Happy 20th Passion!!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 8:26pm

One of my favorite Sondheim shows, and perhaps my favorite Sondheim score (and, even amongst his fans, one of the most divisive.) Happy Birthday!

[indytallguy]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 9:52pm

20 years. Wow.

Didn't get it or like it much when I saw the original Broadway production, but the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration version wowed me, and the recent CSC revival caused me to see and hear many nuances I had previously missed.

A great score with a few truly beautiful songs.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 10:09pm

Thanks so much to the BWW members who make sure to hail every milestone of the destruction of our musical theatre, and who so considerately bring excruciating memories to the forefront of our consciousness again and again.

What a tireless and vigilant lot.



Updated On: 5/9/14 at 10:09 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 10:22pm

I truly pity anyone who has the misfortune of knowing someone as grumpy as you in person.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 10:43pm

^


Mmmm, tell me, ljay, -- tell us, actually -- why in hell do we have to be reminded incessantly of the opening dates of every one of you-know-who's musicals? Why is that considered newsworthy? Is it not enough that we are told of every production of his shows from here to planet Mars as they occur? Must his name be shoved nonstop in our faces 24 hours a day? Does the propaganda machine never ever let up?


And why in hell should we ---should anyone-- wish happy birthday to this odious musical and its vile "heroine?"

Updated On: 5/9/14 at 10:43 PM

[HorseTears]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:06pm

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:13pm

^No Art!

After8, you loveable ol' guy, you. Feel free to make any Happy Birthday Sally! or the like posts you desire! And I would love to hear your memories about how those audiences back then responded.

Updated On: 5/9/14 at 11:13 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:19pm

"Mmmm, tell me, ljay, -- tell us, actually -- why in hell do we have to be reminded incessantly of the opening dates of every one of you-know-who's musicals?"

You didn't ask me, but... Because it's a message board. You are allowed to post what you want. Have you ever even STARTED a thread on here?

For me, Passion was important--and is. I was getting into Sondheim's shows, and was 13 when Passion opened. I felt pretty alone at the time--an unhappy Jr High--and had just discovered a musical theatre listserv. The first "new" Sondheim show I experienced was Passion--I remember getting the cast album a little while after the Tony telecast aired. And I remember debating the show with many who disliked it--but raised valid points about it, and always were respectful of arguing about the show and not the person (those were the days, ah AfterEight?)

The show meant a lot to me--partly because of that, but partly because I connected to it on such a personal level. It's amazing to know that that was 20 years ago--and I still get more and more out of the show.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:21pm

"Feel free to make any Happy Birthday Sally! or the like posts you desire!"

Except I don't desire.

Unlike you, A) I don't seek to waste other people's time with such nonsense, and B) I actually have a life to live.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:25pm

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:28pm

"Unlike you, A) I don't seek to waste other people's time with such nonsense, "

You do. You comment on threads where everyone already knows what you are going to say.

"B) I actually have a life to live."

The amount of time and money you spend going to the theatre and discussing the theatre--nearly always about how awful it is, makes me truly question this. Oh well.

Updated On: 5/9/14 at 11:28 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:35pm

^

Well, at least I'm not spending it to read comic books.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:38pm

What do you like to read?

[HorseTears]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:39pm

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:41pm

"What do you like to read?"

Literature.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:43pm

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/9/14 at 11:48pm

I'm in grad school with an Edwardian lit focus. I mentioned that I took an elective in comic books and graphic novels many years ago--and I enjoyed it a lot-- Just like musicals, or movies or tv, there are a lot of great books I like that may not be considered literature, but are still enjoyable. (I doubt you would consider No No Nanette the equivalent of stage literature?) That said, there are many comic books or, to use a term I hate because it does sound snobby, graphic novels which are at least as good, and worthy of study as most prose novels. I would value your opinion a little bit more if you tried reading any of them and then posted--except, it would probably read the same way your take on the current state of theatre is. I do know one great graphic novel though that DOES include a scene with kids singing about cuckoo clocks, if you're interested?

I will stop baiting you. But the one thing that annoys me about you the most--and I suspect you enjoy this--is that you constantly lecture on here about how you wish people were nicer to each other. Your opinion on shows on here would be seen as genuine and worth considering if you didn't go out of your way to call people names, and belittle opinions.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/10/14 at 12:23am

Uhhhh...... when it comes to namecalling and belittlement, you have shown yourself to be both willing and able, as illustrated in this very thread.

But by all means, Happy Birthday to the winsome and winning Fosca! And three cheers to the considerate soul who reminded us all of her and her vile vehicle.



Updated On: 5/10/14 at 12:23 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/10/14 at 12:47am

Huzzah!

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/10/14 at 1:45am

Passion. I found this wonderful score completely by chance on iTunes, and wow was I floored. Donna's impeccable performance, bringing the appropriate nuance and depth to the role while still making it hard and scathing, the always wonderful Marin bringing warmth to every note she touches. The completely compelling love story that has you on the edge of your seat, and the notion that not one noise is to come from the audience until the 100 minutes is over. I believe that Fosca is one of the great roles in theatre, to be coveted with the likes of Dolly, Fanny, or Rose.
Passion is certainly a difficult show to connect with, as the audience must go through the same repulsion and horror as Giorgio. It may never compel certain people the way I have been transfixed by it.
That gorgeous score: the only word I can describe it with is warm. Like the love saga quartet from Sunday, it absolutely drips with warmth, as Sondheim himself said was brought out by James Lapine. On a first listen, I was crying by the end, and Fosca's death felt personal. I am so thankful it was recorded, so I could see the fantastic performances. The concert version also showed Miss LuPone can play quiet and vulnerable quite well, something glimpsed at in Sunset Boulevard, but with good material, she shone.
Like the score, the only feeling i get when I hear the first military drum beat is warmth that continues until the final, heartbreaking chord. Bravo, Bravo, an Operatic Musical, that thrills and brings warmth, what more can you ask for?

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/10/14 at 1:58am

Miss Benanti bringing Fosca to the Masses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrkqgNbgseM

And here's what everyone has been asking for, Sexy Fosca:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkImGjp-maI

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/10/14 at 7:28am

"and the notion that not one noise is to come from the audience until the 100 minutes is over."

Ha, ha ha. People were snickering, groaning, and jeering at it out loud in the theatre.

I take it your entire post was a put on, so divorced is it from any and all reality.

Good job.

[promisespromises2]

Posted: 5/10/14 at 8:06am

EDIT: Oh Sally Durant Plummer, you beat me to Laura! Updated On: 5/10/14 at 08:06 AM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/10/14 at 8:12am

"Thanks so much to the BWW members who make sure to hail every milestone of the destruction of our musical theatre, and who so considerately bring excruciating memories to the forefront of our consciousness again and again.

What a tireless and vigilant lot."

It's a dark day when I find myself ALMOST in agreement with "He Who Must Not Be Named."

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 5/10/14 at 8:29am

Not every thread has to contain newsworthy or urgent information. If someone wants to start a thread to simply celebrate a show/performer/creator then I see nothing wrong with that. There are threads I see all the time that I have no desire to click on and open- and you know what? I don't open them! I assume Eric meant no harm with this thread (just the opposite actually) so let it be.

I've been obsessed with listening to Bridges for the past week, so this has given me the impetus to take a break and put on Passion this morning. Has Kelli played Clara yet? Maybe then she could do a mash-up in concert of her two Claras.

The new CSC recording is so wonderful that it almost rivals the brilliance of the OBCR.