Mark Kaplan’s Winter Theater Picks
In addition to being a seasoned post-production executive, Goldcrest’s Mark Kaplan has a deep background as a producer and director of live theater in New York and around the country. Mark sees scores of shows On and Off Broadway every year and has an infallible eye for picking winners. Here are his best bets for theatergoers this winter:
If ever there was a great Broadway flop, it was the original production of Merrily We Roll Along. It lasted 16 performances. I was supposed to go, but instead I saw something called Dreamgirls, a show that went through the roof.
Still, I’ve been a fan of the original Broadway recording of Merrily We Roll Along for 40-plus years. It's one of Sondheim’s most gorgeous scores. This revival, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsey Mendez, not only doesn't disappoint, it's revelatory…the direction, the acting, the singing. It’s the hottest ticket on Broadway, breaking box office records at The Hudson every week. It’s a must see.
Like the great painters, Sondheim’s genius has reached a level of new appreciation and acclaim through several wonderful revivals since his death in 2021. In addition to Merrily We Roll Along, we have seen Company, Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd have all reach heights at the box office he never saw in his lifetime. It’s amazing, but also unfortunate. Sondheim is our modern day Van Gogh.
I’m looking forward to seeing Gutenberg! later this month. It stars Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells who starred in The Book of Mormon. Audience and critic reviews have been sensational. I personally had doubts that the two of them could catch lightning in a bottle twice. My doubts have been turned on their ear and its one of the shows I am most looking forward to seeing in November.
Back to the Future is fun. It’s not a show that people will look back on 25 years from now and say, “That was a great musical!”, but it’s an incredible technical achievement. For me, it is all about the DeLorean and the car that appears on stage is a marvel beyond anything I’ve seen on Broadway. It flies 88 miles per hour! I won’t reveal the magic to how it’s done, but it’s mind blowing The book follows the original movie pretty closely, but that’s what you expect when you go to Back to the Future. Why mess with success?
I’ve been to David Blaine Presents Asi Wind’s Inner Circle twice. Asi is one of the world’s best sleight-of-hand artists and, in this show, he does something unique. He’s seated at a round table alongside several audience members, with the rest of the audience around them in a bleacherstyled semi-circle. Everyone is handed a blank card and asked to write their first name on them and put their first initial in the corners. He uses those 100 or so cards throughout the performance. The guy sitting next to him is repeatedly asked to draw a card at random, and each time, it’s the one with his name. So, it’s quite fun and he’s brilliant. It runs through January 14.
I saw The Play that Goes Wrong several years ago in LA and wondered if it would hold up, especially as it’s a farce. It did so extraordinarily well. They keep it fresh. It’s a play-within-a-play with a two-floor set that keeps collapsing—with the actors on it. I wondered, “What were rehearsals like?” Everything has to go perfectly or you’re dead in the water. That’s probably why it’s been running for so long; there’s no room for error.
Broadway was hit hard by covid and is still recovering. It’s also working to build a more diverse audience, an effort I applaud. That’s what’s extraordinary about this current season. You have Merrily We Roll Along, a forgotten gem from the canon of straightforward musicals, and you have Back to the Future, a show that’s bringing in an audience that hasn’t been to the theater before. Is this a sign that Broadway is making a comeback? I certainly hope so.