Nicole schreibt...

While I have come to love New York and Broadway in recent years, it's just way too expensive to go there regularly and keep up with every new production, so I usually focus on London and only venture across the pond when there's something I REALLY badly want to see and which is not likely to come over. Or with people who are not likely to come over. In this case it was the stage adaption of punk band Green Day's celebrated album "American Idiot" that lured me to the Big Apple. "American Idiot" was first released in 2004 in the tradition of rock concept albums where the songs are all linked by a common theme and perhaps even a thin story line. It was the height of the Bush era and the war against terrorism with a media-produced paranoia that hadn't been seen since the McCarthy days decades ago. Green Day perfectly captured the mood among young skeptical Americans who didn't want to be the "Idiots" that gullibly swallowed all the media fed them, who were looking for answers, for hope, for something out there that would give their lives some sense. Not surprisingly, "American Idiot" won the Grammy for best rock album of the year and Green Day became so mainstream that punk fans fled in droves. Nevermind. With added material from the following album "21st Century Breakdown" Green Day collaborated with Berkeley Rep in California and director Michael Mayer (who had previously dealt with youth woes in "Rent" and "Spring Awakening") to bring "American Idiot" to the stage. The run in Berkeley was so successful that a transfer to Broadway was made possible and once I knew it would come to New York, I knew that so would I. I'm not even that much of a Green Day fan, I actually didn't get the "American Idiot"-CD until much later and only knew a few of their biggest hits, and yet this show immediately got my attention. Musicals dealing with current topics, let alone touchy political questions, are far too few usually, especially in combination with modern music. In fact I think that musicals were more modern and daring fifty years ago, when the kind of music they used also had broad mainstream appeal and courageous writers put their fingers in current wounds of the nation, addressing questions like racism in "South Pacific" and criminal youth in "West Side Story". Another reason for really badly wanting to see American Idiot on Broadway was the presence of Tony Vincent and John Gallagher Jr., two guys I really really like and wanted to see on stage again. Some traditionalists whined that American Idiot was only 90 minutes long and playing without an intermission. For me this was heaven. So far I have never booked a show for my first evening in New York immediately after arriving, as I was too worried about jetlag knocking me out after the long journey. But for a 90-Minute-Show with very loud punk music, I thought I could take the risk. I hadn't really expected Lufthansa to make life interesting by delaying the flight for two hours or the lameness of Coach USA who let us wait more than 30mins for the transfer bus into Manhattan, but all went well and I got to the St.James Theatre in time. Only to notice the fact that John Gallagher Jr. was out that evening. Ah, the best-laid plans... Never mind, I was still thrilled that I had been able to make this dream come true and take a seat on Broadway to see this particular show.I wasn't disappointed. In fact I thought playing this show for 90mins straight with no intermission and no additional padding was the right decision. Each song packs a punch and there are so many tiny things - looks, gestures, props, single lines in a song - that are touching, moving or thoughtful, that I really prefer a short tight show to one of those endlessly drawn out shows with yet another dialogue, with yet another reprise, with yet another interlude until you just squirm in your seat and want out. The cast was flawless, even though I presume John Gallagher Jr would have been a tad bit better than understudy Van Hughes who did a good job but was nothing special. Tony Vincent at least was there and his evil drug dealer St.Jimmy looked like Lisbeth Salander's twin brother which was more amusing than anything. The story of Will (Michael Esper), who doesn't join his friends on their trip to the big city and stays behind in Suburbia when his girlfriend Heather (Mary Faber) announces that she's pregnant, is rather neglected in comparison to the others and I would have liked to hear more about them and their feelings. While Johnny's story is more of a typical cliche - innocent boy goes to big city, gets involved with girl and drugs, slides downhill, but finally gets his act together - I was particularly touched by Tunny's story, played terrifically by Stark Sands, one of Broadway's most promising young leading man. Tunny is seduced by the US Army's propaganda, signs up for a tour of duty in the Mideast and returns without one of his legs. Knowing so many young military Americans and being forced to read their often deluded, scary posts on Facebook, I found his story particularly poignant and also probably the most American of those three. Since my attempt at winning the ticket lottery on Sunday afternoon failed, I can really only hope now that the show will some time transfer to London and bring the US cast over. But even without Gallagher Jr. I'd still definitely want to see it again. When In the Heights first opened, my hopes were high for this show about a bunch of Latinos living in Washington Heights at the very top of Manhattan. But when I got the CD I was mildly disappointed at the piece of fluff Lin-Manuel Miranda had delivered here. Sure, there are plenty of Latin rhythmns and even a couple of good songs, but the overall story is rather shallow and lacks true drama. There's college girl Nina who wants to drop out (but of course doesn't) and falls in love with her Daddy's cheeky assistant Benny and there's the story of the winning lottery ticket, which is of course owned by "Abuela Claudia" the good soul of the street. Theirs and other stories are held together by a shop owner-cum-narrator with the idiotic name Usnavi and are served with a big smile. Which is all fine and well, but without any drama or dramatic tension, the show falls a bit flat. In order to sell tickets they have roped in high-profile names since creator Lin-Manuel Miranda left, first Corbin Bleu of High School Musical fame and now American Idol-Winner Jordin Sparks as Nina. While I didn't know the young lady previously and only got caught up on her on youtube once I knew I'd be seeing her live, I think she did a fine job as the leading lady. Overall I can't really think of much to write about "In the Heights". Knowing that the show is very unlikely to cross the pond to Europe where we don't have so many ticket-buying Latinos, I am glad that I got the chance to see it and I had an enjoyable evening, but it certainly didn't move me as much as "American Idiot" had done. Just a nice pleasant bit of fluffy entertainment that'll probably do well on the high school/college circuit soon. And of course there's the movie version being made, though I am really not sure who will want to see this. Another show receiving huge hype was the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, the story of a pill-popping bipolar housewife and the effects her illness has on her family. It doesn't sound like entertaining stuff and like so many others I was really sceptic about the show when the CD arrived in my mailbox. But I was soon won over by what must have been the most intelligent, smartest, deepest lyrics I've heard in a long while and by the sensible handling of the topic as such. And especially, to my surprise, that the authors came to the same solution I would have favored from the start - the healing of a damaged soul instead of stuffing people full of pharmaceutical junk which only leads to the big pharma companies and millions of doctors stuffing their pockets. While celebrated original leading lady Alice Ripley had departed by now, I thought Marin Mazzie gave a fabulous, strong-voiced and sometimes unexpectedly funny performance as Diana, the housewife who never got over the loss of her baby son Gabe who's very much alive for her as a handsome grown up young man (Kyle Dean Massey). Suffering is not only her husband Dan (Jason Danieley) who tries to keep the family together but most of all daughter Natalie (fabulous understudy Mackenzie Mauzy) who can't compete with the invisible perfect Gabe. The small ensemble of six all gave strong performances and the show kept me engaged throughout. I couldn't watch it over and over I guess, but I appreciated that just like "American Idiot" it dealt with modern topics and used modern pop music. And that among the countless adaptions of movies and the rehashing of old pop stars' back catalogues, there is at least one completely new fresh musical with an original story and original songs. Yea I know. I just mentioned how nice it was to see an original fresh musical and the next show on my list (and my last one on this trip) is a jukebox musical rehashing the hard rock and heavy metal songs from the 80's when bands were more famous for very long hair and very ridiculous outfits than for their actual music. Still, it was "my time", and I knew many of the songs in their original versions from the 80's. And the CD of Rock of Ages always just sounded like a helluva lot of fun with witty one-liners, jokes aplenty and the tongue-in-cheek treatment of the 80's rock bands. So I thought, why the hell not see it and just have an evening of great fun? Yes, I like shows that move me, I like shows that challenge me - but sometimes, yea, I stand by it - I just want some fun, too. And "Rock of Ages" delivered that by the truckload. 80's rock was already blaring from the speakers when the auditorium was opened to the audience, everyone got a little lighter for the ballads to come and ushers were serving drinks at the seats (something that was kept up throughout the show and annoyed me a little bit since the ushers would often be in the way of the sightlines). Sometimes the show was too silly for its own good, especially Mitchell Jarvis' way-over-the-top rock star Stacee Jaxx, but in the end, who cared? People were here to celebrate the music, the era and the trip down memory lane and as such it worked perfectly well. For me it's right up there with "Priscilla" and "Mamma mia" when it comes to a well-done jukebox musical that never pretends it is more than just great entertainment.