Rarely does Liberace enter the stage wearing the same thing twice (the green paisley PJs were a particular favorite of mine). Still, director-choreographer Paul Stancato (and co-choreographer Sidney Erik Wright) have staged a handsome production, full of flashy dance moves and even flashier costumes by Kurt Alger. "Too Much Is Never Enough," the musical's big production number about the creation of Liberace the showman, is great advice in snagging headlines and bookings when editing a musical, it's deadly. None of these stories get proper attention, resulting in a fun, Google-inducing, but ultimately unfocused show. Squeezed in wherever it can fit and proving that suit erroneous is a subplot about Liberace's clandestine romance with Rock Hudson (the actor is not credited in the program and mostly appears in the shadows or with the back of his head facing the audience - no one upstages Liberace). Then there's our menacing narrator, the British gossip journalist Cassandra (Joel Blum performing critic John Simon as a Bond villain), who suggests Liberace's homosexuality in his column, prompting the pianist to sue him for libel. Really, Sickmen and Hirson's musical tells 2.5 stories: There's the three-way business relationship between Liberace (the uncanny Samuel Floyd), mobster and Flamingo Hotel proprietor Ben Siegel (Eric Briarley), and his girlfriend Virginia Hill (Haley Hannah). Hirson, best known for Broadway's Pippin. Conceived and composed by Barbara Carole Sickmen, it's as campy and over-the-top as you would expect from a musical about Liberace, aided greatly by Sickmen's razzle-dazzle score and Lifetime movie dialogued penned by book writer Roger O. Those looking for a true spectacle at NYMF can do no better than Ben, Virginia and Me: The Liberace Musical. Samuel Floyd (center) leads the cast of Ben, Virginia and Me: The Liberace Musical, directed by Paul Stancato, for NYMF at the Acorn Theatre.īen, Virginia and Me: The Liberace Musical
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