My Quest to see EVERYTHING on Broadway

I spent 8 weeks in Manhattan this fall and one of my goals while there was to be able to leave the city being able to say that I had seen absolutely everything playing on Broadway.

Number of Shows on Broadway Nov/Dec 2012 (or starting previews) :  36
Number of Shows I had already seen before arrival:  13
Number of Shows that remained unseen:  6

If you're doing the math you might assume that I saw 17 shows during my little sojourn.  But no, all told, I saw 25 shows in my 8 weeks in New York.  My original goal just kept getting derailed by intriguing off broadway or one-off charity performances.

Here are some thoughts about some of the ones that I saw...

Most unexpected delight:  The Mystery of Edwin Drood (which I saw twice) stars broadway legend Chita Rivera, Stephanie J Block, Will Chase and Jim Norton.  This musical revival based on the last unfinished novel by Charles Dickens is structured as a play within a play and leaves the ending up to the audience, who get to choose whodunnit among other options.

Most Inexplicable Early Closing:  The Performers starring Henry Winkler, Cheyenne Jackson, Alicia Silverstone and Ari Graynor, which closed 5 days after its opening night.  I managed to catch the final performance for this one and found it pretty funny with a couple of great performances by Graynor and Jackson.  I guess broadway just wasn't ready for a show about the porn industry.

Most Easily Understood Early Closing:  The Anarchist starring Patti Lupone and Debra Winger in a new play written by David Mamet.  Winger played a parole officer evaluating longtime inmate Lupone.  They talk, and talk, and talk in circles.  And then it ends.

Laziest Performance:  Matthew Broderick in Nice Work if You Can Get It.  I get that the character is supposed to be a bit of a lazy dilettante but there were many times during the performance that Broderick seemed to be phoning it in.  If not for the supporting performances of Kelli O'Hara, Judy Kaye and Michael McGrath I may have considered it a bust of an evening.

Best Dancing on Broadway:  The fantastic group of boys in Newsies. Who knew that a Disney flop of a movie could turn into such a fun show? The energy of these guys is amazing.

Most interesting stage set up:  The theatre for Once, where the bar on stage becomes functional at intermission allowing theatre patrons to jump up on stage and belly up to the bar.  The show is pretty good too.

Best Makeunder:  The gorgeous Jessica Chastain in The Heiress somehow managed to come across as dowdy and awkward in her portrayal of an uptight spinster caught up in a whirlwind romance (or is that a con game) with a dashing suitor (Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens).

Best Bang for my Buck:  If you've been to the theatre in the late spring or fall you are likely familiar with the annual fundraising drive for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.  The cast mades a post curtain call announcement about the charity, usually there are cast members at the doors with buckets as you exit to collect donations and every once and a while you get a bigger fundraising effort from the cast (I watched Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig auction the shirts off their backs after a performance a few years ago).  The Gypsy of the Year Awards is the show that serves as the finale of this fundraising effort, with performances by many of the current productions, some special guests and performances and announcement of the winners of the fundraising awards.   In one afternoon I saw performances from the casts of The Lion King, Bring it On, Newsies, Once, Mary Poppins, Chicago, Mamma Mia and several others.

Most Against-type Performance:  Laurie Metcalf was incredible starring as a brilliant woman slowly losing her mental faculties in The Other Place.  If she isn't nominated for a Tony I will be really surprised.

Most interesting 'Couple' comparison:  Over the period of a few days I saw two preview performances of plays centred around a young couple and all the problems surrounding them.  The first was Picnic, starring Maggie Grace and Sebastian Stan.  The second was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Scarlett Johansson and Benjamin Walker.  Picnic was more enjoyable for the fantastic supporting cast, including Mare Winningham and Ellen Burstyn, but the central couple really lacked chemistry.  In comparison I was completely impressed by Johansson and Walker (who I fell in love with in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson a few years ago) as Maggie and Brick.

Best Example of a Star Performer overcoming the material:  Carolee Carmello, who starred in Kathie Lee Gifford's quickly closed Scandalous blew the roof off the theatre.  It didn't matter that the story, about the first and most famous female evangelist, wasn't that compelling to me.

Favourite performances by 'Hollywood Stars':  Jake Gyllenhaal in If There Is I Haven't Found it Yet, Paul Rudd and Michael Shannon in Grace, Al Pacino and Bobby Cannavale in Glengarry Glen Ross, Neil Patrick Harris in the one night concert performance of Assassins and Jessica Chastain, Dan Stevens and David Strathairn in The Heiress.

Many of these shows have since closed as Broadway gets ready for a slew of openings in the next few months prior to the Tony nomination cut off.  Lucky for me, I'm heading back to the city for another spell and will once again attempt to see everything before I go...stay tuned!