Theater Digest - June 4, 2024
Theater Digest - June 4, 2024
New thoughts on Cabaret on the West End and Broadway and Jelly's Last Jam at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Hello theater lovers! I’m Katie, and I see a lot of theater! Currently, I’m seeing 0-2 shows a week, depending on my schedule. My apologies for the long delay since the last issue, but I’m seeing a lot in the coming weeks, so I’ll probably be sending out at least two more missives in June!
Since this newsletter is geared towards people in the entertainment industry, there's a good chance I won't like a show that you or someone you know was involved in. I'm sure that you/your friend put a lot of effort into your/their work! I've been in a few shows, I know how much work goes into putting on a show. But just as you're entitled to dislike TV shows your friends worked on, I'm allowed to dislike theater you/your friends may have worked on. I try not to be vindictive, but I also do make it clear when I don't think a show is worth the price of a ticket or the time spent watching it.
I won't be writing much/any synopsis in these blurbs, but feel free to check out other reviews for synopses! Or just check out other reviews in general! Keep theater journalism alive & well!
Worth seeing:
Six on Broadway [NY], and on the West End [London]. Read my thoughts on it here!
Mac King Comedy Magic Show at Excalibur [Vegas]. Read my thoughts on it here!
Magic Mike Live in Las Vegas and London [Vegas/London]. Read my thoughts on it here!
A Mixed Bag:
Cabaret on the West End [London] and on Broadway [NY]. I quite like Cabaret as a musical, and I really enjoyed director Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Summer and Smoke in 2018, but this production felt more like a collection of images and ideas than a coherent show. Individual elements are stunning (especially Tom Scutt’s set and Isabella Byrd’s lighting), and I appreciated the intimate setting of the piece, but it overall felt like a misfire. For me, Cabaret has both the fortune and misfortune of having a phenomenal revival that looms large in the public consciousness (Sam Mendes’ production, which started in London and the US in the 90s, and played in the US in from 98-04, and then again in the 10s). It’s difficult for any production of Cabaret to differentiate itself from that one, and Frecknall makes a valiant effort, but to me, doesn’t succeed. At the performance I attended, Nic Myers, who covers the role, was on as Sally Bowles, and she was quite good, a strong singer brimming with manic energy she wears like a suit of armor. Luke Treadaway’s Emcee, however, was where I felt the shadow of the Mendes production most glaringly; there was no undercurrent of danger in his portrayal, something that was so palpable when Alan Cumming was in the role. Where this production most succeeds is in the way is lulls the audience into a rapt sense of complacency; the people around me seemed genuinely shocked to learn Ernst is a Nazi, and that this isn’t just a show set in Berlin in the 1930s, but a show about Nazis. I think it’s worth seeing if the price is right to you (and there are more reasonably priced tickets in London than New York currently), but it’s difficult for me to recommend spending top dollar for it.
Open-ended runs on the West End and on Broadway.
Jelly’s Last Jam at the Pasadena Playhouse [LA]. This is a very strong production of a challenging musical. Worth seeing at the right price if you like jazz and/or tap, but as vivacious as the musical elements are, it’s difficult watching a musical about a racist person who is actively being racist. There’s no arch glee you’d find in musicals about anti-heroes like Sweeney Todd, nor does the show sanitize Jelly Roll Morton’s legacy, like 1776; instead, it’s just bleak.
My full review for Stage Raw here.
Closes June 23 in Los Angeles.
Back to the Future on the West End [London] and on Broadway [NY]. Read my thoughts on it here!
Mad Apple at New York New York [Vegas]. Read my thoughts on it here!
Hadestown on tour and on Broadway [NY]. Read my thoughts on it here!
& Juliet on Broadway [NY]. Read my thoughts on it from when I saw it in London in 2019 here!
The Play That Goes Wrong off-Broadway and on the West End [NY/London]. Read my thoughts on the 2019 tour national tour here, or my full review for Stage Raw here.
Not worth it:
The Lonely Few off-Broadway [NY]. Read my thoughts from when I saw it in LA in 2023 here!
On my radar:
Mamma Mia: The Party in London
Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway
Stereophonic on Broadway
Suffs on Broadway
Reefer Madness in Los Angeles
Mrs. Doubtfire on tour
A Strange Loop on tour
Tiny Father at the Geffen
The Hollywood Fringe Festival
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