5/28/2011 Sister Act and Lucky Guy

We went to see Lucky Guy Thursday night at the Little Schubert theatre on 42nd Street. It stars Varla Jean Merman and Leslie Jordan. This is a musical about a young man who writes a song Lucky Guy foa contest in a local Nashville radio station and wins the contest. He comes to Nashville to record his song, but is greeted by Big Al, a shyster used card salesman played by Leslie Jordan (from Will and Grace). Varla Jean plays an over the top washed up country singing star. Leslie plays his usual schtick but has such a great fun way of eating up the scenery. But Marla Jean is fabulous as the diva. This seems to be a vanity production since it is written, produced and directed by Willard Beckham. I understand that the show is going to close this weekend. The music was not great, but it was a lot of fun. There seems to be a curse on the Little Schubert theatre. It is a nicely appointed theatre, but shows don't seem to have a very long run there.

Unfortunately, this show closed two days after we saw it. There was an article written in the New York Times about the financial loss to the producers a couple of days later.

On Friday night we joined our friends Kevin and David to see Sister Act. Both Bill and I had seen it in London and thoroughly enjoyed it. It stars Tony nominated Patina Miller and Victoria Clark. Patina had done the show in London and was brought in to do the Whopee Goldberg role from the movie. She is amazing, with a great vocal quality and all the right moves. Douglas Carter Beane was brought in to augment the book, and he doesn't disappoint with his humor. The audience loves this show and gave it a standing ovation. The music is by Alan Menken (Little Shop of Horrors, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) and evokes the 70's extremely well. The other standout performance was by Chester Gregory who was last seen in the Dreamgirls revival playing the part of James Early Thunder. The cast of nuns are also extremely good and raise their voices to the heavens, so to speak. Thoroughly enjoyable and worth a look.