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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Taylor Hicks: the Hot and Cold of Broadway

Taylor Hicks, the "hot" portion of this blog, for those with concerns to the daily temperature on IDOL BLUES. I'm considering a format outlining the posts whether they may be hot or cold or both to alleviate any concerns by anyone reading where I stand. Interpretation can be so random.

Taylor Hicks has been met with some nice and positive reviews to his joining and enlivening the cast of "Grease". Regarding material I've located and read on-line, such as, Broadway.tv. blog, Hicks'fans are turning out to post their support in the column, so go make your voice heard and post your thoughts about the man's Teen Angel experience.

Revenues for this production of "Grease" are citing numbers of $800,000.00 a week according to the New York Post.com with Mr. Hicks being attributed to an additional increase to the tune of $150,000.00 per week. The NY Post points out the previous critics' reviews for this production that began as a reality show to cast the leads, have been negative. The show was still seeing big tourist bucks flowing in largely due to it being a recognizable name for those not theater regulars, but in town wanting to experience The Great White Way.

Since Taylor Hicks has joined the cast, the show and producers are taking a different direction and embracing the previously bad reviews. Michael Riedel writes, "Meanwhile, the producers of the show are no longer flinching from the critical blows but are starting to have fun with them." That's the lemonade from the lemons, adage in works, if you can't beat them, join them. Taylor Hicks was brought into this production to help take it up over the edge of trying to be a serious Broadway musical and enacting upon the drifting toward parody this casting was considered to embrace.

In this review from 2007 - Pre-Taylor Hicks - in Variety.com the writer, David Rooney sums up the show like this:

"None of this factors into Marshall's "Grease," however, which smacks of a presold title being lazily recycled and owes more to the movie (from which it includes the popular additional songs) than to previous stage incarnations.

It also represents perhaps the final step in the sanitization of a once-irresistible property, now drained of every ounce of the raunch and blue-collar suburban Illinois grit that gave the show its edge. At this point, it's barely distinguishable from Disney's squeaky-clean contempo progeny, "High School Musical.

"On the tech side, Martin Pakledinaz's costumes and Kenneth Posner's lighting do the job without particular distinction while Derek McLane's cartoonish sets could use more stylistic unity. Orchestrations are thin and Marshall's uninventive choreography on the cramped stage seems too content to take its cue from "Born to Hand-Jive," the one number in which any significant electricity is sparked.

The most dismal thing about this "Grease" is that, aside from the two discoveries plucked from a mediocre TV talent pool and thrust into this production, no one appears to be trying very hard. Like the drag-queeny wig slapped on Sandy when she finally conforms to the cool-kid ethos by unleashing the bad-girl within to win Danny, it all seems somewhat counterfeit."

Lest you think that Mr. Rooney was alone in his disparaging "Grease" there are many more critiques that emerged from the show. Ben Brantley had this to say about his time spent in the audience, August 20, 2007:
"The message of this latest “Grease” is that anyone, famous or not, can star in a Broadway musical, a natural enough conclusion in the era of YouTube and “American Idol,” when the right to be a celebrity is perceived as constitutional. And I can see how Ms. Marshall might have talked herself into believing that this democratic approach could work for “Grease.”

Those who come to “Grease” without such sentimental attachments are sure to be baffled by the lack of wit, charisma or original presence on the stage. Given the choice between slick soullessness and rough-edged sincerity, I’ll take the latter any day. But most of the cast here seems uncomfortably wedged between those extremes. Everyone is reasonably proficient but devoid of the heightened personality that is essential to landing jokes and selling songs."


The "cold" portion of IDOL BLUES:
Valerie Smaldone's recap of theater happenings attributing Mr. Hicks' best attribute to "Grease" as ..."the hair", it's at :23. Now I thought that was a Sanjaya thing.

Brantley was almost eerily prophetic with his American Idol mention now with the inclusion of Taylor Hicks to at least add some sort of semblance of soul to the production.

Let's rock and roll:
"Burn" Deep Purple

Lyrics:
"The sky is red, I dont understand,
Past midnight I still see the land.
People are sayin the woman is damned,
She makes you burn with a wave of her hand.
The citys a blaze, the towns on fire.
The womans flames are reaching higher.
We were fools, we called her liar.
All I hear is burn!

I didnt believe she was devils sperm.
She said, curse you all, youll never learn!
When I leave theres no return.
The people laughed till she said, burn!
Warning came, no one cared.
Earth was shakin, we stood and stared.
When it came no one was spared.
Still I hear burn!

You know we had no time,
We could not even try.
You know we had no time.

You know we had no time,
We could not even try.
You know we had no time.

The sky is red, I dont understand,
Past midnight I still see the land.
People are sayin the woman is damned,
She makes you burn with a wave of her hand.
Warning came, no one cared.
Earth was shakin, we stood and stared.
When it came no one was spared."


Rock on Ritchie Blackmore!

"Smoke on the Water"

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