The year is 1973 and it's all happening. Led Zeppelin is king, Richard Nixon is President, and idealistic 15-year-old William Miller is an aspiring music journalist. When Rolling Stone magazine hires him to go on the road with an up-and-coming band, William is thrust into the rock-and-roll circus, where his love of music, his longing for friendship, and his integrity as a writer collide. Almost Famous is about a young man finding his place in the world and the indelible characters he meets along the way. It's a celebration of community, family, fandom and the power of music.
Warning: Do not re-watch the 2000 movie “Almost Famous” if you plan to see “Almost Famous,” the new Broadway musical. Because the movie is so good. And the stage version is so less good. Comparisons are anathema but seem unavoidable in the case of this musical, which marked its official Broadway opening Thursday night at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre. Cameron Crowe, who wrote and directed the movie, starring Billy Crudup and Kate Hudson, recycles the screenplay, including large chunks of dialogue, for the Broadway incarnation. And though Tom Kitt — winner of a Pulitzer Prize for his own, highly original musical, “Next to Normal” — collaborated with Crowe on some new songs, the show is not much more than a wan rewind of what transpired on-screen.
Kitt and Crowe also fashion several effective numbers sung by William's no-nonsense but supportive mother Elaine (Anika Larsen), a schoolteacher who frets from home. Here, she's given variations of the film's great monologues: One is a lecture to her class in which she memorably declares, 'Rock stars have kidnapped my son,' and in another, she gives Russell a dose of parental terror over the phone. Larsen lands both moments beautifully, with just the right comic gravitas and heart. But these skillful original songs only tell half the story. We never hear expressed - in a way that only musical theater can do - what this music means to these characters. Instead, at key dramatic moments we get renditions of the hits of the era, notably Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' as a kind of carpool karaoke, Joni Mitchell's 'River' and Yusef Islam's (aka Cat Stevens) 'The Wind.' But even in minor moments the musical forgoes original songs and turns to tunes from Nancy Wilson, Ron Davies, Stevie Wonder, Greg Allman, Jimmy Page and Robert Point, among others.
Videos