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I'm in the same boat as you, Magic Hate Ball; my knowledge of the show comes from cast recordings and summaries. It seems to me that part of the problem is that the show just tells the audience "this is what happened," but doesn't do anything with it. Having the show end with "Our Time" strikes me as a poor decision because, while it's a great song, it doesn't really serve any other purpose in that context than to be ironic. It's a downer ending where it isn't needed (I have nothing against downer endings when they're used properly; this just doesn't feel like a show that should have one.) In my mind, the show is basically an extended flashback from the perspective of Older Frank; he remembers how he "got there from here." At the start of the show, Frank is bitter and resentful because his life has gone to crap. The story unfolds as he tries to figure out just what went wrong. "Our Time" is the moment where he finally realizes that he let down both his friends and himself. That's why it's crucial to return to Older Frank at the end: it completes the story. While Younger Frank moves backward, Older Frank moves forward. Older Frank not only needs to realize what went wrong, but also to have changed. On the Original Broadway Cast Recording, during the "Hills of Tomorrow" reprise at the end, he pays credit to Charley, showing (to me) that he was finally taking steps to improve himself and his situation.
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Apr 11, 2010 19:44
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 13:46 |
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Magic Hate Ball posted:I think that that's a good point, and would give the show a huge boost. From what I know, by the way, that's Young Frank crediting Charley during the Hills reprise. If we were to return to the present to properly acknowledge that Frank regrets what he's done, then there would not only be a conclusion but a rounder, more sympathetic main character. Our Time could certainly serve as a vehicle to return to the present: Young Frank is replaced by Old Frank and he comes downstage alone singing Our Time, and watches the Hills reprise from the side of the stage. Or something, I'm just freely hypothesizing but you have a really good point. Listening to it now, both Franks credit Charley, although only Young Frank continues after saying his name.
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Apr 11, 2010 23:24
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:I wish Sondheim, and music theatre composers altogether, would vary ranges more than they do. I have a friend who pretty much can't get a leading role for another twenty years because the only leads in her range require a woman at least in her forties. Speaking as someone who likes to write musicals as a hobby, I have to say that writing songs for women can be excruciatingly difficult, although that may owe in part to my very limited knowledge of the capabilities of the female voice. What is your friend's range? On the subject of writing for voices in general, I tend to write (and prefer to write) the leads for actors who can sing, while the supporting roles are for singers who can act.
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Jun 5, 2010 05:01
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antiloquax posted:Telling your snooty cast "good luck" before opening night is one of the best things ever. Only if they're snooty, though. I think it's because while "serious" actors read a script and think, "how can I bring this character to life?", improv/comedy actors tend to read a script and think, "How can I make this funny?" The serious actor lets the humor of the script and the character emerge naturally, while the improv actor tends to try to force humor onto the script. There's a element of "Look at me!"-ism that bad improvisers tend to exhibit, and when they're faced with a script that keeps them in the background, they get restless and try to get attention through cheap laughs.
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Nov 13, 2010 06:54
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Geekboy posted:Here's a GBS thread you all might enjoy participating in. The real fun begins with the director who got in trouble for loving with Little Shop of Horrors.
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Jul 4, 2011 14:47
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Magic Hate Ball posted:The book for Merrily has never satisfyingly worked. The issue in 1981 was that it was cluttered and unfocused and the issue now is that it's mechanical and basic. There's a total lack of organic dialogue, almost every scene is written to get from point A to point B, from song to song. The lack of cohesive concept is terribly damaging. Watching three characters move backwards, seeing how they become disillusioned, is not a strong enough conceit because the characters don't learn. The dramatic outcome is that the characters in the play have come to lovely conclusions despite earlier optimism, which is not particularly satisfying. The high-school scenes, besides making for interesting bookends, offer the opportunity for a conclusion for Frank. Perhaps his older self could be made an observer at the end (I think he was in the original production), made to realize the mistakes he's made. This is, I think, the main problem with Merrily. As it stands, there is no climax. The dramatic question of the show is "How did you get here from there, Mister Shepard?" Unfortunately, this question is answered literally, and we are treated to two-and-a-half hours of watching a guy's life fall apart in reverse--but to what end? Why not just tell it chronologically? Ideally, the dramatic question should be "How did you get here from there--and where do you go from here?" The bookends are what justify the non-linear structure; done right, "Our Time" would become the climax it should be, serving as the push for Older Frank to change his ways.
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Aug 3, 2011 05:48
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Geekboy posted:Sometimes I think I should just go try and do some semi-pro stuff in Columbus instead. Then when I pore myself into something if any/everyone else sucks, they can be fired. Hold on a sec... Columbus, where?
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Nov 16, 2011 23:56
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I would definitely audition. I haven't done anything with CCT (although if my latest audition doesn't work out, I'm going to give Secret Garden a shot), but I'm sure even a halfway-decent audition will help you out if you try out for anything else there.
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Dec 20, 2011 00:34
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Geekboy posted:Before I moved to Chicago, I really loved the idea of doing Hairspray or West Side Story, but the idea of having a lily white group of community theater actors butchering the racial messages in those shows disgusted me. They were shows I considered off limits because we couldn't do them justice. Earlier this year, I saw a production of Hairspray where, even after segregation has supposedly broken down, all of the black characters are still stuck dancing in the back while the white characters dance in front. This was done without a trace of irony.
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Jul 12, 2013 16:56
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