Last night I saw "Million Dollar Quartet" on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre. Most of the original cast is long gone, but the present cast is quite good. I especially liked Jared Mason who plays Jerry Lee Lewis and Christopher Ryan Grant (understudy) as Johnny Cash. The story is based on a night in 1956 when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins all show up at Sun Record studios and jam. The session was taped by Sam Phillips and is available on compact disc. The show was a short 1 hr. 40 minutes, but you get a large smattering of the hits of the time by these 4 recording stars. I found the show to be enjoyable but not very profound. It was directed by Eric Schaeffer from the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. On our last trip to Washington, we had the pleasure of meeting Eric at Extra Virgin Restaurant in Shirlington where Signature is located. This show is now playing in London also.
On Thursday night, we attended an evening devoted to Stephen Schwartz at City Opera entitled "Defying Gravity." It starred Kristin Chenowith, Raul Esparza, Victor Garber, and Anne Hampton Calloway. I really have a problem with the David Koch theatre at Lincoln Center. The sound system for these types of productions is pretty awful. You would think with the technology out there, that the sound would be much better. We saw a tribute to Leonard Bernstein there a while back and experienced the same problems. The evening was very short, only about an hour and a half, but there were some fun moments. Kristin sang "Lion Tamer" from Magic Show, Victor Garber reprised his movie role from Godspell, Anne sang "Meadowlark" from Baker's Wife, and Kristin and Raul did "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. Stephen came out at the end to do a couple of songs, which for me was the highlight of the evening. I have been a fan of his shows since I saw Godspell in Cleveland back in the early 70's. It's a shame that if you're honoring someone like Stephen Schwartz, that you don't bring in Patty Lupone to sing "Meadowlark," or Idina Menzel to reprise her role as the wicked witch of the West. Someday I expect to see a mega concert honoring Stephen Schwartz. This was not it!
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