Lysistrata Johnson

Patti Murin and Josh Segarra in "Lysistrata Johnson" A Paula Herold, Alan Wasser, Frederick Cruz, Michael McCabe, John Breglio, Takonkiet Viravan/Scenario Thailand, Hilary A. Williams, Broadway Across America, James G. Robinson presentation of the musical in 2 functions with music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn book by Douglas Carter Beane. Directed and choreographed by Serta Knechtges. Music direction, Kaira Simmons.'Uardo - Alexander Aguilar Tyllis - Ato Blankson-Wood Lampito Kanagawa - Katie Boren Robin - Lindsay Nicole Chambers Heterai - Liz Mikel Lysistrata Johnson - Patti Murin Cleonice - Kat Nejat Mick - Josh Segarra Mhyrinne - LaQuet Sharnell Xander - Jason Tam Harold - Teddy Toye Cinesius - Alex WyseSex, gags and dunk shots add Douglas Carter Beane's "Lysistrata Johnson," about several cheerleaders who finalise to stay chaste to motivate their men around the Athens U. basketball team to place an finish towards the school's 33-year losing streak. This college-level "Senior High School Musical" is layered with giddy and often wicked sophistication, and it is company of 12 provides vibrant performances backed by energetically brisk staging within this sweetly silly romp. Auds will find it hard to refrain from laughter. The show is really a direct descendant of Beane's earlier "Xanadu," but far better than that demonstrate, and more amusing than his other current Broadway musical, "Sister Act." Borrowing its plot from Aristophanes, "Lysistrata Johnson" juxtaposes lowbrow popular entertainment with highbrow wit to provide good-natured injections at modern culture, mores and eccentricities as transfer student Lizzie (Patti Murin) convinces her squad, whose men are in the game, to withhold the products until they win. The show in the Walter Kerr Theater is virtually just like the version mounted through the Transport Group last spring lower on Washington Square, with one minor cast change. Beane has ongoing to update his script there is a joke about Newt Gingrich at Tiffany's, and the other where the leading lady asks her iPhone's Siri about neighborhood brothels. Performances have ongoing to develop. Murin bakes an adorable and undefeatable Lizzie Josh Segarra is pleasant because the dull basketball star who privately spouts Frost and Dickinson Lindsay Nicole Chambers is ideal because the librarian geek who conveys through poetry jams and Liz Mikel may be the large-voiced extra-large Greek goddess who's the only real adult in the home. Funniest and many impressive is Jason Tam, who performed the hurt dancer Paul within the recent "Chorus Line." Here he's hugely droll because the computer geek Xander, giving a hysterical exhibition of eccentric dancing because he Googles the steps on his mobile phone. Helmer/choreographer Serta Knechtges, heretofore known within the latter role, keeps the show moving just like a fluid the game of basketball, supplying laffs on the way. Poorest link may be the score by Lewis Flinn. The background music is basically functional, by no means as tasty because the additional factors the lyrics possess some vibrant spots, a minimum of when they're not overamplified past audibility. It was something of the problem once the show performed downtown with an actual basketball court at Judson Memorial Chapel, however the seem is unaccountably more garbled in the Kerr.Sets, Allen Moyer costumes, David C. Woolard and Thomas Charles LeGalley lights, Michael Gottlieb seem, Tony Meola orchestrations, Flinn production stage manager, Lois L. Griffing. Opened up 12 ,. 14, 2011, examined 12 ,. 9. Running time: 2 Hrs, 10 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com