Gettin’ The Band Back Together is a very funny show, high energy, expertly casted, energetically directed and keeps the audience laughing the entire time.  It lights up the stage of the Belasco and animates the familiar themes of middle age angst, good versus evil, redemption and being true to yourself.  So that is all I have to say and if Ken Davenport is reading this blog, thanks for visiting.  You can sign off, close your browser, and just step away from the computer.  Done?  Gone?  Good, because I wouldn’t want him to read the next paragraph.

Mr. Davenport is one of the most energetic, insightful and powerful men on Broadway.  I’ve met him, I admire him and follow his soaring career.  Sometimes, as creators, we get too close to our work and are blinded to the actual qualities of the project.  It is very difficult to be objective about a script you have personally invested your energy and creativity into.  Then we listen to others in the project, who are hoping to impress you and succeed with you along the way.  This script is loaded with dad jokes, New Jersey put downs, puns and cheesy cliches in the place of humor and the music is repetitive and predictable while characters are two dimensional at best and unearned convoluted plot points.  Everything I said in the first paragraph is true, the actors are tremendous and I laughed at the stale jokes and had a nice evening.  Mr. Davenport is a very savvy producer and marketer and just might keep it running on Broadway to get full subsidiary rights.  Who knows how popular this work will be in the regional, amateur and school markets.  The easy laughs may prove attractive.    Oops, my Davenport Detector has alerted me to his return and so he will only read the final paragraph.

So go and see Gettin’ The Band Back Together before it splits up again and returns across the tunnel to your mom’s couch.  You’ll laugh and have a good time.  Truly.  I mean it.

As always you can find more at http://www.walterthinnes.com and on Twitter @walterthinnes

TOMMORROW: What else?  food!