Friday's Five- Vol. 3

Broadway's Tony awards were handed out this past Sunday, so this week's Friday's Five is:

Five Favorite Broadway Performances- Comedic Category

1. Bill lrwin in Bye Bye Birdie This revival, starring John Stamos, was a bit uneven in my opinion, but two things stood out: the energy of the young performers and Bill Irwin in his role as Harry McAfee, the put-upon father of the teen girl chosen to get a kiss from pop star Conrad Birdie. Every time Irwin opened his mouth, comic gold came out, and his physical schtick was priceless. No one moves like Irwin.

2. Valerie Harper in Looped Harper portrayed the original Hollywood bad girl, Tallulah Bankhead, in this three person comedy. She nailed Bankhead's unique voice and style, yet seemed to make the role her own. Harper deservedly earned a Tony nomination for her role, though unfortunately, the show did not last long on Broadway and people don't have the chance to see how brilliant she was.

3. Jan Maxwell in Lend Me a Tenor Maxwell has but a few scenes in this revival of a farce, but boy does she make the most of them, earning a Tony nomination. She plays the tenor's Italian wife, and her screaming scenes with Anthony LaPaglia, her husband, the tenor, are screamingly hilarious. Her physical comedy excels as well, particularly when she uses a pillow, or rather, it overcomes her. The author should have written her into more scenes.

4. Justin Bartha in Lend Me a Tenor Bartha makes his Broadway debut in this show as Max, the jittery assistant who assumes the identity of Tito, the Italian tenor. Bartha more than holds his own among the talented cast (Maxwell, Tony Shaloub, and Anthony LaPaglia among others), and actually shines. His best scene is the one where LaPaglia teaches him warmup exercises. Bartha just goes for it, and it pays off huge.

5. Katie Finneran in Promises, Promises Finneran won the Tony for best featured actress in a musical for her role. She only has two scenes, but from the moment she opens her mouth in the opening of Act II as blowsy, brazen Margie, she owns the audience. She and Sean Hayes act and dance the hell out of that scene, and I wish they had shown that one on the Tonys. It may have been the funniest scene on Broadway this year.

Feel free to share your favorite comedic performances on Broadway in the comments section.

Valerie Harper is LOOPED

Long before anyone ever heard of Lindsay Lohan, there was Tallulah Bankhead. Bankhead was a rowdy, bawdy actress who worked on stage, screen and television from the 1920s through her last role in the camp TV show Batman.

Bankhead loved her drink, took pills, partied all night and cursed like a sailor. One of her last films was 1965's Die! Die! My Darling, which was an ironic name for a film starring Tallulah Bankhead since she called everyone she met "Dahling'".

To complete the film, Bankhead to attend a looping session, where she would go to a recording studio and 'loop' dialogue, that is record dialogue for the film that for some reason or another did not sound right on the film soundtrack.

That disastrous recording session was itself being recorded and became the basis for the stage show, Looped, written by Matthew Lombardo and starring Valerie Harper, best known as TV's "Rhoda" from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, now on Broadway.

Harper is the perfect Bankhead from the moment she barrels through the studio door, hours late and a little tipsy. Brian Hutchison plays the hapless film editor who has the misfortune of being the one left behind to shepherd Bankhead through what should be a few minute project, looping one line of dialogue, but thanks to Bankhead, it turns into a day-long process.

Harper captures the bigger-than-life essence of Bankhead, the party girl who is getting too old for this stuff, yet she carries on. Hutchison's performance of Danny, the exasperated editor who seems melancholy, is full of facial tics. I saw Hutchison in last year's Exit the King, where he was the dim palace guard, and he used the same facial tics to excellent advantage for that role. In this role, however, it seemed a bit off-putting. The only other character in the play is a sound engineer played by Michael Mulhern to good comic effect.

The first act is mostly comedic, filled with the great one-liners Tallulah Bankhead was famous for. When asked why she called everyone 'Dahling', she said "because all my life I've been bad at remembering people's names. Once I introduced a friend of mine as 'Martini'. Her name was actually 'Olive'." Another is "Cocaine isn't habit forming; I should know, I've been using it for years!"

While the first act is very funny, the second act is more emotional and better. The audience finds out why Danny is so sad, and Tallulah becomes a more realized, fully dimensional character.

I wouldn't pay full price for Looped, but if you get discount tickets at TKTS, Playbill.com or Theatermania.com, I would recommend the show. Harper is absolutely fantastic, and she brings Tallulah Bankhead to glorious life on stage.