3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 13, 2020 4:43:04 GMT
He either said in an interview or an article that he might consider releasing a concept album due to the delays. Either a promo EP or concept album would be cool. We just need something to keep us going.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 10, 2020 20:20:31 GMT
So I'm posting on the forum again, because pandemic. I just noticed that there is a thread about BLM / Protests / George Floyd. Can someone be kind enough to give me an executive summary of what's happening here because I don't feel like reading 8 pages worth of racism and/or performative empathy (some of you that I know are alright though and speak the truth). Also, a list of racists would be greatly appreciated.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 10, 2020 20:13:00 GMT
Just saw this clip. The director of this production blocking the songs: okay, so let's just spread out on the stage. Chest up. Head high. Sing out. For the entire number. Just like that, yes stand still and sing. Okay we're done. Next scene.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 10, 2020 12:49:45 GMT
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 10, 2020 5:47:07 GMT
Such an odd choice. This was never a popular darling and as far as I remember, doesn't even have a cult following. Is Robert Londsale still cute? A lot can happen in six years..
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 10, 2020 3:19:53 GMT
I'm not sure if the best approach to writing a 1980s Ragan-era musical would come from a team of British dudes. Elton John used to be able to chug out a tune, which he still can I would think, but a non-American book writer is a bit of a risk.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 10, 2020 3:12:53 GMT
Standing room seems to have been made available at the back of the stalls for every performance upon reopening. They're selling tickets despite not knowing when they'll re-open?
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 8, 2020 11:18:41 GMT
I used to own Michael Bruce's Unwritten Songs album. He can write a fun tuner.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 8, 2020 10:11:14 GMT
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 1, 2020 15:38:27 GMT
Couldn't agree more re: Jenna Russell. Her straight tone is infuriating.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 1, 2020 9:54:29 GMT
Stop making Imelda Staunton the premier Sondheim interpreter of the UK. All she does is bark. That Sweeney Todd revival was boring. I wanted it to load out and get The Bodyguard in. Stop making Sheridan Smith a musical theatre icon. Zero. Talent. Come From Away is pedestrian and basic AF. Pretty Woman looks and sounded like trash but I do listen to I Can't Go Back all the time. Joe Iconis should stop composing. I really like Lin Manuel Miranda as a creative mind, but I wish he'd stop being everywhere and most of all I wish he'd stop singing. Casey Nicholaw and Jack O'Brien are awful directors. Lawrence O'Connor is overused and over-employed. Why him? A Jerry Mithcell show is starting to look like a parody of a Jerry Mitchell show. Retire, queen. Kinky Boots has an awful book but a good score. British drag queens don't sound and sass like that.
I've said my peace.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jun 1, 2020 9:45:22 GMT
Is it only me or does it try too hard to be like the Sondheim tribute?
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Apr 14, 2020 18:21:20 GMT
Wouldn't it be truly innovative if ALW shared archive recordings and workshops? Interesting yo see the success if theatre migrating to YouTube - "One man, two guvnors" 1.1m views... There's a market for theatre content beyond the box office. Exactly. He must think I'm a sucker. The productions they've played on this channel are more or less available on YouTube already.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Mar 11, 2020 17:55:54 GMT
I saw the second preview last night. It was basic AF.
When you adapt something so sacred - and Mrs Doubtfire is as sacred as it gets for me - you better bring a breath of fresh air to it, a new perspective or really elevate the material. This musical does none of these things.
The keyword in a musical is music. Kikrpatrick does not know how to compose a good tune, a melodious melody or a bopper. It's not modern, it's not classic, it's nothing at all. Rob McLure works his ass off, but I'm sorry to say that he's not charming or funny. The character Daniel is irresponsible, selfish, and potentially had his children mentally compromised. We chose to ignore this because of Robbin Williams. Rob McLure is just not cute, charming or funny enough to make us forgive his character's shortcomings. The gags they've given him are basic imitations of pop culture references (Gollum from Lord of the Rings, Borat, etc) and aren't invented originals that were created on the spot by Robbin Williams on the movie set.
The set was boring and conventional and looks exactly like the set of Tootsie down to Daniel's apartment, which is a shrunken version of the apartment in Tootsie. At least with Tootsie you had David Yazbeck's score (not his best, but still better than this), Sarah Stiles and Andy Grotelueschen's performances.
Nothing about Mrs Doubtfire was inventive, original or creative.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Mar 10, 2020 21:57:50 GMT
I was lucky to see the first preview and the final performance. That gave me the chance to see what they worked on and how they changed it.
The show I saw last night was marvelous. Whatever didn't work for me in London, and a lot of it did, and it's very hard for me to pinpoint what didn't work, was flipped over its head last night.
The similarities: physically, the production is mainly the same. There might have been some dance movement changes, though I am not absolutely too sure. One specific change is during Sarah and Harry's scene, they both consume their vices rather differently than they did in London. In terms of physical differences, basically everyone has a different costume than the London production, even LuPone's. Another Hundred People has been completely rethought of it. There's no longer a train carriage. Human size letters spelling out COMPANY are now shifted across the stage, with the commuters whizzing in and out of them. The letters also work as a park bench or a seat in a bar lounge to create different scenes during the vignettes with the men that cut through the song.
Thematically, there's something clearer about how this is now set in a corner of Bobbi's mind, or in a dream or an alternative dimension of New York City. More so than ever, Bobbi is now an outsider looking in, and there are new transitions that transpose her from one location to another. Having recently moved to New York, this production truly captures the complexities of navigating the city, in a certain age, trying to negotiate love, relationships and friendships.
The cast really makes this production. Everyone worked from the bottom up to reinvent these characters. Though I've seen one show on both sides of the Atlantic, and though actors bring their own stamp to the role, they normally work off the originals' template. The charactes here absolutely have no resemblance to the original London cast, except Matt Doyle-who was good-but works off of Jonathan Bailey's original Jamie.
Then comes Katrina Lenk who is certainly nothing like Rosalie Craig. Rosalie gave a solid earnest production as a square Ameican girl. There's nothing square about Lenk, and nor could you say she's American per se. My reading of her was of an expatriate New Yorker..an international type, who is from everywhere and nowhere, who just found herself in New York and called it home. Her "un-Americanness" if you will makes her so alluring, and reinforces her outsider status, which explains her inability to full engage or connect to her friends, and their facination with her enigma. Her voice is broken and when she sings, she's sounds like a modern day European chanteuse. Even though her singing is the antithesis of musical theatre projection, that becomes a pesonality trait that works in favor of the character.
Elliot (who was in the audience) mounted a fantastic production in London, but this production takes it to an absolutely new level. Would love to see it again.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Feb 20, 2020 15:55:35 GMT
There was no innuendo.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Feb 7, 2020 12:28:42 GMT
I'm seeing it tonight. That's all. I'm glad JJ is not in it yet. Seeing him in SMASH just ruined it for me forever. He would have been a better replacement for Christian Borle.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Feb 5, 2020 23:59:22 GMT
How are The Plagues? I remember in the tryout version they amalgamated it with a new song.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 19, 2020 17:16:06 GMT
Someone knows something and they are withholding information. We need to know. Bring him back. I love MG. However, we'll need it with a giant orchestra. That overture was everything.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 19, 2020 17:13:55 GMT
Interesting and daring topic for a musical, but I'm not too crazy about the all-white male creators of this show. Can't say that I'm not intrigued.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 14, 2020 12:48:34 GMT
^ There's a short-term engagement followed by a show that has already booked it. I'm not sure about either titles, but this is what I've heard.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 10, 2020 14:27:44 GMT
I saw The Pirate Queen twice in Chicago before its doomed Broadway run, and enjoy parts of the cast recording, but for the life of me recall any other women singers in the show apart from Grace? Are these women alternating the lead?
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 10, 2020 14:26:20 GMT
I don't think we'll get cliche 'Egyptian' references and statues apart from the heliographic. The aesthetic and the world they are trying to create has its own visual references, which I think is absolutely the right way to go.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 10, 2020 14:24:02 GMT
So I finally saw this, after being obsessed with it for weeks especially after the fantastic cast recording came out. Cool (enough) story, although the book scenes could use a bit more polish, especially the parts between Anne and Shakespear. We had a few understudies on for May, Nurse and Juliette's mum. Nurse was excellent, though I'd think seeing an older woman have a grand ol time on stage and fall in love and boogie all over again would be even more delightful. May was a bit stiff but got the job done. Mariam is cute AF and nails the solos, but something goes haywire and off-pitch when she starts singing with or harmonizing with castmates. Might see it again before I leave, might not.
Stalls really empty when I saw it on Wednesday night due to the post-holiday lull, but I'd imagine it picks up on weekends and when the season picks up again.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 10, 2020 14:18:19 GMT
I saw last night's show as well. There was a huge delay. The show was meant to start at 8, it started at 8.30. I was standing next to the cast board, and it was changed..TWICE while I was standing there. And adrianics said Danielle Streers disappeared mid-way and the standby did seem a bit stiff and shellshocked but handled it very well. I also noticed that she literally had no made up on at all, and some accessories were missing. Having said that, I'm glad that my third time into the show was basically a full new cast altogether. It's still a marvelous show, and the audience loved it. I had a great seat in the circle, and I counted six men. I also would have liked to see a bit more diversity in the audience that somehow mirrored the diversity on stage.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 5, 2020 2:12:25 GMT
Interesting. Recent Sondheim productions from England have been very good lately. It's one to keep an eye on. It all comes down to the producer and the director attached.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Jan 3, 2020 17:31:10 GMT
I skimmed through it. I don't know..is it me or did she have a German accent while singing?
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Dec 25, 2019 16:20:27 GMT
Hi friends.. Does anyone know if any of the leads have scheduled holidays on the week of Jan 4th? Also, does Miriam do all shows bar sicknesses or is there an alternate Juliet? I'll be in London for a few days and this mad musical is my priority!
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Dec 25, 2019 16:14:45 GMT
I saw this last week before Isaac's accident.
I was extremely supportive of a new modern take on WSS, including new choreography. We've seen the (brilliant) Robbins' choreography 700 times, and for all we know there are probably 60 recreations of his original choreography in America, and probably 10 across the world happening right now.
I've only seen Lazarus and All About Eve as far as Ivo's work is concerned. I was mesmerized by the camera work in All About Eve, though I listened closely to how people have criticized his camera work as a "trick" to hide otherwise weak direction. WSS utilizes the same camera work, be it, much less than All About Eve. I also recently saw "A History of Violence" at St. Ann's Warehouse, which is somewhat similar in using cell phone/live filming while telling the story. If you've seen it before, it might not be as impressive. If this is your first time, it possibly could be.
In an interview, Ivo says that he's made the cuts and made the play into one act to show how fast things are unraveling, and how the characters are racing against time. That's a fine artistic choice, but I found that his pace, technique and overall aesthetic was at odds with the book. And although the book is not dated and some lines land and land well, it's still written at such a pace that is much slower than the tempo of the movement on stage.
The new choreography seems uncertain. It only picks up with the big production numbers, mainly at the gym. America is now based on the film version with boys vs girls, and I like how it works.
The two leads are good. In this version, it's mostly Tony's story, and Isaac Powell might not sing the score beautifully, but he has reinvented Tony from the ground up. He finally makes sense as a reformed ex-gang member who wants a new beginning. Shereen Pimentel is feisty, flirty and believable as a strong millennial who has an opinion.
Both gangs now are multi-racial and mixed. What was once a story about racism is now a story of toxic masculinity. Overall a very polished preview. The production has a lot of style and swag, but with very little emotions. Technically, they've figured it out and don't need to worry about the mechanics of the show, but there's still some work to be done on how to connect to the audience. Considering how square and touristy the audience is, I'm not sure that this WSS belongs in a commercial Broadway house. It would fare much better somewhere in Brooklyn, or even at an opera house that wants diversify its programming and bring in a younger audience.
|
|
3,057 posts
|
Post by ali973 on Dec 25, 2019 15:43:58 GMT
Cast recordings have recently been quite lacking. I get the impression that they are so overly engineered which creates a sanitized and artificial sound, be it on this recent recording or the Moulin Rouge recording.
I haven't seen it yet because prices have been insane but I have a ticket in January. I think La Groff will be gone by then but I heard great things about Gideon.
|
|