Bandstand
"The resonant original musical Bandstand dances a delicate line between nostalgia and disillusion. What it seems to promise, and often delivers, is Broadway escapism: a tale of soldiers returning from World War II into a lively world of big-band music, boogie-woogie dancing and a booming American economy. Donny (the very engaging Corey Cott) assembles a music combo composed entirely of fellow veterans, hoping to win a competition in New York and earn a shot at Hollywood. Sounds like a happy old movie, right? But these soldiers, we soon learn, have trouble getting into the swing of things. Try though they may-through work, repression, copious drinking-they can't shake off the horror of war." - Matt Feldman,
Time Out New York
It's the last musical of the 2016-2017 season!
You might think that a musical called
Bandstand and starring
Corey Cott (
Newsies) and
Laura Osnes (
Cinderella) would be a feel-good big band nostalgia fest. And you would be partly right. The jazz band sound is there, but the focus of the play is the difficulty of transitioning from war to peace - something we don't usually associate with the Greatest Generation returning from "The Good War".
Set in the smoke filled, swing night clubs of 1945, the show brings the against-all-odds story of a singer/songwriter and his band of mismatched fellow WWII veterans, each hurting in his own way. Corey Cott must whip his wise-cracking gang of jazzers into fighting shape while teaming up with the young war widow of his deceased best friend (Osnes) as their singer.
The reaction? Very good to mixed. Some loved the show, like Matt Feldman of Time Out (above). The New York Times admired it, but pointed out its discrepancy:
"What is “Bandstand” truly about? Wartime musicals are a tricky business. From “On the Town” to “South Pacific” to “The Sound of Music,” they all have to balance martial reality with theatrical flair. Here, the push is toward “let’s put on a show” jollity, shadowed by a more somber impulse to examine what it means to come home half-broken. This gloomier inclination is more compelling; there’s a wrenching number toward the end of the first act when Mr. Blankenbuehler uses dance, in “Right This Way,” to suggest the psychological burdens these men carry.
... It’s respectful of veterans, but not of itself, ultimately quitting on its own ambitions — a theatrical case of soldier’s heart. The script never fleshes out the members of the backing band, and in the second act — with the exception of a defiant, devastating and somewhat unlikely 11 o’clock number (“Welcome Home”) — the show trades real and probably unresolvable conflict for familiar clashes between love and fear, art and business. Romance, record sales and a savvy contracts lawyer can fix trauma? Someone tell the V.A." - Alexis Soloski,
The New York Times
Here we have a show that may be something of a victim of its marketing campaign - or maybe the difficulty in crafting one. From the posters and music previews you would think this was something like the Richard Sherman musical
Over There! with big band tunes and Lindy Hop dancers. But it aspires to be something more. (Or, as one snarky reviewer called it,
PTSD: The Musical.) That makes it something of a bait and switch if you were expecting bobbysoxers-on-parade.
"Less well known, Corey Cott finds every dimension of heartsick, furious, talented Donny. He sings, dances and works the upright piano constantly being pushed around David Korins’s music hall of a set. Donny is a broken man striving to pretend he isn’t tormented only to have to admit he is. Cott, who’s awfully good-looking into the bargain, hits those character notes with the facility he hits the ebony and ivory ones." - David Finkle, The Huffington Post
But there were aspects that everyone agreed on, beginning with leading man,
Corey Cott. Just to review Corey's past, Disney played fairy godmother to Cott when they tapped him to replace Jeremy Jordan as the lead in
Newsies just as Corey was graduating from college. Corey led the cast for a year, then was cast in
Gigi where he was well reviewed, though the show didn't last long. Now he is starring in his third(!) Broadway show, and getting mostly star-making reviews.
Likewise, Corey's co-star, Laura Osnes continues to be a critics darling after stints in
Grease,
Bonnie & Clyde,
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, and several cheeky Princess Party revues at the 54 Below nightclub.
"Laura Osnes, who’s made herself a current musical leading lady, was last on Broadway as Cinderella. This outing can be seen as her galloping to the other end of the spectrum where she gives the performance of her career so far. The voice is pure as mountain water, but that’s always been true. The purity of her acting as a bereaved woman whose opportunities have been torn from her is what lifts her into a new performing stratum." - David Finkle, The Huffington Post
Some felt the score was bland, while others praised
Richard Oberacker and
Robert Taylor for making the jazz numbers work as character songs.
"It would have been easy to simply plug in 1940s pop standards. But instead Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor created a swinging original score that not only captures the period style but also digs deep into the characters. The music is so tightly integrated into the script that "Bandstand" becomes unusually powerful musical theater. Its reinterpretation of the traditional 11 o'clock number is both smart and electrifying." - Matt Windman,
amNY
Also singled out for praise was director/choreographer
Andy Blankenbuehler. Andy won a Tony award last year for his choreography in
Hamilton, but he also directed Lin-Manuel Miranda's previous show,
Bring It On: The Musical. The show moves constantly and the jitterbug routines wowed everyone. In a season that has not produced much of interest in the way of dance, Andy may be on his way to his second Tony.
Andrea Dotto, left, and Ryan Kasprzak cut a rug doing Blakenbueler's choreo in Bandstand.
Final note - opening night is always especially exciting for performers making their Broadway debut. Last night was the debut of a chorus member who's career I have followed for the last ten years -
Ryan Kasprzak. Ryan is no chorus twink fresh out of college - he is a fortysomething dancer and choreographer who has been paying his dues in tours and regional theater for years, and finally last night saw a dream come true. His younger brother
Evan beat him to Broadway by about five years (in
Newsies), but I'm sure Evan was there cheering him on Wednesday night.
Here is a piece Ryan starred in for the
Gypsy of the Year benefit several years ago.
In a profession that considers you over-the-hill at 30, Ryan certainly exemplifies the show's message of perseverance through all obstacles to claim a dream.
