CHINA DOLL * out of ****
SCHOOL OF ROCK * 1/2 out of **** but *** out of **** on cute scale
NEW YORK ANIMALS ** 1/2 out of ****
THE NEW STANDARDS HOLIDAY SHOW*** out of ****
Ok, so the theatrical season is ending on a pretty grumpy note, with coal in the stockings of several shows. Luckily, music comes to the rescue. Here we go.
CHINA DOLL * out of ****
GERALD SCHOENFELD THEATRE
Well, no reason to pile on. China Doll is not a good play. But let's make a few points: a bad play is a lot harder to memorize than a good play. At least that's always been my thinking. And even the greats rarely produce great works of art throughout their careers. Most often, they have a fertile period of ten to 15 years or so...and then they repeat themselves, plow the same land with decreasing yields and every once in a while do something good that reminds you of why they're great. Not something great, mind you. But something good.
So David Mamet is not being lazy or indifferent. He's a playwright and that's what he does. Sure it's been a long time since he delivered a great one. But asking him not to write plays is like asking Woody Allen to not make movies. On the other hand, Mamet enjoyed a creative outlet via the cinema since often you need to turn to a new form to find anything new to say or at least not repeat yourself. Maybe he'll deliver another really good play or movie someday. But Mamet's great work is behind him and there's no shame in that.
China Doll feels no more (or less) half-baked than Mamet's other work in recent years. And a bad play rarely brings out the best in actors. Pacino was positively brilliant five years ago in The Merchant Of Venice. Is he lost here? Who wouldn't be? Act one showing a brash 1 percenter looking to dodge taxes and maybe get out of dodge with a pretty young wife while he still can seemed pretty awful. But act two made act one seem positively pleasant in retrospect.
The set, the costumes, the sound design -- literally everything seems off key. But it's hardly worth hashing over. Co-star Christopher Denham has a secondary role that's blandly anonymous and then inevitably takes a turn. Not the turn one expected, but not a good turn, just hard to believe and uninteresting. The ending is a shocker only in the sense that you can hardly tell how anyone expects it to play -- seriously, jokingly, tragically, blackly? I've no idea.
It's all a little sad. One hates to see great artists slog their way through inferior material. And I marvel at actors who have to go out on stage and do it all again the next night. It must be a particular circle of hell to be stuck in a show you know isn't going to work. Oddly, I can't wait for them to tackle something else because a legendary partnership like theirs should not end on a note like this.
SCHOOL OF ROCK * 1/2 out of **** but *** out of **** on cute scale
WINTER GARDEN THEATRE
It's a bland xerox of the movie -- right down to the creepily specific casting of child actors who by and large fit the ethnic roles of their movie counterparts. The lead actor is doing Jack Black redux. The classic rock songs (all stolen by Rock Of Ages, apparently) are replaced by bland Broadway songs posing as rock tunes thanks to the occasional electric guitar or drum solo.
And if I could invest in it, I would.
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn't had a hit in the US or UK in at least 20 years. Whistle Down The Wind in 1996 was his last triumph in the West End. Sunset Blvd. was his last hit (of a sort) in the US, though if you want to talk profitability, one has to go back 30 years to Phantom Of The Opera. The man who once dominated the boards like no one ever had before or since has faced a long, long drought.
That drought is over with School Of Rock, a critic-proof musical that apparently doesn't need to be critic-proof. (Others seemed to be kind to it, though I've only heard this second-hand.) It
SCHOOL OF ROCK * 1/2 out of **** but *** out of **** on cute scale
NEW YORK ANIMALS ** 1/2 out of ****
THE NEW STANDARDS HOLIDAY SHOW*** out of ****
Ok, so the theatrical season is ending on a pretty grumpy note, with coal in the stockings of several shows. Luckily, music comes to the rescue. Here we go.
CHINA DOLL * out of ****
GERALD SCHOENFELD THEATRE
Well, no reason to pile on. China Doll is not a good play. But let's make a few points: a bad play is a lot harder to memorize than a good play. At least that's always been my thinking. And even the greats rarely produce great works of art throughout their careers. Most often, they have a fertile period of ten to 15 years or so...and then they repeat themselves, plow the same land with decreasing yields and every once in a while do something good that reminds you of why they're great. Not something great, mind you. But something good.
So David Mamet is not being lazy or indifferent. He's a playwright and that's what he does. Sure it's been a long time since he delivered a great one. But asking him not to write plays is like asking Woody Allen to not make movies. On the other hand, Mamet enjoyed a creative outlet via the cinema since often you need to turn to a new form to find anything new to say or at least not repeat yourself. Maybe he'll deliver another really good play or movie someday. But Mamet's great work is behind him and there's no shame in that.
China Doll feels no more (or less) half-baked than Mamet's other work in recent years. And a bad play rarely brings out the best in actors. Pacino was positively brilliant five years ago in The Merchant Of Venice. Is he lost here? Who wouldn't be? Act one showing a brash 1 percenter looking to dodge taxes and maybe get out of dodge with a pretty young wife while he still can seemed pretty awful. But act two made act one seem positively pleasant in retrospect.
The set, the costumes, the sound design -- literally everything seems off key. But it's hardly worth hashing over. Co-star Christopher Denham has a secondary role that's blandly anonymous and then inevitably takes a turn. Not the turn one expected, but not a good turn, just hard to believe and uninteresting. The ending is a shocker only in the sense that you can hardly tell how anyone expects it to play -- seriously, jokingly, tragically, blackly? I've no idea.
It's all a little sad. One hates to see great artists slog their way through inferior material. And I marvel at actors who have to go out on stage and do it all again the next night. It must be a particular circle of hell to be stuck in a show you know isn't going to work. Oddly, I can't wait for them to tackle something else because a legendary partnership like theirs should not end on a note like this.
SCHOOL OF ROCK * 1/2 out of **** but *** out of **** on cute scale
WINTER GARDEN THEATRE
It's a bland xerox of the movie -- right down to the creepily specific casting of child actors who by and large fit the ethnic roles of their movie counterparts. The lead actor is doing Jack Black redux. The classic rock songs (all stolen by Rock Of Ages, apparently) are replaced by bland Broadway songs posing as rock tunes thanks to the occasional electric guitar or drum solo.
And if I could invest in it, I would.
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn't had a hit in the US or UK in at least 20 years. Whistle Down The Wind in 1996 was his last triumph in the West End. Sunset Blvd. was his last hit (of a sort) in the US, though if you want to talk profitability, one has to go back 30 years to Phantom Of The Opera. The man who once dominated the boards like no one ever had before or since has faced a long, long drought.
That drought is over with School Of Rock, a critic-proof musical that apparently doesn't need to be critic-proof. (Others seemed to be kind to it, though I've only heard this second-hand.) It