Two Wonderful Broadway Productions

Posted by Bruce Miller
I thought I'd write two last blog posts about Hannah's and my recent trip to NYC--this one covering the first two of the five shows we saw.

I know many of you may think we're insane to tackle five productions in three days. Of course, you're right. If we were in the city longer, or more frequently, we'd be happy to spread out the good times so that each show could steep a bit before it was time for us to gulp down the next.

Unfortunately we don't have that luxury. As it is, not only do we crowd five shows into too short a stay, we also leave town with five or ten shows we're eager, but unable, to fit in.

This trip, we flew into JFK on Friday morning, took the E train into Manhattan, shouted "Martha Newell" as our feet hit Broadway, and had lunch at Europa Cafe, a nice, simple and moderately-priced chain restaurant at the corner of Broadway and 53rd. We had an early check-in at the Edison, then made it to the ticket line by 3.

On most days, the TKTS booth in Times Square has one loooong line for musicals, and a very short line for plays. We wanted to see the revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, so we stood in the "Play Only" line for about 3 minutes before making to the window and buying our tickets for that evening's 8 pm performance--50% off.

A View from the Bridge is considered by many to be the last (and perhaps the least) of Miller's masterworks: All My Sons (1946), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge (1956). But I'll go see a lesser Miller masterwork any day of the week.

This production starred Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson. under Gregory Mosher's direction. Hannah and I both enjoyed the production a lot. Being a presumptuous nitpicker, I'd have to say that Liev Schreiber never quite let loose enough as Eddie Carbone, at least for my taste. The narrator, wonderfully played by Michael Christopher (playwright of The Shadow Box) says that he admired Eddie because he "let himself be completely known" (or some phrase very close to that). Eddie is a character of great Italian passion. To be honest, I thought Liev Schreiber always maintained a little bit of masculine reserve, never truly revealing that passion. But maybe that's just me.

Scarlett Johansson was understated and actually very good--not at all the starlet one might expect. In fact, the entire cast was terrific and both Hannah and I recommend the show without reservation.
On Saturday, we saw the matinee of A Little Night Music, for which we had purchased tickets in advance. Night Music is a sold out hit, and there's no chance it will be on the TKTS line anytime soon.

As I mentioned before, we both loved the production. If you want a broader take on Night Music, watch the "Word of Mouth" reviews on Broadway.com. Two of the three intelligent theatregoers loved the show as we did. The script, score and production left the third theatregoer cold.

Truth be told, the script and score are somewhat esoteric, and will not be to everyone's liking. I'm not trying to be pompous, but I'll go out on a limb and say that Night Music is a "thinking man's" musical.

If you are a reader, if you enjoy Masterpiece Theatre, if you look forward to seeing plays as well as musicals, if you enjoy language, then I think it likely that you'll love A Little Night Music.

If you would choose to see Hairspray, Nunsense, or Joseph...Dreamcoat for the third time rather than venture out to the revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, then Night Music may not be your cup of tea.

Regarding this production, anyone and everyone should go if for no other reason than to see Angela Lansbury in a career-defining performance. Granted, I saw and loved Lansbury as Mame, as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, and as Mama Rose in her revival of Gypsy (my favorite Gypsy, by the way). Her Night Music character, Madame Armfeldt, is a former courtesan approaching the end of her days. She observes the wild romantic antics of the other characters from a distance, recalling the artfulness of past romances, regretting the wantonness of "modern" society.

"Where is style, where is skill, where is forethought," she sings. This from an extraordinary actress who has personified style, skill and forethought throughout a nearly 60 year career. Not only is her current performance close to perfection, the resonance that her mere presence on stage adds to the proceedings turns this into a history-making moment that no theatre lover should miss.

Catherine Zeta-Jones, as Desiree, actually holds her own among exalted company. Now I'm sounding pompous again. Who the heck am I to even comment on great stars like Liev Schreiber and Catherine Zeta-Jones? I'll just say this. Her star power is undeniable. Her acting, singing and movement impress. Her's is a Desiree with whom it is easy to fall in love.

Personally, I think she's a little too young and gorgeous for a character whom I believe should be a bit closer to a turning point in life when she feels that her most attractive days will soon be behind her. Personally, she'll never erase my memory of the luminous Glynis Johns. Having said that, I enjoyed and respected her performance, and felt she contributed to the overall wonder of the show.

Trevor Nunn, who I think is a brilliant director, urges at least two of the supporting characters to be a little too broad, again, in my humble opinion. To me the characters are simple, but they are directed in this production also to be a bit buffoonish. Again, that is nitpicking.

I missed the eloquence and heightened formality of the grand dinner in Act II of the original production. When Henrik purposefully shatters his glass, it has less of an impact when it happens at a picnic on the lawn.

Also I missed the full orchestra of the original, but only to any measurable extent on A Weekend in the Country, the rousing finale to Act I.

What I LOVED was the spirit of the piece, and the production's commitment to the depth of a story which can easily be treated as frivolous fluff. I found it moving, thoughtful, and filled with romance and delight. Again, Hannah and I recommend it without reservation.

Soon I'll be back to talk about Ragtime, God of Carnage and Time Stands Still.

--Bruce Miller

Hunter Herdlicka Hits Homer with Henrik

Posted by Bruce Miller
Two of the friends Hannah and I stopped to visit on our recent theatre weekend in New York were actors in shows we went to see. Hunter Herdlicka plays Henrik in A Little Night Music, and the second friend appeared in the ensemble of Ragtime, which closed on Sunday.

I'm being presumptuous when I call Hunter Herdlicka a "friend," although I certainly now consider him to be one. Hunter was a classmate and friend of Zak Resnick's at Carnegie Mellon. When Zak appeared in Into the Woods in the summer of 2007, Hunter came down to Richmond to see the show. He loved it. He and I may have met during that visit; neither one of us is sure.

When Facebook entered the consciousness of guys in their 50s like me--not too long after Into the Woods--I decided it was in Barksdale's best interest for me to "keep in touch" not only with close personal friends, but also friends of friends--professional actors and other theatre artists who had the potential to work with us here in Richmond one day.

I "friend requested" Hunter and several other of Zak's classmates at Carnegie Mellon. I did the same thing with talented theatre students at other universities. I'd send a note with the "friend request" that went something like this: Hunter - I'm shamelessly networking on behalf of Barksdale Theatre, the leading professional theatre in Richmond VA. AEA SPT. I'm the artistic director. I'm trying to strengthen connections and communication with the national talent pool. Thanks.

Truth is, most of these young theatre artists are trying to strengthen their own connections, and so a lot of them accepted me as a friend. Now I know that being a Facebook "friend" isn't the same thing as being a real friend. But in a business where networking and contacts are really important, there's nothing disingenuous about casting a wide net among respected professional colleagues.

For example, when we were casting the role of Trevor in Thoroughly Modern Millie, I turned to my Facebook friends and found Tim Ford. We wound up casting him, he moved to Richmond for the summer, was terrific in the show, and won a Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical. Now he's a friend for real.

Anyway, back to Hunter. When he was cast in Night Music, I wrote him a Facebook message of congratulations. When Hannah and I were making plans to see Night Music, I messaged Hunter again and asked if Hannah and I could stop by after the show.

Part of what I'm after is maintaining my family of professional contacts. The other part of what I'm after is scoring dad points. If you're a freshman in college and interested in theatre, it's got to be at least a little cool to have a dad who knows people in the business.

After exchanging a few nice messages with me, Hunter suggested that Hannah and I approach the stage doorman after the show, mention his name, and come backstage to say hi. We did. He couldn't have been nicer. We talked a while about Barksdale and Into the Woods. Then he showed us all around the Night Music set--really crowded by the way, even more so than the notoriously crowded Empire. We stood onstage and looked out into the house. Once we were off the set, I took his picture with Hannah, and then we all headed out into the cold.

Hunter is now an official Friend of Barksdale, and friend of professional theatre in Richmond in general. I encourage all of you to try to catch his performance in A Little Night Music. Not only is he terrific in the show, he's a heck of a nice guy. I can't thank him enough for being so friendly and gracious.

The second friend we met at the stage door of Ragtime is a young man who first began working at Theatre IV when he was around eight years old. He did several shows with us as a child, and now he's on Broadway. We had a GREAT visit. I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Thanks to all of you for your support of Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV. We couldn't do it without YOU.

--Bruce Miller

My Favorite Musical

Posted by Bruce Miller
Ask anyone who knows me to name my favorite musical and they will say A Little Night Music. It's held the number one spot, with no serious competition, since that spring night in 1973 when I sat on the first row of the mezzanine, slightly house right of center, swept away by the original production and the original cast.

I was 22 years old. This, I thought, is what Broadway is all about.

The images that were burned into my psyche that evening will last, I hope, my lifetime. Glynis Johns, sitting alone on her white bed in that red dress singing Send in the Clowns absolutely broke my heart. And what followed on stage thereafter not only repaired my lovelorn passions, it all sent me out into the balmy night on a song, feeling wiser and deeper than I had felt when I walked into that theatre expecting only the opportunity to see a show.

I thought the entire cast, the direction and the design were exceptional. Mostly, the script, music and lyrics connected more deeply with my soul than any other musical before or since.

When I heard that Night Music was being revived on Broadway this season with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree and Angela Lansbury as her mother, I really wanted to go. Most particularly, I really wanted to take my daughter Hannah, the other theatre LOVER in my family. (Terrie and Curt put up with my passion for the stage, and faithfully attend play after play, but they have passions of their own that far outweigh theatre.)

This past weekend, Hannah and I spent four days and three nights seeing five Broadway shows, including A Little Night Music. I have no time to write about the trip or the show this morning, but let me say this. We both LOVED the revival.

Watching this very different production, I completely remembered everything that once captured my heart. Best of all, Hannah left the theatre saying this was now her favorite Broadway production. And meaning it. And she's seen a lot.

I look forward to writing more later, about the revival of Night Music, and our other visits to A View from the Bridge, Ragtime, God of Carnage and the new Donald Margulies play, Time Stands Still.

I'll also write about our visits with Barksdale/Theatre IV friends Zak Resnick, Mark Ludden, Hunter Herdlicka (starring as Henrik in A Little Night Music) Corey Bradley (making his Broadway debut in the ensemble of Ragtime, which closed on Sunday), and Lizzie Holland.

--Bruce Miller

Word of the Week - HALLOING

Posted by Hannah Miller
On Saturday March 22, the world wished a very happy 78th birthday to STEPHEN JOSHUA SONDHEIM, so this edition of Word of the Week is created in his honor. This week’s word is HALLOING.

Stephen Sondheim is one of the most respected composers and lyricists of the 20th century. He has won more Tony Awards than any other composer on Broadway. Sondheim developed his love for theatre and music after attending his first musical at the age of nine. He was hooked when the curtain rose and a piano was revealed.

Never fitting easily with his parents, Sondheim spent many afternoons learning from his “surrogate father,” Oscar Hammerstein II, of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame. The Hammersteins and the Sondheims lived near each other on the upper West Side of NYC. When Sondheim wrote By George, a musical for his high school, Hammerstein spent an entire day teaching him what he could do to make the musical better. In Sondheim’s words, he “learned more about songwriting and the musical theatre” in that one afternoon “than most people learn in a lifetime.” Sondheim continued his apprenticeship with Hammerstein until he left New York to attend Williams College in Massachusetts.

In 1957, Sondheim made history by writing the lyrics to West Side Story, and then to Gypsy in 1959. Though both of these shows brought him great success as a lyricist, Sondheim knew that what he really wanted to do was compose. Three years later, he received that opportunity and wrote both music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, another hit. His string of commercial success was broken in 1964 when he wrote Anyone Can Whistle, which lasted for only nine performances.

Sondheim went on, of course, to write other history-making hits such as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures and Sweeney Todd, all in partnership with director Hal Prince. He was disappointed by the short run of their next show, Merrily We Roll Along. Following this commercial flop, he considered quitting theatre to write murder mysteries. Instead he switched directors, breaking with Prince and teaming with James Lapine (pictured with Sondheim to the left), who not only directed his subsequent musicals but also wrote the books. The first Sondheim/Lapine triumph was Sunday in the Park with George (my favorite musical), based on the artistic genius of French painter Georges Seurat, the father of Neo-impressionism. Sunday in the Park is one of only seven musicals to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Other Sondheim/Lapine musicals include Into the Woods (produced at Barksdale last summer), Passion, and Assassins.

I study voice with Amy Hruska, and one of the songs she has me singing currently is Green Finch and Linnet Bird from Sweeney Todd. Inspired by the beautiful warbling of caged birds, the character of Johanna sings:

Green finch and linnet bird,
Nightingale, blackbird,
How is it you sing?
Whence comes this melody constantly flowing?
Is it rejoicing or merely HALLOING?
Are you discussing or fussing or simply dreaming?
Are you crowing?
Are you screaming?

When I first sang the word HALLOING, I assumed it meant something like “saying hello.” But this is Sondheim, so of course there are other layers of meaning. In 16th and 17th century England, to hallo or halloo was to shout an exclamation in a hunt when the quarry was spotted. In Coriolanus, Act I, Scene 8, Shakespeare writes, “If I fly, Marcius, halloo me like a hare.” Considering the plot of Sweeney Todd, certainly the birds were halloing when they spotted Johanna—or perhaps when they spotted the Judge.

Our word hello, issued as a greeting rather than a shout, dates from the mid-19th century, and fell into popular usage when Thomas Edison proclaimed it the appropriate way to greet someone when answering a telephone. Alexander Graham Bell preferred the phrase Ahoy, as used on ships. But by 1889, telephone operators were known as hello-girls due to the public acceptance of the Edison-inspired hello.

Today, Sondheim continues to write, create and inspire young admirers like me. His 2003 original musical Bounce has failed thus far to receive a NYC production. But in 2007, he composed incidental music for the Public Theatre production of King Lear, directed by Lapine. In that same year he had a bit part as himself on The Simpsons episode Yokel Chords.

--Hannah Miller