Profile for Art Isn’t Easy

Love this thread! Some of my favorites:

Donna Lynne Champlain's muggy Pirelli in the 2005 Sweeney revival

Erin Davie as Yvonne in the 2017 Sunday revival, a minor role but the "too flat. too angular" moment always gets me and her's was no exception

Aaron Lazar's pitch perfect "In Praise of Women" from the 2009 Little Night Music

Also want to shoutout some of the incredible performances in Sondheim show's I've

It doesn't look like anyone's posted about this yet but I saw the production last night and can't stop thinking about it. It's a fascinating piece, not perfect, but a thorny, interesting play of ideas. Much like Mr. Burns it's a thematically rich premise that allows for fascinating discussions about morality, ethics, and community but in this case all built on a foundation of hypocrisy; it was so exciting to me to watch the ways in which these characters use

"The show is always going to have a valley between its mind and its heart, because it's the most Tim Rice of all Tim Rice projects:"

This is a really excellent point - As an overall fan of Rice I at times actually laughed at the (lovingly) absurdity of some of the lyrics, one that stands out was the Arbiter's "It's not just black and white/ If I may coin a phrase," the word salad that comes out of these character's mouth's is pa

I saw the matinee on the 25th and wanted to put some thoughts down. Setting the stage - I am a huge fan of the show and the weeks leading up to this have led me to go down a Chess rabbit hole and become pretty much obsessed with it, so I had high hopes for what I was about to see. Overall I think the show is successful with some pretty big caveats but the reason I was excited for it, to hear this cast tackle this score, had me over the moon.

The good (of which ther

If Mama Was Married is my favorite song, to me it's the heart of the show, but Gotta Get A Gimmick is such a perfect number, just incredible couplet after couplet:

"You can sacrifice your saccro/ Working in the back row" - "Dressy Tessie Tura is so much more demur-er than all them other ladies because/ You gotta get a gimmick, if you wanna get applause" - I could go on!

Oh and also: "Starting now I bat a thousand/ this time boys I&

Twice - Shucked and Show/Boat: A River

I was gifted a ticket to Shucked by a friend that turned out to be in the very first row in the very center. I then sat through an exhausting and almost torturously unfunny first act while trying my best to smile and appear into it because I didn't want to be an asshole to the performers. I left as soon as the lights went up.

 

For Show/Boat I found the whole production embarrassing from top to bottom and anchored on a bad-f

OhHiii said: How is her direction sure-handed when it throws out the entire conceit of the structure of the show? It's entirely the opposite. She didn't trust the material enough to let it speak in the way it was intended. Yeah yeah JRB is involved and blessed it and blah blah blah. Doesn't mean it doesn't take a lot of the magic away from the jump."

 

Nowhere in the script does it state "Jamie and Cathy never interact in solo scen

Saw the show last night, and feel much more positively about it then anyone else I’ve been reading lol. I was obsessed with this musical when I was in high school so I went into it with an open heart and a willingness to forgive certain aspects (we’ll get to Nick) but overall I thought the production was very moving and even beautiful at times

Adrianne Warren is a generational talent. I didn’t see her in Tina unfortunately but she is giving a masterclass in h

Saw this last night - my first interaction with this piece as I hadn't seen the movie, any other production or read it. It's an entertaining evening at the theatre but it feels like this production is missing that extra something, be it bite or a stronger overall concept, to take it from alright to great. Good performances all around, Odenkirk started shakily imo but built into something decently affecting, Culkin shows different shades of his usual schtick and is especially good

Ugh what a joy that was. Titus was everything you wanted him to be, hysterical, deranged, able to mine every inch of Mary’s bratty curls and the script for all it’s worth. It was my first time seeing the show since the first preview of it on Broadway and goddamn if this isn’t a perfect comedy. I thought the new cast for Mary’s Husband and Teacher worked well also, I especially loved the swagger MH brought to the role, if Ricamora was Nixon, he’s Bill Clinton. The

The 2024-25 season was me being proven wrong about my hatred of live video on stage, I guess! Given that people are comparing this to Sunset I wanted to share that I came out of last night feeling remarkably similar to Dorian that I do about that production - while not every moment works/the conceit loses me at certain moments, as a whole it is enormously successful and some of the most exciting theater I’ve seen in recent memory.
Snook is a revelation. I have abso

Smash, the gift that keeps on giving(?)

So I only recently watched the show for the first time and it certainly did take hold on me the way it did for people of my ilk back in 2010. The theatre was packed with superfans, people came in costume, and the energy in the room was electric. For all of its problems Smash is a much loved show with a strong concept theater people could latch on to, memorable characters, and some of the best songs written for the musical theater in the

Long, LONG time lurker, first time poster here. Was at the first preview last night and it was a truly special evening - Sanaz Toosi and Knud Adams made a speech at the end with the entire cast and creative team, all of whom are making their Broadway debuts!

 
The play is in beautiful shape. Given the entire cast transferring one would expect (and hope) that the performances are in show-ready shape but every actor is giving an even deeper and richer performance than at th