Broadway Feb 2024

I generally don’t like quantitative evaluations of art. That is, assigning stars, ratings, awards, often feels unhelpful at best and, at worst, counter-productive.

I think it is valuable to critique art, both to give feedback to the artists and to inform audiences, but doing so should come from a place of humility and appreciation because creating art is impossible.

So here are my thoughts on the four Broadway shows I was lucky enough to see in February of 2024.

Merrily We Roll Along

Seeing this show was a primary motivating factor for the weekend trip. I don't know this show as well as other Sondheim and wanted to experience it on Broadway.

It did not disappoint. I was instantly pulled into the world of the characters and never left. Top-to-bottom, amazing, engaging storytelling. There were no weak links. Every acting performance worked for me.

I expected Daniel Radcliffe to stick out as not-quite-ready-for-broadway, but he didn’t. “Franklin Shepehed Inc.” worked. “Good Thing Going," was my favorite moment in the show.

A close second was “Bobby and Jackie and Jack,” where the seasoned, exceptional performers managed to pull off the frenetic energy of amateur performers having the time of their lives in front of a small audience at a nightclub.

Jonathan Groff didn’t get to sing much but carried the show anyway.

I hope I get a chance to work on this show soon. It overflows with storytelling and character.

Spamalot

This was a show I picked not out of a burning desire to see it but as a good show to take my kids to. And it was more or less exactly what I expected. It was a great time, ultimately not the most poignant experience, but it doesn’t attempt to be.

Standout performance by Alex Brightman as Lancelot and others. He was very funny and endearing. He brought new energy to material I know very well.

Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as a diva Lady of the Lake was hilarious and irreverent in a way that drove the show home.

Sweeney Todd

I’ve music-directed this show twice, and it endures in my heart as among the greatest things a human has ever accomplished. This score is Mozartian in its simplicity and Beethovian in its scope.

I sat close enough to the pit to hear the orchestrations mostly from the musicians themselves as opposed to the amplification, and there is no substitute for this full string section, for the intimacy and grandeur of Tunick’s orchestration.

The ensemble and movement were probably the most memorable aspect. “The Letter” and the ballads were spectacular. The opening hit me like a tidal wave.

Aaron Tveit surpassed my expectations as Sweeney. I had expected his voice to be too pure and pretty to make Sweeney work, but he pulled it off, especially with his acting choices. Epiphany was glorious.

Sutton Foster’s Mrs Lovett was more comedic than menacing, which worked up to a point. She was stupid-in-love, more hapless always-playing-for-the-joke cartoon than a menacing Lady MacBeth. This worked very well for “Worst Pies In London” but seemed to cross a line for “A Little Priest.” This song is farcical and I think a hearty dose of irreverence is not only good but required. But I think she lost the storytelling of the moment for the sake of a punchline. She brought a little more of the menace during Not While I’m Around, and it worked beautifully.

Joe Locke as Toby managed a balance of innocence and vocal dexterity. Combined with Foster’s menace, Not While I’m Around hit me just right.

The storytelling moment of the birdseller / Anthony’s Johanna, and the Beadle’s intimidation also worked wonderfully well.

María Bilbao as Johanna didn’t work as well for me. She seemed to lean into a “bird-like” performance, which I liked in spirit, but in execution, she felt a bit out of the story to me. I would have liked to see her character arc more, and I didn’t get that from her. Her voice often seemed flighty and unmoored, which could have been a great character choice, but without a few moments of connecting to the score, it just seemed meandering.

My biggest problem with the production wasn’t Sutton Foster’s performance itself as much as her performance seemed to be in a different show than the rest of the production. Everything seemed to lean towards more family-friendly by cutting the judge’s Joanna, keeping the gore a bit out of the spotlight, and making Sweeney more of a breaking-bad-no-good-choices character versus a homicidal maniac. But Sutton Foster going to all lengths for a laugh often crossed into heavy sexual innuendo that seemed to diverge from that. Her show was more like the experience of Spamalot, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it didn’t seem to quite coalesce.

Flaws and all, I would greedily go see this show again tonight.

Hadestown

Jordan Fisher’s Orpheus was the most memorable individual performance of the weekend. His storytelling was effortless and endearing. The genuine simplicity of his delivery of the line “To the world we dream about, and the world we live in now” will stay with me for a long time. It wasn’t exactly breaking the fourth wall, but a moment of connection to every person in the audience and beyond.

“To the world we dream about,” he raises his cup, stary-eyed and optimistic.

“And the world we live in now,” he pulls the cup to his heart. Things can be hard. I see you.

This is the power of theatre that drives me.

Lola Tung as Euridice was likewise brilliant. They had great chemistry, and I felt her anguish, her naivety, her regret.

Ani DiFranco’s voice was more than up to Persephone but she seemed a bit lost on stage.

Phillip Boykin as Hades didn’t quite capture the menace or profundity of the role, but I thought he was especially touching during the final Epic of the show.

The lighting and staging are so compelling in this production. They used three independent moving circles, with the innermost also an elevator, to great effect.

This show is a masterpiece that I will see again and again.