Theatre Talk: In Our Own Little Corner

[Rinaldo]

4 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Nice piece of material that starts off the number--do we know who wrote it?

It's oddly hard to track down full crew credits for this (IMDb is meager, and I'd like to know who the dance arranger was who built it all so wonderfully -- and who the orchestrator was too). But I've determined that "A New Pair of Shoes" was written specially for the occasion by Kander and Ebb.

4 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I was amused that the orchestration for Van Johnson and Jane Powell sounded just like 

"Perpetual sunset
Is rather an unsett-
ling thing."

I noticed that too! Also the quiet interlude when Alfonso Ribeiro first appears is definitely cribbed from several parts of Der Rosenkavalier. (And he finishes his solo with his signature pose from his Pepsi commercial with Michael Jackson that was sweeping the country around then.)

The number is great for thinking "Aw, I wish they'd gotten X -- oh, there s/he is now!" And for seeing how starstruck all the stars are with each other.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Rinaldo

[Silver Raven]

Michael Urie is starring in Torch Song, with Ward Horton and Jack DiFalco.

[Spartan Girl]

I saw School of Rock last night, and it was awesome! I can't believe Andrew Lloyd Webber did it because it's so different than the rock operas that he usually does, but it might be his best show in years!

The kids of course stole the show; they are so talented. And the guy that played Dewey Finn had Jack Black's mannerisms down to a T. The one line I loved was how The Man was responsible for the Kardashians. ????

A great start to my theater's Broadway season! I don't think I'm gonna enjoy Love Never Dies next month, though...

[Rinaldo]

9 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Michael Urie is starring in Torch Song, with Ward Horton and Jack DiFalco.

I saw this cast off Broadway a year ago. I also saw the original production right after it opened on Broadway in 1982. The new one felt less memorable, to the extent I can trust memory across that span, but that may be due simply to the unavoidable fact that Harvey Fierstein's brand of humor and insight, his "voice," was brand-new to all of us then -- it was something that hadn't been seen before, but now of course he's had many successors. I can't fault the skills of the cast (Mercedes Ruehl didn't work for me as the mother, but she was undoubtedly doing what she was asked to do; again, Estelle Getty was something unique, a bubbly lovable surface with the meanness buried far underneath.) I'll be interested to see how it fares commercially now.

[dbklmt]

9 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

A great start to my theater's Broadway season! I don't think I'm gonna enjoy Love Never Dies next month, though...

You won't.  I HATED IT when it played in Costa Mesa last season.  Phantom was wonderful; Love Never Dies was not.

Like you I loved School of Rock!  Ditto for those amazingly talented kids and the actor who played Dewey Finn.

[ebk57]

I'm going to see Ian McKellen in King Lear at the movies (broadcast live from the West End) Thursday afternoon.  Because...Ian McKellen.  I'll survive the King Lear part (I hope).

[shoregirl]

6 hours ago, dbklmt said:

You won't.  I HATED IT when it played in Costa Mesa last season.  Phantom was wonderful; Love Never Dies was not.

 

I looked up the Synopsis of Love Never Dies after seeing Phantom last year.. It sounded terrible.

I loved Phantom in high school but didn't enjoy it as much 20 years later. It's very front loaded song wise .

[JustaPerson]

Ugh, I love Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess as the Phantom and Christine (I listen to the recording of their performance at the 25th anniversary with Hadley Fraser as Raoul rather than the OBC) but Love Never Dies sounds absolutely awful. I hate that people romanticize the Phantom. People who murder 2 people, pretend to be your dad, and then kidnap you and threaten to murder your fiance if you don't marry him do not make good boyfriends!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

1 hour ago, JustaPerson said:

People who murder 2 people, pretend to be your dad, and then kidnap you and threaten to murder your fiance if you don't marry him do not make good boyfriends!

Hahahaha, Christine needs this embroidered on a pillow!

I saw the national tour last week. I wanted to see it because I remembered loving the music when I was younger. Mr. EB was not as enthused about going to see it because he said he's not a fan of the story. I think this just goes to show how liking a melody or lyrics can affect how much you like a show in spite of its storyline. This was only my second time seeing Phantom live (although I have watched the anniversary specials and old school bootlegs - if you ever want to fall down a YouTube rabbit hole, the comparison videos of the final lair will eat up a good hour of your life). The first time I saw it was over 20 years ago when the Ahmanson in LA had a sit down so it was a loooooooong time ago. There are some things that I remember very clearly so even though it's been a really long time, I still noticed a lot of the changes that have been made over time.

I know that on tours, they often have to reduce the grandiosity of the sets. In earlier tours, they got rid of the giant gate that separates Raoul from Christine and the Phantom in the final lair and that was the case here. They also got rid of the staircase for Masquerade which I expected. Instead of the Phantom and Christine running through the catwalk, they had a giant turning building with stairs that they slowly walked down. The boat ride was greatly truncated as well. They were barely in the boat before they got out. Hee, as dramatic as the boat ride is, I always have to stifle a giggle as I think about all the fog pouring into the orchestra pit onto all the poor musicians night after night.

One other really noticeable change was that when Raoul is trying to talk Christine into agreeing to do Don Juan Triumphant so that they can catch the Phantom, she slaps him. Apparently that's a tour thing because I saw on someone's IG (one of the actresses who has played Christine recently), they said that the Raoul slap had to be downgraded to the Raoul tap (which I guess means that she used to slap him even harder than what I saw) but that they would never allow that in the other versions of the show (Broadway or West End).

The biggest and most disappointing change was that when Christine comes back to return his ring, he doesn't know she's there so he doesn't turn around and she just leaves it on the table for him to find. THAT SUCKED.

Production changes aside, it was interesting to watch the show as an adult and see the actual story through a different lens. An older guy creeps on a very young chorus girl, kidnaps her, threatens her, kills a few people, blackmails her into performing his opera, kidnaps her again, and threatens to kill her fiance if she doesn't stay with him. But because he looooooooooves her.

During my youthful love for Phantom, I read Phantom by Susan Kay which was a really interesting novelization of the Phantom story. It gives him a lot more backstory and an interesting twist at the end. He's still a murderer but he is more humanized than the version seen in the musical where he just comes off as a petulant stalker.

[Silver Raven]

On 9/21/2018 at 7:05 PM, ebk57 said:

I'm going to see Ian McKellen in King Lear at the movies (broadcast live from the West End) Thursday afternoon.  Because...Ian McKellen.  I'll survive the King Lear part (I hope).

Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson will be starring in King Lear on Amazon Prime starting Friday.

[Spartan Girl]

Oh boy. All this Phantom talk is not making me feel any more optimistic. Why oh why couldn't my theater have done Aladdin instead?! I know I already saw it on Broadway but I wouldn't have minded seeing it again.

I have a feeling LND will join Memphis as my least favorite show. I mean, Memphis was a good story and the music was great, but I absolutely hated the ending. You try to stand up for what you believe in and life kicks your ass and you lose everything. Okay, great, thanks, good to know !/sarcasm

[ElectricBoogaloo]

2 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Oh boy. All this Phantom talk is not making me feel any more optimistic. Why oh why couldn't my theater have done Aladdin instead?! I know I already saw it on Broadway but I wouldn't have minded seeing it again.

I have a feeling LND will join Memphis as my least favorite show. I mean, Memphis was a good story and the music was great, but I absolutely hated the ending. You try to stand up for what you believe in and life kicks your ass and you lose everything. Okay, great, thanks, good to know !/sarcasm

If you like Phantom, the current tour is fine. The costumes are gorgeous and so bedazzled that they glitter even if you aren't in the first few rows. I still find enjoy the music/lyrics lovely (heh, except that one terrible Don Juan song that I never liked). Heh, I can't promise the same for Love Never Dies though. I tried watching the official recorded version (I think it was the Australian production?) and I didn't like the songs or the storyline.

[DisneyBoy]

I loved and love the original Phantom way too much to ever sit through LND. I wouldn't want to tarnish my memories of it like that. The sequel is bad fanfiction, compounded by the fact that it kind of feels like Andrew Lloyd Webber has inserted himself and Brightman's real life narrative into the story. Good luck! I would sell off the tickets to some poor saps who don't know any better, then do some penance, change your name and move to a new city to start fresh.

Quote

The biggest and most disappointing change was that when Christine comes back to return his ring, he doesn't know she's there so he doesn't turn around and she just leaves it on the table for him to find. THAT SUCKED.

Never heard about that change, but it doesn't surprise me. The show does things differently just for the sake of it, and also does everything it can to better align with the crappy sequel.

Edited September 23, 2018 by DisneyBoy

[Milburn Stone]

On 9/20/2018 at 9:08 PM, Rinaldo said:

It's oddly hard to track down full crew credits for this (IMDb is meager, and I'd like to know who the dance arranger was who built it all so wonderfully -- and who the orchestrator was too). But I've determined that "A New Pair of Shoes" was written specially for the occasion by Kander and Ebb.

That's exactly who I assumed it came from, just from the sound of the music and the feel of the words. I'm glad your detective work corroborates my educated guess. Thanks. :)

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Almost Famous being made into a musical

[Silver Raven]

I'm watching the Anthony Hopkins Lear, and so far, really enjoying it.  It's set in modern times, in a fascist England run by the military.  Hopkins is Lear, Emma Thompson is Goneril, Emily Watson is Regan.  Jim Broadbent is Kent. Edmund is black, played by John Macmillan.  The King of France and Duke of Burgundy are African princes.  Edgar is a scientist, examining the sun and its portents through a telescope.

[Milburn Stone]

@Silver Raven, where is this Lear watchable?

[dbklmt]

6 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

@Silver Raven, where is this Lear watchable?

It's on Amazon Prime Video.

[SchoolAgeActor]

Hey, so I am playing a character for my high school's fall play, and I am having trouble playing a character I've been cast as. This character has at least two distinct personalities, but some of my fellow castmates claim it's three. I don't know how to approach playing this character, and was hoping for some advice on playing this character.

[aradia22]

@SchoolAgeActor What is the character? What play is he/she from?

[aradia22]

Quote

Producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig announced today that the Tony Award-winning, record-shattering Broadway production of Kinky Boots will play its final performance on April 7, 2019. At the time of its closing, the musical will be the 25th longest-running production in Broadway history, having played 2,507 regular performances and 34 previews.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/KINKY-BOOTS-Will-Close-On-Broadway-This-Spring-20180928

[bosawks]

Kinky Boots has one of the most life affirming finales I have ever seen.

It actually makes you feel that things will get better and to be hopeful.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I saw Aaron Tveit perform earlier this week and he was great as expected. I saw on youtube that he often includes a lot of pop songs but this time he did mostly musical theater stuff (and two of the pop songs he sang are in Moulin Rouge). He sang Live in Living Color (Catch Me If You Can), Fight the Dragons (Big Fish), I Miss the Mountains (Next to Normal), something from The Last Five Years (I can't remember which song), Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen), Sandy (Grease)/Heart and Soul mashup, One Song Glory and part of Take Me or Leave Me (Rent), Every Breath You Take (The Police), Shut Up and Dance (Walk the Moon), Come What May (Moulin Rouge). Nothing from Les Mis, Wicked, Hairspray, Assassins, or Company.

He said that Moulin Rouge procured the musical rights for Every Breath You Take but that they only use one line of the entire song, which he thought was crazy. The show also includes a RickRoll which he didn't think was funny in rehearsal but gets laughs at every performance so he admitted he was wrong about that. Despite no songs from Wicked, he did a brief Idina Menzel impression that was pretty accurate.

Mr. EB only knew Aaron Tveit from watching his short-lived tv show Graceland, but he enjoyed the performance (despite being unfamiliar with the songs from Catch Me If You Can, Big Fish, Next to Normal, and The Last Five Years).

[aradia22]

First opera of the season. Samson et Dalila. Thoughts...

In general, I thought the misogyny was light enough to be bearable. I could have certainly seen it being worse given the subject. But Salome was definitely worse (in addition to some other operas that don't wear their misogyny on their sleeves). I thought it was actually somewhat sympathetic/realistic for Dalila to be a woman scorned who felt demeaned by being rejected by Samson and insecure about her power to captivate him. I did think Elina's portrayal was a little confusing because there was nothing in the libretto to show that she really loved Samson or that she had any regrets but she kept trying to act those moments with body language and it was mostly just a distraction from the other action on stage. 

Also, I don't think this is going in my list of favorite scores. Act one was the roughest. The music just sounded SO French to me. It created a lot of dissonance when trying to absorb the story and the setting. There was also a foreignness in the musical language. Musically what was supposed to convey things like triumph and seduction and religious fervor just weren't what those things sound like in my brain. 

ACT ONE: I liked the set. There have certainly been prettier sets at the Met but I thought this was very effective for all the scene changes, mainly because of the lighting. I thought the lighting was particularly effective tonight. Linda Cho (Gentleman's Guide, Anastasia) did the costumes. There was some nice variations with the Israelites given how simple they were supposed to be dressed. Some nice draping. I did think the Philistines were a little over the top. For soldiers, generals, etc. there was a lot of red and gold and jewels. Think of the dress Christy wears at the end of Anastasia. Some nice detailing though. I think she really likes unconventional fabrics. In all three acts I saw at least one costume that I thought might have used something like upholstery, curtaining, etc. fabric rather than traditional garment fabric.

The act ends wonderfully with Dalila's entrance and female dancers. The choreography was by Austin McCormick who runs Company XIV and he brought some of his dancers with him. If you don't know, Company XIV has a very sexy burlesque vibe. They incorporate pole dancing, ballet, tap, and quick choreo that seems influenced by ballroom/flamenco dancing. For Dalila's entrance, Linda gave the ensemble these filmy sheer panels of fabric to play with and Austin toned down his regular choreo a lot to something that was more feminine and soft but I definitely saw some of the sexiness whenever they got on the floor. That scene made for a beautiful stage picture and the Dalila costume on Elina was also beautiful. 

ACT TWO: The design was so bad in act 2. The set looked like some kind of tacky Florida resort hotel. It was like an aquamarine lit with sunset (orange, yellow, purple) colors and it made no sense for the setting. Then Linda seemed to pick up on the crazy because she put Elina in an ugly pink overdress with big pillows in the shoulders and an acid lime green nightgown underneath. Why? That would have barely made sense in Head Over Heels. What I did like was hearing the dark color from a villanous mezzo-soprano which is something I haven't heard much in opera. Her going back and forth with the priest was great and finally the musical language made sense to me. They sounded evil and nefarious. I liked the contrast when Samson arrived and she went back to a higher, romantic sound and played into gender roles. She had decent chemistry with Alagna. I'm not saying it was Diana Damrau/Vittorio Grigolo but I've certainly seen worse. Her big arias were all fierce though with "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix" I think I liked what the orchestra was doing more than the vocal line. The violins felt more romantic and seductive than the melody being sung. (If anyone wants to recommend a good recording, I want to give it another chance.)

ACT THREE: I didn't want to comment on Roberto Alagna's singing because it turns out he was sick. He sounded alright but not exceptional and he was definitely hoarse on his final note in act 2. Before act 3 started, someone came out to make an announcement that another singer would make his Met debut and replace him for act 3. I didn't catch his name. Act 3 started with another ugly set when Samson was in prison. Not that the prison set should look beautiful but there was another weirdly modern set piece in addition to the wheel he was turning. I didn't love the temple either with the big man (assuming it was supposed to be the god Dagon but it just looked like a mannequin). The lighting was back to liven up the set. There was an extended dance sequence here mostly with the male dancers and the Austin McCormick choreography really shone through but still not quite as sexy. It livened up what was otherwise a boring temple scene so I was into it. (Seriously, is there a rule in opera that the directors are not allowed to tell the chorus to do anything but stand there?) The dance sequence was also interesting for having music that finally made some attempt to sound less French. For his debut, I thought the replacement tenor did well but it was nothing that jumped out at me (of course he had to pretend to be blind for most of it). They didn't end with the temple crashing down (not sure how they would have accomplished that with such a big set). They just turned on the smoke machines, changed the lighting to red and really went for it with the orchestra. It worked though because they had been so deliberate with this screen coming down before/after each act so it felt like a freeze frame as the temple was starting to crash in on itself. At other times that screen was annoying though as it obscured the action at the beginning of acts in a way that felt unnecessary. 

tl;dr A decent start to the season. The libretto wasn't too boring or aggravating and the music was an interesting change of pace though it created a lot of dissonance for me. Mostly beautiful costumes from Linda Cho though I thought she could have stretched herself more (very Anastasia). Some beautiful, fierce singing from Elina and a cool energy in the room after a surprise Met debut. Also seeing a few of my favorite Company XIV dancers made me happy. 

[aradia22]

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Te-Adoro-Anton-Ansel-Elgort-to-Play-Tony-in-Steven-Spielberg-WEST-SIDE-STORY-20181001

I don't know enough about his singing voice to know how I should feel about this. But this definitely means they're casting young, or at least young-looking. You can't cast an older-looking Maria against a baby-faced Ansel Elgort. On the one hand, Spielberg gave us Smash. On the other hand, he gave us Smash. :P

[ElectricBoogaloo]

50 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

On the one hand, Spielberg gave us Smash. On the other hand, he gave us Smash. :P

Truer words were never spoken!

[DisneyBoy]

If anyone knows where I can find the audio bootleg of Betty Buckley in the Hello Dolly tour, please message me. Apparently one already exists!

 

I'd love to see her, but it ain't gonna happen...

[aradia22]

Quote

Tina - The Tina Turner Musical, the new musical based on the life of legendary artist Tina Turner, will officially come to Broadway in Fall 2019. Specific dates/theatre have not yet been announced.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Official-TINA-THE-TINA-TURNER-MUSICAL-Will-Open-on-Broadway-in-Fall-2019-20181003

[aradia22]

Jonas Kaufmann concert tonight to open my 2018-2019 season at Carnegie Hall. It was all German operetta. UGH. It wasn't terrible. But it was so thoroughly mediocre that it was immediately tedious. There was one orchestral piece I liked and 2 or 3 moments when he actually brought some energy. But otherwise? Ugh. It was so mediocre and yet the applause was so hearty that I started thinking I was crazy.

First I thought my hearing was going but it was fine. There were some nice violin moments (though weirdly they always sound thin at Carnegie) and the percussion and brass were deafening so that wasn't it. Then I thought maybe I just didn't like the songs or genre but I like operetta and I like musical theater voices that are influenced by opera. Then I thought maybe it was just that the music was unfamiliar but there's plenty of music I immediately take to upon hearing it for the first time. I thought maybe I was having a bad night but the magic of theater and live music is that a good show can always pull me in regardless of what kind of day I'm having. It even stops my cold and allergy symptoms sometimes. This was just lame. 

His means of emoting is shaking his head yes, shaking his head no, and opening and closing his eyes. His "dead behind the eyes" eyes. He gesticulates a bit but it's really telling that without a translation it's impossible to know what he's singing about. Sad song, happy song, love song, comedic song? Who knows? There were also some sloppy bits, poor phrasing, rough notes, a lot of marking and faux emotional ways of being lazy with the singing. I just kept thinking... this is the guy everyone is always going on about? Meh.

I'm going to try listening to the CD he made a few years ago at some point to see if my opinion changes on him or the material. But right now I'm adding him to Kristine Opolais on my list of opera singers to avoid.

[aradia22]

Yay! So that thing that surfaced a while ago wasn't a lie. They are going to be streaming Paul Gordon's Emma starring Kelli Barrett.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/Streaming-Musicals-Will-Launch-with-New-Jane-Austen-Musical-EMMA-20181001

[aradia22]

So I'm home from Black Light. I'm very conflicted. I'm glad I saw it. But I'm not quite sure how to talk about it. I think there are one of two ways to look at it. Do you think it's the responsibility of the author/performer/artist, etc. to present their work in the most effective way possible? Or do you think it's the responsibility of the audience to meet the work at its level and be responsive to whatever is presented. I normally wouldn't think about this but the personal nature of the work and the subject matter make me hesitate in what my normal demands might be. 

Let's take the first approach. If the author bears the responsibility, then this work is flawed. It takes influence from Prince and disco (with a sort of Diana Ross/Cher glamour) and Hedwig. But it struggles in the middle ground of that. It's a small theater (the one where they did the recent Sweeney Todd) with chairs in the back, a mezz, and a front space that feels like a cabaret. The Jomama Jones persona has some of that old school glamour with excellent lighting (truly gorgeous at times) and frequent fabulous costume changes. But this isn't a fun drag show. She feels more like a... charming hostess. And the show engages a lot with the current moment and politics and tries to take the approach of a visitor from the future and touches on astronomy and astrophysics and mixes it with psychedelic funk disco and also the dreamy philosophy of something like Origin of Love from Hedwig (though applied to different subjects). But the conceit isn't fully cashed out and it seems more like a way of evoking a mood. Unlike Hedwig the music isn't as catchy. It's like spoken word poetry filtered through a bit of pop and disco and some other genres. A lot of times phrases don't rhyme and the volume of the music and the cacophony fights your ability to cue into what the lyrics are communicating. There's a performance art aspect but it's not as grungy or raw or transgressive or aggressive as it might be. While the show asks some pointed questions, the audience always feels safe. It's not that threatening or challenging. The "story" is more like the memoirs I like to read. A series of essays on different topics that eventually paints something of an incomplete picture of a person and what they might care about. That's what this feels like. There's a story about a chicken and Prince poster and this and that and it's all entertaining but there's only a moment or two when it feels raw. And those moments are fantastic but they could be carried into the performance of other songs.

Now let's take the second approach. If the audience bears the responsibility, then I should just take this for what it is. I shouldn't demand a more coherent structure and a neat through line. I shouldn't demand the performance of either raw emotion because it's not up to a black man blurring the lines between black male and black female identity to perform the effect of racial trauma for an audience to understand and connect with that trauma. I should enjoy the parts when the music is fun and just go along with the parts that are slower or more like spoken word poetry set to music because it's earnest and honest (as usual, I find there's a struggle when the writer is being earnest to still be eloquent and not trite). I should accept these messages in the form they come in because it shouldn't need to be presented in a neat package for me to engage with these ideas. The performance of grunge and grittiness requires a level of degradation and perhaps she should be allowed to be a beautiful woman in glamorous, sparkly clothes. Maybe it's not reasonable to demand vocal perfection. I think Daniel Alexander Jones has an excellent voice. But it's not a woman's voice. And there are issues. Jomama often sounds great when she's more solo or the leading line and she's singing closer to Daniel's natural register. But the attempts at falsetto are not at the level of the men who have mastered that kind of falsetto (whether they're trying to sound male or female) and sometimes the harmonies with her backup singers are rough. 

I do think there are some good insights to take away from this show. The importance of allowing yourself all emotions. The acknowledgement that sacrifices must be made and we will likely lose people in the struggle. That bearing witness is more that passive observation and requires some shouldering of the burden. Believing that part of change is being able to imagine a future with true freedom and that hope has to be locate in that imagined future we perhaps can't conceive of at the moment. But as an artistic project, I do think there are strategies that could be employed to make it more coherent and effective. I just don't know if it's right that I ask for those changes.

Also, I will say that if you plan to see it and you hate audience interaction, they move through the audience A LOT and they bring the lights up quite a few times and she may speak to you or touch you if you seem receptive but not in any prolonged way. It's not like if you see a stand up who wants to do crowd work. It's very minimal. But it might happen. 

[Silver Raven]

On 10/1/2018 at 11:27 PM, aradia22 said:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Te-Adoro-Anton-Ansel-Elgort-to-Play-Tony-in-Steven-Spielberg-WEST-SIDE-STORY-20181001

I don't know enough about his singing voice to know how I should feel about this. But this definitely means they're casting young, or at least young-looking. You can't cast an older-looking Maria against a baby-faced Ansel Elgort. On the one hand, Spielberg gave us Smash. On the other hand, he gave us Smash. :P

He has a few videos out:

 

[aradia22]

Tonight I saw the production of A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur playing at the Theatre at St. Clement's. To cut to the chase, I do not recommend it. It's a poor production of a lesser Williams play (at least based on my limited knowledge of his work from the movies... Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Streetcar). It's all bitterness without any sympathy. 

In another play, Dottie would be the protagonist, Bodey would be the kindly older friend, Helena would be the villain, and Gluck would be a pitiable creature. But Williams gives them all sympathetic arguments and character weaknesses leaving you with a play where everyone is unlikable and you're not sure where this dreadful adventure is going and then it just ends in a resigned way. It did not help that this was almost 2 hours (1h 50min) with no intermission and that none of the humor landed. Well, I shouldn't say that. But very little of the humor landed. I could hear it in the text but the way the lines were delivered, it didn't work. The actress playing Dottie is certainly beautiful and her accent/lower-pitched voice was interesting but there was no charisma to her performance. She should have been a delusional version of Blanche Devereaux (Golden Girls) that morphed into a more pathetic version of Blanche DuBois (premature ejaculation, really???). There's a dreadful sense of inevitability hanging over her story line even if you can't predict exactly what's in the newspaper (though I did because I've seen movies and TV before). I HATED Bodey. I gather the audience is supposed to be on her side to some degree, especially given her care for Sophie and the way she goes up against Helena. But I found her so much more awful than Helena and so hypocritical. She was just as selfish in wanting children and not caring at all what Dottie told her (side note: OMG the repetition in this play was also killer. It's like it just kept going in circles). Helena might have been snooty but she wasn't wrong about Bodey's lack of taste and her lack of real sensitivity, at least to Dorothea. Also, Bodey was a big bully, using her physical strength as well as all kinds of manipulation. Helena was at least honest about what she wanted. I found Helena the most sympathetic. She might care too much about mingling with the right type of people but she was honest and pragmatic. Unfortunately you couldn't quite like her because of her attitude towards Bodey and Sophie but her loneliness spoke to me the most. She seemed to be making the most effort to make a realistic life for herself without settling. Sophie was just a mess. How could a character like that be sympathetic? In a different kind of comedy, she'd be an antagonist. She was so intrusive and boorish. I appreciated having a play with four actresses but the whole endeavor was rather miserable and it painted a very bleak picture of what men think women's lives are like. 

I think one of the biggest problems is that Williams usually elevates what might be mundane melodrama to grand tragedy but this felt terribly pedestrian. And rendered without sophistication or sympathy it was unpleasant to sit through. And the lack of authenticity in the performances made this production of a lesser play worse. As mentioned, Jean Lichty was beautiful but lacking any charisma as Dorothea. Kristine Nielsen had the most energy as Bodey but it was still the wrong energy. Annette O'Toole seemed miscast as Helena. She didn't have the sharpness to sell Helena's more stinging barbs but she also wasn't able to quite bring out the sympathetic parts of her character. She tried but the production didn't support her. I suppose Polly McKie wasn't terrible as Sophie but the direction didn't seem interested in having her play anything but the broadest aspects of the character. For Off-Broadway, I suppose the sets and costumes were serviceable.

[aradia22]

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Jerry-Zaks-Directs-Adam-Chanler-Berat-Will-Swenson-and-More-in-NANTUCKET-SLEIGH-RIDE-20181011

New John Guare play for the Mitzi Newhouse

My reaction to the cast: Hmn... definitely intrigued. Not starry to the general public but a lot of notable names to me. 

My reaction to the description of the show: NO! KILL IT WITH FIRE!

I will only see it if they paper.

[Spartan Girl]

I'm seeing Love Never Dies tomorrow.  This must be the first time I have ever not been excited to see a show.  I'm keeping that to myself, because my mom is excited and I don't want to spoil it for her.  Plus, I'm hoping that there might be one or two things that might actually be enjoyable.  

[bosawks]

6 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

I'm seeing Love Never Dies tomorrow.  This must be the first time I have ever not been excited to see a show.  I'm keeping that to myself, because my mom is excited and I don't want to spoil it for her.  Plus, I'm hoping that there might be one or two things that might actually be enjoyable.  

I recommend going with a sense of ironic detachment and just lean in to the whatthefuckery of it all.

Wine also helps........

[HazelEyes4325]

8 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I'm seeing Love Never Dies tomorrow.  This must be the first time I have ever not been excited to see a show.  I'm keeping that to myself, because my mom is excited and I don't want to spoil it for her.  Plus, I'm hoping that there might be one or two things that might actually be enjoyable.  

I had tickets to this show as part of the season package I had to buy to get Hamilton tickets..  It is the only time I refused to see a show--I ended up donating the tickets to my kids' school's auction and writing them off on my taxes.

[Spartan Girl]

9 hours ago, bosawks said:

I recommend going with a sense of ironic detachment and just lean in to the whatthefuckery of it all.

Wine also helps........

Good advice. I'd go for the booze but I'm pretty sure they don't sell it at my theater. Will post my thoughts tomorrow.

[aradia22]

Saw Aida last night at the Met. Anna Netrebko was Aida. Anita Rachvelishvili was Amneris. Aleksandrs Antonenko was Radames. Quinn Kelsey was Amonasro.

Act 1: My favorite part was "Ritorna vincitor," the rest was just an endurance test as I was already sleepy when I got there (my fault, I know). Netrebko was in great voice. I don't know how else to describe it but her voice feels like this glowing ball of energy that ascends to the top of the house. It's nothing to do with straight tone or vibrato. She has a way of singing where the notes seem not just rounded but enveloped. She has a perfect ingenue voice. "Celeste Aida" was a big old MEH for me. The tenor had a tendency to blare the notes out. You know people who can't actually riff sort of shake their heads to mimic the effect? It felt like he was singing straight tone and shaking his head to mimic vibrato. It was a weird sound. He's probably an excellent technical singer. He hit all the notes. I just didn't find it that enjoyable to listen to. Also, his acting was bland and he kept looking down as though the lyrics were written on his hand or somewhere on the floor of the stage. Amneris' role is very minimal in Act 1 though I did find anytime the voices were layered to be very sloppy. It was just a mush of sound where you couldn't pick out voices. The temple scene was unutterably boring. I almost fell asleep. Seriously.

Act 2: Thank God this woke me up. The opening with Amneris an her servants/handmaidens was very pretty. The ballet bit was not fabulous. The choreography was kind of inexplicable. When Amneris faced off with Aida to learn if she really loved Radames, Anita only brought mild sass with her acting but vocally she brought it. The big procession was a nice spectacle. I also enjoyed the music in this section. I don't know if I loved the sets throughout the production but in combination with the gorgeous costumes and the number of bodies on stage it makes for an impressive sight. Speaking of the costumes they seem more influenced by ancient Egyptian decorative objects and European interpretations of that style rather than what we know of fashion from that time period but I enjoyed the glamorous ridiculousness of it. The second ballet that goes on in this act was even more inexplicably choreographed than the earlier pas de deux and again almost put me to sleep so thank god for all the trumpets.

Act 3: The Ramfis and Amneris bit was boring. This was right after the second intermission and I was seriously flagging. I know they need to serve meals and people need to go to the bathroom but if you go to a long opera when you're tired, the long intermissions are a serious endurance test. I thought Kelsey could have been a bit better but I liked that section musically. There was a nice contrast between Amonasro cajoling Aida into his plan and then turning cold and emotionally manipulating her. O patria mia was beautifully sung but the melody was a little sleepy for my state of mind. When Radames showed up I felt like Aleksandrs had finally come to play. He was great in that section (I mean, his acting was still indifferent) where Aida eventually gets him to reveal the army's route. 

Act 4: I feel like they did wrong by Amonasro by just killing him off stage with a thrown away line by Amneris. But anyway, everyone continued to be great but this act really belonged to Anita as Amneris. She was so fierce. Radames is a pretty straightforward dude. He's consistently in love with Aida but also a loyal soldier until Act 4 but not a lot of his inner conflict is depicted on stage. Aida is a typical ingenue and faces a lot of things that inspire inner turmoil (including Amneris' mind games) and then her father emotionally manipulates her and she turns femme fatale for a hot second but just barely. She mostly sings about trees or flowers or something and you can believe that she's honestly convincing Radames to run away with her, not just to betray himself and his country. Also, she's pretty depressive and ready to die even in act 1 so it doesn't feel like there's much of a journey. She starts the angst meter at 11. But Amneris starts with this very feminine pretty soprano. She's manipulative and coy. And then we see all her real anguish and passion in act 4 and hear the real strength in her voice. I loved it. The trial was another slow part for me. It's very repetitive. The lovers in their tomb was good but I was flagging again by that point.

All in all, a fairly good experience. I wish I'd been less tired and if I was watching a taped version, there are parts I definitely would have fastforwarded through but there was some excellent singing and I'm still a big Netrebko fan. I think I preferred it to Samson and Dalila but they were different. Even though this was my first time seeing both productions, S&D had an element of surprise where there was always the opportunity for weird (sometimes terrible) choices to be made. With Aida you could feel that it was an older production and the life came from the main characters and the vocal performances. The most exciting thing about the production itself was one fidgety horse that didn't seem quite under the control of his handler. I'm glad I checked it off the list but I don't feel the need to return unless there's some really excellent casting in the future. 

[Spartan Girl]

So. Love Never Dies. I lowered my expectations, and really helped being in row P so it's so much easier to detach yourself while watching stuff you don't like (I never thought I'd say this, but I'm so glad I watched shit like Twilight and Scandal because it trained me how to hate-watch without getting worked up).

And you know, it wasn't ALL terrible. The Coney Island scenery was gorgeous, as were the costumes -- especially Christine's peacock dress. The cast were all great singers, and while the music will never measure up to Phantom, it was very intense. I did love the "Love Never Dies" and "Til I Hear You Sing" numbers.

Unfortunately, none of those things could make up for the dumpster fire of a plot. What the hell were you thinking, Andrew Lloyd Webber?! Have you no sense of consistency or character development?! You could have at least tried to make the Phantom more remorseful over his past and less twisted, BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 

Let it be enough to say that except for the cute little boy Gustave, every character was either an idiot or terrible. Although I could still muster some sympathy for Raoul, since it must really suck to know your wife is holding a torch for another man/her stalker. 

The ending was so eyerollingly stupid. Even my mom thought it would have been more fitting if the Phantom had died instead. Not that I gave a shit about Christine, who was too stupid to live. She and the Phantom pretty much deserved each other at that point.

I'm just going to treat this as it was: fanfiction on crack. As far as I'm concerned, Phantom is a standalone that was perfect the way it ended. ALW is lucky School of Rock was such a hit after this.

Bright side: the rest of my theater season looks great. I can look forward to Fiddler on the Roof, Anastasia, Miss Saigon and Hamilton in peace.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Spartan Girl

[aradia22]

Saw Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet this afternoon. I don't recommend it. I don't not recommend it either. 

Bedlam uses some of the tricks they employed in their production of Vanity Fair (and I assume their other productions) to break the tension and introduce a level of absurdity but there's only so much to be done when your source material is Uncle Vanya and Romeo & Juliet. Also, these devices further cloud compression when you're already dealing with a mash up of two plays. I don't know Uncle Vanya at all and I know R&J quite well. I think it helps to know both though it's probably more important to know Vanya. I mean, I understood the basic plot fine. I could recount it to you and assuming it was faithfully adapted, I remember all the plot points. But there was so much distance created from the story and the characters and I lost a sense of the arguments being laid out which is the real important part of a play like that, not who kisses whom and stuff like that. I do think the adaptation was an issue. Certainly you can do contemporary Russian theater the way you can do contemporary Shakespeare. But this was an odd approach. At times when they were philosophizing, it felt like a traditional production but with American accents. But then the acting would be very naturalistic and the dialogue would be very simple and it felt... hipstery. But not like Williamsburg hipsters with the beards and the twee-ness. Like... you know those boring ass movies about family dramas that most people wait to watch on streaming. The kind of stuff that has a bunch of serious topics but is called a comedy. And it stars people like Jason Bateman or Tina Fey or Julia Roberts or Laura Dern and it appeals to a liberal elite sensibility and everybody is white but they excuse it because it's about a family. Yeah, it was that kind of acting and that kind of tone. I actually found the Shakespeare easiest to digest. It was mostly played straightforward though sometimes, especially towards the end, they lifted bits of dialogue from weird places to map onto a situation that didn't quite fit. The actors lost me at times but I think that was due to direction. Because they all had moments where they really shone. The actress playing Sonya was excellent at the more naturalistic acting and you could really feel like pain and loneliness though the text didn't care that much about her plight or her love. The doctor (Mikhail but I think they called him Michael or something, he was mostly referred to as the doctor) actor was excellent throughout. I think he handled the tonal shifts best and also brought the naturalism to the Shakespeare rather than playing it as a fantasy. The actor playing Vanya lost me a lot. The actress playing Yelena was a bit dull at times (fun fact: She played Dorota on Gossip Girl which is a big reason I wanted to see this) but she also had excellent moments. I think the writing for her was a little messy. It was harder to track what was going on with her and she didn't really muse on big existential questions like the others. One thing I did really love was seeing a plus-size actress depicted as the most beautiful character on stage. 

It had its moments and I'm glad I saw it but it wasn't entirely successful and it could have done with a lot of cuts. It did not need to be almost 2 and a half hours with intermission. If you're doing an adaptation like this, you might as well cut the parts of Vanya that are extraneous and impede the clarity of whatever you're trying to say. And I didn't need so very much of R&J in Act 2. I found myself ticking off R&J scenes in my head to better guess when the show would end (as I didn't know Vanya so I didn't know what plot developments to look out for). 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

So. Love Never Dies. I lowered my expectations, and really helped being in row P so it's so much easier to detach yourself while watching stuff you don't like (I never thought I'd say this, but I'm so glad I watched shit like Twilight and Scandal because it trained me how to hate-watch without getting worked up).

Hahahaha, so finally something good comes of watching Twilight!

Quote

Bright side: the rest of my theater season looks great. I can look forward to Fiddler on the Roof, Anastasia, Miss Saigon and Hamilton in peace.

I just saw Miss Saigon this week and I FINALLY got my Anastasia tickets in the mail (they sent out the season tickets in two batches: one for the first half of the season over the summer and then the tickets for the second half of the season finally got mailed in September). Anastasia is the last show of the 2018-2019 season and won't be here until next September so hopefully no one misplaces their tickets before then! They also just announced that season ticket holders can buy additional tickets to Hamilton so I'm going to see it twice while it's in SF!

[Spartan Girl]

9 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Hahahaha, so finally something good comes of watching Twilight!

I just saw Miss Saigon this week and I FINALLY got my Anastasia tickets in the mail (they sent out the season tickets in two batches: one for the first half of the season over the summer and then the tickets for the second half of the season finally got mailed in September). Anastasia is the last show of the 2018-2019 season and won't be here until next September so hopefully no one misplaces their tickets before then! They also just announced that season ticket holders can buy additional tickets to Hamilton so I'm going to see it twice while it's in SF!

How was Miss Saigon?

[aradia22]

I saw Because I Could Not Stop: An Encounter with Emily Dickinson this afternoon. Not good. I might get into it another time but basically the characterization of Dickinson was all wrong, the music was mostly enjoyable but not worth sitting through the rest of it, and everything related to direction, staging, writing, presentation, and that screen in the back was a mess. This felt like an amateurish misfire... like a children's music school recital crossed with a high school senior project, talent of the musicians aside. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 10/13/2018 at 8:07 PM, Spartan Girl said:

How was Miss Saigon?

It was fine. If you like Miss Saigon, you will like the show (as long as you go in with the expectation that no one will ever top Lea Salonga, which is honestly a pretty big block for me to get past because she is perfection as Kim).

They changed some of the sets, and the beginning of the big helicopter scene has a cheap looking laser kind of graphic before the actual helicopter gets lowered. If you're familiar with the original, there are a bunch of little lines here and there that have been changed. They also changed the singing at the beginning of "Room 317" to dialogue. I only really noticed one song that was sped up (as opposed to the tour of Les Mis where they sped up several songs, much to my annoyance). 

Of the three classics on tour I've seen recently (Phantom, Les Mis, and Miss Saigon), this was the one I had the least nitpicks about. As much as I love all three shows because of nostalgia, I found myself more annoyed at the various changes in Phantom and Les Mis than I did with Miss Saigon.

The biggest change is two songs. Instead of "Her or Me"/"Now That I've Seen Her" they have a new song called "Maybe" (it was written for the 2011 Dutch production and has been used in the subsequent West End and Broadway revivals). It's intended to make Ellen more sympathetic/less selfish but the melody was just okay.

"Her or Me" sung by Claire Moore:

 

"Now That I've Seen Her" sung by Claire Moore:

 

"Maybe" sung by Tamsin Carroll:

 

The other song change is "Too Much for One Heart" (instead of "Please"). It's not the original "Too Much for One Heart" that was written for the show and then replaced with "Please." The version they're using now is mostly "Please" with the phrase "Too Much for One Heart" thrown in.

The original "Too Much for One Heart" sung by Lea Salonga:

 

"Please" (used in the original West End and Broadway productions) sung by Lea Salonga and Peter Polycarpou:

 

The current version of "Too Much for One Heart" (used in the West End and Broadway revivals) sung by Eva Noblezada and Hugh Maynard:

[Spartan Girl]

@ElectricBoogaloo Good to know. Still wish they could have had the original "Too Much For One Heart" uncut, but whatever. Looking forward to seeing it in March!

[ebk57]

I saw Beetlejuice Wednesday night.  It was the second public performance, so I can forgive the 2 times they had to stop the show for set mishaps and the half-hour intermission because they lost power to the light boards.  I thought the cast was uniformly excellent, although Barbara and Adam were kinda bland characters.  The songs were mostly forgettable.  The show meandered way too much, so it was way too long.  The sets and lighting, though, were spectacular!  It was a mildly amusing evening.  Hopefully they can tighten it up some, although it's still Beetlejuice, so it's never going to be great.  

Edited October 23, 2018 by ebk57

[unicorn23]

Because I just can’t get enough of both shows, saw Anastasia (Friday) and Waitress (Saturday) again.

My friend visiting from CA is a big musical fan but hasn’t seen a Broadway show yet and we planned Anastasia to be her first Broadway show ever on Thursday but we found out Christy Altomare was out so we swapped the tickets for Friday night. So instead we got tickets for Frozen on Thursday. The first time I saw this, Caissie wasn’t on and this second time, Patti wasn’t on. Both were fantastic and I wish I could’ve seen them together. Still super impressed by the special effects and how they make the “ice” and of course that show-stopping scene of Elsa’s dress coming off. So cool. 

Anastasia was as good as the first time I’ve seen it. Zach Adkins wasn’t on but instead it was one of the understudies and he was alright. Dreading the Cody Simpson fangirls seeing the show just for him and not giving a fuck about Christy and the rest of the cast and ensemble. 

We stagedoored after the show since we are both huge fans of Christy and the show and omg Christy remains the sweetest human being EVER. She takes her time to talk to the fans and enjoys interacting with them. She also sang Happy Birthday five times to five fans who had birthdays that day and each time she sounded damn good. One of the security guys was like “Next one who says it’s their birthday, we’re checking their ID.” When it was our turn, we told Christy that we switched the tickets so we can see her and she proceeded to tell us that she went to a specialist the previous day because she hasn’t been feeling well the past three weeks and that our show was the first show that she has felt well enough. Poor thing. Hope whatever it was that was ailing her won’t bother her anymore. 

Yesterday was Waitress and the sixth time I’ve seen the show. We wanted to see Nicolette and was bummed she wasn’t feeling well either and missed the show since Thursday (I think). Stephanie Torns was very good, though, and sounded so much like Jessie Mueller’s singing voice it was uncanny. Drew Gehling owns that Dr. Pomatter role and was even funnier the two other times I’ve seen him in it. We plan to go see it again on Tuesday and hope that Nicolette would be feeling better by then.

Then last night we saw Wicked which I had no incentive to watch because I hated the book but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked how the musical integrated parts of the movie within the show and I totally get why it was such a massive hit back then and continues to do so well to this day. The two show-stopping scenes of Elphaba during Defying Gravity and later on in Act 2 were so impressive. Jessica Vosk was fantastic and so was the actress playing Glinda (can’t remember her name at the moment).

We’re probably going to try to see Beautiful today and hope that we get lottery tickets. If. It, we’ll just buy them. At least we’ll see a Mueller sister (hope she’s not under the weather too!).

[aradia22]

Quote

Anastasia was as good as the first time I’ve seen it. Zach Adkins wasn’t on but instead it was one of the understudies and he was alright. 

Was it Kyle Brown? I've thought he was cute since Trip of Love and I'm curious what he'd be like as a Dmitry understudy since to my recollection, I've never heard him sing. I thought he was primarily a dancer. I know it would never happen but I'd love for him to do a promo appearance so there would be a clip of him as Dmitry floating around online. 

I liked the book version of Wicked when I was younger but I don't know if I'd like it now. I'm tempted to see Jessica because she's got such a killer voice but I'm not really motivated to see the show either. Where did you get tickets? 

You've got great taste in shows. I'm glad you're enjoying your visit with your friend so much. :)

[unicorn23]

21 hours ago, aradia22 said:

Was it Kyle Brown? I've thought he was cute since Trip of Love and I'm curious what he'd be like as a Dmitry understudy since to my recollection, I've never heard him sing. I thought he was primarily a dancer. I know it would never happen but I'd love for him to do a promo appearance so there would be a clip of him as Dmitry floating around online. 

I liked the book version of Wicked when I was younger but I don't know if I'd like it now. I'm tempted to see Jessica because she's got such a killer voice but I'm not really motivated to see the show either. Where did you get tickets? 

You've got great taste in shows. I'm glad you're enjoying your visit with your friend so much. :)

It was Colby Dezelick. Would have loved to have seen Kyle's version of Dmitry. He was tag teaming with Colby last week. Zach might be back this week.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing Wicked again. My mom mentioned wanting to see it so I'll probably get her tickets for Christmas. We bought the tickets from the box office the day of the show and they were the most expensive tickets I have bought - even without the Ticketmaster fees! The seats were right in the orchestra though and the view was pretty great so I guess I can't really complain.

Sunday night we saw Beautiful (won lottery tickets - paid $40 each - seats were four rows back in the orchestra to the very right of the stage) and Abby Mueller was amazing. I mean, my biggest regret is not seeing Jessie in this role but Abby was fantastic. I thought it was interesting that she didn't sound like Carole or Jessie at all and I found her interpretation of the role quite unique. Compared to Melissa Benoist, Abby's was more like an interpretation and not an impersonation of Carole. Also, she killed that note on Natural Woman. Really wish that Kara Lindsay was still playing Cynthia Weil this time around because she was so great the first time I saw the show. Also, the stage door experience for Beautiful was so different from my other stage door experiences. It was pretty calm and not as crowded. Abby was so sweet.

Tonight we are going to see Waitress with Nicolette! Nicolette posted that she will be back tonight after missing the last few shows and I can't wait. Would be a great way to cap off this vacation since I met my friend through Waitress (us being huge Sara Bareilles fans).