So BARE was created 10 years ago right? I watched it on youtube and holy moly. First of all, small SMALL space for a show. I love the moments of the main character (peter?) singing. It's a combination of his actual character and the actor. Adorbs.
I did not like the music at all. Some of the music the main character sang was good... but omg, when his boyfriends sister randomly pulled out a violin while singing I was like WHAT THE EFF IS THIS. I started laughing so hard, it was just so completely random.
My main point of this thread, I think the musical has potential. But don't you think 10 years is enough time to fix it?
I know Spring Awakening was made after BARE, but Spring Awakening was actually successful. So it's easy to say BARE is just a mixture of GREASE and SA.
Updated On: 10/16/12 at 01:31 AM
1. Well, it IS coming to off B'way and starts previews next month (didn't know if you knew that).
2. Everything we're told is that major changes HAVE been made, and they don't sound good (doesn't mean it won't be).
3. Not everything has a life past its premiere.
4. One of the originators was in jail for a bit.
5. Both of the creators were very resistent to change for quite some time. There was talk that Rosie O was interested in making a movie (which I think is a great medium for this project) but the boys weren't willing to negotiate creative control, so she dropped it like a hot potato. (This was right after the recording was finally made.)
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
This show NEEDS a better creative team. This show reminds me of a bad essay... the paragraphs just don't flow into each other.
Plus the ending was stupid. His boyfriend got some chick pregnant and he still took him back. Hell no. What ever happened to "There is a black woman soul in every gay man" ??? I bust yo window out ya car!
This is the type of musical where the audience WANTS the main character to stick up for himself and find a new love.
And most importantly, lets stop writing parts for beltresses. After a while they just ALL start sounding the same.
BARE premiered in LA in 2000. That version was completely different from the 2004 Off-Broadway production with Michael Arden and John Hill-- much like this version at New World Stages is said to be vastly different.
Peter doesn't take Jason back at the end. Peter's rejection is Jason's final push to overdose. ("Two Households") The only reconciliation in the song "Bare" is Jason saying "I love you" for the first time after Peter talks about their relationship in the past tense.
I find the comment about "beltresses" funny given that the one example given was written after BARE was... Plus-- "All Grown Up" is easily a better song than any of the crappy female songs in Spring Awakening.
My comment about belters wasn't one sided to Bare, it was universal to all other composers (specifically jason robert brown)
about the song All Grown Up, it would be more appreciable if she had more character development, and less squeaking. all she does it pity herself the entire show.
and how dare you talk crap about a musical that was nominated for 11 tony awards and won 8.
Updated On: 10/16/12 at 05:57 PM
Ah, that still has the ending with the drug overdose that I know (and it's one of the more awkward parts in the libretto--hard to do such a melodramatic scene--a drug overdose during a performance of Romeo and Juliet--and make it work).
I have not seen the show, but a thought on shows that have had many incarnations, and have been tossed around for years and years:
Often writers are able to create awesome concepts, and often they can write great songs/scenes, and even great first or second ACTs.
However, sometimes they're unable to write a piece that resonates as a whole. Maybe they can't see the problems, maybe they KNOW the problems and can't fix them, or maybe they don't know how to fix them.
I hope they get it right, but it's been 10 years, tons of drafts, and it sounds like they need to try something drastically different if it's not working.
Flaws and all (and I like the show, a lot actually, but think it's very very flawed, with some truly embarassing stuff), the show does resonate with a ot of people, and I thought the Off Broadway run was relatively well received, but it was a funding issue that nothing more happened with it.