I hear a lot of people talking smack about Disaster! on Broadway saying, blah, blah, this show should have never come to Broadway, blah, blah, this is an Off-Broadway show. Well I say that you all need to just stop right now get a ticket and be prepared to LYAO for 2 and ½ hours. As far as I am concerned, It really doesn’t matter where the theatre is located if your are being thoroughly entertained, watching a cleverly written musical, and listening to top notch Broadway royalty sing music that you all know and love. We should all be thankful that we have this incredibly funny musical on Broadway this season, and I’m going to go one step further to say that this is hands down THE funniest show on Broadway this theatre season!
The premise is the opening night of a new floating casino in New York City in 1979. The sleazebag owner Tony (Roger Bart) ran out of money and has cut all kinds of corners to open the sinking slot machine with no regards to safety. Along comes Professor Ted Scheider played by the comical Seth Rudetsky, who is also one of the brilliant minds behind the concept and book. The professor has discovered that the piling that is anchoring the ship was drilled directly into a fault line, and an earthquake is imminent.
There is a cast of characters arriving, and many you are never going to forget. The singing, guitar playing Nun, Sister Mary Downy (Jennifer Simard) for instance that is there to tell everyone that gambling is a sin. It’s not so much what she says, as is her very soft, monotone delivery that alone will have you crying with laughter. But just wait until her alter ego appears at the slot machine. There is Shirley (Faith Prince) & Maury (Kevin Chamberlin) the middle aged married couple. Shirley is evidently dying, and the symptoms that will signal her end is near will be madly blinking eyes, pelvis thrusts, and outbursts of profanity. Let’s just say, you might want to wear a diaper. I’m sure this is why the show is in two acts with an intermission. You will need that bathroom break. The ditzy Cabaret singer Jackie (Rachel York) is on board with her twins, which are both played by the loveable and talented Baylee Littrell. I mean this kid goes from boy Ben to twin sister Lisa in the blink of an eye, but when you see how they turn the one twin into two, you are no doubt going to lose it. I really love this kid, and so will you. There is of course the cute guy Chad, played by Adam Pascal who is on the catering staff. So he’s a little older than he was in Rent, but his voice is still dreamy. He runs into his former fiancée, reporter Marianne (Kerry Butler) who is equally talented in the vocal department. She is trying to uncover the truth to the rumor floating around about the casino’s safety and Chad is trying to find out why she left him standing alone at the Altar. Let’s not forget, Levora (Lacretta Nicole), the former disco queen who totes around a designer dog, that is actually stuffed but barks to the out of tune guitar of Sister Mary Downy.
So the party gets started, and things start shaking up. It’s all madness and mayhem from there. The antics continue in non-stop fashion and so will your laughter. The popular musical tunes like Hot Stuff, I am Woman, Feelings and I Will Survive, just to name a few, blend into the story and its downright brilliant and hysterical. You will witness the greatest tap number of the season (sorry Shuffle Along) when the full cast led by Shirley start tapping out a Morse code message to save the Chad and Marianne from drowning below deck. The kitschy/campy set (Tobin Ost) with props spinning and shaking are the whipped cream on top of this very un-disastrous musical. Spoiler Alert: Most of the main cast survives but there was a large loss in the ensemble. Oh well, that’s what swings and understudies are for, right? In any case, death, destruction and impending disaster have never been as funny as this. I’m gonna love this show from now until the day after tomorrow.
My guest had sadly just come from a funeral the day we saw this, and said, “this is exactly what I needed”, so if you find yourself in the same position, I’d strongly recommend this for a quick pick me up. We were also in agreement that Faith Prince needs her own show.
This blog is getting long, but I can’t let it go without telling you how this finished off. And I’m talking post curtain call. It’s Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids fundraising season, so all the shows come up with clever ideas to raise money for this wonderful cause. Some offer photo ops, signed posters, sell props or clothing items, but I’ve never seen anything as incredible as this. Seth announced that this was the 20th year anniversary since Adam Pascal performed in this very theatre in Rent, and they were auctioning off a seat on stage to see Adam perform a song from Rent. To make this a little sweeter, he was joined by his original co-star in the show, Daphne Rubin-Vega who happened to be sitting in the audience right in front of me (my bad for missing that). Seth started the bidding at $400. A woman quickly shouted out “One Thousand Dollars” and three others bid $500 and sat on the stage while Adam and Daphne sang “Light My Candle”, and Seth accompanied on the keyboard. It truly was a magical moment, and I was there as witness. As I always say, magic happens on Broadway. Here is a clip posted on Youtube by Seth Rudetskyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzwZ7Vmrt1I of the moment. For tickets and more information about Disaster! On Broadway visit http://disastermusical.com/ and check my website here for available discounts.
-ThisbroadSway 4/15/2016