Cast List
NY TIMES REVIEW EXCERPTS: Gods, Greeks and Ancient Shtick: EVEN the crème de la crème can curdle every now and then. Consider ''The Frogs,'' which opened last night at the Vivian Beaumont Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. This musical updating of a 1974 adaptation of Aristophanes' 2,400-year-old comedy of gods and playwrights has the highest concentration of blue-ribbon talent of any show now on Broadway. As for Mr. Lane and Mr. Bart, they are drowned in their own sea of one-liners. Without being linked to real personalities, like the characters they played in ''The Producers,'' only the mechanics of these men's considerable comic techniques are in evidence. Early in the show, when Dionysos is explaining his mission to Herakles, his half-brother, he begins a sentence by saying, ''Anyway, to make a long story even more interminable . . . '' Which demonstrates that while ''The Frogs'' may not make it as Attic comedy, it shares an essential trait with Greek tragedy: self-knowledge that changes nothing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TONY AWARD HAVEN OPINION: I entirely discount "Frogs" from the Best Musical Tony because it was mixed with critics, and not a hit at the box office. Also, it is now closed. Look for a possible nod for Mr. Sondheim for the music, and possibly one for the book for Mr. Lane.
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