Theater Reviews – Page 16 – Theatrical Musings

As any journalist knows, a few tweaks to a story can mean the difference between an ordinary article and a truly memorable one. The same holds true for a playwright and that’s proven by Harvey Fierstein revision of the 1992 Disney film “Newsies,” which critics derided and fared miserably at the box office.

Enter writer/actor Fierstein.

He’s helped inject new life into the true Dickensian story about poor children selling newspapers on New York City’s streets in 1899 after they’re forced to pay more for their papers.

But the condition can prove fertile ground for someone looking to create an original, unique work of art. Just ask composer and lyricist Jeff Bowen and librettist Hunter Bell. Their proof is the musical “{title of show}.” The name of the musical might raise eyebrows and cause English teachers fits, but it won Bell a nomination for Best Book of a Musical on Broadway.

The show, a musical comedy about a pair of struggling writers writing a musical about writing a musical, is on-stage through Nov. 16 in an inspiring, vivacious production at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood.

I saw dead people Saturday night — with heart and soul.

They weren’t ghouls, zombies or anything like that. No, these “dead” people were members of a fictional 50s musical group called “Forever Plaid” when they were alive.

It’s fitting that one of the songs they sung was “Heart and Soul.” Because the four cast members of the Off-Broadway musical revue “Forever Plaid,” playing in a quality production at the Beck Center for the Arts through Oct. 12, sang with heart and soul.