Liars and Saints

 I have made clear that my own personal Broadway diva is Victoria Clark. I'm a great fan of Clark's intelligence and cunning--her watchfulness. Good acting--which is rare in a musical, even a Broadway musical--involves a magic trick. You have to have full control over your eyes; the eyes have to telegraph a message. I am actually in the place and in the time that the words of this musical are referring to. I am not in New York City, in a theater, in 2026. Whether she is speaking or not, Clark has "Olivia Colman" eyes. She is a brilliant performer. All that said, Heather Headley is also on my Mount Rushmore. Headley's slightly mannered performances feel "extreme"--they remind me of the work of Liza Minnelli. Either you love Headley or you do not. I think she gets away with intense melodrama because she conveys a sense of utter conviction. Here--for Miscast--she is performing a colleague's big number, "Endless Night." On one level, she is sin...

 Yesterday, Adam Feldman wrote on Facebook that "there is an alternate, better timeline in which Heather Headley is the dominant Broadway musical star of the twenty-first century." No one could argue with this. After Headley's barnstorming performance in "Aida," Headley sort of disappeared. Her few appearances--in "Dreamgirls," "The Color Purple," "Into the Woods"--have become the stuff of legend. Headley has warned against the siren song of adulation. "If, when you're off the stage, you don't know who you are....you're in trouble." Headley spends most of her time in suburban Illinois. Anyone who saw Headley as Sondheim's Witch can imagine how fiercely the director must have fought *against* the Patina Miller scenario. I'm sure Miller was fine. Heather Headley was earth-shaking. The Witch is Sondheim's opportunity to revisit Madame Rose. Like Rose, the Witch is a weak leader. She is politically flaw...

  This song is a fantasy of escape--fleeing from trouble. When all the clouds darken up the skyway-- There's a rainbow highway to be found... Leading from your windowpane... Just a step beyond the rain... The speaker describes the destination, a place of creative freedom ("where the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true")....It's standard to note that Yip Harburg's parents fled Russia for the Lower East Side of NY; possibly, this was a response to the threat of pogroms. Harburg's father found inspiration in the works of Shaw, who taught that "humor is an act of courage and dissent." Somewhere, over the rainbow.... Skies are blue.... Harburg saves his fireworks for the final lines. This isn't really a song about a rainbow. It's a song about a bluebird: Somewhere, over the rainbow... Bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow-- Why, then, oh why, can't I? Broadway is crowded with young women who study birds. Barbra says, "Bi...

It's not easy to win, if you're in a Disney musical. There are so many titles: "Sister Act," "Lion King," "Aladdin," "Little Mermaid," "Tarzan," "Frozen," "Newsies," "Aida," "Beauty and the Beast," "Mary Poppins." But we're talking about only three actor wins: *Inglehart ("Aladdin") *Headley ("Aida") *Tsidii Le Loka ("Lion King") I wonder if we'll get a "Mulan: Broadway" (after the new movie comes out). And I think Amy Adams could land herself a Tony, if she ever came to Broadway in an updated "Enchanted." I know Disney has a certain "we're not courting awards" reputation, but I'm still a bit surprised that certain roles (e.g. Mary Poppins, Belle, Ursula) haven't netted a Tony.....

Heather Headley grew up in Trinidad--wanting to be Whitney Houston. She attended Northwestern, and when she was cast as the first Nala in Broadway's "The Lion King," she left college and moved to the Upper West Side. People don't think of Disney musicals as star-making endeavors; the show tends to be more about the sets and the design concept than about one individual performer. But Julie Taymor's "The Lion King" *did* make a star; it made Heather Headley. Elton John became so smitten with Headley, he wrote a show specifically for her, "Aida"--and that show won Headley her Tony Award. I've quoted Ben Brantley before, I'll quote him again: "Ms. Headley is splendid. She not only has what is called It--that ineffable, sensual glow--but a voice of stunning emotional variety and conviction. Anytime she sings, the show springs into vital life." The current unnecessary remake of "The Lion King" is getting terrible rev...

I'm floored by Heather Headley's recent release--"Broadway My Way"--and I especially like her cover of "Waitress"'s "She Used to Be Mine." If you've been living under a rock: "She Used to Be Mine" is the power ballad from the climax of "Waitress." It has become canonical very quickly: You can find it attached to Shoshana Bean, Ben Platt, Jeremy Jordan, and Lea Salonga, among so many other singers. The great innovation in this song has to do with its title: You think the speaker is referring to some former lover, but in fact she is referring to herself. She is describing an impetuous youthful version of herself, a version now lost: "She is messy, but she's kind. She is good, but she lies. She is hard on herself. She is reckless and won't ask for help. She is gone--but she used to be mine." In her current depressed state, the speaker is fighting to get back to some other life--a "messy" bu...

If you're a true musical theater snob, you tend to get excited about replacement casts. Something notable happens on Broadway, over and over. An international star gets a lead role--not really because she has great musical-theater talent, but because her name can sell tickets. Bette Midler, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Hudson. The reviews are warm, but they tend to have subtext: "We love this star mainly because she's a star--and then, as an actress, she acquits herself more or less nicely! " It's that last italicized part that always disturbs me. You're not going to see someone inhabit the world of Dolly Levi. You're going to see Bette Midler play Bette Midler. You're going to see Catherine Zeta-Jones looking beautiful, and you're going to avoid the fact that she isn't a great match for Sondheim. After the celebrities get bored--and this tends to happen fairly quickly--a replacement cast is announced. And the replace...