By Cris Franco
After the COVID pandemic shuttered theaters nationally for almost two years, Broadway has come roaring back providing fans a bumper crop of entertainment. There are currently 31 shows running! With so many productions from which to choose, I thought I’d narrow down the field with my following short list of new Broadway Shows to see in 2023:
&Juliet (Best Jukebox Musical)
Building on the novel premise that asks: What if Juliet (of the Bard’s Romeo and Juliet) had not killed herself at the play’s end? The answer is &Juliet, the season’s best new jukebox musical.
Nominated for nine 2023 Tony Awards, book writer David West Read has devised a clever coming-of-age journey in which our heroine enters a 14th-century pop fantasia where she’ll encounter romance, betrayal, self-doubt, gender bias, gay and straight love, and – against Shakespeare’s wishes – God forbid, a happy ending?!
Starring the very gifted, Tony-nominated Lorna Courtney in the title character, the story about new beginnings is set to the mega-hits of Swedish songwriter Max Martin. &Juliet bounces as the energetic cast belts out and hip-hops to I Want It That Way, Baby One More Time, Oops! I Did It Again, I Kissed A Girl, It’s My Life, Can’t Stop the Feeling, Since U Been Gone, Roar, Larger Than Life, and more. Juliet’s fast-moving story about life after Romeo rocks to some 30 hits recorded by The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Katie Perry, Justin Timberlake, and more pop icons.
This dazzling production features the impressive talents of many Latinx performers including Phillippe Arroyo, Brandon Antonio, Nico de Jesus, Daniel J. Maldonado, and 2008’s Best Actor in a Musical Tony-winner, the dashing Paulo Szot as the bossy King Lance who joins in on the madcap romance when he falls for Angelique, Juliet’s nurse (the hilarious Melanie La Barrie).
Told from a fresh feminist gaze, (Shakespeare’s wife takes over the narrative) &Juliet’s subtext makes the audience ponder where female characters might be today had women historically penned their own literary archetypes. So, this is more than just a jukebox romp, for beyond the eye-popping set, costumes, lighting, and sound design, this simple story delves deep into a wounded girl’s psyche and emerges as an uplifting fable about the virtues of keeping an open mind – and heart. If you’re up for a new twist on the rom-com musical, you must see &Juliet.
Show Info: https://andjulietbroadway.com
Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Best Revival)
Starring singer extraordinaire Josh Groban in the title role, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is inarguably the season’s best musical revival. From the first haunting notes of composer, Stephen Sondheim’s macabre masterwork – director Thomas Kail immerses us in the bloody and unforgiving world of Sweeney Todd. A man wronged, who – along with the help of the daft baker Mrs. Lovett (wacky, brilliant Annaleigh Ashford) — exacts his revenge on the citizens of 19th century London in a brutally ingenious way: he’ll slash their throats and she’ll fill her meat pies with their remains. “God, that’s good!” Every element of this perfect revival is filled with intelligence and artistry: the moody sets and costumes plus the Tony-winning lighting designs (Natasha Katz), sound design (Nevin Steinberg), and casting!
Groban sings the lush and demanding score with vigor and demonstrates great dramatic and comedic chops throughout. His Sweeney is sly, understated, lyrical, and lethal. Annaleigh Ashford has created an uproariously lusty Mrs. Lovett. She might be the funniest Mrs. Lovett since the divine Angela Lansbury. Gaten Matarazzo (Netflix’s Stranger Things) heartbreakingly plays Tobias, the urchin who innocently wanders into Todd’s and Lovett’s human pie-making scheme. Nicholas Christopher is deliciously evil as the flamboyant Adolfo Pirelli. Christopher is a uniquely captivating talent who acts and sings his role in grand style. Of great note is Maria Bilbao whose brilliant coloratura colors the very complex Johanna, the vulnerable ingénue who must ultimately save herself. This production possesses one of the most talented casts on the Great White Way including ensemble members puertoriqueño Daniel Torres, Cubana Maria Pinero, and Nicaragüence Felix Torres-Ponce with costume designs by the multi-Tony Award-nominated Dominicano Emilio Sosa. I was overjoyed to see so many Spanish-surnamed talents as part of this first-class revival.
If you’ve only seen the rather anemic film version of Sweeney Todd, please do yourself a favor and see it live at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. This is perhaps the greatest mounting of Sondheim’s best score since the original production and is not to be missed.
Show Info: https://sweeneytoddbroadway.com
A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamon Musical (Best Bio-Musical)
The bio-musical has emerged as a dynamic sub-genre of the modern American musical. Following in the steps of the international hits Jersey Boys, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical and Tina, The Tina Turner Musical – now comes A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical. Featuring 30+ songs, Beautiful Noise explores the yearning soul of the prolific Neil Diamond who rose from 60s pop-song writer for The Monkeys (Now I’m a Believer, Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow, and A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You) to selling over 130-million albums while selling-out hundreds of concerts worldwide.
Opening in his psychiatrist’s office, 80-year-old Neil Diamond (character named Neil-Now) deftly played by Mark Jacoby, is reluctant to share his life story with his analyst (richly acted by Linda Powell). Diamond’s sessions are at a stalemate until the analyst comments that if Neil can’t talk about himself, perhaps he can talk about his songs. This suggestion triggers Diamond’s inner muses (dressed as Hullaballoo dancers) to materialize as they accompany Diamond through the career highs and personal lows of his uncommon life.
Young Neil (Neil-Then) is played by Will Swenson, who portrays the brooding rock poet from his start in tiny bohemian night clubs to serenading packed stadiums of adoring fans. Swenson has mastered Diamond’s gravel wrapped in silk voice and shows us why his penetrating lyrics spoke to a generation of fans. Frankly, Will Swenson so completely and skillfully inhabits the persona of young Neil Diamond that I consider it a gross omission that he was not Tony-nominate for this season’s Best Actor in a Musical. Period.
Presented chronologically, with a few revealing flashbacks to his adolescence as a solitary man, the thoughtful book by Anthony McCarten follows the evolution of Diamond’s artistic trajectory. A Beautiful Noise doesn’t pull any punches as it boldly depicts the stress and sacrifices of rising to the top of the charts – Diamond married three times.
The play is beautifully structured, judiciously incorporating some of Diamond’s impressive catalog into the dramatic action (Love On the Rocks, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers) while other songs become part of thrilling concert medleys (Sweet Caroline, Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show, Crunchy Granola Suite, Soolaimon, Thank the Lord for the Nighttime to list only a few).
When Diamond’s therapy session ends so does the play with a powerful moment of self-realization as Neil-Now steps out of his self-imposed darkness, breaks down, and struggles to repeatedly sing, “I Am, I Said” as if forgiving himself for simply being an imperfect human.
This is a tremendously entertaining night of theater and although Neil Diamond may have accepted the fact that he isn’t perfect – he might take solace in knowing that his bio-musical is. I loved it!
Show Info: https://abeautifulnoisethemusical.com