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.
