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Theatre Talk: In Our Own Little Corner

aradia22

By aradia22
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aradia22
aradia22

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/theater/stephen-sondheim-final-interview.html I am glad he got to see the opening of this revival of Company and seemed to be living his best life 'the the end,

aradia22
aradia22
Bethany
Bethany

Just read an article about how this has "sparked a debate about theatre going etiquette".  My mind is boggling that there even needs to be a debate about this.

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

Just got back from Funny Girl national tour, and SCREW Lea Michelle, Katerina McCrimmon was fantastic. Her voice was perfect as was her comedic timing. 

I have to say I bristled at the part where Fanny’s own mom basically told her she shouldn’t have “unmanned” him by basically financially supporting him. Like, excuse me? Sure, she was dumb to ignore everyone’s warnings about Nick, but apparently the greater sin was being the lone breadwinner of the family? Ugh.

My mom thought the show should have ended with “My Man” like in the movie, but I like that they ended it on a more upbeat number where she knows she’s got to pick herself up and be on with her life. Still, I never have seen the whole movie so I think I will have watch it sometime.

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ebk57

ebk57

8 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

Having Amy Ryan in the cast is never a good reason NOT to watch something...

I don't really know her work, but my friend who's going with us really wants to see the play, so we are keeping the tickets and seeing the play.  I do love Liev, but I was really looking forward to Tyne.  I'm sure it will still be worthwhile.  

We also have tickets to Uncle Vanya with a whole bunch of really great stage actors and Steve Carrell (I'm sure he'll be lovely).  The real reason we're going during high-hotel-price season is to see the new Paula Vogel play with Jessica Lange.  Quite looking forward to that!

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

So my theater (Wharton Center) is going to announce the next season soon. They’ve been dropping hints with blurred photos; the two clue photos posted so far seem to point in the direction of Les Miserables and Life of Pi. We only just had Les Miserables in 2019 but whatever.

I usually look to what’s coming to Detroit since we usually get some of their shows and vice versa and the shows coming up for them are Beautiful Noise, The Wiz, Some Like It Hot, Kimberly Akimbo, Parade, and MJ. I’d love to get Beautiful Noise and Parade, but I wouldn’t hate The Wiz. 

I really REALLY want Back to the Future.

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ebk57

ebk57

Got the Broadway at the National email today.  I may see Kimberly Akimbo and possibly Shucked (again-really liked it when we saw it last year).  

And then again, I may just stay home.  We'll see. 

I've been enjoying the Broadway Center Stage series at the Kennedy Center.  Not sure what's up for next season, although I guess it's still early for that since we still have 2 more shows from this season to see. 

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

To anyone on this thread who has seen Moulin Rouge: So I’m getting all revved up to see the tour in April. I’m aware of the changes it makes from the movie—which I still love—especially the infamous “I paid my whore” climax of the movie. I know that part was bad, but am I the only one that thinks that what the stage version does is a million times worse? I mean, I read what happens and I was like, “Really?!?!”

Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

Wharton Center announced its 2024-2025 season: Les Miserables, Shucked, MJ, Life of Pi, Chicago, Hamilton, and Book of Mormon.

I shouldn’t complain. I’ve never seen Chicago. And it’s not that I don’t enjoy Book of Mormon, Hamilton and Les Miserables, but Hamilton has already been here twice. Why couldn’t we have gotten more new stuff like Detroit?

Oh well. Guess I’ll have to wait another year for A Beautiful Noise and Back to the Future.

 

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ebk57

ebk57

15 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Wharton Center announced its 2024-2025 season: Les Miserables, Shucked, MJ, Life of Pi, Chicago, Hamilton, and Book of Mormon.

I shouldn’t complain. I’ve never seen Chicago. And it’s not that I don’t enjoy Book of Mormon, Hamilton and Les Miserables, but Hamilton has already been here twice. Why couldn’t we have gotten more new stuff like Detroit?

Oh well. Guess I’ll have to wait another year for A Beautiful Noise and Back to the Future.

 

Chicago is fabulous!!  I really enjoyed Shucked - hope you do, too!  As for the others, I've seen them all (except Life of Pi which I have no interest in) and love them and could watch them over and over again - and did since they were all at my theatre at one time or another.  I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to see from that list. 

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

13 minutes ago, ebk57 said:

Chicago is fabulous!!  I really enjoyed Shucked - hope you do, too!  As for the others, I've seen them all (except Life of Pi which I have no interest in) and love them and could watch them over and over again - and did since they were all at my theatre at one time or another.  I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to see from that list. 

Oh we’re season subscribers so we have to see them all lol. But like I said, I can’t complain. Even the shows that I’ve already seen are good shows. At least it’s not the trashfire that was Love Never Dies *shudder*

Did you see Moulin Rouge? Like I said before, I’m seeing it next month, and after reading about the changes they made to the climax from the movie, I have…thoughts.

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

On 3/10/2024 at 8:53 PM, choclatechip45 said:

I saw Spamalot this afternoon. I thought it was okay. Ethan Slater's physical comedy was great and I enjoyed Jonathan Bennett. 

 

On 3/10/2024 at 10:51 PM, ebk57 said:

This is a show that I enjoy a great deal while I'm watching it and immediately forget it when I walk out of the theatre.

I saw Spamalot years ago and I thought it was hilarious. And I’m not even a Monty Python fan, though I am fond of Eric Idle.

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aradia22

aradia22

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There are just too many shows this season. Based on the music that's been released so far and the critical consensus for shows that have premiered, here's where things stand for me right now

Shows I'm definitely going to try to see

  • Lempicka: I'm interested in the subject matter. The leads are strong. The music sounds the most like a proper theater score and not a folksy take on pop music. 
  • Suffs: Interesting subject matter and a stacked ensemble cast. I'm not always into Shaina Taub's style and I don't love the songs I've heard but I will try to go in optimistic.

Shows I will try to see:

  • The Notebook: A strong maybe. I've been following Ingrid's music from the beginning of her career and I do enjoy a sweeping romantic show. The reviews and quoted lyrics are rough but if I have time, I will see this.
  • The Who's Tommy: Anyone I know in this cast can sing their faces off. The show doesn't interest me at all but I might go and treat it like a concert.
  • Hell's Kitchen: Of the shows by people who aren't trained musical theater composers, this one actually sounds the most interesting to me. Like, the actual sound of it. In this case, being a jukebox musical might help because the amateur songs written for the stage are so weak while at least some of these were trying to be big pop hits. 
  • The Great Gatsby: That music video sold me. I don't think it's going to be Gatsby but I'll treat it like another Paradise Square... and hopefully the show will be less convoluted this time since they have source material to work off of.
  • The Wiz: I just want to be able to see it on stage for the first time.

Shows I could skip without feeling too bad about:

  • Everyone says Paul Nolan is good and the show is bad. I don't know if I have time for another Doctor Zhivago. I'd definitely go in a weaker season but I have to think about scheduling and budget.
  • Stereophonic: I feel like if I was going to see this, it should have been off-Broadway. 
  • The Outsiders: Zero interest in the subject or the songs I've heard
  • Forbidden Broadway: I always have mixed thoughts. Maybe if it papers or is on TDF. 
MicheleinPhilly

MicheleinPhilly

Ensemble Arts Philly just announced the 2024-2025 schedule:

Hamilton, A Beautiful Noise, MJ The Musical, & Juliet, Some Like it Hot, The Wiz, Life of Pi, Les Miserables, The Book of Mormon, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Come From Away, Riverdance. 

Bolded choices are what I am leaning towards (I've seen Hamilton twice and Come From Away; I've also seen Book of Mormon but that was ages ago.) 

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

19 hours ago, PRgal said:

Re The Notebook:  I heard the rain scene is SOMETHING (though I worry that if I see it, I'd be disappointed...they seem to make it sound like it rivals the chandelier in Phantom or the helicopter in Miss Saigon)...

Seriously? From what I saw it was just a hologram screen.

20 hours ago, aradia22 said:

The Great Gatsby: That music video sold me. I don't think it's going to be Gatsby but I'll treat it like another Paradise Square... and hopefully the show will be less convoluted this time since they have source material to work off of

I’m intrigued, but I really hope they don’t soften Daisy too much. The story being in public domain has resulted in a several of retellings trying to redeem her character while making him look like Joe Goldberg.

Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

I saw Moulin Rouge! on tour today. It’s definitely a show that needs to be seen on stage: bright, colorful, loud, and sparkly. The sets alone were freaking gorgeous.

They sure crammed a lot of songs into the show. Not even the movie did that much. And while some mash-ups worked (like “Shut Up And Raise Your Glass” and putting “Single Ladies” into the big Sparkling Diamond number) worked, others…were a choice. “Firework” is a poor replacement for “One Day I’ll Fly Away.”

As someone that loves the movie, I was mostly okay with the changes. Giving Satine more agency and making Zidler more sympathetic worked. But the one thing I hated with a passion was having Christian

Spoiler

Attempt to kill himself and maybe Satine in the show before the big Come What May reprise. WTAF?! That’s a red flag.

In fact Christian came off as dumb and pushy in the second act of this version. Don't get me wrong, Christian Douglas was great and he brought the house down in the eargasm that’s “Roxanne”, but still. Gabrielle McClinton rocked as Satine and Amar Atkins was a fabulous Zidler. And I did love how the cast did the can-can for the curtain call.

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ebk57

ebk57

Quick reviews of the shows I saw a couple of weeks ago:

Uncle Vanya - I didn't hate it.  I have no background in Chekov (oddly enough since I have a degree in theatre), so I don't know the play at all.  I thought Alison Pill was the standout.  Mia Katigbak was also very good.  Steve Carell, in his Broadway debut, was good, as was the rest of the cast...other than Anika Noni Rose.  She was just strange.  The stagecraft was great.  We saw the 2nd preview, so I think the stagehands were still figuring out how quickly they had to do the intermission thing.  Glad I went.  Don't know if I'd see it again. 

Doubt - an incredible play.  I went from "so sure of this" to "well, maybe I'm wrong" to "I'm almost sure".  The cast was brilliant.  I'm still sorry that Tyne Daly had to drop out.  I still have no idea who Amy Ryan is, but she's great.  And I love Liev Schreiber.  There was a Q&A after the show that day.  Liev is really funny.  He was on a couple of the late night shows the following week.  So personable.  I'd definitely see this again. 

Mother Play - the new Paula Vogel play.  I loved it.  The cast is soooo great.  I read some takes on the Broadway board saying the play breaks no new ground, but I don't think every play needs to do that if it connects emotionally and has well-drawn characters, which IMO this play does. I do think it may have helped that Vogel grew up where I did and went to the schools I did and dropped so many local references and school names that my BFF since junior high school and I were constantly elbowing each other and trying not to make noise.  I felt kinda sorry for Mr. ebk since he did not go to the same schools and felt left out.  One the way out, Vogel was sitting in the back row of the orchestra so we stopped to chat and reminisce about our high school drama teacher.  It was lovely.  

We also ate a lot of good food, but that's for another thread.  

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EtheltoTillie

EtheltoTillie

4 hours ago, ebk57 said:

Quick reviews of the shows I saw a couple of weeks ago:

Uncle Vanya - I didn't hate it.  I have no background in Chekov (oddly enough since I have a degree in theatre), so I don't know the play at all.  I thought Alison Pill was the standout.  Mia Katigbak was also very good.  Steve Carell, in his Broadway debut, was good, as was the rest of the cast...other than Anika Noni Rose.  She was just strange.  The stagecraft was great.  We saw the 2nd preview, so I think the stagehands were still figuring out how quickly they had to do the intermission thing.  Glad I went.  Don't know if I'd see it again. 

 

Mia Katigbak!  I went to college with her!  We were good friends for the first couple of years but we drifted apart.  She was a music major.  Those of us with last names beginning in K were put together during freshman orientation. 

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aradia22

aradia22

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https://playbill.com/article/tony-nominations-2024

Hahaha. What? The Tony nominations are so weird.

I guess Best Play makes sense but Hell’s Kitchen, Illinoise, The Outsiders, Suffs, and Water for Elephants are some real choices for Best Musical. It seems fairly aligned with critic opinions where shows with more mixed notices were shut out... except Cabaret still got in there for revival. Interestingly, score doesn't mirror Best Musical with Days of Wine and Roses and Here Lies Love getting some love but the inclusion of Stereophonic shows they really did not like a lot of the scores. 

The acting nominations continue to spread things out with more shows getting recognition. Two nominations for The Notebook and two for Lempicka. That is SO MANY acting noms for Stereophonic. A fair amount of recognition for Hell's Kitchen as well. That'll stay an expensive ticket for a while. Oddly only one nomination for Suffs. 

Choices were made for Best Scenic Design of a Musical. One nomination for The Great Gatsby for Linda Cho's costumes.

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aradia22

aradia22

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I did see Teeth off-Broadway but I also sprained my ankle the same day so I'm going to need some more time to put my thoughts together.

In the meantime, here's a quick review of El Nino at the Met Opera... it was bad. I fundamentally did not understand the musical palette that John Adams was using. Regardless of genre, humans are programmed innately and also socially to understand what sounds joyful or romantic or melancholy or threatening. This man was born in Massachusetts. He chose to compose a score that mainly sounded ominous and cold with occasional breaks for something that was vaguely... mystical (that's not the perfect word choice but you know, like chimes and layered chanting). It felt pretentious and weird. 

I needed to read the program to realize the woman in yellow was a SECOND Virgin Mary. It made no sense because the things she said felt contradictory to the first Mary and she behaved differently and had a daughter. 

Visually, it looked like a pageant. Like a church play or the kind of show you put on with very young children. It was probably wood but it looked like a cardboard set with thin fabric screens for projections and fabric also used to evoke water a few times. While the projections were used effectively, it felt like it was trying to look cheap. James Ortiz can do so much more with puppets. His Biblical angels, the girl with fire, and the dragons were very underwhelming. I did like the choice to give the angels LED eyes but the focus on 2D puppets and everything looking simple and homemade... it didn't feel like it helped sell an important vision. Especially for longer scenes, the immediate impact was lost and it quickly became dull to look at. In the same way, there were one or two nice costumes but they mostly looked simple and homemade.

There were some nice dancing moments but lots of the show seemed underchoreographed like people were just told to do whatever. There was a bit in act 2 that looked like someone's arm was itchy... and then everyone started doing it. I don't know why but watching it absolutely INFURIATED me. If it had been a legitimate medical issue, I don't think I would have noticed, but having it be on stage as a bit of planned choreography it was just so annoying to watch this one dancer pull focus for no apparent reason. 

Ultimately, I felt annoyed that the show wasn't trying to make ANY kind of argument. What was it saying about Christianity? I did enjoy pieces of it like the parts taken from female poets to express the alien feeling of carrying a child and it briefly touched on how weird it was that Mary is 16 when this all happens but it doesn't interrogate anything interesting because it refuses to form its own narrative. It just vomits out references. Tell your own story. I did like the countertenors for once when they were the angels so I guess that's something. The singing was generally unremarkable.

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

(edited)

Saw Six the Boleyn Tour today, and this is now in my top favorite shows, and not just because I’m a Tudor buff. Don't ask me to pick my favorite Queen because all their solos rocked!!

I do find it ironic that the day I saw it also happened to fall on the anniversary day of Anne Boleyn’s execution—not kidding look it up, it was today. 😱

And that is it for my theater season til October. 

Edited by Spartan Girl
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ebk57

ebk57

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

Saw Six the Boleyn Tour today, and this is now in my top favorite shows, and not just because I’m a Tudor buff. Don't ask me to pick my favorite Queen because all their solo rocked!!

I do find it ironic that the day I saw it also happened to fall on the anniversary day of Anne Boleyn’s execution—not kidding look it up, it was today. 😱

And that is it for my theater season til October. 

I thought for sure this was a show that was "not for me" - but I looooove it!!!  

Glad you enjoyed it. 

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aradia22

aradia22

  • Author
(edited)

I saw Uncle Vanya tonight at LCT and I want to get my thoughts out before I forget them. I will get back to Teeth and The Lonely Few at some point. 

Happily there were no cast absences tonight. I'm not going to go super in-depth because it's Vanya so I'll mostly talk about the performances. I will say that while I think it was a strong translation, it was both buoyed and weighed down by the original text. Schreck gave it much more of a flow and there are some really excellent moments, but there are also still moments that feel a little clunky and I can't really blame her for preserving those parts of the original play rather than writing something more naturalistic. I would like to get my hands on a copy of the translation so I can reread it.

Anika Noni Rose was the most interesting to me because I've only ever seen that character as fairly shallow. A combination of the new translation and her performance gave Elena so much more depth. She becomes as shy as Sonia... a character who has an inner world that isn't much appreciated by anyone else (at least the male characters) because of her beauty. She's much more of a hothouse flower. The kind of girl who used to go to college for her Mrs. degree. Accomplished, educated, and sophisticated in her way but useless and chafing at her wifely role like a second wave feminist. I also got the sense that this translation was much more sympathetic to her as a young girl who got swept up into a relationship with an older, more powerful man. While they do play into the attraction between Elena and Astrov, she also comes across as a much more honorable character. And we're made to appreciate how even if she were to break her marriage vows, he doesn't know her (because she can't make herself speak intelligently around him and share her real self) and so it wouldn't be a love affair. I haven't seen Stereophonic and I know everyone can't get recognized every year but her performance was lovely and complex and deeply felt and stunning. I cried when she cried.

William Jackson Harper was a great Astrov. I can see why he got the Tony nomination. There was a slight choppiness in that he shifts so much based on which character he's playing off of in the scene but he does a lot of heavy-lifting overall. I appreciated the way they teased out more of the environmental activist thread. The scenes with Sonia and Elena were perfect and lovely. I do think he had to carry some of the clunkier scenes where it was impossible to make the dialogue completely naturalistic. But there was still fun there when he played off Carrell and he found the humanity by just staying connected to it as an actor (even if I maintain that the dialogue still sounded clunky). I like that they let the play be complicated. Even with the force of Harper's charisma and the attraction between Astrov and Elena, he's just as much a nice guy as Vanya in that situation. Overall, I think they used the starry cast to their advantage as there was a lot of push/pull in the interweaving storylines rather than having completely lopsided audience allegiances. 

I thought Steve Carrell did a wonderful job. Again, some clunky bits he had to sell. But even though there were some recognizable tricks, I don't think he entirely went for cheap laughs or funny line readings. He managed to play Vanya as a nice guy but not so slimy or pathetic. It's that same quality that made the 40 Year Old Virgin work. He comes across as genuinely nice even when he's pursuing Elena so aggressively and he seems completely earnest in his feelings. And when he turns self-pitying and self-destructive, it's not the sad sack Vanya I've seen in other productions. There's still something honorable about him. Shreck's writing is really smart in moments that talk about the past and Carrell makes sure we hear those moments in the script. So Vanya comes across like a man who really has been conned by life and just wants some bit of happiness or to be able to put his head down and work and stop wanting. The way he softened around Sonia was quite touching and actually sold his affection for his sister which I don't remember really coming across in other productions.

Alfred Molina was a proper pompous blowhard as Alexander. It's not a big role but of course, he's excellent in every scene. I appreciated that he didn't just chew the scenery and there were moments when he did soften like when Elena and Sonia beg him to go talk to Vanya. Also, all his dialogue sounded very natural... even when he's totally ignoring Elena to complain about his leg. 

Alison Pill was a great Sonia. She's shockingly 38 now but comes across much younger on stage. And she plays Sonia like an excited teenager. You can't help but get caught up in her adoration of Astrov even as disaster and heartbreak loom. I do think the ending is hopeful but whether or not you're Christian, it still feels poignant to count on a rewarding afterlife for all your suffering on earth. I don't remember if her relationship with Elena was quite like that in the original but I appreciated the way this production allowed us to see some female friendship on stage. 

The other actors were solid but their characters didn't register that much. Also, I sat on the right and there was a fair bit of the play when I was staring at the back of someone's head (I mean the actors) so that definitely could be affecting how I judge certain scenes and performances. 

Edited by aradia22
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meep.meep

meep.meep

Earlier in the week we went to see the Lehman Trilogy in San Francisco.  It was one of the best things I've ever seen in the theater and that's saying a lot for a 3.5 hour play with two intermissions describing the history of the Lehman Brothers Bank.  It was directed by San Mendes with a cast of three and an incredible set made of a glass conference room that spins and a whole lot of bankers boxes that are used in many different ways.

This was supposed to star Adrian Schilling (Victoria, The Last Kingdom) who passed away unexpectedly a few months ago.  He was replaced by John Heffernan who played the Soviet hotel manager in A Gentleman in Moscow.

I've been known to walk out or fall asleep if something drags.  This was fascinating and beautifully told.

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

(edited)

You know what? SCREW Linklater’s movie version of Merrily We Roll Along that he’s purposely taking his sweet time making so that the actors can authentically age. Just give us the proshot with Jonathan, Lindsey, and Daniel! I guarantee more people will want to see that!

(I mean, I’m sure Ben Platt will do great but still)

Edited by Spartan Girl
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argrow

argrow

10 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

You know what? SCREW Linklater’s movie version of Merrily We Roll Along that he’s purposely taking his sweet time making so that the actors can authentically age. Just give us the proshot with Jonathan, Lindsey, and Daniel! I guarantee more people will want to see that!

(I mean, I’m sure Ben Platt will do great but still)

It's happening!

https://deadline.com/2024/06/merrily-we-roll-along-filming-daniel-radcliffe-jonathan-groff-1235977366/

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