A fond farewell to Finian's Rainbow

Another Sunday in January and sadly, the curtain falls on another Broadway show. It's time to say goodbye to the musical revival of Finian's Rainbow, which closes today after 92 performances at the St. James Theatre.

I really thought this one might have a chance.

I had qualms going in about the silliness of the plot - but I ended up being charmed. And it got generally good reviews - in The New York Times, Charles Isherwood called the production "joyous."

True, there were no "stars" to draw the tourists and it's not a classic with the name recognition of say, West Side Story.

But Finian's Rainbow seemed to do the right things to build an audience, including having a very active Twitter and Facebook presence. Also, I thought it had the potential to be a good family show - a love story for adults, magic for the kids.

Just shows how much I know! Guess I'd better stay out of Broadway producing.

There were some terrific performances in Finian's Rainbow. I thought Kate Baldwin was lovely as the feisty Irish lass Sharon McLonergan, especially when she sang "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" And Christopher Fitzgerald was a very funny leprechaun. I hope the Tony nominators remember them.

This was a musical that debuted on Broadway in 1947, when its theme of racial harmony was considered daring. Just having black and white dancers on stage together was controversial. Thankfully, times have changed. And I guess the time for Finian's Rainbow has passed.

There simply was not enough of an audience. With 20-20 hindsight, that's pretty easy to see - a somewhat obscure 63-year-old musical with no stars is going to have trouble, no matter how glowing the reviews. There just isn't enough of a built-in fan base. At least there's a cast recording.

Maybe we're moving to an era of limited-run musicals just like we do for plays.

Lowering the curtain on 2009

Here are a few final thoughts before I bid farewell to 2009, my third year of theatergoing:

• I'm sad that Finian's Rainbow is closing Jan. 17, despite some great reviews. It seems like on Broadway, they hardly give shows a chance anymore. Yes, the musical's story was kind of silly and a bit of a hodgepodge but in the end I was charmed, especially by the lovely Kate Baldwin and the spritely Christopher Fitzgerald. Also, Finian's Rainbow had one of the most attractive posters I've seen.
  

• Speaking of posters, not that it matters but A Steady Rain had one of the worst designs I've ever seen. How can you take two handsome men like Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman and make them almost painful to look at? I guess it was designed to symbolize their friendship, the merging of their lives. But it made them look like a two-headed Cyclops.
  

• Of my favorite lines in 2009 none was more shocking than one from Mary Stuart. I could not believe it when Janet McTeer as the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots taunted Queen Elizabeth I (Harriet Walter) with: "The throne of England is desecrated by a bastard." Not a wise thing to say to the woman who holds the keys to your jail and the warrant for your execution!

• Spoiler alert: I never realized that watching someone vomit on stage could be so entertaining but Hope Davis was superb at, er, "erupting" in God of Carnage. And watching the other three actors scurry around, trying to help her and cleaning up the mess, was hilarious. This is a scene that I knew was coming but it was executed in a way that still managed to surprise me.
  

• reasons to be pretty had an ending that made me laugh and cheer. Thomas Sadoski's character makes an obscene gesture after he's quit his job in the warehouse of a Costco-like chain. It was a beautiful moment and symbolized the way Sadoski's Greg became his own man. I hadn't planned on seeing this play but I ended up enjoying it so much, in large part due to Sadoski's engaging performance. Despite the ever-increasing appearance of celebrities on Broadway stages, it's most often the actors who aren't household names who end up making the biggest impression on me.
  

• On the downside, I've noticed more theatergoers arriving late and is it my imagination or have candy wrappers become more crinkly and noisy in the past year?
  

• Speaking of noise, I heard The Marvelous Wonderettes thumping above my head when I saw Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Westside Theatre and I heard the rumbling of the subway trains beneath my feet during Waiting for Godot at Studio 54. Grrr.
  

• I'd been dreading 2009 long before January but thanks to my theatre-loving friends, it turned out to be a wonderful year, better than I could possibly have imagined. They made sure I had the best birthday ever. I am so grateful to them for that and for so much more.
  

• To everyone who read my blog, left a comment, followed me on Twitter, friended me on Facebook, sent me an e-mail, joined me for lunch, brunch dinner or a show, thank-you for the gift of your time and your friendship. Here's to a happy, healthy and adventure-filled 2010!
  

• Finally, out of everything I've read about theatre in 2009, this description by playwright Adam Szymkowicz of the plays that excite him resonated with me the most:
  
  "I want to have a good time. I want to laugh, I want to be engaged, I want to care. I like plays about things. I like crazy off the wall experiments and I like naturalism, too. Most importantly, I like narrative. If you're not telling me a story, I get bored and I hate your play. I don't want to hate your play. I want you to show me something new. I get excited by something I haven't seen before."

Finian's Rainbow

Gratuitous Violins rating: *** out of ****

On a gray, damp day in New York City I spent an afternoon taking in the vibrant, sunny revival of Finian's Rainbow at Broadway's St. James Theatre. Yes, I'll admit I was charmed.

Not everything worked for me but in the end, the timeless music, choreography and captivating performances won me over. If I couldn't quite forget the flaws, at least I made peace with them and sat back and enjoyed the show.

Tony winner Jim Norton is Irishman Finian McLonergan, a lovable rogue with a brogue, and the beautiful Kate Baldwin plays his feisty daughter Sharon.

They've come to America with a pot of gold that Finian has stolen from a leprechaun named Og, a delightfully comic Christopher Fitzgerald. (Will someone please give this talented actor a role on Broadway where he doesn't have to wear a funny costume?!)

The McLonergans, with Og on their trail, happen upon the community of Rainbow Valley, in the mythical Southern state of Missitucky, a place where black and white sharecroppers work side by side harvesting tobacco.

Among them is the very sweet and handsome Cheyenne Jackson as Woody Mahoney. (I'm not quite sure what Mahoney is supposed to be - whether he owns the land, works it or is some kind of community organizer. But no matter!)

Their idyllic existence is threatened by the bigoted white Senator Rawkins, a role shared terrifically by David Schramm and Chuck Cooper, who undergoes a startling transformation. I loved Cooper's rendition of the gospel-influenced "The Begat."

The musical, with a book by E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and Fred Saidy, and a score by Harburg and Burton Lane, is a mix of fantasy and social commentary that seems tame now but was daring when it opened on Broadway in 1947. Harburg "had to fight like hell to make sure all the blacks and whites got to dance together onstage," his son Ernie told The New York Times recently.

The plot of Finian's Rainbow is sort of silly and there isn't much dramatic tension or depth to the characters. I never felt the people of Rainbow Valley were really in any danger. Plus, in 2009, it was a little unsettling that their cash crop is tobacco. (Shouldn't the Playbill include a government health warning?)

Still, the musical has the kind of classic, exhilarating Broadway choreography - by director Warren Carlyle - that's so much fun to watch, especially the big ensemble numbers. The same goes for Fitzgerald's magic tricks. And Jackson well, even when he forgot a line once, it was cute to watch him recover - quickly and expertly. What a perfect reminder that anything can happen at a live performance!

Finally, how could I resist Baldwin's gorgeous voice - especially her absolutely heavenly rendition of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" Of course, I couldn't. After most of Finian's Rainbow has faded away, it's the memory that will stay with me the longest.

The new king of burlesque

I'm so thrilled for the very talented Christopher Fitzgerald. His portrayal of Igor in Young Frankenstein was one of my favorite parts of the musical. (I wish I could have seen him as the original Boq in Wicked.)

And now, Fitzgerald officially has the title role in the new musical Minsky's. Produced by the Center Theatre Group, it runs from Jan. 21 to March 1 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

The show, written by Bob Martin, (The Drowsy Chaperone) with music and lyrics by Charles Strouse (Annie) and Susan Birkenhead, (Jelly's Last Jam) is billed as "a big, racy, romantic musical comedy set in Depression Era New York City." Fitzgerald plays Billy Minsky, the king of burlesque, "who reigns over the rollicking backstage world of Minsky's, where profit margins are as skimpy as the costumes."

The cast also includes Kevin Cahoon from The Wedding Singer, George Wendt from Cheers and Hairspray, Tony winner Beth Leavel from The Drowsy Chaperone and Rachel Dratch from Saturday Night Live. I didn't see The Wedding Singer on Broadway, but Cahoon is hilarious on the cast recording. And who doesn't love Norm from Cheers?

The Center Theatre Group also served as the producer and pre-Broadway tryout location for Curtains, so I'm hoping that Minsky's will make it to New York if everything goes well on the West Coast. I'm looking forward to seeing Fitzgerald in a starring role on Broadway.

It's alive - until January

It's another depressing day for Broadway. You can add Young Frankenstein to the rapidly expanding list of shows that have posted closing notices. Whatever you think of Young Frankenstein (and I was among those who felt let down), this is the latest in a sad trend.

According to an Associated Press story, producer Robert F.X. Sillerman announced today that the musical, which opened on Nov. 8, 2007, will shutter on Jan. 4, after nearly 500 performances.

In this Playbill article, Sillerman says - no surprise - it's the economy, and that a national tour will begin next September. Of course, Young Frankenstein, alone among Broadway shows, declined to report how much money it was taking in every week and how many seats were being filled. (Which it had every right to do, I might add - it's a tradition, not a requirement, to report weekly grosses.)

After the success of The Producers, which ran for six years on Broadway, Young Frankenstein was one of last season's most highly anticipated shows. And as a big fan of the 1974 Mel Brooks movie, it was at the top of my list. It was also one of the most talked about even before it opened for, among other things, its $450 premium seats. But when I saw it, for a lot less than that, I was a bit disappointed.

For me, Young Frankenstein worked as a movie because it was a satire. Transylvania was a foreboding place. The musical tries to recreate some of that, with the design of Frankenstein's castle and laboratory. But overall, the tone struck me as a little too sunny and bright for a send-up of a horror movie.

Sure, it's a faithful adaptation - all of the funniest lines and scenes are there. Still, something felt off. I wasn't laughing as much as everyone else in the audience. (And I have to admit that everyone else seemed to be eating it up.) The production seemed to get lost in the cavernous Hilton Theatre. And I didn't find Roger Bart very engaging as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein.

But there were some things I enjoyed - Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor (who earned a Tony nomination and played his last performance in the show today) and Andrea Martin as Frau Blucher especially. I liked the "Roll in the Hay" number on the ride to Frankenstein's castle, with Bart, Fitzgerald and Sutton Foster as Inga; and "Puttin on the Ritz," with Shuler Hensley as the monster. And I'll probably give it another chance on tour.

Fitzgerald is an actor I'm looking forward to seeing again. According to an item on the Web site of actor and musician Kevin Cahoon, he'll join Cahoon in the musical Minsky's, set in Prohibition-era New York, which will premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles beginning Jan. 21.

But I have to wonder whether we'll see Mel Brooks again on Broadway.