2 Scoundrels, 2 Audreys and 1 Musical Moses

You certainly can't say that West Coasters are being deprived of theater these days. During my four-day sojourn in South California last week, I was amazed at the sheer number of truly interesting productions that were playing. Up north, the fan tan fannies of San Fran were learning about The Opposite of Sex from an all-star Broadway cast at the Magic Theatre, having just also seen the world premiere of Andrew Lippa's The Little Princess. In Los Angeles, the well-received national tours of Little Shop of Horrors and Movin' Out were in the middle of sit-down runs, competing for attention with a show of biblical importance: The Ten Commandments. In nearby Costa Mesa, Donald Marguiles' Brooklyn Boy (opening at the Biltmore Theatre in January) was receiving good notices. And in sunny San Diego, subscribers at the Old Globe were getting a chance to see one of Broadway's hotly-anticipated spring musicals: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay on the other coast long enough to enjoy all of the above productions, but I did have a good theatrical tasting. And I intend to do everything possible to return to California for the brand new production of Grand Hotel that former Disney honcho Peter Schneider is directing at the Colony Theatre from October 13 to November 14. The original Tommy Tune production of the show was my all-time top theatergoing experience, so I am thrilled by the show's sudden renaissance, with the Donmar Warehouse production also taking to the stage in the coming months.

Another theatergoing experience pretty high on my list was my first viewing of The Full Monty when it opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in the fall of 2000. A real winner on every level, Monty marked the songwriting debut of David Yazbek, who gave us a jaunty score that included a chubby man singing a touching ballad to his belly and likeable songs with unlikely titles like "Big-Ass Rock," "Big Black Man" and "Michael Jordan's Ball." The staging by director Jack O'Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell (who, of course, went on to bring us Hairspray) was just right, as was the cast, led by star-to-be Patrick Wilson.

Because of my love of Monty (I even took the PATH train to Newark to catch the non-union tour!), San Diego was my first destination once my plane touched ground. As most of my readers already know, San Diego's Old Globe Theatre is the current home to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the musical adaptation of the 1988 movie that will hit Broadway in late January. Not only do I have enormous affection for the Scoundrels film, this new show features a reunion of sorts of Yazbek, O'Brien and Mitchell and a to-die-for cast. Besides, I'd never been to O'Brien's Old Globe, the San Diego institution that previously gave us shows like Into the Woods, Rumors, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Redwood Curtain, Damn Yankees, Play On! and Imaginary Friends.

The minute the orchestra kicked into Yazbek's Henry Mancini-esque overture, I knew Scoundrels was in good hands and that this was no sophomore slump. There is something so fresh and today about Yazbek's work, which manages to appeal to today's audiences pop sensibilities without actually feeding them the pop songs of summers past. Even if Scoundrels has the plottings of a more traditional musical comedy outing than Monty, Yazbek never takes the obvious path and displays a deliciously sick sense of humor with his lyrics. The breakout hit of the show on first listening is "Great Big Stuff," which has Norbert Leo Butz's character of Freddy dreams of a life with things like "A house in the Bahamas / Paisley silk pajamas / Poker with Al Roker and our friend Lorenzo Lamas." But there are countless great tunes and infinite clever rhymes (another favorite involves getting "hummers in my Hummer"). Come June, don't be surprised if Yazbek winds up with the Tony Award that Bialystock & Brooks swindled from him back in 2001. (Which reminds me--that Los Angeles Times critic that compared Scoundrels to The Producers was so far off the mark).

You can also expect a flurry of acting nominations for the unbeatable cast of this crowd-pleasing show. The box office draw will be John Lithgow, who proves to be a big asset with his solid and charming work as old-time schemer Lawrence, but the biggest revelation comes in the form of Butz, who manages to take on the Steve Martin film role with nimble comedic flair previously unexplored on the New York musical stage. Sherie Rene Scott, Butz's co-star from The Last Five Years, has a lot of fun with the deceptively straight-forward role of Christine Colgate, managing to be both touching and fetching, especially in her big entrance song, "Here I Am." As a pair of unexpected lovers, Joanna Gleason and Gregory Jbara return from long Broadway absences (13 and seven years, respectively), deservedly scoring big laughs in a series of post-coital scenarios. The other featured part in Scoundrels goes to Sara Gettelfinger, the leggy knockout who replaced Jane Krakowski in Nine last year. Here, Gettelfinger is a hoot as a rich, dim country gal who tells Lawrence about life back home on the ranch in the adorably titled "Oklahoma?"

But enough about Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which certainly doesn't need my help. After all, it's already had two extensions at the Old Globe, where I watched a mostly senior matinee audience fall under its spell. I'm sure the same will be true once the show starts performances at the Imperial Theatre on January 31, 2005. Put it at the top of your "To Do" list. No, really.

I can't say the same thing for The Ten Commandments, the epic musical extravaganza that is every bit as bad as I'd feared (hoped?) when it was first announced earlier this year. Actually, it may be the perfect theatrical venture for Los Angeles--where it is playing at the lush Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, home of the Academy Awards. At least the opening night crowd didn't seem to mind that most of the songs (featuring music by former Madonna collaborator Patrick Leonard) were missing endings, that the special effects were lame (a couple of fireballs and an anticlimactic Red Sea scene that looked more like "the parting of the Plexiglass panels") or that the lumbering leading man (some guy named Val Kilmer) was being fed all of his lines off of three huge teleprompters, two of which a good portion of the audience could read along with. The fact that the cast was blessed with high-reaching voices seemed to be enough for the theatergoers sitting near me, who oohed and ahhed at every over-amplified key change.

But let me accentuate the positive for a moment. The Broadway stars in the show--Kevin Earley (Thoroughly Modern Millie) as Moses' bad brother Ramses, Lauren Kennedy as Nefertari and Luba Mason as Bithia-- looked fabulous in their Biblical drag and sounded even better. Of the rest of the cast, I enjoyed Nita Whitaker's Act One song "The One," which would have been more at home on the next Beyonce CD. And I must give special mention to Alisan Porter, best known as the precocious moppet of the 1991 film Curly Sue, for blowing the roof off the theater with her Act Two opener "Light of a New Day," the only thing in Ten Commandments that comes close to earning the name "showstopper."

As is often the case with bad musicals, backstage is where the real drama can be found. At the post-show party on the rooftop ballroom of the theater, I found gossip in every corner, all of it on the subject of the show's leading man. Did Kilmer really make director Robert Iscove (who gave us From Justin to Kelly, bless his heart) give him notes via a third party? Did he really refuse to show up for rehearsals, telling the cast he would just be present for run-throughs? Did he really pay for all of those teleprompters himself after struggling to learn the script? Did he really need to be fed lines when the teleprompters broke during a preview? And most importantly-is he really earning $750,000 a week to star in this thing?!

Nobody was asking these questions on the red carpet, where Hollywood's finest showed up to welcome the bible back to the City of Angels. Spotted in the crowd: Flashbulb fixtures like Neve Campbell, Robert Downey, Jr., Alicia Silverstone, Bai Ling, Rosanna Arquette, Cris Judd, Melissa Rivers, J.C. Chasez, Donna Mills and Lindsay Wagner mingling with theater folk like Douglas Sills, Sam Harris, Alan Campbell (Mr. Lauren Kennedy), Marissa Jaret Winokur (with Grease! buddies Lucy Lawless and Adrian Zmed, of course), Movin' Out tour stars Holly Cruikshank and Ron Todorowski and recent Brigadoon co-stars Deborah Gibson and Sean McDermott. Max Azria, the fashion mogul who is writing out the checks for the show, was also making the rounds, saying creepy things like, "God is my co-producer."

I was excited to see Gary Coleman coming my way simply because I've been dying to ask him if he'd ever consider playing himself in Avenue Q. I mean sure, the show pokes fun at his career and, well, his family as well, but I assumed Coleman would see the value in taking control of the situation by actually appearing in the Tony-winning hit. It seems I assumed wrong. When I mentioned Q, Coleman went cold, barking: "They have absolutely no permission from me. I have not signed any paperwork and if they come to L.A., I have a lawyer waiting for them!" So I guess he doesn't want the job?! Paging Emmanuel Lewis!

Happily, the two leading ladies of The Ten Commandments seemed to have their heads on straight about the show when we chatted at the party. "It's a hybrid," Kennedy, looking stunning in a pastel creation from Max Azria's BCBG line, offered. "It's a little rock, a little theater and a little fashion!" For Mason, whose new CD Collage was just released on PS Classics, looking good is an important priority: "Give me a job where I get a great gown, a great wig and get to beat my face and I'm a happy girl!" Amen to that!

The following night, I drove downtown, where the national tour of Little Shop of Horrors is enjoying a two-month sitdown at the Ahmanson Theatre. Unfortunately, the short and sassy tuner of my youth played to almost Les Miz lengths that night thanks to a set malfunction that stretched the intermission out to almost 45 minutes. Because of the problems backstage, Audrey II's mouth didn't move properly in Act Two (making it seem as if she had a stutter) and she stayed far upstage for the finale rather than towering over the audience. Even if Audrey II wasn't in peak form, Audrey I certainly was. Tari Kelly was a quirky, winning choice to play the Skid Row heroine, perfectly matched by Anthony Rapp's Seymour, one of the best (and most original) takes on the nerdy role that I've ever seen.

After the show, I had the pleasure of spending my last night in California having a bite to eat with The Real Audrey, original stage and film star Ellen Greene (who cultists will point out co-starred with Rapp in the never-opened 1992 Broadway flop The Little Prince and the Aviator). The ever-gracious icon of my youth looked fab and was positively aglow with all of the positive words she's received for her new CD, which she made with hubby Christian Klikovits during her acclaimed run in Side Man earlier this year. If you haven't bought In His Eyes for yourself, what the hell are you waiting for? It's now available right on Greene's new website and it's a must-have--fans of emotion-driven power vocals are lost without it!

If you want to see Greene live, you've got a few choices chances coming up. She and Klikovitz are playing the Cinegrill at the Roosevelt Hotel in L.A. on October 20 and 21 and then will be back at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater on October 24. The next night, Greene will be part of SHOWSTOPPERS! A Salute to the Best Of Broadway GMHC benefit at Avery Fisher Hall singing, yes, "Somewhere That's Green." From the Cinegrill to Joe's Pub to Lincoln Center… Well, she's certainly getting closer, but can we get Miss Greene actually back on Broadway sometime soon?!? It's just a little daydream of mine…

That's it for now. Talk to you next week. Please e-mail me any of your questions, comments or critiques!

Paul Wontorek
Editor-in-Chief

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