At This Theatre: The St. James: 2012-2025

  At This Theatre:

The St. James: 2012-2025

Opening 99 years ago as Erlanger's Theatre, the house played host to the George M. Cohan show, The Merry Malones, and then played host to the popular style of the day, the operetta. All of the big ones played there, including The Chocolate Soldier, The Merry Widow, Naughty Marietta and the entire Gilbert and Sullivan catalog.  

In 1932, the venue was renamed the St. James Theatre, and has since played host to some of Broadway's biggest plays and musicals. Among the more famous titles that have run at this 44th Street theater are the original productions of Pal Joey, Oklahoma!, The King and I, The Pajama Game, Flower Drum Song, Hello, Dolly!, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and On the Twentieth Century.

Last week, we talked about the shows we saw there between 1987 and 2011, found HERE. Today, we cover the 11 shows we've seen there since then. Soon, when we see Titanique. it'll be an even dozen, and 22 different productions total!

Number of Shows We Saw There (2012-2025): 11

Leap of Faith, Bring It On, Bullets Over Broadway, Side Show, Something Rotten!, Frozen, Into the Woods, New York, New York, Illinoise, Sunset Blvd., The Queen of Versailles

  

   

   

5 Favorite Shows We Saw There (2012-2025):

Something Rotten! (2015): They had me at the fantastic logo, but I stayed for the satire of Shakespearean excess, social commentary of all things Elizabethan, and the unlikely reverence for the modern Broadway musical. The script was smart, the score was full of fun toe-tappers and a great production number in "A Musical." I'm sure the cast - including Brian D'Arcy James, Christian Borle and my favorite, Heidi Blickenstaff - was having as much fun as the audience!

Frozen (2018): I loved the film version of this piece so much, and even though the stage version wasn't everything I had hoped it would be, I still loved seeing what they did with it. I found the puppetry of both Olaf and Sven to be charming and clever, and I was excited to see a new talent in Jelani Alladin as Kristoff. But it was the inspired casting of Patti Murin as Anna (I've been a fan of hers since Lysistrata Jones) and my beloved Caissie Levy as Elsa, who delivered a goose bump-inducing rendition of "Let It Go." A little more Disney magic would have put this right to the top, but a shirtless Timothy Hughes was a worthy substitute!

Into the Woods (2022): Who knew that a minimalist version of this Sondheim classic could possibly be the best version to date? Tight direction and a truly all-star cast really made this revival something special. Not a weak link in the company, the biggest surprise for me was just how great of an actress Sara Bareilles is. And, of course, what turned out to be a last chance to the singular talents of the late, great Gavin Creel made this an extra valuable experience. Can't forget the udder-ly charming star turn of Milky White, either!

Illinoise (2024): Brilliant. Truly brilliant. Going into it, I had some familiarity with the music Sufjan Stevens thanks to the film Call Me By Your Name, as well as the dance talents of Ricky Ubeda and Ben Cook, both of whom I'd seen in other shows, plus Gaby Diaz from So You Think You Can Dance. Still, nothing prepared me for the emotional thrill ride that Illinoise was. I laughed, I cried, I held my breath for nearly two hours, for fear I'd miss a single second. I wish I could see it again.

Sunset Blvd. (2024): I loved the original production so much, I was kind of dreading this revival. Within seconds of the curtain rising, I was completely lost in the crazy world of a new Norma Desmond, Joe Gillis and a Hollywood of indeterminate time. It was utterly mesmerizing and thrilling in ways that were not even possible with the original. The famous walk of the second act overture/"Sunset Boulevard" sequence is ten minutes of magic I will never forget. And of course, there were the electrifying performances of the entire company, while introducing us the the enormous talents of Nicole Scherzinger, Tom Francis and David Thaxton. And then there were two of the best understudies/future stars I've ever seen, Sydney Jones and new West End star, Diego Andres Rodriguez.

The other productions we saw that didn't make our top five were all noteworthy for several reasons including the opportunity to see new talents and established stars, designers and other creatives. Even shows that we really didn't like had plenty to admire. For example, while I thought the revival of Side Show paled in comparison to the original, I was just grateful to see it back on Broadway at all. And it was nice to see that the authors were still working to make it better. I was a little surprised that Leap of Faith didn't last a little longer, but we were pleased to see Raul Esparza, always a favorite, who hasn't been seen on Broadway since (Galileo will mark his return next season!), but that show also introduced us to a guy named Leslie Odom. Jr.! Easily my least favorite show that I saw there was Bullets Over Broadway, but in retrospect I am so glad I saw it, because I had one last chance to see the late Marin Mazzie and Nick Cordero, bot taken from us far too soon. Bring It On was a ton of fun, with four young actors making their Broadway debuts, and all of whom are among our favorites: Adrienne Warren, Jason Gotay, Taylor Louderman and Ariana DeBose!