Broadway Across America 2023-2024 Season Shows Rated
*Note: This is an incomplete list. Our tickets for Mrs. Doubtfire were for Christmas Eve day and that was not a time that worked for my family plans. As it was a limited run of a show, I was not able to reschedule
#7 Company
You can say one thing about Stephen Sondheim, he is willing to take a risk. I had never seen this show before, nor really even cared about it. The revival was lackluster, but I think that is mainly due to the subject, a single woman celebrating her birthday and essentially reflecting on the relationships in her life. It really is a very depressing musical, perhaps most particularly for me as a single forty-something woman. The scenery was truly creative and well used to show multiple locations of the action. The actors were good – but not great. There wasn’t a standout moment or performance from the show at all. Of all the shows, it really was the only one that I was kind of wondering when it would be over. I guess I felt like the show really was the low point of the season.
I wanted to love this show. I am a Girl from North Country. I am writing this while I sit in San Antonio, Texas. God Bless, Texas – but this is not my home nor are these my people. I am a North Country Minnesota girl. Give me Aspens and lakes any day. This musical is based on the songs of Bob Dylan. The songs of Bob Dylan are poetry and could have been used to tell a beautiful story. But the dire tone of the music took over in the tale that takes place in Depression Era northern Minnesota. In fact, in one of my favorite places in the world: Duluth, Minnesota. It is set in the house of a family that is taking in boarders to offset expenses and prevent the loss of their home. The story is interesting, although the music felt more tacked on rather than essential to the tale. The deadpan portrayal of the characters’ angst was also a choice that, ultimately, I felt didn’t the isolation of each of the characters that it was supposed to. It just made them rather dull and incomplete. Overall, the musical felt haphazard and ill-conceived, although I was glad that I was able to see where they went with the “Bob Dylan” musical as it opened in Minneapolis.
It was mind warping in two ways to see the Mamma Mia 25th Anniversary Tour. First, really? It has only been 25 years? Secondly, man that was 25 years ago that I first saw the show? Either way, the show really hasn’t changed. It was staged almost exactly the same as the first time I saw it. However, the characterization of Rosie and Tonya was spiced up a bit. I see this, sadly, as the desire to appeal to the aging audience. However, their humor and skill physically was terribly impressive. It was also eye opening, for a forty something woman, how much more attracted I was to Sam than Sky. Either way, they still had the bachelor party wearing fins (my bachelorette party may or may not have been crashed by my ex and his friends in snorkeling gear) and that made me happy. You can’t NOT love Mamma Mia, but it is lower on my list because of its staying power. It is a show where you go in knowing what you are gonna get, and you are gonna have fun.
I am a guilty lover of campy ‘80’s comedies, and one of my favorites that I can quote along with (right up there with Kindergarten Cop) is Clue! This production did a great job of walking the line of mimicking enough of the original to keep the essence of the campy feel, with some updated jokes that were going to land a little more softly in 2024 vs 1980’s. I laughed nonstop during this show. My tiny favorite moment of hilarity was when the characters are searching the house, one of them takes out the Clue! game board and uses it as a map. The cast was incredible in their physical performances and portrayal of the classic board game characters. The prat falls that they did live were insane! This show was not a musical, and nor should it be, but it was better choreographed than The Girl from North Country! Once the tempo of the investigation increased the coming and going and movements were so impeccably timed, they were truly a well-oiled ensemble cast. I actually enjoyed this show more than the next one on the list but know that I may be alone in not needing all Broadway shows to be musicals.
Here is the thing about The Lion King: it is going to be good. It is a Disney live production, and although they’ve done a few questionable animated films lately, their live shows are always impeccable. *I take that back. The alterations to Newsies the Musical took it too far from the movie rendition.* But I digress. The Lion King, you get amazing puppetry, amazing vocals, amazing movement and heartrending story about Simba. It is an amazing show. Period. Full stop. The touring performance right now did not disappoint. I was particularly impressed with the vocals of Scar, which, when you consider the character, you don’t think about casting the strongest male vocal there – but he was. You will never regret seeing this show live—I see it every time it comes back to Minneapolis 22 years after I saw it the first time here where it premiered. It is truly magic come to life, as classic Disney is meant to do.
I had never even seen the Barbara Streisand movie version of Funny Girl when this came on my radar as part of the TV show Glee! I knew the phrase don’t rain on my parade, and had heard people sing snippets of the song, but until Lea Michele sang it on Glee! and I saw the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade version of her portrayal of Fanny Brice on Broadway, I really had never given this show another thought. That performance instantly had me salivating to see the show when it came to town. What I didn’t expect is that Fanny Brice as a character in Act I truly speaks to that hungering thespian. I was always trying to be the center of attention as a child. Even now, guilty, I want to be the center of the performance. But I loved her. The actress was phenomenonal in the role, not Babs or Lea Michele, but powerful and encompassing. That alone made the show strong. The rest of the cast stepped up to the plate, but the show was truly deserving of best revival. It was a story that needed to be heard, by me at least.
This musical gets number one spot because of the actor who played Michael Jackson. He embodied the spirit of Michael Jackson so incredibly, vocally and physically, that as the second act started during the show I was at an audience member yelled, “I love you, Michael.” As the second act was starting, Michael is dressing in one of his iconic outfits and from the audience came a “Hee, Hee Hee.” You know the one. The actor looked up from the costume he was taking in and gave a withering stare at the audience and we all cracked up. Beyond the actor portraying Michael skillfully at all ages, Roman Banks, the ensemble was just as talented, and they were a seamless portrayal of the rise of one of the most gifted musicians and performers of a lifetime. The story, I assumed, would be about his life and it was. It was an interesting take on the rise to fame of the Jackson family. Someone else I talked to felt the play seemed to make Michael Jackson out to be a saint. I didn’t feel that way. I thought it acknowledged his use of medication throughout his life, whether prescribed or not. I think it also truly indicated how that was a direct effect of Michael’s treatment by his father, Joe. Essentially, Joe’s children became a commodity. From the intriguing take on his life to the truly mind-blowing lead, this show was engrossing.
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