Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Opening Night: July 27, 2016
Closing: July 30, 2016
Theater: New York City Center
The songs of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, from “Suddenly, Seymour” to “Under the Sea,” have become part of the American subconscious—but few have heard their first musical, Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The 1979 show tells the story of Eliot Rosewater (Santino Fontana), a millionaire who drunkenly decides to blow his fortune on an impoverished town after being inspired by the utopian vision of novelist Kilgore Trout (James Earl Jones). But there are forces who want to put the kibosh on Eliot’s philanthropy—like Norman Mushari (Skylar Astin), a lawyer plotting to have Eliot declared insane. With an irresistible crazy-quilt score that volleys between pop, ragtime, Gilbert & Sullivan, and proto-Disney ballads, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater deserves to be part of our world again.
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July 28, 2016
As a drunken and possibly lunatic millionaire, Santino Fontana gives a performance of ineffable sweetness in “Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,” an odd duck of a musical by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken that’s being presented as the final entry in City Center Encores! Off-Center summer season. As he bumbles through the thickets of picaresque plot in this doggedly weird satire, Mr. Fontana maintains an air of almost saintly purity, portraying a man seeking purpose and finding it in a most un-American pursuit: giving away all of his millions.
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