Sunday, November 23, 2008

It's A Helluva Show to see On The Town!

On The Town - Encores Concert Staging - New York City Center - Off-Broadway, New York, NY - ****1/2
Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics and Book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Directed by John Rando

"New York New York! It's a Helluva town!"

And I'm living it up here on the town in New York and getting a little (okay. A LOT) behind on my blogging but while I don't have time right now, I just want to tell New Yorkers or anybody who is here this weekend to run and GO GET TICKETS to TODAY'S (Sunday November 23rd's 6:30pm) last show of The New York City Center's Encores series' On The Town.

It's simply gorgeous and fabulous and while I've never seen one of these Encore series which I hear are generally like a concert presentation of old musicals (with actors still holding the scripts), On The Town almost seems fully staged with BEAUTIFUL dancing with a lot of Jerome Robbins' original choreography.

I'll have a full review soon but the cast is top notch with my faves Tony Yazbeck and Jessica Lee Goldyn from A Chorus Line (as well as Yazbeck in Gypsy and White Christmas), Christian Borle (Legally Blonde), Andrea Martin (SCTV, Young Frankenstein) and the amazing and ever-changing Leslie Kritzer (Legally Blonde, A Catered Affair) joined by the terrific Jennifer Laura Thompson (who I've never seen before).

Seriously. AMAZING CAST. Considering there was a semi-unsuccessful revival of the show on Broadway in recent years, there's doubt this will transfer, but now with the amazing reviews, I hope this will get the transfer it truly deserves so that more people can see it.

I mean, next year is going to be full or revivals anyways (Hair, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls). Might as well add another one to the batch, especially if it's this well produced and directed already (and this is ever before there are any real sets yet or proper rehearsal time!).

1 comment:

Esther said...

Wow, wish I could have seen this. It sounds like the Encores Gypsy from the summer of 2007 - which was pretty much fully staged. Leslie Kritzer was so sweet and appealing in A Catered Affair.