‘FLOYD COLLINS’: (collage, left): Jeremy Jordan & (collage, right) Lizzy McAlpine & Jeremy Jordan. Photos: Joan Marcus.

FLOYD COLLINS
Book by Tina Landau
Music & lyrics by Adam Guetell
Directed by Tina Landau
Through June 22, 2025
Lincoln Center Theatre
at the Vivian Beaumont
150 West 65^th Street
https://www.lct.org/

By Scott Harrah

A century ago in 1925, the news of a cave explorer trapped in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky became a media sensation. This true story is the basis for the narrative of the Broadway musical Floyd Collins.  The show was originally produced off Broadway in Philadelphia in 1994 and later in New York at Playwrights Horizons in 1996. Now, this latest iteration starring Jeremy Jordan as Floyd has received six Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical .

Golden-voiced Jeremy Jordan

Broadway star Jeremy Jordan, with his golden voice and kinetic stage presence, is the perfect actor to bring Floyd Collins to life. The historical saga of a man who went spelunking in a Kentucky cave, hoping to find a new tourist attraction, and ended up pinned 55 feet below ground under a rock is not exactly a recipe for a great musical. Regardless, Mr. Jordan actually makes the concept as riveting and sensational as possible. Mr. Jordan charmed Broadway audiences last year with his Tony-nominated role in The Great Gatsby. As Floyd, he is consistently outstanding with such solo songs as “The Call, “ “And She’d Have Blue Eyes,” and “It Moves.”

Media hasn’t changed much in a century

The show is ultimately a tragedy, and the media circus that surrounds him is, of course, unfortunate but it simply shows that the press a century ago were just as ruthless as they are today. Floyd Collins might remind some of Kander and Ebb’s long-running Broadway phenomenon Chicago simply because it also shows how the media will often sensationalize any unfortunate news story to sell to a voracious public. The second act opens with “Is That Remarkable,” a song about how the media indulges in exploitative journalism. However, while Chicago is a dark yet upbeat musical full of irony and derisive frivolity, Floyd Collins is simply dark.

Floyd’s family, townsfolk & the press

We also meet a number of characters above ground, all of whom are supposedly trying to help Floyd. His younger brother Homer (Jason Gotay) leads the quest to rescue Floyd. His younger sister Nellie (Lizzy McAlpine) is quite concerned about Floyd. She has just been discharged from a mental hospital and is often misunderstood. Nonetheless, she thinks rationally when trying to help her brother and has unique insight about his emotional state.

Marc Kudisch plays Lee, Floyd’s devastated father who has trouble coping with his son’s dangerous situation.  His wife Miss Jane (Jessica Molaskey) is also Floyd’s stepmother, but she spends most of her time trying to console her husband. Local townsfolk include Bee Doyle (Wade McCollum), a land owner who is the first to see that Floyd is trapped in the cave. He is the first one to seek help and eventually he gets quite wrapped up in the rescue attempts, along with Ed Bishop (Clyde Voce), another town cave explorer.

‘FLOYD COLLINS’: Taylor Trensch. Photo: Joan Marcus.

Taylor Trensch plays Skeets, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. He becomes deeply involved in the story of Floyd Collins and ends up winning a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting. Mr. Tresnch imbues the character of Skeets with a profound sense of concern and altruism. He starts out as simply a newspaper reporter.  Eventually, we see a wonderful arc to the character of Skeets.  He becomes more like a concerned friend of Floyd’s.  It is no surprise that Taylor Trensch has received a Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical Tony nomination.

Book & direction

Writer-director Tina Landau’s book is not always perfect. The characters are all well written, but there is often too little detail about each one’s backstory. As a director, however, Ms. Landau extracts many great performances.

It’s great to see Broadway veteran Marc Kudisch back on stage again as Floyd’s father, Lee. Mr. Kudisch does his best with the limitations of the character and material.

Newcomer Lizzy McAlpine shows a lot of promise as Floyd’s sister Nelly. Ms. McAlpine’s unique vocals can be both high and low, and there is sometimes a country twang heard and that fits the indie folk-style songs in the show.  Jason Gotay is engaging as Homer, Floyd’s baby brother.

It’s no wonder that Floyd Collins received Tony nominations for Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Scott Zielinski and Ruey Horng Sun), Best Sound Design of a Musical (Dan Moses Schreier) and Best Orchestrations (Bruce Coughlin). The Vivian Beaumont stage is gigantic, and in so many productions actors something appear as if they are being “swallowed” by the stage. Yes, there are some rare moments like that in this show, but making 1920s Kentucky look vivid and lively is no easy task. The lighting and sound here is superb. Bruce Couglin has done a splendid job with the orchestrations, and he has added great depth to the score.

The score & vocals

It would be inaccurate to say that Floyd Collins is an uplifting evening of theater. The show is essentially an historical American tragedy, but it’s worth seeing thanks to Adam Guettel’s richly textured music and lyrics. In addition, the performances by Jeremy Jordan and Taylor Trensch are two of the spring’s best.

Published May 11, 2025
Reviewed at press performance on May 10, 2025

‘FLOYD COLLINS’: Jason Gotay & Jeremy Jordan. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘FLOYD COLLINS’: Marc Kudisch & Jessica Molaskey. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘FLOYD COLLINS’: (left to right) Cole Vaughan, Wade McCollum, Clyde Voce & Jason Gotay. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘FLOYD COLLINS’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
Written & directed by Conor McPherson
Music & lyrics by Bob Dylan
Belasco Theatre
111 West 44th Street
(212-239-6200), www.northcountryonbroadway.com

By David NouNou

Hybrid musicals are constantly evolving. Originally started as pastiche musicals by songbooks from tunesmiths, examples being Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Lieber and Stoller’s Smokey Joe’s Cafe morphing into jukebox musicals the likes of Jersey Boys and Ain’t Too Proud—and let’s not forget the bio-musicals using an artist’s songbook: Beautiful, Donna Summer, The Cher Show and, most recently, Tina. Now we have musicals that create the story around an artist’s album and works, such as Alanis Morrisette’s angst-filled Jagged Little Pill (which opened last December). This brings us to Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Country. Mr. Dylan was previously represented on Broadway in the abysmal The Times They Are a Changin’.

Girl from the North Country is set in 1934 in Duluth, Minnesota during the Great Depression, with no jobs and no money. Narrated by Dr. Walker (Robert Joy), he tells us about the characters that unfold in the story and their final Thanksgiving and Christmas in 1934 at the Laine’s rundown guesthouse and its transients. Nick Laine (Jay O. Sanders) is not only trying to save his guesthouse and home from foreclosure, he also has to take care of his dementia-riddled wife, Elizabeth (Mare Winningham) and his two children Gene (Colton Ryan), a shiftless drunken wannabe writer in his early 20s and an adopted black daughter who was left with them when she was a baby, Marianne (Kimber Elayne Sprawl), who is 19 and pregnant.

Nick is trying to arrange a marriage for Marianne with the wealthy 70-year-old shoe mender, Mr. Perry (Tom Nelis) in order to secure a home for her and her baby. Also, at the guesthouse is Mrs. Neilson (Jeannette Bayardelle) who is having an affair with Nick while awaiting her late husband’s probate to clear.

Also, at the guesthouse are Mr. Burke (Mark Kudisch) who has lost his business in the market crash, his wife Laura (Luba Mason) who takes care of their mentally challenged adult son Elias (Todd Almond), and the struggle to come to terms with their reduced plight.

Arriving late one stormy night, Nick takes in two borders, the self-proclaimed Reverend Marlowe and bible salesman (Matt McGrath) and a down-on-his-luck boxer, Joe Scott (Austin Scott), both looking for shelter. Now that all the characters are in place for the action to begin.

The book by Conor McPherson is engaging and you really get a feel for all the characters and how they are trapped in the situation of the day. They hope they can change their destinies, but the times are rough. This is where Bob Dylan’s songbook comes in and it doesn’t always mesh well with the storyline. Every time the story moves forward, a musical number is inserted randomly and slows down the proceedings, and here Mr. McPherson, in the role of director, doesn’t help the situation because every time a character has a song to sing, the rest of the characters form a back “doo-wop” singing group with microphones and finger snapping, all of which makes no sense. In Act I as you are getting to know the characters, the songs are forming the introductions in a way. In Act II, the songs become lugubrious and just halt everything with the added pointless dance movements by Lucy Hale.

The redemption of the evening consists of the hardworking acting and fine voices of the ensemble consisting of Jay O. Sanders, Mare Winningham, Mark Kudisch, Luba Mason, Robert Joy and Tom Nelis. However, the mellifluous and angelic voices are provided by the powerhouses: Jeannette Ray Ardelle, Kimber Elayne Sprawl, and Austin Scott.

At another time, this show would have been an interesting venture. What with the current state of the country and the economy, as well as the turmoil of the pandemic, I can’t say that this is exactly the antidote for the day, but Conor McPherson’s story is, regardless, still compelling.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 11, 2020
Reviewed at March 10, 2020 press performance.

‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’: Mare Winningham. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’: Marc Kudisch. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’: Caitlin Houlahan & Colton Ryan. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’: Austin Scott & Kimber Elayne Sprawl. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’: Luba Mason. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’: (left to right) Colton Ryan, Kimber Elayne Sprawl, Mare Winningham & Jay O. Sanders. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

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‘THE GREAT SOCIETY’: Brian Cox. Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, 2019

THE GREAT SOCIETY
Written by Robert Schenkkan
Directed by Bill Rauch
Through November 30, 2019
Vivian Beaumont Theatre
150 West 65th Street
(212-239-6200), www.ltc.org

By David NouNou

The Great Society is a continuation of Robert Schenkkan’s 2014 Tony Award-winning play All the Way, which focused on Lyndon Baines Johnson’s first-term presidency taking over for the assassinated John F. Kennedy. The triumph of that play was Bryan Cranston’s outstanding Tony-winning performance as LBJ which gave the show its gravitas. Mr. Cranston may not have looked like LBJ, but his stature and tone gave us the essence of the man.

All the Way ended in 1964 where LBJ wins the presidency and the beginning of his wheelings and dealings, especially when it came to working with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. It centered on a critical juncture in American history and was focused on the subject. The Great Society picks up in January 1965 with LBJ (Brian Cox) giving his inaugural speech. His message dealt with civil rights, healthcare, welfare and education. Does that sound familiar 54 years later?

The Great Society, in addition to dealing with MLK (Grantham Coleman), now goes into the riots in Selma, Alabama, Watts in Los Angeles and the advent of “Black Power” as well as Chicago and its corrupt mayor Richard Daley (Marc Kudish). LBJ has his supporter, Hubert Humphrey (Richard Thomas) and rival Bobby Kennedy (Bryce Pinkham). It goes further in depth with the involvement of America in Vietnam and its strong advocate, Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, (Matthew Rauch). It all leads up to 1968 as the death toll and casualties in Vietnam escalate and LBJ decides not to run for a second term as president, and the chilling conclusion of Richard M. Nixon (David Garrison) being elected president. Of course, the audience gets a chuckle because we all know how that turned out.

Mr. Schenkkan has certainly crammed a lot of American history into one night. He has shown us a parallel perspective of the chaos then, that seems almost parallel but tame to the chaos ensuing these days on a daily basis. The fatigue quotient is overwhelming. Because of the abundance of material here, the subject matter is unfocused and the multitude of scenes seem more like vignettes than actual historical moments. He is not aided by his director Bill Rauch. Mr. Rauch could have edited the play more and added focus to the scenes instead of having them all run into each other.

Brian Cox, the renowned British actor, is an odd choice to follow Mr. Cranston as LBJ. He lacks the stature and the tone of the 36^th president of the United States and what you are left with is a gruff exterior and blustery caricature, thus starting the evening on a wrong note. What you do have are admirable performances by Marc Kudish as Mayor Daley, Richard Thomas as Hubert Humphrey, Bryce Pinkham as Robert Kennedy, Matthew Rauch as Robert McNamara and David Garrison as Richard Nixon as smarmy as ever. Since Nixon plays a central figure in the end of The Great Society, one has to wonder if Mr. Schenkkan is planning a third part for a trilogy?

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 3, 2019
Reviewed at October 2, 2019 press performance.

‘THE GREAT SOCIETY’: Marc Kudisch & Brian Cox. Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, 2019

‘THE GREAT SOCIETY’: (left to right) Brian Cox, Richard Thomas, Gordon Clapp. Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, 2019

‘THE GREAT SOCIETY’: (left to right) Marchant Davis, Brian Cox, Bryce Pinkham. Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, 2019

‘THE GREAT SOCIETY’: Grantham Coleman & cast. Photo: ‘THE GREAT SOCIETY’: Brian Cox. Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, 2019

‘THE GREAT SOCIETY’: Barbara Garrick & Brian Cox. Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, 2019

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LIKE ‘AVENUE Q’ ON STEROIDS (left to right) Geneva Carr, Sarah Stiles, Mark Kudisch, Steven Boyer & Michael Oberholtzer. Photo: Joan Marcus

HAND TO GOD
By Robert Askins
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
(212) 239-6200
http://handtogodbroadway.com

By Scott Harrah

This is that rare show that changes and challenges the foundations of traditional theater, the way Samuel Beckett did in the 1950s with Waiting for Godot and Edward Albee did in the 1960s with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Equal parts dark comedy, absurdist drama and horror/gore show, Hand to God is both funny and frightening, has the irreverence of The Book of Mormon, and the gross-out ick factor of every John Waters film, but playwright Robert Askins’ tale is highly original as well. At times scathingly hilarious but ultimately disturbing, this tragicomic masterpiece takes digs at everything from Christianity and teenage angst to taboo sex. It is unlike anything you’ve ever seen on the New York stage in years.

Hand to God has transferred to Broadway after two successful downtown productions. Although lead actor Steven Boyer isn’t yet a big name in theater, he will be soon for his tour de force portrayal of Jason, a troubled teenager who brings out his inner demons through Tyrone, the hand puppet he plays with at a Texas church in a Christian puppet class run by his mother, Margery (the outstanding Geneva Carr).

Margery is still grieving the loss of her husband just six months earlier as she attempts to rehearse for an upcoming church puppet performance with Jason, smart-mouthed bully Timothy (Michael Oberholtzer) and quick-witted Jessica (Sarah Stiles).

Meanwhile, Pastor Greg (Marc Kudisch) has romantic feelings for Margery, but she’s too grief-stricken from her husband’s death to even feign interest in the guy. Margery is also indulging in some stomach-churning, inappropriate behavior with hormone-addled Timothy (don’t ask). To make things worse, Jason’s going overboard playing with his puppet Tyrone, shouting out so many potty-mouthed witticisms and acting out violence and perverse sex acts that it seems Tyrone has literally possessed the poor kid.

Hand to God questions many of the foundations of mainstream Christianity and morality as the characters take us on a nonstop ride of four-letter words, jabs at the Bible and social mores as we see puppets and humans in various acts of sex and violence. Although act one is full of belly laughs, by act two the show builds to an uncomfortable climax that makes us realize Hand to God is more of a modern-day Greek tragedy than an edgier, filthier Avenue Q. Like many Greek heroes and heroines in Euripides and Sophocles’ classics, Jason and mom Margery commit despicable crimes of passion and must face the consequences.

Director Moritz von Stuelpnagel keeps the exceptional cast moving at a steady pace, in a show that is so full of energy, fake spewing blood and searing physicality that it has to be exhausting for the actors. However, as first-rate as Robert Askins’ play is, the raison d’être of the show is also Steven Boyer’s mind-blowing portrayal of Jason and Tyrone, in what is certainly the must-see performance of the spring season, making him a frontrunner for the Tony Award.

JASON & TYRONE: Steven Boyer in ‘Hand to God.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

JASON & HIS CRUSH, JESSICA: Steven Boyer & Sarah Stiles. Photo: Joan Marcus

MARGERY & PASTOR GREG: Geneva Karr & Mark Kudisch. Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 10, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on April 9, 2015

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