over a certain height and weight and once they get too big for the part they are let go or asked to leave. Now while each show might have different requirements based on the character and such productions do this for obvious reasons. They don’t want a tall (for the age) child playing Little Orphan Annie or young Cosette. Actors can stay in the role until thy either grow out of it or choose to leave the show. Sometimes children might stay in a role for as long as two years before they leave, as they just have not out-grown the part. Stars like Lea Michele and Andrew Kennan-Bolger both stayed with their roles as young Cosette and Chip respectively for year at minimum, Michele also stayed with her role as the Little Girl in the Ragtime for a year and that is not counting the Toronto run. Now, why do some choose to leave? Well, they might have another job lined up or maybe they just feel like it is time to move on. At times you’ll find that theatres like it when the child (and the parents) decide to leave because it helps soften leaving a bit as it is like you chose to leave and not, “we made you leave because you’re too big.” The theatre company wants the kids to have a great experience and not have it possibly end on a sour not if they can avoid it (I’m not saying that all experiences when child actors were asked to leave ended poorly).

         Now what happens during the run? While the kids are at every show you’ll find that most of these actors have very normal lives. While some are homeschooled, most probably live outside of the city and go to a normal school. They are involved in other activities do things that kids do, they just happen to also be in a Broadway show!

         What happens after their contracts end? Well, I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard getting jobs for actors on Broadway especially child actors. The definitely aren’t as many roles as there are for adults and for kids if you are over a certain height and weight you can’t get the job. One can only imagine how tough it is to get work in the New York theatre scene after a certain age when you are too old to play a young child and to little to play an older role.  In the Annie documentary it is all about what their lives were like after leaving the show. That show was so big and the girls who played Annie and the orphans were celebrities but as said in the film, once they left most faded from the spotlight quickly.

 Now child theatre actors today. Most continue auditioning after leaving a role while going to school. These young theatre actors are insanely talented and I know that we will be seeing some of these kids at future Tony Awards and some child theatre actors you can see on TV in Glee and Victorious.

So child acting on Broadway. Is it tough-absolutely, but does it give them experience, tools and resources that they can use down the line-most definitely. These kids are vital to the shows that they are in to tell the story and with some hard work and determination they can hopefully continue to get work and blossom into incredible adult performers!