Rocking the Boat: London’s immersive “Guys and Dolls” is an excellent bet
Broadway revivals should gamble on audience participation
Shalom, Broadway lovers!
In today’s monthly FREE Premium edition of the Broadway Maven’s Weekly Blast, a review of London’s immersive production of Guys and Dolls that suggests the approach could work well on Broadway; a video countdown of the 25 funniest Broadway show tunes; a Broadway Blast about Fiddler on the Roof; a Peter Filichia’s Broadway video on Les Misérables; a review of the now-streaming stage version of The Prince of Egypt; a quiz on children in musicals; and a Last Blast about Sunday in the Park with George.
SAVE THE DATES: Registration for “Sondheim Academy” opens in January. Four Tuesdays in February, at Noon ET, three Sondheim experts will weigh in on different aspects of the composer-lyricist’s work: his gay and Jewish identities (February 6); his work on West Side Story (February 13); Sondheim’s women (February 20); and, on February 27, Sondheim’s “nations” (Pacific Overtures and Assassins). Gail Leondar-Wright (TalkingSondheim.com); Mateo Chavez Lewis (Music Theatre Theory YouTube channel); and Broadway Maven David Benkof will each contribute to the curriculum every week.
REVIEW: An immersive production of Guys and Dolls is currently playing in London, offering fans of the musical a chance to be part of the “action” – perfect for a gambling musical. Additional classic musicals should get the ambient treatment, including on Broadway.
Immersive theater is no stranger to New York City, which has had a participatory Macbeth (Sleep No More) since 2011 and hosted a four-month Broadway run of the just-closed Here Lies Love. (That show tells the improbable story of Imelda Marcos in a dance club environment.) While seating audience members at tables on stage isn’t that unusual (Moulin Rouge does it, as will the upcoming revival of Cabaret), Broadway hasn’t seen this kind of a fully immersive revival of a classic musical.
The London production is performed in the style of that city’s Shakespearean Old Globe Theatre, with (mostly more expensive) seats in a circle surrounding dozens of standing-room patrons. But there’s a twist: instead of a “proscenium” stage in front, the entire floor has been transformed into early 20th century New York City. Sets rise from the ground, fall from the air, and enter from the sides, as staff members shuffle the audience from one part of the stage to the next.
There’s some interaction with the audience milling about, such as when the missionaries hand out pamphlets, plus the occasional shout-out that breaks the fourth wall and acknowledges the actors know they are being watched. But they didn’t overdo it.
The sensory-rich show itself is terrific, and not only because Frank Loesser’s score is tremendous – especially (of course) the eleven o’clock number “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat,” sung here by a lively and engaging actor nicely playing Nicely-Nicely Johnson. The book/script by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows is near-perfect, and the actors playing the show’s two central couples pull off both the romance and the humor with aplomb.
There are some bizarre elements to London’s version of Guys and Dolls, such as when Sky Masterson reluctantly participates in a risqué dance with a flamboyant male performer in the Havana scene. It’s distracting to see a traditionally macho character behave so inconsistently with his persona, but in an immersive production there’s so much else to look at that flaws are easy to ignore.
And at the end, the floor becomes a bit of a dance party for those who have stood (perhaps uncomfortably) for the nearly three-hour run time.
Clearly, done right, the immersive treatment can breathe new life into beloved shows. Some ideas:
Evita. It’s a show with lots of crowd scenes, whether in the movie theater when Evita’s death is announced or at the Casa Rosada where she sings “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina.”
The Music Man. Again, the audience members on the floor could be imagined as extra townsfolk in River City as they enjoy Harold Hill warning them of the “Trouble” heading their way.
Sweeney Todd. A bold choice, but I think patrons would pay extra for an up-close view of that show’s unusual combination of murder, humor, and cannibalism. (Audience members in an off-Broadway production of the show in 2017 got to munch on real meat pies.)
What shows do YOU think deserve an immersive revival? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
BROADWAY MAVEN YouTube GEM: Here’s a really fun video with some LOL moments in the musical theater tradition. Which song would you rank #1? The first-place number in the video is from the 21st century. Can you guess what it is?
BROADWAY BLAST: Fiddler on the Roof traces the breakdown of tradition among the Jews of Eastern Europe. So what happens when we first meet Tevye? He’s pulling his cart himself, since his horse has broken down. That challenge is thus a foreshadowing symbol and not a simple plot device to get Tevye home late for the Sabbath.
PETER FILICHIA’S BROADWAY: In this episode, Peter discusses Les Misérables:
Why is Les Miz the world’s favorite musical? What’s the effect of the lack of applause early in the show? How does the show’s grandiosity affect its popularity? Why is Javert’s suicide scene so effective?
Longtime Broadway critic and commentator Peter Filichia has plenty to say about those topics and many others connected to this important show.
The author of The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes, and Disagreements, longtime critic and commentator Peter Filichia has seen more than 12,000 shows. He makes a video for every issue of The Weekly Blast.
REVIEW: You may want to avoid the filmed stage version of The Prince of Egypt like the plague.
Captured on video from the London stage version, the musical was released Tuesday on major streaming platforms. Though visually thrilling, this isn’t composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz’s best work. Audiences hoping for another Pippin or Wicked will be disappointed, since the 10 new songs added to five from the film are rather limp in comparison.
That’s a shame of Biblical proportions, because the source material is the excellent 1998 DreamWorks animated film. (Or it’s the Book of Exodus, which is equally excellent.) Though adapting films for the stage always requires adjustments, including major ones, some choices here are inexplicable. God’s voice at the burning bush is articulated by a bland, muffled chorus, for example; and the Midianites speak Hebrew as a first language (albeit with a British accent).
This is definitely “lesser Schwartz.” When the man who wrote “Popular” and “No Time at All” rhymes “chain” with “gained” and “shadows” with “Pharaohs” it’s obvious he’s just phoning it in. And I kept waiting for a musical hook from the new songs that rose to the level of the movie’s “When You Believe” and “Through Heaven’s Eyes,” but I found myself counting my blessings that at least those songs were included.
The show’s plusses are all visual: thrilling video projections, optical illusions, stage combat, and fabulous dancing by the 40-strong multiracial cast that sometimes verges on contortionism. The plagues are effectively presented (watch out for boils and hail!), and the parting of the Red Sea is fun to watch, though Biblical purists will hate the ending… if they make it that far.
The stage versions of some of Disney’s animated musicals have lasted a decade or more instead of this show’s eight months in part because their interpolations deepened understanding of the characters and their new songs ranked near or alongside the originals.
Sadly, that’s not the case here. A year from now, the first of Schwartz’s Wicked films is set to be released. Let’s hope that adaptation (which Schwartz wrote with Winnie Holzman) avoids some of these pitfalls.
If you’re a special effects fan, by all means, watch this Prince of Egypt. Ignore the weak score and enjoy the creative staging (the direction is by Schwartz’s son Scott). But if you find the show fully satisfying, that would be a true miracle.
QUIZ: In which Broadway show would you find the children named below? Answers at the bottom of the newsletter:
Brigitta
Chip
Gavroche
JoJo
Molly
Small Alison
Theo
Toby
Winthrop
Young Nala
Note: links to register for ALL classes are always available at TheBroadwayMaven.com.
• Sunday, February 4, 2024 from Noon to 1 pm: “Funny Broadway” begins with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (registration opens in January)
• Tuesday, February 6, 2024 from Noon to 1 pm: “Sondheim Academy” begins with “Sondheim’s Identities” (registration opens in January)
LAST BLAST: The staccato nature of much of the music in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George has been widely noted – and admired – because it evokes the titular artist’s pointillistic style. (Pointillism involves recognizable, beautiful paintings carefully constructed from tiny flecks of color.) But that’s not true of the whole show. Yes, the early songs in each act have lots of quick notes that evoke the flick of a paintbrush, such as "Finishing the Hat," and "It's Hot Up Here." But as each act progresses, the music evolves. Songs like "We Do Not Belong Together" and "Move On" have more extended notes and inconsistent rhythms. Finally, each act's closing song (“Sunday” and its reprise) is filled with mellifluous harmonies and a slow, steady quarter-note accompaniment, which isn't pointillistic at all. It's like we see each of the two Georges start with little dots and gradually step backward until the entire painting comes into focus. (Something similar happens with the usual staging of the show.) That holistic approach transcends the earlier staccato experience and underscores each George’s maturation as an artist and a man. Audiences pull back alongside the cast, perhaps not even conscious that the stirring song at the end of each act represents a decided shift musically and thematically.
QUIZ ANSWERS: The Sound of Music (Brigitta); Beauty and the Beast (Chip); Les Misérables (Gavroche); Seussical (JoJo); Annie (Molly); Fun Home (Small Alison); Pippin (Theo); Sweeney Todd (Toby); The Music Man (Winthrop); The Lion King (Young Nala)
Broadway Maven David Benkof helps students further their appreciation of musical theater through his classes, his YouTube channel, and his Weekly Blast. Contact him at DavidBenkof@gmail.com.
It would be fun to by in some of the crowd scenes in Hair.