Opera, a Billy Joel ballet and hip-hop poetry hit Broadway this season, and Tony Awards voters should be ready to recognize these shots of creativity.
By JOHN FLEMING
Published May 11, 2003
NEW YORK - Opera, dance and hip-hop came to Broadway this season, but how long such innovation can last is up in the air. Already the hip-hop entry is history, with Def Poetry Jam closing last Sunday after too many weeks of playing to one-third-full houses.
La Boheme, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann's staging of Puccini in the style of his hit movie Moulin Rouge, was the talk of the town after opening in December, but its staying power has been tested by the economic doldrums that have dragged down business on Broadway.
Even Movin' Out, with the formidable pairing of Twyla Tharp dance and Billy Joel songs, has played to less than sparkling attendance lately.
Nominations for the Tony Awards will be announced Monday. Hairspray, this season's one surefire hit, figures to collect the most nominations, but La Boheme and Movin' Out probably will get their share. As for Def Poetry Jam, it was expected to win the Tony for Special Theatrical Event, but now that the show has closed, that award could go to something still running.
La Boheme is far from the first opera to play Broadway. Porgy and Bess premiered there in 1935 and was not a commercial success. Gershwin's "folk opera" has been revived three times on Broadway, but it's more likely to be seen in an opera house nowadays. For the most successful operas on Broadway, look to composer-librettist Gian-Carlo Menotti, whose horror story The Medium and The Consul, with its Puccini-like score, were hits in 1947 and 1950, respectively.
The Broadway Boheme has a stunning look, from the sexy young cast to the clever, richly colored design by Catherine Martin, Luhrmann's wife, who also designed Moulin Rouge. Stylish retro costumes set the bohemians in 1957 Paris, and the signature piece of the show is a bright red neon "L'amour." There's a deconstructive touch to the production, with black-clad crew members moving scenery, spraying fog and sweeping up the snow that falls on Mimi and Rodolfo in Act Three.
To prevent voice strain, three sets of Rodolfos and Mimis and two Musettas rotate during eight shows a week. Like other musicals, but unlike opera, the singers are miked (the sound design is expertly done), which allows for an unusually nimble performance. The singing is excellent, and Musetta's Waltz is a showstopper.
The 28-piece orchestra (plus synthesizer) has taken some knocks for not being able to give full justice to the lush score, but for anyone whose standard is musical theater rather than opera, it is plenty adequate.
Puccini's opera is uncut and sung in Italian, with projected titles in English, but the slangy translation ("Hey, Daddy-O") calls so much attention to its cheekiness that it can distract from the music.
For longtime operagoers, Luhrmann's production will not come as a particular revelation. The opera has had many other contemporary treatments, and the familiarity of the music can work against it. When all is said and done, it's still the Puccini classic.
But Boheme on Broadway is not geared to opera buffs; it's geared to musical theatergoers who might be enticed to try other operas. On that score, Luhrmann has succeeded brilliantly, with salesmanship worthy of a latter-day Barnum. He has made the most widely performed opera of our time seem like something new and fresh.
Movin' Out is something new and fresh, thanks to the ingenuity of Tharp, who persuaded Joel that his songs could provide the score for a ballet. The show has a vague story line that follows a group of friends from high school on Long Island in the '60s to the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Obviously, this is right down the alley of the baby boom, and the audience tends to reflect that demographic.
Three performers stand out. John Selya, a brilliantly athletic dancer, has a wonderful all-American quality about him, radiating a combination of decency and ruggedness (Sam Shepard comes to mind) as the troubled prom king, Eddie. He's paired with luminous Elizabeth Parkinson, a long-legged prom queen with frizzy red hair. Parkinson's high-kicking performance to Uptown Girl must be the most glamorous number on Broadway this season.
Movin' Out's other standout is Michael Cavanaugh, the pianist-singer who does Joel songs better than Joel these days. Cavanaugh leads the band, which, from its perch on a catwalk behind the stage, gives the show the feel of a rock concert with choreography.
Even though Def Poetry Jam closed, it deserves some recognition, not so much for what happened onstage, which was pretty predictable, but for the audience it drew, mainly kids who wouldn't be caught dead at a show like Thoroughly Modern Millie. There hasn't been a younger, more ethnically diverse crowd in a Broadway theater since the days of Hair.
Produced by hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, the show was basically a poetry slam, consisting of nine young poets doing their thing, individually and together. They had an undeniable energy, but the verse was not terribly original, a mix of standup comedy, leftist politics and tortured introspection.
A vital element missing from the production was music, or at least some kind of rhythmic pulse, from the DJ, who was little heard from after the opening number. With a hard-driving DJ, The Bomb-itty of Errors, last year's American Stage in the Park production now playing in London's West End, was a much stronger, more effective expression of hip-hop.
