In Defense of Kong and Offense at Prom. Moulin Rouge on Broadway. John Kander and Lin-Manuel Miranda team up. #Stageworthy news of the week.

This week in New York theater, I seem to have zigged while others zagged, even when it comes to zazz.
To explain:
1. I don’t completely understand the high level of snark about “King Kong.” ( “Ugh,” Jesse Green in the New York Times in a joint review with Ben Brantley, who wrote ““aaaaaaaaargh.”) Yes, as I think I make clear in my review below, I get that this is not a musical for the ages. But who would expect that from a show about a GIANT GORILLA? The original film was beloved because of its special effects.
2. I don’t completely share the outpouring of affection for “The Prom.” (Sara Holdren calls it “giddy, smart, big-hearted” in her review in New York.) Yes, “The Prom” has its pleasures, among them a fun number entitled “Zazz,” (pictured above), a word that one of the Broadway characters claims Bob Fosse used frequently. But the satire seems aimed not just at the self-regarding theater folk but at the “local yokels,” and the razzmatazz upstages, and thus risks trivializing, the homophobic incident, based on a true story, that is central to the plot. This is not the first time serious issues have been used in Broadway musicals to add some heft to a giddy entertainment, but I didn’t like it when they did that in “Kinky Boots,” “Hairspray,” “Mean Girls,” or “Summer” either.

Kander and Miranda?

The latest #Hamildrop: “Cheering For Me Now,” with lyrics and vocals by Lin-Manuel Miranda and music by John Kander, best known as the composer half of Kander and Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret.. Will this now be a new musical force, Kander and Miranda? It’s certainly mellifluous

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Blue Wave on Broadway. #Stageworthy News

In celebration of the Blue Wave – which has grown steadily in the week since Election Day — a silly observation: There have been 51 Broadway shows with “Blue” in the title.

Theda Bara and unidentified actor in the stage production The Blue Flame, 1920

The Blue Bird

I’m reluctant to point out there have been just about the same number with “Red” in the title. I prefer to think of the shows that had both in the title, though it’s been a while –  the 1898 drama “The Red, White and Blue” and the 1936 Cole Porter musical, Red, Hot and Blue,, starring Ethel Merman, Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante, which introduced the song “It’s De-Lovely” – It’s delightful, it’s delicious,
It’s delectable, it’s delirious….

Not silly: Sample Broadway’s Most Entertaining Shows About Serious Social Issues

Week in Theater below: News of the new Evan Hansen, the full cast of Ain’t Too Proud, Fiddler fiddles on, a video taste of Mary Poppins returns. And: Separated at Birth?

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