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A CurtainUp Review
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
By Elyse Sommer
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How many men have you had to forget?— Ivan As many as the women you remember.— Pepa Follow that cab!— Pepa I thought this only happened in the movies. — Taxi Driver |
: Sherie Rene Scott (Pepa) and Danny Burstein (Taxi Driver) in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(Photo: Paul Kolnik) |
No wonder then that the musical adaptation of Aldomar's Spanish style screwball comedy begins with taxi driver (Danny Burstein having a great time hamming it up and looking very un-Burstein like in a blond wig) serve as the musical's narrator — well, sort of. He establishes that Madrid Madness mood singing a song entitled —right you are— "Madrid."
The women having nervous breakdowns at the beautifully renovated Belasco Theatre are Patti Lupone, Sherie Rene Scott and Laura Benanti. The director in charge of maintaining the film's high energy funfest aura is Bartlet Sher, the same Sher who helmed Lincoln Center's mega-hit revival of South Pacific.
To allow these sensational divas to sing about their nervous breakdown causing relationships with men, there are music and lyrics by David Yazbek who successfully musicalized Dirty Rotten Scandals and The Full Monty.
To capture the film's colorful madcap events on stage, Mr. Sher has enlisted choreographer Christopher Gattelli and a design team that not only includes top of the line pros like Michael Yeargan (sets, Catherine Zuber (Costumes) and Brian Mac DeVitt (Lighting) but a projectionist (Sven Ortel), aerial design company (The Sky Box) and special effect wiz (Gregory Meeh).
Besides the chance to see not one but three divas on stage, there's also Brian Stokes Mitchell to lend his mellifluous voice to the role of the ever unfaithful Ivan, who sends his mistress Pepa (Scott) and abandoned wife Lucia (LuPone) to the "verge." Add small pleasures like the commendable Broadway debut of American Idol winner Justin Guarini as Ivan's son and Mary Beth Peil, currently best known as Juliana Margulies's mother-in-law in The Good Wife, as a prayerful concierge, and you've got all the ingredients of a fail safe proposition.
But whoa! If ever there was proof that no amount of fail-safe measure can insure against failure, Women the Verge of a Nervous Brakdown is a casebook example.
While all these talented people have given their all to this show it's not enough to add up to a sum total that, despite dazzlingly colorful, everything-money-can-buy production values and a super-starry cast, is only intermittently entertaining. What's more, while an adaptation of a film or a book should be comprehensible to audiences whether they're familiar with the source material or not, anyone coming cold to the musical is likely to be thoroughly confused by Jeffrey Lane's haphazard, sketchy story development.
For those wanting a text message sized plot summary: Pepe's lover and co-star for a film dubbing company has written her out of his life via a message on her answering machine. His long istitutionalized and also abandoned wife Lucia is back on scene bent on suing him for the lost years of her life. Sexy model Candela, has gotten herself involved with a terrorist. To further complicate matters, Ivan's latest girl friend is Lucia's lawyer, and his son shows up with his girlfriend to rent Pepa's apartment. Oh, and as part of her scheme to hold on to Ivan, Pepe makes a batch of the gazpacho he loves and laces it with Valium. This being a farce, the gazpacho knocks out the wrong people.
Those intermittently entertaining moments are propelled by some flavorful Latin-tinged songs (alas, if the lyrics don't hit your ears loud and clear, so much the better). Also great fun are all the scenes that send Burstein's taxi (a star in its own right) careening around the stage and the episodes that have Laura Benanti frantically telephoning Pepa about her dilemma of discovering that she might be in trouble with the law because the lover who was great in bed is a terrorist. If only there were more terrific numbers like "Model Behavior" and the first act's "On the Verge" finale — a solo that turns into an effective ensemble number.
And whle we're on if onlys, if only Brian Stokes Mitchell — though as always in fine voice — weren't so miscast and underwhelming as the man not worth loving. While Mr. Sher might have been better served being less slavishly devoted to the movie, his giving more stage time to Ivan, doesn't work. His songs feel awkwardly sandwiched in rather than integral to the book. And while Ms. Peil's concierge is a charming minor character, giving her the last song (even if it turns into a duo with Pepa) doesn't make for a particularly knockout ending.
The problems with Women On the Verge. . . can be summed up in a single word: "onkepatchket" It's not Spanish but a Yiddishism for fashion and home decor that's not quite in good taste because it's too busy and overly decorated. While Catherine Zuber's costumes and Michael Yeargan's sets do capture the zany spirit, this musical overall is indeed too onkepatchket.
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Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Book by Jeffrey Lane and music and lyrics by David Yazbek. Based on film by Pedro Almodóvar Directed by Bartlett Sher Cast: Danny Burstein (Taxi Driover),(Justin Guarini (Carlos), Nikka Graff Lanzarone (Marisa), Brian Stokes Mitchell (Ivan), Patti LuPone (Lucia), Sherie Rene Scott (Pepa) de'Adre Ariza (Paulina), (Nina Lafarga (Ana), Julio Agustin (Ambite), Mary Beth Peil (Pepa's Concierge) Choreography by Christopher Gattelli; Sets by Michael Yeargan Costumes by Catherine Zuber Lighting by Brian MacDevitt Sound by Scott Lehrer Projections by Sven Ortel Aerial design by the Sky Box Special effects by Gregory Meeh Wig and hair design by Charles LaPointe Makeup design by Dick Page Orchestrations by Simon Hale Stage manager: R. Smith Lincoln Center at the Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street; telecharge.com or lct.org. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes plus intermission From 10/02/10; opening 11/04/10; closing 1/23/11- closing moved up to 1/02/11. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, including a fifteen-minute intermission. Act I: 65 minutes. Act II: 65 minutes. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer November 7th press matinee |
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Musical Numbers
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Act One
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Act Two
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Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. Visit Curtainup's Blog Annex For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter Subscribe to our FREE email updates: E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message. If you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. |
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