Broadway Reviews: Three Recent Tony-Nominated Musicals Deal With the Hot Button Topics of Antisemitism (“Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club”), Wealth Disparity (“The Outsiders”) and Women’s Rights (“Suffs”)

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (c) Marc Brenner

Theater: Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club 
On Broadway at the August Wilson Theatre 

I have a unique perspective on the John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff popular musical Cabaret: I had never seen the show. Yes, I saw the 1972 Oscar-winning Best Picture film directed by Bob Fosse, though not in this century, but I have never seen the show on stage, including the last two Broadway revivals of the same Roundabout production in 1998 (with Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson) and 2014 (with Cumming and Michelle Williams), not because I consciously avoided it, but because it was a hard and expensive ticket to acquire (contributed by the many starry replacements during the runs including Neil Patrick Harris, Raul Esparza, Molly Ringwald and Emma Stone). So, while I sat in the reconfigured August Wilson Theatre, now transformed into the Kit Kat Club of 1929 Berlin (including a preshow pub crawl starting at a back-alley entrance with a complimentary schnapps shot), it didn’t feel as revolutionary (or sacrilegious, depending on who you talked to) as musical theater fans contend. It did feel bold, especially when Eddie Redmayne (reprising his Olivier-winning performance from the West End) as the Emcee, enters with a party hat sitting askew on his head to indicate that the show starts on New Year’s Eve. But the Emcee’s wardrobe gets more nightmarish and foreboding as the show proceeds (including a look that’s one balloon short of Pennywise) indicating to the audience that all this artistic decadence may be coming to an end. 

The 77th Annual Tony Award Nominations

Suffs (c) Joan Marcus

 

Here are the nominees for the 77th Annual Tony Awards.

The Interested Bystander: Final 2023-24 Tony Award Nomination Predictions

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (c) Marc Brenner

Now that all the shows have opened on Broadway and the Tony Awards committee has ruled on the final rush of openings, it’s time for The Interested Bystander to predict who might get Tony Award nominations on Tuesday, April 30.  And look for a possible all-women Director in a Musical line-up.

Enjoy!

Film Reviews: Omnibus Round-Up of Recent Film Releases, Including the Romantic “The Greatest Hits,” the Violent “Monkey Man” and the Filmed Version of The One-Man Show, “Just for Us”

Looking for some films to see either in theaters or on streaming? Here are some interesting films I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks I recommend. 

The Greatest Hits (c) Searchlight Films

Film: The Greatest Hits 
In Cinemas and Streaming on Hulu 

There is so much to enjoy in the film The Greatest Hits, but I have to bring up the one thing that bothered me throughout: the plot. I certainly love a high concept film, and here we have Harriet (Lucy Boynton), who, when she hears a song that reminds her of dead boyfriend Max (David Corenswet, the newest Superman), she is suddenly transported to that moment. Is she actually time-traveling or is she having psychological breaks with reality? When the film finally answers that question, I was totally frustrated with the logistics, which is always a problem a film that plays with time or multiverses has to face. But this crazy plot does produce a sweet romance between Harriet and David (Justin H. Min of After Yang) who meet at a grief support meeting but may also be involved in each other’s tragic narrative. Director Ned Benson, who gave us the nonlinear romance, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, has a stronger authoritative grip here before the complicated plot soon overwhelms the love story. Still worth a watch. 

The Interested Bystander: Early 2023-24 Tony Award Nomination Predictions

Merrily We Roll Along (c) Matthew Murphy

April is very busy for Broadway and those who cover it. There are Broadway show openings in the double digits in the next few weeks, all hoping to get some Tony Award nominations before the deadline. So, it’s sort of silly to predict who will get award nominations, since most of the shows are in previews right now. But what kind of awards prognosticator would I be if I didn’t try. So, based on reputation, out-of-town or off-Broadway reviews, here are Tony Award predictions, with most of the nominees being sight unseen.