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The best musical theater writing team we have

E. Chris Caggiano | Boston, MA USA | 01/28/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens are easily the most talented and versatile musical-theater writing team that we currently have. Which is why I was so disappointed in their most recent show, The Glorious Ones. I found the piece unfocused and uninvolving in performance.



Flaherty and Ahrens seem to produce much better shows when they have a separate collaborator working on the libretto, such as Terrence McNally, who helped make Ragtime and A Man of No Importance the superior shows that they are. When they try to craft the book on their own, well, sometimes we get Once on This Island (yay!), but other times we get Seussical (not so yay).



But I did genuinely enjoy the score to The Glorious Ones, and was greatly looking forward to the release of The Glorious Ones CD, which fortunately does not disappoint. The show is much more emotionally engaging on CD, without the distraction of director Graciela Danielle's often wearisome stage business. Stephen Flaherty once again proves himself a master of evocative and often intricate melody lines. Lynn Ahrens' lyrics work better when they're meant to be poignant that when they're trying to be funny. Both the vulgarity and the jocularity, although certainly true to the the source material, come off forced and unconvincing. But Flaherty and Ahrens demonstrate in this score two of their greatest strengths: the rousing opening number ("The Glorious Ones") and the stirring 11 o'clock anthem ("I Was Here"). Both will doubtless be in regular rotation on my iPod.



One flaw from the show that remains on CD is the lack of distinct characterizations, particularly those of the young lovers, Isabella and Francesco. The numbers for these characters remain dull and indistinct. But overall, this is a strong and solid score, and an entertaining CD. Of course, anything new from Flaherty and Ahrens is a reason to celebrate. Let's hope that they're planning, nay writing, their next show even as we "speak.""

An overlooked pleasure

Jon Kowing | Kansas City, MO USA | 01/05/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I stumbled upon this small imperfect gem of a show in New York when it played there in the fall/winter of 2007. The Glorious Ones tells how a troupe of 16th-century Italian performers came together and created the archetypal characters of theater: the dashing leading man, the beautiful leading woman, the sly harlequin, the quack doctor, the old miser, and others. It's about how new art forms are created, the new replacing the old, the young taking the place of the old. It also has quite a bit of bawdy and crass slapstick humor in it. Plus some very lovely, well crafted songs. But that is no surprise as the team behind this show (Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens) are the same team behind the shows Ragtime, Once on This Island and Suessical.



Personal favorites from the show include "Opposite You" and "I Was Here." This recording includes all of the original excellent cast: Mark Kudisch, Natalie Venetia Belcon, David Patrick Kelly, Jeremy Webb, Julyana Soelistyo, John Kassir and Erin Davie."

Not so "Glorious..."

David Cady | Jersey City, NJ USA | 04/14/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I fell in love with the writing team of Ahrens and Flaherty when I saw a reading of their charming comic musical, "Lucky Stiff," at the small studio space at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons in 1988. The score was tuneful, witty and grounded in a love of and familiarity with traditional musical comedy forms that was refreshing, unapologetic and very, very welcome. They were obviously going places, which was confirmed by their follow up, the beautiful, moving and powerful "Once on This Island." Since then, like all teams, they've had their hits ("Ragtime") and misses ("Seussical"); unfortunately, I'd put "The Glorious Ones" in the latter category.



As with every Ahrens and Flaherty score, there are some lovely, heartfelt numbers and an undeniable energy and intelligence at work, but this is a mostly ponderous, leaden score lacking depth and cohesion. One's enjoyment of it may depend on whether or not one saw the show in performance (which I did not), and that's a sign of its weakness. Without director Graciella Danielle's (presumably) filthy choreography, for instance, "Armanda's Tarantella" is not much more than...well, a fairly ordinary tarantella. And there's a sameness to a lot of the material that compares less favorably to their past scores. When Flaherty sets the lyrics "silhouettes and pirouettes" to the exact music he used for similar words in "Ragtime," one doesn't know if it's winking self-homage, a nod to the continuity of theatrical tradition (a presiding theme, after all, of "The Glorious Ones") or mere laziness. Regardless of the reason, it suggests a lack of originality.



The cast is uniformly marvelous (particularly Jeremy Webb, Erin Davie and the powerful Natalie Belcon), and works very hard to convince us there's more here than meets the ear. One can't help but wish, however, that Marc Kudisch had his customary pitch problems more firmly under control; it's an irritating, frustrating annoyance that will probably prevent me from listening to the album as often as I might otherwise.



If you want to hear Ahrens and Flaherty celebrating the high that only live theater can bring, download two songs from their delightful "A Man of No Importance": "Going Up" and "Art." There's more life, humor and unmitigated joy in those two songs than in the whole of "The Glorious Ones.""