#sara holdren

[shakespearenews]

The cast and director of As You Like It at Shakespeare at Notre Dame.

[everything-written-down]

If your primary complaint about Hamlet has always been that there’s not nearly enough poop in it, then HAMLET | TOILET is here to help you fart-dels bear.

-Sara Holdren

[pure-jeff-ward]

"Ward’s big innovation is, between Acts One and Two, to stage the play’s subtitular dance [pas de deux]" Vulture review by Sara Holdren

"Jeff and I have gone to see a lot of plays together. We would often have the same opinion and we’ve always sort of had the same goal or the same desire of what we’ve been craving to see in theater. So I knew, for what he lacked in maybe experience as a theater director, I think he more than makes up for in just his love for it and his taste." - Christopher Abbott's interview for Vogue

"Shanley is a romantic, and in Ward’s production, the more tender moments are among the strongest." - Vulture.com

"Ward is making his directorial debut with this work and he proves his mettle with a deep understanding of his characters’ motivations and their shared suffering. As an actor himself, it’s easy to see why he chose to direct this piece. With so much to chew on, it’s a feast for actors. But it’s also quite a big challenge in the way that the whole thing could so easily turn melodramatic. In Ward’s hands, despite the high level of intensity in the writing, it all rings true." - NY Stage Review by Roma Torre

"Director Ward tries to add theatrical heft with a sort of pincer maneuver: he dresses the two locations in granular realism and transitions between sections using the abstract language of dance. It’s a bold move that makes sense—reinforcing the sordid solidity of the material world but releasing emotions in movement and music." - Observer review by David Cote

'Danny and the Deep Blue Sea' reviews about Director Jeff Ward 🖤

[jgroffdaily]

Jonathan Groff's Broadway performance called 'thrillingly fierce ... unmissable'; a roundup of critics' reviews of 'Merrily We Roll Along'

Mary Ellen Wright

Lancaster County native Jonathan Groff is receiving some rave reviews from major critics for his performance in the Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical, “Merrily We Roll Along,” which officially opens today, Tuesday, Oct. 10, and had its red-carpet celebration Sunday at the Hudson Theatre.

Jesse Green of the New York Times calls Groff’s performance “thrillingly fierce.”

Though Green feels the show is “underscaled” for Broadway, and has problems with the book of the show feeling “Frankensteined” with parts that are “coarsely sutured and don’t quite line up,” he gives kudos to the three leading players.

“... Radcliffe’s wit and modesty, combined with Mendez’s zing and luster, provide perfect settings for what is now (as it has never been previously) the inarguably central performance. Groff, always a compelling actor, here steps up to an unmissable one.

“With his immense charisma turned in on itself, he seems to sweat emotion: ambition, disappointment and, most frighteningly, a terrible frozen disgust,” Green adds.

“Groff ... has never been better than he is here, imbuing a tricky character with tearful sincerity and charm.” says Patrick Ryan of USA Today. “Mendez is a hilarious knockout as the acerbic Mary, bringing powerhouse vocals and aching vulnerability ... . As Charley, Radcliffe is the tender, open heart of ‘Merrily’ ... and infuses his stubborn lyricist with brio and palpable hurt.”

“Groff’s transformation-in-reverse is a perceptive journey ... from remorseful Hollywood sellout to star-struck starving artist, pressing his nose up against the window of fame and riches,” says Peter Marks of the Washington Post.

Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune, who says Mendez’s Mary character comes off as the lead character in this production, says “Groff, whose singing and energy drive the show, is ... superb: his character refuses to see plenty of stuff, but the denials clearly show on Groff’s face, and in his voice.

“Broadway never saw a better triple-act” than the three leads,” Jones says, calling the revival “gorgeous.”

In some of the reviews, British musical theater star Maria Friedman has been credited with retooling the show to resurrect it as a hit.

The show, which is now scheduled to run until March 24, played off Broadway last year.

“Groff, Mendez, and Radcliffe create a Frank, Mary, and Charley that burst with energy,” says TheaterMania’s David Gordon. “They’re giving career-best performances, and you not only buy them as friends, but palpably sense their joys and crushing disappointments.

“... Groff beautifully grounds Frank in the reality of a man who has gotten everything he wanted, only to realize that the most important things in his life have completely disappeared,” Gordon adds.

Groff, who combines the looks and charisma of a young matinee idol with tender sensitivity, is the ideal Frank — someone who everyone else can’t help but fall in love with, which is why his pals self-destruct when Frank loses his way,” writes Matt Windman of AMNY.

“... Groff is an actor who’s able to communicate hurt and humanity even through a carapace of ego and moral deficiency,” says Sara Holdren of Vulture.

“Friedman and her ensemble render the show exquisite,” Holdren adds.

“Watching the show on Broadway, I found myself concentrating less on Mendez and Radcliffe’s back-to-back screeds and drawn more to Groff, who almost singlehandedly, and in a very quiet way, makes this revival drive forward while going backward on all eight cylinders,” Robert Hofler of The Wrap writes.

“The joy of the show is watching Radcliffe, Mendez, and Groff together, because they are quite visibly having the time of their performing lives,” Tim Teeman of The Daily Beast writes.

Teeman seems to feel the Broadway version of the show raises more questions than it answers about how the three main characters’ friendship went so wrong.

He also seems to have liked Groff’s performance better in the New York Theatre Workshop version of the show off Broadway: “At NYTW, Groff crafted a career-shining role as Franklin ... on Broadway, some of the nuance of his Franklin has disappeared, and this is particularly evident in his final performance of ‘Our Time,’ which he plays to the house, as if grandstanding a solo.”

And Forbes’ Darryn King writes that Groff’s Franklin bears “the gravitational pull of a small planet. ... (T)he three stars are plainly made for one other. Their chemistry suggests decades’ worth of familiarity and backstory.”

Groff, a stage, film and TV actor who’s a Ronks native and Conestoga Valley High School alumnus, won the Outer Critics Circle award and was nominated for the Drama Desk award for his Franklin Shepard role off Broadway in 2022.

Groff is known for his previous Broadway work in “Hamilton” and “Spring Awakening,” TV performances in “Glee” and “Mindhunter,” and film roles including “Knock at the Cabin” and the Disney “Frozen” films.

He has been cast in the next full season of the long-running BBC sci-fi TV hit, "Doctor Who.”

[mthguy]

‘ILLINOISE’ TO SQUEAK INTO 2023-24 SEASON

by Philip Boroff 

Producers Orin Wolf and Greg Nobile are preparing to move the acclaimed dance piece Illinoise to the St. James Theater, packing another new musical into the busy 2023-24 season.

The transfer from the Park Avenue Armory — where Illinoise is scheduled to play its final, sold-out performance on March 26 — would be so quick that the show may not have time for previews on Broadway, industry sources said. To be eligible for Tony Awards this year, productions must open by April 25.

Based on its generally strong notices, Illinoise will be a formidable contender in a wide open awards season. According to a pitch prepared for prospective angels, it will be produced for $5 million — a bargain for a new musical — and capitalized for $6.5 million, which includes a $1.1 million financial reserve.

Should it achieve average weekly published box office grosses of about $1.1 million, it could recoup its production costs in ten weeks or less, assuming a $2.5 million tax credit from New York state, according to a preliminary recoupment table. (Recouping may vary from projections, of course, especially as the recoupment chart assumes a 1400-seat theater. The St. James has about 1700 seats.)

The piece was originally commissioned by the Fisher Center at Bard College and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, among others, and received nonprofit development funding from foundations and wealthy patrons. Directed and choreographed by Justin Peck, the resident choreographer of New York City Ballet, it’s inspired by and scored to the 2005 concept album Illinois by indie composer Sufjan Stevens. Peck was a teenager studying at the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center when the album was released and became deeply affected by it.

“It helped me understand the world and myself and my place in the world,” Peck said at a talkback March 14 at the Armory. He worked with playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury on the story, which doesn’t have spoken dialogue.

The reviews for the show at the Armory offer any number of positive quotes for ads. (Advertising will be handled by AKA, which like the St. James is part of Ambassador Theatre Group. Last year, ATG acquired control of the St. James and Jujamcyn’s four other theaters.)  The New York Times’ Jesse Green called it “a mysterious and deeply moving dance-musical hybrid;” Vulture’s Sara Holdren wrote that its “extraordinary corps of dancers, musicians, and singers throws open a window to the cosmos, and we all turn like hungry wintering plants toward the sun.”

The St. James becomes available on April 7, thanks to the early closing of the revival of Spamalot after five months. The Illinoise transfer was earlier reported by Jonathan Lewis, otherwise known as Sweaty Oracle on TikTok. (Credit where credit is due.)

Illinoise would be the 15th new musical of the season, according to IBDB credits. (Only 14 of those will be competing for best musical, because the Tony administration committee ruled that Gutenberg! The Musical! will be eligible in the best revival category.)

Nobile’s ever-busy company Seaview is scheduled to open Lempicka, the long-gestating new musical about the artist Tamara de Lempicka, at the Longacre two weeks before Illinoise. He’s also a lead producer of Stereophonic, David Adjmi’s play with music that opens April 19 at the 805-seat John Golden.

Stereophonic appears to be selling well — a sign that a show without stars or a well-known brand, like Illinoise, still stands a chance of succeeding. By opening on Broadway this season, Illinoise producers are capitalizing on the buzz, but they’ll be under pressure to sell a lot of tickets fast.

[newyorktheater]

Sondheim Farewell on Stage and Page. Broadway 2024: Cabaret, Doubt, Suffs, My Son's a Queer. #Stageworthy News

So many of the reviews of “Here We Are” end like eulogies for Stephen Sondheim, or feature at least a line of farewell, that these are the passages I find worth quoting, more than the critics’ specific views of the show: Peter Marks, Washington PostWe’re consoled in “Here We Are” with one more chance to gather together with Sondheim, to hear his irreplaceable voice on a stage… Sara Holdren, New…

[fuojbe-beowgi]

"The 25 Most Influential Works of Postwar Queer Literature" by Kurt Soller, Liz Brown, Rose Courteau, Kate Guadagnino, Sara Holdren, Brian Keith Jackson, Evan Moffitt, Miguel Morales, Tomi Obaro, Coco Romack, Michael Snyder and June Thomas via NYT T Magazine https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/t-magazine/queer-postwar-books-plays-poems.html?partner=IFTTT

[meandmypagancrew]

“What becomes of girl and boy? Does girl overcome her fear? Does boy die? Well, boy will die one day — girl, too — but the existence of Hundred Days is proof that the Bengsons made it. No — are making it, day by day, step by step, through sickness, health, suffering, sadness, salt, and snow. Listening to their raw, celebratory songs echo against the brick walls, as lighting designer Andrew Hungerford’s gorgeous array of starry light bulbs glimmered overhead, I heard lines from my favorite poem running through my head: “We must risk delight … We must admit there will be music despite everything.””

-Sara Holdren

[ijustgoforit123]

I wiiisshhh I was close to NJ, I wanna see the Two River production of Twelfth Night so baaadddd!!!

[girlwithlandscape]

As a former/currently dormant theater critic and starting-out playwright, this is a question I grapple with a lot and still don’t have an answer to. It’s incredibly vindicating to see someone else write about it.

[shakespearenews]

Macbeth (an undoing) cleaves to this trajectory: As Carlin (Liz Kettle) — a brusque, sly narrator who’s also the first among the “weird sisters” — announces to us at top-of-show, “It’ll be as you last saw it — but no matter, things fare better when they are played and played again.” But what makes this replaying chafe, especially the further it goes, is that Harris seems far less interested in souls than she is in simply redistributing power. 

Macbeth, after all, is play about conscience, that microscopic worm that, once it’s slipped in, can grow into a monster in the mind, but that, if it’s shut out, can turn a person into a monster. The woman who begins the play by praying for hardness and cruelty is decimated by the return of the conscience she thought she banished. The man who begins it in fear, with “no spur to prick the sides of my intent,” turns to thoughtless action, steamrolling violently ahead to keep his conscience at bay.

That Harris reimagines these story lines isn’t a problem; the fact that compunction plays no role in them is. For all its progressive intentions, her play charges right into the trap that feminist retellings so often — and so irritatingly — set for themselves: It values empowerment above all. At the end of the day, all that matters is that its leading lady is strong.

“Let them see me as I should be remembered,” says this Lady Macbeth (Nicole Cooper) near the end of the show, as she faces her fate: “fearless, powerful, and unrepentant.” Okay, but �� why? Why is it impressive to be unrepentant after committing and/or ordering a whole bunch of murders, including the execution of your own cousin?

[everything-written-down]

WATCH OUT, THE REFLECTING HAS BEGUN. Countless books, tv shows, and theater pieces affected me deeply in 2017. Here are five entities that shaped my life and stayed with me this year.

1. AUGUST WILSON'S AMERICAN CENTURY CYCLE: in January I decided to read August Wilson's ten plays chronologically by when they are set, and it was the richest artistic experience I had this year. The power and fascination of experiencing the complete set in close succession are indescribable. (My favorite: Two Trains Running.)

2. I LOVE DICK: it isn't my favorite tv show I watched this year. It might not even be in the top five. But most shows I love don’t speak anything viscerally personal back to me. This one does. This show piercingly embodies the tension between the impulses towards and away from dignity in the pursuit of sexual desire. It doesn’t dress up or mitigate a woman’s messiness or humiliation. It leaves them bare. (It does a lot of other important things, too. You should watch it.)

3. RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE: Yeah, shut up, it took me long enough. Don’t even start with me. Drag Race changed my life, in that it increased the joy in my life for many days of this year. It is a problematic, contradictory, BUT BEAUTIFUL gift that keeps on giving (UNHhhh with Trixie & Katya is a light in any and all darknesses) and I'm so fucking glad I've jumped on this bandwagon.

4. SARA HOLDREN: The theater industry is desperately parched for a diversity of perspectives in mainstream criticism, and if NY Mag’s hire isn’t the flood, it is a giant gulp of exactly-what-we-need. I love Sara Holdren for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost I love her because she demonstrates the fact that generosity is not mutually exclusive with insight or intellect. Hating everything does not make your criticism more sophisticated (I’m talking to you, Jesse Green). Sara Holdren takes every work of art on its terms and has a penetrating eye for what WORKS as well as what doesn't. I’m sick of disagreeing with critics who are blind to what is beautiful in a flawed play. I would much rather disagree with a critic who was able to see something beautiful that I didn’t see on my own. Sara Holdren gives art the benefit of the doubt even as her observations are incisive and socially relevant. I’m grateful for her.

5. HEATHER CHRISTIAN: Animal Wisdom fucked me up and exhilarated me more than a single other piece of theater in 2017. And it brought me to Heather Christian's music, for whose richness and splendor I have been waiting my entire life. Only Rilo Kiley and Amanda Palmer have ever reached this level for me. ASK ME ABOUT MY 5-TRACK STARTER COURSE, I HAVE GIVEN THIS A LOT OF THOUGHT.

The world is burning but art is ferocious and beautiful.

[popblank]

To Kill a Mockingbird at the Pantages Theatre: 

I did not really care for this adaptation. I have a slight anti-Aaron Sorkin bias which might be influencing my reaction, but even so I was expecting more from this play.

Sorkin has taken the story from the novel and arranged it so that instead of the basically chronological narrative that takes place over several years (as told by a presumably adult Scout Finch), the story is told by its child characters, with scenes depicting the background and overall storyline alternating with courtroom scenes.  

Atticus Finch is presented as a Polite White Liberal whose initial explanation of Bob Ewell’s motives is that he is suffering from economic anxiety. He believes that a white Southern jury will be able to clearly see the facts of an unfair accusation against a black man and act justly, even as he is absolutely certain that there are things that will unleash that same white Southern jury’s blatant racism. The show follows his character arc as he eventually has to face that contradiction.

Structurally I didn’t have an issue with it, and it moved along at a good pace although I felt like the first act seemed a bit long (though that is hardly unique to this show). I don’t remember much about the book having read it many years ago, but a quick skim reminded me that among other things, there was quite a long lead-up to the trial and a lot of characters.

My issue was mostly with the dialogue, tone, and certain storyline and characterization choices: 

The rhythms of the dialogue sounded like Sorkin’s style of writing for other media, so it was difficult for me not to hear the writer’s voice rather than the characters’ voices. It probably would have been better for me to not have known who wrote the play.

It was presented with a lack of subtlety. Perhaps that is a side effect of playing to a large theater but the dialogue and acting choices seemed big and loud and occasionally cartoonish.

It dialed up the network-TV sentimentality. I used to use “The Stackhouse Filibuster” from The West Wing as my go-to comfort watch so I am not opposed to cheesy TV sentimentality in itself, but there were parts that just felt hackneyed (the way Dill’s storyline was filled in, for example).

After leaving the theater I thought, “I hope this didn’t win the Best Play Tony Award.” It did not win, and in fact was not even nominated. That was apparently perceived to be a snub, but after seeing it in person I don’t think it was. If this had won it would have been like Crash winning the Best Picture Oscar.

Staging looks good, though during scene changes I repeatedly found myself idly watching the actor who was responsible for locking the stairs of the Finches’ front porch into place, because it took a while for the porch to slide into position.

I am rolling my eyes at the pull quote they used for the poster at the theater: “This is a phenomenon,” attributed to former New York magazine critic Sara Holdren. Why yes, this play certainly is a thing that happened. Then I looked up what Sara Holdren actually wrote, and the only time she uses the word “phenomenon” in her review is here:

“All rise,” Scout repeats throughout the play, and on the wings of Sher’s direction and his outstanding ensemble of actors, the production does rise. Ultimately, it rises above Sorkin’s fashionably contemporary polemic on privileged, blinkered white civility — which is both a real phenomenon and, at least from where I stand, not cause enough to abandon empathy in the pursuit of right action.

If I’m reading that correctly, she’s saying that “privileged, blinkered white civility” is a real phenomenon, not the play itself. So unless she also said this in some other context, it’s quite misleading.  

[theatredirectors]

268 Directors and the end of the blog

This post marks the end of the Ask a Director experiment. I’m so grateful to all who have contributed, supported and engaged with it over the past six and a half years. 

This blog was started at a time when I felt incredibly alone in the directing field. I had always been taught that a director operates solo, that it was a lonely career and above all, it was based on scarcity. This was a style of working and living that didn't fit for me. I wanted to talk to other directors about their practice and thoughts about the field, both national and international. This blog was started as a way to connect, to uplift other directors and to create a conversation about the changing field and practices. 

It's surpassed all of these goals and brought me more joy than I can name. 

I'm now at a moment where my practice and advocacy are taking different and exciting paths and it's time for me to put this site to bed. I remain committed to uplifting other directors, to talking about the practice, to flattening hierarchies, to opening doors for new ways of working, and leading rehearsal rooms, companies, and classrooms away from silos and vacuums. Featuring these 268 different directors was just the beginning. 

I encourage you all to hire them (and others), advocate for them (and others) and choose to work in a system that values connection and generosity. 

Abhishek Majumdar

Adam Fitzgerald

Alice Stanley

Aliza Shane

Amanda McRaven

Amy Corcoran

Amy Jephta

Anisa George

Ana Margineau

Andrew Scoville

Anna Stromberg

Anne Cecelia Haney

Ariel Francoeur

Arpita Mukherjee

Ashley Hollingshead

Ashley Marinaccio

Andrew Neisler

Beng Oh

Ben Randle

Ben Stockman

Benjamin Kamine

Beth Lopes

Bo Powell

Bogdan Georgescu

Bonnie Gabel

Brandon Ivie

Brandon Woolf

Brian Hashimoto

Cait Robinson

Caitlin Ryan O’Connell

Caitlin Sullivan

Catie Davis

Cara Phipps

Carol Ann Tan

Carsen Joenk

Chari Arespacochaga

Cheryl Faraone

Chloe Treat

Christin Eve Cato

Christine Zagrobelny

Christopher Diercksen

Colette Robert

Colleen Hughes

Cyndy Marion

Dado Gyure

Dan Rothenberg

Daniel Irizarry

Danielle Ozymandias

Danny Sharon

Dara Malina

David Charles

Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li

Derek Spencer 

Donald Brenner

Doug Oliphant

Eamon Boylan

Elena Araoz

Emily Lyons

Emma Miller

Eric Kildow

Eric Wallach

Eric Powell Holm

Estefania Fadul

Evelina Stampa

Evren Odcikin

Evi Stamatiou

Francesca Montanile Lyons

Gabriel Vega Weissman

Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte 

Graham Schmidt

Gregg Wiggans

Hannah Ryan

Hannah Wolf

Heather Bagnall

Horia Suru

Ilana Becker

Ilana Ransom Toeplitz

Illana Stein

Ioanna Katsarou

Ioli Andreadi

Irina Abraham Chigiryov

Iris Sowlat

Isaac Klein

J Paul Nicholas

Jack Tamburri

Jaclyn Biskup

Jacob Basri

Jake Beckhard

Jaki Bradley

Jamie Watkins

Javier Molina

Jay Stern

Jay Stull

Jenna Rossman

Jenna Worsham

Jennifer Chambers

Jenny Bennett

Jenny Reed

Jeremy Bloom

Jeremy Pickard

Jerrell Henderson

Jess Hutchinson

Jess Shoemaker

Jesse Jou

Jessi D Hill

Jessica Burr

Jessica Holt

Jillian Carucci

Joanne Zipay

Jo Cattell

John Michael Diresta

John Kurzynowski

Joe Hedel

Jonathan Munoz-Proulx

Jose Zayas

Josh Kelley

Josh Sobel

Joshua Kahan Brody

Joshua William Gelb

Julia Sears

Justin Schlabach

Kareem Fahmy

Karen Christina Jones

Kate Bergstrom

Kate Hopkins

Kate Jopson

Kate Moore Heaney

Katherine M. Carter

Katherine Wilkinson

Kathy Gail MacGowan

Katie Chidester

Kendall Cornell 

Kendra Augustin

Kholoud Sawaf

Kimberly Faith Hickmann

Kim Weild

KJ Sanchez

Knud Adams

Kristin Marting

Kristin McCarthy Parker

Kristin Skye Hoffman

Kristy Chambrelli

Kristy Dodson

KT Shorb

Kyle Metzger

Kylie M. Brown

Larissa Fasthorse

Larissa Lury

Laura Brandel

Laura Steinroeder

Lauren Hlubny

Lauren Keating

Lavina Jadhwani

Jenn Haltman

Leta Tremblay

Lila Rachel Becker

Lillian Meredith

Lily Riopelle

Lindsey Hope Pearlman

Lisa Rothe

Lisa Sanaye Dring

Liz Thaler

Lori Wolter Hudson

Lucie Tiberghien

Luke Comer

Luke Tudball

Lyndsay Burch

Lynn Lammers

Mallory Catlett

Manon Manavit

Margarett Perry

Maridee Slater

Marina Bergenstock

Marti Lyons

Martin Jago

Matt Cosper

Matt Ritchey

Max Hunter

Megan Sandberg-Zakian

Megan Weaver

Meghan Finn

Melissa Crespo

Melody Erfani

Michael Alvarez

Michael T. Williams

Michaela Escarcega

Michelle Tattenbaum

Mimi Barcomi

Miranda Haymon

Molly Beach Murphy

Molly Clifford

Molly Noble

Morgan Gould

Morgan Green

Murielle Borst-Tarrant

Nana Dakin

Natalie Novacek

Neal Kowalsky

Nell Bang-Jensen

Nick Benacerraf

Noa Egozi

Norah Elges

Normandy Sherwood

Olivia Lilley

Orly Noa Rabinyan

Oscar Mendoza

Pablo Paz

Padraic Lillis 

Patrick Walsh

Pete Danelski

Pirronne Yousefzadeh

Portia Krieger

Rachel Karp

Rachel Wohlander

Randolph Curtis Rand

Raz Golden

Rebecca Cunningham

Rebecca Martinez

Rebecca Wear

Renee Phillippi

Renee Yeong

Rich Brown

Rick St. Peter

Robert Schneider

Ryan Anthony Nicotra

Sammi Cannold

Sammy Zeisel

Sanaz Ghajar

Sara Holdren

Sara Lyons

Sara Rademacher

Sarah Elizabeth Wansley

Sarah Hughes

Sarah M. Chichester

Sarah Rose Leonard

Sash Bischoff

Scarlett Kim

Seonjae Kim

Seth Pyatt

Sharifa Elkady

Shaun Patrick Tubbs

Sherri Eden Barber

Simon Hanukai

Sophia Watt

Suchan Vodoor

Stephen Cedars

Steven Kopp

Steven Wilson

Talya Klein

Tana Siros

Tara Ahmadinejad

Tara Cioletti

Tara Elliott

Tatiana Pandiani

Taylor Reynolds

TerryandtheCuz

Tommy Schoffler

Tracy Bersley

Trevor Biship

Tyler Mercer

Wednesday Sue Derrico

Will Dagger

Will Davis

Will Detlefsen

Will Steinberger

Yojiro Ichikawa

Yoni Oppenheim

Zi Alikhan

Zoya Kachardurian

[jgroffdaily]

Merrily We Roll Along review summary Part 1

Peter Marks, Washington Post

Like precision code breakers, the team responsible for the revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” have cracked it.

The blessed contributions of Groff, Mendez and Radcliffe — in addition to Krystal Joy Brown, Katie Rose Clarke and Reg Rogers in crucial supporting roles — coalesce in a way that feels almost spiritual.

But when you’re hearing his music so beautifully realized — Radcliffe keeps up impressively with musical-theater prodigies Mendez and Groff — you grasp even more deeply the melodic and lyrical sophistication at work.

Groff’s transformation-in-reverse is a perceptive journey as well, from remorseful Hollywood sellout to star-struck starving artist, pressing his nose up against the window of fame and riches.

Ideally, this Broadway incarnation will be both a hit and a reflection of the higher aspirations of musical theater. It’s even tighter, funnier and more touching than what Friedman staged off-Broadway.

So much ingenuity. So much joyful creativity. So much for audiences to savor.

Kobi Kassal, Theatrely

Further, it's hard to go wrong when you have Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez above the title. The heart of the show lies with this trio whose genuine connection and truth shines out across the Hudson stage eight times a week. Groff, who has the charisma down pat, dazzles as Frank. When paired with Radcliffe’s Charley, filled with loveable charm, and Mendez’s Mary who is utterly gut-wrenching to watch as her true love slips away, this trio equals Broadway perfection.

Merrily marks the third Broadway revival of a Sondheim work since his death, in addition to the premiere of his final work, Here We Are, at The Shed. Many of his shows are beloved, but if you want a healthy dose of Broadway serotonin, get thee to the Hudson immediately. Truth be told, you don’t need to listen to the critics, and if you have gotten this far in the review, I think we are all on the same page. Some true theatre magic is happening on that stage, and for that we will forever be grateful.

Sara Holdren, Vulture

It’s possible for Frank to swing and schmooze his way through this scene as the worst version of himself: “Who says, ‘Lonely at the top’? / I say, ‘Let it never stop!’” he sings to his crowd of sycophants. But Groff is an actor who’s able to communicate hurt and humanity even through a carapace of ego and moral deficiency. (In this way he reminds me of Matthew Macfadyen: Who among us has any business feeling empathy for Tom Wambsgans? And yet …) All through Merrily’s opening scene, Groff’s eyes are dead hollows — deep, dark wells with reservoirs of tears way down at the bottom, threatening to make their way up. He smiles, he sings, his body propels itself around the room, and he’s not there. His Frank is the worst version of himself, but he knows it, and he’s terribly alone and afraid. Watching Groff — who, as the show moves forward and backward, becomes visibly younger: driven, yes, but also sweet and earnest, almost puppyish — I thought of Chekhov’s successful, unprincipled writer Trigorin, who tells his lover: “I haven’t got any willpower. I never have had … Go on, take me, take me away with you. But please, don’t ever let me out of your sight.” Groff makes clear that Frank’s is a tragedy of weakness, not simply of greed.

And Charley! As the twitching, high-integrity, high-anxiety writer, Radcliffe is a complete delight. Next to Groff’s Frank, who’s tall, square-shouldered, and — at least outwardly — self-possessed, Radcliffe is a vibrating sprite, the kind of person whose big brain you can practically see smoking as it spins.

The enlivening pulse created by Radcliffe, Mendez, and Groff gains strength and drive through the production’s rock-solid ensemble. Gilmour (also the costume designer) dresses them in softly period, unified swaths of color as the play moves back in time — blues, then beiges, then, in the lavish, La Dolce Vita–ish early ‘60s, in hard black and white. There’s something smart happening here: Groff, as Frank, wears varyingly sophisticated versions of the same white shirt and black trousers throughout the show, but at the top of Act Two, as Gussie (not yet his wife) seductively introduces him to “The Blob” — a pulsating swarm of influentials, “the ones who know everyone that everyone knows” — Frank’s clothes match the company’s for the first time. He is, whether consciously or not, getting sucked into something. No — it already has him.

Some shows can withstand miscasting — turns out, Merrily can’t. (It’s often said that the casting of very young actors was a large part of the original production’s failure.) Even the big producer, Joe Josephson, who can come off as a Hollywood hack with dollar signs for pupils, is brought a sense of hangdog appeal by Reg Rogers. You get the feeling that Josephson is affable at heart, tired in soul, and that even he might have had ideals once. Friedman’s great insight — perhaps owing to her own long career onstage — is to have sought out actors she, and we, can entirely trust, and to trust them. (It sounds simple. It’s not.) She locates the play’s potential to be caring rather than callous not on the page but in the specific human beings who are here, doing this thing, right now. A central trio as sensitive and superb as this one doesn’t just make Merrily more moving; it makes it much more fun. It even adds a faint glimmer of something resembling hope. If Frank can reconsider, then he may yet change. Or he may not. But either way, an actor must show us, as Groff does, a true encounter with the mirror. With their irresistible energy and chemistry, Mendez, Groff, and Radcliffe lift Merrily up, yet keep it grounded with real, apparent affection and emotional heft. They are the ones reviving the play, by revealing and jump-starting its heart.