We really don't care about theatre do we?

Yesterday, I saw a run-through of a stage adaptation of George Saunders's short story Jon at a theater here in Chicago. Opens in a few weeks, and it was really extrordinary.

WOW

xp I'll wait for the DVD.

have an extra for On the Town tomorrow

i saw dividing the estate last week and it was offensively bad. going to pal joey next friday and i'm psyched!

i could have predicted the first part. i wouldn't mind seeing martha plimpton, but i think i'll probably pass on that one.

i saw a great on the town just a few years ago in LA. i only got the tix really so my friend could see it.

Apparently, my parents went last night and say it's great, so I'm definitely going. Free ticket if you want to come too.

great I don't know about, but I had a great time on the whole. the LA show I saw (by the Reprise company, now run by Jason Alexander) was a lower-budget production, but with more heart and probably better, in no small part because everyone in the cast was a real actor, singer, and (most importantly) dancer, whereas some of the leads here obviously didn't have a lot of dance experience (maybe it was supposed to be part of the character, but i don't think so), and the choreography wasn't as fresh. and while i don't know how much time these guys took to rehearse, they needed books for dialogue, whereas the LA people did without after two weeks. and the production was a little awkward, at least at first - acting/singing in front of the orchestra, dancing on a riser behind it (at least everyone could see the latter well). the worst part was the totally, well, milquetoast Gabey (who the NYT liked). i mean, i guess he was touching in a moment or two and i know the character isn't supposed to be a stud or anything, but once you've gone Gene Kelly, you better be good in going back. and the Chip was simply boring. but the Ozzie was great, and the chemistry with Claire - the best voice in the house (per usual?) - was wonderful. the Hildy was a little broadway-brassy for my taste, but pretty good, and the Ivy, while adequate otherwise, was an accomplished dancer. i don't know whether to excuse dropping the midwestern-background-exposition with Ivy and Gabey (was that not in the play? don't remember), but the Madame Dilly, while going a little overboard on your standard-Broadway-all-broad-sex-references-are-obviously-hilarious brought the house down. and Michael Cumpsty (! - I had no idea) was great as Pitkin, of course. as was the orchestra, and ultimately you can't really fuck with that music/story.

or maybe i just had better seats in LA and have been ruined by seeing a lot of serious dance since that show

no, i think it was better

almost $300 for Guys 'n Dolls?! seriously?!

my professional opinion on pal joey: if you are going to charge $100 for a broadway ticket, pls to be getting actors who can SING on pitch and with some level of dynamic variance. i think it is bull that the "best" stages in the country put mediocre talent up. who is doing this casting? stockard channing can't sing - this i understand, and that is fine, because it's stockard channing in yr show and she's a sassy broad, etc. however, the rest of the cast should be GOOD. admittedly understudy for joey (last min fill-in) is new to it, but he just does not have the vocal chops, and i don't think he will grow into the role. linda english character: nice acting, but her top end sucked in the songs, and she had no sense of phrasing or artistry. it's really a shame because the throwback stuff is really fun to watch, and the production value was great, but i spent the whole time being pissed that they didn't cast the thing better and that i could think of a handful of people i know who could have done a better job in most of the roles. this is basically why i have a hard time liking most broadway stuff, not just this show, but man, is it frustrating to watch!

nb i didn't pay $100, but people do!!

otm

i think this is a big part of why i will always like opera better. and bc opera is taken more seriously i guess? sure, you get dud singers, but for some reason the whole thing just seems better to me. i have seen some crappy opera, too, but in general, the bad operas i have seen were still more entertaining/fulfilling than 90% of what i've seen on broadway in the past year. i think broadway just has some formula that they plug things into for each show, and for the most part they all come off as variations of the same bad experience.

they do, but not always - the singing tends to get better with more serious/operatic material, and more independent/one-off productions - Lincoln Center, Encores, etc. i've also seen really great musicals in DC (Arena Stage) and LA (Reprise). Roundabout seems to have become a bit too star-focused, a victim of its own success.

i don't expect too much from this Guys and Dolls, but I'm not sure I can resist

hey, what's this Musical Theatre Guild in LA?

forgotten gems and undiscovered treasures in staged concert format!

I think theyre selling this "Joey" on the "honest" book...

oh god don't get me started on f***ing greenberg and his heavy handed "omg this character is GAY!" crap.

o i didnt know about such things.

you around tnite, tza? i'll be at new-wave bar.

ok wow just looking at the wiki synopsis of this show it is now clear how much greenberg mucked it up. ugh. this makes me even more angry!

yeah, i'm around! new-wave bar = metropolitan?

yes! may not get there til 12:30....

i just know prevvious stage/film versions of PJ made him less of a 'heel'. u know, so audiences could 'identify.'

that brings me to a whole other issue that i feel theater should not dumb itself down for the masses. seriously, a character who is not necessarily 'feel good' is not someone you need to dumb down! jeez. it's not "challenging" because he is, oh i don't know, like 65% of men out there, and i resent that producers/directors/writers lower themselves to that kind of audience pandering.

not as inspired as the original production, but there are rush tix avail for black watch

ok, serious follow-up now on pal joey - tehresa, are your objections more professional than anything else? i mean, say you're definitely an opera/throwback person (not a contempo broadway person) and are sensitive to singing quality (and grew up with the original recordings), but $ are more fungible to you and you're not a singer yourself. would you enjoy this fairly well?

thankig u in advance

if you are sensitive to singing quality, i would not see it. you're definitely not going to get the satisfaction of the music you're used to with the og recording (this is based on me listening to clips of original for comparison). the vocal energy/sparkle/pizazz that makes throwbacks so fun just isn't there. if you enjoy the throwback fancy costumes, etc. enough that you can tolerate mediocre singing, i would see it. if you think martha plimpton is hot, i would see it.

haha, i had a crush on a martha plimpton character when i was a kid, and she sound mildly interesting, but i'd rather see her in a play (like the coast of utopia, which i never got to). i am thinking about getting tix for other people, tho. is the orchestra any good?

it's fine. nothing amazing, not bad. i find that setup so weird though (lofted on either side of audience). way to make it obvious that the orchestra was clearly an afterthought to your theater renovation!

thanks

i saw august: osage county yesterday -- i really liked it. loved it even

here are some images from my bf's production of Tennessee Williams' rarely performed "And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens". he directed it and i did the set and production design (and built it too!). the space was a traverse stage, which means there are banks of seating rising up at opposite sides of the space. unusually the seating is on the short ends rather than on the long ends. a very small space with about 70 audience members per night. the intimacy definitely worked in favour of the production. you really felt like you were right in candy's drawing room.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/P1050371.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/P1050395.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/P1050465.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/P1050531.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/P1050691.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/P1050664.jpg

one more:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/P1050764.jpg

that's gorgeous! congratulations

thanks!

that look intersting!

rearranging the deck chairs
;_;

srsly guys 3.5 minutes KILLS your message.

rumors of steel to save nyco... hmmm!

didn't he just go somewhere else?

Wow, bad review in today's Times for Pal Joey.

Silver lining to Piven having to leave Speed-The-Plow:
On Thursday the producers of “Speed-the-Plow” said that Mr. Piven’s role as the Hollywood producer Bobby Gould would be taken over first by Norbert Leo Butz and then by William H. Macy. Mr. Butz is to play the role from Tuesday through Jan. 11, they said, and Mr. Macy is to take it on from Jan. 13 through Feb. 22, when the show is scheduled to close at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. Mr. Piven’s understudy, Jordan Lage, will continue to perform the role through Sunday.

yeah he just went to dalas....

lol see ask tehresa thread for my take on that review!

i want to see speed the plow - i've heard it's really great. macy is gold for them!

working on getting in to see hedda gabler w/ mary louise parker :D

the one with cate blanchett was so gooood, i dunno if i can take another hedda! but it would be interesting. it's hard for me to see her in the part. i wonder how modern they're going to go with it

the last thing i ever saw in the theatre (that wasn't dance or experimental movement stuff) was "Long Day's Journey Into Night," with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Sean Leonard, Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Dennehy.

which explains why i never will go to see anything on Broadway again-- that experience trumped all, and will always forever trump all.

No, it doesn't! I saw LDJiN twice in the '80s w/ 2 diff casts, and would see more.

despite my theatre nerdiness in high school, never again-- it took one college production for me to say, 'fuck this shit' for the rest of my life. i'll write them, though, and i love reading a good one. Will Eno and Martin Scrimp are my current faves. Doug Dorst is pretty good, too.

in high school, i was:
- Sky Masterson (hah hah, luck be a lady, that was some funny stuff for my young faggot voice to be crooning)
- Pishchik in the Cherry Orchard
- assistant director on Endgame
- the H.L. Mencken character in that one about the Scopes Monkey Trial.
- Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband (best role ever)
- the son in Curse of the Starving Class, which I also directed and was my senior 'thesis' or whatever. fun but exhausting, got me smoking cigarettes again by the end, a habit i have never quite again except for some brief months.

anyway....

Did you do that naked part in Curse of the Starving Class?

Next month, the Goodman in Chicago is doing a whole bunch of O'Neill, including one by the Wooster Group and another one directed by Robert Falls (who did that Long Day's Journey on Broadway), featuring Dennehy and the cute female agent from Entourage.