CURTAIN UP! LIVE FROM BROADWAY CONCERT

CELEBRATES THE NEW BROADWAY SEASON

The Broadway League, in partnership with Playbill and Times Square Alliance, presents Curtain Up! LIVE from Broadway finale concert.

Hosts: Amber Ruffin and Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Director: Sammi Cannold
Musical Director: Daryl Waters
Music Provided by: The Music Performance Trust Fund
Written by: Eric Ulloa and Amber Ruffin

Comedian Amber Ruffin will host “Curtain Up! Live from Broadway Concert” with Jesse Tyler Ferguson on Sunday, October 2. Pictured: Amber Ruffin on ‘The Amber Ruffin Show”. Photo: Lloyd Bishop/Peacock.

Featuring performances and special appearances from 19 Broadway shows:
A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical; A Strange Loop; Aladdin;
& Juliet ; Beetlejuice; The Book of Mormon; Chicago; Death of a Salesman; Funny Girl; Hadestown; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Into the Woods; The Lion King; MJ The Musical; Moulin Rouge! The Musical; The Music Man; The Phantom of the Opera; Six; and Wicked.

WHAT: Curtain Up! LIVE from Broadway is a free outdoor concert featuring marquee talent from Broadway productions. It is the perfect way to usher in the new Broadway season by spotlighting many of Broadway’s great musicals and plays. Curtain Up! LIVE from Broadway marks the culmination of the three-day Curtain Up Broadway Festival and will be broadcast live on WABC.

American Sign Language interpretation will be provided during Curtain Up! LIVE from Broadway. Accessibility services secured by Invest In Access.

For more information on Curtain Up! LIVE from Broadway, click here.

WHEN: Sunday, October 2, 2022 from 11:00am – 1:00pm; rain or shine
Press Arrival Time: 10:00am Sunday, October 2, 2022

WHERE: Times Square – Mainstage on Duffy Square (Broadway between 46^th & 47^th Streets)
Live Broadcast will be available on WABC

Please note that performances and artists are subject to change.

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‘TAKE ME OUT’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

TAKE ME OUT
Written by Richard Greenberg
Directed by Scott Ellis
Through May 29, 2022
The Hayes Theater
240 West 44th Street
(212-541-4516), www 2ST.com

By David NouNou

Take Me Out is a show that is enjoyable while watching, but mind-blowing long after leaving the theater and pondering the different subject matters it tackles. I admired the show in 2002 more as a voyeur and missed out on the multiple layers upon which it is built. The central subject matter is the coming out of a beloved baseball player, who is at the top of his game, to the media, unbeknownst to his fellow teammates and without any cause or a personal relationship. Although it might have seemed a breakthrough for a major league athlete to come out as gay in 2002, just think where we are in 2022 and the alarming “Don’t Say Gay” Florida law that was just signed, banning the word “gay,” and other states trying to undo same-sex marriages. It is mind-numbing to see how far we are regressing, which in turn makes Take Me Out more progressive and relevant today.

The catalyst, Darren Lemming (Jesse Williams), a biracial center fielder for the fictional Major League team the Empires, beloved by the public as well as himself, has just announced he is gay for no apparent reason other than to free himself of the secret he’s carried on a daily basis. Now that his sexual orientation is in the open, he must navigate through life with the slings and arrows that are hurled upon him. Everything now comes under scrutiny—from an ordinary shower after a game to dealing with his teammates on a daily basis. He has the support of his teammate and friend Kippy Sunderstrom (Patrick J. Adams), who is also the narrator of the play. However, his best friend Davey Battle (Brandon J. Dirden) who plays on an opposing team, The Larks, is a holy man and revolted by what he considers Lemming’s “deviation” and “depravity.” This is the proverbial line in the sand that has been crossed.

Later, Darren Lemming also acquires a new accountant, Mason Marzac (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). The last one we are to believe has retired. Marzac knows nothing about baseball, but is enthralled that Darren has come out and has new interest in the game. Marzac has learned “that baseball is absolute. It works better than democracy. It has a definite winner and a loser.” Here is another layer for us to peel: in a democracy who wins an election and who loses?

Due to Lemming being in a slump and losses piling up, a dimwitted, racist, homophobic relief pitcher, Shane Mungitt (Michael Oberholtzer), is brought in from the minor leagues. He happens to be an orphan due to his father killing his mother and then killing himself, and is either from Arkansas or Tennessee. Now that the team begins winning, Mungitt is wanted for a press interview where he expresses his displeasure with “colored” people and having to shower with a “fa**ot.” This places Mungitt on suspension.

Due to the suspension, the team goes into a slump again. An apology letter is written and released to the public. Public sentiment wants Mungitt back, against Lemming’s feelings. With Mungitt back, this creates new revelations and consequences that will affect the lives of many. Please unravel the revelations and consequences for yourself, it will be more fulfilling. So many things come into question here, and I’m sure each viewer will have their own interpretation

Although this looks like an ensemble piece, there are four standout remarkable performances; Jesse Williams is an Adonis with a command of the stage that is riveting. His every stance, move and interaction is poetry in motion. Patrick J. Adams as friend and narrator anchors the play in his sincerity. Michael Oberholtzer as the outsider can he heartbreaking once you realize he will always be a failure in life and will always get himself in trouble.

The joker in the deck is Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Marzac, a role that won Denis O’Hare a much-deserved Tony Award in a supporting role. Where Mr. O’Hare was an introverted, nebbish “Mr. Cellophane” who blossomed while loving baseball, Mr. Ferguson is never a milquetoast but a lonely, self-deprecating accountant who falls in love with baseball once he meets Darren Lemming. As his friendship with Darren evolves, so does his flamboyance, giving the show its much needed levity.

My sincere hope is that Take Me Out will be extended beyond May 29th. With so many tourists coming to New York this spring and summer, this would be the one solid play I would recommend people to see. Its poignancy is harder hitting today than it was in 2002.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 7, 2022
Reviewed at April 6, 2022 press performance.

‘TAKE ME OUT’: Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Jesse Williams. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TAKE ME OUT’: Jesse Williams & Brandon J. Dirden. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TAKE ME OUT’: Michael Oberholtzer & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TAKE ME OUT’: Jesse Williams & Ken Marks. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TAKE ME OUT’: Patrick J. Adams & Jesse Williams. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TAKE ME OUT’: Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Photo: Joan Marcus.

The post ‘Take Me Out’ revival even more topical today appeared first on StageZine.

‘FULLY COMMITTED’: Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Photo: Joan Marcus

FULLY COMMITTED
By Becky Mode
Based on characters created by Ms. Mode and Mark Setlock
Directed by Jason Moore
Through July 24, 2016
Lyceum Theatre
149 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.FullyCommittedBroadway.com

By David NouNou

In comedy you either laugh at or laugh with the person. Instead, I found myself laughing for Fully Committed not because it’s that funny a play but for the recognition of its star, Jesse Tyler Ferguson. After all, when you are in the huge TV sitcom “Modern Family” and have been playing the part of Mitchell Pritchett since 2009, and have been coming to our living rooms since then, you are a member of the family.

The part of Sam, the reservation taker, of a super-trendy restaurant, was created in 1999 by Becky Mode and first performed at the Vineyard Theatre, an intimate space for an intimate show. The action takes place in the basement call center of a now in-demand restaurant for which reservations are made for the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, attending with a party of 15 at the last minute with an absurdly regimented menu of all the no-no’s that cannot be served. There are about 40 different characters in total in the show, all equally obnoxious and neurotic, all with their own special demands.

The premise was cute, funny and a lot of inside jokes flew around that convulsed the audiences at the time. So much of comedy has changed since then that it is almost impossible to transfer this delicate piece to Broadway without a superstar with a schizophrenic personality. The late Robin Williams was such a chameleon, with voices as well as accents. Jefferson Mays, at this very theater, did I Am My Own Wife with magnificent results because his persona is bigger than life.

From his Mitchell Pritchett in “Modern Family” to his Chip in the abysmal 1998 revival of On The Town, and even as Leaf Coneybear in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Mr. Ferguson has always been blessed with a sweet-natured, affable and gentle demeanor. To play Sam effectively, you have to be an expert on accents and schizophrenically quick in changing that many personalities and giving each one its own distinct character. Unfortunately, most of the characters aren’t fleshed-out characters but voices Sam has to interact with on the telephone; from family, friends and bosses to lame customers with astounding demands. Sam has to take all the calls on this especially hectic day since his co-worker Bob is out and Sam has to deal with all these people alone.

Mr. Ferguson has the capability of moving at a frantic pace all over the stage but the characters and the voices somehow remain the same, static with hardly an inflection change; just raised eyebrows, nasal tones and fluttering hands make up the differences in most of the characters.

To play 40 different people in just 80 minutes where the voice and the attitude is in constant flux, you have to have a personality that is beyond bigger than life, dynamic, enigmatic and still maintain your sanity when your whole life is crumbling around you and still be in control of the situation. For that reason, we laugh “for” Mr. Ferguson due to his familiar endearing persona and the effort he puts in to deliver the goods.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 28, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on April 27, 2016

‘FULLY COMMITTED’: Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Photo: Joan Marcus

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