‘The News,’ A New Musical, Opens on Broadway
NEW YORK (AP) _ Journalism will survive ″The News,″ a ludicrous and distasteful rock musical that blasted its way Thursday into Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater. Eardrums and confidence about the future of American musical theater may not.
″The News″ is the cynical and sour tale of a big city tabloid called The Mirror and its attempt to increase circulation by publicizing a psychopathic killer who has a habit of assassinating media celebrities. First to go is an obnoxious talk show host. The second victim is the newspaper’s horoscope columnist.
Masterminding The Mirror’s lurid coverage of the crimes is the paper’s egocentric executive editor. You can tell he has an ego because he answers the telephone, ″I am the news.″ The likable Jeff Conaway gives a preening, hyperkinetic rock star performance as the editor.
In an absurd plot twist, the editor has a neglected teen-age daughter who through the personal columns of the newspaper manages to connect with the killer. Their eventual meeting is the show’s unbelievable climax.
The sleazy, sensational side of the newspaper business would seem to be a natural for sharp satire. But what masquerades as hard-boiled humor in ″The News″ is neither savage nor satiric, merely dumb. There are a series of headlines flashed on a screen at the back of the stage to show just how trashy The Mirror is - the worst being ″Live Goat Found in Madonna’s Stomach.″
Paul Schierhorn was responsible for the show’s music and lyrics. His music has a minimum of melody and his lyrics a minimum of invention, although sometimes it’s hard to tell because many of the words are swallowed by an overpoweringly loud sound system.
Schierhorn also wrote the story with an assist from director David Rotenberg and R. Vincent Park. The father-daughter plot surfaces periodically between comments and descriptions about The Mirror. These result in songs called ″Super Singo,″ about the paper’s latest contest; ″Dear Felicia,″ with Conaway impersonating the paper’s advice columnist and even a song about classified ads.
The musical has the feeling of an inflated rock concert, which Rotenberg, as director, does nothing to dispell. Conaway is backed by a trio of reporters - played by Cheryl Alexander, Patrick Jude and Charles Pistone. A hard-driving rock band hovers in the background and members are brought forward for solos, particularly a terrific saxophone player named Jonathan S. Gerber.
The other performers don’t fare as well. Anthony Crivello, the demented killer, is stuck with the most impossible role, although he does get the evening’s best song, ″Shooting Stars.″ But why he does what he does is never explained. At least a little more motivation is provided for the daughter’s attempt to establish a relationship with him. Lisa Michalis looks and sounds unconvincing as the editor’s 15-year-old daughter.
The unattractive setting by Jane Musky divides the small stage in thirds with The Mirror city room and the rock band anchored at stage center, framed by the daughter’s bedroom and the killer’s apartment.
When the musical began previews last month in New York, it was performed in two acts. By the time the show opened Thursday, it was one long act. At least credit ″The News″ with learning something about the perils of letting theatergoers out for an intermission. They might not come back.