Don't Stop Believing the Rainbow
Mar. 29th, 2009 08:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prusikEvery year, City Center mounts a series of 3 concerts called: Encores! They're highly staged concert performances of unlikely to be revived American musicals with great scores. (Amusingly, several of these concerts have transfered over to B'way.) I just got back from the 3rd of this season's 3 concerts, Finian's Rainbow.
The drill, as always, is that I get up early in the morning. Take the bus to NYC. Meet up with a few friends for lunch. Catch a matinee of some show. Meet up with them again for dinner. We all go catch Encores! together. I take the bus home. (In the process, I usually get a lot of reading done. In this case, I read all of the June 2009 Analog and most of the June 2009 Asimov's. The Sandra McDonald story in the latter is utterly wonderful.)
I had lots of choices for the matinee. I probably should have beef up my theater creds by going to Blithe Spirit, Impressionism, or Exit the King. (In fact, the last was playing opposite the theater I eventually walked into. I was definitely thinking I might have had a much better time at Ionesco's absurdist play. Having now scanned the NYT rave, I may go back to NYC just to catch a performance of this.)
Ok, now that I've whined about how I really, really am a SRIUS THEATAR GOAH, I can say that what I went to see was Rock of Ages, a jukebox musical built from the pop and metal hits of the '80s. It's clear that one of my friends thought I was participating in The Death Of Theater As We Know It. (Keep in mind that during one of these Encores! trips, I went to see Golden Child by David Henry Hwang, a lovely play about the struggle as traditional Chinese culture collides with modern values. He went to see Cats.)
Besides, the theater is always dying... and reinventing itself into something new. I don't see why I shouldn't participate in that process. And since the producers hired a PR firm to survey the audience on who they are, why they came, and what they thought of the show, I got to participate much more directly than I'd expected. (I was pretty blunt in saying that I went because I wanted to see something stupid and mindless.)
Taking for what it is, I thought it was pretty good (and said so in the survey). It doesn't take itself very seriously, and it isn't intended to be art for the next five minutes, much less for the ages. They've filled the production with references to iconic '80s images. It pokes fun at itself, using post-modern self-referential deconstructionism at one point. (This is probably more thought about it than they'd intended.)
It plays around with expectations. e.g., The female lead is named Sherrie. It's obvious why they named her Sherrie. (And if it isn't, you'll miss a joke.) Of course, they pay off, but you don't know when. (And the song is generic enough, it really could have gone anywhere. Where they put it was fine and there were a few place where they tease you into thinking they'll do it.)
On balance, it's better constructed than either of the musicals I saw on the last two Encores! trips. (That's Shrek and The Story of My Life. The latter probably aimed higher though.) The plot is paper thin and predictable, but it's coherent and well executed. Someone very clearly did well in his Structure of the American Musical class. They integrated the songs into the show surprisingly well, much better than Shrek in some cases and that had a score written for the show.
The whole thing was lots of fun, and crammed with over-qualified actors who made the most of the material. (Note: I like most of the songs they used. This is the music of my youth, after all. The fact remains, though, that they weren't written for the situations they'd been placed in. This make it hard for them to be, for example, detailed and specific to the situation.)
Having said that, the song choices were decidedly predictable in places. The musical arrangements were disappointingly unambitious. The act one finale fails to live up to its potential. The book is actually quite skillful in getting all the characters to Points of Major Decision Where Everything Goes Awry. Since it's a musical though, what they need is a big musical sequence to show us the consequences as the curtain falls. They make a stab at time, they never really get across all the stuff that's happening at the same time. Then they grind things to a halt before picking things back up again. (It's also one of the few places where the alienating, self-mocking aside hurts more than it helps.)
Also, pop and metal of the '80s weren't really known for buttoning songs very well. Songs in musicals, for the most part, need to button. Otherwise, the audience doesn't know when to applaud or if they should applaud at all. They didn't really solve that problem.
All in all, I had fun. I enjoyed it, and I got a free flashlight shaped like a lighter. (I also paid half price. I might have felt differently at full Broadway prices.) However, Urinetown mined much of the same territory with more wit and style (not to mention an original score). They even share a few jokes. Also, I wonder if what you gain by using an instantly recognizable score and playing with audience expectations is worth what you lose in specificity to situation and character.
Finian's Rainbow was awesome. Ok, Yip Harburg clearly wasn't paying attention during Structure of the American Musical class. For example, this is one of those rare musicals where the leading couple are solidly attached to each other early in the show and stay that way. However, the show works, so who cares what you're supposed to do? And it does work. The score is hit tune after hit tune. The book zips from ironic situation to ironic situation. For 1947, it has an amazingly progressive view on racial politics. Rainbow valley is integrated, and pointedly so. The racist villain is the villain because he is racist. The happy ending comes as he redresses the damage he's caused. (When he is wished black, Encores! resolves this by changing actors. In 1947, the same actor continued to play the role in blackface. That so will not fly these days, and rightly so. The cultural associations with blackface would undermine all the genuinely progressive points in the show.)
The cast was uniformly excellent. I don't have time to single out everyone so I'll just do the romantic leads: Woody and Sharon. It seems vaguely unfair, somehow, that Cheyenne Jackson has a gorgeous voice, dances up a storm, acts wonderfully and looks like that. (I was only slightly disappointed that the director didn't find an excuse to take off his shirt.) Kate Baldwin sings her songs as if they were written for her. This is a tough trick considering the original Sharon was Ella Logan, who had kind of an odd voice range. (I've never seen the entire movie so I have no idea how Petula Clark fared.) Their "Old Devil Moon" was sublime. (I'm a huge fan of the song in any case.)
Since this is Encores!, they restored the original orchestrations. The result, as usual, is the full orchestral sound that you don't hear on Broadway anymore. (Note: Even in its golden age, what we considered a full Broadway pit was only around 30 players. That's still small relative to concert orchestras.) The score has probably never sounded this good since the original production.
This is the last show of the season. It's main job is to leave you in a good mood so that you'll subscribe to the next season. This is the traditional "crowd pleaser" slot. They tend to pick a relatively new show that just plain works. Finian's Rainbow was kind of an odd choice given that it was originally produced in 1947 and has a potentially problematic book. However, they succeeded in spades.
The 12:15am bus home was extremely late. That the 10:30pm bus apparently never showed up at all heightened some reactions. Either way, it was interesting to see how people reacted as 12:15am came and went without a bus. One woman went off on this major tirade about how her bus ride ought to be free. Several women clearly felt that they were slumming by taking the bus. They were at little giddy at the perceived adventure. One college aged(?) guy was as cynical as all hell. (He did a lot of "they don't care about us. It doesn't matter what we want... blah blah blah." He continued this even as we were boarding the bus. The guy he was complaining to though was too good looking for me to look at. They'd apparently never met before the trip and they'd separated with an invitation to phone call. I was half-sleep for that last bit so I may have imagined it to satisfy my need for structural closure.) However, next to me was this guy dressed down to the socks in orange. (I suspect it was really saffron.) He read a Buddhist text I recognized about warriors, then eventually, he meditated. (Either that, or he fell asleep. It was late.)
I suspect most people just waited. I was near the front of the line so I only saw the reactions of those at the head of the line and some people behind me. (The line snaked.) They seemed to be the most vocal, probably because they'd expected to be on the 10:30pm bus.
The nice thing for me is that the bus was so late that by the time I got back, I had very little time to wait before the T opened for the day. The unfortunate thing is that I woke up some time after 4am anyway. Normally, that's not a big deal because that's about I get back. Today, I was still on the bus. Oh well... must stay awake for choir rehearsal. (We're meeting on Sunday this week. My Harold class got pushed down a week so I no longer have timing issues.)
The drill, as always, is that I get up early in the morning. Take the bus to NYC. Meet up with a few friends for lunch. Catch a matinee of some show. Meet up with them again for dinner. We all go catch Encores! together. I take the bus home. (In the process, I usually get a lot of reading done. In this case, I read all of the June 2009 Analog and most of the June 2009 Asimov's. The Sandra McDonald story in the latter is utterly wonderful.)
I had lots of choices for the matinee. I probably should have beef up my theater creds by going to Blithe Spirit, Impressionism, or Exit the King. (In fact, the last was playing opposite the theater I eventually walked into. I was definitely thinking I might have had a much better time at Ionesco's absurdist play. Having now scanned the NYT rave, I may go back to NYC just to catch a performance of this.)
Ok, now that I've whined about how I really, really am a SRIUS THEATAR GOAH, I can say that what I went to see was Rock of Ages, a jukebox musical built from the pop and metal hits of the '80s. It's clear that one of my friends thought I was participating in The Death Of Theater As We Know It. (Keep in mind that during one of these Encores! trips, I went to see Golden Child by David Henry Hwang, a lovely play about the struggle as traditional Chinese culture collides with modern values. He went to see Cats.)
Besides, the theater is always dying... and reinventing itself into something new. I don't see why I shouldn't participate in that process. And since the producers hired a PR firm to survey the audience on who they are, why they came, and what they thought of the show, I got to participate much more directly than I'd expected. (I was pretty blunt in saying that I went because I wanted to see something stupid and mindless.)
Taking for what it is, I thought it was pretty good (and said so in the survey). It doesn't take itself very seriously, and it isn't intended to be art for the next five minutes, much less for the ages. They've filled the production with references to iconic '80s images. It pokes fun at itself, using post-modern self-referential deconstructionism at one point. (This is probably more thought about it than they'd intended.)
It plays around with expectations. e.g., The female lead is named Sherrie. It's obvious why they named her Sherrie. (And if it isn't, you'll miss a joke.) Of course, they pay off, but you don't know when. (And the song is generic enough, it really could have gone anywhere. Where they put it was fine and there were a few place where they tease you into thinking they'll do it.)
On balance, it's better constructed than either of the musicals I saw on the last two Encores! trips. (That's Shrek and The Story of My Life. The latter probably aimed higher though.) The plot is paper thin and predictable, but it's coherent and well executed. Someone very clearly did well in his Structure of the American Musical class. They integrated the songs into the show surprisingly well, much better than Shrek in some cases and that had a score written for the show.
The whole thing was lots of fun, and crammed with over-qualified actors who made the most of the material. (Note: I like most of the songs they used. This is the music of my youth, after all. The fact remains, though, that they weren't written for the situations they'd been placed in. This make it hard for them to be, for example, detailed and specific to the situation.)
Having said that, the song choices were decidedly predictable in places. The musical arrangements were disappointingly unambitious. The act one finale fails to live up to its potential. The book is actually quite skillful in getting all the characters to Points of Major Decision Where Everything Goes Awry. Since it's a musical though, what they need is a big musical sequence to show us the consequences as the curtain falls. They make a stab at time, they never really get across all the stuff that's happening at the same time. Then they grind things to a halt before picking things back up again. (It's also one of the few places where the alienating, self-mocking aside hurts more than it helps.)
Also, pop and metal of the '80s weren't really known for buttoning songs very well. Songs in musicals, for the most part, need to button. Otherwise, the audience doesn't know when to applaud or if they should applaud at all. They didn't really solve that problem.
All in all, I had fun. I enjoyed it, and I got a free flashlight shaped like a lighter. (I also paid half price. I might have felt differently at full Broadway prices.) However, Urinetown mined much of the same territory with more wit and style (not to mention an original score). They even share a few jokes. Also, I wonder if what you gain by using an instantly recognizable score and playing with audience expectations is worth what you lose in specificity to situation and character.
Finian's Rainbow was awesome. Ok, Yip Harburg clearly wasn't paying attention during Structure of the American Musical class. For example, this is one of those rare musicals where the leading couple are solidly attached to each other early in the show and stay that way. However, the show works, so who cares what you're supposed to do? And it does work. The score is hit tune after hit tune. The book zips from ironic situation to ironic situation. For 1947, it has an amazingly progressive view on racial politics. Rainbow valley is integrated, and pointedly so. The racist villain is the villain because he is racist. The happy ending comes as he redresses the damage he's caused. (When he is wished black, Encores! resolves this by changing actors. In 1947, the same actor continued to play the role in blackface. That so will not fly these days, and rightly so. The cultural associations with blackface would undermine all the genuinely progressive points in the show.)
The cast was uniformly excellent. I don't have time to single out everyone so I'll just do the romantic leads: Woody and Sharon. It seems vaguely unfair, somehow, that Cheyenne Jackson has a gorgeous voice, dances up a storm, acts wonderfully and looks like that. (I was only slightly disappointed that the director didn't find an excuse to take off his shirt.) Kate Baldwin sings her songs as if they were written for her. This is a tough trick considering the original Sharon was Ella Logan, who had kind of an odd voice range. (I've never seen the entire movie so I have no idea how Petula Clark fared.) Their "Old Devil Moon" was sublime. (I'm a huge fan of the song in any case.)
Since this is Encores!, they restored the original orchestrations. The result, as usual, is the full orchestral sound that you don't hear on Broadway anymore. (Note: Even in its golden age, what we considered a full Broadway pit was only around 30 players. That's still small relative to concert orchestras.) The score has probably never sounded this good since the original production.
This is the last show of the season. It's main job is to leave you in a good mood so that you'll subscribe to the next season. This is the traditional "crowd pleaser" slot. They tend to pick a relatively new show that just plain works. Finian's Rainbow was kind of an odd choice given that it was originally produced in 1947 and has a potentially problematic book. However, they succeeded in spades.
The 12:15am bus home was extremely late. That the 10:30pm bus apparently never showed up at all heightened some reactions. Either way, it was interesting to see how people reacted as 12:15am came and went without a bus. One woman went off on this major tirade about how her bus ride ought to be free. Several women clearly felt that they were slumming by taking the bus. They were at little giddy at the perceived adventure. One college aged(?) guy was as cynical as all hell. (He did a lot of "they don't care about us. It doesn't matter what we want... blah blah blah." He continued this even as we were boarding the bus. The guy he was complaining to though was too good looking for me to look at. They'd apparently never met before the trip and they'd separated with an invitation to phone call. I was half-sleep for that last bit so I may have imagined it to satisfy my need for structural closure.) However, next to me was this guy dressed down to the socks in orange. (I suspect it was really saffron.) He read a Buddhist text I recognized about warriors, then eventually, he meditated. (Either that, or he fell asleep. It was late.)
I suspect most people just waited. I was near the front of the line so I only saw the reactions of those at the head of the line and some people behind me. (The line snaked.) They seemed to be the most vocal, probably because they'd expected to be on the 10:30pm bus.
The nice thing for me is that the bus was so late that by the time I got back, I had very little time to wait before the T opened for the day. The unfortunate thing is that I woke up some time after 4am anyway. Normally, that's not a big deal because that's about I get back. Today, I was still on the bus. Oh well... must stay awake for choir rehearsal. (We're meeting on Sunday this week. My Harold class got pushed down a week so I no longer have timing issues.)
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 11:06 pm (UTC)Like I mentioned to
Now, these are the shows I want to watch, not the shows I've seen and thought, "Yeah, I'd recommend these to someone." I'm having a hard time pairing any of them with Wicked. Is your son old enough for Hair? (I like the musical. I know nothing about this production.) I genuinely enjoyed Rock of Ages but I don't see anyone in my circle of theater going friends enjoying it.
If a grin comes to your face the instant you realize they're going to sing Starship's "We Built This City" or Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," or if hearing "The Final Countdown" sends you into hysterics, you might enjoy Rock of Ages. (But bring a set of ear plugs. The sound design is extremely hot.) Otherwise, stay far away. Also, the problem with jukebox musicals is that people forget that they're watching live theater and they discuss the musical with each other while it's still going on, not to mention sing along. (Why don't you just talk on your cellphone and text while you're at it?) *sigh*
(BTW, when did "text" become a verb? The prescriptivist in me is a little appalled. The descriptivist in me recognizes that it serves a need that we didn't have until recently. I figure I'll live longer if I listen to the descriptivist.)
Coraline with Stephin Merrit's music sounds wonderful though. That could seriously tempt me down to NYC for a day to catch it. (I suppose I could see Exit the King on the same day. Because nothing pairs as well with fantasy horror as absurdist farce. But hey, I saw I Am My Own Wife and Avenue Q on the same day...) According to the web site, Coraline performances start May 7th though.
I'd also consider the three plays that make up The Norman Conquest. However, that's a real commitment. You can't do anything else if you see all three plays on the same day. (My Coast of Utopia experience was ultimately rather civilized though. However, the applause at the start of the 3rd play was insane. There was definitely this shared sense of "Oh dear God, we made it...")
Can you get tickets now for Wicked in late April? I haven't tried. (I've never seen it.) I've always assumed, however, that it's a Hard Ticket To Get.