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Biltmore Theatre
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$76.25-$101.25
Advance Tickets Recommended
2 hrs., 35 mins.
Harold Prince
1 at 50th St.; C, E at 50th St.
There are no more dates for this event.
LoveMusik has freaky details galore. Michael Cerveris transforms himself from menacing, murderous Sweeney Todd to play the doughy, neurasthenic Kurt Weill. Donna Murphy, though she has a much lovelier voice than Lotte Lenya, channels his wife: Listen as she caresses a note then cuts glass with it. Harold Prince long ago proved he can direct any kind of musical, from Lloyd Webber to Sondheim. So I wish his work here reflected that this is a Kurt Weill show. The composer of The Threepenny Opera, one of the most theatrically adventurous musicals ever written, deserves better than to be treated like any old pop tunesmith being subjected to a stage biopic: A song runs boringly into a scene, then back into another song. It doesn’t help that librettist Alfred Uhry seems to find Weill and Lenya’s serial affairs inexhaustibly fascinating, or that the show commits a serious art crime in underutilizing Murphy. At the Public Theater’s 50th-anniversary concert last year, her rendition of “Pirate Jenny” blew the roof off. Twice during this show, she seems about to sing it; twice the action shifts away. That is messed up.
Finian’s Rainbow
This marvelous, slightly unhinged revival succeeds because it refuses to wink at the material or treat it as quaint.
The Understudy
Theresa Rebeck’s warm backstage comedy features a thoroughly excellent trio, but the heart of the show is Julie White’s performance.