The Broadway Musical Blog – Musical theater news and gossip from the Great White Way
Dishing out daily (or almost daily) Broadway musical news and gossip. The companion site to The Broadway Musical Home (broadwaymusicalhome.com), a directory of Broadway musicals with the story, songs, merchandise, video clips, lyrics, tickets, rights & awards for almost 200 shows.Archive for Wonderland
The Reviews for Wonderland are in…
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW:
“If only little Alice, dozing away on the riverbank before sliding down the rabbit hole, had an inkling of the deeper import of the zany adventures that were to come. All those talking animals, querulous playing cards and animated chess pieces were not just peculiar, slightly menacing playmates, according to the new Broadway musical “Wonderland.” “
Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.
BACKSTAGE REVIEW:
“If you put the script of “The Wiz,” a self-help book, every pop tune of the past 10 years, and some lame jokes about easy targets like the Tea Party and Disney into a blender, the result might resemble the gloppy mess on stage at the Marquis Theatre. “
Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.
VARIETY REVIEW:
“There is a distinct lack of wonder in “Wonderland,” the new Frank Wildhorn musical at the Marquis. Unless one was to wonder how a big, Broadway musical based on Lewis Carroll’s wildly inventive and delectably fantastical characters can be so utterly devoid of the aforementioned elements. Or to wonder why — after a full-scale 2009 presentation in Tampa Bay and Houston — the producers saw fit to remount this less-than-scintillating, $15 million tuner on Broadway. “
Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.
THEATERMANIA REVIEW:
“There’s little rhyme or reason to Wonderland, the splashy, high-tech new musical extravaganza now playing at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre. Given that the show is a contemporary variant on Lewis Carroll’s fantastical stories about Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass, this may seem like a compliment. But, unlike these deliberately crafted classics, there’s nothing precise or controlled about this show’s randomness. “
Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW:
“The Bottom Line: What’s curious and curiouser is how this tedious mess ever made it to Broadway. “
Click here to read the full “Wonderland” review.
An Exciting New Season Begins!
I hope you all had a wonderful summer. I escaped to Maine and I’m afraid summer-stock ate up all of my free time, so that (and the lack of any real exciting Broadway news) has keep the blog pretty quiet this summer. But never-fear, I’m back again and vow to maintain a more consistent posting schedule this Broadway season.
We’ve got some gems opening in the next year, lots of movie adaptations, Off-Broadway transfers and a couple infamous big-spenders who’ll soon be making splashes. Here’s the line-up:
- Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson – October 13
- The Scottsboro Boys – October 31
- Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – November 4
- The Pee-Wee Herman Show – November 11
- Elf – November 14
- Zorba – Fall 2011
- Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark – Dec 21
- How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying – March 27
- The Book of Mormon – March 2011
- Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – March 2011
- Anything Goes – April 7
- Wonderland – April 17
- Phantom: Love Never Dies – April 2011
- Sister Act – April 2011
- Catch Me If You Can – Spring 2011
- Unchain My Heart – Spring 2011
I’ll be tweeting live from Broadway on Broadway, where a couple new shows will be performing for the first time alongside many of the long-running hits.
There’s a lot of star power behind a lot of these shows, but unlike last season, it appears (for the most part) to be homegrown Broadway talent, rather than Hollywood ringers – exciting news for those who got up-in-arms around Tony Award time last year.
What are you most excited about in this upcoming season?
I’ll be back next week with an update about cast changes and announcements.
Bye Bye “Birdie,” Hello New Work and New Horizons
Bye Bye “Birdie”
The universally panned production of Bye Bye Birdie, starring John Stamos and Gina Gershon, closed on Broadway on Jan 24 after playing 117 performances. Though selling at 90% capacity, producers decided the show’s success would dwindle upon the departure of its stars and so closed as planned, rather than extending its run.
Hello New Work
Wildhorn’s Wonderland
An exciting new musical that’s been getting lots of buzz in the social media sphere Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernel, The Civil War) and Jack Murphy’s (The Civil War) Wonderland, a new take on Lewis Carol’s “Alice in Wonderland.” The show opened on Jan 20 at the Alley Theatre in Houston.
The cast includes a lot of Broadway names, including Janet Dacal (In the Heights, Good Vibrations), Jose Llana (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Karen Mason (Sunset Boulevard, Mamma Mia!), Darren Ritchie (Dracula: The Musical), Nikki Snelson (Legally Blonde), Ed Staudenmayer (Forbidden Broadway) and Tad Wilson (Rock of Ages).
This show definitely has Broadway aspirations, though no dates or official plans have yet been announced. Cross your fingers that its sooner rather than later.
Duncan Sheik’s The Whisper House
Spring Awakening‘s Dunkan Sheik celebrated the world premiere of Whisper House, which opened Jan. 21 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. The show, which features a hauntingly beautiful score, has hopes of making it to Broadway sometime in the next couple of years.
The Pee Wee Herman Show
Another show with Broadway aims is the Pee Wee Herman Show, which opened on Jan 20 at the Los Angeles’ Club Nokia @ L.A. LIVE. Paul Reubens stars the title role he created back in the 1980s and looks to be having just as much fun today as he did back then. Though more a show with music than a musical, I couldn’t not include it on the blog here. I mean, it’s Pee Wee Herman!
A Spice Girls Musical?
Yep. Pee Wee Herman isn’t the only pop-culture icon to be brought to the stage. Mamma Mia! producer Judy Craymer is turning her attention to a jukebox musical that will use the songs (and we can only hope, the personalities) of that crazy English girl-group of the 90s – the Spice Girls.
New Horizons
Original Foursome will Make their Broadway Debuts with Million Dollar Quartet
The original foursome from the Chicago production of the musical Million Dollar Quartet, Eddie Clendening, Lance Guest, Levi Kreis and Rob Lyons, will reprise their roles in the show’s Broadway premiere, all making their Broadway premieres. They will be joined by two Broadway veterans: Hunter Foster (Urinetown, Little Shop of Horrors) and Elizabeth Stanley (Cry-Baby, Company).
Showtime to Document the Process of Taking a Musical from Concept to Broadway
If you’ve kept up with the blog here, you know that Speilberg is producing a new Showtime series tracing the evolution of a new musical.
Composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can) were previously announced as being on board, and now a writer has surfaced – Theresa Rebeck – the author who penned the recent off-Broadway hit the Understudy and has a fair number of TV shows under her belt.
I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see this show get off the ground, and if the success of Glee and the long string of casting shows series, I’m not the only one that’ll be eating it up.
Norbert Leo Butz on TV
Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked, The Last Five Years) is starring as Rowdy Kaiser on ABC’s “The Deep End,” a new drama series about five first-year lawyers starting out at a top firm. If you missed last week’s premiere – check it out on ABC’s website.
