Dreamgirls

GRADE:B

Book and Lyrics by Tom Eyen, Music by Henry Krieger, Additional Material by William Reale Directed by Robert Longbottom at the Apollo Theater. (CLOSED)

I'll admit it, dear reader, I'm quite flummoxed by this crop of reviews of Dreamgirls, the new touring version of the musical that just opened at The Apollo. The majority of the reviews damn with faint praise at best (except in regards to Chester Gregory's performance as Early, which gets universal raves), and yet enthusiastically recommend the show. You get a real whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts from this crop of reviews. Either that, or the standards of our criterati are slipping mightily. The New York Post's Elisabeth Vincentelli struggles to find anything positive to say about the show, and yet finds it thoroughly entertaining. Ditto Joe Dziemianowicz at the Daily News and Linda Winer at Newsday, who writes that Longbottom's choreography is lackluster but also calls his work "capable" and says it almost makes you forget Bye Bye Birdie, his recently-staged disaster at Roundabout. Part of the key to this revival's success is that it performs in the Apollo, where the musical's opening and closing are set, which adds a layer of meaning and resonance usually reserved for experimental site-specific work. Or perhaps the key lies in this sentence from the Variety review: " as a road property, it's top-tier," raising the question... does this Dreamgirls benefit from low expectations as its not performing on Broadway, despite having a Broadway design team and director?

Backstage A
(David Sheward) National tours are often viewed as knockoffs of Broadway originals. The limited run of Dreamgirls at the Apollo Theatre may be the first stop of a national tour, but this electric revival is anything but second-rate. The location alone provides an added zing, as many of the crucial moments take place at the Harlem landmark. But real estate only goes so far. Director-choreographer Robert Longbottom has rebounded from his misfired staging of the Roundabout Bye Bye Birdie with a dazzling and energetic production. In no way beholden to the 1981 premiere edition by Michael Bennett or Bill Condon's 2006 Oscar-winning film version, this "Dreamgirls" is fresh, alive, and bursting with talent.

Newsday B+
(Linda Winer) Most important, this Dreamgirls has the young singing actors it needs to deliver both the music and the meaning of the Tom Eyen-Henry Krieger score. Moya Angela, as the most talented but overweight Effie, takes hold of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" with such power and subtle phrasing that we're forced to stop comparing her with Jennifer Holliday and Jennifer Hudson, who made their names on this role and this song.

Time Out New York B+
(Adam Feldman)
Much of the recitative is not first-rate, and although this revival is well designed—from Robin Wagner’s mobile metallic panels, often swathed in video, to William Ivey Long’s droll period costumes—it is not always well directed; Robert Longbottom adeptly handles the many cinematic fades between onstage and backstage drama, but the more intimate scenes lack finesse. The weaknesses melt away, however, under the heat of the show’s standout songs, especially as performed by Angela and the extraordinary Chester Gregory, a walking lighting bolt as the irrepressible James “Thunder” Early. The show may not always be dreamy, but I am telling you: Go.

Bloomberg B
(Jeremy Gerard) Bennett invented a staging vocabulary that advanced the form while still paying tribute to his predecessors. Robert Longbottom, the revival’s director and choreographer, is a hack; every dance sequence is a cliche, every dramatic scene soap- operatic and lacking imagination. Yet what Angela, Gregory and their colleagues (especially the other Dreamettes, Adrienne Warren and Syesha Mercado) supply for the ear via Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger’s expansive score, Ivey Long supplies for the eye: a dizzying succession of ever more spectacular gowns (can there be any sequins left in the Western hemisphere?). So yes, this Dreamgirls is a show with killer looks, music to spare and a couple of new stars in its pocket.

Hollywood Reporter B
(Frank Scheck) Although Longbottom's staging and choreography pales next to the original, he's done a fine job with several numbers, especially Steppin' to the Dark Side, which employs those LED screens with imaginative flair. And the nifty quick costume changes produce the desired dazzling effect. Henry Krieger (music) and Tom Eyen's (lyrics) score remains an effective pastiche of '60s styles. It has here been augmented with two additions: What Love Can Do, the second-act opener, and the Effie/Deena duet "Listen," written for the film, which serves as a strong 11:00 number. The production also gains immeasurable resonance from its being presented at this intimate and historic venue, where the opening and (for this version) closing numbers are actually set.

TalkinBroadway B
(Matthew Murray) The mere fact that Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger’s 1981 musical has been given an 85-percent production after the heavier stumbles of the 2006 film adaptation is almost gift enough. Granted, given the original’s four-year run, its almost immediate revival on Broadway, and the starry 2001 Actors’ Fund concert, the show has never really gone away, but Longbottom, despite a few lapses in judgment, has taken significant steps to ensure that it stays at the forefront of our consciousness for the foreseeable future.

TheaterMania B
(Brian Scott Lipton) There's no doubt that the role of Effie White in the Henry Krieger-Tom Eyen musical Dreamgirls, now launching its national tour at the Apollo Theatre, is a star-making one. Just ask Jennifer Holliday, Lillias White, and Jennifer Hudson! But there's no guarantee that whoever portrays the fiery singer will end up as a lasting luminary in the firmament. Still, my money's on relative newcomer Moya Angela, whose intense, deeply-felt performance as Effie is the red-hot center of Robert Longbottom's enjoyable if slightly too cool revival of this timeless backstage musical.

New York Post B
(Elisabeth Vincentelli) A touring production hatched in South Korea, it feels spare not by design but by necessity. William Ivey Long designed hundreds of costumes, but the wigs look kinda cheap, the orchestra is too small and the basic set consists of five floor-to-ceiling rotating panels that double as LED screens...And yet, this Dreamgirls is incredibly entertaining, even when the seams are showing...Despite some missteps -- using the ensemble as fake orchestra members is cheesy, and the projections evoking a tour are somehow garish and banal -- the show plows through with gusto, grit and guts. Perfect for Dreamgirls.

New York Daily News B
(Joe Dziemianowicz) If you've never seen Dreamgirls on stage, it's worthwhile. And though it doesn't hit euphoric heights, there's an exciting vibe that the hit film can't capture. Plus, you can't beat the added you-are-there bonus since the Apollo is where the show's plot begins and ends.

Variety B-
(David Rooney) There's bad news and good about the much-anticipated revival of "Dreamgirls," kicking off, like the action of the show itself, on the storied stage of Harlem's Apollo Theater before a national tour. Cultists of the 1981 musical about an African-American girl group's rise to success might have been hoping for a Broadway-caliber production that would demand a midtown New York return. In most ways that count, this staging falls short of that wish. But as a road property, it's top-tier, packaged to travel and stuffed with vocal talent that does justice to Henry Krieger's sensational songs and helps compensate for stiff acting and a shortage of emotional clout.

NYTimes C-
(Ben Brantley) The show’s opening scene, Amateur Night at the Apollo, pulses with the plethora of talent onstage, of raw and enthusiastic performers who may well acquire polish and star shine. The people playing those amateurs are much more advanced than that. But their characterizations cry out for greater texture and variety. This show’s greatest asset and deficit is its momentum, which is too relentless for comfort. To feel fully — and Dreamgirls is a show that can make you cry real tears — you have to be able to breathe.

Village Voice D+
(Michael Feingold) Robert Longbottom's new production, sadly, won't erase any memories of Bennett's. Visually ineffective despite its fancy digital displays, and featuring loud, one-dimensional performances, the new Dreamgirls loosens the show's grip till it might seem to be just another extravaganza, though the writing still grabs you. Only Chester Gregory, spectacularly effective as an egocentric r&b star, breaks through the production's built-for-touring torpor.

BS A 13; ND B+ 11; TONY B+ 11; TM B 10; BB B 10; HWR B 10; NYP B 10;TB B 10; NYDN B 10; Variety B- 9; NYTimes C- 6; VV D+ 5; TOTAL: 115/12=9.58 (B)

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Romantic Poetry

GRADE: D

Book & Lyrics by John Patrick Shanley, Music by Henry Krieger, Directed by John Patrick Shanley. (CLOSED)

(Critic-O-Metered by Isaac Butler)

MTC's troubled season continues with Romantic Poetry. Multiple reviewers call the play a "train wreck" with most of the blame heaped at writer/director John Patrick Shanley's feet. Critics deride the play's logic, lack of characters, plot and lyrics. Time Out NY gives it its first ever zero-star review. Yeesh. Hopefully the Itamar Moses penned, Daniel Aukin helmed Back Back Back can lift MTC's season out of its 0-2 slump.

Back Stage B-
(Adam R. Perlman) Elsewhere Shanley has shown awareness that love can feel epic without stretching stage time to epic lengths, but here battles are fought and re-fought with diminishing emotional returns. The intermission—and everything that comes after—could be easily excised...Shanley has an ideal collaborator in Krieger, who has crafted a score both full-throated and playful...Judging from the tuner's many moments of delightful abandon, Shanley may ultimately find himself at home in the world of musical theatre. But for now, his mess runneth over. The troubadour could use an assist from the craftsman.

New Yorker C
(John Lahr) A reckless, flabbergasting spectacle, like watching soldiers go into battle with popguns...For the audience, there is no one to care for and nothing to believe in; there is only the sound of Shanley's self-congratulatory voice...Every word, every rhyme, every theatrical conceit seems to delight him: the show is positively agog at its own cleverness...Henry Krieger, who wrote the music for Dreamgirls, provides some genial melodies to back up Shanley's folly.

NJ Star-Ledger C-
(Michael Sommers) Shanley's libretto...strains to be playful. With nothing to ground its doings into some semblance of reality, however, the whimsically motivated tale comes across as a flimsy, even nonsensical, two hours. Allied to Shanley's lyrics, which sport humorous glints...Krieger composes 25 usually brief songs in a variety of modes, including tango, gospel and jazz. If the pleasant songs scarcely cling to the ear, August Eriksmoen's orchestrations for a five-member onstage ensemble sound sweet and supple.

New York C-
(Stephanie Zacharek) A musical comedy of modest ambitions, and it doesn't meet any of them...Shanley...tries to weld the perceived innocence of the thirties musical to the self-aware cluelessness of early-21st-century coupling, perhaps as a way of showing that not all that much has changed...At a certain point a production's simplicity—spare set, modest costumes—only reinforces how threadbare the material is. Nothing says "desperation" like asking a performer to sing a half-cooked melody, packed with wearying punny lyrics, against a sparkly curtain.

TheaterMania C-
(Dan Bacalzo) The large number of songs in the show also results in diminishing returns. Many of the sung sections would be more effective as spoken dialogue, as there's no real call for them to be musicalized. It seems as if Shanley incorporates so much singing to emphasize the whimsical aspects of the script, but too often Romantic Poetry fails to achieve the proper tone.

TalkinBroadway D+
(Matthew Murray) If there's an upside to Romantic Poetry, it's that it will fortify New York relationships for decades to come: If a couple survives this, they can survive anything. In every other way, this is the kind of date play you might take an ex to on April Fool's Day. This show's pusillanimously prankish atmosphere, though, is rarely a laughing matter.

NYTimes D+
(Ben Brantley) You certainly can't say that the show isn't of a piece. But that piece is made of ingredients that were meant to be consumed in small amounts. Only people who can make a meal out of marshmallows and marzipan are likely to find Romantic Poetry digestible.

Variety D+
(Steven Suskin) "Oh, somebody fix this!" cries one of the characters late in the first act. Producers should have heeded that suggestion. Shanley is known for keeping a tight rein over his material, but a little helpful guidance—or a lot—might have been in order for his first time tackling book, lyrics and direction of a musical. The talented writer presumably has something on his mind here, but the message is mighty cloudy. Romantic poetry it ain't.

NYPost D
(Frank Scheck) The show's level of humor is typified by the recurring gag in which there's a loud burst of thunder whenever someone mentions Long Island's Five Towns. But his lyrics are even worse: "The distance between us/A boy looks at Venus/His ache it is heinous/He touches his penis."

Hartford Courant D
(Malcolm Johnson) Shanley, who perhaps should have opted for another director, never really pulls his musical grab bag together in an evening that is rarely either romantic or poetic.

AP D
(Michael Kuchwara) Love—or maybe just ruminating on love—can drive a person to do wild, crazy and sometimes foolish things, such as write a musical. How else to explain Romantic Poetry, the bewildering collaboration of John Patrick Shanley (book, lyrics and heavy-handed direction) and Henry Krieger (music) that opened Tuesday off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage I.

Wall Street Journal D
(Terry Teachout) It's about a cellphone salesman from Newark who longs to be a poet, which tells you just about all you need to know about the plot, in which—are you sitting down?—love conquers all. Henry Krieger of Dreamgirls wrote the music, which is as pedestrian and anonymous as Mr. Shanley's lyrics are slack and amateurish. The cabaret-style set is gorgeous, the actors excellent, except that they insist on speaking their lines.

Hollywood Reporter D-
(Alexis Greene) May Romantic Poetry pass quietly and quickly into theatrical lore.

NY Daily News D-
(Joe Dziemianowicz) Poetry is proof that even talented writers can veer off track, as well as evidence that gifted performers are only as good as the material.

Newsday F
(Linda Winer) Shanley has never before written the lyrics and book for a musical. We now know why. Romantic Poetry, which Manhattan Theatre Club opened last night at the same space where "Doubt" had its premiere, is a terrible show—incoherent, forced and jauntily oblivious to the depths of its awfulness. If not for the Shanley brand and the equally bizarre disappointment of the derivative score by Henry Krieger, who composed Dreamgirls, the decent impulse would be to tiptoe away without calling attention to the show's baffling presence.

AMNY F
(Matt Windman) Reeking of desperate cutesiness, Romantic Poetry offers a nonsensical story with forgettable songs, dry one-liners and random silliness. In other words, it is a poor man's version of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.

Bloomberg F-
(John Simon) John Patrick Shanley, author of the spellbinding Doubt, and Henry Krieger, composer of the captivating Dreamgirls, have banded together to concoct one of the most incongruous, foolish and pretentious musicals ever inflicted on an audience.

Time Out NY F-
(Adam Feldman) I have sometimes wondered just how bad a show would have to be to merit a zero-star rating. Now I know, and it is a terrible knowledge. John Patrick Shanley and Henry Krieger's ludicrous new musical, Romantic Poetry, is a garish failure on every level. I will not bore you with details of Shanley's inane and incoherent story, since I have already been bored enough for the both of us. I will not describe the supremely tacky set, except to note that it has a shiny white ramp and a dash of zebra print. Nor will I name the floundering actors, out of consideration for them and their families.

Back Stage B- 9; New Yorker C 7; NJ Star-Ledger C- 6; New York C- 6; TheaterMania C- 6; Talkin Broadway D+ 5; NYTimes D+ 5; Variety D+ 5; AP D 4; Hartford Courant D 4; NYPost D 4; WSJ D 4; Hollywood Reporter D- 3; NY Daily News D- 3; Newsday F 1; AMNY F 1; TONY F- 0; Bloomberg F- 0; TOTAL = 73 / 18 = 4.05 D

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