Anyway, this board just isn’t as fun and informative as it was in the past. I used to stay up late on Openkng Nights to read all the comments in the reviews thread, and whenever a new show started, I would eagerly await reviews in the previews thread. And then Pal Joey would post a gorgeous thread full of memories and informative encounters with legends - the West Side Story thread comes to mind.
I saw it this evening and found it to be a stunning show.
The conception of the piece is the place it in a sterile white box with little color and no life. The life comes entirely from the actors, who make pictures seem like statues and who craft the world around us using their bodies and language. I didn't find I needed to play a game of charades to know what the actors were pantomiming - every one had a verbal explanation. The bare set makes the stage a canvas, upon which William
MLIMA'S TALE (previews) Apr 16
2018, 09:48:54 AM
Lovely - I swear, those seals come and go so quickly. It wasn’t there when I read the review. Congrats to Notage and the cast.
Odd how “Carousel” got a Critic’s Pick when Brantley went on at length about its faults, yet for this, he never says a negative word and the Critic’s Pick deal is nowhere to be seen...
MY FAIR LADY (2018) Previews Mar 19
2018, 11:41:25 AM
I haven’t seen this production, but I’m looking forward to seeing Sher’s work. However, I am a little weary that they have completely ignored Lerner’s intentions. I mean, in the first page of the script, he points out why the ending pairs Eliza and Higgins together. If I wanted to see the ending where Eliza doesn’t return and the orchestra swells with “I Could Have Danced All Night”, I would have seen Pygmalion, not My Fair Lady.
Are we going to change the ending of “A Streetcar Named
CAROUSEL (2018) Previews Mar 18
2018, 12:53:32 AM
Isn’t this the first commercial revival? All the others were produced by Lincoln Center - the first revival was in 1965 for the Music Theatre. There were a couple of return engagements at City Center, but those seem to have been limited engagements.
The only production that seems unsuccessful was the original national tour which returned to the Magesgic and closed unexpectedly early... but that would still be the original production, right?
Anspacher Theater - Partial View? (The Low Road) Mar 17
2018, 11:40:44 AM
There are architectural pillars that will obstruct some of the major extreme side staging. If there are seats available, the ushers will attempt to move you at curtain, however don’t count on this because the show is consistently sold out.
Frankly, I don't think anyone needs to see this and am getting tired of Brantley's efusive praise to white men writing (mediocre) plays about race and power when dozens, if not hundreds, of better playwrights can't even get a workshop of a production. But that's just my two cents.
All I ask of a show is to give me one good thing - even if the text is a mess, the direction garbled, the actors scrambling, all I need in the theatre to make me feel like I haven't wasted my time if one fantastic moment.
I walked out of the first act hating the play as a whole and admiring the performances by the more than capable actors. I really didn't want to return, but I dutifully sat back in my seat and was rewarded with the most phenomenal fifteen minutes of t
newintown, I would argue that the real comparable instance in Follies is not Sally's "love" for Buddy, but Sally's "love" for Ben. Sally's thoughts and feelings regarding Buddy are to fully explored by both Goldman and Sondheim for any discerning audience member to think she truly loves him. It's also pretty well set-up that Sally is aware she doesn't love Buddy - after all, she has been pining after Ben for years. Yes, "
I don't know... It's difficult to have these discussions about fictional characters when the work doesn't directly confront the topic because it's really a matter of "what point does it make?" Julie believes she loves Billy. And so, she loves Billy. And later on in the show, we can see that whatever attraction they had at the top of the show is love when she sings that heartbreaker "What's the Use of Wondrin'?"
For example, in Wilde&
CAROUSEL (2018) Previews Mar 10
2018, 05:16:43 PM
“The Bench Scene” is one of the tightest constructed sequences in all of musical theatre. It also gives us one of the first forays into analyzing the psychological states of characters. You see Julie’s transformation from a girl who has a crush - having visited the carousel to see Billy many tines - into a woman in love. And Billy is tempted to give up his womanizing tendencies and take a chance on this girl - a girl who doesn’t care about his background. And it also gives us that timeless class
CAROUSEL (2018) Previews Mar 9
2018, 08:45:19 AM
Beautiful b-roll! And the actual Carousel is jaw-dropping!
CAROUSEL (2018) Previews Mar 6
2018, 11:46:37 PM
There’s a difference between challenging the audience with a new perspective and being bad. Look at Roundabout’s “The Cherry Orchard”.
Last week, a family member of mine was also involved in a car accident. She did not survive. I don’t understand how these pointless tragedies keep happening. It’s just hard to fathom.
CAROUSEL (2018) Previews Mar 2
2018, 11:03:01 PM
I hope people now understand the disparity between what I posted at intermission and my full thoughts after the show.
CallMe, you hit the nail on the head for me. Unless you actually cannot see, the audience does not "ignore" race. Every casting decision has a connotation for the audience, whether they acknowledge it or not. That's why I call bullsh!t when people say that actors are "pretending to be white" or "straight" or a "man". Casting is context, and without taking this into consideration, I think directors are ignoring wider spread issues.
CAROUSEL (2018) Previews Mar 2
2018, 02:51:38 PM
That’s why I’m so looking forward to Iceman, although I find some of O’Neil’s lengthier work interminable.
