The most recent Bway reimagining of a Robbins-directed classic I can think of was Bart Sher's FIDDLER with new choreography by Hofesh Shechter. Loved a lot of it, hated some (couldn't tell the Jews and Russians apart in "To Life", but generally found the new choreo one of the plusses in the otherwise discardable new production. I'm sure I'll feel the same with Van Hove's.
^ My 62-year-old eyes wanted to see what all the excitement was about over Lauren Ambrose's nuanced performance or the details in Catherine Zuber's costumes, none of which would carry without my Bi-nocks. Not sure what you're not sure about. I bring them along whenever I'm a ways back and I enjoy the show exponentially more.
That's not a diss. MFL is worth seeing only if you can take in the nuances of those performances close up. We brought our pair and enjoyed the show from Row C Center Loge as long as we were looking through the binoculars. Less so when we weren't.
West Side Story is a musical featuring the murder onstage of all 3 leading male characters, 2 by switch blade for God's sake. It's not a piece that requires kid gloves in the handling, and I'd be curious to see what a ballsy director could do with it. Stumbling over Arthur Laurents' faux-slang dialogue might be the biggest hurdle any new director would have to solve to get the show reconceived however.
Unfortunately I detested Van Hove's THE CRUCIBLE, so I fear he&#
On July 4th 1976, I was serving as a young inexperienced tech director in my first year of summer stock at the New London Barn Players in New Hampshire. Of course "1776" was the show we were doing that week. We had somehow borrowed every gong and chime and giant cow bell in the county and stashed them all on the theater's back porch for the climax of the show.
But at 3pm on July 4th that Bicentennial Year, all the church bells in the entire country started
I woke up to the charms of Bandstand too late to see it live-- only on the Tonys that year when they performed the powerhouse "Nobody" number and we all sat up and took notice. So I was super delighted to see it last Monday through Fathom at an art house in Beverly Hills.
As usual, the compulsive editing drove me up a wall when all I wanted to see was a few wide shots of the whole stage to understand how it would have felt to be there in the theater. That
At the time of its Bway premiere, it was clear that it was a mindless show with a few really great tunes, swell set design, and a delivery system that would work amazingly well for folks who don't speak English , i.e. foreign tourists. Not a single theater goer I knew then thought anything more of it, and many thought much less. But it was the shiny new object in an abysmal year.
It always mystified me why the show would refuse to translate Itgara'a into English onstage during the body of the show. The English words are beautiful, and frankly I really needed more meat on the bones of Tewfik's arc to care as much about his story as everyone else seems to. Giving me the meaning of his Arabic words would have gone some way in that direction. Perverse to withhold it from the audience.
I've posted this before, but in 1984 I was knocked sideways by how great THE RINK was. First saw it in previews, was sure it was going to be a smash hit. Shocked by the poor reviews and poorer business, went back 3 more times to relive one of the greatest theater going events of my life at that point. It was stunning to see such a small musical hold its own on Broadway back then (I think the whole thing had a total of 8 or 9 performers) packing such a wal
I'm sure I'll get flack for this, but there is a simple way to distinguish the 2 categories of shows above that doesn't involve how much money the show made (i.e. how commercial it is).
One show (BOOK OF MORMON, FROZEN, SOMETHING ROTTEN, MEAN GIRLS) caters to the lowest common denominator audience member.
The other (LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, THE BAND'S VISIT, FUN HOME any Sondheim show) caters to an elite audience.
^I understand why you've spelled this out, (it's what the OP requested), but please, I beg you, don't do this to any other songs we value-- reading this is like having a good joke explained to you in a way that kills the thing outright.
Betty Buckley was a terrific Big Edie a couple of years ago at the Ahmanson, where she played an extremely convincing crotchety old lady, with a voice to match. I listen to the OBC of 1776 and EDWIN DROOD when I want to hear Buckley in her prime; those were indeed thrilling performances. Anyone planning to see her in DOLLY should not expect any of the vocal pyrotechnics of her prime, of course. But I wonder if her natural-born charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talen
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is my favorite Sondheim show, and ergo, my favorite show ever written.
But PACIFIC OVERTURES holds the place in my heart for greatest score. It has one-- count it, one-- lousy song, "Welcome to Kanagawa". Even Sondheim has virtually admitted as much. For me, every other composition finds the right words to connect with the right music, every time. The passage musically from 1851 to 1976 (or perhaps today) is seamless and moving
"The ones who loved it sat in the orchestra section, and everyone who didn't like it sat upstairs."
I've been claiming this for a while now, so nice to see several posters echoing this notion. We were front mezzanine center, but even that felt a little too far back to catch the nuances in the performances that so many others were raving about. It was revelatory to watch "Omar Sharif" on the Tonys to see all that was going on in the 2 a
"Is this the first time John Doyle's work has ever been spoken of positively on this forum :P?"
Let's take stock, shall we? Doyle got raves here and elsewhere for his B'way revivals of SWEENEY TODD (tuba-playing Mrs. Lovett), COMPANY (Bobby learns to play the piano), and THE COLOR PURPLE (no onstage instruments). Off Broadway, he got raves for his revival of PASSION at CSC.
On the debit side, BWW posters were mixed for THE VISIT on Bway,
I liked the original production a lot when I first saw it, particularly the brilliant first half. (The songs descend into contemporary pop territory about halfway through, which I thought was a huge shame.) La Chanze was lovely and heartbreaking, but the original Shug was a weak singer and weak partner for Celie (one could have missed the amazing lesbian love story at the show's heart if you weren't paying attention), and not a single other performance stands out in my memory banks fr
Not precisely the same, but the writers of the Tony-winning musical KISMET, Wright and Forrest, basically took a batch of Borodin melodies and fashioned pop/operetta songs out of them to build a show around. Some like "Stranger in Paradise" and "Baubles, Bangs and Beads" became smash hits and even entered the pantheon of the Classic American Songbook.
I wonder if Borodin's heirs still receive royalties.
, but generally found the new choreo one of the plusses in the otherwise discardable new production. I'm sure I'll feel the same with Van Hove's.
