Our new West Coast correspondent, Heather Cassell, catches the premiere act at the new Feinstein’s at the Nikko.

San Francisco doesn’t know anything about a woman’s desperate need for air conditioning in a sweltering New York summer, but Sutton Foster heats up the room causing a need for a burst of cool air at the new Feinstien’s at the Nikko Hotel in San Francisco.

Foster broke the proverbial bottle of champagne to a sold out crowd opening night on May 8 and you can still catch one final performance through May 12. If you miss her, she’s destined to return to the newly opened cabaret.

Belting out the busty overture to finding a man with an air conditioner to escape the sweltering heat, Foster leaves the room roaring in laughter as many of her songs this evening do. The two-time Tony-award winning Broadway star Foster treats us to beloved show tunes and tongue-in-cheek racy original ballads from her forthcoming album composed with musical collaborator Michael Rafter, who accompanies her on the piano this evening.

It’s an exemplary evening with Foster singing hit Broadway songs from Anything Goes, Little Women, Annie,  The Drowsy Chaperone, and Thoroughly Modern Millie to yesteryears hits, such as John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders” to name a few out of her 18-song performance. She delights us with her opening with a mash-up of her signature musical theater songs, displaying her impressive soprano voice that swiftly drops into an alto tone. It is clear that she enjoys not only playing with her voice, but also with songs about single women — alternating between broadsy female anthems to soft and tender love songs.

Away from the lights of Broadway and Hollywood, she’s left the humidity of New York after 15 years for the dry desert heat of Los Angeles for her new show, ”Bunheads”, which airs June 11. In a performance was intimate, personal and humble, she gushed that she didn’t miss New York as she feared she would, but instead she loves L.A. At one point during the show she brought the man in her life, her dog Linus, up on to the stage. He sat in her lap as she sang one of her favorite new songs on her forthcoming album a medley of “It Only Takes a Moment” and “Time After Time” they end the performance with a double hi-five.

Dressed in a simple blue dress with beige heals and her wavy brown locks easily tumbling down her back, it is almost as if she returned to being the 17-year-old girl who first performed in the first national tour of  The Will Rogers Follies at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. That was many years ago and many performances later, including a brief cabaret in San Francisco a few years ago, as she’s now clearly an accomplished artist that we will hopefully see more of in the near future.

Foster attracts star power from Broadway and the small screen, my girlfriend and I spotted Florence Henderson, from the 1970’s “Brady Bunch” fame, but who is an accomplished singer in her own right, to many music and theater admirers to the cabaret that once was the home of the now closed Live at the Rrazz Room.

A popular cabaret for the past 14 years in New York, Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, closed at the beginning of this year at the same time as Feinstein’s at the Nikko emerged. Feinstein’s in New York and San Francisco is lead by the venerable Michael Feinstein, a renowned singer, pianist, and bearer of the Great American Songbook.

Foster is the perfect opener to satiate the void left by the closing of the beloved musical outlet, the Rrazz Room. If the forthcoming performers to grace Feinstein’s stage in the coming month – Mitzi Gaynor (May 15 – 18), Spencer Day (May 23 – 25), Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway (May 29 – June 2), Andrea Marcovicci (June 7 and 8), Clint Holmes (June 12 – 16), Barbara Cook (June 19 – 23) and Steve Tyrell (June 25 – 29) – are any indication of the high quality talent that will come to the Nikko Hotel, we will be mostly satisfied.

The only question is: Will Feinstein’s also showcase Broadway stars along with many of the same LGBT performers that made the Rrazz Room beloved by San Franciscans and unique in the cabaret world? The answer remains to be seen.

Sutton Foster’s final performance is Sunday, May 12, 7 p.m.at Feinstein’s at the Nikko Hotel, 222 Mason St., San Francisco. Tickets $75 – $95.

Can’t catch Foster’s final show tonight? Here’s one of our favorite clips:

Heather Cassell is a freelance journalist and travel writer with more than 20 years experience covering LGBT and women’s issues. When Heather isn’t wandering off learning and writing about women’s and LGBT issues, she covers business, health and other news for a number of publications as well as the syndicated “Out in the World” international LGBT news column.

The opening of The Memory Show begins with a brittle and sharp-tongued Catherine Cox in a doctor’s office, where she and the audience learn that her character, Mother, has Alzheimer’s Disease. It is a crisp and dynamic delivery, both in musical style and performance, but once that curtain pulls back and she returns home under the care of her early-midlife-crisis daughter (played by Leslie Kritzer), this two-character musical sometimes stumbles (and inevitably stutters) but eventually finds its footing.

That’s not to say that Cox and Kritzer aren’t giving it 100 percent. They tossle each other’s emotions, confide in the audience, lay  in one another’s arms, ravage through props and do all of the things actresses are supposed to in dramatic musicals. Director Joe Calarco has given them room to breath and their movement feels organic throughout Brian Prather’s living room set.

What is less clear is their relationship to the audience. It is the same dramatic problem that derailed the miserable Breakfast at Tiffany’s earlier this season. I can see how the dramatic convention is needed to keep Sarah Cooper’s (book and lyrics) and Zach Redler’s (music) piece chugging along — there are only so many meltdowns, crying fits and warm hugs that the two women can possibly fit in the nonstop 80 minutes.

I admit to shedding a few tears, which arose at unexpected places. Who’s not going to cry given the subject matter? But what struck me most about these character studies was not the Alzheimer’s, but the family secrets that rise to the surface because of its inevitable impact. It is in these moments that the musical and its performers soar.

The Memory Show
The Duke on 42nd Street
229 West 42nd Street
Through May 18

What the critics are saying…

“Joe Calarco directs the Transport Group production and guides both actresses’ intense and very fine performances. Brian Prather’s intimate and evocative set is filled with photos and empty picture frames, illuminated at various times. It joins the deservedly acclaimed “Next to Normal,” about bipolar disorder, in pushing the envelope as to what subjects can make a musical. It also reminds us that noble intentions aren’t enough to make a musical sing and be fully satisfying. Easy to admire, “Memory Show” isn’t such a snap to like.” NY Daily News

“The words ‘‘musical’’ and ‘‘Alzheimer’s disease’’ aren’t often used together. Yet Sara Cooper’s new work, ‘‘The Memory Show,’’ turns out to be a poignant, sophisticated and often humorous musical about dealing with Alzheimer’s disease. Cooper has written an emotionally layered story about the frustrating effects of the disease on both patient and caregiver.” Associated Press via Boston.com

Guest contributor Jason Mitchell reviews I’m a Stranger Here Myself. 

When the curtain speech finished with “All Aboard the S.S. Weimar” and the lights rose on an interesting set outlined in art of the era, I was excited to be transported to the Weimar Republic. This is a time period that gifted performer Mark Nadler is clearly passionate about and has chosen to write and perform about his new musical I’m a Stranger Here Myself. Unfortunately we’re never taken very far from our seats at the York Theatre Company, as the format of the show feels much more like a lecture Nadler would give on the subject at a university rather than a theatrical journey to the Weimar and beyond.

The show includes a thought-provoking selection of music, including work by Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz, Frederick Hollander, and Arno billing among others. Nadler is at his strongest skillfully playing the piano and singing with gusto, joined by Franca Vercelloni (accordion) and Jessica Tyler Wright (violin), as he evokes artists such as Lotte Lenya, Marlene Dietrich, and Gertrude Lawrence. These musical moments are the highlight of the piece and showcase Nadler’s musical talent, especially his passionate “Bilbao Song,” ”The Lavender Song,” and his endearing “Schickelgruber.” The two musicians are as gifted as Nadler, but at times the way they are incorporated could use a bit more finesse.

Mark Nadler in "I'm a Stranger Here Myself." (photo: Carol Rosegg)

Where the show suffers is in between the music. Nadler is attempting to cover too much ground, from his own family history, story of moving to New York, and cabarets that used to exist here in addition to the background and inspiration of the artists whose work he’s performing, Hitler’s lineage, and the plight of Jews and homosexuals as the Weimar era was destroyed. The weaving of story-telling, history lessons, and musical performance isn’t particulalry seamless, and since it’s told in direct address to the audience and accompanied by a non-stop and at times distracting LCD presentation of images, I couldn’t help but wish this was a professor whose class I’d love to enroll in. And in educational format, Nadler really hits the audience over the head by poitning out recurring themes found in all of this music, rather than giving us a chance to make connections and discoveries of our own.

I’m a Stranger Here Myself is an ambitious piece, and Nadler’s performance is filled with passion and heart. If he had formatted this piece differently, perhaps I would have joined him to “Come A-Wandering With Me” or thought to myself “I May Never Go Home.”

I’m a Stranger Here Myself
Through May 19, 2013
York Theatre Company
619 Lexington Avenue
www.yorktheatre.org 

Jason Mitchell is an event planner, author, and playwright who resides in New York City. 

I can count on one hand the number of breath-catching moments I’ve had sitting in a Broadway theater (Cherry Jones’ leap of faith in the final moment of Pride’s Crossing and Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald singing “Wheels of a Dream” in Ragtime just to name two.) Pippin, which recently opened at the Music Box Theatre in a mesmerizing production directed by Diane Paulus with choreography by Chet Walker and circus creation by Gypsy Snider is packed with them. Some are of the good ole’ Broadway hoofer variety, others rely on ingenious theatrical craft.

Pippin opened on Broadway in 1972. It had been a student project of composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz. He had scored big with Godspell in 1971 and after some sage advice from Harold Prince, Schwartz revamped the project with help of book writer Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse got wind of the project and the rest is musical theater history… sort of.

The response from critics was lukewarm but Pippin’s producers pulled their own magic, placing the first ad for a Broadway musical on television. Sales picked up and audiences responded. The show ran for 1,944 performances.

Take the jump for our review…

Read more…

Guest contributor Lindsay B. Davis reviews a captivating interpretation of the most famous mother of them all (besides Joan Crawford). 

Fiona Shaw in "The Testament of Mary." (photo: Paul Konik)

Theater is at its finest during The Testament of Mary, a new play by Colm Toibin, starring the robust and regal Irish actress, Fiona Shaw. Adapted from what was originally a short play in Dublin and then a critically acclaimed novella, the work in its most current form at the Walter Kerr Theater is a bold imagining of a period following Jesus’ crucifixion — told entirely from the viewpoint of the Virgin Mary. Deborah Warner’s emboldened direction pushes artistic boundaries and tests where modern audiences are willing to go in their understanding of and compassion for the religious icon. In other words, this is not your Father’s Virgin.

Testament’s Mary may start ensconced in a glass case surrounded by lit candles (the audience is allowed on stage to gaze at Shaw, whose mumblings can be seen but not heard) but once the curtain drops and rises again, Mother Mary is free to have a cigarette, drink booze straight from the bottle, thrash about and do whatever else is necessary to cope with her grief. And that she does in what looks like it could be a large, downtown warehouse apartment full of found art. Her only counterpart on stage is a vulture whose purpose is wholly metaphorical. Sound a little out there? It is, but this juxtaposition of the modern and the age-old is gripping.

Flexing her masterful storytelling muscles and using her real ones (there is a good deal of physical work involved to establish and advance the story), Shaw delivers a performance that is so visceral, skillful and raw that the 85 minutes performed without an intermission sprint by in a flash. It is a journey marked by incidents in the life of her son, some based on actual Biblical stories — such as when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, healed the sick or turned water into wine, plus the crucifixion itself — and others completely imagined by the author. All manage to illuminate the mother not the messiah. She speaks not to advance the narrative of Christianity but to deeply reveal herself and come to terms with traumatic experience. As an audience it is impossible not to feel her deep torment and fight for survival.

Fiona Shaw in "The Testament of Mary." (photo: Paul Kolnik)

Toibin’s writing at times feels poetic but even when at its most literary, is still urgent. Whether it’s a word or a wince or a chuckle, you can feel the meaning behind Mary’s utterances, not unlike when Shakespeare is performed well (as it has been by Shaw, whose credits include Taming of the Shrew, Richard II and As You Like It). In less capable hands, Testament could go over the heads of some theatergoers and perhaps Shaw’s guttural rants and bouts of intense emotion will uncomfortably strike some as melodrama, though not likely. Her performance history also includes the Tony-nominated Medea as well as T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland (also directed by Warner) and at this point in Shaw’s career there is only excellence to behold.

Perhaps because I saw the production less than a week after the Boston marathon bombings, as I listened to descriptions of a young man maimed to death by nails on a slab of wood and heard the word “terror” spoken, its echo bouncing off the theater’s walls, I found myself thinking of every mother from antiquity to today who has grieved the terrible injury or death of a child. It is a certain kind of grief, riddled with anger, which leads one to try and rid oneself of the emotion by finding someone, anyone, who will listen. In a recent interview, Shaw told NPR of the loneliness she feels on stage while performing this role. Toibin gives the Virgin Mary an audience and in doing so, effectively rescues her from her from a sentence of silence and solitude.

The sound (Mel Mercier), lighting (Jennifer Tipton) and set design (Tom Pye) are a seamless extension of Warner’s vision, creating a dance that moves fluidly to the music of the text. All in all, Testament of Mary is a testament to the collective imagination of a few very talented theater artists and one of the best works of the season.

The Testament of Mary
Walter Kerr Theatre
219 West 48th Street
www.testamentonbroadway.com

Lindsay B. Davis is an arts/culture journalist, actress, playwright and director. She resides in New York City.

Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox in "Jekyll & Hyde." (photo: Chris Bennion)

Can we change the title of Jekyll & Hyde, Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s musical thriller, to “Jekyll & Hyde…& Lucy”? If there is one reason (and from my perspective there are several) to see this revival that also stars former American Idol contestant and Tony award nominee Constantine Maroulis, it is the star performance belted out by Grammy Award nominated and multi-platinum R&B/pop recording artist and film/TV actress Deborah Cox.

Yes, technically the familiar story revolves around Dr. Henry Jekyll, a bespectacled-wearing scientist who seeks to discover a medical breakthrough to ease the human mind and instead reveals his inner demon: Edward Hyde. Maroulis throws himself full force into the role, as well as around the stage as he thrashes, screeches and hair tosses his way through Wildhorn’s vocal gymnastics.

The original 1997 production featured a menacing Robert Cuccioli who delivered perhaps a deeper, more nuanced performance, but times have changed and Maroulis’s searing voice bridges the gap between musical theater and pop/rock. Cranked to ear drum-bursting decibels, Maroulis must be surviving on hot tea and throat lozenges to make it through an eight-show week. Fortunately he is supported by a top-notch cast of seasoned Broadway veterans and a co-star that can keep pace.

Broadway has increasingly relied on name recognition to sell tickets. The Chicago revival, running since 1996, has featured guest appearances ranging from Brooke Shields and Melanie Griffith to most recently Wendy Williams, who will join the cast this June. But Deborah Cox is no marquee trick. Cox rocks Jekyll & Hyde — embodying a sultry, sensual and pitch-perfect performance that has audiences leaping to their feet.

Director/Choreographer Jeff Calhoun is the mad scientist behind the production and his reinterpretation of the story pushes this version of Jekyll & Hyde more toward rock opera than musical theater. The creative use of projections by Daniel Brodie aid in the swiftly paced scenes while set/costume designer Tobin Oust sets the tone for a fantastical version of 19th century London.

Crabby theatergoers might roll their eyes at Jekyll & Hyde but you could do far worse for a guilty pleasure on the Great White Way. For a night of bloodcurdling theater, Jekyll & Hyde injects a dose of Broadway star power that’s well worth going a little bit mad.

Jekyll & Hyde
Marquis Theatre
1535 Broadway

"Matilda the Musical" (photo: Joan Marcus)

Girl power has taken over the Shubert Theatre.

Breezing into town with a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards including Best Musical, this adaptation of Roal Dahl’s story of an extraordinary girl with a fantastical imagination has won the hearts of both theatergoers and critics alike.

Matilda‘s Broadway company includes four girls sharing the title role, each of whom is making her Broadway debut. Olivier Award winner Bertie Carvel and Lauren Ward reprise the roles they played in London.

Whether you’re a little girl or a little girl at heart, Matilda seems to be the unequivocal hit of the season.
Here’s what the critics are saying…

“Within its traditional form Matilda works with astonishing slyness and grace to inculcate us with its radical point of view. Matilda, you see, is about words and language, books and stories, and their incalculable worth as weapons of defense, attack and survival. It’s about turning the alphabet into magic, and using it to rule the world.” The New York Times

“What lifts the show is its overwhelming emotional kick. In a journey from sadness to joy it would have been easy to overstate the case, but Warchus et al. achieve power through restraint. The exuberant second act opener, “When I Grow Up,” sees children and adults flying high on swings, yet it’s impossible to miss the poignancy of inchoate feelings of loss and hope flooding beneath the surface.” Variety

“It was Dahl who invented Matilda, the spunky, over-achieving, proto-feminist, grrl-power heroine of what is far and away the best new musical of the Broadway season, indeed one of the best family-oriented shows of any season, and a work of musical theater that feels like a grand cultural experience in the tradition of the Royal Shakespeare Company (creators of the world premiere), and yet lands remarkably true to Dahl’s off-centered heart in the way it understands both the value of silly stories and the vulnerability of children to adult cruelty.” Chicago Tribune

Matilda the Musical
Shubert Theatre
225 West 44th Street

"Matilda the Musical" (photo: Joan Marcus)

The Broadway Blog sent contributor Lindsay B. Davis back in time and it appears she got lost trying to follow along Speakeasy Moderne, a hodgepodge review of Broadway, pop hits and standards from days gone by.

The cast of "Speakeasy Moderne." (photo: Andrew Werner)

When something old is made new again, one can see if the resurrected object withstands the test of time. When something old is made new and given a modern twist, as in the case of Speakeasy Moderne and its homage to NYC’s Prohibition era nightlife and entertainment, I found myself longing to be transported out of my seat at Stage72 and back to the 1920s itself to escape this hodgepodge and misguided show.

The evening of cabaret style entertainment begins promisingly enough – a stage with velvet curtains, moody lighting, and a scantily clad woman standing over a Mac powerbook pumping a remix of “No Diggity” infused with a ragtime beat. This is going to be fun, I thought, but after Official Hank (Hank Stampfl) kicks things off with “Willkommen” from Cabaret (flirty, light and campy but missing the danger) and the dancers (lead by choreographer Kimberly Schafer) deliver Velma and Roxie’s tag-team routine from Chicago, what becomes clear is the display of talent, while energetic and upbeat, is sub par for New York City. It may not be Broadway but still.

A disclaimer – I am more sensitive than most to the preservation of form, particularly if that form is Top 40 pop music, musical theater or jazz. If you’re going to sing the late, legendary Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, I question anyone’s ability to touch the greatness of the original — ditto Rihanna’s “Where Have You Been”, Adele’s “Rumor Has It” and perhaps the most offensive, “Falling Softly” from the brilliant musical Once, all reinterpreted and done to deleterious effect — slowing it down to a blues-infested, jazzy version that sounds like it could have been sung by a drugged up Whitney hours before her death is not going to win my favor.

“Titanium,” another catchy pop tune in the Speakeasy Moderne collection (original by DJ/producer Dave Guetta and Aussie singer/songwriter Sia) was butchered by its slow pacing and two dancers who performed a lyrical routine while wrapping guest performer, vocalist Dina Fanai, in a piece of red silk. I heard chuckles in the crowd from audience members, perhaps unsure how to handle the melodramatic lyric delivery of “I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose, fire away, fire away… ” that escalated with every spin of the satin.

Women who are sexy trying to be sexy is simply not sexy and the dancers fall into the trap of trying too hard. Schafer’s choreography is energetic and ambitious, tackling a variety of styles and influences – musical theater, vaudeville hoofer, roaring 20s flapper girl, and burlesque – but is overdone and heavy-handed. The constant movement overcrowds the small stage and in some cases distracts from the vocal performances. The exception is dancer Monica Poulos, who shines and almost steals the show. Her silhouetted performance to a live rendition of “Golden Eye” behind a sheet is devilishly captivating and deliciously hot. A tango infused rendition of The Police’s “Roxanne” is a sultry, memorable and successful reworking of the original.

Songs that stayed true to their original intent and styling were well done, including Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing” and a cover of the Andrews Sisters’ “Rum and Coca Cola”, both performed in 3-part harmony by a refreshing trio women, including Ashley Alana Kenney, Lynsey Buckelew and the naturally charming, sassy and vocally deft Julia Burroughs. Kenney’s “Mein Herr” and Buckelew’s “Single Ladies” both work well and were audience favorites.

The evening is emcee’d by Official Hank (Hank Stampfl), the show’s attractive, fearless leader (and Speakeasy Moderne’s creator/producer) who, while charming and clearly enjoying himself, lacks the humor and vocal heft to sufficiently carry the evening. Stampfl isn’t helped by the lack of cohesive connection between numbers, a structural problem that was illuminated by the occasional dead time on stage between songs and dance routines, nor does he seem at ease with the choreography. Through twirls and the occasional wink/nod to the audience, his efforts are commendable and at many points he wins over the crowd, which is perhaps the thing to note – despite it all the audience (encouraged to dress in their favorite period garb from the 1920s onward) seemed to be enjoying itself immensely and having a grand ole’ time. They sang along and when the show was over, the space quickly transformed into a dance party for all. I may have felt uneasy but the majority seemed to delight in Speakeasy Moderne.

Speakeasy Moderne
Stage 72
The last Thursday of every month.
158 West 72nd Street
www.speakeasymoderne.com 

Lindsay B. Davis is an arts/culture journalist, actress, playwright and director. She resides in New York City.

The cast of "Kinky Boots." (photo: Matt Murphy)

I suppose it’s easier to win a battle when you feel the world is on your side. Such is the case inside the Al Hirschfeld Theatre where Kinky Boots, a new musical by Harvey Fierstein (book) and Cyndi Lauper (music and lyrics) has recently set up shop.

The show’s opening number, “The Most Beautiful Thing,” begins with a flashback of the show’s two lead characters as children, discovering their own relationship to shoes — Charlie is the son of a shoe factory owner; Lola is a drag queen in the making. As little Lola (played by Marquise Neal) struts around the stage in red heels, the audience goes wild as if it’s populated with the kind of progressive young parents who show off their sons on YouTube dressing up like Disney princesses for Halloween. This audience wants to see the underdog succeed, and in Kinky Boots it’s a win-win as both Charlie and Lola have mountains to climb (albeit one in sensible shoes and the other in stilettos).

Inspired by the 2005 film of the same name, Kinky Boots follows the adult Charlie (played by Stark Sands) and Lola (played by Billy Porter) as the unconventional pair take on the task of saving Charlie’s failing family shoe factory by converting it into a manufacturing facility for high heel boots for drag queens. At first glance, the antagonists are clear-cut. Charlie’s fiancée (Celina Carvajal) would rather be living in cosmopolitan London instead of Northampton. The factory worker (Daniel Stewart Sherman) wants to keep making men’s loafers rather than be bossed around by someone light in them. But their foils (or lack thereof, as neither character takes any substantial action to shake up the plot) pale compared to the deeper constructs of Fierstein’s book.

Both men’s battles are with their past. Charlie struggles to reconcile the death of his father and his new role as the leader in a business that he never wanted to be a part of. Lola, outside of the comfort of cosmopolitan London, is thrust back into a world that he escaped many years ago, bringing back memories of a father who could not accept him.

take the jump for the complete review and video from Kinky Boots

Read more…

The cast of "Hands on a Hardbody." (photo: Chad Batka)

What happens when you pit 10 Texans against each other in a contest of stamina and strategy in order to win a brand new truck? Apparently you get a pretty decent new Broadway musical according to the reviews that have surfaced this week of Hands on a Hardbody.

Inspired by true events (and a 1997 documentary of the same name), the creative team of Doug Wright (book), Amanda Green (music and lyrics), Trey Anastasio (music), Neil Pepe (direction) and Sergio Trujillo (musical staging) have created a humorous and poignant look at ambition and the different facets of the American dream.

In spite of good notices, the musical is struggling at the box office — big time. According to The New York Post, there are rumors that the show’s closing is eminent in spite of stand-out performances by Keith Carradine and Hunter Foster.

Hands on a Hardbody
Brooks Atinkson Theatre
256 West 47th Street

Here’s what the critics have to say…

“Although it’s far from fully loaded in a conventional sense, this scrappy, sincere new musical brings a fresh, handmade feeling to Broadway, which mostly traffics in the machine tooled. (Last year’s Tony winner “Once” was a notable exception.) Burrowing into the troubled hearts of its characters, it draws a cleareyed portrait of an America that’s a far cry from the fantasyland of most commercial musicals. “Hands on a Hardbody” simply sings forth a story of endurance, hardship and the dimming American dream, which increasingly seems to hover on the distant horizon like some last-ditch motel whose neon lights are blinking out one by one.” The New York Times

“The production is earnest and solidly performed by a cast including Keith Carradine and Hunter Foster under the direction of Neil Pepe. But all of their skill, and the authors’, can’t finesse a problem of emotional scale. How much can even a Texan want a truck? When the opening number (“Human Drama Kind of Thing”) announces that the winning contestant is “bound for glory,” you feel the workings of a giant air pump artificially swelling the characters’ motivations to singable size. For all the worthy effort to valorize lives not usually depicted in musicals, this has the opposite effect: It makes them seem petty.

But then something happens near the end of the first act: The Bible-clutcher (Keala Settle, sublime) gets the giggles. This leads to a bravura laughing aria and, eventually, a mostly a cappella gospel number called “Joy of the Lord” that successfully combines the personal and communal and lifts the show into musical-theater heaven. It hasn’t much to do with the truck, but it’s daring and thrilling and wins some sort of contest, hands down.” Vulture

“Well, Broadway finally got itself an all-American musical in “Hands on a Hardbody.” The question is, will an all-American audience go for it? It’s hard to picture hotel concierges, travel agents and group sales ladies pitching tourists a show about some working-class stiffs from East Texas clinging desperately to a cherry-red pickup truck in a marathon competition to win it. Better to comp New York cabbies and cops to spread the word about this offbeat but totally endearing show. Still, no matter how this dark tuner fares under Gotham’s cold glare, regional bookers should be lining up six deep.” Variety