Dr. Blackwell's BLOG

 Composer Jason Robert Brown has won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Original Score for his work in writing the lush and absolutely gorgeous score for the musical The Bridges of Madison County. The awards were announced May 12th. Brown bested other composers within the category, including the composers of the musicals Aladdin, Fun Home, A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder, and If/Then. Unfortunately, Bridges‘ lead star Kelli O’Hara lost the award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical to Audra McDonald in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. The Bridges of Madison County closes this Sunday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway; but a national tour of the show is set to embark in 2015. Congratulations to Jason Robert Brown! Preview the beautiful music from the show below:

The Broadway touring production based on the acclaimed 2012 revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s classic musical EVITA makes its way to Orlando and the Bob Carr Center for the Performing Arts today through Sunday. And this EVITA is absolutely AMAZING! Rarely does a touring production of a Broadway show have the quality of what is seen in its original incarnation in New York. And it’s an even more rare feat for a touring production to eclipse the quality of its Broadway parent. I’m not sure I have ever experienced that before–until now! THIS touring production of EVITA does just that! I saw this show in NYC a few months into its run. To be able to see Ricky Martin play Che was pretty cool. He did a great job and was fun to watch on stage, probably more because of his fame and the fact that he’s a popstar icon rather than his true talent as a musical actor. However, Elena Roger, who played the title role in that production, absolutely butchered the show. Her voice had a horrific screeching quality that absolutely devastated my admiration for the story and music that grew from my love of Alan Parker’s 1996 award winning motion picture starring Madonna (who gave a rare superb performance that earned her the Golden Globe for Best Actress) and Antonio Banderas.

In this production, Caroline Bowman takes the lead as Eva Peron. Her voice is absolutely gorgeous. She sings with a very clear enunciation of the lyrics and possesses a powerful range and dynamic that catapults the character into its both hated and loved dichotomy beautifully. She is also a great actor who nails this role all the way from her young 15 year-old impoverished ghetto roots to her rise to power and ultimately untimely demise. And while normally one standout performance punctuates a production, here, Bowman is joined by the equally talented Josh Young (Che), Sean MacLaughlin (Juan Peron), and Christopher Johnstone (Magaldi). Sorry Ricky, but Young absolutely hits a home run with his performance as the show’s quintessential narrator. He conveys the excitement of Eva’s rise to stardom and the disappointment of her Robin Hood approach to social justice perfectly; and his voice is chill-inducingly gorgeous. Not surprisingly, Young was nominated for a Tony Award in 2012 for his portrayal of Judas in the Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar.

MacLaughlin, who I originally thought was a little young to play the infamous and controversial dictator, proved me wrong quickly. He is superb. He knows the precise vocal inflections to exhibit Peron’s commanding presence; and yet he is so talented and capable as a performer that he knows how to sing melodically when the score demands it. The entire ensemble here is also absolutely phenomenal. The staging, lighting, sets, choreography, and every other aspect essential to a premium production is absolutely perfected in this production of EVITA. It really is THAT good! To be honest, I disliked the Broadway version of this show so much that I wasn’t looking forward to it one bit when I saw it was part of the 2013-2014 Broadway series. I was sure that to make it more like its Broadway originator, the role of Eva would most likely be played by another overbearing singer with an accent so thick that it butchered the beautifully lush and gorgeous music of the show. However, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. This show is hands down my favorite show of this season by far. And although I absolutely loved the original production of GHOST The Musical on Broadway, with only a non-equity production of the show remaining in the series, EVITA will mostly likely remain that favorite. Unlike the tired and horrible show that Roger ruined on Broadway, this touring production is downright  perfect in every way imaginable. If you miss this show, you will really regret it! So, don’t miss it! Purchase a ticket by visiting the tour’s Web site at: http://www.evitaonbroadway.com/tour.html.

Broadway.com reported today that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s spectacularly beautiful and lushly scored Love Never Dies, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, is moving ever so closer to a Broadway bow. Check out the article, posted on March 14th by the broadway.com staff below:

Are you ready for Love Never Dies, Broadway? Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and director Simon Phillips have confirmed to Broadway.com during an exclusive Google Hangout that the musical is aiming for a long-brewing American premiere, possibly with a brand-new ending.

The creative duo chatted with Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek as they were preparing for the show’s first performance in Japan on March 12. The musical sequel to The Phantom of the Operais now playing at the Nissay Theatre in Tokyo. Phillips’ reworking of the show, which first played for 18 months in London’s West End under the direction of Jack O’Brien, premiered to great acclaim in Melbourne, Australia in 2010 and can also be seen in Vienna, with plans for a Hamburg bow in the works.

“It’d be great to get it into America now,” Lloyd Webber said, adding the Tokyo production is a scaled-down version of the Australian staging, making the show easier to move. The musical theater icon praised Phillips’ staging (which was preserved on film and released on home video in 2012) for being a perfect fit of design and material: “It matches the music entirely. It’s seamless, absolutely of one piece.”

[SPOILERS AHEAD! If you haven’t seen Love Never Dies, read no further!]

To get the show ready for America, the creators are considering reworking the Love Never Dies ending, in which Christine dies and her son, Gustave, is left in the Phantom’s care. Might the Phantom die instead?

“We’re thinking about it,” confirmed Lloyd Webber. “Since the DVD came out, we’ve had a tremendous amount of feedback.”

“Artistically, we have no problem with the current ending,” added Phillips. “It makes completely coherent artistic sense and in many contexts, couldn’t be better.” However, the director added that the current ending is a “shock to the system” for many audience members. “People worry about what happens to the child,” Lloyd Webber added. “That’s the feedback we’ve had. If we do change the ending, we could make it more comfortable for people.”

Wontorek also asked if original London Love Never Dies star Sierra Boggess, who had a smashing run as Christine in Broadway’s Phantomlast year, might repeat her role for the show’s Broadway premiere. “We absolutely love Sierra,” Lloyd Webber gushed. “She’s the best, the best Christine certainly!”

Fingers crossed!