"Songs For A New World" Confusion - could use some input
"Songs For A New World" Confusion - could use some input
#0"Songs For A New World" Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/14/05 at 2:09pm
Hey guys. A few friends of mine just put on a production of "Songs For A New World", and everyone who saw it loved it. I know its pretty much a rule that people normally don't say "Oh, I hated that production I was in," untill at least a few months after the fact, but the way I was told by my friends was that, if I saw this, it would be the best piece of theater I saw in my life to that point, enthusiasm strange for even these people. Well, I saw it, and tho the performances were good, a lot of the directorial stuff sorta.... i guess you'd say irked me. I'll just list em.
1. Backdrop was laminated posters of news headlines and such ("Clinton Impeached", "Kennedy Shot", Patriot Act poster over the constitution, etc.)
2. Songs were not listed individually and weren't treated individually (i.e.: Spanish Sailing Ship didn't take place on a sailing ship, but was rather a lot of people talking about poverty)
3. Some songs were strung together as a plotline (Just One Step, Stars and the Moon, Suryaba-Santa was one plotline; Steam Train, King of the World, Flying Home was one plotline)
So for me, it seemed a lot of the social justice things were forced into a show that, by my estimation, was just a bunch of songs designed to each tell a specific story. Also, how can you create a plotline with songs that are out of chronological order (in performance, it went Step, Stars, Santa; chronologically, it would be Stars, Step, Santa). And then you have both those performers singing another song (Flagmaker for Woman 2 and Sailing Ship for Man 1) that doesn't fit into the plotline at all. It was a beautiful performance, but it was just the fact that all of my friends were telling me that its the best piece of theater ever, and when I said I had problems with the direction, they all gave me this look like "....? This was perfect!" I'm just trying to figure out if I'm crazy or not. I could be crazy, it's been proven before. Like I said, amazing performance, but let me know if you think these things don't exactly fit into the show like I thought. Or if you think they worked. I just wanna hear some feedback. Have a great day all.
#1re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/14/05 at 2:14pmI think they were pushing some themes a bit too much. Let the material speak for itself.
Switz78
Featured Actor Joined: 12/9/04
#2re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/14/05 at 3:01pmdid they do this production LEGALLY? have a hard time thinking that JRB would let them do that to the show? The "concept" as you explained it doesn't seem to make sense to me. I don't know why directors feel like they have to make a through line with a revue show.
#3re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/14/05 at 3:19pmI just finished a run of Songs here in LA and we changed a lot of things too. Our Woman 2 went Step, Santa, Stars, we cut Flagmaker and Sailing Ship, added "Letting You Go" which was cut from The Last 5 Years, rearranged the order of songs and added a 5th character. Our director created our own show. Were there a couple holes in the plot line we created? Heck yeah! But, we never claimed the show to be perfect. JRB designed the show to stand as a revue of cabaret pieces. Almost everyone since then has attempted to make some kind of a through-line for the show and it will never work perfectly I don't think. So, appreciate your friends' show for what it was and let their comments about how "perfect and brilliant" it was slide off your back. Our show made a lot more sense to us than our audience, so I'm sure their's did too.
#4re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/14/05 at 3:22pmWhy do a show if you have to change everything to suit your tastes. It drives me nuts how many director feel the need to rewrite (illegally) what doesn't work for them.
#5re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/15/05 at 3:54pmThey didn't rewrite it so much, but it was heavily implied. They used all the same songs and added nothing, but they still had the created plotlines and such. Thanks guys for the input, keep it coming. And if anyone thinks it sounded like a good idea, i wanna hear you guys too. And I know Mr. Brown does post on this site, so if some god would like to intervene, his input would be most welcome. Seeing as it is his show and all.
#6re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/15/05 at 4:03pmBobby, I don't think it's a matter of directors feeling they "have" to change the show to make it "fit their tastes." Why would you want to do a production like every other? It's just making new choices and making your own show. I don't think it would be as intersting if every production was just done in stage black with nothing but the songs in their original order done with the original staging. Theater allows for different interpretaions, ya know?
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#7re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/15/05 at 7:04pm
You can stage it any way you want. You can have more people than the original had. But when you change the running order, cut songs, or add songs, you are REWRITING THE SHOW. And that's illegal. The order of the songs is not random. The composer (and the original director) had reasons for putting them in that order.
A few years ago, a prominent theate in Florida was doign SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM. ...or at least, that's what they SAID they were doing. They added all sorts of extra songs, cut others, changed the running order, wrote new narration, etc. The contract for SIDE BY SIDE specifically states that you are forbidden to add songs or change the running order. Word got back to MTI and Sondheim, and they were SHUT DOWN in mid-run. When word got to the Florida Arts Council, the theatre's annual $100,000 grant was taken away.
#8re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/15/05 at 7:16pm
"did they do this production LEGALLY? have a hard time thinking that JRB would let them do that to the show?"
Once the rights for a show are available - the composer/writer has no say in how a production should be done, unless there's a contract - like Jerome Robbins shows.
"Do you know what pledge time is, Andrew"? said the PBS Executive.
"Yes", Lloyd Webber replied. "My 50th birthday special must be one program that gets done a lot."
"No", mused the man from PBS heedlessy. "Not so much. Our Stephen Sondheim Carnegie Hall concert. That's a big one."
Spoons, forks and knives seemed suddenly to suspend their motion in horror, all around the table.
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#9re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/15/05 at 7:27pmYOU CAN'T REWRITE THE SHOW!!!!!
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#10re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/15/05 at 7:51pmI own the CD and have to say, I never really liked the show. I think what most of the directors feel is that audiences aren't going to want to sit through a show that has no through-line. They're just going to be like "whats the point" at the end of the show. If they wanted a concert, then they would go to a concert sorta thing. I just don't find any of the songs all that good. I love L5Y, but nothing about this show stands out to me, except the first song.
#11re: 'Songs For A New World' Confusion - could use some input
Posted: 7/16/05 at 2:59am
Absolutely shameless bump....
Hope everyone's havin a great day
