{"id":92252,"date":"2024-01-28T20:46:18","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T04:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=92252"},"modified":"2024-01-28T20:46:18","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T04:46:18","slug":"mattress-wine-roses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2024\/01\/28\/mattress-wine-roses\/","title":{"rendered":"Mattress, Wine & Roses"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opening quote for this week\u2019s column could have been the following quip by composer Mary Rodgers<\/strong>, when discussing how to cast the lead in her musical Once Upon a Mattress<\/em><\/strong>:  \u201cYou need a real clown with a great voice, someone with a huge personality but immediately likeable, and there aren\u2019t many performers like that\u2026as we unfortunately found out in the 1996 revival, when Sarah Jessica Parker <\/strong>got one of those four things right.\u201d  While you try to determine SJP\u2019s sole attribute, let me tell you about Sutton Foster<\/strong>, who is leading Encore!<\/em>\u2019s production at New York\u2019s City Center<\/em>.  I\u2019d say Sutton is a good solid 3.0 on the Mary Rodgers scale.  She has a great voice and is immensely likeable.  She\u2019s not a natural clown or in possession of a huge personality \u2013 but she is game to do virtually anything, so I gave her half a point for each.  It\u2019s a curious thing \u2013 while watching her terrific performance, I couldn\u2019t help but think there is a role-tailor made for her talents \u2013 Annie Get Your Gun<\/em><\/strong>.  Someone get on that!<\/p>\n

Back to Mattress<\/em> \u2013 this is as good a cast and production as one will ever see (to say nothing of the luxury of hearing a full orchestra).  There is a bit of questionable direction which I found distracting.  When Carol Burnett <\/strong>belted out the word \u201cShy\u201d, the onlookers leaned back and covered their ears at the force of sound.  Sutton is not a belter, and her \u201cShy\u201d sounds no different than the rest of her impressive instrument.  So having the same response that Burnett got was not only lazy direction, but nonsensical.  That out of the way, the cast is superb from top to bottom.  Prince Dauntless was played by Broadway <\/em>MVP, Michael Urie <\/strong>(whose costume, while fetching, was all but drab).  His mother, Queen Aggravain, is assumed by the divine Harriet Harris <\/strong>at her most imperious \u2013 she all but steals the show whenever she\u2019s onstage.  The second couple, played by the dreamy Nikki Ren\u00e9e Daniels <\/strong>and a charismatic Cheyenne Jackson <\/strong>(wearing spurs), delivered everything one could want \u2013 gorgeous vocals, touching acting\u2026and they ain\u2019t bad to look at.  Let me make special note of the wigs for Urie and Jackson.  J. Jared Janas <\/strong>(who presumably designed them) should get the Nobel Prize<\/em>.  The show runs through February 4th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

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I also saw the new musical Days of Wine and Roses<\/em><\/strong> by Adam Guettel <\/strong>(Mary Rodgers\u2019 son) and Craig Lucas <\/strong>\u2013 the same team that brought us The Light in the Piazza<\/em><\/strong>.  Truth be told, I am not a fan of lengthy expositions.  I like just getting into the story.  However, a bit more exposition would have been nice in this case.  Within a few short minutes, a girl who didn\u2019t particularly like her male coworker or alcohol, is convinced to go out with him and have a drink.  Shortly thereafter, they sample about a dozen different cocktails \u2013 including margaritas out of metal cups with way too much salt.  And then they\u2019re married with a child.  That\u2019s a whole lotta ground to cover in a short amount of time.  At that point, the show settles into a beautiful, if episodic, piece about these people\u2019s descent into alcoholism.  I can\u2019t blame the show for wanting us to get to the heart of the relationship between Bryan d\u2019Arcy James <\/strong>and Kelli O\u2019Hara <\/strong>\u2013 two of the most talented performers around.  What we find in this show is that they\u2019re more than great singers \u2013 they\u2019re fantastic actors.  While each has standout vocal moments, the score takes a backseat to the drama.  This is ultimately a play with music rather than an outright musical.  That isn\u2019t a bad thing \u2013 it\u2019s a heartbreaking play that is beautifully performed.  It\u2019s at Studio 54 <\/em>for a limited 16-week run.<\/p>\n

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Returning briefly to Sarah Jessica Parker, she made a stir last week during a performance of Neil Simon<\/strong>\u2019s Plaza Suite<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 in which she appears alongside hubby Matthew Broderick <\/strong>in London\u2019s West End<\/em>.  Fans have not been able to control themselves from taking photos or videos.  In mid-sentence, SJP looked out at the audience, pointed at someone in the orchestra section, and said, \u201cPlease put your camera down.\u201d  She then paused \u2013 surely for dramatic effect \u2013 and then continued what she was talking about.  At least she didn\u2019t go all Patti LuPone <\/strong>on the person!<\/p>\n

By the by, Sex and the City<\/em><\/strong> is headed to Netflix<\/em>.  All six seasons are poised to land on the streamer starting in April.  I don\u2019t believe this will affect their deal with E!<\/em>, where we get heavily sanitized episodes regularly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opening quote for this week\u2019s column could have been the following quip by composer Mary Rodgers, when discussing how to cast the lead in her musical Once Upon a Mattress:  \u201cYou need a real clown with a great voice, someone with a huge personality but immediately likeable, and there aren\u2019t many performers like that\u2026as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92261,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92252\/revisions\/92261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}