NYC Theater Trip 2025: "Redwood" at The Nederlander Theatre

Show*: 2

Title: Redwood

Location: The Nederlander Theatre

Written By: Tina Landau (book and lyrics) and Kate Diaz (music and lyrics)

Summary: A woman travels to Redwood National Park and learns to climb the trees as a way to process an unimaginable grief.

NYC 2017 Trip: "Dear Evan Hansen" at the Music Box

Show*: 3

Title: Dear Evan Hansen

Location: The Music Box

Written By: Steven Levenson (book), Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (music and lyrics)

Summary: A brilliant new, original, and thoroughly modern musical about grief, loneliness, the pain of growing up, and finding connection in the social media age.

"The Threepenny Opera" at Atlantic Theater Company Off-Broadway

Prior to my annual theater week in NYC this year, I had never seen the Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill ground-breaking opera The Threepenny Opera, and was unfamiliar with the music, except of course for the standard "Mack the Knife." But in a strange coincidence, I will see it twice in a little over a week - at the Atlantic Theater Company Off-Broadway in NYC as well as a production by Frank Theatre in Minneapolis. I'm happy to have the opportunity to see it twice; it's not an easily accessible piece of music-theater but it's worth the effort.

First produced in 1928 in Berlin, The Threepenny Opera tells the story of a criminal/mobster/thief named Macheath (aka Mack the Knife) in Victorian London. When Mack marries the daughter of his rival Mr. Peachum, head of the beggers, Mr. Peachum retaliates by trying to get Macheath arrested and hung. Despite Mack's many crimes, it's not an easy task since the police chief is Mack's buddy. But eventually, Mack is jailed and about to be hung when he's suddenly miraculously freed. The story is told through a series of vignettes and songs, with each character getting their moment to be heard.

Laura Osnes and Michael Park

The Threepenny Opera is gorgeously staged at the intimate Atlantic Theater Company stage in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC. The wonderful orchestra is placed in a little room at the back of the stage, alternately hidden and revealed by a drawn curtain. At the front of the stage is another curtain, but not a typical luxurious theater curtain, just canvas hanging on a wire that is opened and closed manually by the cast as the scene requires. Clutter resides on the edges of the mostly bare stage with furniture moved in when necessary - tables, chairs, a jail cell. The costumes are gorgeous, from the pristine finery on Mack and his bride Polly to the mismatched rags worn by the prostitutes Mack visits. (Set by Robert Israel and costumes by Donna Zakowska.)

This is a wonderful cast, including TV/film/stage vet F. Murray Abraham as Mr. Peachum and Mary Beth Peil as Mrs. Peachum (see also Follies). I was thrilled to see Michael Park as Macheath, since I've long been a fan of him on stage (his voice is on the original cast recordings of Smokey Joe’s Café and Violet, and I saw him in How to Succeed a few years ago) and screen (his Emmy-winning performance as Jack on the dear departed soap As the World Turns). This is a great role to showcase his many talents; his Macheath is a charming rogue with a sinister presence on stage that can silence or beguile with just one look, and his voice is divine! Minnesota's own Broadway star Laura Osnes sings like an angel as Polly Peachum. She's come a long way since I last saw her seven and a half years ago on the Chanhassen stage as Sandy in Grease, becoming a regular on the Broadway boards and racking up two Tony nominations. I'm so proud of her success and happy I finally got to see her perform in NYC, and meet her and chat about Minnesota theater. The entire ensemble is just wonderful, especially Sally Murphy as Jenny, Mack's one-time love who turns him in.

Atlantic Theater Company's production of The Threepenny Opera is seedy, sexy, raw, earthy, and gorgeously staged and sung by the talented cast. I'm so grateful I had the chance to see it during it's two-month run, and I'm looking forward to seeing The Threepenny Opera again soon back home in Minnesota.

"The Sound of Music" Live on NBC

On Thursday December 5 NBC broadcast a musical live on TV, which hasn't been done (so they say) in 50 years. It was much more common in the '50s; e.g., Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote Cinderella for TV and it was originally broadcast live. I think it's an intriguing idea, even if something gets lost in the transmission. So intriguing that I watched it live (I almost never watch TV live anymore) and live-commented on the Cherry and Spoon Facebook page. You can read my commentary in the bulleted list below, but first, my overall thoughts on the show.

Let me preface this by saying that The Sound of Music is one of my all time favorite movies and musicals. When I was a kid back in the dark ages before cable TV or even VCRs, the 1965 Julie Andrews classic was one of the movies that was constantly on TV, so I saw it a million times as a kid and loved it. In high school, I was in the pit orchestra for my high school production of the musical, and it was such a thrill to play that familiar music on my clarinet and develop a whole new appreciation for it, as well as sit in the pit for every rehearsal and performance. Finally, I spent four months living in Salzburg studying abroad, which makes the movie even more beloved to me because of the nostalgia for that beautiful city, which I was lucky enough to call home for a short period of time. Because of all of these things, I'm extemely biased towards loving any production of The Sound of Music, and this is no exception (which doesn't mean I can't see the faults in this production, well at least some of them).

The good:

• Let's start with the best part of the show - the divinely talented 5-time Tony-winner Audra McDonald as the Mother Abbess. Obviously she sounded beyond amazing in the always-thrilling "Climb Every Mountain," but it was her acting chops that made every one of her scenes a cut above the rest. 

• Carrie Underwood has a gorgeous voice, and sounded beautiful singing these songs.
• Broadway vet Laura Benanti (previously known to me only from her recurring role in Royal Pains, a light and fun show that has the benefit of filming in the NYC area and hiring lots of theater actors as guests) as the Baroness Schrader was so effortlessly good that I was hoping for her to end up with the Captain. Which is also a bad thing because that's not the way the story is supposed to go.
• Recent Tony winner Christian Borle was an absolute delight as Max, one of my favorite characters and the acerbic comic relief in the show. He elevated every scene he was in (although he might have benefited from an in-studio audience, see below).
• Every one of the seven children playing the Von Trapp kids did a fantastic job. Great job by the casting department to find this collection of unknowns that became a family.

• The best scenes were the ones that featured the children, or these three:

• Yes the mountains and the trees looked fake, but that didn't bother me, it almost made it feel more like a classic '50s televised musical. I thought the Von Trapp family home was beautiful, with clever transitions between stages.

The bad:

• There's no way around it, Carrie Underwood is not an actor. I don't blame her, she tried her best to do the job she was hired to do, and I thought the singing part of the job was practically flawless. But when you hire a non-actor to act, you can't really be surprised when you get a stiff and emotionless performance. The most important thing in musical theater is not the music but the story. If you can't feel for the characters and become invested in the story, it doesn't matter how beautiful the music is.
• A big part of live theater is the audience, witnessing something special in the presence of others and hearing their reactions mingle with yours. The jokes and dramatic moments fall a little flat in a completely silent studio, with nothing but thin air to greet the performances.

The ugly:

• Come on, you know me, I'm not going to say anything was ugly!

All in all I think this was a successful experiment (with huge ratings), but like all experiments, lessons must be learned to improve the next iteration. I would love to see NBC do this again next year (they already have the sets and costumes and have figured out the logistics, so it's sure to be much cheaper). My suggestion for casting the leads - look no further than the other actors in the cast. Laura Benanti has played Maria on stage and proven herself in this unique genre, so I'd love to see her take on the role next year. As the captain I would cast Michael Park, who played the party guest who delivered the classic line "I'm not a German, I'm Austrian!" A veteran of TV and the stage, Michael can be funny and charming, as well as stern and forceful, and has a beautiful voice. Audra should continue to play the Mother Abbess as long as she's willing, and Christian should play Max in every production of The Sound of Music ever. And have a big casting call for the kids every year to give fresh new talent an opportunity to shine. Yes, I'd love to see this become an annual event.

So here it is, my live commentary:

• It's time! Turn on your TV, friends, The Sound Of Music is about to start, live from a studio on Long Island! It's been almost 15 years since I've seen it on stage, but before that I was in the pit orchestra for my high school production (clarinet), so we'll see how much I remember about the stage version. If I recall correctly, the show opens with some beautiful chanting in the convent.
• It's Audra McDonald! Here's an awkward stage door photo with her after The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess on Broadway last year, when I said a bunch of rambling gushing things about how much I love her. She's won 5 Tonys.

• One of my favorite lines. "Religious life is no place for the pious." "You mean the pretentiously pious."
• Carrie's a better actor when she's singing.
• It's Vampire Bill! I mean, Captain Von Trapp. I wonder how long before I'll stop waiting for his fangs to pop out?
• Did you catch that, kids? "I wasn't in the Imperial Navy." "Too bad, you could have made a fortune." 
• How cute are those kids? Fun fact: Kurt is played by a young man named Joe West, whose parents Maura West and Scott Defrietas met on the set of the dear departed soap As the World Turns, where she played Carly (and won several Emmys) and he played Andy. Maura is currently appearing on General Hospital as Ava.
• Rolf's kind of dreamy, isn't he? Until he turns into a Nazi. Don't you hate it when the guy you're crushing on turns into a Nazi?
• Here's a difference between stage and movie versions - "Lonely Goatherd" instead of "My Favorite Things." Poor Carrie, each one of those kids is a better actor than she is!
• The hilarious and talented Tony-winner Christian Borle! Perfect casting for Max.
• I have a feeling I'm going to be rooting for Elsa (Tony-winning actor Laura Benanti) instead of Maria to win Georg's heart.
• "I'm not a German, I'm Austrian!" That's the wonderfully talented and super sweet actor Michael Park, three-time Emmy winner and Broadway actor. Here's a photo of Michael and I on the set of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying a few years ago. (For more of that story, see: http://www.cherryandspoon.com/2011/09/how-to-succeed-in-business-without.html)

• Best moment of The Sound Of Music so far - Audra McDonald singing "Climb Every Moment." Chills!!
• I call a foul! In the original stage musical Georg and Maria sang a song called "An Ordinary Couple." "I Must Have Done Something Good" was written for the movie. "An ordinary couple, is all I long to be, for all I want of living is to keep you close to me. To laugh and sing together, as time goes on its flight, to kiss you every morning and to kiss you every night. An ordinary couple." (wow, that came right back to me after 20+ years)
• Response from Jennifer Eckes (who knows a thing or two about musical theater trivia, as seen in Pop-Up Musical): "I think the general consensus is that "Something Good" is the better song, much like "You're the one that I Want" always gets used in productions of GREASE since the movie. Plus it is easier for the singers to sing."
• I lived in Salzburg for four months when studying abroad, so one of my favorite parts of watching the movie is pointing out the geographical inconsistencies (e.g., if you climb the mountains outside Salzburg, you end up in Germany, not Switzerland). I went back to Salzburg a few years ago and took the Sound of Music tour and saw lots of filming locations. The church where the wedding was filmed is not in Salzburg, but a little town outside of Salzburg. Mondsee I think?
• The sets and costumes are quite lovely. The outdoor scenery looks pretty fake, but it's impossible to recreate the beauty of Salzburg in a studio!
• The city of Salzburg. Wunderschön!

• In musical theater, I think it's better to cast a good actor who's not a great singer (Stephen Moyer) than a good singer who's not a great actor (Carrie Underwood). I can forgive vocal imperfections if the emotions of the character are there, but if the character's not there, it doesn't matter how beautiful the singing may be.
• Why is Rolf still wearing shorts when they're all bundled up in coats, hats, and scarves?
• Well that's it folks, the three-hour event that was The Sound Of Music LIVE is over, and we made it through! Thanks for playing everyone, this was fun! I'll have more thoughts tomorrow, but in general I think it was a success, with the exception of the horrible miscasting of poor Carrie Underwood. And it made me realize that a big part of live theater is the audience. Without someone to laugh, applaud, or otherwise react, it falls a little flat. The highlights were Audra McDonald who sounded incredible, and Christian Borle who was just delightful as Max. The kids were all great too, and logistically everything seemed to go off without a hitch. A fascinating experiment in live televised theater. I hope they learn from it (lessen one: cast theater actors) and do it again!

"How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying" at the Al Hirshfield Theatre on Broadway

Last Saturday was my favorite kind of day: a two-show day in NYC. First, a stunning production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies. Followed by the fun, energetic, thoroughly entertaining How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, complete with a post-show backstage tour (more on that later). It doesn't get much better than that!

How to Succeed is the second Frank Loesser musical I've seen this year.  The first was Guys and Dolls, and I can definitely see similarities in the songs, structure, and setting.  How to Succeed is set in a workplace in the 60s. Sort of like a dancing and singing Mad Men, without all the angst and serious consequences of the gender and racial inequities of the time. The costumes are fabulous, with the men in slim-cut suits with skinny ties, and the women in mod sheath dresses with matching hats and bags. The character of Rosemary alone has at least a half dozen of these dresses, all in various shades of pink! The backdrop of the set is a sort of honeycomb, with changing colors in the cells, which also house dancers for some numbers.  The set is comprised of an intricate series of moving pieces that represent different areas of the office.  I was particularly impressed by an overhanging ledge that popped out of the side and supported a desk and many people.

The plot of the show follows a young man named J. Pierrepont Finch who manages to climb the corporate ladder in a short time by manipulating situations and impressing the right people; he's like Eddie Haskell of the business world.  The young man is of course played by Daniel Radcliffe (you may have heard of him from his role in a little movie franchise).  He gives an amazing performance and really leads the show.  The fact that at the height of his career, when he could have done anything he wanted to, he chose to do musical theater on Broadway, is a pretty cool thing in my book.  And he doesn't just rest on his laurels as a "big star;" he's worked really hard to learn the singing and dancing this role requires, and it shows.  This is not easy choreography; it's intense and driving and relentless.  In one number he's being carried and twisted and turned through the air, in another he's stamping letters and effortlessly tossing boxes around the mail room (one of which ended up in the audience, and whoever caught it was not giving it back!), not to mention leading the ensemble in the showstopper, "Brotherhood of Man."  I was more impressed than I expected to be by a "movie star," and I'm looking forward to watching his career grown on stage and screen.

The rest of the cast is just as amazing as its lead, from the secondary characters to the last member of the ensemble.  John Laroquette (who won the Tony for this role) plays the president of the company, and his comedic skills are used quite well.  I wonder how many of his funny little ticks and gestures have been added as he continues to perform the role.  He and Dan have great chemistry as boss and favorite employee. Rose Hemingway plays Finch's love interest Rosemary (she of the multiple pink dresses) with a sweet earnestness that makes you believe she really would be "Happy to Keep his Dinner Warm."  Christopher J. Hanke plays the boss' nephew and Finch's nemesis, and really hams it up (in a good way).  Last but not least, one of my favorite soap actors Michael Park (Emmy-winner for his role as Jack on the dear departed As the World Turns, who's also a veteran of the stage) brings his charisma and talent to the role of sycophantic personnel manager Mr. Bratt.  From his previous soundtracks (Smokey Joe's Cafe, Violet) I knew he could sing, but he's a pretty smooth dancer too.  I have a mutual friend with Michael, who arranged for my theater buddy and me to meet up with him after the show, which led to my amazing backstage experience.


looking out from the empty stage at the Al Hirshfield Theatre

Unlike the other shows I've posted this week, this playbill only has one autograph on it.  That's because this show has the craziest stage door I've ever seen.  If you go see a Broadway show and want to say hello to the cast, it's pretty easy to find the stage door, wait ten minutes, and get autographs from the entire cast as they leave the theater.  But not this show.  There were cops, barricades, and more people than I've ever seen at a stage door.  They were all there to see Daniel (and maybe John), which is unfortunate because the fabulous ensemble members snuck out and away without anyone really noticing.  Fortunately, we were on the guest list so we were escorted past the waiting crowds right up to the door, where Michael greeted us and led us inside.  We walked a few feet, and suddenly we were on the stage! 


with Michael Park (Mr. Bratt) in the elevator on the set of
How to Succeed

Ironically, the stage at the Al Hirshfield Theatre is the one Broadway stage I've previously been on, when I saw HAIR there twice last year and danced with the hippies on stage after the show.  But this was different.  The theater and stage were completely empty, except for us and a few cleaning people.  Michael showed us some of the parts of the set and what moves where.  He very kindly talked to us for quite a while.  He only had great things to say about Daniel, both as a person and a performer.  Dan walked across the stage while we were standing there talking, and we exchanged nods.  He went outside accompanied by screams, and when we left the crowd had mostly dissipated.  We walked home on a high from our fabulous day of theater in NYC, capped by a once in a lifetime backstage experience.  Thanks Michael!

How to Succeed is definitely a great choice if you're in NYC and want a fun, entertaining, classic musical theater experience.  Daniel leaves the show on January 1, to be replaced by one of my favorite Glee kids Darren Criss.  He'll play the role for three weeks, followed by a Jonas brother (no comment).  If I were you, I'd make every effort to see the show this year, or in January.  But with this huge and talented cast, the incredible choreography, and great music, it's sure to be a fun time for the rest of its run on Broadway.