Took a trip to New York to catch some musical theatre before the Tony Awards. Here’s what I saw.
Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody
Book, music and lyrics by Dylan MarcAurele. Based on the novels of Rachel Reid and series by Jacob Tierney. The Culture Club.
Three moms host a viewing party for their favorite TV show. They recap the romance between Canadian hockey star Shane Hollander and his Russian rival Ilya Rozanov. As the Ambien margaritas flow the tale becomes garbled. Heated Rivalry via Drunk History. The pocket-sized musical hasn’t much to say about the series or its fan base. It simply celebrates it. Newcomers will be lost. But superfans will have a fun night Off-Broadway.
Writer Dylan MarcAurele’s libretto avoids quoting the show, or novels, directly. He speeds through his favorite scenes, contrasting the thirsty leads with their oblivious friends and team mates. His songs feature peppy melodies and raunchy lyrics. Most are one-joke affairs but they showcase the vocals of a talented cast. Director Alan Kliffer makes clever use of a tiny stage. He keeps things moving at a rapid pace, but gives the rare moments of sincerity room to breathe.
Jimin Moon carries the show as the adorable Shane Hollander. He dials up his social awkwardness to Pee Wee Herman levels. Then celebrates his sexual awakening with infectious glee. He sings of dildos and anal with the sweetness of a Disney princess. The supporting trio (Ryan Duncan, Ryann Redmond and Cherry Torres) play caricatures of roles like Shane’s domineering mother, his exasperated girlfriend, and a dopey smoothie barista. They juggle designer Brendan McCann’s costumes and wigs with aplomb. My favorite running gag is that none of them knows a thing about hockey.
Sadly Ilya (Jay Armstrong Johnson) is underwritten here. The truncated recap cuts his humor and character growth. What’s left is a stoic jerk who complains about the size of his butt. That joke’s funny the first time. Not the 37th. A scene mocking TV actor Connor Storrie seems needlessly cruel. A sour note in an otherwise breezy evening.
The New York Times has already revealed that an audience volunteer plays hockey veteran Scott Hunter. The gent at my performance gave a scene stealing turn. I hope his skills with a banana earned him some phone numbers. It’s that kind of show.
The Lost Boys
Book by David Hornsby & Chris Hoch. Music & Lyrics by The Rescues. Palace Theatre.
Lucy Emerson moves her sons to Santa Carla, CA to escape her abusive ex-husband. Surly teen Michael joins a band of vampires. His anxious brother Sam tries to save him. The time is 1987 but the discussions of lost men and toxic role models remain timely. Joel Schumacher’s film was a mix of erotic thriller and camp comedy. Director Michael Arden has trouble finding that balance on stage.
Act one is strongest when focused on the love triangle between broody Michael (LJ Benet), prickly singer Star (Maria Wirries) and seductive bandleader David (MVP Ali Louis Bourzgui). Star and Michael’s meet cute on the boardwalk has classic musical theater charm. A scene where David teaches Michael to play guitar quivers with sexual tension. A scary prologue has already revealed David’s a vampire. The audience knows that Michael’s walking into a trap.
Act two is aimless. The writers ran out of plot (and previews) so they kill time with power ballads. I started thinking of other musicals. Shoshana Bean belts stressed mom numbers ala Dear Evan Hansen. Amiable Sam (Benjamin Pajak) has a queer awakening song inferior to the one from Fun Home. Star resembles Megara from Disney’s Hercules. Declaring independence yet remaining powerless. Michael loses agency as well. I’m missing a moment where he’s truly tempted to kill someone. There’s no unsympathetic target, like the ones in Little Shop of Horrors or Sweeney Todd, who could coax him to the dark side. That’s a flaw carried over from the source material.
Fortunately, the fantastic production values kept me engaged. Aerial Designers Gwyneth Larsen and Billy Mulholland fly the vampires gracefully about Dane Laffrey’s multi-tiered set. The lighting design by Jen Schriever and Michael Arden allows them to appear and vanish at will. Ryan Park’s costumes and David Brian Brown’s wigs find the right mix of sexy and kitschy. The show looks great. My main concerns are the open holes in the stage floor. Vampires are scary but so is the threat of falling.
I enjoyed The Lost Boys but it feels unfinished. If they’d had more development time, they could have reduced the filler and fleshed out Michael’s character arc. I’d have cut the obnoxious Frog Brothers too. Though their fans might shove a stake through my heart.
Header photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics by T. S. Eliot, Trevor Nunn and Richard Stilgoe. Broadhurst Theatre.
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was a collection of poems by T.S. Eliot. He wrote them for his godchildren, then published them in 1939. Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted them into a hit musical, Cats, in 1981, that ran worldwide for decades. An aggressively ugly film adaptation tarnished the memory in 2019. Cats: The Jellicle Ball reimagines the characters as contestants in New York’s queer ballroom scene.
The balls provide opportunities for LGBTQ+ people of color to dress up, socialize and build support networks. The Jellicles join houses and perform themed routines for the guest judges. The ball is presided over by Old Deuteronomy (Broadway veteran André de Shields) who will select one Jellicle to be reborn. There were bi coded characters in the original production. But this revival is a joyous celebration of queerness.
The younger performers dominate the first act. It’s hard to single them out as they each have moments to shine. The energy grows so high, so fast, that it’s hard to sustain. As the voguing, duck walks and death drops continued my mind began to wander. Things calm in the second act when the elders are featured. Gus the Theater Cat and Grizabella the Glamour Cat are played by ballroom legends Junior LaBeija and “Tempress” Chasity Moore. They, along with de Shields, bring gravitas and a sense of history to the proceedings. The company is made up of dancers first, actors second and singers a distant third. This isn’t the best sung production I’ve seen. But it is the most deeply felt.
You can learn about ballroom culture more from documentaries like The Queen (1968), Paris is Burning (1990) and Kiki (2016) or the television series Pose (2018-2021). But this is not required to enjoy The Jellicle Ball.
Cats and Lost Boys have received multiple Tony Award nominations. The ceremony will be held on June 7.