| Member Name: | Charley Kringas Inc | | Contact User: | You must be logged in to contact BWW members. | | Gender: | Male |
|
Most Recent Message Board Posts:
View Off Topic Posts
NBC will present THE GRINCH musical this December starring Morrison Dec 21
2020, 08:52:10 PM
Had to turn this off after about thirty minutes, possibly the worst music I’ve ever heard from a show that was (somehow) on Broadway twice.
| London Theatres Enter Another Lockdown Dec 15
2020, 10:45:55 AM
The fact that they were allowed to open earlier this month at all, with covid numbers something like three to four times higher than what they were at the height of the first wave back in spring, is complete bizarre to me.
| Jay's ANYONE CAN WHISTLE recording is Dec 9
2020, 12:41:15 PM
Sondheim said (I think in his annotated lyrics book) that they had "the courage but not the perspective", which really sums it up. It's daring and zany, but also shallow and repetitive, with a gratingly juvenile viewpoint that becomes borderline claustrophobic as the script drags on and on. It's like Brecht, but less funny.
Curious to hear this old new recording, though. It would be wonderful to see an overhauled version now that Laurents is firmly elsewhere.
| What musicals still need to be revived through ENCORES? Dec 4
2020, 10:55:03 PM
I'd love to see 1600 Penn come back in a clever reconfiguration via Encores, given that its original conceit (that the actors playing the black characters find the play increasingly frustrating) has only gotten more prescient. I'm not sure if the Bernstein estate will ever loosen their grip on it, though.
| What shows do you think Encores will revive 20 years from now? Dec 4
2020, 10:49:20 PM
Rocky, Hands on a Hardbody, and The Band's Visit come to mind. Going back a little further, A Class Act, James Joyce's The Dead, and maybe even Bernarda Alba. Depending on if it's returned to Broadway in the next couple of decades, 25th Annual Putnam could be a contender.
| Hellen Mirren Against Reading Shakespeare in Schools Dec 4
2020, 11:46:36 AM
I think some of y'all have never had to suffer through a popcorn-reading session of Shakespeare. Nothing brings his work to life like a disinterested, monotone fifteen-year-old stumbling through one of Romeo's speeches like a dog trying to eat a jumbo jawbreaker, punctuated with tired-sounding corrections of pronunciation by the teacher:
"By love. Who first did. Prowmpt."
"Prompt"
"Prompt. Me to...inqueer-"
"Inquire"
"Inquire. He lent me. Consul."
"Counsel."
"Cou
| How a Spider-Man musical became a theatrical disaster Dec 3
2020, 12:54:50 PM
This thread prompted me to check out Song of Spider-Man from the library, which I found to be very interesting. Most fascinating is the basic fact that Taymor's concept is really pretty good, and you can totally see how it could have worked, and you can also see how they, much like the various forms of webbing that failed to deploy onstage, got caught up in all the wrong places. It's kind of like watching a season of Drag Race knowing the winner, so you get a god's eye view of where the failures
| Hellen Mirren Against Reading Shakespeare in Schools Nov 27
2020, 11:25:02 AM
Viewing a production is absolutely a better introduction to Shakespeare than reading, unless you're already versed (heh) in the styles and techniques of the time. The people who initially made Shakespeare popular did so by seeing his productions, and it's not the manner of speaking that makes a live production more engaging as a first entry, but the way an actor has of translating it and making it accessible.
JBroadway's point that it feels "authentic to the actor and, by extension, the
| Hellen Mirren Against Reading Shakespeare in Schools Nov 25
2020, 05:03:21 PM
This thread brought back something I had completely forgot about, which was the time in ninth grade I went to a local Shakespeare in the Park performance of Romeo and Juliet and it (lol) made me cry so hard I couldn't talk all the way back to the car.
| Hellen Mirren Against Reading Shakespeare in Schools Nov 25
2020, 01:25:26 PM
Shakespeare should be taught as a supplement, absolutely, or in classes that are specifically focusing on either that era of literature or on theatrical writing in general. I had to suffer through a Shakespeare play in almost every English class I had in middle and high school, which usually entailed listening to other students stumbling through dialogue so slowly that the words lost their meaning, and the teacher asking opaque questions that typically elicited confused silence. Even as a theatr
| UNDERRATTED SHOWS Nov 13
2020, 01:35:07 PM
Frank Wildhord songs sound like fake musical numbers from 30 Rock. They're the equivalent of furniture you can buy at Target - functional, but does it belong on Broadway?
| Favorite/Most Clever Rhymes Nov 2
2020, 04:52:12 PM
There are far too many fantastic lyrics out there, but the one that comes immediately to mind is from Pacific Overtures, which has this bit from the British Admiral that I've always admired. Not only is it perfectly thought out in terms of making sure you can understand the patter (lots of hard consonants separating all the syllables!), but it builds beautifully to the punch line and contains some lovely internal rhymes (bolded):
Her Majesty considers the arrangements to be tentati
| Ming Cho Lee leaves a legacy counted in generations Oct 26
2020, 11:38:03 AM
I'd really really love to see more of Ming Cho Lee's work, does anyone know of a good place to view his designs? The Aronson book looks neat but sadly my library's copy is reference-only.
| Color-blind and gender-blind casting Oct 23
2020, 07:54:09 PM
The Carousel revival wasn't a disappointment because audiences were scratching their heads over a black man marrying a white woman in 19th century Maine, much like they weren't scratching their heads over a white man marrying a black woman in the Hytner revival.
| Studio Recordings vs. Live Recordings Oct 11
2020, 06:00:40 PM
Chamber-style productions have certainly benefited in many ways, that’s true! The Fun Home cast recording is terrific, and I think they did a really good job with the Falsettos revival. I still crave a bit more plushness in the actual recording, but it’s a better use of the techniques than something like Tootsie, which took the jubilant energy of the live production and squished it into a cast album with all the vitality of a stale oyster cracker.
| Studio Recordings vs. Live Recordings Oct 11
2020, 01:04:32 PM
I'll take a bootleg over a live recording, and sometimes over a poor studio recording. I'd be curious to know more about the forces behind modern studio recordings, which are typically dry as a bone both musically and dramatically. Part of this is probably just how producers want albums to sound now, possibly with consideration of how people are actually listening to music.
I used to have almost all of Sondheim's OBC recordings on vinyl record, and when played on my stereo
| Favorite West Side Story song? Oct 9
2020, 12:02:01 PM
I think the Mambo is some of the most exciting dance music ever written for Broadway. Something I really love about Bernstein's music is his ability to stretch it to nearly the breaking point, both melodically and rhythmically, and the Mambo is a terrific example. It comes so close to falling apart; the melody is bizarre and full of weird dissonances, and the syncopation is so extreme that it feels one beat away from being nonsensical. Both elements, though, are just held together enough to crea
| Best & Worst Best Original Score Tony Winners Oct 8
2020, 01:21:55 PM
In terms of undeserving, Aida over The Wild Party is pretty questionable, and imho Putnam Spelling Bee is better than Light in the Piazza. I also agree that Sunday is better than La Cage, but that La Cage is also a terrific score (on the other hand, Matilda is worlds above Kinky Boots).
In terms of "best" or "most deserving", that's kind of fish in a barrel for some years (e.g., Sweeney Todd), but Chorus Line is probably the only one where all nominees are
| The Metropolitan Opera Reschedules Opening Until September 2021 Sep 23
2020, 11:47:14 PM
Besides the age of the audience and the size of the theatre, it's also worth noting that opera productions are typically reliant on a vast amount of international talent. Often many singers from around the world converge all at once not only for each opera, but with several different casts at once for the various operas that are all going on at one time. It's like if five different Broadway musicals all played at one theatre.
| The Sound of Music Sep 15
2020, 04:59:39 PM
The Sound of Music, besides being arguably the most famous musical ever written, is a well-constructed piece of integrated musical theatre, and it confronts some darker issues, folding all these elements together seamlessly. On the other hand, I can also see how it might be viewed as the endpoint of R&H's loss of experimentality. I don't know what Sondheim has said about Sound of Music, but I believe he's stated his feelings that Allegro's failure scared them away fro
|
You must log in to view off-topic posts. |
|
