It seems everyone is always waiting for the next big, splashy, funny, zany old-style musical to sweep Broadway off its feet, much as “The Producers” did more than a decade ago. There have been direct attempts since – e.g., “Nice Work if You Can Get It” – and more off-beat and sideways stabs – “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, “The Book of Mormon” – but hopes for the big kahuna have mostly gone unanswered.
Did tonight change that? Critics are now weighing in on the opening of “Bullets Over Broadway”, a new tuner based on Woody Allen’s 1994 film comedy. Zach Braff, the lovable “Scrubs” nebbish, makes his Broadway debut tonight (April 10) in the show, which began previews March 11 at the St. James Theater. Braff plays a 1920s playwright who has to get involved with mobsters in order to see his name in lights. Though a moral defender of Art with a capital "A", David Shayne finds himself making more and more compromises - even as the thug (Nick Cordero) protecting the gangster's moll gets increasingly involved in the play's well-being.
Susan Stroman, who won Tonys for choreographing “Crazy for You,” “Show Boat” and “Contact,” not to mention two Tonys for directing and choreographing 2001’s “The Producers,” stages and choreographs “Bullets”, which also features Lenny Wolpe (as the producer of Shayne's play), Marin Mazzie (as the lead diva), Karen Ziemba, Brooks Ashmanskas, Betsy Wolfe (as Shayne's seemingly loyal galpal), Helene Yorke and “The Sopranos’” “Big Pussy” himself, Vincent Pastore (as the mob boss, natch).
So do the New York critics think “Bullets” fires on all cylinders, or is it shooting blanks?
Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal gives the tuner a near-rave: “The book is funny, the staging inventive, the cast outstanding, the sets and costumes satisfyingly slick.” He quibbles that many songs don’t fit tightly into the story, and that the show is pretty much the movie stuffed with tunes, but he concedes that for a jukebox musical, “Bullets Over Broadway” is as good as it gets.
Newsday’s Linda Winer agrees, calling “Bullets” a “madcap lark of a show” that is “smartly cast” and, after a dodgy start “relaxes into the confidence of its own gleeful, high-gloss ridiculousness.”
Variety’s Marilyn Stasio takes the gun is half full approach. She lauds the show’s “happy-tappy dance rhythms, the dazzling design work on everything from proscenium curtain to wigs, and a fabulous chorus line” but chides Woody Allen’s book for being “feeble on laughs.” She also thinks several of the performers are either miscast (Helene Yorke) or trying too hard (Braff, Marin Mazzie). On the plus side, she believes Nick Cordero, as the thug-turned-script doctor, couldn’t be bettered, and the “Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do” dance number is “simply sensational.”
Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Chris Jones notes that “Bullets” is sometimes “stymied by its lack of an original score”, but witty new lyrics usually make up for that. Jones is a bit surprised to find Woody Allen’s comedy treated by director/choreographer Susan Stroman as if he were Mel Brooks, but the gambit works. “Buoyed by its strong women,” Jones concludes, `Bullets’ occupies a classic musical-comedy niche you can't find elsewhere on Broadway this season.”
In his *** review, Brendan Lemon, of London’s Financial Times, notes that the musical’s “story unfolds with delectable naughtiness,” but the show as a whole is only “intermittently enjoyable…and progressively unthrilling.” Lemon also tsk tsks that even though many of the songs in the show were originally popularized by black entertainers, there isn’t a single African-American onstage. Ultimately for Lemon, “the evening’s lack of delirious pleasure eventually reminds [him]…of more inspired outings by this creative team.”
Closer to a rave is Robert Kahn’s critique for NBC New York. He says good things about pretty much the entire cast and calls “Bullets” a “terrific new screwball thriller from perfectionist duo Susan Stroman and Woody Allen… [it’s] certainly the best of the musicals to open on Broadway so far this season.”
Charles McNulty of the L.A. Times found “much to savor in this gin fizz cocktail of a show”, including Nick Cordero in a “star-making” turn, but he also found “ostentatious flaws,” such as a book that has “belabored” scenes that could have been “distilled into a few lines.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney concurs that the show has “a ton of talent onstage” but the “effortful” show is “flat where it should be frothy… a watered-down champagne cocktail [of] recycled jokes and second-hand characterizations.” Also, unlike several other reviews, Rooney isn’t happy with the use of old songs in new contexts. He does laud Cordero and “comic genius” Brooks Ashmanskas, and admits that “the relentless exuberance of Stroman’s staging provides entertainment value.”
“Occasionally funny but mostly just loud” is how New York Times scribe Ben Brantley damns the musical, which he calls “all but charm-free… What registered as wistfully absurd on screen has been pushed into grotesqueness.” As with most other reviewers, for Brantley, the sole bright spot is Nick Cordero, whom the critic says is just as good as Oscar-winner Chazz Palminteri was in the film.
Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News is also mixed on the show. He likes Stro’s direction and the look of the production, but he grouses that “Allen’s showbiz and gangland eccentrics stiffen into cardboard when they’re amplified from two to three dimensions.” He also finds the cast uneven and the songs “shoehorned in.”
Matt Windman is similarly unenthused, calling the show “mildly entertaining” in his ** review. He finds that Zach Braff “works too hard,” though Marin Mazzie is “ideally cast.” Ultimately, the musical slides to the negative column because it uses jazz standards instead of “an original, well-integrated score.”
My own review for Stagebuddy.com is a rave: “This is pure locomotive comedy – bright, madcap, hilarious, beautifully structured and professionally staged.” Here’s the link: https://stagebuddy.com/reviews/see-skip-bullets-broadway/
