NEW YORK >> I went to see Bette Midler’s “Hello, Dolly!” revival during my recent jaunt to NYC but all I got was a souvenir T-shirt from the show — drats! The Divine Miss M was on a two-week vacation during my annual pilgrimage to take in the summer offerings of the Great White Way.
“Hamilton” still reigns on Broadway, but “Groundhog Day: The Musical,” based on the comic film that starred Bill Murray, and “Dear Evan Hansen,” a star-making vehicle for Ben Platt wired with social-media resonance, are box office gold, too.
Here are my quick takes.
SEE IT
>> “Groundhog Day: the Musical” (August Wilson Theatre)
Andy Karl (“Rocky” a few seasons back) is perfection as TV weatherman Phil Conners, caught in the recurring nonsense of covering Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who pops out every February to see his shadow (or not), determining if winter lingers. You may recall this repetitious element in the 1993 film (I didn’t like it), but Karl is the poster boy for likeability (I really liked the show). This season’s most satisfying laugh-a-thon.
>> “Dear Evan Hansen” (Music Box Theatre)
Ben Platt, a Tony Award winner for leading actor in a musical, is a nerdy, socially awkward but genial high school senior who journeys from zero to hero when he fabricates online posts and emails from Connor Murphy (played by Mike Faist), a classmate he barely knows who commits suicide. His performance in this iPhone/Facebook-driven musical (songs by “La La Land” Oscar winner Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) is filled with teen angst, romance, grief and compassion.
Michael Grief’s direction captures the seesawing sentiments with a contemporary brush, the stage awash with screens of flashing emails and tweets.
Had to cough up $900 for two seats.
>> “Come From Away” (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre)
Canada brings home the bacon in this unexpected feel-good confection written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein and based on true incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks that changed the way we live and travel. Tony-winning director Christopher Ashley handily leads his ensemble, portraying locals and visitors, in creating a unifying bond and sense of community, yielding a lesson benefiting the world now snarled in immigration issues. Plenty of aloha here.
>> “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812” (Imperial Theatre)
Adapted from Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” this love story (songs by David Malloy) is revolutionary, immersive theater, with actors, singers and dancers romping on stage and in the aisles, cavorting with spectators also seated on stage. It’s opera, Cirque du Soleil, cabaret, organized magic, with Russian flourishes galore. Josh Groban (as Pierre) was in his final week, so tickets were $900 per pair. But this was an event, and like Haley’s comet, it could be generations before the next one emerges.
>> “Anastasia” (Broadhurst Theatre)
Anya (Christy Altomare), a young Russian woman with amnesia, journeys to Paris to search for her family roots. She could be the grand duchess Anastasia, the survivor of an aristocratic family killed by the Bolsheviks, or a fortune seeker. Based on a 1957 film drama and 1996 animated film, this one — with exquisite music of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and book by Terrence McNally — captures a bygone time filled with intrigue and dreams. The sets — wintry landscapes, palatial ballrooms, frightful bombings — are marvelous.
>> “Miss Saigon” (Broadway Theatre)
Yes, the helicopter takes flight, but one line from the Engineer (normally Jon Jon Briones, but understudy Billy Bustamante did the performance I caught) had the house laughing at the end of the “American Dream” song: “We can make it great again!” The line was tweaked into a Trump reference for this London revival, which offers Eva Noblezada and Alistair Brammer as the star-crossed lovers Kim and American G.I. Chris, high production values and oodles of Asian performers who are visually and vocally impressive.
>> “Cats” (Neil Simon Theatre)
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s early hit (launched in 1981) has nine lives — perhaps more. T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” set to Lloyd Webber’s tunes, remains beloved or bewildering still, who knows? I liked this, for old times’ sake, as a new generation of fans discovers Grizabella (Mamie Paris) elevating to the Heaviside Layer, singing “Memory.” Mister Mistoffelees (Ricky Ubeda) is best-in-show, with magical moments; Mungojerrie (Zachary Daniel Jones) and Rumpleteaser (Haley Fish) exhibit gleeful kitty chemistry. Purr-fection, from original director Trevor Nunn.
>> “A Bronx Tale” (Longacre Theatre)
Echoes of “Jersey Boys” and “West Side Story” ring through this musical story of romance and turf wars in the Italian ’hood where a youngster named Calogero witnesses a murder fronting his stoop. This leads to a loyalty code between Calogero (played as a kid by Hudson Loverro, as a teenager by Bobby Conte Thornton) and mob boss Sonny (portrayed with threatening authority by Nick Cordero). Chazz Palminteri wrote the book, adapted from his solo play, and starred in the movie version with Robert De Niro, who shares directing duty here with Jerry Zaks. The score, by Alan Menken with lyrics by Glenn Slater, includes smooth, street-corner doo-wop music appropriate for the ’60s setting.
>> “Spamilton” (Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre/47th Street Theatre)
If you can’t score “Hamilton” tickets, proceed to this ingenious and timely off-Broadway creation from Gerard Alessandrini, the muse behind those “Forbidden Broadway” satires. Dan Rosales takes on Lin-Manuel Miranda, the “Hamilton” sensation, with Chris Anthony Guiles as Aaron Burr, the principals in the saga about America’s first treasury secretary. Alessandrini’s raps are right up there with Miranda’s. And instead of Miranda’s “I am not throwing away my shot,” a constantly delivered line in the original, Alessandrini perhaps says it better: “I am not gonna let Broadway rot.” In the finale, everyone wants a role in the expected movie version.
SKIP IT
>> “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre)
“The Candy Man,” the opening tune of this Willy Wonka blunder, reintroduces the Roald Dahl characters like Charlie Bucket (Jake Ryan Flynn in the cast I saw, but two other boys alternating) yearning for a golden ticket in a candy bar from a factory producing sweet treats and a chorus of inventive Oompah Loompas in Act 2. Alas, Christian Borle as Wonka has been served a lifeless, lousy script (book by David Grieg), and mundane tunes don’t arouse the family audience. And shame on the producers for allowing a scene showing a beheaded girl with chopped-off limbs.
>> “War Paint” (Nederlander Theatre)
This embarrassment features Patti LuPone as Helena Rubinstein and Christine Ebersole as Elizabeth Arden, two cosmetic titans who strut in glorious period fashions. That’s my lone compliment. Since the real-life figures never actually met, this is fraudulent storytelling. Also, the songs are forgettable. The only drama: When will the closing notice be posted for this bomb?
