Tag: jackie hoffman

Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

On By dramaqueennycIn Broadway, musical, review, theatreLeave a comment

Jackie Hoffman gets entrance applause!! That just tells me that some things are right in the world, even with all the daily head-slapping news. Of course, this is due mostly to her big role in TV’s Feud as Joan Crawford maid Mamacita, but she is just as much fun as the permanently sozzled Mrs. Teevee in Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.

This musical is based on the children’s book of the same name, as was the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. While the show uses a couple of beloved songs by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse from the film, the majority of the colorful and exuberant score is by Hairspray scribes Marc Shaiman (composer) and Scott Wittman (lyricist). The story (if somehow you’re not aware) follows chocolate-loving child Charlie Bucket as he longs for a “golden ticket” to tour master chocolatier Willy Wonka’s factory.

Shaiman’s music is charming – full of tasty licks as usual – and you can’t spell Wittman without “wit.” It is most unfortunate that muddy sound design often obscures those witty lyrics. Christian Borle portrays Wonka with his usual élan, with somewhat more humanity than previous incarnations. Director Jack O’Brien has presented a smaller-scale production than Sam Mendes on the West End, and while I’m not sure that was the right decision, it’s still sufficiently splashy and vivid. Recommended.

For tickets, click here.

To learn about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.com.

Review: On The Town

On By dramaqueennycIn Broadway, musical, review, theatreLeave a comment

On The Town 94253

I’m biased here: I am a complete Leonard Bernstein nut. I’ve been very excited ever since I first heard about the new Broadway revival of On The Town. It’s not the unimpeachable masterpiece that Lenny’s West Side Story is, but it is still enough of a joy that as long as you nail that sublime Bernstein score, it’ll be a grand night out. Nail it this company does, and the results are glorious.

There are also gay undercurrents in this production – little tidbits here and there that I imagine are the brainchildren of Buyer & Cellar scribe Jonathan Tolins (who is credited with “additional material”). Plus, musical comedy sailors are always sexy, and doubly so when those sailors are played by Tony Yazbek, Jay Armstrong Johnson and Clyde Alves.

Those sailors are looking to get lucky on their one day of leave in the Big Apple – with the most romantic plans belonging to Gabey (Yazbek), who falls for a picture of a “Miss Turnstiles” winner. This admittedly thin conceit is really just a peg on which to hang a giddily energetic love letter to New York City.

Director John Rando wisely keeps most of the action downstage, which really helps the audience connect with a show in a barn like the Lyric Theatre. He has also infused the show with a simmering sexuality that definitely freshens up the proceedings.

This is a dance-heavy show, and choreographer Joshua Bergasse makes one heck of a Broadway debut. His work here points toward Jerome Robbins’s choreography for the original 1944 production without slavishly recreating it. His own voice – sassy and equally at home in balletic and jazzy mediums – comes through loud and clear.

As she does every time she mounts a stage, Jackie Hoffman steals every scene she’s in. Her largest of several roles she plays is Madame Dilly, a voice teacher with a weakness for booze and sailors. She’s even funnier playing a series of nightclub singers, none of whom gets to finish her number. Rando has clearly given her license to milk her exits on those numbers, and the results are truly hilarious and truly theatrical.

This may be the best thing ever done in the Broadway house now known as the Lyric. Highly recommended.

For tickets, click here.

To learn about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.com.

Review: Jackie Hoffman

On By dramaqueennycIn cabaret, review1 Comment

Jackie Hoffman 2013

Jackie Hoffman, one of the city’s best comic singing actresses, creates cabaret acts that tell hilarious self-deprecating tales about the sad state of her career. It really doesn’t matter if she’s actually doing fine career-wise, she always manages to find the wickedly funny downside.

In her new show at 54 Below, “Old Woman, New Material”, Jackie continues a trend of emphasizing observational humor more and more, but the observations she makes are many times more twisted and cutting than in traditional standup – on subjects like Adolf Hitler or her own strong dislike of small children. Her comedy extends to music as well, in songs like “Pulled, Tucked and Lifted” and “iSong”.

While she clearly isn’t above making jokes at her own expense, Jackie exudes more and more confidence every time I see her. She can also be surprisingly humble and warm, and she incorporates those qualities with increasing subtlety and deftness. She also does a couple of proper showtunes in addition to her usual hilarious specialty numbers, reminding us that she is also an exceptionally talented singer.

Jackie Hoffman’s cabaret shows have long been one of my very favorite things in the whole New York performance world, and this one more than lives up to that standard. Powerful vocals, acid humor that never gets all the way to self pity, a great character actress who just gets more glamorous while never losing her razor edge – long may Jackie roar!

For tickets, click here.

Review: Jackie Hoffman’s A Chanukah Charol

On By dramaqueennycIn Off-Broadway, play, review, theatreLeave a comment

ChanukahCharol049.jpg.644x3600_q100Jackie Hoffman’s schtick is telling hilarious self-deprecating jokes about the sad state of her career. So has she changed her tune with A Chanukah Charol, turning the satire outward to spoof Charles Dickens? Nope, not really – she’s actually done something more creative, using Dickens’s hoary holiday chestnut as a frame to…well, continue telling hilarious self-deprecating jokes about the sad state of her career. She was already at “bah, humbug,” anyway, right?

Jackie starts having problems with a too-responsive synagogue audience in Queens, and storms backstage, where she has visions after combining Ambien with the rabbi’s Manischewitz. Replacing Jacob Marley with Yiddish theatre and film star Molly Picon – and that’s only the beginning of the celebrity substitutions – Jackie combines some of her strongest material with a frame that actually has some serious things to say about family, and what she (or anyone) is willing to do to be famous.

I’ve long known that she is one of the country’s best comic actresses, and this vehicle shows it even better than her legendary cabaret acts at places like Joe’s Pub and 54 Below. Jackie is continuously gaining confidence, shading her bitter comedy with moments of humble seriousness. Her cabaret shows have long been one of my very favorite things in the whole world, and this narrative variation really takes it to another level. Acid humor that never gets all the way to self pity, a great character actress who just gets more depth while never losing her razor edge – long may Jackie roar!

For tickets, click here.

Review: Jackie Hoffman

On By dramaqueennycIn cabaret, review1 Comment

Jackie Hoffman, one of the city’s best comic singing actresses, creates cabaret acts that tell hilarious self-deprecating tales about the sad state of her career. It really doesn’t matter if she’s actually doing fine career-wise, she always manages to find the wickedly funny downside. The first number in her act at 54 Below – which actually opened the space two days before Patti LuPone, she hastens to point out – is punningly called “Bottom” and sarcastically celebrates climbing her way up to the basement (of Studio 54).

Jackie emphasizes observational humor here more than in previous acts, but the observations she makes are many times more twisted and cutting than in traditional standup. For example, one of the funniest recurring themes in her comedy is a strong dislike of small children, which she details here in a hilarious song about the over-diagnosis of autism.

While she clearly isn’t above making jokes at her own expense, Jackie exudes more and more confidence every time I see her. She can also be surprisingly humble and warm, and she incorporates those qualities more subtly and seamlessly here than before.

Jackie Hoffman’s cabaret shows have long been one of my very favorite things in the whole New York performance world, and this one more than lives up to that standard. Acid humor that never gets all the way to self pity, a great character actress who just gets more glamorous while never losing her razor edge – long may Jackie roar!

For tickets, click here.