It looks like a lack of direction. The fact that she is just standing there doing nothing for long amount for time is very awkward and static. Hopefully it looks less boring by the time it starts. The dancing is fantastic though.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I was bored until the tapping started. I really hope Sutton is going to do something other than stand still in the beginning part. When it got going, it really picked up, though. Looks like something I'd definitely want to see.
But, bjh, I'm curious about what you mean by "too contemporary".
"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim
The choreography and dancing was great. I'm a Sutton fan and all, but really? She didn't blow me away. Theres another one with more song clips on playbill that I'm about to watch.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
loved the choreography, but a 6 minute dance break?? Really??
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
Oh come on you guys! Sutton is amazing and the dancing was fantastic! i can't wait to see this show, i think it looks so promising. i think Sutton is a total shoe in for a tony nod this year!
i also love the way they changed the end. Its much less abrasive then the Eileen Rodgers version.
A little underwhelming, but I'm hoping it will be dynamite come opening night. Sutton seems to be marking a bit. I am sure she'll be phenomenal- a very DIFFERENT Rena from what we've seen in productions past.
Sutton looked like she was pacing herself, and no doubt she'll have to, doing a 6-minute tap break every performance.
The tap felt way too long. Six minutes is too long for a dance break unless you're telling a story in the dance. This was basically "Reno flirts with the sailors" and that's not much of a narrative to fill six minutes. So you get lots of formations and pairings and repeated steps where everyone's dancing their butts off. I thought the choreography was fine if it could be cut in half. Either that or start playing to Sutton's acting strengths and develop a "story" in the dance.
At the end I felt like I was appreciative of their endurance, but not much else.
Reminders:
The song is called "Anything Goes," not "Everything Goes."
The award is for Best Choreography, not Most Choreography.
And I, too, wish that Sutton had set up the dance break better by a more solid performance of the song. She did seem to be marking it, or disengaged, or unsure of committing to her character's opinion of those words. Not a good thing for Reno or Sutton.
I much prefer LuPone's take on the song and the brilliant choreography that went with it.
Maybe this number as staged and performed will work better in context. And maybe people are being charged by the tap now and will be happy seeing the "most choreographed" show on Broadway.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22