Rubicon Theatre
Ventura, Calif.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
***
Seldom has a musical revue so persuasively made the case for a composer, said Bob Verini in Variety. Cy Coleman, who wrote such timeless tunes as “The Best Is Yet to Come” and “Witchcraft,” was a unique talent with a flair for “melding pop, jazz, and parody into ravishing song.” Following “the Ain’t Misbehavin’ playbook,” lyricist David Zippel—a longtime Coleman collaborator—has crafted a classy 90-minute musical celebration of the composer’s greatest hits, masterfully evoking the “jazz demimonde” in which Coleman found fame in the 1940s and ’50s. Lending two hands is pianist Billy Stritch, who stays “supercool at the ivories” in the role of Coleman.
Stritch embodies the composer’s “signature showmanship,” said Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times. But the rest of the cast performs well, too. Audiences will swoon with delight at Jason Graae’s rendering of “Witchcraft.” Graae may be “no Frank Sinatra,” but he has a “swanky voice” that is up to the challenge of the tune’s difficult phrasing. Lillias White, who won a Tony for her performance in Coleman’s musical The Life, “seduces with a readily available sassiness” in that musical’s showstopper, “The Oldest Profession.” My only complaint is that, because the show eschews plot or dialogue, it moves at a “galloping pace” that can make enjoyment of the songs difficult.
A lack of patter actually works to the show’s advantage, said Rita Moran in the Ventura County, Calif., Star. Rather than shoehorning in contrived or clunky anecdotes, Zippel “relies on the personalities and vocal prowess of the cast,” as well as the “smooth support of the band” to carry the show. The confidence turns out to be “well placed,” and allows the powerfully catchy tunes to speak for themselves. It’s no wonder that the 20th century’s greatest singing talents, from Sinatra to Judy Garland to Nat King Cole, gravitated to Coleman’s works. For different generations of listeners, The Best Is Yet to Come may be a “trip down memory lane, a reminder of musical theater gems, or simply a discovery of Coleman’s legacy.” In any case, they’ll leave humming a happy tune.
-
Critics' choice: Outstanding new Japanese restaurantsFeature An all-women sushi team, a 15-seat listening bar, and more
-
Why do Dana White and Donald Trump keep pushing for a White House UFC match?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The president and the sports mogul each have their own reasons for wanting a White House spectacle
-
'Quiet vacationing': a secret revolt against workplace cultureThe explainer You can be in two places at once
-
If/Thenfeature Tony-winning Idina Menzel “looks and sounds sensational” in a role tailored to her talents.
-
Rocky
feature It’s a wonder that this Rocky ever reaches the top of the steps.
-
Love and Information
feature Leave it to Caryl Churchill to create a play that “so ingeniously mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
-
The Bridges of Madison County
feature Jason Robert Brown’s “richly melodic” score is “one of Broadway’s best in the last decade.”
-
Outside Mullingar
feature John Patrick Shanley’s “charmer of a play” isn’t for cynics.
-
The Night Alive
feature Conor McPherson “has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension.”
-
No Man’s Land
feature The futility of all conversation has been, paradoxically, the subject of “some of the best dialogue ever written.”
-
The Commons of Pensacola
feature Stage and screen actress Amanda Peet's playwriting debut is a “witty and affecting” domestic drama.