There’s good stuff on Broadway this spring.
We’re just getting around to a little raving about the new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre that counts among its stars Amar Ramasar and Brittany Pollack of NYCB. Who knew that Amar could sing? Really, really sing!! And deliver lines as Jigger Craigin with huge, attention-grabbing impact! Who in the NYCB audience had any idea that this guy’s debut would be as good or perhaps better than Robert Fairchild’s debut in An American in Paris which was pretty startlingly awesome. Tony nomination in the bag. You heard it here first.
Haglund went to the opening night of previews on February 28 and plans to go back again right before the official premiere in April to see how things have settled into place. The first preview performance, however, exceeded expectations by miles. Jessie Mueller as Julie Jordan gave the strongest vocal performance of the night – the kind that brings on shivers and sniffling in the audience. She's also a shoo-in for a Tony nomination and the likely winner. You may recall that Mueller was Carrie Pipperidge in the outstanding Live from Lincoln Center semi-staged presentation of Carousel a few years back that featured Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild as Louise and the Carnival Boy. That production featured the all-magnificent Stephanie Blythe as Nettie; the current Broadway musical features the lovely but lighter-voiced Renée Fleming in the role. It was a treat to hear Fleming sing in a small venue. Her voice is still quite beautiful but did not have the great power in the famous You’ll Never Walk Alone that is known to stop this show. Her rendition of June Is Busting Out All Over in Act I was loaded with beauty and charm. Lovely listening, indeed. And dance captain Craig Salstein, ABT's well-known opera aficionado, standing next to and singing with Renée Fleming at the very front of the stage with most of the company behind them, had to be the year’s winner for Wildest Dreams Do Sometimes Come True. It was hard for him to contain his expression of dreamy disbelief.
Brittany Pollack was delightful as Louise at the opening preview. Her star-turn in Justin Peck’s ballet in Act II was intensely emotional with a rebellious seasoning. While she may have been a little over-caffeinated in delivery of some of her important lines on this first night, Brittany nevertheless is a true musical theater stage talent blooming before our eyes.
Peck's ensemble choreography was typical Broadway stuff but with more and bigger tricks - lots of barrel-type tours with knees tucked. Some of it looked cramped on the stage, though.
It is astonishing how all of this musical theater stage talent is emerging from New York City Ballet which doesn’t even have the word "theatre" in its name and isn't even known for its dancers' acting ability. What the company is known for, however, is its dancers' abilities to absorb unfamiliar content and execute direction faster than any other company on earth. These traits clearly translate into success when the artists move to the Broadway stage.
Next week we’re going to stop into City Center for the first performance of Grand Hotel, the Musical which includes among its stars Irina Dvorovenko. Today, however, we spent the afternoon at Disney’s Frozen, the Musical which is in previews at the St. James Theatre for another week or so before its official opening. This is the show to take your 8 & unders to. Today many came wearing their Olaf hats, their tiaras, their capes, their Sven ears & tails. They all already knew the story, knew the songs, had their favorite characters which they tried to summon to the stage during the moody solo ballads (Where's Olaf!! - by far, the most popular with sparkly Elsa a close second.) We’ve never heard toddler and elementary kid pandemonium like we heard today at the end of the 1st act after the closing song Let It Go. This show is going to make boatloads and boatloads of cash for Disney for a long time.
Yes, there’s a lot of good stuff on Broadway this spring – enough that one could by-pass ABT’s Met season. Oh lord, what a stinking mess McKenzie has made of this company. He has pushed out its two greatest artists, Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes, and persists in relying on the incompetent Misty Copeland and clumsy, homely dancing of Isabella Boylston ad nauseum. Copeland doesn’t even seem to try anymore, and no one even questions her about it. It’s as if all of her media coverage and free-ticket popularity have made it okay not to be a tier-1 ballet dancer because she can just pay someone to say she is. If her agent can unload enough tickets, then Copeland can, in affect, deny the truly great and accomplished artists opportunities to perform and illuminate her ordinariness. That is why we're not going to see Sarah Lane as Odette/Odile or Juliet. That is why we're not going to see Skylar Brandt as Kitri. The ad nauseum perennial push of Boylston is why we're not seeing Abrera as Nikiya. Not even as Gamzatti. But that doesn't stop ABT from using a huge picture of Abrera in La Bayadere to sell tickets for the run in L.A. It's disgusting. Maybe McKenzie will toss Stella a token matinee Gamzatti to reward her non-complaining.
It may be that ABT has never been in a worse position artistically – judging not by the talent in its ranks but by McKenzie's disgusting over-casting of the worst dancers so that they infect everyone else’s performances with their viral mediocrity. ABT has never gotten the hang of isolating its disease so that it doesn’t impact the rest of the population. Rather, it seems hellbent on infecting everyone – like a “pox party” organized by the anti-vaccinationists. McKenzie’s pox party marketing scheme: Let’s infect Abrera with Whiteside, Cornejo with Copeland, Hallberg with Boylston — that way, everyone who respects the classical artistry of #1 but vomits at the sight of #2 will buy tickets anyway and come to the theater with their little emetic waste bags in tow. That’s how you spell FAIL, Bub. Many people simply will stay home.
And now McKenzie is going to make ABT trendy with tap dancing at its gala… Here’s a video of the world’s reaction to his long-winded announcement:
(The world in blue) (McKenzie in red)
More than ever before, it seems time to euthanize ABT to put it out of its own and everyone else’s misery. To let it continue to die one season at a time because its board won’t boot McKenzie is tragic. The first thing that any director respected in the classical tradition would do would be to boot Copeland and Boylston to the back row if not out the door. That’s why McKenzie will hang on — to save the jobs of a mediocre few. A ballet company that pushes mediocrity to the forefront in its classics instead of its best dancers should have its life support cut off. Death is tapping at the door.
Right on, Haglund.
I was disappointed to see that Cassie wasn't cast as opening cast for Harlequinade. Given the promotional photos, etc., and Ratmansky's affinity for her, I thought she'd be a shoe-in.
I look forward to Sarah's matinee Giselle, Devon's Odette/Odile, and a few other casts in a couple of other ballets, but this is the least I am looking forward to an ABT spring season in a decade. That Sarah and Herman's Don Q is a Saturday matinee is a travesty. And add Christine's pairing with Alban in Don Q to your list of pairing grand with not worthy.
Also, despite having been a subscriber for the same period, the gods in charge of seating keep insisting on assigning me crappy seats and hoping I don't notice. The seat behind the conductor, which is obstructed view (especially for a hobbit like myself), should not be passed off as prime orchestra. This is sloppy. I do realize this is a bit of a 1% problem, but the first couple rows of the theater should not be sold for the same price as those a reasonable distance back. The Opera House is a terrible venue for ballet, but the management should do some work to price the seats fairly.
Posted by: Rachel Perez | March 15, 2018 at 09:01 AM
All but one of the Harlequinade casts contain at least one “undesirable.” That’s why I’ll be attending only the Lane/Cirio/Abrera/Forster cast. I hope that McKenzie doesn’t play switcheroo between now & then. The biggest abomination is to cast a totally charmless dancer as first-night Columbine, no matter the dancer’s tech capabilities. Columbine is the ultimate cute & adorable role. Think Patricia McBride back in the day.
Posted by: Jeannette | March 15, 2018 at 09:43 AM
Why the same dancers get opening nights when their dancing isn't particularly attractive nor garners notice is just mind boggling. Common sense should dictate if they haven't garnered a steady fan base after a few years of being onstage, they never will have one.
Most of the performances I will be seeing will be Lane's. Giving her and Simkin a Wednesday afternoon performance after the raves they received last year for their debuts is heinous. But the dancer nobody notices gets opening night.
As of now it looks as if I will be skipping Swan Lake. I do like Teuscher but I'm not fond of Stearns. I can't make Shevchenko's debut because I'm already taking off for the Lane/Simkin Giselle. If I do see SL, it make be the Murphy performance.
This company needs an overhaul from top to bottom. The Board needs to be cleaned out. The executive level, the AD and assistants. The dance company from Corps to Principal levels need to be culled. There is so much to be done, I'm not sure if it can be done now.
Posted by: Melponeme_k | March 15, 2018 at 10:00 AM
Jeannette, that opening night casting of Harlequinade is nothing short of pandering to Macaulay's odd and uninformed preferences in order to get a good review. How disappointing to see Ratmansky go along with this. How further disappointing to see that Skylar Brandt was left out of the Harlequinade principal casting in favor of Boylston and Copeland, neither of whom will appeal to most anyone who actually buys his/her own ticket.
Posted by: Haglund | March 15, 2018 at 10:03 AM
Hagland, your "pox party" pairings forgot Seo with Bolle.
Posted by: Golden Idol | March 15, 2018 at 11:38 AM
Haglund et al, I understand your frustration about the pairings - but from a business perspective, not an artistic one, ABT's actions make some sense. Copeland, Boyleston, Whiteside and others have outsize personalities and are skilled in the arts of self-promotion. They have huge social media followings and frankly, they sell tickets. Pairing these folks with each other would - as you already know - run the risk of highlighting their technical or artistic weaknesses, which can be masked with a superb partner. And also "waste" their abilities as box-office draws. Tourists have heard of them and are more likely to buy seats for SL. Young dancers all over the country are huge fans of these media-savvy dancers, and other youngsters who aren't ballet fans have added them to their IG feeds. Their parents buy them tickets.
My take on Misty is that I've enjoyed her very much in certain roles, but she's not principal-level material. Yet she's brought huge numbers of young fans, especially outside traditional patterns, to awareness about the ballet. And maybe these quieter stronger partners in these pairings will get new fans and name recognition from their pairing, and thus more casting in great roles.
ABT's dancer-publicity operation is weak, so your Lanes and Abreras get little formal promotion and other dancers are doing it for themselves. Running a ballet company is business and until we get government funding for the arts - hah - they have to make the best of it. (Also, please don't respond to me citing NYCB because it destroys my whole argument... LOL)
Posted by: elfantgirl | March 16, 2018 at 01:53 AM
Thanks elfantgirl. All good points, but the only point you are missing is that Copeland's "box office appeal" has always been mostly free ticket and deep-discount ticket giveaways arranged by her agent who also continually feeds the media outlets bullshit stories about Copeland's level of dancing. ABT allows the ticket giveaways, because it knows that it will never be able to sell them.
Everything that Copeland has been able to coerce people to give her came from an effort that was launched from a platform of dishonesty, a platform of lies, a platform of feigned victimization, a platform of Misty-before-everyone-else. This grandiose sense of self-entitlement arose early in her career, and it has repeatedly marked her many performances in which she doesn't believe that she has to do the steps in order to be entitled to be on stage. These are the lessons that her young fans are learning. To many people, every time her name appears in a cast is a good reason not to buy a ticket.
Posted by: Haglund | March 16, 2018 at 08:40 AM
I have no doubt you are right about the give-away and deep-discount tickets, though it's played as giving disadvantaged populations a chance to gain exposure to ballet. But it is still true that if you asked your average non-ballet person on the street to name a current American ballerina, they probably could name one, Misty, and they couldn't have named anyone a few years earlier. That's overall good for ballet.
Those new ballet viewers generally can't tell if she simplifies the steps (yet) although I think almost anyone who buys a SL ticket knows to count to 32...
ABT as we know imports big star names to sell tickets at the expense of its own talent. Combine that with pushing the most "popular" American dancers into the best slots and you'll end up with some of the finest dancing the company has to offer at matinees! Some of my long-time favorites should be getting those Saturday-night audiences. They've earned it.
Posted by: elfantgirl | March 17, 2018 at 03:31 PM
Whiteside sells tickets? In what universe? I don’t know a single ballet fan in NY who wants to go anywhere near a performance of his. Thanks for the laugh.
Posted by: Ellen | March 17, 2018 at 04:13 PM
Hi elfantgirl.
With regard to your comment that the public's ability to name Misty is overall good for ballet -- how so? Where's the proof? Certainly the Misty Media Machine has been good for Misty, which is the whole point of it, but good for all of ballet? Where's the proof? There were actually highly skilled ballet dancers who saturated the media before her and were household names: Baryshnikov, Nureyev, Makarova, and even Kirkland was well-known enough at the time to get on the front of Time Magazine. Trinette Singleton was on the front of Time Magazine. How was any of that good for all of ballet? It may have inspired some to study dance, but that's not being good for all of ballet.
Posted by: Haglund | March 18, 2018 at 12:32 AM
Ellen, I agree with you on Whiteside. Ditto with Boylston. Where's the proof that their social media campaigns are translating into more full-price tickets being bought? ABT thinks that making sloppy, unattractive dancers who continually behave like obnoxious adolescents as the center of its media image is good business. Where's the proof, as in $$$ ?
Posted by: Haglund | March 18, 2018 at 12:44 AM
Interesting to see that both Boylston and Lane have posted coaching sessions with Kolpakova on IG lately. In Boylston’s, Kolpakova is clearly unhappy and VERY frustrated (for a role which Boylston has danced many times prior), and in Lane’s we hear nothing but excitement and praise. What a shame that ABT management refuses to recognize what everyone else — including it’s coaches — can see.
Posted by: Melissa | March 18, 2018 at 09:55 AM
Hi, Melissa.
This new clip of Sarah and Herman working on La Bayadere is nothing short of stunning. The clarity and song in her line is absolutely beautiful.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgbp5d8lvrf/?taken-by=sarahlaneps103
Speaking of Nikiya, specifically a Nikiya who we should be seeing this year but are not, here is a clip that just showed up on YouTube of Stella Abrera in the Dawn variation from Coppelia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHSWx_XegWI&t=0s
It is simply criminal that Boylston's clumsy goop is being foisted on the Met audience in La Bayadere while we are denied the gifts of this true classical ballerina.
Posted by: Haglund | March 18, 2018 at 11:24 AM
I think people admire Boylston's attack. As a modern ballet dancer, she wouldn't be bad. But she does not belong in a classical company.
Her recent SL rehearsal with Simkin on IG looks particularly messy. He even looks dubious. She seems to have no concept of her body moving through space or how it relates to her partner. The ongoing theme of the pas de deux is that she is being touched by another human being for the first time in many years and she is frightened. That in turn inspires the male partner to protect her. But I don't get that impression from her that she needs protection or love. The upper body is extremely stiff and the arms crooked. She continually pushes up her chin that breaks the line of her neck to shoulders. Who taught her to do that? It looks painful.
This is not work that should be rewarded with an SL performance. It doesn't matter that she can chomp out the Black Swan steps if everything else looks unpolished.
Posted by: melponeme_k | March 18, 2018 at 05:33 PM
Boylston's head is very large and when she doesn't use it correctly, it has a huge impact on her overall appearance. Add to that an unattractive facial expression -- no matter what the effort to express -- and you have problems that overshadow any of her minimally positive attributes. There's simply too much unprettiness and ineptness in her movement to justify buying a ticket to her classical ballet performances.
Posted by: Haglund | March 18, 2018 at 06:51 PM
One of the things that I don’t understand is why someone does not work with Bolyston to correct her placement on her supporting foot. She has very long, mobile limbs, and her feet are very clearly hypermobile. While this gives a gorgeous line in the working leg, she constantly stands with the toes aligned under the heel with a hyperextended arch, instead of toes aligned with the midline of the leg and ankle. Biomechanically, this means that a smooth roll-down from pointe is nearly impossible, because her weight is in the wrong place when she releases her toes. It’s part of why she looks clunky and uncontrolled in classical movement. She has enormous physical capacity, it is just not well-developed or refined enough to justify her casting in these roles when there are others who can dance them so beautifully.
Posted by: Melissa | March 19, 2018 at 12:51 AM
I'm staying home (can't stand the idea of Cornejo with Copeland much less witness it). I'm the one doing the eye roll.
Posted by: SHanrahan | March 19, 2018 at 09:12 AM
I noticed on ABT's new website that they're using a photo of Stella & David for R&J despite not casting them together. It's clear they know this is what the public wants, yet they're just gonna go ahead and withhold it.
http://www.abt.org/wp-content/uploads/Performances/Spring-Season/2979_CFZ_ABT_12i_SHOT13_ROMEO_JULIET_197_GRACOL.jpg
Posted by: yukionna | March 28, 2018 at 12:02 AM
True yukionna. Now ABT is loading its website up with FAKE performance pictures. It's all part of the Copeland-inspired trend of faking what you can't do -- or in this instant what you won't allow to happen. "Just make a pretty picture and tell everyone how great it was even though it never happened," their message says. It's McKenzie's way of Making ABT Great Again.
Posted by: Haglund | March 28, 2018 at 08:13 AM
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww after Boylston had the nerve to post that if we want to see fouettes we should stay home and watch you tube i've decided to take her up on her offer. I will never see another performance of hers again -- not even with a give away. who are these brats?!
Posted by: Trina Tina | April 20, 2018 at 08:13 AM