"A good survey of the attenuated state of stage musicals these days might start by noting that there are only two new ones on Broadway this fall, and that, in subject and presentation, they lie at opposite ends of a vast socioeconomic divide. To get anywhere in this town lately, one must be either too large or too small to fail."
"Over at the St. James Theatre, The Queen of Versailles, a luxe spectacle with a giant staircase to prove it, finds its justification and cash flow through its deployment of star, Kristin Chenoweth. (Never mind that its addiction to gilt is part of why it isn't any good.)"
"A few blocks uptown at the Longacre, you'll find the anonymous characters of Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), who are making do with incomes far beneath the Versailles level-one has arrived in the city for a wedding with about $60 in cash-in a show whose tiny scale clearly reduced the financial risk of producing it."
Only two new Broadway musicals open this fall, occupying opposite socioeconomic and production extremes. The Queen of Versailles at the St. James is a lavish spectacle anchored by star power, marked by gilded excess. Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) at the Longacre is a small-scale, low-risk production focused on anonymous, working-class characters and modest means. Two Strangers uses a single rotating set of abandoned luggage at a baggage claim and cites The Band's Visit as inspiration. Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts are charming but not widely known; Jim Barne and Kit Buchan are first-time musical creators.
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