Review: The new musical “Almost Famous” is not even almost great
Broadway is afflicted with an unfortunate habit, one that must seem in spitballing sessions rife with marketing opportunity: Take a known film quantity and make it live. Set in 1973, the year I graduated from high school, “Almost Famous” does feel like bait for boomers, a group nostalgic for the heyday of rock.
But the musical, mounted on a sparse stage and directed with a paucity of inspiration by Jeremy Herrin, fails to capitalize on the key ingredient that made the movie such an emblem of a remarkable time: its ability to evoke the tumult and intensity and romance of a band on tour as an era ends.
But this outing with “Almost Famous” never quite manages to endear us to Penny and the other Band Aids: Julia Cassandra, Katie Ladner and Jana Djenne Jackson portray them, all dressed in period pop by David Zinn. “They took the mud and the guts out of rock-and-roll,” says Lester Bangs, the real-life rock critic played here by Rob Colletti, as he lectures the budding journalist on rock’s decline.
Chris Wood plays the pivotal role of Russell Hammond, Stillwater’s charismatic guitarist. Drew Gehling is Jeff Bebe, the band’s covetous frontman . And Anika Larsen is William’s overbearing mom, Elaine. All have to step into imposing shoes Not that there is no possibility of fresh interpretation, but the characters were so memorably owned by their originators that these actors have been bequeathed well nigh impossible tasks.See, I should not have re-watched the movie.
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