Post by zsazsa on Dec 2, 2016 17:29:52 GMT
Last night I attend the Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland's production of Brigadoon by their final year musical theatre students.
There productions are always of a high standard and I have seen them produce outstanding productions of Carousel, Cabaret and Sunday In The Park With George.
I have waited many years to see Brigadoon on the stage. I love the score and, apart from the dubious Scottish accents, love the movie version.
Last night I was left shocked and angry. I am aware the show requires a bit of an update. This was a basically a whole re-write where all sentiment was ripped from the book and much darker product put in its place. Instead of the village that appears only once every 100 years we have a cult living in a fairground attraction called "The Brigadoon Experience". Harry Ritchie is no longer the misunderstood villain. Bizzare would be an understatement.
The songs remained intact with new traditional Scottish music orchestrations. In some places this was thrilling but yet in others felt somewhat laboured.
It was such a shame as the students, particularly the actor playing Tommy, were excellent.
How the director has been allowed to ignore the author's original intentions and create this piece that is so far removed from the original is beyond me.
There productions are always of a high standard and I have seen them produce outstanding productions of Carousel, Cabaret and Sunday In The Park With George.
I have waited many years to see Brigadoon on the stage. I love the score and, apart from the dubious Scottish accents, love the movie version.
Last night I was left shocked and angry. I am aware the show requires a bit of an update. This was a basically a whole re-write where all sentiment was ripped from the book and much darker product put in its place. Instead of the village that appears only once every 100 years we have a cult living in a fairground attraction called "The Brigadoon Experience". Harry Ritchie is no longer the misunderstood villain. Bizzare would be an understatement.
The songs remained intact with new traditional Scottish music orchestrations. In some places this was thrilling but yet in others felt somewhat laboured.
It was such a shame as the students, particularly the actor playing Tommy, were excellent.
How the director has been allowed to ignore the author's original intentions and create this piece that is so far removed from the original is beyond me.
