RUTH LEON RECOMMENDS… Broadway’s in-joke
Ruth Leon recommendsMiscast at MCC Theater
May 16, at 8pm ET, and will remain available through May 20
Miscast at MCC Theater is an annual joke that Broadway tells on itself – men sing songs written for women, girls sing tough guys, elderly singers sing about Spring and youth, and they all have a wonderful time measuring their considerable talents against a song they could never, in a million years, expect to sing in the show for which it was written. It features the biggest Broadway stage stars singing songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast.
This year’s list of participating artists is enormous. I count some 35 star singers and actors but I may have missed some. . To pick out just a few – Idina Menzel, LaChanze, Kelli O’Hara, Hugh Dancy, Jennifer Garner, Laurie Medcalf, Marisa Tomei, and Lin Manuel Miranda.
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It looks like SD has outsourced some of its lowbrow content – nothing wrong with lowbrow as even great composers have their populist moments (Mahler is full of it) – but if this is the level Ms Leon will constantly push I will likely avoid many of her posts.
I enjoyed it, Arthur. I’m currently enjoying streams from the Met and Wiener Staatsoper, but in between – dare I admit it? – I’m working my way through Glee on Netflix, and having a great time!
A nice idea to let singers sing roles they’d not normally be cast in. You do get something similar in Shakespeare: Glenda Jackson’s Lear, McKellen playing an older Hamlet, an elderly Romeo and Juliet. Fiona Shaw’s Richard II at the National was marvellous.