Leading lady's performance delicious to the last bite in 'Sweeney Todd'

1/16/2008 12:00AM CST
The Dallas Morning News
Leading lady's performance delicious to the last bite in 'Sweeney Todd'
by Lawson Taitte
ltaitte@dallasnews.com

THEATER REVIEW: Kaye cooks up humor, passion in 'Sweeney Todd'
Judy Kaye is a wonder as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. She's all the reason you need to run downtown to the Majestic Theatre.

Otherwise, the touring version of the recent Broadway revival, which the Dallas Summer Musicals' Broadway Contemporary Series brought to town on Tuesday, has its issues. But, as I always say, pretty much any Sweeney Todd is a good Sweeney Todd.

Stephen Sondheim's 1979 masterpiece, subtitled The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, recounts an old horror story. A barber, deported for a crime he didn't commit, returns to Victorian London to get his revenge. After the first man whose throat he slits, Sweeney's girlfriend, Mrs. Lovett, gets the bright idea of using the meat from the carcasses in the meat pies she sells.
The tale is gruesome, but onstage the bloody bits are a great deal less bothersome than in Tim Burton's current Golden Globe-winning movie version. Mr. Sondheim's witty lyrics keep the mind amused, while his nearly operatic score accumulates overwhelming momentum and power.

The British revival by John Doyle, imported to Broadway two seasons ago, cuts the epic musical down to size. Only 10 actors play all the roles, and they double as the orchestra. Ms. Kaye, for instance, plays the bright percussion instruments and occasionally wanders in with a tuba. The compression is all very clever, but it smacks more of thrift than of inspiration.

Setting the whole action in an insane asylum doesn't really work, either. The locale is all too obviously a metaphor; we don't believe for an instant that this is a cooperative production by the staff and the inmates. Unfortunately, the gimmick encourages the actors to go off the deep end. The young lovers, Johanna and Anthony, sometimes seem as loony as the truly crazy old beggar woman.

Frankly, all this doesn't matter much. The material is so strong, and the performers sufficiently competent, that Sweeney Todd survives in all its glory. I did find David Hess' performance of the title character somewhat problematical, in that he lacks the obsidian voice the part needs. He's also among the worst offenders in the acting-loony department. Yeah, Sweeney is more than slightly off his rocker. But the story does require him to be able to pass for normal.
But ah, Ms. Kaye. The first requirement for a Mrs. Lovett is a quirky sense of humor, and Ms. Kaye is as funny as they come. Her vocal technique has held up as well, so she can warble daintily or go as deep as her tuba, as required. This whole cast manages to make its words heard in the often intractable Majestic, but no one else uses language like Ms. Kaye. Every rhyme in the remarkably clever "A Little Priest" gets a laugh. But you also believe in the woman's passion for her lover and in her absolute determination to give him what he wants.

Since Helena Bonham Carter's Mrs. Lovett is the Sweeney Todd film's biggest problem, seeing Ms. Kaye is an ideal supplement – or antidote – for the film. It's a great performance by one of the great ladies of the American theater.

• Through Sunday at the Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St. Runs 150 mins. $16 to $72. Ticketmaster at 214-631-2787, http://www.ticketmaster.com/.

View article on their website here

Stage revival promises to be even better than the movie

1/16/2008 12:00AM CST
The Dallas Morning News
Stage revival promises to be even better than the movie
by Lawson Taitte
ltaitte@dallasnews.com

Sweeney Todd: You've seen the movie. Now see the real thing.
Actually, Tim Burton's screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's bloody musical masterpiece was faithful to the 1979 stage original, in its fashion. But it left quite a bit out. And a musical almost always works better when it's being performed by genuine singing actors rather than by well-coached but essentially voiceless movie stars.

The stage version that the Dallas Summer Musicals' Broadway Contemporary Series brings to the Majestic Theatre on Tuesday has considerably more going for it than mere completeness. This is the production by director John Doyle that won plaudits first in London and then a 2006 Tony Award in New York.

Its eccentricities have become famous. All the onstage performers play musical instruments. In fact, they're the only band there is. The show is apparently taking place in an insane asylum, and the inmates are the actors. A certain amount of blood is part of the action – although even Mr. Doyle's production can't rival the film in the gore department.

The story, of course, remains the same. A mysterious man, Sweeney Todd, returns to London from abroad in search of vengeance. His new ladylove, Mrs. Lovett, owns a pie shop near the barbershop where Sweeney once worked. The two find a new supply of meat for the pies – in the bodies of the men whose throats Sweeney cuts in his quest for revenge.

Five performers from the New York revival are part of the tour. The live cast is strongest, however, in the role that suffers most in the movie. Helena Bonham Carter is too glamorous, and not nearly dotty enough, to make a credible Mrs. Lovett. The tour stars one of Broadway's most talented performers, Judy Kaye, in the role. Ms. Kaye won a Tony Award as Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera and was nominated for another as one of the female sidekicks in Mamma Mia! Those roles didn't begin to show her real powers as a performer. Mrs. Lovett is a perfect fit.

Opens Tuesday at 8 p.m. and runs through Jan. 20 at the Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St. Continues Wednesday through Jan. 18 at 8 p.m., Jan. 19-20 at 2 and 8 p.m. Ticketmaster. www.dallassummermusicals.org.

$17 to $62.

View article on their website here

Pegasus News Wire Theater Spotlight of the Week: Judy Kaye

12/13/2007
Pegasus News Wire
Theater Spotlight of the Week: Judy Kaye
By Shawn Parikh
Email Shawn here

The live touring production of Sweeney Todd could not come at a better time with the hype surrounding the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film releasing on Christmas. Dallas Summer Musicals' Broadway Contemporary Series is bringing the musical to the Majestic Theatre from January 15-20 with Judy Kaye as Mrs. Lovett and David Hess as Sweeney Todd.

Judy Kaye has won a Tony Award for her role as Carlotta Giudicelli in The Phantom of the Opera, and was nominated as Best Featured Actress in Mamma Mia!. I start off the interview by asking her how she got her start in musical theatre, and how she decided this is what she would do for the rest of her life.

Since she has played Mrs. Lovett five times, I ask her what her attraction to the role is and how she manages to keep it fresh for every performance. Also, I ask her about her views on the movie version and what the audience can expect out of the live production.

I ask her whether she prefers touring over a one-venue production. We end by talking about her dream role(s) and whether she has been able to play them.

Tickets to Sweeney Todd can be purchased online or by calling 214-217-1536.

View article on their website here

Cirque Eloize's 'Rain' twists into the imagination

12/12/2007 12:22PM CST
The Dallas Morning News
Cirque Eloize's 'Rain' twists into the imagination
by Lawson Taitte
ltaitte@dallasnews.com

If you've been waiting for the new-style circus to blossom into high art, check out Cirque Éloize's Rain. If there's a circus in heaven, and Federico Fellini and Merce Cunningham got together to stage it, this might be the one.

Every time I see Cirque du Soleil or one of its offspring, I'm tantalized by the hints of something beyond. The elaborate sets and costumes and the sketchy story line arouse hope that the show will break through the boundaries of technique and routine to become a new kind of epic.

The show that the Dallas Summer Musicals' Broadway Contemporary Series opened at the Majestic Theatre on Tuesday doesn't quite do that. Much more modest in scale, it's more like modern dance or vaudeville or performance art. But it never lapses into automatic drive; it's full of imagination and poetry throughout.
Daniele Finzi Pasca wrote and directed this piece, which begins with a spoken prologue about memories of childhood freedom. A later, hugely funny, monologue questions the pretensions of these new circuses, asking why they so pretentiously explore the unconscious only to end in a virtual pratfall.

Of course, these French-Canadian circuses don't have elephants or tigers. This one dispenses with painted clowns, as well – but that doesn't mean it lacks humor. Even the most virtuosic acrobatic flips involve a joke or two. The cast is always acting, always dancing, always delightfully human.

The Majestic turns out to be a superb place to watch these high-flying trapeze and tumbling acts. That ironically pretentious prologue soon gets a counterpoint – a woman bouncing from stage to proscenium height behind a scrim. It's a simple enough trick, but seeing the speed and vertiginous motion in such an intimate setting gave me intense butterflies each time the woman defied gravity, only to be pulled back to earth again.

In one number, a man lyrically spins around and around inside a hoop to the strains of strings and accordion (no nasty electronic sounds here). Several bits involve a live pianist: First, some of the strongmen hoist the piano player to a horizontal position, then revolve both player and instrument together. In the second act, the music, lighting and subtle performances turn what might have been conventional trapeze and balancing acts into a waking dream.

"Unearthly beauty touched with wit and charm: Rain is fantastical. And fantastic."
Through Sunday at the Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm. Runs 130 mins. $15 to $67. Ticketmaster at 214-373-8000 or 972-647-5700, http://www.ticketmaster.com/.

View article on their website here

Jay Johnson and his 'wooden Americans' bring new vigor to a nostalgic art form

11/28/2007 8:12am CST
The Dallas Morning News
Jay Johnson and his 'wooden Americans' bring new vigor to a nostalgic art form
by Michael Granberry
mgranberry@dallasnews.com

As a shy, dyslexic kid growing up in Abernathy, Texas, Jay Johnson had trouble fitting in. He didn't like sports and was hardly the most outgoing kid in the vast, lonely expanse of West Texas.

So at age 6, when he found a broken Jerry Mahoney doll in his cousin's closet and proved he could make it talk, it didn't take long to figure out he had also found a career.

Now 57, Mr. Johnson is the star of The Two and Only!, his Broadway tour de force that earlier this year won a Tony Award. It opened Tuesday night at the Majestic Theatre.

It's tempting to say it's a one-person show, but that feels so wrong and so utterly unfair to the puppets that steal more than their share of moments during a 95-minute adventure. Who knew that even a disembodied wooden head (Long John La Feat) could draw belly laughs from humans?

What Mr. Johnson takes you on is nothing less than a spiritual journey. Surrounded by trunks and boxes, out of which appear his alter egos, he also indulges you in a Discovery Channel-like odyssey about the bizarre history of ventriloquism itself.

It's an art form that means everything to this man, who moved to the Dallas area when he was 16 and who graduated from Richardson High School.

Ventriloquism even got him into trouble during his college years at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). There, he was confronted by representatives of the Campus Crusade for Christ, who told him to stop doing ventriloquism – or he would go to hell.

Thank goodness Mr. Johnson didn't listen. Ventriloquism carried him to a regular role on the sitcom Soap during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It's wild, years later, to watch him dazzle a crowd with the back-and-forth pingpong match between ventriloquist and "dummy" – a term he abhors, by the way. He prefers the politically correct "wooden Americans."

Like fellow ventriloquist Terry Fator, Mr. Johnson can sing without moving his lips.

But more than anything, he's a gifted storyteller capable of carrying a Broadway show alone (sorry, puppets). The most moving part of the evening is a story that unfolds like a singer's heartbreak ballad. It's about meeting Arthur Sieving, a ventriloquist 60 years his senior who became his mentor and friend. Mr. Sieving was a master carver of puppets and agreed to carve one more after his retirement – Squeaky, who became the centerpiece of Mr. Johnson's act.

It would be heresy in a review to say what happened to Mr. Sieving and the role he played in Mr. Johnson's life, even after their last meeting. That alone is reason enough to see The Two and Only!

Jay Johnson: The Two and Only! runs through Sunday at the Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St. Performances at 8 tonight, Thursday and Friday, and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $17 to $65. 214-631-2787, Ticketmaster.com.

View article on their website here

'The Two and Only' is one-of-a-kind fun

11/28/2007 CST
The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
'The Two and Only' is one-of-a-kind fun
by Mark Lowry
mlowry@star-telegram.com

DALLAS -- In this age of countless forms of electronic entertainment, Jay Johnson's one-man, multidummy show The Two and Only! isn't likely to persuade any youngsters to carry on the craft he has been doing for so long: ventriloquism. (Probably not even fellow ventriloquist Terry Fator, who reached millions more than Johnson has thanks to the reality show America's Got Talent, can accomplish the feat of popularizing an antiquated art.)
But in exploring ventriloquism's history and telling his own, with the help of several very animated friends, Johnson does convince us that the talent is rare and special. The show almost feels like his own way of convincing himself that he's not crazy, as some have concluded about practitioners of this craft.

Johnson's show, which won a Tony Award this year and is directed by Murphy Cross and Paul Kreppel, played its first of eight performances at Dallas' Majestic Theatre on Tuesday. Big D kicks off its national tour, fitting for a West Texas guy who went to the University of North Texas and spent many years performing here.

On a striking set (by Beowulf Boritt) of stacked trunks, suitcases and baskets on the horizontal and a swooped-up vertical floor, Johnson spends time with several of his pals, including a tennis ball named Spaulding, a loud, wiry monkey named Darwin, Nethernore the vulture, Amigo the snake and the disembodied head of Long John La Feat. Their voices are thrown by Johnson, some with superfast repartee between human and creation, and each is amazing.

His most special "wooden Americans" are his first major dummy, Squeaky, handcrafted by ventriloquism legend Arthur Sieving, and Bob, who was his puppet when he played a ventriloquist in the TV series Soap. Squeaky's response when Johnson tells him that he wasn't cast in Soap because he's too sweet-looking is one of the show's many priceless moments.

Johnson gets that misty-eyed, shaky voice when speaking nostalgically of Sieving, and in these segments the show almost becomes overly sentimental. But at the same time, it's a sweet love letter to the art form. And by the end of The Two and Only!, we are convinced that what Johnson does is exactly that.

Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!8 p.m. through Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and SundayMajestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St., Dallas$15-$67817-467-2787 or 214-631-2787www.dallassummermusicals.org

Be advised: Some strong languageRun time: One hour, 35 minutes with no intermissionBest reason to go: The one and only Johnson

View article on their website here

'Oswald's Ghost' looks at JFK assassination's lasting grip

11/20/2007 12am CST
The Dallas Morning News
'Oswald's Ghost' looks at JFK assassination's lasting grip
by Michael Granberry
mgranberry@dallasnews.com

The newly renovated Texas Theatre was home Monday night to a gripping new movie, by a director named Stone, about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

But not that Stone. The writer-producer-director in this case is Robert Stone, whose terrific documentary Oswald's Ghost was shown to an admiring audience in a setting that was both breathtaking and slightly bizarre.
It marked the Southwest premiere of Mr. Stone's film, which will be shown Jan. 14 on PBS. It's in the midst of a limited theatrical release, with openings scheduled for Nov. 30 in New York and Dec. 7 in Los Angeles. But no future dates have been set for Dallas.

That's a shame. It may well be one of the best movies ever offered about the assassination, and it took on an eerie power being shown in a handsomely renovated theater that will forever be central to the darkest moment in Dallas history.

Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested Nov. 22, 1963, in the Texas Theatre, on Jefferson Street in Oak Cliff, moments after investigators say he gunned down Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit and about an hour after he killed Mr. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza.

By the end of his movie, Mr. Stone comes to his own dramatic conclusion about who killed the president. But it's the getting there that's remarkable.

In an interview before the screening, he said the trigger for him was seeing that other Stone's movie in 1992 and watching the firestorm it created.

"This in itself is an interesting story" is how he characterized his reaction to Oliver Stone's JFK. "Why, after all these years, are we still fighting over this? What is it about the story that keeps us so passionate, so engaged?"
What he didn't want to make was a movie putting forth yet another conspiracy theory or a debunking of all previous conspiracy theories. Rather, he longed to examine something deeper and far more psychological about the American character.

"Nobody had stepped back and told the story of the debate itself," he says. "How did these ideas come about? Who propagated them and why were they so widely believed? And what had they done to this country? Seventy percent of Americans still believe the government was involved in the Kennedy assassination or has worked to cover it up. And that's had a huge impact."

In the end, a seemingly disparate chorus of voices – including the late Norman Mailer – accomplish the filmmaker's objective.

As he says, Oswald's Ghost is "a way of explaining the '60s. We're not arguing anymore about what happened in Dealey Plaza. It's an argument about explaining what came after ... and how did everything go so wrong."

View article on their website here