Profile for MikeInTheDistrict

Charley Kringas Inc said: "MikeInTheDistrict said: "I think there is a valid point there about the weaponization of identity politics against the very people who should be allies in our fight against fascism, but I feel like Fox, and this show, risks playing into those very politics by perpetuating both false equivalencies and divisions between the experiences of marginalized groups.""False equivalence" is also how I'd describe the way that people conflate the issues that result from leftists...

^ I don’t really think the actor has to look like Darin. Groff doesn’t really look like him, IMO. Morrison looks a little more like him, I guess, but I don’t think I’d like to sit through his performance. He’s always come across a bit… corny? But maybe it’s just my mind can no longer unsee his Glee character.

He's not a big name (yet), but I could see Nicholas Barasch being fantastic in this role.

For a guy who wrote a play about the blind spots of the "woke left", he sure has a lot of blind spots himself. I don't think that conversation is horribly damning, but it is pretty much what I expected from what I've heard about this show. I think there is a valid point there about the weaponization of identity politics against the very people who should be allies in our fight against fascism, but I feel like Fox, and this show, risks playing into those very politics by perpetuating both fals...

binau said: "Seth Rudetsky:For all the "I'm not anti-Jewish, I'm anti-Ziomist" people. It is the same. It is Jew hate. The lies, the misinformation, the twisting of the truth, the FALSE claims of "genocide", "open air prison", "apartheid"...all LIES by the way, have led to a massive surge of worldwide violence against Jews.These lies been funded by Russia and Iran and others and have taken over social media... and people on the left belive it blindly and think they are freedom fighters, when ...

BenjaminNicholas2 said: "Bayardelle was the best sung Celie in Color Purple I've ever heard.When I saw her in the Chicago company, her voice literally make me stop breathing for a second.That said... Kecia has been in this biz for how long and she's still this thin-skinned?" The way she sings "aliiiive in me" has lived rent free in my head for years:

Countries have the right to decide what their drug policies are. Though their culture can look repressive from an American perspective, Japan is a democracy -- not some authoritarian state -- and any policy reform should be entrusted to the Japanese people to pursue as they see fit. The fact that this policy has existed for over half a century with minimal calls for reform is an indication that most Japanese support it. This may be hard to understand from our American perspective, but America...

It may be fitting (but also somewhat subversive given the venue's history barring Black performers from its stage, though that was changed 70 years ago) to have Hamilton play D.A.R. Constitution Hall. The Washington Opera put on performances there about 20 years ago while the Opera House was being renovated.

I grieve for the state of economic and basic literacy in this country if people think Donal Trump was the right choice for their pocketbooks. Yes, people are currently hurting economically. This is because of worldwide inflation in the wake of a very economically destabilizing pandemic that is affecting all nations, everywhere. There is some degree of inevitable inflation that is inescapable, but governments having to spend/print a lot of money all at once and supply chains breaking down duri...

The arts will suffer indirectly. Trump's proposed policies would make everything more expensive, including labor. Inflation will likely accelerate and prices of basic goods will go up. This will cause people to spend less on "luxuries" like the arts. Already struggling arts organizations will struggle more, and some may close, as they did after 2008.

One thing I find interesting is how the response to this show reflects the kind of black/white thinking that social media has perpetuated over the last few years: people are either totally irredeemable and bad, or they are good. We have to stumble over each other to condemn or condone the newest villain/hero. It's affecting the way in which we treat works of art: to what extent can/should we separate art from its creator; what can we do about works of art with problematic treatment of race, m...

Her "staring down the barrel of the camera" is so tone deaf, tacky, and honestly offensive considering all the actual warfare and violence facing people all over the world right now, not to mention the gun violence in the country she currently is working in.

The only thing I can think of is maybe the audiobook of the memoir she was working on with Feinstein, but even that seems a stretch.

The singing is great. The arrangements go a bit off the rails towards the ends of songs for my taste, although it kind of works in "No Bad News" which is supposed to be over-the-top.

She doesn’t sound as bad as I expected. I don’t think her voice is “shot.” She sounds pretty much exactly how you’d expect her to sound 30 years older than her Phantom years. I’ve always thought her sound was not really produced with proper operatic technique. Her voice would never carry unamplified in an actual opera house, even in her prime, for example. Her technique is underpowered in terms of breath support and, as a consequence, doesn’t have much dynamic range, and it’s the same here. S...

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "MikeInTheDistrict said: "I'm out-of-the-loop. What wrong with Trevor Nunn? I think he'd actually be a decent choice for a revival like this?"I feel his musical output as of late in London and NY have been stodgy and overlong...Bridges, Night Music, Fiddler.I'd personally prefer someone who would lean into the musical fable element and find new colors that we haven't seen in a GYPSY revival before. I don't know who exactly that person would be, but George Wolfe m...

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Musicaldudepeter said: "It's Trevor Nunn directing."I hope this is a bad joke!" I'm out-of-the-loop. What wrong with Trevor Nunn? I think he'd actually be a decent choice for a revival like this?

^You’re right. Don’t know why I mixed those two character names up, lol. I edited my post.

As others said, it was pretty well received, as was the 1997 Cinderella. As with that movie, however, there were some subsequent grumbles by racists on places like IMBD or Musicals.net (anyone remember those old forums?) about Audra McDonald’s Grace marrying Warbucks in the 1930s, but thankfully most people did not agree with those complaints. I loved the arrangement of “Tomorrow.” It has a touching, mournful quality that is lacking in the original orchestration. It really pays off when Audra...

I honestly think anyone attempting a new production of this musical should be required to go back and start with Geoffrey Holder's original production and, especially, his original costume designs and George Faison's original choreography. They are products of their times and would need to be updated, but they should be used as a starting point, IMO, because every subsequent attempt has been watered down and worse in comparison.