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| Broadway Our Way 4: Divas Unleashed! |
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"Divas" Pitches High Camp
By Lawson Taitte / Excerpted from The Dallas Morning News 1/08/2006 ©2006 Uptown Players knows how to throw a party. This year's gala, Broadway Our Way: Divas Unleashed, is a particularly wild one. Generally in these shows, the men sing songs originally written for women, and vice versa. More often than not, the lyrics take on gay innuendos. And these performers don't shy away from them – as when Chip Holderman leads off with "Shy" from Once Upon a Mattress, pressing two of the straight guys in the show to his chest. The patter, written and directed by Andi Allen, consistently amuses. Host Paul J. Williams hilariously turns up in drag as the leading ladies from Uptown's last season. The show also previews the upcoming season, most notably with a dynamite rendition of Amneris' big number from Aida, led by a sizzling Courtney Franklin. Cedric Neal crooned the beautiful "Fine, Fine Line" from Avenue Q exquisitely, and Donald Fowler mastered the formidable demands of The Light in the Piazza's "Fable ". The numbers push up against each other intelligently. A couple of songs from the off-Broadway smash Altar Boyz segue into "Heaven on Their Minds " from Jesus Christ Superstar. Amy Stevenson blared out "Into the Fire " from The Scarlet Pimpernel with finesse as well as oomph. Let's not forget the virtuoso dancers, either – like John de Los Santos, who partners with Linda Leonard in Fosse's "Mr. Bojangles. " A larger ensemble turned out a surprisingly rousing "All That Jazz, " – fronted by the amazing William Blake. This year, with the performances spread over two weekends, each features a guest star or two. On Saturday, they were Coy Covington and B.J. Cleveland. As funny as these two men are when they don dresses, they are even better when they let their guards down and sing a poignant number. After a whole night of cross-dressing and camp both high and low, a few serious moments feel rather refreshing. |
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Steppin' Out
By Lawson Taitte / Excerpted from The Dallas Morning News 1/10/2006 ©2006 Simon Cowell might not have gone for William Blake's voice when the young Dallas singer made it to the L.A. round of tryouts of American Idol, but he wowed the crowd at the opening of Broadway Our Way: Divas Unleashed...he's bending gender by leading Chicago's "All That Jazz." Nobody has been so delightfully decadent in the number since Bebe Neuwirth on Broadway. The breakthrough performance, though, comes from Courtney Franklin. She sizzles her way through "My Strongest Suit" from the Elton John-Tim Rice Aida. Funny thing – she's only understudying the role in Uptown's upcoming production. For the big finale, the entire cast strolls out to sing the signature number from Rent, "Seasons of Love." It puts the 2005 Chris Columbus movie to shame. And reminds us that the original New York director, Michael Greif, wasn't that great, either. |
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Great White Gay
By Arnold Wayne Jones / Excerpted from The Dallas Voice 1/12/2006 ©2006 A lot of theater companies play to the strengths of their talent pool. But Uptown Players seems to take a slightly different approach. This troupe sets the bar almost too high, inviting local actors, musicians and designers to outdo themselves. The risks are plentiful, but so are the rewards. "Broadway Our Way: Divas Unleashed" is one such payoff. This revue of hit show-tunes is full of camp-induced belly laughs, wonderful music and fluid choreography. The best reason for seeing the show is to revel in the showcase of talent. "Broadway Our Way" is a forum where actors can shine, and almost everyone sparkles like a crystal chandelier. The conceit is that men perform songs written for women and vice versa. That leads to some delightful, often sexy, genderbending. Nowhere is this more in evidence than on "All I Ask of You" from "The Phantom of the Opera," sung by Stephanie Hall and director Andi Allen, who caress each other with bedroom eyes, and end with a kiss. Their singing is superb, but the homoeroticism draws subtext out of the lyric. Not everyone on stage is gay, of course, which is no better demonstrated than in "If You Were Gay" from "Avenue Q." Cameron McElyea and Tony Martin wit and parry with the cheeky song, suggesting that the other might be in the closet. Martin shows fearlessness in other scenes as well, especially in portraying a portly paramour as a muscular John de los Santos pines for him. He turns "Funny Honey" from "Chicago" into a comic gem that even has the musicians rolling with laughter. William Blake leads a group in "All that Jazz" that would make Catherine Zeta-Jones pant with envy. And Courtney Franklin displays her gorgeously countrified pipes on both “Muddy Water” from "Big River" and a medley from "Aida." Paul J. Williams, who hosts the event, flexes his improv comedy skills, toying with the audience while making appearances as a slate of characters, including his signature creation, Sister Helen Holy. If the show has a failing, it is in its structure, which slathers many hilarious bits for the first half of Act 1 and then diving headlong into slow ballads. That is a minor quibble, though, once you hear Cedric Neal, who has never sounded better, ring every emotion of out "It’s a Fine, Fine Line." He's just one of the stars in a production as filled with high points as the Himalayas. |
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Sing Out, Louise: Gypsies make Broadway Our Way a gay old time
By Elaine Liner / Excerpted from The Dallas Observer 1/10/2006 ©2006 What started four years ago as a one-night-only fundraiser has evolved into a sell-out event. This year's edition is a ferociously fun celebration of the theater's previous season that invites cast members from some of those shows to sing and dance their little gypsy hearts out. Crowding the spotlight are 19 of this town's best performers, including some promising up-and-comers and a few veteran still-arounders. The twist to this revue has boys singing show tunes written for female characters. Girls sing boys' big numbers. And if there's a duet love ballad, you can bet it'll end with a same-sex smooch. Cameron McElyea and Tony Martin, two of the self-confessed straight actors in the cast, sing Avenue Q's comic "If You Were Gay." Suave Donald Fowler is in fine voice on the difficult and haunting "Fable" from Light in the Piazza. Stephanie Hall, Amy Stephenson, Lisa-Gabrielle Greene and Patty Breckinridge do cross-sex camp in two numbers from Altar Boyz. Those lead right into "Heaven on My Mind" from Jesus Christ Superstar. BOW's writer-director Andi Allen makes sure the flow from song to song makes sense in a winking, witty way. Young William Blake, eliminated way too early from last year's American Idol, shows off his muscular vocal cords and newly slim physique on "Sooner or Later" and "All That Jazz" (danced by the cast with Fosse-esque grinds). Blake's a born showstopper, and he does it twice in Broadway Our Way. Both weekends of BOW feature cameos by theater pros. In the performance reviewed it was Coy Covington, appearing in the first half of the show in a tuxedo to sing an elegant "I Got Lost in His Arms" from Annie Get Your Gun. He returned later in full-glam female get-up and romped through a pee-in-the-britches funny rendition of "The Grass Is Always Greener" from And the World Goes Round with B.J. Cleveland. The second weekend's guest is M. Denise Lee, still the diva of all divas in Dallas musicals. Stand-up comic Paul J. Williams serves as host of BOW and keeps things moving along with some wisecracks and inside jokes about Uptown shows past and future. Musical director Lee Harris handles keyboards expertly along with assistant conductor Jeff Crouse and percussionist Jaime Reyes. If the trio wasn't playing in full view of the audience, you'd swear there were three times that many musicians backing up the big-voiced cast. |