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!
― jordans-menendi (tehresa), Saturday, 29 November 2008 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
nb i didn't pay $100, but people do!!
otm
― gabbneb, Saturday, 29 November 2008 15:57 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― jordans-menendi (tehresa), Saturday, 29 November 2008 16:04 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― gabbneb, Saturday, 29 November 2008 16:16 (fifteen years ago) link
i don't expect too much from this Guys and Dolls, but I'm not sure I can resist
― gabbneb, Saturday, 29 November 2008 16:18 (fifteen years ago) link
hey, what's this Musical Theatre Guild in LA?
― gabbneb, Saturday, 29 November 2008 16:24 (fifteen years ago) link
forgotten gems and undiscovered treasures in staged concert format!
― jordans-menendi (tehresa), Saturday, 29 November 2008 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link
I think theyre selling this "Joey" on the "honest" book...
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 29 November 2008 17:57 (fifteen years ago) link
oh god don't get me started on f***ing greenberg and his heavy handed "omg this character is GAY!" crap.
― very quotatious (tehresa), Saturday, 29 November 2008 17:59 (fifteen years ago) link
o i didnt know about such things.
you around tnite, tza? i'll be at new-wave bar.
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 29 November 2008 18:00 (fifteen years ago) link
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?
― very quotatious (tehresa), Saturday, 29 November 2008 18:02 (fifteen years ago) link
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.'
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 29 November 2008 18:04 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― very quotatious (tehresa), Saturday, 29 November 2008 18:08 (fifteen years ago) link
not as inspired as the original production, but there are rush tix avail for black watch
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 22:34 (fifteen years ago) link
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?
― gabbneb, Sunday, 7 December 2008 15:32 (fifteen years ago) link
thankig u in advance
― gabbneb, Sunday, 7 December 2008 15:37 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― very quotatious (tehresa), Sunday, 7 December 2008 15:48 (fifteen years ago) link
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?
― gabbneb, Sunday, 7 December 2008 15:59 (fifteen years ago) link
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!
― very quotatious (tehresa), Sunday, 7 December 2008 16:03 (fifteen years ago) link
thanks
― gabbneb, Sunday, 7 December 2008 16:14 (fifteen years ago) link
i saw august: osage county yesterday -- i really liked it. loved it even
― Surmounter, Sunday, 7 December 2008 17:36 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― jed_, Sunday, 7 December 2008 18:11 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― jed_, Sunday, 7 December 2008 18:13 (fifteen years ago) link
one more:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/P1050764.jpg
that's gorgeous! congratulations
― Surmounter, Sunday, 7 December 2008 18:14 (fifteen years ago) link
thanks!
― jed_, Sunday, 7 December 2008 18:16 (fifteen years ago) link
that look intersting!
― very quotatious (tehresa), Sunday, 7 December 2008 22:22 (fifteen years ago) link
rearranging the deck chairs;_;
srsly guys 3.5 minutes KILLS your message.
― rock loop twist down loop twist (tehresa), Wednesday, 17 December 2008 14:51 (fifteen years ago) link
rumors of steel to save nyco... hmmm!
― rock loop twist down loop twist (tehresa), Friday, 19 December 2008 14:42 (fifteen years ago) link
didn't he just go somewhere else?
― challahpino noir (gabbneb), Friday, 19 December 2008 15:38 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Eazy, Friday, 19 December 2008 16:10 (fifteen years ago) link
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!
― rock loop twist down loop twist (tehresa), Friday, 19 December 2008 16:32 (fifteen years ago) link
working on getting in to see hedda gabler w/ mary louise parker :D
― rock loop twist down loop twist (tehresa), Friday, 19 December 2008 16:33 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― Surmounter, Friday, 19 December 2008 18:44 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― the table is the table, Friday, 19 December 2008 19:58 (fifteen years ago) link
No, it doesn't! I saw LDJiN twice in the '80s w/ 2 diff casts, and would see more.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 19 December 2008 20:07 (fifteen years ago) link
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....
― the table is the table, Saturday, 20 December 2008 00:05 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Eazy, Saturday, 20 December 2008 00:25 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.goodmantheatre.org/images/season/Desire_160X180.jpg
― Eazy, Saturday, 20 December 2008 00:28 (fifteen years ago) link
FYI, EZ, we're going to see Jon tonight after all.
― total mormon cockblock extravaganza (jaymc), Saturday, 20 December 2008 00:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh, good. I'll probably be there for the post-show talk with G. Saunders.
― Eazy, Saturday, 20 December 2008 00:46 (fifteen years ago) link
That's lovely jed!
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 21 December 2008 21:11 (fifteen years ago) link
thanks, julio.
can i recommend something for you?
http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Alain-Platels-pitie
sam and i may come and see it too so maybe we'll meet again! i'll keep you posted. Les Ballets C. de la B. are amazing.
― jed_, Sunday, 21 December 2008 21:48 (fifteen years ago) link
That looks excellent. I'll put it on the calendar but yeah keep me posted!
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 21 December 2008 21:56 (fifteen years ago) link
ok so...my mom's visiting nyc in february and since she likes theater i usually take her to something as a belated christmas present. usually off-broadway, she's not really interested in the musicals and whatnot. looking around this year, i'm thinking about buying tix for upcoming "uncle vanya" w/denis o'hare, maggie gyllenhaal and peter sarsgaard. what are the odds that it will be worth a look? (and/or does anyone have any other suggestions?)
― tipsy mothra, Saturday, 27 December 2008 19:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Get a ticket early for Our Town at the 199-seat Barrow Street Theatre. I know, Our Town, but it's going to be the big show of early '09, based on how it ran in Chicago and the all the justifiable NYC hype that director David Cromer has been getting. (NY Times critic picked the Chicago version as one of the top 10 shows of '08.)
― Eazy, Saturday, 27 December 2008 19:24 (fifteen years ago) link
hmm. does sound good. maybe i'll wait a week and see if they announce dates.
― tipsy mothra, Saturday, 27 December 2008 19:48 (fifteen years ago) link
tipsy i'm gonna see hedda gabler soon maybe that is another good option?
― this display name has the potential to be epically sexy (tehresa), Wednesday, 7 January 2009 02:01 (fifteen years ago) link
also if anyone is interested in this on saturday:
Founded in 1984 under the artistic direction of Maggi Sietsma, Expressions Dance Company is known across the globe for its highly athletic and theatrical brand of dance. This Australian company performs the New York City premiere of Score!, a new multimedia dance-theater piece inspired by Michel Fokine's ballet Petrushka and set in the insanely competitive world of reality TV. Packed with strikingly physicality, Score! incorporates live footage, video projections, and spoken word into this gripping tale of two contestants battling for the ultimate prize.
free if you don't mind making the trek to flatbush with me.
― this display name has the potential to be epically sexy (tehresa), Wednesday, 7 January 2009 02:06 (fifteen years ago) link