While in London, I also was able to catch the Broadway-bound revival of Michael Frayn’s hysterical farce, Noises Off. The play remains one of the funniest stage delights ever conceived, and the fact that its author also composed the constantly gripping and intellectually stimulating Copenhagen speaks volumes for his across-the-board talent.

Before departing the United Kingdom, I took in the long-running West End production of Yasmina Reza’s Art. The play was as enjoyable as when I first viewed it on Broadway in 1997, and two-thirds of the cast sparkled. The one dull spot? The lone American, George Segal, sadly best known these days for his role on the insipid Just Shoot Me, was flat throughout. Still, I left London having enjoyed three of the four productions and fired up for some good ol’ American theater.

IT’S A HELL-OF-A-TOWN

Washington was to be my residence for most of the summer, but prior to heading down to D.C. for my internship, I had five days in New York— just long enough to squeeze in three shows. I checked up on RENT for the fourth time and, after celebrating its fifth anniversary, it’s still going strong. Despite a performing cast filled with understudies for the performance I saw, energy was high on stage and in the audience.

The next show up had me a bit apprehensive; after the disappointment of George Segal, I was unsure about watching another Must-See-TV star. I was quite pleased, however, by what I saw from Will and Grace’s Eric McCormack in his Broadway debut as The Music Man, Harold Hill. With tremendous charisma, a pleasant, if unspectacular voice, and a great deal of enthusiasm, he was a perfect complement to Rebecca Luker’s beautifully sung and just old-fashioned beautiful Marian in a classic show that Susan Stroman has lovingly restaged.

My last show on this trip was A Class Act, a musical constructed out of the songs left by the late Ed Kleban, the Tony-winning lyricist of A Chorus Line. A Class Act is not a revue of Kleban’s material, but rather a somewhat fictionalized account of his life, told with his own songs—for which he wrote both words and music. The result was the best musical of the season, a work richer in music and deeper in resonance than either The Producers or The Full Monty. Though its Broadway-run ended after it failed to garner any Tony’s, it is survived by a top-notch cast album that I cannot recommend highly enough.

Intermission