On Jun 22, 12:49 pm, vic...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Victor S. Miller) wrote:
> I just got a flyer in the mail advertising the upcoming production of
> "Damn Yankees" at Encores ("Summer Stars"). It starts Sean Hayes as
> Mr. Applegate (the flyer says "Think of him as 'Just Satan'" --
> ouch!), Jane Krakowski as Lola, Cheyenne Jackson as young Joe, Ana
> Gasteyer as Gloria and Randy Graff as Meg. This looks interesting
> (except for maybe Mr. Hayes).
Sean Hayes is in fact the hit of the show -- he is at once very like
Ray Walston and entirely himself -- wonderful shtick and very in
character. Cheyenne Jackson sings beautifully and ... stands there ...
beautifully. There is genuine chemistry between him and Randy Graff.
And then there is Jane Krakowski.
Did she just watch the movie and say, "I can do that, only blonde" ?
That's all she does. There's no person there. There's certainly no
Lola. She imitates Verdon's dance in "Whatever Lola Wants," and the
gestures are all very choreographic and agile, and the costume very
similar (it doesn't suit her), but they're ... not part of a
character, as Verdon's gestures were ... they're a parody of a parody.
(Sean Hayes is much funnier doing the same gestures when he scolds
her.) She sings well, but she's singing to the audience, never to
anyone else on stage. It is soulless and not in a good way. Maybe
she's too pretty, but at all events she isn't ***y.
She's not bad ... just kind of vacantly professional.
I was strongly reminded of whoever the guy was who was imitating Eddie
Cantor singing "If You Knew Susie" in "The Great Ziegfeld" the other
night -- very professional, every gesture in place, the act d.o.a. --
but you sort of got what the original must have been about with
someone vivid behind it. And that made what you were seeing look
deader. It helped me understand why people who really saw Fanny Brice
loathed "Funny Girl."
Still, the show is fun, the dancing (mostly in Shoeless Joe) pleasant,
the voices are all good, time p***** cheerfully enough.
Jean Coeur de Lapin
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