What: Musicals in Mufti
Where: York Theatre Company
The Theatre at St. Peters
619 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York
When:
Big the Musical A Time for Singing Saturday Night My Favorite Year
Ended Oct 19 Oct 25-26, Oct 29-31,Nov 1-2 Nov 8-9, Nov 12-16 Dec 5-7
Who: All ages
(some shows may be more suitable for young children than others; check the York Theatre web-site at http://www.yorktheatre.org/ for further information about any of the above shows)
Our view: Imagine if you could experience theater as intimate as community theater with the talent level of Broadway Theater. Well with Musicals in Mufti you can. Musicals in Mufti are dressed down productions of major musicals that maybe didn't do as well as they should have when the originally ran on Broadway. When we first heard about these hows while we were intrigued, we had our doubts. Shows with very little sets and very little costumes and with the actors actually walking around with scripts in their hands, it doesn't sound very impressive, does it? Well throw any preconceived notions, you may have based on this description right out the window. We can honestly say our experience seeing the Musicals in Mufti production of Big was one of the best theater experiences we have ever had. First of all these are not second rate productions starring a cast of completely unknowns. Big starred Kerry Butler, well known for such roles as Kyra in Xanadu, Penny in Hairspray, and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors among other things and John Tartaglia, well known for Avenue Q and the TV show Johnny and the Sprites among other things. While Kerry and John were excellent in their roles (John was particularly believable as a 13 year old trapped in an adult body), the rest of the cast was equally as talented. Also, just because there is not as much movement and major choreography as in a major Broadway production does not mean the cast stands around stiffly in front of microphones reciting their lines. Also, even though the cast carried around scripts, they were all very well prepared and rarely even looked at their scripts. All in all, the show was well acted, well sung and just generally enjoyable. Unfortunately, however, Musicals in Mufti productions have very short runs and the show which we were fortunate enough to see, Big the Musical, has already closed. However, we would definitely recommend seeing one of their shows when and if you have the opportunity, and we would definitely go again ourselves. For the season's schedule of shows see above or go to http://www.yorktheatre.org/ for more information or to find out how to order tickets. We will try to keep you posted as much as we can about future Musicals in Mufti productions.
And that's our view. Tune in tomorrow for more about Musicals in Mufti and their production of Big.
Posts
