Curtains - Preview

Curtains
Wednesday, July 26, 2006 8pm
Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles

WOW!! I just got back from this amazing show. David Hyde Pierce stars in this Kander & Ebb murder mystery that's headed for Broadway. He and Debra Monk really bring it home in this production. The story weaves around and the songs seem frivolous at some points, but on the whole it's a fun night at the theatre. My only complaint is the lack of harmony at some points. There's a great quartet number the second song in called "What Kind of Man?" The writers and producers of this show-within-a-show are complaining about theatre critics. It's a hilarious number, but they're all singing in unison. Annoying!!
The way that the show stands right now, we were leaving the theatre at 10:45pm, a 2 3/4 hour show with intermission. They could probably stand to lose a few minutes in some of the bigger numbers like "Thataway!" at the end of Act I or "In the Same Boat" towards the end of Act II.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. There's a theme these days of making fun of theatre within a show. Spamalot and Drowsy Chaperone come to mind and this show fits right in with that. There are moments of side-splitting humor and the show stopping numbers do, in fact, stop the show.
If you get a chance to see this show, take it. It's amazing and will probably last quite a while on the great white way.