With film of devastation still a
regular part of the news in New York, The Arts feel less essential somehow,
something to put off until life returns to a place of normalcy. Actors and make-up and costumes won’t fix
crunched homes, or restore electricity, or secure hot water for more than an
hour every once in a while. Not that
they’re trying to. That isn’t the job
of art, necessarily. I believe art is
a requisite part of the human condition, so I’m not suggesting we should
abandon it. Far from it. Surely
Bread and Puppets has such a strong
idea that it has survived for decades: art
is cheap, art is food, art is politics, art is for (and occasionally by) everyone. So perhaps I'm just conflicted. Still,
Broadway is the wealthiest business in the city, (losses occurring for the
majority of shows that open notwithstanding.)
Millions of dollars flow through the theater district every week,
hurricane or no hurricane, though all the shows were closed for two days. Millions. And now, in sharp contrast to reality, Annie has come back around. And her dog Sandy sprints out for the
closing scene, as always, reassuring that pluck and determination will conquer
everything, even the Depression…not to mention a washed-out lush of a villainess,
that gets her comeuppance for daring to dislike little girls. That they coincided—the storm and the
show—is just coincidence, but the similarities seem prescient if harsh. Annie
is the ghost that haunts the wreckage of Sandy, as the wreckage is the ghost
that haunts the musical.
An admission: I have not seen the
new production. I would never pay to watch a show I find to be slightly
repulsive in its overkill of optimism.
Sure, there’s a Depression, even a song about it from supposedly down
and out people, but just as telling, a song of the joys of NYC refutes it. (If you’re being taken care of by a
millionaire.) From reviews, I assume
James Lapine has tried to darken the tone a bit, here and there, but he can’t
get away from the urchin belting out Tomorrow…which
is only a day away. This is not a
revisionist Annie. Who would produce that? No one has rewritten the book, all the songs
are there, roughly in the same order, mostly sung by the same characters. Miss
Hannigan never has a chance. Her plot
is easily foiled. Her nemesis’ glorious
tomorrow still comes, just in time.
"Good old-fashioned family entertainment, just what’s needed in this
economy." Little Orphan Annie joins her
male counterparts in Newsies, male
urchins surviving a tough life (unrealistically softened for maximum
consumption) on the ‘mean streets’ through pluck and determination. They also bring down a straw puppet of a
villain, dancing and singing their way to success and happiness. Cartoons.
$150 cartoons.
As
an aside, Forbidden Broadway really
has their number. The skewering for
both of these shows is funny in a loving/mean/dismissive kind of way. In fact, you laugh so hard, you might miss
the pin puncturing the inflated rhetoric Broadway thrives on. When Annie
was just a painful, nay, awful memory to many theater lovers, FB had an aging adult in the red dress
and the curly wig smoking a cigarette, sure that the show would return and
she’d have a job again. I didn’t think
they would find a way to top it. They
did. I won’t give it away. To me, the rejuvenated Forbidden Broadway is the best new show in town. Nothing is sacred. But it’s all hilarious and lovingly
lethal. Yes, creator/writer Gerard
Alessandrini truly loves the Broadway his show skewers. But it takes no prisoners. And it has the cast to pull it off. And tickets are off-Broadway. And often at TKTS. Go if you are able. Can’t
wait for the new cast recording.
I’m
not suggesting Broadway should be shut down.
No, it is an art form, bloated though it sometimes may be. I saw a few shows (at vastly reduced
prices) for my recent birthday celebrations. I was not hurt by Sandy. I was extremely lucky. And I don't feel I need to eat beans and rice as solidarity.
But just how many of those people watching Annie or Newsies has
given one dollar or one hour toward helping the real Annies, who have lost
everything and have no illusions that a millionaire will jump in to save them before everything
disintegrates in front of, and around, them? If everyone in a seat gave even $1, think how much help that could bring? To its credit, Broadway has a yearly donation drive to help those living with AIDS. It has raised millions. Completely worthy. But the nationwide drive to help those Sandy victims still in bad need has not generated as much funds as are necessary. Or enough of it hasn't trickled down to the person living in the tents or the dented houses. Yes,so
many people have given up so much to help these dispossessed families. They will receive nothing from it beyond the knowledge they helped how they could. Just yesterday, food trucks from all over NYC drove into destroyed neighborhoods and fed everyone who lined up. Donations had paid for the food so these vendors could make the trek. And they came in droves. The sight couldn't help but bring a tear or two. This was seeing how money helps directly. This was New York helping its own. Every one of these men and women
deserve the World’s praise. But help is still necessary. We need a Daddy Warbucks. (Trump and Bloomberg haven't stepped up to the plate as of yet.)
Of
course, the harshest reality of all is that the people who most need some
optimism, who should laugh for a couple of hours, smile at the kids, applaud
the canine Sandy…are the ones sitting in shells of their former homes,
despondent. Their tomorrow has not come. And having little food or necessities,
dependent on charity to survive, cold and all but broken, they could never
afford a ticket.
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