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fauxkloreThe major reason for my excursion to New York was seeing "Curtains," which is closing at the end of the month. I enjoyed the Kander and Ebb series at Signature Theatre so much, that I couldn't resist seeing this one on Broadway. Especially since touring dates have not yet been announced and it takes forever for touring companies to get to D.C., probably because they figure that everybody who already wanted to see any given show would have just gone to New York to do so.
It proved to be an excellent decision. I was hesitant about the "show within a show" bit (the story involves a murder during out of town tryouts of a musical). What I hadn't realized was the upside of having bits of a 1959 musical worked in, with the more traditional musical comedy style of song and dance. The score was delightful, the lyrics generally witty ("The Woman's Dead" had stuff like "The sky is blue / Her lips are too" and I can never resist things like rhyming "thataway" with "Piscataway"), and the choreography spectacular. David Hyde Pierce got a Tony for his performance, but I was as impressed by Debra Monk and Karen Ziemba (who were nominated and didn't win).
In addition to the production numbers, I have to mention two other songs. "Coffee Shop Nights" struck me as a gem of character illumination. And I have to wonder how much of "I Miss the Music" was Kander thinking of Fred Ebb's death.
I've been trying to thin my collection of recordings, but I plan to buy the CD of this cast album.
The trip was definitely worth it, despite the difficulties getting home. My train left New York almost half an hour late and had problems with the air conditioning. They held us a while at Philadelphia trying to repair it and finally transferred us to another train at Baltimore (the one that left NY an hour later). Then we were held there because of track problems which meant single tracking down to BWI (and possibly all the way to New Carrolton). So I got home about an hour and a half later than I expected to. Oh, well, I don't have anything I absolutely have to get done today.
It proved to be an excellent decision. I was hesitant about the "show within a show" bit (the story involves a murder during out of town tryouts of a musical). What I hadn't realized was the upside of having bits of a 1959 musical worked in, with the more traditional musical comedy style of song and dance. The score was delightful, the lyrics generally witty ("The Woman's Dead" had stuff like "The sky is blue / Her lips are too" and I can never resist things like rhyming "thataway" with "Piscataway"), and the choreography spectacular. David Hyde Pierce got a Tony for his performance, but I was as impressed by Debra Monk and Karen Ziemba (who were nominated and didn't win).
In addition to the production numbers, I have to mention two other songs. "Coffee Shop Nights" struck me as a gem of character illumination. And I have to wonder how much of "I Miss the Music" was Kander thinking of Fred Ebb's death.
I've been trying to thin my collection of recordings, but I plan to buy the CD of this cast album.
The trip was definitely worth it, despite the difficulties getting home. My train left New York almost half an hour late and had problems with the air conditioning. They held us a while at Philadelphia trying to repair it and finally transferred us to another train at Baltimore (the one that left NY an hour later). Then we were held there because of track problems which meant single tracking down to BWI (and possibly all the way to New Carrolton). So I got home about an hour and a half later than I expected to. Oh, well, I don't have anything I absolutely have to get done today.
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Date: 2008-06-08 02:25 pm (UTC)I'm a big CURTAINS fan
Date: 2008-06-18 01:44 pm (UTC)