Prince of Broadway the Musical Can Be Fixed
A Theater Review
by
Drew Kopf
September 29, 2013
“Prince of Broadway,” the new musical review-like production currently in previews at the wonderfully renovated and restored Biltmore Theatre, now proudly renamed The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, which is owned and operated by the Manhattan Theatre Club, is a compilation of songs from shows produced and or directed by Hal Prince, the world famous Broadway Theatre giant with a book by David Thompson. The show is scheduled to open on or about Thursday, August 24th, but, before it does, we heartedly suggest that the producers take a breath and engage a “Play Doctor” to fix it because, even with its top notch Broadway Musical orchestra and a very talented and energetic cast of singers and dancers, the show is only about forty percent of what it could and should be given its available material in Mr. Prince’s resume of shows produced and directed. Then, if “Prince of Broadway” had its structure reconfigured and if the way it was directed; if you can call it directed at all; it seems to have been more “dictated” by director Lynne Meadow, who must believe if it is a musical, what the actors do on stage does not need to be based on logical motivation and that it is OK to upstage actors instead of helping the audience focus on what is most important at any particular moment in the production.
The heavy handed (really ridiculous) “non-directed” directing begins even before the overture. Let’s please just cut that whole pre-curtain non-scenically and unmotivated activity to strike (read: remove) a stage light stand and just right to the music, which is why people in the audience have taken time out of theor lives to see this show.
Now, let’s go back and deal with the overture. How do you have an overture foreshadow an evening filled with songs from not just one Broadway Musical show; but instead, one or even a few songs from a dozen or more Broadway Musicals, some of which that were and are major landmarks in the entire history of Musical Theatre in America in and of themselves?
Surely, the orchestra and the conductor are worthy of all that can be done to put them in the most favorable light possible. Howell Binkley, the Lighting Designer of “Prince of Broadway,” did everything that he could in that department. The Director, however, forgot that these old theatres with orchestra pits keeps the orchestra almost completely out of view for all but a very few members of the audience. Bombarding the orchestra with so much lighting that the heat they generate starts to cause very light weight partials of dust to be wafted into the air to where they could be seen floating about but with nothing else being visible to most of the audience is nigh onto ridiculous.
What can be done? If you can not elevate the orchestra like they can do at Radio City Music Hall, then either put the orchestra on the stage a la the “Encores” series of old Broadway Musical plays done in “mufti” at City Center, or, just go with the flow and keep the theater lighting at a minimum until the overture is completed and then, just start the show, which is the way overtures were performed for as long as anyone around today could remember. Just let the audience sit back and listen to some beautiful music.
We are not going to tell you which songs we liked and which ones that made us we keep asking, “Why is this song in this show?” Why on earth put a song that 95% of theatre goers will not remember in such a potentially important show? We have no idea. This “Play Doctor” would surely tell you to cut them and replace them with any of dozens of other songs that the writing team of “Prince of Broadway” has left out; song that are so well know that audience members would be singing along with them instead of wondering what song is that and what show was it in.
David Thompson’s Book disappears about one third of the way through Act I and comes back into play about halfway through Act II. Again, we have no idea why? It is simple. Hal Prince autobiographical statements are spoken out loud by one of the nine performers. Each statement helps us gain a deeper appreciation of just how Mr. Prince carved out a career for himself in, perhaps, one of, if not the, most difficult professions there is. It is a great idea that works well until it is abandoned, which, from there forward leaves the audience completely in the lurch.
But, to tease the audience with a format where songs or scenes from Hal Prince shows are introduced or framed with words of wisdom from the “Man” himself with the help of actors and actresses, which is almost to say, “What I did could be done by anyone who cares enough to do it; even you, who are in the audience right now,” but, then, to abandon that format in favor of nothing but song or dance numbers with no frame and no introduction and no words of wisdom. So, where is “Prince of Broadway” without that? It is nowhere.
We do get it back part way into Act II, but, by then, it is too late. Waiting that long allows the “effects” that had been established to have become diluted and, at once, it effectively treated the audience as if it does no really matter what the “message” might be to us from Hal Prince save for something on the order of, “Let’s do a show!”
Could the creators of “Prince of Broadway” squeezed any more of the wide field of musical numbers into this “review?” Absolutely. It just comes down to the question, “Do we want more tastes of “delicious” moments that came about during seven decades of theatre’s musical legacy or do we want a full seven course meal with each course completely filling the plate? “Prince of Broadway” is a “review.” Make it a “review.” Make the audience become overwhelmed by the vast array of super terrific songs and amazing theatrical moments in our New York City theatre’s musical history and then, let us clamor for a revival in order to experience the full length version of any one song. You want to give us one song like that; “all the way?” OK. Pick one and then leave the audience with that at the end of the show.
But, not the way it is now. Instead, the “writers” come up with a song to “help” deliver the message that is ostensively coming from Hal Prince to would be Broadway Producers or Broadway “anythings.” Is it a good song? It is not. Is the message it is trying to convey even worth the time it takes to sing it? Not in the least.
What the writers of “Prince of Broadway” could have done was to pick one song from the many that there are in the Hal Prince archives that offers some of the if not all of the message that they are trying to pass along to the audience and have their wonderful sniggers sing that one instead of the new and untested song that has absolutely no place in this production; particularly not as the last song played.
The writers might have taken a look at what they had included thus far and taken note of what they had left out almost completely could actually be a good way to look back at the beginning of Mr. Prince’s career and pick a song from “The Pajama Game,” which was his first effort as a Broadway Producer and one for which he won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 1954 and for which he won another Tony Award in 2006 for Best Revival of a Musical.
The writers of “Prince of Broadway” make a brief mention of “The Pajama Game” at the very beginning of their show but never present even one musical phrase, let alone an entire song, from that terrific show. Whose idea was that? What, is there a law against singing songs from ”The Pajama Game?”
What song should it be to end “Prince of Broadway?”
For me, it seems pretty obvious. The song I would pick is sung first during Act I of “The Pajama Game” and is reprised at the end of Act I and reprised yet again during Act II. It was recorded by almost endlessly by every major singing artist, both male and female, from then, in 1954, and onward. “Hey There!” is perhaps the ultimate song a guy or gal, who is so self-protective that they do not even want to take a risk trying to talk (read: sing) him or herself into taking a risk or not or maybe; who is so stricken with love that nothing makes any sense except throwing caution to the wind and going for it.
Is that not the embodiment of how Hal Prince went after his career in the theatre? He just did it even in the face of insurmountable odds against him or, really, against anyone.
That might have been a way to end “Prince of Broadway,” if you were looking to leave us, the audience, with a message of encouragement and hope.
“Hey There!” You, the writers and Producers of “Prince of Broadway,” there is still time. Go find an LP of “The Pajama Game” and make the changes this “Play Doctor” is prescribing. Whatever you do, Break a leg. – 30 –
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