the oddest "concept" put upon a classic play?

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:48pm

what is the oddest concept that you have seen a director give to a classic work, whether it worked or not.

probably the best i remember was about 10 years ago Kitchen Dog here in Dallas staged "The Glass Menagerie" with a circus motif - the only specific i recall is that Jim was the circus strong man. I think Amanda was the ringmaster.

[TimeSquare3]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:51pm

Updated On: 2/27/09 at 10:51 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:51pm

Scott Elliot's unabashedly flamboyantly homosexual production of THE THREEPENNY OPERA, a play with music that satirizes bourgeois capitalism.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:54pm

Maybe not the oddest, but Midsummer Night's Dream set in Texas, complete with Texas accents. (And no, the play was not presented in Texas).

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:01pm

Saw a production of the Scottish play with a male Lady M. The entire production was in shades of black and white with blaring rock music in the transitions. It was a very bizarre production with generally crappy performances, save for the two leads. Especially "Lady" M. (To clarify, he wasn't crossdressing. They were two men.) He was terrifying.

[MisterRussell]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:04pm

For the one or two people on BWW who know Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience," a company in Vancouver WA is setting the piece in the 1970's so that everybody can be hippies and wear love beads. They are even planning to rewrite the lurics to include words like "groovy" and "hey, man."

This is the same director who did a post-WW3 "Pirates of Penzance" with robotic Policemen and radiation-scarred pirates who travelled around in a Star Wars Sandcrawler.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:25pm

Mr. Russell, that second paragraph may be my new favorite ever spoken on BWW.

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:30pm

ok, I don't know if you know what Food Lion is (I'm pretty sure its just a regional thing) but its a grocery store... so a local HS did the Wiz and they changed the "mean old lion" to a "mean food lion" and the whole scene for that song was in a grocery store...

[BwayLeadman]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 2:09am

i don't know what their whole concept was, but I heard a high school doing into the woods and the PROLOGUE was set inside a train. NYC maybe?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 2:35am

I once saw a production of Carousel that was, for the most part, reasonably traditional (though dull). But the "Carousel Waltz" was the most bizarre thing I think I've ever seen onstage (though some of it took place in the audience).

The set for the show (unit set) was a collection of ramps and different levels and all. Nothing too strange.

Anyway, the "Waltz" started and the cast started walking down the orchestra aisles and on to the stage (and I think some may have appeared in the boxes as well) dressed in these long, brown, hooded robes. During the opening section, they kept cupping their hands together and blowing through them. But then they stopped doing that and for the rest of the number they just wandered around in different formations. (As Anna Russell might say, I'm not making this up, you know.)

Years later, I was talking with someone who'd been in the production and I asked him if he had any idea what it was all supposed to represent. What had the director told them? The director had told them nothing, he said. When questioned about it, he had no answer.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 2:43am

Love how half of these concepts break the licensing agreements that the production signed for!

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 2:47am

Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI did ANNIE a few years back. There was a lot of controversy surrounding their concept. A friend of mine was an orphan in it and filled me in on what transpired. The concept was very much traditional until the ending when Annie woke up and it turned out that the whole thing had been just a dream. That's how it ended. It only lasted a little while, though, because people began complaining that it ruined the entire show for them. They then retooled the ending to be traditional and happy.

I think it's a pretty interesting way to end it, honestly.

[fosca3]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 10:29am

A college here did a production of Hamlet where the based the whole thing on the line 'time is out of joint', and all the characters were costumed in whatever time period suited them best

Laertes was dressed like a soldier, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern like beach bums (in Bermuda shorts, sunglasses and flipflops), Polonius in a modern business suit (looking every inch the used car salesman), Claudius like a cartoon king (purple cape with spotted fur collar and a gold spike crown), etc

It was a LOT of fun, and made it sort of surreal that everyone seemed to have wandered in from a different production. And it defined their characters really nicely, since they were dressed in a stereotype of who their characters really are

I think my favorite part was when Claudius was kneeling, praying, alone at the front of the stage, and as he prayed a little red laserscope light started dancing around and settled on his forehead (he didn't notice, cuz his eyes were closed). It was 'Hamlet', in the back of the theatre with a sniper rifle, and he delivered his lines from back there

If I remember right, Hamlet was the only one in 'traditional' dress -- leggings and short doublet (or whatever you'd call it), looking exactly like you'd expect Hamlet to look

Updated On: 2/27/09 at 10:29 AM

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 2:41pm

^that sounds pretty intriguing fosca

[Timmer]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 2:46pm

I saw a productio of the Scottish play with one woman and three heads on sticks as the witches. And that wasn't all that was screwed up about it.

And our niece, who was invoveld with the theatre company that presented it, thought it was "modern" and "new" and cool. It was a trin wreck, is what it was.

[fosca3]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 3:59pm

I don't know, what I LOVE about Shakespeare, what makes it so much FUN and so interesting, is seeing all the different interpretations. When you see a production in a different time period, or all mixed up, or with some new way of staging some scene in a way you never saw before -- I love that

To me it's just fascinating that Shakespeare still translates so well into modern settings (like HAMLET with Ethan Hawke), or the early 20th century in an alternate future (like RICHARD III with Ian McKellan), or last year's MACBETH (with Patrick Stewart)

And I love ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, the way it treats the story of Hamlet in shorthand, as a backstory almost, and what you see is what 2 of the minor characters were doing the REST of the time

The stories and emotions are so timeless and so true that they just seem to keep re-creating themselves in brand new ways

I'd love to see the 3 heads on sticks -- it would be different

Sorry to yap on, but this topic has my head going all over the place and remembering plays and movies I've loved. I'm sitting here at work with a big silly smile on my face now

Updated On: 2/27/09 at 03:59 PM

[TimeSquare3]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 4:08pm

Read this person wants to do with Into The Woods.

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000027/thread/131011823

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 4:16pm

Updated On: 2/27/09 at 04:16 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 4:24pm

"Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI did ANNIE a few years back. There was a lot of controversy surrounding their concept."

I thought they cut that crap out after Anne Bogart nearly bankrupt the theater with her whacked out season.

Updated On: 2/27/09 at 04:24 PM

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 4:24pm

TimeSquare3-
The male witch is NOTHING new.

The other stuff...um...wut?

[philcrosby]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 4:25pm

Arthur Laurents' recent production of GYPSY.

(Ducks from flying objects....)

[Jon]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 4:29pm

The Trinity Rep ANNIE wa directed by Amanda Dehnert. Martin Charnin hated it and made them change it. On the other hand, Charles Strouse was so impressed with Amanda that he collaborated with her on a new show.

Amanda also originated the ten-actor version of MY FAIR LADY that Gary Griffin and countless other directors ripped off.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 4:41pm

"Amanda also originated the ten-actor version of MY FAIR LADY"

How do you do this? The ball must have looked like crap.

[tellybox]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 5:21pm

The National Arts Centre in Ottawa did a production of Mackers last season I believe, where it was set in a concentration camp.

I wish I knew more about it. From what I heard, it was a fantastic production and well received.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 5:32pm

At least when Griffin did it at the McCarter (the 10-actor My Fair Lady), we didn't actually see the Embassy Ball as described in the script. I forget exactly how they ended the first act. I do remember we got the little scene before they enter the ball proper. I think the act must have ended as they entered the ball room.

Then Griffin completely screwed up "You Did It," by having Karpathy come in and having Eliza and Karpathy enact what Higgins describes, even having Karpathy sing "his" lines.

The whole point of the number of that is Eliza is seething quietly as she hears Higgins. The focus of the number is (or should be) on Eliza's reaction to Higgins. This destroyed that. Eliza left Higgins's study to be at the "ball." She couldn't react to Higgins. An incredibly basic misunderstanding of the point of a number.