Reviews of six shows now playing on the Great White Way
NEW YORK — Broadway shows are often filled with romantic intentions, but it’s a rare show that really makes your heart swoon.
You can really feel it in the new musical “The Band’s Visit,” which opened to deservedly rapturous reviews in early November and will hopefully settle in for a long run. I have rarely been so emotionally connected to a story, the characters, the actors and a production. I wish there were a way to bottle the feelings the show generates.
This new musical was the clear highlight of my most recent trip to New York, which included the inspiring musical “Come From Away,” the sweetness of “Waitress,” the hilarity of “The Play That Goes Wrong,” Ayad Akhtar’s interesting new drama “Junk” and a less-than-enthralling revival of David Henry Hwang’s “M. Butterfly,” which pushed up its January closing notice to today.
‘The Band’s Visit’
This musical will stay with me for years to come, in part because it’s so different from everything else you might see on Broadway. It’s a relatively small, low-key show, almost the antithesis of the typical Broadway musical filled with chorus girls, big jokes, elaborate sets or costumes.
Instead, it is filled with real people living their lives and dealing with their problems on one unexpectedly eventful and surprising day in a small town in the Israeli desert. An Egyptian concert band accidentally arrives in Bet Hatikvah, after confusion about their actual destination which was meant to be a concert at an Arab cultural center in a similar-sounding city.
The show was adapted by songwriter David Yazbek and book writer Itamar Moses from Eran Kolirin’s 2007 film of the same title. It tells the story so naturally that it almost never feels like you’re watching a show, even as you know you’re looking at Scott Pask’s simple and effective sets rather than an actual desert town.
Yazbek is best known as the composer of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “The Full Monty.” While there’s a theatrical pop sound to his score, it features jazz influences on Middle Eastern sounds, with toe-tapping instrumentals, heart-warming ballads and some funny banter songs.
Tony Shalhoub, who plays the starchy and traditional band leader Tewfiq, is the one big name in the show, and he’s a delight. But this production may well make a star of Katrina Lenk, radiant as the cafe owner Dina, who sort of falls for Tewfiq while showing him around the sleepy town.
The production is staged by David Cromer with an eye toward believability. The fine cast includes engaging performances from Ari’el Stachel as a ladies’ man trumpeter, John Cariana as an out-of-work father, Etai Benson as a nervous young suitor and several others.
“The Band’s Visit” is running at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St., New York. More information: 212-239-6200; telecharge.com; TheBandsVisitMusical.com
‘Come From Away’
If the musical “Come From Away” doesn’t fully restore your faith in the inherent goodness of mankind, it certainly sets you in the right direction.
It’s the true story of what happened when 38 jets were forced to land at a large, mostly abandoned airport near Gander, Newfoundland when U.S. airspace was shut down after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Every plane was considered a threat. Those planes carried nearly 7,000 passengers who were stuck in a town with fewer than 10,000 residents. But the resouceful locals managed to feed, clothe, house and care for those passengers for several days until they were able to continue on their journeys.
The show by Irene Sankoff and David Hein is based on interviews with residents and passengers, done around the 10th anniversary of the traumatic event, about what happened on those frightening and frenzied days. Their score is lively if unmemorable, but it serves a story that is beautifully packaged by director Christopher Ashley in a way that captures the heart without a lot of schmaltz. It’s manipulative, but you won’t mind feeling good about the world as you leave, even as dangers remain all around us.
“Come From Away,” directed by Christopher Ashley, is running at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45th St., New York. More information: 212-239-6200; telecharge.com; ComeFromAway.com
‘The Play That Goes Wrong’
Comedies have had a challenging time on Broadway in recent years, perhaps because they need something special to set them apart from standard television sitcoms. “The Play that Goes Wrong” certainly does something different. The play had me laughing from the start, and even when I thought I would tire of the premise, it kept me more than chuckling to the finale.
This British import, created by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields for the Mischief Theatre, is a comical love letter to community theater as it depicts a struggling theater troupe’s efforts to stage “The Murder at Haversham Manor.”
As the title suggests, just about everything that can go wrong, does. Even before the curtain goes up, stage hands are frantically trying to fix a broken fireplace mantel and a door that won’t stay shut (which causes more problem later on when it won’t open). Props aren’t where they should be, windows break, walls collapse and an elevator catches on fire. Yet somehow, the actors (and some last-minute fill-ins for injured performers) carry on and make it to the conclusion. The harder they try, the more we laugh, as one or another breaks into a broad smile or does a happy dance after surviving a problematic scene.
My only worry is that some adventurous community theaters might try to produce the show themselves, which looks like it could be deadly or at least potentially dangerous to nonprofessionals.
“The Play That Goes Wrong,” directed by Mark Bell, is running at the Lyceum Theatre, 149 W. 45th St., New York. Ticket information: 212-239-6200; telecharge.com; BroadwayGoesWrong.com
‘Waitress’
I loved the Adrienne Shelly film of the same name starring Kerry Russell — it won best narrative feature at the 2007 Sarasota Film Festival just a few months after Shelly was tragically murdered. But the film is nicely matched by this charming musical version with a lively, folksy-pop score by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson. It’s the story of a diner waitress named Emma who is a master pie chef. She’s stuck in an abusive marriage and falls for the new (and married) doctor in town. Emma goes through a lot of growth, and some awkward and funny moments along the way.
Betsy Wolf is delightful as Emma, a role she’ll be playing until mid-January when Bareilles takes over for just six weeks. Pop singer Jason Mraz, who has been drawing fans to the production, is something of a revelation as a fine, awkwardly goofy actor who perfectly fits the role of the doctor. One particular delight for me was seeing veteran actor John Cullum back on stage as Joe, Emma’s favorite customer and biggest tipper.
“Waitress,” directed by Diane Paulus, is running at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 256 W. 47th St., New York. More information: 877-250-2929; ticketmaster.com; WaitresstheMusical.com
‘Junk’
My eyes glaze over and my mind usually shuts down when conversation turns to investment strategies. But I was surprisingly riveted to Ayad Akhtar’s new play “Junk” at Lincoln Center Theater.
The new work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Disgraced” is based on the career of junk bond king Michael Millken, who wound up in prison after breaking insider trading laws as he bought and sold companies, making millions and not caring how many jobs were lost in the process.
The large production, staged by Doug Hughes, stars Stephen Pasquale as Robert Merkin, who is consumed with gaining more wealth and holding power over others who help him finance his deals. But as interesting as the plot may be, it also lacks the kind of heart and emotion that has distinguished Akhtar’s previous work. It made me think, but it didn’t make me feel much. One exception was the steel company owner played by Rick Holmes, who tries to find ways to fight Merkin and maintain his struggling family business.
The production moves swiftly and energetically in a way that reminded me of Caryl Churchill’s stunning “Serious Money” and Jerry Sterner’s “Other People’s Money.”
“Junk” is running at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, 150 W. 65th St., New York. Ticket information: 212-239-6200; telecharge.com; lct.org