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Melody Breyer-Grell via Huffington Post Arts: Sometimes I think it is much more fun to go to the circus as an adult, rather than a child.  You can get your own program, treats and novelties without begging your harried parents.  You can even sport a red sponge clown nose - as my spouse and I did, though he won out by hailing a cab with it still on! I was appalled though, when one of my colleagues spotted me tearing through my blue cotton candy in what I thought was a private moment, while my clown was out getting some air! This kind of surprise sighting can occur at The Big Apple Circus anytime, due to its intimacy and human scale.   With just one ring to pay attention to, nothing gets lost and the humor and intensity are magnified in this simple setting.

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Sleuths and private detectives seeking long-lost gems from Broadway’s past, stolen away by time and the fates and proven-wrong theories and assumptions that befall shows that failed on Broadway, need look no further thanGreenwich Village.  There on the stage of The Duplex Cabaret Theatre is just that: Drat! The Cat! This is a 45-year-old musical that happens to be about the search for stolen gems and the thief who is not the usual suspect just wants to give you some smiles that are broad via humor that is pretty broad, a Broadway short-lived resident that’s very much worth dusting off to find that much still shines.  

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Melody Breyer-Grell via Huffington Post Arts: Originally, I learned of the existence of Evening Primrose from a recording of "I Remember" as sung by jazz diva, Diane Reeves. It should  not have come as a surprise that the song was originally from a musical, since so many jazz standards do come by way of the theatre.

But Evening Primrose is a totally unique piece, since it was a one hour TV musical, aired once, and never seen again on stage or TV.  But collectors have their ways, and pirated copies made the rounds.  I was first exposed to snippets of the TV version ala my favorite research tool, YouTube.

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Let me break the news quickly upfront, Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown is not a good show. Based on the brilliant and timeless Almodovar classic 80’s sex romp film, the Broadway show is a sanitized, flavorless and forgettable attempt at a Broadway musical. The producers seem to be following the school that brought us the similarly terrible Addams Family musical. Fill the stage up with proven talent, use source material that has already worked in film, take no real original chances and ask the audience to pay $120 a seat for manifested mediocrity.

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David Westheimer's play My Sweet Charlie is one of those scripts that, for some reason, has persistently fallen through the cracks of theatre history since its controversial Broadway debut in 1966. Initially, it starred Louis Gossett in the title role of the eloquent Black attorney on the lam, and Bonnie Bedelia as the young pregnant squatter Marlene, who become closer than close by sheer circumstance. The play has an interesting background; the role of Marlene was initially offered to Patty Duke, who was unable to accept the challenge because at the time she was in a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital suffering from emotional exhaustion, and because Bedelia had been her understudy on the short-lived play Isle of Children, she won the role.

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Going, going, gone.  The NYMF glut of stage musicals ended on Sunday, October 17.  With just three weeks of jam-packed scheduling, even the main fully-staged shows only have about half a dozen performances and aren’t spread out over the entire three weeks, but clustered closer.  And some other events have even more telescoped “runs.”  A couple were literally “here today, gone tomorrow” and even “here today, gone tonight.”  However, one of the goals of such festivals is to give exposure, so we’re giving exposure; another goal is that shows will reappear after that exposure and what can be learned from getting a show on its feet in front of a live audience.  Tweak, tweak, tweak….scribble-scribble-scramble with rewrites when needed, nips and tucks, maybe re-casting or casting light on new aspects and …who knows?  There are interested producers out there and determined creators.  Here are some reactions to those (for the moment) shows that seemed to come and go in a moment, but their moments may come again any moment now.  We may be talking about them again.

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NYMF 2010 Reviews of Trav’lin and The Great Unknown. At first glance, no two musicals seem less alike than Trav’lin and The Great Unknown, both included in the 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Trav’lin has an original storyline built around the period songs of Harlem Renaissance songwriter, J.C. Johnson. Set in the 1930s, its music is jazz/blues, its tone comic and carefree. The Great Unknown has an original score by Jim Wann with an historically based storyline depicting the 1839 expedition led by John Wesley Powell down the Colorado River to the Grand Canyon. Its music is bluegrass/country/folk, its tone stately and serious. Yet, they share a trait all too common in modern musicals. At this point in their development, their scores, casts and staging are effective and generally winning. Their books (storyline, structure and dialogue) … aren’t. And, as the history of American Musical Theatre tells us, if a show’s book doesn’t work, neither does the show, no matter how strong its other elements are.

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3 More NYMF shows closing this weekend as the theatre festival finishes. As the annual New York Musical Theatre Festival approaches the end of its 40-event cycle -- closing on Sunday, October 17 – it’s more apparent than ever that there are all kinds of ways to tell a story with songs in all styles.  Here are three more.  Diversity is king.  Long live the king.  See www.NYMF.org for tix and more info.  Hurry, hurry.

Fingers and Toes is a very entertaining, smile-inducing show with talented folks playing talented folks putting together a song-and-dance show under a tight deadline.  The pressure is also on for two people running for US President in Vote for Me, a satirical romp taking place mostly during a televised debate where we hear what goes on in their heads and what’s been put in their heads.  And, thanks to a therapist and the writers of Above Hell’s Kitchen, we also get inside the head of a rock singer led by his libido and his manger to different places, in a tale using the Don Juan/Don Giovanni story as a reference point.

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Melody Breyer-Grell via Huffington Post Arts THE TOWN HALL’S Sixth Annual Broadway Cabaret Festival October 15^th, 16^th and 17^th.   I am happy to announce that I will be the girl reporter covering this high end gathering of singers and song created by the prolific Scott Siegel and prodcued by the ever relevant institution, The Town Hall, NYC. Siegel has been more responsible for keeping classic show music alive in this city than any single entity that comes to mind. In a welcome break from the “Disneyfication Group, USA,” he gives us the opportunity to partake of just the good stuff.  The very scope and variety of Scott’s shows are prodigious. He seems to delight in regaling the public with icons, such as Betty Buckley and Michelle Lee, while just as importantly, finding and showcasing the genuinely gifted young talent out there – young adults who are ready for Broadway and more.  His events are always a hot ticket in a city with a seemingly endless array of programming.