March 28, 2007

David Hyde Pierce stars in 'Curtains' on Broadway

The new musical murder-mystery comedy "Curtains" opened on Broadway last week with David Hyde Pierce in the starring role as a detective determined to solve the case - and fix the show within the show.

Critics mostly said they wanted to like the show -- if for no other reason that it's among the final collaborations of Fred Ebb and John Kander -- but it generally falls short in several areas. That said, none of the reviewers said it's curtains for "Curtains."

It has an open-ended run at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, located at 302 W. 45th St., map Tickets are priced from $61.50 to $111.50.

The reviews:

Variety - "'Curtains' isn't funny enough. At least that's the case for half the show, making it all the more surprising that, in the final assessment, it works."

Wall Street Journal - "Fred Ebb, who wrote most of the lyrics, died unexpectedly in 2004, leaving John Kander and Rupert Holmes to finish the show on their own. Mr. Kander and his longtime partner were one of Broadway's most admired songwriting teams, and everybody wanted their last musical to be great. Me, too -- but it isn't, though the production and performances are so immaculately professional that you can almost fool yourself into thinking that "Curtains" is something more than an unrisen soufflé."

Sun - "Since the entire cast and crew are all suspects, the Boston police force has locked down the theater. Luckily, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi (David Hyde Pierce), the officer in charge, is also the biggest musical-theater nut this side of "The Drowsy Chaperone," so the investigation routinely comes to a halt as Cioffi turns his attentions to, say, fixing that square-dance number in Act II."

New York Times - "But unlike 'The Producers,' which ends its long New York run next month, 'Curtains,' directed with a soft hand by Scott Ellis, fails to convey a passionate and bone-deep understanding of the shows it satirizes."

New York magazine - "It’s not just the reverberations of 'Spring Awakening' (rock) and 'In the Heights' (salsa-rap) that make the show feel dowdy. Even among traditional musicals, a sleek, streamlined approach lately—have you noticed?—has begun to take hold. Though they apologized for being 'semi-staged,' the Philharmonic’s 'My Fair Lady' concert and 'Follies' at Encores! may have been the two most delightful nights of the season. On Broadway, John Doyle’s stripped-down 'Company' has more vitality than any revival since his even-more-stripped-down 'Sweeney Todd.' Next to these lithe, imaginative triumphs, the mild, ambling fun of 'Curtains' seems brontosaurian."

New Yorker - "“Curtains” is ingeniously put together and smart about show business; with witty contributions from the set designer Anna Louizos and the costume designer William Ivey Long, it expertly spoofs everything to do with the clichés of the Broadway musical. At once a musical within a musical, a thriller, a backstage drama, and a romance, it is the narrative equivalent of a Dagwood sandwich, stuffed with relish and a lot of ham."

Post - "The choreography by Rob Ashford was unnoticeable, the scenery by Anna Louizos uninterestingly ugly, while William Ivey Long unwisely saved his best and funniest costumes for the curtain calls."

Bloomberg - "The convoluted and utterly preposterous story, more suited to operetta, finds the producers and performers of 'Robbin' Hood' being picked off by a mysterious murderer. The book is largely a funny, but not quite funny enough, parody of a turbulent musical production, such as the revival of 'Annie Get Your Gun,' for which Stone updated the book. The score is middle-drawer Kander and Ebb, barely suggestive of the team that gave us 'Cabaret' and 'Chicago.'"

NY1 - "The only real showstopper is a raunchy anthem to commercial theater, 'It’s a Business,' sung by the unstoppable diva Debra Monk."

Newsday - "The book by Rupert Holmes ('The Mystery of Edwin Drood') is amusing, in low-comedy vaudevillian ways, but too long to be so flimsy. The direction of Scott Ellis ('She Loves Me') is lively but cries out for tightening and editing."

Daily News - "'Curtains' is the first new show by John Kander and Fred Ebb to get to Broadway since Ebb's death in 2004. The score is lighter than 'Chicago' and 'Cabaret,' but the legendary team has penned a show's worth of good tunes."

Gothamist - "And it’s a sign of how starved audiences are for solid musical theater that they roared with laughter at one-liners that were sometimes merely serviceable and exploded with applause after chorus numbers that would have been de rigueur for the Broadway of yesteryear."

amNewYork - "In addition to David Hyde Pierce as the detective, 'Curtains' brings together a wonderful ensemble of performers. Still, this could have been a stronger musical, as evidenced by its flat, somewhat lackluster first act. The problems result from Scott Ellis¹ hit-or-miss direction and Rupert Holmes' over-written, seemingly unedited dialogue."

March 28, 2007 10:16 AM in Broadway

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