Tarzan

Okay, okay. I did it. I decided to go and see Tarzan. Now I have been conspicuously absent from the blog for the month of July, but I've been in Japan for a few weeks (and the only theater I saw there was a pretty cool Kabuki play, and ads for musicals with all Japanese casts. Like a Japanese Simba in the Lion King [or rather, the Rion King], and Asian Mark and Roger. It was weird). Now I'm back, and I'm writing about Tarzan, which I saw before I left.

Before I go on about this much anticipated post, I must tell you that I am moving from New York next week, which is very sad. But, I do plan on coming back to watch some theater, so you'll still hear from me I'm sure. And I can give you some feedback on Philly Theater too...

So here goes. Tarzan. Okay, I'm not going to say it was good, because that would just be ridiculous. But, I thought it was going to be REALLY BAD, and it was kind of fun. Okay, it was a little ridiculous. But let me discuss.

The opening: Really awesome. Shipwreck scene was cool. Definitely the best part of the show, and probably worth a $20 front row ticket.

The rest, less awesome. A bunch of people swinging in really awful costumes. These costumes can best be described as, um, fringey? Yeah, they were just ripped up colored fringe on people being monkeys. They did swing a lot. And go into this big green background. Which was kind of cool for the first few minutes.

The music. "You'll be in my heart" is still catchy, but it sounds funny on Broadway. Phil Collins songs are not showtunes.

Josh Strickland - flaming and manorexic. You'd think Tarzan'd have some meat on him. Yeah, no. But it's funny. Especially his monkey slapping things. And his curtain call. whewf! Pretty good voice though. And quite a set of pearly whites for an ape-man.

The first act - long and not real exciting.

Kind of racy for a kids show. Like, um, monkey, stop playing with Jane's chest. Thanks.

Really glitzy and expensive, not great, but really, not like drop dead awful as I was expecting. There were a couple fun scenes, and at some point you kind of even get into it. But I'm not going to tell you to spend $60-100 to go see it.