November 8, 2007
Thumbs up for Young Frankenstein , half a thumb for Cyrano, Broadway musings, and Happy Birthday to our favorite tomato daughter
The Three Tomatoes have loved the
Broadway theater as long as we can remember (which these days is maybe what we ate for breakfast). Another tomato recently asked
us if we remember our first Broadway show, and we’re still racking our brains. She actually did remember her first
show, and while we only had this conversation last week, we have forgotten her answer. But we did reminisce about going to the
theater (or is it theatre) with our parents, all dressed up wearing little white gloves and our patent leather Mary Janes. Now
that was long ago.
But over the years, there have been many, many shows that have made us laugh,
made us cry, made us want to sing and dance, and put goose bumps on our arms. Shows like Gypsy, Agnes of the
Gods, Les Miserables, La Cage aux Folles, the original Chorus Line, Fiddler on the Roof, and 42nd
Street, to name but a few of the ones that stand out in our minds and still live in our hearts.
That’s the power of Broadway and Broadway is one of the many things that make New York City great and
special.
Previews please, and who needs critics (not tomatoes according to last
week’s poll)
We love to see shows in previews. First, you can easily get
tickets, which used to be discounted, but that too seems to have gone the way of little white gloves and Mary Janes.
And it’s very exciting when you hit a show in previews that then becomes a huge success and tickets
becomes impossible to get, like The Producers, which we saw in previews the night before it opened. In
fact, we’ll always remember Mel Brooks doing a little walk on that night saying his famous line “It’s good to be
King.” And even when we occasionally see a clunker, its still worth the experience. Like some gosh awful play a
few years back with Kathleen Turner (whom we love) but the play was so bad it is one of the only times we’ve left a show after the first
act. (P.S. that show opened and closed in its first week-- win some, lose some).
The second reason we love previews is that the New York City theater critics
haven’t had a chance to weigh in. Are there any critics more self-important, or more in love with their
own erudite reviews than New York theater critics? We have actually read reviews where we had absolutely no idea what the heck the
critic was talking about and even worse whether they liked the show or not. And apparently most of you tomatoes feel the
same way because 40% of you who took last week's poll said
critics’ opinions (theater and movies) had no impact on whether you see a show or not. And another 56% of you said it
has only a moderate impact -- friend’s opinions were much more important. So, since The Three
Tomatoes are friends, and clearly not critics, here are our thoughts on two new Broadway shows we saw
in previews in the past few days.
We really liked Young Frankenstein
We were among the first online to buy preview tickets this summer for Mel
Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, which by the way were a
steep $130 (with the handling charge), but the show does not disappoint. The staging and special effects are fabulous.
The cast members including Robert Bart (Frederick Frankenstein), Sutton Foster (Inga) , Shuler Henlsey (The Monster), Andrea Martin (Frau
Blucher) and Megan Mullally, (Elizabeth) are all terrific --although comparisons to the brilliant movie cast with the late great Madeline Kahn, Gene Wilder, Cloris
Leachman, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle, and Marty Feldman are inevitable. The audience howled at the “walk this
way” line uttered by Igor the hunch back, played to hilarity by Christopher Fitzgerald. There are some very funny
musical numbers, like Frau Blucher’s “He Vas My Boyfriend”, Elizabeth (Megal Mullally) singing “Deep Love” after
her night with the monster, and a stand up and cheer song and dance routine with the Monster et al to “Puttin’ on the
Ritz.” It’s a thoroughly light-hearted, and fun filled “Mel Brooks style”, crowd-pleaser show.
The audience laughed and left smiling. What more can you ask for? Well the show
officially opens tonight (Thursday), so it will be interesting to see what the real critics think. But then again, who
cares?
Kevin Kline - the only reason to see Cyrano de Bergerac
Unless of course you have seen absolutely everything else on
Broadway. We don’t want to sound mean or cruel, but this revival of Cyrano starts off very slowly, and if you stay with it (although there were some folks nodding off around us)
it’s only because Kevin Kline as Cyrano is brilliant. He’s a great comic, whether it’s on film, or the stage
and he’s just perfect in this role. Jennifer Garner on the other hand (whom Ben Brantley of the New York Times, referred to as “captivating” in his positive review of the show)
played her role like a Hollywood actress playing a Broadway actress. She over articulated every single word, and over acted
every scene. Yes, she is sweet and very, very pretty, but not ready for Broadway primetime. We know
the Hollywood “names” sell tickets on Broadway, but we’re getting really tired of paying all that money for a ticket only to be
disappointed. Give us a real Broadway actress any day (and there are plenty of them.) So we were quite bemused when we read
Brantley’s review after opening night, that Cyrano is like “a double shot of silvery hokum, sweet but
surprisingly potent. And it goes down so easily, you’re drunk and misty-eyed before you know it.” That got us
thinking, maybe we should have had those martinis before the show…we might have enjoyed it more.
So give our regards to Broadway. And to our tomato daughter, isn't it amazing
how our age gap has narrowed?
‘til next week,
The Three Tomatoes
Copyright©2007. The Three Tomatoes. All rights
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