Profile for Bsmusicd

Some strikingly hyperbolic "reviews" in this thread.

I saw "Thou Shall Not." Or rather, I saw the first half before leaving at intermisson. "Thou..." was a 2. "Flying" a 7 1/2.

The show I would compare it to is, "War Paint." Lovely score, excellent performances, beautiful design. In both shows the authors were not fully successful at finding conflict and drama between their (real-life) subjects. I'd take a lovingly-crafted sh

I saw it yesterday and found it to be a very enjoyable night at the theater. That's not to say I loved every minute of it (or cried through the whole show as I did "Caroline or Change",?format=auto&width=600 but there is much to admire.

Tony Yazbeck and Carmen Cusack were both tremendous and the production was masterfully staged. The score was nicely crafted and beautifully orchestrated. It has been interesting reading the comments. Some sequences others hated I enjoyed and vice versa. My feeling was that in the first act the stakes felt very low (Yazbeck's stunning tap number being the exception). It was just one long introduction to the characters.

I actually preferred the second act, although I agree with others that it felt too long. Without giving anything away, there is a hilariously zany number for Cary Grant. I wish the writers had brought more of that energy. The male characters are very stiff upper lip Brits and I wanted to see them break out more. Cusack gets a terrific 11 o'clock number. I was genuinely moved by the connection the characters made at the end of the show after their trip. It seemed like how long winding road to get there, however.

"I wonder how Spielberg's film is gonna make it feel fresh while keeping the original 1957 setting."

I'm super exciting to see what he and Tony Kushner have come up with. Apparently every note of the score is still there, but Kushner has completely re-written the script.

 

It's an interesting discussion about the functions of revivals.

I'm big a fan of the show and did music direction for it a while back. There were things I liked (the new choreography, the orchestra, Maria and Tony) and didn't like (the vocals, a lot of the video) about the current production. Yet, I found it to be a vast improvement over the more traditional 2009 revival.

It's easy to forgive an old film for being dated. You can over

I finally saw it tonight after reading the gossip for the past few weeks.

I had a few reservations about the use of video, but overall I loved the production. Much of the controversy over the cuts, multi-racial casting, and new choreography seems positively silly in retrospect. My one great disappointment was the overall quality of singing, which was the weakest of any WSS I've seen.

I was sad not to see Ben Cook as Riff, but his replacement is first-rate