Results tagged “achorusline”

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

Voyage, Tom Stoppard’s first installment in the three play Coast of Utopia series, crowned a month of breathless Times hype with a gushing Brantley rave. But good old Tommy “Can’t Stop; Won’t” Stoppard – famous for his perfectionism – still ain't satisfied. According to Michael Riedel, Stoppard has been staking out Lincoln Center during intermission and confronting any audience member with the temerity to jump ship during the (nearly) three hour tour. According to Riedel, the exchange usually goes something like this:

Playbill reported yesterday that South Pacific, the only Rodgers & Hammerstein musical not yet revived, will be back next year. No surprise there – every other hit show from the 20th century has had a second stint now, so it’s more a wonder that this one has taken so long. A Chorus Line just closed in 1990 and is already scheduled to reappear this fall; there are even rumors of Cats embarking on a second life in the not-too-distant future, and it only closed in 2000. This is why we would keep going to off-off-Broadway shows even if we could afford the big tickets: while there are certainly plenty of small troupes that perform from a standard repertoire of old classics, these are often adapted beyond recognition, and in general at any given time there are far more brand-new works than warmed-over, recycled stuff.

It took almost 18 years, but after its 7,486th performance last night (photo of the crowd from above from Rion), the Phantom of the Opera became Broadway's longest running show, surpassing Cats. After originally opening in London, Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Phantom' made it to Broadway's Majestic Theater on January 26, 1988. Now trailing 'Phantom' on the list is Lloyd Webber's Cats, Les Miserables, A Chorus Line and Oh! Calcutta. Frankly, we're a little disappointed that we don't see Starlight Express on that list because we loved it! It was also a Lloyd Webber classic.

Pauline Millard, Writer/Mezzo Soprano