Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test

The Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test is our personal and highly opinionated Commuter's Guide to New York theater and cultural events, with an emphasis on Broadway and Off-Broadway theatrical productions. The test is simple: is an event worth the always expensive, time consuming, and too often horrendous struggle to commute to New York City from New Jersey, Long Island, Upstate New York or Connecticut? Only truly great or near-great performances and productions may meet this stiff challenge!

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Location: Princeton, New Jersey, United States

James Camner is an antiquarian dealer of autographs, manuscripts and printed music and books of Opera, Classical Music, Theater, Dance, and Film, as well as a published author of more than 10 books on the performing arts including "How to Enjoy Opera" (Simon and Schuster), "The Great Opera Stars in Historic Photographs" (Dover), "Stars of American Musical Theater in Historic Photographs" (Dover - with Stanley Appelbaum); was for over 20 years a reviewer for Fanfare Magazine and has written feature articles and reviews for Opera News.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Other Desert Cities, a play by Jon Robin Baitz at Lincoln Center, starring Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin, Stacy Keach, Elizabeth Marvel and Thomas Sadoski. This potboiler play is overwrought, old fashioned melodrama (without the melo, no music) but is played with such conviction and style by this superior ensemble, three great old pros and two sensationally talented youngsters that it provides tremendous entertainment and at times, seems better than it is. It's the kind of play that would have once made a great movie for Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. All the stops are pulled out, screaming, crying, yelling, revelations, mysteries, and in a handsome setting by John Lee Beatty, and sure handed direction by Joe Mantello. It's transferring to Broadway in the Fall. The Ensemble gets an A+ and the play a B- making for an overall grade of A-

The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare at the Broadhurst Theater starring Al Pacino. We caught the second to last performance last weekend and we were very glad we did. The hype was justified, Al Pacino is magnificent as Shylock and Lily Rabe's performance as Portia, active, volatile, daring, and not at all placid and elegiac, was stupendous. The sets were great, the direction by Daniel Sullivan pitch perfect for an American production of such vigor and daring that would not be possible from RADA trained actors from England. Hopefully this production will see the light again, maybe it was filmed? Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test Grade A+

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Mary Poppins, a musical at the New Amsterdam Theatre. It was good to return to the New Amsterdam Theatre which we had not been to since the opening week of "The Lion King". We finally made it to "Mary Poppins" because we had own of town guests who were huge Disney fans. As such, the evening was a success, but we found it to be excruciatingly long (the first act is almost Wagnerian in length) the audience was full of too young children (there was a free promotion) who got bored very quickly and the musical itself is not very good. The original Sherman songs are great, but the fill ins seemed like warmed over "Little Mermaid" complete with an Ursula character in the guise of an evil Nanny who is quickly removed from the scene after one long Ursula like song. The sets and costumes are superb and her flying effects magical. We saw the original London Mary, Laura Michelle Kelly, who sang almost as sweetly as Julie Andrews did in the film, but who showed no personality. For people with children the right age (7-10) this is perhaps a good show (though the length is a killer) but it was one of the longest evenings we've spent in the theater - we hated nearly every minute of it.
Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test Grade. D