Roxanne's Alias

National Blog Posting Month Day 4

We see a lot of Broadway musicals. A lot. It takes a little more to get us into a straight play, and that usually involves stunt casting. We pulled out all the stops to see Julia Roberts in Three Days of Rain. We also saw Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in The Odd Couple twice. When my wife’s school planned a day trip to New York for the staff, all her coworkers were off for shopping. We decided to see a show instead and got tickets for Cyrano de Bergerac which is in a limited ten week run.

This production stars Kevin Kline as Cyrano and Jennifer Garner as the secret object of his love, Roxanne. Playing the conduit for his affection is Daniel Sunjata as hunky lunkhead Christian. Garner surpasses expectations as the beautiful woman that wants both beauty and brains. Her character is clever and cunning if just a bit clueless about who really writes those wonderful love letters. Garner became famous as the strong and smart Sydney Bristow on Alias, but in this show it’s the guys that get to do all the ass-kicking.

In a production of Cyrano, the nose matters and Kevin Kline makes for a very handsome swordsman with a rapier sharp wit and an equally pointed proboscis. As good as the rest of the cast is, Kline is clearly the centerpiece of the show. He duels and composes poetry simultaneously in the seventeenth century version of a street rap battle. And in the final scene (which I won’t spoil for those of you that have blocked out your high school lit classes), he breaks hearts and makes tears run.

For a production that will close before Christmas, a lot of work has been lavished on the staging and costumes which are just gorgeous. If you don’t have tickets by now, your shot at them as pretty slim. We got list price tickets in the balcony, but orchestra seats are going at highway robbery “premium” prices. We had several people around us leave at intermission. One was muttering about the bad view, but we didn’t miss any of the action. We actually like low numbered mezzanine tickets over the back of the orchestra. It lets you see more of the stage when the actors are rolling around on the stage. The downside for this show is that the musketeer hats occasionally hide the actor's faces.

We are now pros at stagedoor stalking and got Jennifer Garner to sign a Playbill. After spending time signing for the fans, she disappeared back inside. A few minutes later a nanny came out and got into a waiting SUV with Garner’s gorgeous daughter Violet. Jennifer then sprinted Elektra-style into the car and it rode off. The too-hot-to-be-straight Sunjata spent a lot of time autographing and posing for pictures, but never made it to our side of the barricades before wandering off down 46th Street. I guess third bananas don’t rate limos. Kevin Kline hunkered down backstage and never made an appearance.

Now that I have seen both Jennifer Garner and Bradley Cooper on Broadway, I have to wait for Michael Vartan to come to the Great White Way to fill out my Alias hat trick.