THE MORNING LINE DATE: Thursday, May 28, 2015 FROM: Michelle Farabaugh, Jennie Mamary Katie Aramento, Cameron Draper, Raychel Shipley PAGES: 15, including this page.

May 28, 2015

Members of Original ‘Into the Woods’ Cast to Reunite By Michael Paulson Twenty-eight years after they gathered to perform an innovative fairy tale mash-up musical, key members of the original cast and creative team behind one of Stephen Sondheim’s most beloved musicals will reunite to discuss what happened in the woods and their own ever afters.

The show they collaborated on in 1987, “Into the Woods,” has become a much-loved and oft-performed classic of contemporary musical theater, and last year was made into a film starring Meryl Streep.

Mr. Sondheim, who won a Tony Award for writing the music and lyrics, and James Lapine, who won a Tony Award for writing the book, will join Bernadette Peters, who played the witch, and several other cast members on June 21 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Twice that day — at a matinee and an evening session — there will be a panel discussion, moderated by Mo Rocca, and performances intended to explore how the show was developed.

The other original cast members scheduled to take part include Joanna Gleason, who won a Tony Award for playing the Baker’s Wife; Chip Zien, who played the Baker; Robert Westenberg, who played a wolf and a prince; Kim Crosby, who played Cinderella; Danielle Ferland, who played Little Red Ridinghood; and Ben Wright, who played Jack.

The reunion was conceived by Eileen Roberts, who first co-produced it last fall at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, Calif.

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May 28, 2015

Review: In ‘Nice Girl,’ a Sudden Ray of Hope in a Dead-End Life By Charles Isherwood Sadness sits lightly on the small shoulders of Josephine, the heroine of “Nice Girl,” a tenderly drawn drama by Melissa Ross about stunted lives in a middle-class suburb of Boston. Josephine, known as Jo and portrayed with fine delicacy by Diane Davis, goes about her daily business without drawing attention to the hole in her heart. She cooks and cares for her mother, Francine, and dutifully performs her secretarial chores at an accounting firm. But in moments of repose and reflection, tears spring to her eyes, and the life she might have led seems to shimmer before her like a mirage. At 38, Jo still lives at home with her mother (Kathryn Kates), in a modest tidy house (the versatile set, by David Meyer, expertly captures the social milieu). Some 20 years earlier, Jo left home to attend Radcliffe on a scholarship, but when her father died she left school to help take care of her mother and just never went back. Now she seems to have lost all hope of moving on, moving forward or even moving out, although she makes idle threats to do so when tensions flare up with Francine. They do on a daily basis, since the dyspeptic Francine, played with a hilariously sour edge by Ms. Kates, isn’t the easiest woman to get along with. Vaguely ailing but refusing to see the doctor — because she doesn’t want to hear any good news, Jo thinks — Francine rarely leaves the house, or even the housecoat that is her daily uniform. Both possessive and passive-aggressive, she needles Jo about her humdrum life but makes biting remarks when, for a change, Jo starts up a couple of new friendships. The first is with Sherry (a floridly funny Liv Rooth), her big-haired co-worker (it is sometime in the mid-1980s) who pours out a sorry tale of discovering she’s been seeing a married man. Foul-mouthed and outgoing, Sherry is the opposite of Jo, but given the way that Sherry’s life has been going, she decides that maybe a “nice girl,” as people refer to Jo repeatedly, will help her get her act together. The second and more promising new relationship is with Donny (Nick Cordero of “Bullets Over Broadway”), who works as a butcher in his family’s grocery store. They went to school together, and Donny, too, went off to college. But he left school when his girlfriend got pregnant and now finds himself separated with kids and little prospect of getting out from behind the butcher counter. Donny’s profession may or may not be meant as a homage to “Marty,” Paddy Chayefsky’s celebrated 1953 teleplay (later an Oscar-winning movie) about the sad-sack life of a butcher who finds love late in life. (Well, 34 was old back in the 1950s.) In any case, “Nice Girl,” directed with a smooth and gentle hand by Mimi O’Donnell, artistic director of the Labyrinth Theater Company, presents a similar slice of middle-class life with the same unpatronizing honesty and simplicity. The most affecting passages are the scenes between Jo and Donny, in which they sit on the porch and gradually reveal the loneliness and disappointment that have settled in their hearts. Jo articulates her resignation movingly

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in a speech toward the end of the play: “I think nobody’s happy,” she says. “I think that’s the big joke. From God. Being happy doesn’t really exist. Or it does, but it’s like a scratch-off lottery ticket. And most people don’t hit the jackpot. I think you get stuff you think you want and you want something else.” Mr. Cordero brings a jovial warmth to Donny — he was a high school big shot — but it gradually dissolves to reveal his own nagging dissatisfaction with the path his life has taken. Whereas Jo cracks that she was in the bathroom when the rule book for life was being handed out, Donny has arrived at a similar impasse by another route. “Look,” he says, “I always did what I was supposed to do. Marry the girl I was supposed to marry. Be a butcher ’cause my father was a butcher.” “I wish I’d been in the bathroom too when they passed out the rule books, Jo,” he adds. “ ’Cause I did all the things I was supposed to do. And I’m not sure I’m too happy.” Their quiet groping toward an understanding strikes a touching chord. Mr. Cordero and Ms. Davis have a fine sense of the tentative rhythms of their characters’ interaction, which is pocked with silences that resonate with feeling. We sense both Jo and Donny’s deep yearning for a connection despite their surface differences — and his complicated life, which we learn in a late surprise is more complicated than he has let on. Ms. Ross also brings welcome nuance to the relationship between Jo and Francine, which at first seems like a sitcom setup: Daughter plays nagging mother to her own mother. In a charged encounter, Jo blames Francine for not urging her to return to school when she had a chance, but Francine insists it was not her need to be taken care of but Jo’s own diffidence that kept her from resuming her studies. Ms. Davis and Ms. Kates establish a rapport that’s both prickly funny and, underneath, deeply affectionate. Although it’s a modest play, “Nice Girl” never strikes a dishonest note (the occasional anachronism aside: Was “wicked” really used as an all-purpose adjective enhancer back in the 1980s?). And while the final image is a hopeful one, Ms. Ross wisely avoids the kind of pat or sentimental ending that would spoil the play’s mood of ambivalence, not to mention its truthfulness. For Jo and Donny, and Francine and Sherry, too, for that matter, finding the way forward means making peace with the unhappy past, and none of them seem to have much of a talent for that. Few of us do. Nice Girl By Melissa Ross; directed by Mimi O’Donnell; sets by David Meyer; costumes by Emily Rebholz; lighting by Japhy Weideman; music and sound by Ryan Rumery; technical director, Sean Gorski; production manager, Dennis O’Leary-Gullo; production stage manager, Hannah Woodward; dialect coach, Charlotte Fleck. Presented by the Labyrinth Theater Company, Ms. O’Donnell, artistic director; Danny Feldman, executive director. At the Bank Street Theater, 155 Bank Street, West Village, 212-513-1080, labtheater.org. Through June 14. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. WITH: Nick Cordero (Donny), Diane Davis (Josephine Rosen), Kathryn Kates (Francine Rosen) and Liv Rooth (Sherry).

May 28, 2015

‘Something Rotten!’ Finds Everything’s Up to Date in the 1590s (Exclusive Album Premiere)

By Eric R. Danton

Brian d’Arcy James and Christian Borle in “Something Rotten”—Joan Marcus

As quaint and archaic as it seems now, the Renaissance would have looked fully modern to the people living through it. That idea was a guiding principle while brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick were writing music and lyrics for the new hit musical“Something Rotten!” The original Broadway cast recording premieres today on Speakeasy.

Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw and nominated for 10 Tony awards, “Something Rotten!” is a musical comedy set in the 1595, when playwrights Nick and Nigel Bottom (played by Brian d’Arcy James and John Cariani, respectively) attempt to emerge from the considerable shadow of William Shakespeare (played by Christian Borle) with a revolutionary new dramatic concept: the musical comedy.

“Instead of looking at the Renaissance as an age of old, we started imagining how modern it must have seemed at the time,” Karey Kirkpatrick says by email. “Everything was new and current. This allowed us the opportunity to apply that to our score as well, using more contemporary music to help reinforce that mindset.”

The Kirkpatricks had been toying with the concept for “Something Rotten!” for years before Wayne Kirkpatrick came up with the chorus for opening number “Welcome to the Renaissance,” which he says “really helped us define the tone of the score.”

“To hold up a rat trap and a washboard and sing, ‘We have the latest gadgets and appliances,’ lets the audience know right away that we aren’t going to take ourselves too seriously and we’re going to have a lot of fun with a view of what is ‘new’ from a 400-year-old perspective,” Wayne Kirkpatrick says. “Also, when we break into the rock section with a driving rhythm section and distorted electric guitars, we are also foreshadowing the type of music that is to come—and letting the audience know there is going to be a collision of these two styles; traditional Broadway and contemporary rock.”

Starting “Something Rotten!” was one thing. Finishing it became quite another. The brothers say spent a lot of time rewriting and revising the music and lyrics before the show opened April 22 at the St. James Theatre in Manhattan. “I think we’ve written somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 songs for the show, 18 of which survived,” Wayne Kirkpatrick says.

Adds Karey Kirkpatrick, “In fact, the writing never really stopped until we actually had to, because we were opening in a week. Each step in the process—table reads, staged reading, workshop and previews—all revealed what worked and what didn’t. And then, ultimately, putting it in front of an audience told us what should stay and what should change.”

Audiences have responded favorably: “Something Rotten” grossed more than $1 million last week, according to Forbes, and the show’s 10 Tony nominations include best musical, best original score for the Kirkpatricks and best book of a musical for Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell.

The original Broadway cast recording is due June 2 in digital form from Ghostlight Records, and July 17 on CD. What do you think of the musical? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

May 28, 2015

Win or Not, Tony-Nominee Brian d’Arcy James Feels Victorious

By John Carucci

AP Photo/Andy Kropa

Brian d'Arcy James throws some serious shade at William Shakespeare in the Tony-nominated musical "Something Rotten." And it has paid off, nicely.

Playing the great Bard's fictional adversary in the comedy set in the 16th century has earned James his third Tony Award nomination. But unlike his character, Nick Bottom, win or lose, James already feels victorious.

"It's just as thrilling and exciting to be nominated because these things don't happen every day," James said.

Nominated twice before - most recently in the 2009 for "Shrek the Musical" - James feels happy to be part of a show that earned ten nominations, including nods to co-stars Christian Borle and Brad Oscar.

Recently James sat down with The Associated Press to discuss his musical, laughing at Shakespeare, and his friend Jeanine Tesori, the composer of a rival musical, "Fun Home."

AP: This is your third Tony nomination. Is being nominated enough?

James: It is, actually. I mean, the truth is it is enough. Again, this comes from having gone down the road a couple of times and knowing that you know having been nominated for a Tony twice and not having won doesn't mean the door shuts and it's over. It just means that is an amazing accomplishment, a feather to stick in your hat.

AP: `Something Rotten!' is something really funny. How do you not laugh while onstage?

James: It's hard not to, in fact, and I can't say that I haven't been snickering on the side or in full view sometimes... These actors that are inhabiting these roles are all extraordinary, from Gerry Vichi to Peter Bartlett, Heidi Blickenstaff, Brooks Ashmanskas, John Cariani. It's like an all-star team of comedic actors who understand the function of their role, but more importantly, they've all been given this historical text and these characters have been so well drawn and individually created.

AP: Is it fun to poke fun at Shakespeare?

James: I love this aspect of the show... my character sings a song called, `God, I Hate Shakespeare.' So for anybody who's gone to see a play by Shakespeare and has been intimidated by the fact that they might not be able to grasp it or latch on to it as quickly as some other people, it's nice to throw some pebbles at him... It takes away the mythic status and shows a guy really good at his job.

AP: What's it like to be in a musical that hilariously pokes fun at the idea of a musical?

James: I like the idea of trying to imagine a world without musicals, especially in the show. My character is trying to create something that is better than Shakespeare... it's a love letter to all musicals. Though we poke fun at it and say, in 1595, this is what's coming down the road. We're doing it because we absolutely love it. We wouldn't be here if the musicals that preceded it didn't exist.

AP: Musicals this season have been like an endangered species.

James: That's the bad and the sad news, but the great news is that the difference of options that people have in terms of going to a musical this season are pretty extraordinary. You have very unique interesting shows. Our show is a great, big, classic, original musical comedy. You have `Fun Home,' which is very interesting beautiful piece of contemporary issues. You have `An American in Paris,' which is a beautiful ballet by Christopher Wheeldon.

AP: What are your thoughts on Jeanine Tesori, along with Lisa Kron, potentially being the first female duo to win a Tony for best original score?

James: I love Jeanine Tesori. I've worked with her many times. I was in her workshop production of `Violet.' She was the musical director for `Titanic' in the workshop stages. I worked with her very extensively on `Shrek.' I love her music. I love the way she composes. I love the way she thinks about theater. There's no stone unturned in terms of the sculpting that she does with the song and then those incredible melodic tunes.... I'm very chemically in tune with what she's writing. I love it... She's a real leader and she does it not only by how she works, but who she is.

May 28, 2015

Cast Albums - Week of June 5