Total Rating: 
**1/2
Previews: 
September 23, 2004
Opened: 
October 21, 2004
Ended: 
June 26, 2005
Country: 
USA
State: 
New York
City: 
New York
Company/Producers: 
Producers Four (Robert G. Bartner, Brian Brolly, Michael A. Jenkins & Benjamin Mordecai), John McDaniel, Jeff Calhoun, Steve Leiter/Scott Prisand Gutterman Productions in assoc w/ Siblling Entertainment. Assoc Prod: Feurring/Maffei Seraphine/Pinsky & Ken Denison.
Theater Type: 
Broadway
Theater: 
Gerald Schoenfeld Theater
Theater Address: 
236 West 45th Street
Phone: 
(212) 239-6200
Genre: 
Musical
Author: 
Mark Schoenfeld & Barri McPherson.
Director: 
Jeff Calhoun
Review: 

Brooklyn, by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson, a kind of Cinderella story about a singer and the street performers who live under the Brooklyn Bridge, has a cast of great singers: Cleavant Derricks, Eden Espinosa, Karen Olivo, Ramona Keller and Kevin Anderson. And that, basically, is the reason to see this show. It's a cute, simplistic fairy tale about an orphan singer, set in the best urban decay (by Ray Klausen) since Rent, with imaginative, award-caliber costumes (by Tobin Ost) that coined a new word for me: trashtumes.

If Brooklyn left out the moralizing, and the old "Blame it on Vietnam" bathos, and perhaps put in some dancing to match the singing (Espinosa gets a standing ovation in her big, big number), they'd have a hit. As it is, if you want to hear some fine voices and see some energetic performers, here they are.

Cast: 
Eden Espinoza, Kevin Anderson, Cleavant Derricks, Ramona Keller, Karen Olivo, Manoel Felciano, Caren Lyn Manuel, Julie Reiber, Horace V. Rogers, Haneefah Wood
Technical: 
Choreog: Jeff Calhoun. Music Dir: John McDaniel. Set: Ray Klausen; Costumes: Tobin Ost; Light: Michael Gilliam; Sound: Jonathan Deans & Peter Hylenski; Music Dir: James Sampliner; Casting: Dave Clemmons.
Critic: 
Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed: 
October 2004