The Apple Tree, a musical. Music, Books and Lyrics by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. The Roundabout Theatre Company - Studio 54 theater, starring Kristin Chenoweth, Brian d'Arcy James and Marc Kudish. Considering the brilliant success by Kirstin Chenoweth in the well received "The Apple Tree" revival at the City Center Encores!, this seemed like a sure thing, especially as Chenoweth has become a genuine star with the teenage crowd in the wake of her Tony-nominated work in "Wicked."
Unfortunately, this revival of "The Apple Tree" doesn't quite catch fire, despite the incomparable talents of Kristin Chenoweth and her supporting cast. They work hard and I found the first act, "The Diary of Adam and Eve," affecting, even moving, but lacking anything that could remotely be called scenery, the best opportunity of the musical is lost. The applause was virtually non-existent even from the surprisingly young, and apparently ready to be enthusiastic audience.
"The Lady or the Tiger" is altogether better, and the scenery would not be too bad if this were a regional theater, but for a Broadway show, it's an utter embarrassment, as is the terrible-looking "Passionella" . This is the second revival I've seen recently ("Company" was the other) that had chintzy sets. Maybe I've been spoiled by the wonderful productions that seem de rigeur on Broadway. Maybe budgets can't take it anymore, but this was minimalist to a fault.
Kristin Chenoweth seemed more subdued than I remember from the Encores! performances. An unrivalled vocalist and comedienne and a more than worthy successor to the legendary Barbara Harris, she was not as scintillating as I expected. She seemed flat -- the whole performance seemed flat; very little energy is generated from the stage or in the audience. The orchestra was undersized compared to the Encores! revival and being split between the stage boxes of this miserable Studio 54 theater doesn't help. I really dislike this shabby wornout looking theater which has not, in my opinion, made a successful recovery from its life as a nightclub. I particularly dislike the soundsystem which makes it impossible to get any sense of where the singer is standing onstage.
I love "The Apple Tree" as a musical and despite my reservations this is an important revival. Any chance to see mega talented Kristin Chenoweth must be seized. Passes the Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test with a B-.

I Puritani, opera by Vincenzo Bellini at the Metropolitan Opera, starring Anna Netrebko.
In 1956, when Maria Callas made her Metropolitan Opera debut, Geraldine Farrar, a famous Prima Donna of old, wrote "At last we have a Prima Donna" and indeed, unlike the faux Prima Donnas of recent times, Netrebko is the real thing - beautiful, glamorous and gifted beyond measure. This lady is not only a world class beauty, but she's the finest lyrico-spinto soprano of our time with a lustrous voice that haunts the memory. She's an ideal Elvira and it's unlikely that this role has ever quite been acted so well on this stage or perhaps any other since the first Elvira Giulia Grisi performed the role in 1835. Netrebko moves with the grace of a ballerina and takes a stock character and makes it flesh and blood. The rest of the cast is merely adequate, with John Releya as Giorgio in a role originally created by Luigi Lablache perhaps a bit more than that. The production, which first starred Joan Sutherland (a singer who was a world apart from Netrebko in every way) still looks beautiful. This is perhaps Anna Netrebko's finest Metropolitan Opera performance to date, don't miss it! "I Puritani" is a gorgeous work, and is perhaps Bellini's finest score, but in the Met's current production, only Netrebko is fully up to the demands of this formidable Bel Canto masterwork. Nonetheless, for the incomparable Netrebko alone, we give "I Puritani" at the Metropolitan Opera an A+ in our Bridge and Tunnel Test.