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THEO'S THEATER PAGE
Every show on Broadway, seen from the back of the house, on a paralegal's salary Home of the Stage Door WebRing |
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Hi, I'm Theo. I'm 29, I live in a fifth-floor walkup in Hell's Kitchen, I work as a paralegal at a midtown firm,
and I see roughly sixty shows a year. I can afford this because I almost never pay full price for anything. I stand.
I rush. I wait in the TKTS line in the rain. I have seen Rent from the front row for twenty dollars more times
than I have seen my parents in Ohio, which they have noticed.
This page has my reviews of what's running, graded from one star to four, my guide to seeing Broadway shows for less than the price of a movie and popcorn, some thoughts on how to behave in a theater (there is a need), and the Stage Door WebRing, which I started in the spring for the music lovers, theater people and artists on GeoCities.us. A word about the reviews: I am nobody. I don't get press seats. I pay (a little) and I sit (or stand) and I tell you what I thought. If you disagree, e-mail me, I love that. |
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THE REVIEWS
= save your money
= if it's on TKTS
= go
= go now, pay whatever
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The Lion King
New Amsterdam Theatre. Opened November 1997. Seen: three times, twice standing, once in the last row of the balcony for my sister's birthday. I went in a snob about this one. A Disney cartoon on a Broadway stage, in a theater Disney restored, on a 42nd Street Disney cleaned up: I had my speech ready. Then the first five minutes happened. The animals come down the aisles, the sun comes up, and the whole house, including me, made a noise I have never heard an audience make. Julie Taymor's puppets and masks are the reason to go, and they are reason enough; the actors wear the animal above or in front of them so that you see both the person and the creature at once, and it works in a way that I can't explain and that no photograph gets across. The story is the movie's story and the second act sags a little where the movie's second act sags. I don't care. The giraffes alone. Getting tickets is a nightmare; standing room goes on sale the morning of and you'll need to be there when the box office opens. Do it once. |
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Rent
Nederlander Theatre. Opened April 1996. Seen: I've stopped counting. Eleven? Twelve? You know the story: Jonathan Larson wrote it, based on La Bohème, moved to the East Village, and died the night before the first preview downtown, and the show went on to win the Pulitzer and the Tony and become the thing everybody under thirty has memorized. I'm not objective about it. The first time I saw it I was 26 and I cried through the whole second act and then went back the next week. It's loud and it's messy and some of the lyrics are not great, and the cast has turned over completely since the original, and none of that matters, because "Seasons of Love" still lands every single time. The famous twenty-dollar front-row seats are sold the day of the show; they used to be first come, first served with people camping out, and now it's a lottery a couple hours before curtain. Put your name in. The front row at Rent is the best twenty dollars in New York. |
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Chicago
Shubert Theatre. This revival opened in November 1996 after starting as an Encores! concert that spring. Seen: twice. The show is the concert staging: no set to speak of, the band on a bandstand upstage, everybody in black, and Fosse-style choreography (Ann Reinking did it, in his manner) that is all hips and fingers and bowler hats. It's sexy and cynical and it moves like a train, and it has "All That Jazz" and "Cell Block Tango" and "Razzle Dazzle," which is a lot of great songs for one show. Why three stars and not four? Because the cast changes every few months and it's a little bit of a machine now; I saw it in 1997 and again this summer and the second time it was very good and very much the same. Reliable on TKTS. If you've never seen it, go; if you have, you know what you'll get. |
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Cabaret
Roundabout Theatre Company revival, now at Studio 54. Opened March 1998 at the Kit Kat Klub on 43rd Street, moved uptown last fall. Seen: twice, once at each theater. This is the one I tell people to see. The Roundabout took the old Henry Miller's Theatre, turned it into a Berlin nightclub with tables and lamps instead of rows, and put the audience inside the show, and when they outgrew it they moved the whole thing into Studio 54 and did it again. The band is the chorus girls and boys, playing their own instruments up on the bandstand. The Emcee is dangerous instead of cute. And the ending, which I won't describe, is the most frightening thing I have seen on a stage. The cast has changed since it opened (this is a show that has become a revolving door for the leads) but the production is the star. Sit at a table if you can afford it; otherwise the mezzanine is fine and cheaper. Not for kids. Not for your aunt from Ohio, either, unless she's cooler than mine. |
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Fosse
Broadhurst Theatre. Opened January 1999. Won the Tony for Best Musical in June. Seen: once, from the rear mezzanine. A revue of Bob Fosse's dances, from the shows and the movies, strung together with no story and very little talking. If you love the dancing, and I do, it's two and a half hours of exactly what you came for: the derbies, the gloves, the turned-in knees, "Steam Heat," the "Sing Sing Sing" number that closes it, all of it done by dancers who can really do it. If you need a plot, you'll be looking at your watch by the middle of the first act. It beat Parade and The Civil War for the Tony, and I thought Parade was the better show, but Parade closed in February and Fosse is still here, which tells you something about what wins. Three stars, and a fourth if you're a dancer. |
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Annie Get Your Gun
Marquis Theatre. This revival opened March 4, 1999, with Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat. Won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical; she won Best Actress. Seen: once, standing. Irving Berlin's 1946 show, cleaned up (the book is revised and the show is now framed as a Wild West show performance, and the parts that made everyone wince in 1946 have been trimmed) and built around Bernadette Peters, who is the whole reason to buy a ticket. She is funny and she is tiny and when she sings "I Got Lost in His Arms" the Marquis, which is a big, cold hotel theater, gets very quiet. The score is a hit parade: "There's No Business Like Show Business," "Anything You Can Do," "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly." The show around her is fine, professional, a little bright and a little loud. Three stars, and go while she's in it. She won't be forever. |
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Footloose
Richard Rodgers Theatre. Opened October 1998. Seen: once, from TKTS, and I'm still a little mad about the twenty-eight dollars. The 1984 movie, on stage, with the songs from the movie plus some new ones to fill it out. The kids in the cast are talented and work very hard. The audience the night I went was having a wonderful time and I felt like the grump at the party. But it is a thin story stretched to two and a half hours, the new songs aren't "Footloose" or "Holding Out for a Hero," and the whole thing has the feel of something built to tour, which it will. If you're 14 and you love the movie, ignore me and go, and you'll be right. Everybody else: TKTS, and only if Chicago is sold out. |
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How to See Broadway for Less
Everything I know, from three years of doing it wrong first. 1. The TKTS booth. The big one is in Duffy Square, at 47th and Broadway, the one with the line. It sells same-day tickets for whatever shows have seats left, at 25 or 50 percent off plus a small fee per ticket. The board lists what's available; it changes all day. For evening shows the booth opens at 3 p.m. (matinee tickets are sold in the morning on Wednesday and Saturday, and Sunday has its own hours), and the line starts forming an hour or more before that. Cash or traveler's checks only. No credit cards. Bring a book. The big hits are almost never on the board; the shows in their second and third years usually are. There's also a downtown booth at the World Trade Center, on the mezzanine of 2 WTC, which has shorter lines and the same shows, and which sells for the next day's matinees too, if you work down there. 2. Standing room. Most Broadway houses sell standing-room places at the back of the orchestra, usually $15 to $20, but only on days when the show is sold out, and usually only starting when the box office opens that morning. So: for a hot show, get to the box office at 10 a.m., ask, and be prepared to stand for two and a half hours. You lean on a padded rail. I have stood through The Lion King three times. Your feet will hurt and you will not care. Call the box office the day before and ask if they expect to sell standing room; they'll tell you. 3. Rush and lottery tickets. Some shows sell a few seats, often in the front rows, for around $20 on the day of the performance. Rent does it by lottery: show up at the theater two hours before curtain, put your name in, and pray. Others do "student rush" with a student ID at the box office when it opens. It changes show by show, so ask at the box office or look for a sign in the lobby. Bring cash and be nice to the box office people; they decide. 4. Matinees, and Tuesday through Thursday. Cheaper than Friday and Saturday night at a lot of shows, and easier to get. Wednesday matinee is when you'll see me and four hundred retirees, and we are all having a great time. 5. The back of the balcony is fine. Really. In most of the old houses, the top row of the balcony is close enough to see faces and the sound is often better than the orchestra. It costs a third of what the orchestra costs. Bring binoculars if you want. Nobody will judge you; half the balcony has them. 6. Off-Broadway and Off-Off. Not the point of this page, but a lot of what's best in New York is in a 99-seat house downtown for $12. Just saying. |
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Theater Etiquette (A Plea)
I have been to a lot of shows this year, and I have sat near a lot of you, and we need to talk. Turn off the beeper and the cell phone. Off. Not vibrate: off. The announcement is not a suggestion. Unwrap the candy before the lights go down. The cellophane cough drop is the loudest sound in the theater. Don't talk. Not whispering, not "explaining" to your date, not "that's the one from the commercial." The actors can hear you. So can I. Don't sing along. I know you know every word of Rent. So do I. That is what the cast album is for. No cameras, no video, no tape recorders. It's illegal and the ushers will take it. Be on time. If you're late, you'll stand in the back until a scene change and then climb over everybody. Nobody wants that, least of all you. Stay for the curtain call. They just gave you two and a half hours. Give them ninety seconds. If you have a train, sit on the aisle. Dress however you want. This one surprises people. There's no dress code anymore and nobody cares. Be comfortable; you're going to be sitting a while. Just don't wear the giant hat. You know who you are. And if you're standing room: don't lean on the seat in front of you. That's someone's chair. |
The Stage Door WebRing
Eleven home pages (so far) by musicians, theater people, poets, painters and photographers on GeoCities.us, linked in a ring so you can walk from one to the next. I started it in April and I'm the ringmaster, which mostly means I answer e-mail and fix broken links. See the list of sites and how to join » |
Coming Up
The fall season is starting and my calendar is a mess. On my list: the new Kiss Me, Kate revival, which starts previews in October and which I have been waiting for since it was announced; Saturday Night Fever, which I have low hopes for and will see anyway; and whatever's on the board at TKTS on a Wednesday afternoon. Reviews as I see them. Also I want to write something about the theaters themselves, the buildings, which I love almost as much as what's in them. 
A page of Playbill covers is half done. My scanner is borrowed and has to go back Friday.
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| Around the block: Riverside Community Players (next door on the ring; Jean's group is doing Arsenic and Old Lace in October) · The Crescent City Stompers · Reel Talk: Jen's Movie Reviews (Jen does for movies what I try to do for shows) · the Broadway neighborhood |
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This site is a member of the Stage Door WebRing, owned by Theo B. [ << Prev | List Sites | Next >> ] |
since January 1999. Take your seats, please.
[email protected] — reviews, arguments, ring questions, tips on rush policies.
