The current PBS special taped at the White House is a valiant attempt to legitimize Broadway as an art form. But I don’t think we won any converts on this one. The show could easily have been subtitled “When bad song choices happen to good people.” From the cheese-tastic faux jazz riffing of Brian D’Arcy James in Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” to the painful off-tune screaming of Idina Menzel in the now cliché “What I Did for Love” - bad choices abound (and I’m a fan of both). The sole shining moments were (unsurprisingly) provided by the Goddess, Audra MacDonald. Yes, I do worship at the shrine of Audra, but let’s face it, she performed in a plane far and above everyone else. Stritchie could have hit it out of the park if she could remember lyrics. Did someone blackmail her into singing “I’m Still Here”? The woman is theater royalty, but she is ancient and known for “inconsistent” memory as of late, so why straddle her with verse after verse of tricky Sondheim lyrics? In her defense, no one but La Stritch could blow lyric after lyric and still have the audience eating out of her hand.
And that 12 year old girl? Hello - Barack’s black, so we have to get a little black girl to sing at his event? We have plenty of girls at the Conservatory who can sing and act circles around her. It’s national TV, folks, someone coach those robot arms out of her. This is not the 8th grade talent show.
In the theater Chad Kimball sounded magnificent, at the White House he sounded tired. Karen Olivo needed to dial it down four notches for the TV camera. The Hairspray number was fun, but didn’t excite like it did in the theatre.
I know, I sound like a big ole jaded theatre queen - which I guess I am - but this is a nationally televised event. To me, it was a missed opportunity to market the shit out of Broadway and make people think, “Hey, this Broadway thing looks interesting. Maybe I should give it a try.” Instead, we get an under-rehearsed, mish mash of unrealized opportunity. Where were Patti, Bernie, Cheno & Hayes, Carolee, Murney, Stokes? I’m sure the producers wanted to showcase new talent, but at least give them material and arrangements that excite. How about D’Arcy James singing a real swinging tune like “Lady is a Tramp,” Olivo singing something from In The Heights or Menzel singing something subtle (does she do subtle?).
And we can’t even blame some idiot TV producer since it was produced by Broadway mega-producer Margo Lion and directed by Goerge C. Wolfe. Oh well, the back-up combo kicked ass.
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