‘SCHMIGADOON!’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

SCHMIGADOON!
Book, music & lyrics by Cinco Paul
Based on the Apple TV+ series “Schmigadoon!” co-created by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio
Directed & choreographed by Christopher Gattelli
Through January 3, 2027
Nederlander Theatre
208 West 41st St.
https://schmigadoonbroadway.com/

By Scott Harrah

No, this isn’t another revival of Brigadoon. Schmigadoon! affectionately goofs on the Golden Age of Broadway with a snarky, modern sense of humor.

Schmigadoon! is based on the 2021 Apple TV+ series co-created by Cinco Paul. The show draws inspiration from classic Broadway musicals, including Brigadoon. That original property later became a 1954 film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Gene Kelly.  It follows two New Yorkers who stumble upon a mystical Scottish village that appears once every 100 years.

However, don’t come to this must-see show expecting anything remotely like the original. Instead, Schmigadoon! delivers a colorful, feel-good send-up of Brigadoon and countless classic musicals of yesteryear. It’s consistently funny, and it ranks among the season’s best new musicals.

In this version, the stage adaptation resets the premise with a modern twist. It relocates the action to a fictional town somewhere in North America rather than Scotland. At the center is a New York couple with romantic problems. Josh (Alex Brightman) is a sarcastic doctor with commitment issues, while his girlfriend Melissa (Sara Chase) wants something more. Soon, they’re transported to a strange town where everything seems picture-perfect at first. However, appearances quickly prove deceptive.

Schmigadoon is a make-believe town that blends elements from many classic Broadway musicals. Here, characters burst into high-spirited, emotional production numbers in technicolor style. Before long, Josh and Melissa learn the rules: no one can leave this idyllic place until they find “true love.” Naturally, things get complicated. Both are tempted by beguiling locals. As a result, the town’s charm begins to expose the cracks in their relationship.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’ Ana Gasteyer (center) & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

The townsfolk

The town’s filled with characters who serve as affectionate composites of vintage Broadway musical archetypes.

For example, Mildred Layton (Ana Gasteyer), the preacher’s wife, parodies Eulalie Shinn from The Music Man. She claims her great-great-grandfather founded the town. As a result, she sees herself as the ultimate arbiter of morality. She expects everyone to be as pious, righteous, and holier-than-thou as she is—or else.

Elsewhere, schoolteacher Emma Tate (Isabelle McCalla) is a dead ringer for Marian the librarian from The Music Man. Meanwhile, Danny Bailey (Max Clayton) is a charismatic yet destructive carnival barker modeled after Billy Bigelow in Carousel. Betsy (McKenzie Kurtz) is an innocent, guy-crazy farm girl who blends traits of Ado Annie from Oklahoma! with one of Farmer McDonough’s seven daughters in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Finally, Mayor Menlove (Brad Oscar) and his doting wife Florence (Ann Harada) appear to be the perfect couple. In reality, theirs is a “lavender” marriage.

Direction, design & score

Director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli keeps the action moving briskly, staging the musical numbers with energy and precision. Meanwhile, visually, the production embraces a vibrant, color-saturated aesthetic, with sets and costumes that gently poke fun at the originals. This reviewer hasn’t seen all the musicals Schmigadoon makes fun of, and I don’t think others need to either. The musical is funny enough on its own even for those who haven’t seen many of the golden oldies.

The score is where Schmigadoon! really shines. The full-company opening number, “Schmigadoon,” cleverly goofs on Oklahoma! and immediately sets the tone. “Corn Puddin’,” a hilarious send-up of Carousel’s clambake, is a comic highlight, while “With All of Your Heart” affectionately winks at “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music. In Act Two, Ana Gasteyer ignites the crowd with “Tribulation,” a showstopping number in which she revels in the town’s moral decay with sanctimonious glee while showcasing her powerhouse vocals. At times, the humor’s broad, but the show’s craft and sheer enthusiasm keep it consistently entertaining.

As in any parody, not every joke lands. Some of the humor plays it too safe and may click most with audiences familiar with the classic musicals being mocked. Still, the show delivers plenty of universal comic gems, including an “interfaith” bake sale featuring goods from Presbyterians and Methodists. Sight gags like this artfully highlight just how homogenized and delightfully “white bread” the town really is.

The players

Alex Brightman embraces Josh’s cynicism with sharp comic timing, grounding the show’s more absurd elements. Sara Chase provides a warm and appealing counterbalance, giving Melissa emotional clarity even as the world around her spirals into musical fantasy.

Ana Gasteyer, however, is the standout. As the show’s deliciously wicked villain, she delivers a campy, over-the-top performance that may remind some of Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians. She’s outrageously cruel and hilariously self-righteous, fully embracing the role’s heightened style. Her Act Two showstopper “Tribulation” elicits thunderous applause, blending trenchant satire with powerhouse vocals. It’s the kind of unforgettable performance that should put her firmly in the conversation this awards season.

The supporting cast is uniformly strong, fully committing to the show’s stylized world and musical pastiche.

Ultimately, Schmigadoon! delivers big laughs and sharp, skewering humor, emerging as a high-octane standout of the season’s new musicals.

Published April 25, 2026
Reviewed at press performance on April 22, 2026.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’ Sara Chase, McKenzie Kurtz, Brad Oscar, Alex Brightman & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’: Isabelle McCalla & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’: Sara Chase & Ann Harada. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’: Sara Chase & Max Clayton. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’: Brad Oscar & Maullik Pancholy. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’: Alex Brightman & McKenzie Kurtz. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘SCHMIGADOON!’: Alex Brightman & Ayaan Diop. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

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NEW YORK—Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli directs and choreographs a new Fantasticks adaptation, completed by original author Tom Jones

A new Broadway adaptation of The Fantasticks is moving forward, reimagining the classic musical as a contemporary gay love story. Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, Death Becomes Her) will direct and choreograph the production, which features a revised book and lyrics by original author Tom Jones, with music by Harvey Schmidt.

New version completed before original author’s death

Broadway & Beyond Theatricals, Daryl Roth, and True North Theatricals are producing the project. Jones completed the adaptation before his death in 2023, giving the long-running musical a new lens while preserving its original structure. The development process began in 2022 at Flint Repertory Theatre in Michigan and continued with subsequent productions at Provincetown Playhouse in Massachusetts and Coachella Valley Repertory in California.

In this updated Fantasticks, the central love story shifts from Matt and Luisa to Matt and Lewis. As a result, the musical’s familiar allegory of love, separation, and reconciliation unfolds through a gay perspective. At the same time, the story’s scheming fathers become mothers, reinforcing the production’s contemporary framing while keeping the narrative intact.

Reflecting on the adaptation in a 2022 interview with Playbill, Jones described the process as both demanding and rewarding. He emphasized that the new version required substantial lyric revisions, but added that the work renewed his enthusiasm for the material.

Show ran for 42 years

The Fantasticks premiered Off-Broadway in 1960 at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village. From there, it went on to run for 42 years and amassed 17,162 performances, making it the longest-running musical in the world. Over time, the show attracted a remarkable range of performers, including Liza Minnelli, Kristin Chenoweth, Megan Mullally, and Santino Fontana.

Equally important, the score helped secure the musical’s legacy. The ballad “Try to Remember” became a standard recorded by hundreds of artists, while songs such as “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and “They Were You” continued to find new life through generations of performers.

The Broadway development also brings together a notable creative team. Sam Davis will provide new orchestrations, Jason Sherwood will design the scenic environment, and The Telsey Office will handle casting. DR Theatrical Management will oversee general management.

Producers have not yet announced casting, additional creative team members, or a production timeline. Venue details, opening dates, and ticket on-sale information also remain forthcoming.

StageZine will continue to follow developments on the project.

Courtesy of The Press Room.

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‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: Megan Hilty & Jennifer Simard. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

DEATH BECOMES HER
Based on the Universal Pictures film, directed by Robert Zemeckis
Book by Marco Pennette
Music & lyrics by Julia Mattison & Noel Carey
Directed & choreographed by Christopher Gattelli
Through June 28, 2026
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
205 West 46^th Street
https://deathbecomesher.com/

By Scott Harrah

The 1992 film Death Becomes Her, starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, was a phenomenal hit comedy, with iconic performances by the two actresses and state-of-the-art special effects. Broadway stage adaptations are always tricky and a gamble. Fortunately, this musical captures all the outrageous fun and special effects that made the movie so memorable. What’s more, at times the Broadway version surpasses the movie’s high-energy level of self-parody, and that’s a plus for anyone who loves exaggerated entertainment for laughter’s sake.

Like the famous film on which it is based, the musical Death Becomes Her revels in all the catty fun one can think of when two women who are best friends and celebrities take rivalry to outrageous lengths. It has all the ingredients for bona fide camp: Bitchy one-liners, the quest for eternal youth, and women fighting over men. Not exactly feminist fare, for sure, but the 1992 movie never tried to be that either. More like Clare Booth Luce’s The Women fused with a horror movie with a subtext about the dangers of extreme plastic surgery gone horribly wrong.

The plot

For those who have never seen the movie, here’s a brief synopsis. Madeline Ashton (Megan Hilty) is an aging Hollywood star who will do anything to restore her once-youthful beauty. Her friend and rival Helen Sharp (Jennifer Simard) is a struggling writer married to plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Christopher Sieber). Desperate to rejuvenate her looks, Madeline visits the enigmatic Viola Van Horn (Michelle Williams), a woman who sells her a magic potion that will restore beauty and make one forever young. One catch: The potion makes people live forever, and beauty and immortality both have many sobering consequences and side effects.

Madeline and Helen have been “frenemies” for years, with Madeline obsessed with her vanity and Helen thirsty for revenge. When Madeline steals Ernest from Helen, all-out war ensues.

True to the film

The musical adaptation of Death Becomes Her is mostly true to the 1992 film, despite a few minor changes in the script and some character’s names that will only be noticed by those who have seen the movie dozens of times (this reviewer, for example).  Marco Pennette’s book is consistently crisp and full of quick-witted repartee. Thanks to “illusions” by Tim Clothier, a gorgeous set by Derek McLane, fantastic lighting by Justin Townsend, ultra-glamorous costumes by Paul Tazewell and hair and wigs by Charles LaPointe, Broadway’s Death Becomes Her is a nonstop glitz-fest. For years, critics have been complaining that Broadway musicals are too threadbare, utilitarian and not extravagant enough anymore, but this one pulls out all the proverbial stops.

The score

Julia Mattison and Noel Clary’s songs are all whimsical and witty. However, although few are particularly memorable, they certainly are never dull. One of the standouts is “For the Gaze,” Madeline’s gleefully silly production number in act one. The “Gaze” she sings about are actually “gays” and she impersonates everyone from Liza Minnelli to Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria while scantily clad chorus boys dance around her.

Sublime cast

The sublime cast truly makes Death Become Her shine. It is a treat to see the two female leads back on Broadway. Megan Hilty is a true comic delight as Madeline Ashton. With her seamless delivery of snarky wisecracks and her soaring vocals, Ms. Hilty is the perfect Madeline. Equally outstanding is Jennifer Simard, who makes the perfect transition from mousy frump Helen to a buxom sexpot. Ms. Simard has been slowly gathering momentum on Broadway over the years, and her portrayal of Helen Sharp is her best performance ever. Christopher Sieber is also amazing as Ernest Melville, the plastic surgeon who must endure “Mad” and “Hel” for too long.

Supporting cast members are equally extraordinary. Michelle Williams sheds her Destiny’s Child image and portrays the mystical Viola Van Horn with the right mix of mystique and the macabre. Of course, her vocals on such songs as “Don’t Say I Didn’t (Warn You)” are first rate. Josh Lamon gives a fun performance as Stefan, Madeline’s overworked assistant. Taurean Everett is wonderfully menacing as Chagall, Viola’s assistant.

Director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli directs everything fluidly and smoothly, helping make Death Becomes Her one of the year’s best musicals. It’s hilarious from the moment the curtain rises and the madcap insanity never lets up.

Published November 25, 2024
Reviewed at press performance on November 23, 2024

‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: Michelle Williams (center) & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: Christopher Sieber. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: Jennifer Simard & Christopher Sieber. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: Megan Hilty (center) & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: Jennifer Simard & Christopher Sieber. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: Taurean Everett (center) & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: Jennifer Simard (center), Megan Hilty, Christopher Sieber & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘DEATH BECOMES HER’: (left to right) Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, Josh Lamon & Christopher Sieber. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

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‘MY FAIR LADY’: Lauren Ambrose. Photo: Joan Marcus

MY FAIR LADY
Music by Frederick Loewe
Book & Lyrics by Alan Lerner
Based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Choreography by Christopher Gattelli
Directed by Barltett Sher
Vivian Beaumont Theatre
150 West 65th Street
(212-239-6200), www.LCT.org

By David NouNou

Revivals are becoming more of a thorny subject, especially when it comes to classic musical masterpieces of yesteryear. There is the purist/traditionalist vs. the revisionist standpoint. I’d like to think of myself somewhere in the middle. Let’s consider the big musical revivals of this year: Michael Arden took Once On This Island, a bittersweet musical, and reimagined it as an eternal love story. Jack O’Brien took a gloriously scored bittersweet musical and reimagined it into a dark, dreary love story. Bartlett Sher took a sumptuous recognizable classic—one of the three greatest musicals of all time, My Fair Lady, with the most sublime of scores—and turned it into a show for the #MeToo movement era.

To begin with, the Lerner and Loewe score is still sublime, this production is about as sumptuous as you will ever get; the sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber and lighting by Donald Holder are all visually stunning. However, there is a clear shift here that contradicts what the creators originally conceived. If you recall the original poster from 1956 (Google it), it has George Bernard Shaw as a puppeteer pulling the strings of Rex Harrison/Henry Higgins who, in turn, is controlling the strings of Julie Andrews/Eliza Doolittle. It is one of the greatest theatrical posters of all time, which I proudly display in my living room. It seems that, in this version, it is Eliza Doolittle who is controlling the strings on Henry Higgins.

Here is the thorny side: My Fair Lady is set in Victorian times and it is all about class distinction. The #MeToo movement hasn’t been conceived yet. A poor cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle (Lauren Ambrose) meets Professor Henry Higgins (Harry Hadden-Paton), a linguistics professor and an old friend of his Colonel Pickering (Allan Corduner) accidentally outside of Covent Garden. Eliza comes to Higgins’ home the next day to take diction lessons to be a proper genteel lady in a flower shop. Higgins and Pickering take Eliza on as a wager to see if Higgins can turn this simple “heartless guttersnipe” and transform her into a glorious lady in six months so she could be presented at the embassy ball as a lady of high station.

Along the way is Eliza’s father, a poor, common, drunken cockney dustman, Alfred Doolittle (Norbert Leo Butz) who has no morals or scruples to sell his daughter for five pounds so he can drink with his buddies. There is also Mrs. Higgins (Dame Diana Rigg who unfortunately was out at our performance due to illness) as an upper class, high-minded elitist.

As conceived, it was clear in which direction this musical was going: Higgins is the professor and Eliza is the pupil. Eliza eventually blossoms into a titan and gives Henry his comeuppance. In this version, Bartlett Sher has shifted the dynamics from the first moment after the overture ends. Eliza walks solely across an empty stage until she comes front and center to her flower basket as the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden set starts rolling into place. The upper class are filing out of the Opera House to get cabs to take home and the commoners are trying to sell their wares and keep warm by an open stove. You don’t even know that Henry Higgins is on the stage.

The dynamics also play a large part in casting. Starting with Eliza, Lauren Ambrose is an unexpected miracle. Last weekend, a cable TV channel was showing the 1997 comedy In and Out in which Ms. Ambrose had a small part as a teenager. Having seen this movie umpteen times, I was watching it recently because of Ms. Ambrose. I was curious to see how the teenager back then was going to transform 21 years later into Eliza Doolittle on Broadway. Who knew she could sing so beautifully? She starts out rocky as the cockney flower girl but transforms into a magnificent butterfly gradually and methodically. Her rendition of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” is charming but her “I Could Have Danced All Night” is breathtaking. By the end, she is a lady for the ages.

In contrast, Harry Hadden-Paton as Henry Higgins never quite registers. Unknown to American audiences, he must have been chosen only to make Eliza be more dynamic. I wasn’t expecting the bombast of Rex Harrison, but I was expecting a connection between him and Eliza or him with Pickering. Unfortunately for Mr. Hadden-Paton, the stage at the Vivian Beaumont is so cavernous, even with brilliant songs like “Why Can’t the English,” “I’m An Ordinary Man” and the haunting “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” barely gets the needle moving on the Richter scale. He gets no help from Allan Corduner’s bland Colonel Pickering, either.

Norbert Leo Butz, a two-time Tony winner, has two show-stopping numbers: “With A Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time.” Mr. Butz is poised to win his third Tony. However, his Alfred Doolittle is more Broadway shtick than a cockney dustman. Also, curious and jarring in the number, why did Mr. Sher feel there was a need for a chorus of drags to take Alfred to the church?

Although casting and directorial choices are an issue here, all I’ll say is what the hell was the character of Zoltan Karpathy doing here as well as the drags? However, thanks to Lauren Ambrose and the outstanding design team, this is still a glorious revival. You’ll go in humming the tunes to yourself, and you’ll come out actually singing the lyrics.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 12, 2018
Reviewed at May 10, 2018 performance.

‘MY FAIR LADY’: Lauren Ambrose & Harry Hadden-Paton. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘MY FAIR LADY’: Lauren Ambrose & Diana Rigg. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘MY FAIR LADY’: Norbert Leo Butz. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘MY FAIR LADY’: Jordan Donica. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘MY FAIR LADY’: Harry Hadden-Paton. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘MY FAIR LADY’: Norbert Leo Butz & company. Photo: Joan Marcus

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‘WAR PAINT’: Christine Ebersole & Patti LuPone. Photo: Joan Marcus

WAR PAINT
Book by Doug Wright
Music by Scott Frankel
Lyrics by Michael Korie
Directed by Michael Greif
Choreography by Christopher Gattelli
Nederlander Theatre
208 West 41st Street
(877-250-2929), www.warpaintmusical.com

By David NouNou

Due to a scheduling mix-up, I had the good fortune to see War Paint as the last show of the season. After seeing so many movies turned into mediocre musicals, I can honestly say it was a thrill to enjoy this gem of an original musical. I am not saying it’s perfect, but for an audience that can remember the wonderful musicals of the 1950s and 1960s, this is as close as you can get to such wonderful heights.

With a witty book by Doug Wright, an excellent melodic score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie (all three of Grey Gardens fame) and deft direction by Michael Greif, they have created a highly entertaining musical about world-renowned cosmeticians Helena Rubinstein (Patti LuPone) and Elizabeth Arden (Christine Ebersole).

Rubinstein was from a Polish shtetl and Arden came from a poor farm in Ontario, Canada. Both women came to America and reinvented themselves as the prima donnas of beauty. Madame Rubinstein, as she became known, catered to wealthy European immigrants, while Arden catered to New York society. They competed with each other for more than 50 years, never having met, but they revolutionized the beauty industry. In addition, they were the only females who owned their own businesses at the time. They had their ups and downs and unfortunately for them, they didn’t know when it was time to change with the times. When things were being re-branded for the young market, they clung to their “exclusive” roots.

I did mention earlier this is not a perfect musical and that’s because the two protagonists never met.  You have these two magnificent titans and there is no conflict between them; they just refer to each other as “the other one.”When you think of Grey Gardens, the two women were constantly together, thus creating the friction. Here you have two giants who live parallel lives and they don’t intersect, thus creating a vacuum.

However, when you have two legendary actresses the likes of Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, there is little to fret about the vacuum. These women know how to manipulate a line and an audience. Their presence and outstanding vocal gifts fill any gaps in the story line. Their performances are award worthy; they recently both received Tony nominations for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, and deservedly so. I only wish that the score was nominated as well. Mr. Greif, the director, got the nomination for Dear Evan Hansen.

War Paint earned two additional nominations for the lovely costumes by Catherine Zuber and a sublime set by David Korins. Thanks to Mr. Korins, audiences finally get to see a realized set that moves like a Swiss watch and not some tacky cheap set that is moved by actors or stagehands. That was the norm back in Broadway’s golden years, with sets that moved effortlessly and transported you to another world. Thanks to War Paint and its creators and designers and especially to Ms. LuPone and Ms. Ebersole, we are transported again.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 4, 2017
Reviewed at performance on May 3, 2017

‘WAR PAINT’: Christine Ebersole, Patti LuPone & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: Pattil LuPone. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: (left to right) Jennifer Rias, Steffanie Leigh, Christine Ebersole, Mary Claire King, Stephanie Jae Park. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: Douglas Sills & Patti LuPone. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: Christine Ebersole. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: Douglas Sills & John Dossett. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: Christine Ebersole & John Dossett. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: Christine Ebersole & John Dossett. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: Christine Ebersole. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘WAR PAINT’: Christine Ebersole. Photo: Joan Marcus

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‘AMAZING GRACE’: Josh Young (center) and the cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

AMAZING GRACE
Book by Christopher Smith and Arthur Giron
Music and lyrics by Christopher Smith
Directed by Gabriel Barre
Choreography by Christopher Gattelli
Nederlander Theatre
208 West 41st Street
(877-250-2929), http://www.amazinggracemusical.com/


By David NouNou

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be filthy rich? To have so much money that you can actually burn it? Well, if you see Amazing Grace, I guarantee you will get a sense of what it’s like to waste a lot of money (reportedly $16 million), both literally and figuratively.

I can only venture to say that no one on the production or the creative side has heard of such musicals as Scandalous or Leap of Faith and what their eventual outcome turned out to be. It’s truly “amazing” that there are still believers that would entrust millions of dollars to a novice song and book writer, Christopher Smith, a man who was once a policeman in Pennsylvania, had no training in writing any form of musical, and gave up his day job because he was inspired to write a musical about John Newton, the British slave trader and son of a captain of a slave ship, who in time became an abolitionist. John Newton ultimately found redemption and inspiration in writing the church hymn “Amazing Grace,” but the fact that this alone is the basis and title for a Broadway musical is absolutely mind numbing. If I had to bet on which of the two storylines had a better chance of success—the former about investing in a novice policeman and the arc of his story to write a musical—or the latter about John Newton, the wretch that was saved and wrote a hymn, I think you know which I would pick.

In all fairness to Amazing Grace, it is not dull like the dreary behemoth Dr. Zhivago from earlier this spring, or as sloppy as other religion-inspired musicals like Leap of Faith or Scandalous; those were aimless train wrecks that kept surprising you with their ineptness. However, there is a story here, be it ever so flimsy, but the saga is hackneyed, trite and full of clichés. There are no surprises here; piety oozes from every line. It is a musical “by the numbers,” you can anticipate what the scene is about, what will happen, what the song will imply, and you can second-guess the next scene before it takes place. Needless to say, one figures out the outcome of the show by Act I, Scene II.

John Newton (Josh Young) is a no-good English wastrel and son of a wealthy slave trader. His mother died at an early age and he has grown to rebel and resent his father, Captain Newton (Tom Hewitt). He has two people who believe in him: Thomas, his slave (the excellent Chuck Cooper) and his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett (Erin Mackey). At a slave auction that John runs behind his father’s back, both Abolitionists and Redcoats break up the proceedings. In the fray is Major Gray (Chris Hoch), who is smitten with Mary. On a drunken Christmas Eve, John is scuttled and sent on a slave ship to Africa by Major Gray, thus clearing the way to lure Mary away. Due to John’s surliness, his father doesn’t stop the proceedings and sends John to learn about the meaning of life the hard way. His trusted slave Thomas goes with him. Meanwhile, Mary, witnessing what goes on in the slave trades, joins the Abolitionists about the unfair treatment of the slaves. John’s slave ship is sunk off the coast of Africa and is captured by Princess Peyai (Harriet D. Foy) and gets treated by her the way he treated his slaves. Suddenly, a light bulb goes off and John sees the light and, as they say, the rest is history.

Mr. Smith, composer, lyricist and book writer, has set up his scenes and characters in the most predictable of fashions and given them message songs to sing about being “Truly Alive,” “I Still Believe” and seeing the light, all laden with piety. The intent may have been very sincere, but the results are stock scenes with stock characters in stock situations and are not aided at all by Gabriel Barre’s lackluster direction.

Josh Young, who gave a sterling performance in his Tony-nominated role of Judas in the 2012 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, has a fine tenor voice. Although he is the hero of the story, he doesn’t bring much to the scenes; he grouses and misbehaves in the beginning, sees his errors in the middle and finds salvation in the end. Oh, joy. Erin Mackay, who never gave up on John, is defiantly lovely throughout. Tom Hewitt redeems himself from his previous disaster, the Broadway musical adaptation of Dr. Zhivago; at least he can control his performance here. The best part of the show is Chuck Cooper, who always delivers a power-punch performance, this time as the slave Thomas/Pakuteh; as usual he’s imbued his character with dignity and grace, and his final scene is poignant indeed.

Since there are very few surprises to the storyline, I won’t do a spoiler alert. You’ll just have to sit through the show like I did to learn what the final song of the show is.

‘AMAZING GRACE’: (left to right) Stanley Bahorek, Harriett D. Foy, Tom Hewitt & Chris Hoch. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Erin Mackey & Laiona Michelle. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘Amazing Grace’: Chuck Cooper, Josh Young & company. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘Amazing Grace’: Laiona Michelle & Rachael Ferrera. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Erin Mackey & Josh Young. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Erin Mackey. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Josh Young. Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published July 22, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on July 21, 2015

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