LENNON thoughts--the spark and the wish

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 12:25am

Having been asked by my favorite spook to post my thoughts on the new musical LENNON, I offer this musing after seeing this Wednesday matinee...

Any show with Will Chase and Terrence Mann in it is worth seeing. These are dedicated performers who have always given 110% when I have seen them respectively in Miss Saigon and in Scarlet Pimpernel & Les Miserables. (I don't know Will Chase; I met Terrence Mann once at a cafe and discussed a rock Romeo & Juliet he had written which has had success out of town but I don't think has been seen in NYC yet--I'm dying to hear iambic pentameter in rock song, by the by).

All the performers in this show are talented, can sing and have plenty of energy. The musicians are great, the sound system is fine. The old guy next to me put his hands over his ears once during Will Chase's belting but I am very sensitive to sound and Chase was so beautifully on his notes that I just loved it as did the young male tenor friend with whom I attended the show.

The set is nothing remarkable, but the media projections of photos at the back work very well with some touching pics of the early Beatles. I would prefer the show shed the drop down screen at the end and see if there is another way to project that so the stage and performers aren't suddenly covered up at the end of the show for a momentary film clip of John and Yoko.

(cont.)



Updated On: 9/9/05 at 12:25 AM

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 12:58am

To cut to the bone, the show suffers from diffused focus. This is a writing and direction problem and can be fixed. One would hope that there is enough money behind this show and enough willingness to creatively explore on the part of the producers that Lennon can realize all it can be. I frankly think another out-of-town tryout was called for, but there is no reason it can't be shaped into a more moving piece. It needs some ruthless writing sharpening.

The show has to be about Lennon, the man, with all else secondary. The audience can't drift off into some Lennon as everyman & everywoman or Lennon as the Lennon & Ono show. Just Lennon. Not a premise that he would have liked to drag everyone else on stage and say they represent him. Just Lennon. We need to walk with Lennon through his life, to be drawn in by him, to see through his eyes, hear through his ears. And this show is perfectly capable of doing that. How? First of all you have to have ONLY ONE LENNON. Not a bunch of pretenders. Everyone else can speak about Lennon in the third person. But only one Lennon speaking in the first person.

For me, there was only one actor on that stage whom I sensed immediately portrayed the embodiment of John Lennon and that is Will Chase, who has seeped into the man. I was willing to go there with Chase, experience Lennon and explore and love the intellectual, humanist, everything Lennon was. Chase could do him as a one-man show and it would work. And Chase was not projecting himself as the lead or by any means trying to upstage anyone. He gave selfless attention to his fellow actors. It is only obvious that he is the natural lead and a consummate actor who can even manage to look like Lennon. His singing was the highlight of the show for me.

(cont.)

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 1:28am

In fact, what I wanted most was for the show to get the rest of the cast offstage for a good part of the time to let me focus on Lennon and hear his voice through the show. To have the others around so much of the time was distracting. I particularly felt this way through the song "Imagine," a very moving song, but I wanted to hear just Chase sing it, plaintively.

I think the two numbers with the women of the cast portraying the Beatles as a band did not work at all and they should be cut. Suddenly it pushed the play into farce. They were no "Beatles" to me. Plus the problem of the sound of the female voices on those songs, high and screechy. It just doesn't work at times to have women sing songs that may sound fine in male tenor voices. Yes, you say the women can sing these notes, it'll work, but it doesn't. It's something about the key the songs are in, something, but it doesn't work.

The farce needs to be chopped out of the piece. It veers the play listlessly away from its focus on Lennon for cheap yet costly laughs along the way. No female with a beard suddenly as the swami. No red high heels on J. Edgar Hoover. I think the India scene doesn't need a swami. Just have the male beatles sitting around and let the blond dancer take the stage with her impressive Hindu style dancing and the hindu backdrop. We'll get the message. Less is more. Let Terrence Mann do Hoover without the other unnecessary "spies" onstage. Give us more on the deportation and political issues. Leave out the dirty laundry cheating of Lennon on Yoko and for heaven's sake trash the sanitary pad bit.

For the Lennon death scene, cut the unfocused cop who really has nothing to say. Give me a gunshot and Chad Kimball physically portraying the shot Lennon while Chase sings "Imagine" as Lennon's lonely, solitary ghost. How spooky, how eerie. Don't gloss over the brutality of his murder. Let us experience it, feel it, mourn for that troubled soul that we loved, ripped away from us young.

I don't think Yoko Ono should speak in the piece at all. It somehow detracted from her worth. I felt her much more strongly through anything John had to say about her, and that keeps the focus on him, and his love for her.

There you have it. Just one person's thoughts. But I do remember Lennon.

[kooky]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 9:36am

INTERESTING!

[Elphie]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 10:13am

I thought the monologue done by the cop was one of the most effective moments of the show. Please dont cut that!

[Patronus]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 10:27am

I really hope people start to see this show. I am hoping it survives until Thanksgiving so I can see it.

It has an amazing cast, so hopefully that will work in it's favor.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 10:34am

Thanks, kooky.

I know you have expressed a lot of interest in this show.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:18am

I agree except for:

"No red high heels on J. Edgar Hoover."

It doesn't add anything, true. But it doesn't take away from anything. It also is a funny little thing that earns a lot of laughs and possibly adds to the intelligence.

I was sitting front row and missed that Mann was playing Hoover. Then when he stood up, and I saw the shoes, I realized who it was. (I mean, I thought it was him from the picture...but I thought that it was funny...) In all, thought it was effective.

And I, too, like the cop. Chuck Cooper is a great actor. I like they didn't just use a typical gun shot, etc. And since that speech is an actual speech, not written for the show, it makes it more effective.

Especially since his life wasn't so much about what he did but about what he had to say. I think it's more effective to verbalize his death than actually act it out.

Otherwise, I pretty much agree.
Updated On: 9/8/05 at 11:18 AM

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 12:08pm

If that's all you folks are disagreeing about, I feel so good.

As to the cop's speech, it is brilliantly delivered, true he is a great actor as well as singer.

And as to the red high heels, all I have to say to both is sometimes you have to kill off your darlings for the benefit of the overall piece.

This is like being a critic and having the benefit of a repartee with your readers!

Thanks!

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 1:09pm

Well, the red shoes show that someone involved has some intelligence and adds a little depth to Hoover - not to mention is an easy way to recognize him.

I think that was one sean that stick out of my mind - especially having this strong image of Terrence Mann as Javert - "Hey, look! Javert in red high heel shoes!"

But I think that scene is the least of the problems with the show.

Updated On: 9/8/05 at 01:09 PM

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/8/05 at 11:25pm

Another couple thoughts for the show which didn't seem to fit within my first piece:

For "Give Peace a Chance" leave the actors out in the audience aisles at the end. Take them out of that straight lineup making peace hand signs. Straight lines are lethal in directing, tableaus are much more artistic. Don't push the reference to the Iraq war, let the audience pick up on that if they want to. Vietnam was a different ball game with the draft looming ferociously.

For the second half of the show especially, please find Terrence Mann a more appealing costume. I suggest a charcoal linen shirt with a Nehru, mandarin or band collar.

Break a leg, LENNON. May you find your audience and grow...


Updated On: 9/8/05 at 11:25 PM

[twogaab2]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 11:00am

At worst I thought that the problem was the script was very sketchy (I knew as much about Lennon when I went in as when I went out). The production looked like something you would see in some of the bigger rooms in Maimi or Las Vegas (Cruse ship?).

At best it has a truely remarkable cast who sing the hell out of the music and there is the music itself.

Just my opinion, I may be wrong.

[cathywellerstein]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 11:34am

i think its simplicity is something that the real john lennon would love if he should still be alive today. he'd probably want it to be in a gym or something so everyone could sit together on the same level. this show is more than just "trying to be a broadway show" and failing. yeah there's no typical chorus and leads, but that's what is so great about it. and the script is skippy but that's how life is. and john's life sure didn't flow like a novel.
i think that lennon is a brilliant piece of theatre. everyone should give it a chance.

[overthemoon419]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:43pm

interesting thoughts, even though i think many of your changes, nomdeplume, would not be beneficial. for instance, another critic was not fond of the way Lennon's death was portrayed-- but i feel as though any other way, such as a reenactment, would simply be in poor taste. it is history, everyone knows what happened, or at least they will after Chuck Cooper's monologue, and i'm sure everyone who did witness it will testify that we as an audience do not need to witness it.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 4:49pm

overthemoon, I think Lennon's death can be portrayed very artistically and even nonrealistically and still be effective. Slow motion. Use of lighting. Think of Javert's death in Les Miserables. There's still a lot of opportunity for creativity.

I could see it well-done either realistically or surrealistically. When it actually happened, Lennon's death came as a horrible shock which still reverberates in the consciousness of those who cared.

Thanks for your encouraging discussion and your thoughts!

[My Name in Lights]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 4:58pm

So, with all of the criticism, I find it hard to believe that you actually like LENNON. Personally, I'm a huge fan and have gone back many times.

As far as being sketchy and the bits of humor, I think they work because John's life wasn't typical. It was all over the place and a lot of different things. It would be impossible to cover all of them in depth. John had an off beat sense of humor. Look at some of his writing. In fact, the show is made up of his words, literally. The description in front of the theatre is very accurate when it says, "his words, his music." That is exactly what makes up this show...his actual words and music put together and performed by an extraordinary cast. It seems amazing to me that so many of his songs and words go so well in telling his story. Sounds as though he was planning to do this show.

Originally, I thought that the show could have been done with less actors, but I was wrong. Those people are working very hard to put this show on, and they do it well. All of their voices are magnificent and deserve to be heard. They are all in sync with putting this piece on the stage.

As far as the ending, it works very well with Chuck's monologue. It brings home the sadness and terror when someone is shot without being graphically depicted with an actual gunshot. We all know the story, and a shot would just break the mood. The closing scene of Yoko/Julie's song is heartbreaking and brings tears every time I see it, but it is solemn, not trashy.

No show is perfect. But this one comes pretty close with what it is conveying using the subject's own words and music. That is a very difficult task to undertake. Of course, you can critique it, any show can use improvement, but mostly they deserve our praise.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 5:21pm

Actually, My Name In Lights, I did not write a critical review of LENNON, though it may appear to be criticism to you by impression.

I called it "thoughts" because I wrote what I thought it would take to bring the show to greatness, which is where I would like to see it go.

I am a Beatles lover from way back.

[showbiz]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 1:31pm

Nondeplume I'm glad you saw Lennon but I don't agree with mostly all of what you said. Will Chase is wonderful in Lennon but by no means could he carry the whole show by himself. Lennon works for me because there are several actors onstage, male and female, all extremely talented and deserving of having equal time.

Some of the things you say sound as if you are anti-female or that you would have been pleased with a mostly male cast? Not sure you wanted to come off this way but "screechy female voices", the "blond dancer", etc., sounds belittling. The female actors in Lennon all have amazing voices and none are only dancers. I didn't hear any "screeching" in the three times I've seen the show.

Far as the ending, I thought that was just perfect, very touching and moving, I wouldn't change a thing about that. The gunshot on stage has been overdone to death and I was quite relieved to see them give a different take on John Lennon's death.

Suffice to say it's too late to make changes anyway and I'm glad to see Lennon stay as is.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/11/05 at 1:08am

Pussycats, overthemoon, only give me love bites.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/11/05 at 9:51pm

Bump for you, munkustrap.