Repeat After Me: Change Is Good
Let me step back for a minute and say a few words about the relaunch, which I like to refer to as Broadway.com, Version 4.0. For those who can't keep track, version 1.0 was purple, 1.5 was slightly less purple (phew!), 2.0 was royal blue, 3.0 was black and now 4.0 is a classy, clean slate gray and white with hints of brick red. I know that, as theater people, many of you are genetically adverse to change, but I promise you that the new Broadway.com is the best.
How, I hear you skeptics asking? Well, let me count the ways!
1. FASTER LOAD TIME - Perhaps most important, clicking around the new site is much faster thanks to "lighter" graphics and less frills in the design. Those of you who've complained over the years that the site was too much of a burden on older computers should find your CPU purring rather than whirring these days thanks to the arrival of 4.0. Similarly, Photo Ops are now shown in a pop-up window, seriously cutting down the time it takes to get through our extensive coverage of star-studded events!
2. IMPROVED NAVIGATION – Version 4.0 features a page with more links to the latest and hottest editorial features than ever before: the Broadway Buzz page. And we've given this page a unique address that will take you directly there: http://buzz.broadway.com. On the Buzz page (also accessible from any page via the far right tab on the navigation bar), you'll find the latest features, Photo Ops, reviews, last 10 Headlines, last three Insider columns by Ken Mandelbaum, last three video features and the latest Stage Notes. We also tell you who's celebrating a birthday and provide links to all of our star files. The page was designed as a jumping point for all of the editorial content on the site--it's never been easier to find everything on the site in one place. Also on the issue of navigation is a non-flash sub-navation, keeping all of the "Buzz" sections in view at all times and the introduction of "breadcrumbs" at the top of all of the pages, allowing you quick access to the page before the one you're currently viewing.
3. BETTER SHOW INFORMATION - Our newfangled show pages are the most informative spots on the web to find out everything you need to know about every Broadway--and commercial off-Broadway--production. There you'll find detailed synopses, production photographs, up-to-date cast information (with bios for leads), automatically generated links to the latest related interviews, headlines, photo ops and video features as well as our new “The Basics” box which gives you all the vital information you need to know to make a ticket purchase. Oh, did I mention that we also sell both individual and group tickets and even hotel packages?
There are a lot of other new, neat features that I'm sure you've found on your own (like the Flash video features that you can rewind, fast-forward and watch over and over!). Thanks to all who have taken the time to compliment the new design, it really means a lot to the Broadway.com team members that have worked hard to pull it off. We consider the new site a big success, as traffic and sales numbers have been through the roof since the day we launched. And if you have some constructive criticism about how to improve things further, please feel free to e-mail me. Thanks for clicking!
SCROOGING AROUND
Although I'm embarrassingly behind on seeing shows (except for The Foreigner, which was fun, and Cinderella, which wasn't--at all!), I made time last weekend to sit down with a screener of NBC's A Christmas Carol. The TV-musical, an adaptation of the show that ran for 10 years at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, will air on the network November 28, just as audiences are settling into the reality of the holiday season.
Never having been a big fan of the stage version, I wasn't expecting much as I popped the tape into my VCR. Before you go and call me a scrooge, let me explain--there are a handful of sweet Alan Menken/Lynn Ahrens songs in the score, and it was a thrill to be "snowed on" during the show's finale. But there was just something about the stage show that didn't take flight, despite the hard work of original director Mike Ockrent and choreographer (and later director) Susan Stroman.
Directing the TV version is Arthur Allan Seidelman, who would probably rather you forget the reviews that welcomed his production of last season's Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. Another TV guy who's had a rocky relationship with Broadway thus far is leading man Kelsey Grammer, who takes on the role of Ebeneezer Scrooge. His performance here will have theater fans divided--many will find his acting gimmicky and his singing limiting and in s[IMG:R]ome ways they're right. But at the same time, Grammer provides a likable turn as Scrooge, hitting all his marks and finding many touching moments along the way.
Of course, there's no Christmas Carol without a bevy of ghosts. Seidelman has cast a delicious lineup here: two Tony winners (Jason Alexander as Scrooge's late friend Marley and Jane Krakowski as the Ghost of Christmas Past), an original cast member of Rent (Jesse L. Martin, providing a Ben Vereen turn as the Ghost of Christmas Present) and the daughter of a cinematic legend (a haunting Geraldine Chaplin as the Ghost of Christmas Future). Also featured is theater fave Ruthie Henshall as Scrooge's mom.
With countless special effects at his disposal, Seidelman is able to pull of some neat magic tricks in the telling of the familiar story (My favorite? Krakowski making spooky, sexy entrances in and out of the flicker of a candle flame). And the score has grown on me over the years, even if its two best songs--the ballads "A Place Called Home" and "God Bless Us, Everyone"--are endlessly and needlessly reprised. In the end, its Charles Dickens' foolproof, heart-tugging story that saves the day. What theater fan could thumb their nose at a holiday film with a song in its heart (and a healthy handful of theater stars)? Not I.
That's it for now. Talk to you next time. Please e-mail me any of your questions, comments or critiques!
Paul Wontorek
Editor-in-Chief
For an archive of old Stage Note columns, click here.