Beyond the look, she creates a character true to the movie mold but with a tad more agency, vulnerable to romantic pain yet nobody’s undignified plaything, even if she walks knowingly into an ocean of hurt. Playing Penny, the “retired” groupie surrounded by a constellation of “Band-Aids” (Julia Cassandra, Katie Ladner, Jana Djenne Jackson) traveling with Stillwater, Solea Pfeiffer makes an incandescent Broadway debut, rocking costumer David Zinn’s fabulous take on Penny’s signature shearling coat, not to mention a killer pair of crocheted hotpants. He’s also a strong singer, with a surprisingly big, versatile voice adaptable to a range of styles. He balances the cockiness required to get a foot in the stadium door with the humility of an inexperienced kid who can barely believe he’s living his dream. In the movie the key roles of William and Penny Lane - the ethereal goddess who floats between a tour bus and an endless series of hotels and concert venues as if carried aloft by the music - were early career highs for Patrick Fugit and Kate Hudson, respectively.Īs the eyes through which we see the entire story, William is all-important and newcomer Casey Likes makes a hugely appealing guide. The other big plus the musical has going for it is its casting. That gives Crowe’s quasi-memoir, in both incarnations, a bittersweet undertow of simultaneous discovery and loss. For many epochal bands and solo artists, that year was an artistic peak they would never again match. But one thing the effusive show gets right, like the movie that spawned it, is the infectious energy of rock ‘n’ roll at a transitional moment - 1973 - when the raw, rebellious spirit of great rock was making way for the slicker, more commercialized sound of mass-consumption superstardom. The movie is a tender coming-of-age drama colored by disillusionment, moral education and heartbreak, buoyed by the shimmering sweetness of memory and the elevating power of music.ĭid it need to become a stage musical? Debatable. ![]() In his Oscar-winning original screenplay, the director’s 15-year-old stand-in, William Miller, landed a feature assignment for Rolling Stone, profiling fictitious rock band Stillwater. That made great music journalists into revered founts of knowledge.Ĭameron Crowe’s 2000 movie Almost Famous - the best and most personal of his films - captured those heady times through a semi-autobiographical recollection of his own wide-eyed experience as a teenage writer. Tatiana Maslany and Laurie Metcalf to Star in 'Grey House' on Broadwayįandom without today’s fingertip access was a more diligent pursuit, often a frustrating waiting game punctuated by sparks of joy that made you feel part of a sacred sect.
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