Our last words on Broadway. Promise.

Did we mention that we had been to Broadway? Can’t recall. Anyway, we have. And here are a few thoughts on things we cared for and didn’t care for.

Re-review – Young Frankenstein revisited

The Whingers don’t normally give shows a second chance.

But chance played a huge part in the Whingers’ last night on Broadway.

Scratching around for something to see amid the detritus caused by Local One, and mulling over several options which weren’t really capturing the Whingers’ (admittedly limited) imaginations, they decided to let fate make the decision for them.

Guess who we saw today?

So, anyway, there we were having a quiet drink with Mel Brooks and Roger Bart when who should drop into the bar but Baz Bamigboye, the Daily Mail’s chief show-business reporter. Imagine the Whingers’ excitement.

Review – The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Hoorah for Local One!

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was way down the Whingers’ list of shows to see while they were in New York but thanks to the stage hands strike, it crept up onto their list.

And they are dead chuffed that it did.

Review – The Ritz, Studio 54

So the Whingers had been walking off their tired feet up and down Broadway for five days and so it was definitely bath time.

Gay bath-house time, in fact, as they took a trip to the legendary Studio 54 to see the revival of Terrence McNally’s 1975 farce The Ritz.

Review – Young Frankenstein,

Well, nothing could live up to what came before it, could it?

And we aren’t just talking about The Producers.

Young Frankenstein ain’t The Producers, but it ain’t Xanadu either.

Two nights ago the Whingers came out of Xanadu with mixed feelings – euphoric, but knowing in their hearts (sic) that their Broadway adventure had unexpectedly peaked too early.

They had mulled over what star rating they would have given Xanadu if they weren’t too lazy to have a star rating system. The Whingers love star ratings. They know where they are with a star rating; so much more useful than having things located in the wider discourse for you when it comes to deciding what to see.

So they and decided that on a six star Time Out rating, it would get a five.

On a standard five star rating such as The Guardian‘s (which actually has now been thrown into confusion having been exposed as a six level rating thanks to Gardner’s no-star rating for Menopause the Musical) they decided that to give Xanadu anything less than a five would be churlish.

Review – Forbidden Broadway – Rude Awakening

Forbidden Broadway is packed to the rat-ridden (the Whingers couldn’t help but notice the rat poison warning) rafters of the 47th Street Theatre. Because, of course, most of Broadway is forbidden at the moment thanks to Local One.

Anyway, Forbidden Broadway is an institution here. Since 1982 Gerard Alessandrini has been creating versions of the revue show spoofing whatever’s going on Broadway at the time. The current show is called Rude Awakening as a nod to the 8-Tony Award winning Spring Awakening (which isn’t running at the moment thanks to Local One).

It also sends up The Little Mermaid, Curtains, Les Miserables and A Chorus Line (none of which are running at the moment thanks to thanks to Local One).

Review – Die Mommie Die!

What could possibly have attracted the Whingers to a play about an ageing singing star whose career is on the skids?

Add to that the facts that the grotesque Angela Arden is played by legendary drag artiste Charles Busch and the whole thing is a parody of those Douglas Sirk melodramas that often starred Whingers’ favourite Lana Turner ?

Yes what could have been the attraction?

Review – Xanadu, Broadway

Oh, pity that poor journalist. He’s scouting around for a human interest story by interviewing audience members coming out of Xanadu (one of the eight shows unaffected by the strike) hoping to interview distraught theatre-goers whose Broadway dreams have been devastated by the strike and have been reduced to seeing something rubbish as a last resort.

Review – Altar Boyz, Broadway

The Whingers went Off-Broadway last night.

Forced by the Broadway strike to choose from a very limited selection and fresh (in Phil’s case) and not so fresh (in Andrew’s) off the plane and unable to get into Xanadu (sold out – presumably from the knock on effect of so many shows being closed) they opted for the highly recommended (you know who you are, Sue) Altar Boyz.

A Broadway Diary: Saturday – flights and strikes

Phil needed new underpants. Desperately.

And given the pound’s current exchange rate against the dollar, the only sensible thing to do was fly to New York and buy some. And maybe take in some shows at the same time.

But who could have thought Broadway would have reacted so vociferously to the news?

Is it coincidence that on the day the Whingers arrive in New York, the Broadway stage hands go on strike?

Guest review – Young Frankenstein on Broadway

The West End Whingers greatly enjoyed The Producers so when they heard that Mel Brooks was to follow up his tour de theatre with a musical version of Young Frankenstein they acted without hesitation and sent a reconnaissance team to New York City to check it out and report back on whether it was worth going or not.

Choosing the team was easy. Andrew had been so impressed with the critical faculties that Stanley (11), Delilah (16) and Mathilda (18) had exhibited at Gilgamesh that he shipped them off steerage class with their drowsy chaperones Allan and Helen.