It has been a busy few days for me. Tonight I am going to go see my fourth Broadway show in three days. April is always a busy time with many shows opening as close to the cut-off for TONY eligibility as they can. This means a lot of Concierge events as shows try to get some word of mouth going to try and stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Roundabout Theatre Company is having a terrific 2011 with their revivals of
The Importance of Being Earnest and
Anything Goes opening to glowing reviews. I wish I could say that their production of the new musical
The People In The Picture (currently in previews for an April 28th opening) is as successful. Even musical theatre powerhouse
Donna Murphy isn't enough to make this show worth seeing.
Donna Murphy plays Raisel/Bubbie, a former star of the pre-war Yiddish theatre in Poland. The show is set in the 1970s where Raisel recounts tales of her pre-war life to her granddaughter, Jenny. Raisel's daughter, Red, is completely uninterested in the past and Bubbie's former glory. Red is sick of competing with the Holocaust for attention and sympathy, so she resents her mother. What a nice daughter! Jenny (played wonderfully by 10-year-old
Rachel Resheff) is tape recording her grandmother's tales of her past while constantly being reprimanded and scolded by her mother, Red. Who are "The People In The Picture"? They are the members of the Yiddish theatre troupe who are visible to Jenny and Bubbie and act out the stories as Bubbie tells them. Got it? Much like the
matryoshka dolls given to Jenny by Bubbie, there are many layers and pieces to this show. Unfortunately, instead of neatly
nesting one into the other, these layers end up a jumbled mess.
The People In The Picture ends up as some sort of Borscht-Belt Holocaust musical.
The show is plagued by overly complicated lyrics that are too dense to be comprehended. They are given no room to breathe and therefore there is no way for you to be able to comprehend what is being said without falling hopelessly behind. This was especially true in the opening number which sets up the idea of the theatre troupe. There were so many people running around and singing a mix of English, Polish, and Yiddish that it took me a little while to figure out what was going on. The show did not get more enjoyable once I did figure out what was being said. The jokes from the troupe are of the "
Take my wife -- Please!" variety. Combine this with daughter/mother bickering (in speech and song), horrific anti-semitic attacks in Poland, and a little soft-shoe and you basically have the gist of
The People In The Picture. Oh, did I mention that the book was written by the author of
Beaches and the music by
one half of the team that wrote the Elvis hit "
Hound Dog"? The show just has too many disparate elements that never really come together.
One other gripe. The set features projections on the back wall, but the stage floor is super high-gloss. Every time there is a projection it is marred by a shadow of the performer being reflected by the lights hitting the stage. Why didn't someone think this through?
I have to admit, this is another show I only watched until intermission. I don't regret the decision in the least.
Want to see for yourself?
Click here for tickets.
Truly awful.
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