With the release of the filmed version of the 2023 Broadway revival of the cult Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, the timing seems right for a rerun of this piece from last year. Unlike the Met Live and National Theatre Live productions, the film is not the record of a single performance but shot over three days and edited into one work. While that feels like cheating — it essentially gives the actors three takes to get it right, going against the entire idea of a live show — it does give a wider audience a look at a flawed vehicle that most are unlikely to see in person. Reviews of the film rendering have been mixed, but the production itself, based on the original London showing that I saw some years ago, was solid. It’s also a way for the producers to squeeze even more money out of the show after charging up to $899 per ticket on Broadway. Here is my take.
Category Archives: Musical
Yankee damns Yankees
- Yankee damns Yankees
10/12/25 (Sun)
It seems that the 1955 musical Damn Yankees is set to be the next sacrifice on the altar of woke. I was excited to hear that a revival of the show, one of the best of the Golden Age musicals, will be moving to Broadway after an apparently successful run in Washington DC. I saw the last revival twice in 1994 with a pitch-perfect Victor Garber as the devil, and it was a joy. I remember in previews when 104-year-old George Abbott, the original director four decades earlier, showed up in the audience to a standing ovation.
Fashion Freak Show
- Fashion Freak Show
9/12/25 (Fri)
Jean Paul Gaultier’s more-or-less autobiographical show, subtitled “The Exhibition”, has evidently been around for a few years, but I knew nothing about it when a friend called and tempted me with a free ticket. I assumed at first that it would just be a fashion show, but reviews from London and elsewhere suggested that it was a musical revue of sorts and were broadly positive. And I couldn’t argue with the price.
A Look Back: Hamilton
Hamilton is welcoming its 10th anniversary on Broadway on August 6 (coinciding here in Japan with the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing), so I thought I’d rerun my review of some years back. The NY Times and other outlets seem particularly taken by the musical’s use of race-blind (or, more accurately, race-conscious) casting, though it has always reminded me of the black characters in Get Out who are so desperate to be white. Also, its message of tolerance and love doesn’t seem to have reached some of its cast members.
In any case, I was more interested in the author’s view of history. Hamilton, portrayed in the show as an immigrant, was nothing of the kind: he was a white guy of British/French heritage who moved from one British colony (in the Caribbean) to another British colony (New York), where Thomas Jefferson and John Adams would equally have been “immigrants” prior to American independence, and was pretty stridently anti-immigration himself once the new nation was established. That rather undercuts the intended message of the show. It’s better enjoyed as a parody of history, and in that sense it’s great fun. Here’s my review.
Encores! 2026: Two Steps Back, One Step Forward
Encores! is taking two steps back, one step forward with the announcement of its 2026 season. The series suffered a previous attempt to go “relevant” in 2022 with “productions where artists reclaim work for our time through their own personal lens”, choosing two mediocre black-themed shows. The poor reception of those productions prompted a return in the following years to its original goal of presenting great theater.
Next year’s three offerings under new artistic director Jenny Gersten will be an all-black version of the much revived La Cage Aux Folles (1983), the haunted musical comedy High Spirits (1964), and George Wolfe’s short-lived The Wild Party (2000). (Separately, City Center will also present a gala revival of the off Broadway musical Bat Boy (1992).) Gerston notes that “all have narratives about understanding and respecting our differences” and stresses their importance “at a time when it’s so easy for us to get lost in our own echo chambers”. In particular, she says the black La Cage will “center voices that are also marginalized because of their background”.
Company (1995)
- Company (1995)
3/27/25 (Wed)
I had vague memories of Sam Mendes’ Donmar Warehouse production as rather overdone, but I do remember enjoying the performances, especially Adrian Lester as Bobby. When I learned that a filmed version had been broadcast, I immediately looked online and found it.
The director’s concept was to present the show as a figment of Bobby’s imagination, thereby establishing Bobby clearly as the central role rather than as an observer of others. Sondheim himself voices his approval in a video interview shown between acts. I have to say that the approach went over my head at the time and, even knowing the idea this time around, thought the director was taking things too seriously. The theme is not that difficult: does committing to someone mean losing oneself in the process (“Once you’re married, you can never again not have been married”), or is it offset by what we gain in companionship, i.e., company?
The musical stacks the deck against marriage by featuring battling, unhappy and even divorced couples – didn’t the writer know any happy pairs? – but the fact that they all remain together and still push Bobby to marry at the end suggests that they must see something in the arrangement, that the loss of freedom and such is compensated by something on the other side. Continue reading
Love Never Dies (Tokyo)
- Love Never Dies (Tokyo)
1/17/25 (Fri), Tokyo
This show, a sequel of sorts to Phantom of the Opera, flopped big time in London and again in a significantly rewritten version in Australia; it never made it to New York. The revised show has had more success in Tokyo, where it has played on several occasions since 2015. The theater in this opening-night performance appeared nearly full. The lead roles are all double- or triple-cast. For the opening, veterans Ichimura Masachiku (now well in his 70s) and Hirahata Ayaka are back as the Phantom and Christine. Interestingly the show is not being produced by Gekidan Shiki, which has made the Japanese Phantom an immense success for the past three decades, but by the smaller Horipro.
The setting is said to be ten years after the original musical (though there’s some confusion in the timeframe). The Phantom, who was left for dead in the original, has somehow survived with the help of Madame Giry and Meg and has moved from the Paris Opera to Coney Island – a good metaphor for the musical’s own journey. Continue reading
A Look Back: Premium tickets: Don’t bring us your poor
At this point, Broadway may as well rename itself Martha’s Vineyard. The NY Times reports this weekend that the still-previewing production of Othello with megastars Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal has a top price of $921 for a single seat and has attracted an average — average! — ticket price of $361.90. That’s before the show has even opened or been reviewed. Its lowest-priced ticket for full-view seats is $197, and even those seats are reportedly scarcer than usual.
Yes, it’s a star vehicle, the producers are simply responding to demand, costs are high, there are other lower-priced shows, and so on. But basically this is a show for the rich; the rest of America need not apply. While it’s heartening in a way that Shakespeare can command the highest prices on Broadway, the message that this is sending is going to drive away a large segment of the population, an ominous development for the industry. People may go to specific shows, and tourists will always be there. But is there going to be anything like a theatergoing habit in the future? Producers have created a cost structure that is going to strangle them in the end. Continue reading
Maybe Happy Ending
- Maybe Happy Ending
1/4/25 (Sat), Broadway
Korean culture, having triumphed in music (K-Pop), television (Squid Game) and film (Parasite), has now reached Broadway with this oddball musical set in Seoul in the near future. I had no intention of seeing musicals on this trip given the exorbitant prices and way too many disappointments, but the Asian origins proved irresistible, especially after its favorable critical reception. Word of mouth seems to be turning this quiet show into a sleeper hit. A Japanese version played in Tokyo a few years back, and I wish now that I had caught it.
Mrs. Doubtfire (musical)
- Mrs. Doubtfire (musical)
9/12/24 (Thurs), West End
I was wary of yet another musical retread from a beloved old film. In the movie, Robin Williams had a field day with the story of a divorced man who, granted only limited visitation rights with his children, disguises himself as a female nanny in a bid to stay close with them. It’s essentially the Robin Williams Show, so dominated by its central performance that it was hard to imagine how another actor could put his stamp on it. In any case, the musical was the unexpected choice of a friend, so I went along politely, albeit with expectations in check.
A Look Back: Merrily We Roll Along
Sourly We Roll Along
The notorious 1981 musical flop Merrily We Roll Along, known mainly to now for putting an end to the remarkable decade-long partnership between songwriter Stephen Sondheim and director Harold Prince, finally achieved Broadway success this year in a much-lauded revival of a revival imported from London. But claims that the show itself has finally found its audience seem far-fetched. Continue reading
Can-Can (1960 film)
- Can-Can
5/23/24 (Wed)
Walter Lang’s unfortunate 1960 adaptation of the Paris-based Broadway musical hit of seven years earlier. Continue reading
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