There are a few ways to handle the often reviled, increasingly prevalent form we know as the “jukebox musical.” Sometimes (Mama Mia!, as an example), the music catalog of a popular artist or group is incorporated into a concocted plot. Other times (as with Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), the music is part of a biographical piece about the performer.
The Simon & Garfunkel Story takes the form back to one of its earliest instances, Beatlemania. (“Not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation…”) This show, basically, offers its audience the chance to see a tribute band playing in a legitimate theater.
The National has been a concert venue from time to time. (Recently, I’ve seen Mandy Patinkin and John Cameron Mitchell in concert there.) Ticket-buyers to The Simon & Garfunkel Story should know, though, that, despite this being part of the National’s “Broadway at the National” series, and despite a press release calling the event a “hit theatre show,” what they will be getting is…well, a tribute band playing in a legitimate theater.
What else will they get? They’ll get most of the hits from the folk-rock duo whose songs were an essential part of the cultural backdrop to the 60s and 70s. They’ll also get a few deep cuts (or, at least, a few tunes that weren’t familiar to me — but, then, the only S&G album I’ve ever owned is the soundtrack to The Graduate).
These are sung by a couple of personable young guys with lovely voices, Taylor Bloom and Ben Cooley, who play Simon and Garfunkel. They are backed up by a capable four-piece band.
The music is accompanied by projections of images from the era with which the songs are so deeply associated. We see a lot of President Kennedy, the space program, and events surrounding the Vietnam conflict. (I can’t complement the projection team by name as there were no programs.)
We get biographical tidbits about S&G, along with facts about the duo’s achievements, some delivered by the singers, some projected on the screen behind them.
The Simon and Garfunkel Story closes today, February 1, 2020. DCTS details and tickets
Bloom and Cooley pretty much stay behind mic-stands — there’s no choreography to speak of. I noticed the guitar players doing some synched moves at one point, but that’s about the extent of the movement, unless you count the times the guys would raise hands above heads to get the audience clapping along.
Bloom, as Simon, is the shorter of the two (just like in real life) and mostly holds a guitar, which may be why Cooley makes a stronger impression.
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Hair permed and blond, he sings most often with hands in pockets, like the artist he is channeling, and, also like the original, is possessed of a gorgeous, sweet, and very high-reaching voice that is well-suited to the material and that won’t disappoint as a facsimile.
Paul Simon, despite being the one of the duo who had a more impressive post-breakup career, always had the less-impressive voice of the two, and he would probably be jealous of how well his doppelgänger’s voice blends with his partner’s.
There’s something so strange to me about this type of ersatz culture. It’s neither fish nor fowl, in a way. It’s partly impersonation, but not entirely. The guys are transformed to look as much as possible like the actual singers — hair and outfits that recall the looks of the two — but they also refer to the originals in the third person as they wheel off factoids about the lives of the pair.
When the guys leave the stage at the “end” of the show without having sung “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (the rendition of which is quite lovely), you know that the evening, which has been careening back and forth between faux-concert and rockumentary, will end with an encore. This, again, is self-consciously presented, as we are told that S&G used to encore with an Everly Brothers song before that song is sung.
Who earned that encore? Simon and Garfunkel? The two singers standing before us?
Fish and fowl, I guess this wants to be, but the nostalgia buttons have all been pushed and the capacity crowd with whom I saw the show happily leapt to its feet for the obligatory standing O.
I don’t doubt that a good time was had by many. I do doubt that much of a lasting impression will be left by this “simulation.”
The Simon & Garfunkel Story. Featuring Taylor Bloom and Ben Cooley . Presented by Right Angle Entertainment. Reviewed by Christopher Henley.
It was a GOOD SHOW! –no, it’s not the originals, but the performing duo do quite well indeed.
Thanks for helping to *balance* the common mistake of writing “compliment” vice “complEment” –you getting it the other way wrong (i.e., here you DO want the former).
As for song selection : yes, they do a good job in performing many well-liked songs that are not more commonly known as “hits” –“A Hazy Shade of Winter” seeming to elicit quite a strong response from the audience w/me.
As for voices : I disagree both that Paul Simon’s voice is in any way wanting –it provided the *warmth*/*character* of the duo, and his imitator here IMO has the *surer* voice which at its upper register often sounded like Paul’s, though not the higher reach of Art’s & his imitator’s. (Which on the night had occasion of off-tune & weakness –slight but noted.)
kN*