Results tagged “newyorkmusicaltheatrefestival”

Let's face it, this weekend was made for bonding with your couch, napping and eating leftovers. But if you really want to go against the flow, here are some things to get you out of the house...

Do you like show tunes? Do you like American Idol? Do you like watching the desperate hand of hope brush ever so close to success - only to be publicly smacked away? Then set “Celebrity Duets” to Tivo and come join the fun at “Broadway Idol”, the main event of the New York Musical Theatre Festival party series.

With the New York Musical Theatre Festival in its final week, we’ll say no more other than to encourage you to try to get to one of the shows if you haven’t already (or if you have!). Gothamist caught Karen Mason bringing Dorothy Parker back from the dead in You Might As Well Live, a solo performance comprised almost entirely of Parker’s words set to music (Norman Mathews did the music and adaptation). Mason was the first Tanya (whichever ABBA member that is, we always get confused) in Mamma Mia! on Broadway and has plenty of other major shows under her belt, so you go in expecting top-notch singing and she doesn’t disappoint; however, the storyline is a tad flimsy (Parker is on deadline, trying to find old bits of her writing to publish in a collection) and too often seems structured around nothing more than the aim to include Parker’s choicest epigrams (you can lead a horticulture…). Still, the atmosphere evoked by the set is pleasingly noirish, and while Mason’s voice has evidently not been roughed up the way Parker’s must have been, given the quantities of alcohol and cigarettes Parker used, that’s probably a good thing – it’s lovely to listen to her give life to Parker’s witticisms. Side note: Playbill.com has a good recent interview with Mason.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival is waltzing into its second week without flagging – there are at least as many intriguing offerings now as when we wrote last week. But first, take note that the festival has clearly learned from the Fringe’s example, at least in some ways, including the idea of scheduling events that aren’t simply staged musicals. For the last week, for example, there were screenings of movie musicals; starting Thursday you can see compilations of classic TV musicals. There are also reading-only events, singing-only events, and various panels and seminars – the full listing is in the program PDF. Or perhaps you do want to see a real show, but not one that’s pulling out all the stops in an effort to land financing for a more permanent run. The NYMF folks don’t seem to be the kind to view that as heresy, nor to take umbrage at having fun poked at them – at least, if they were, they probably wouldn’t have partnered with Dixon Place for the Warning: Not For Broadway series, or taken the improv group The Pearl Brunswick into their fold of performances. The Not for Broadway shows start Thursday at the Marquee; some cleave faithfully to the idea in the series’ title (can you imagine Olsen Terror, which is about an insomniac who realizes he’s turning into…um…the Olsen Twins…on Broadway? Not that it wouldn’t be sweet to see) while at least a couple others really could go big-time (we can’t wait to see how Gary Plotkin has adapted Roald Dahl’s wonderful children’s novel The BFG). Other shows fall in between, such as Tuesday, Brett Macias and Caroline Murphy’s musical about a day in the lives of 7 high school sophomores, and Janine McGuire and Emily Paul’s Wake Her Up, which brings some of the Greek gods into the 21st century club scene (hardly a stretch of the imagination, really).

As Gothamist emerges from Fringe madness, there’s a bit of catching up to do. So today we bring you ideas about what shows to see next, and a review of one of them, Revolution Row, which aims to bring liberals’ bad dreams to life by showing what things might be like if religious conservatives get what they want.

Gothamist had a blast at the two shows we checked out at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. First up was Top Gun The Musical, which sent up the crass commercial tactic of taking really dumb movies and turning them into musicals. Authors Denis McGrath and Scott White were inspired by a party game where a group of friends were trying to come up with the worst possible movie musical adaptation idea possible. Apocalypse Now was in the lead, until someone came up with Top Gun.

Are you tired out from the onslaught of summer theatre festivals? Still got enough to juice for a closing song and dance number?