Dessa Rose Reviews- Page 2

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 11:23pm

Well, I guess this is one of those shows that grabs some people and not others. I find it interesting that the readers' poll at the bottom of the professional review in the NY Times rates DESSA ROSE at 4.5 out of 5 stars. I know I'm still looking forward to seeing it, if for no other reason than to see abd gear some great performances.

Poor Lynn Ahrens. She's going to need an ice pack before this night is over.

lc

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 11:25pm

Pardon the typos. That should be "see and hear." :)

lc

[apdarcey]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 11:26pm

i'm just very sad right now.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 11:29pm

Wow. I ADORED the last number in the first act, and there were people around me who obviously agreed because they were visibly crying. Let's cross our fingers for the other reviews!

Posted: 3/21/05 at 11:33pm

I'm very surprised by this since the word-of-mouth has been so good.

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 11:37pm

These reviews are giving the performances very little ink, which seems unfair, given how highly everyone on the boards has praised the cast.

lc

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 11:49pm

Here's the excerpt from David Rooney's review on the Variety website (I don't have a membership):

Dessa Rose

By DAVID ROONEY

"Given their continued dedication to crafting original, full-bodied book musicals, composing team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty deserves the Purple Heart for service to the musical. But the duo's investment seems misdirected in "Dessa Rose," an absorbing story of two strong women in the pre-Civil War South that's overly encumbered by the laborious duties of exposition...."

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 11:51pm

Ugh.

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 12:05am

Here's the complete Variety review. Much more balanced.

lc

Given their continued dedication to crafting original, full-bodied book musicals out of complex narratives even as the genre becomes increasingly dominated by nostalgic movie rehashes and jukebox collages, composing team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty deserves the Purple Heart for service to the musical. But despite some soaring emotional moments and the frequent beauty of the spiritual-style songs in their new show, the duo's investment seems misdirected in "Dessa Rose," an absorbing story of two strong women in the pre-Civil War South that's overly encumbered by the laborious duties of exposition.
Sherley Anne Williams' 1986 novel imagines an encounter and the difficult bonding between two little-known figures from history who never met: A pregnant black woman in 1829 Kentucky who led an uprising on a slave coffle and was sentenced to hang; and a white woman living on an isolated farm in 1830 North Carolina who took in runaway slaves.

It's easy to see what drew Ahrens and Flaherty to the material, which, like the best known of their historical musicals, "Ragtime," brings a compassionate, sensitive eye to a story of racial injustice and the troubled relationship between black and white characters. While the novel's shifting narrative voices seem an uneasy fit for a musical, it's perhaps less daunting than adapting E.L. Doctorow's sprawling, multicharacter tapestry of the birth of 20th-century America, which also fused history with fiction.

However, Ahrens falls short here of the skill of Terrence McNally, whose book for "Ragtime" wove the dense narrative into a cohesive shape with an expansive thematic reach. Despite the moving peaks of the two women's experiences, "Dessa Rose" remains largely a character study whose deeper resonance is dulled by its enslavement more to the storytelling process than the story itself.

Ahrens and Flaherty have a gift for rousing opening numbers that set the bar high, and the soulful hymn to ancestry and sisterhood, "We Are Descended," is no exception. It also serves to introduce 15-year-old slave girl Dessa Rose (LaChanze) and Ruth (Rachel York), a proper Charleston belle of 19.

But the device of having both characters narrate the story as old women is overused, often becoming talky and intrusive. This is aggravated by the actresses' tendency to caricature their roles as seniors, particularly LaChanze, who seems to be aiming for something akin to Cicely Tyson in "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" but comes off as hammy.

The excess of direct-address literary narration in place of action is compounded by the inclusion of writer Adam Nehemiah (Michael Hayden), a poorly developed character who could easily be dropped. Reasoning, "Bloody tales are good for sales," Nehemiah interviews condemned "devil woman" Dessa in her cell for his lurid book of slave stories.

Act one has a heavy plot load to haul. Slave Kaine (Eric Jordan Young) gets Dessa pregnant, then is killed for retaliating when the master (William Parry) smashes his banjo. Dessa also attacks the master; she is whipped and branded, then sold to a slave trader (David Hess) despite the pleas of her mother (Tina Fabrique), whose 11 other children were taken away. When the slave trader tries to rape her, Dessa brains him with a rock, then frees the other slaves; she's captured and imprisoned, to be hanged after the birth of her baby: "No sense destroying perfectly good property."

Ruth, meanwhile, has married Bertie (Hess), an inveterate gambler who abandons her with their baby on his financially struggling farm. The death of Ruth's childhood mammy Dorcas (Kecia Lewis) leaves her alone and all but unhinged. She tries to maintain the appearance of control while runaway slaves take up residence on the property, emboldened by her isolation and the absence of a man. When Dessa takes advantage of Nehemiah's attraction to her and escapes, she also ends up on the farm, where she gives birth.

The supple orchestrations of William David Brohn and Christopher Jahnke, which mix African drums with bluesy strings and reeds and bursts of jug-band sounds, and Flaherty's stirring vocal arrangements are somewhat wasted in the first act on underdeveloped songs too frequently halted to accommodate more narration. Main exception is Ruth's "At the Glen," a haunting account of her solitude, both plaintive and angry, its demanding vocal range deftly hurdled by the estimable York.

Despite its wealth of incident, act one feels stodgily informational. The second act brings more narrative development and emotional involvement as Ruth's loneliness draws her closer to Dessa's friend and fellow runaway Nathan (Norm Lewis). But Dessa remains deeply suspicious of the white woman. The story gathers steam when Ruth agrees to help the slaves in their elaborate plan to escape to freedom, illustrated in "The Scheme."

Ahrens and Flaherty are enormously accomplished songwriters, and much of the second-act music is glorious. "Fly Away" in its reprise harnesses the powerful sense of escape in spirituals; "Just Over the Line" contains spine-tingling choral work; and "White Milk and Red Blood," churned through the formidable pipes of Kecia Lewis, is powerfully emotional. "In the Bend of My Arm" is a fine example of the composing team's peerless skill at weaving multiple strands into a single song, in this case a sensual statement of love between Dessa and Kaine's ghost, Ruth and Nathan, and Nehemiah, obsessed with recapturing the escaped Dessa.

On the downside, some of the lighter numbers feel superfluous, notably "Ladies" and "Ten Petticoats," both led by Ruth's mother (Rebecca Eichenberger). And the composers show a frustrating refusal to charge up Dessa's act-one closer "Twelve Children" to full power, despite a thrilling central passage that demands a few bars more; likewise the brisk epilogue reprise of "We Are Descended," which begs for more anthemic treatment.

Notwithstanding that this may be less than ideal material for a musical, there are many rewards in the story of these proud, independent-minded women, played with grit and conviction by LaChanze and York. Their fine voices are backed by several others in the cast, chief among them Kecia Lewis, Norm Lewis, and Young, all of whom play strongly etched characters.

A repeat collaborator of Ahrens and Flaherty, director-choreographer Graciela Daniele vigorously uses the full expanse of designer Loy Arcenas' stylized, rough-hewn wood set with its rear ramp to give the small-scale musical a robust, populated feel. While tunertuner's oral-history aspect might have worked better on a proscenium stage than the Newhouse's thrust, there's much to be said for the closeness here to the actors.

The most vital craft contribution comes from Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer's textured lighting scheme, richly evoking the darkened cellar jail, the dappled shade of a tree or the open-skied promise of freedom.

[Chote887]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 12:13am

At least the critics are recognizing the cast for their increadible work.

I thought the whole production was great as a whole, although I do understand some of the negative points the critics make.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 12:52am

Theatremania is mixed:

"Not until about halfway into the first act of Dessa Rose, when melodic strains reminiscent of Ragtime appear, does it seem that this dour new musical at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater could have been written by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. Forget the full-blown ballads of that triumph; here, it almost sounds as if the songwriting team that was also responsible for such shows as Seussical and A Man of No Importance is emulating Michael John LaChiusa, whose Marie Christine was presented by Lincoln Center Theater a few seasons ago. Both Dessa and Marie are about strong black women, and both were directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, who has a penchant for musicals that experiment with different cultures and different theatrical styles. Not atypical of Daniele's work and, lately, of Ahrens' and Flaherty's, Dessa Rose is a worthwhile but flawed experiment."

" If fans of Spamalot are willing to forgive the flaws of that show because it's so much fun, then maybe aficionados of the serious musical will forgive the imperfections of Dessa Rose because it offers thought-provoking drama and an unusual story told by one of the musical theater's most talented writing teams."
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5801

Updated On: 3/22/05 at 12:52 AM

Posted: 3/22/05 at 12:59am

lovesclassics,

the reason to post excerpts only is because of copyrights & such!

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 2:51am

God - let's hope the reviews don't kill this show.
This is not good news.

Margo - have you seen it yet?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 2:55am

Friday

And since it's a limited engagement at Lincoln Center, the reviews won't so much kill it as much as prevent a Broadway transfer.

Updated On: 3/22/05 at 02:55 AM

[hannahshule]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 5:38am

Just remember... a lot of the best shows haven't opened to sky high reviews. The three best I can think of were:
Ragtime, still one of the most haunting things I've ever seen, (I was nine at the time) and it really struck a chord with me even then.
#2: Passion. Again, beautiful, melodious, and a short run.
#3: Now, back in 1957, West Side Story opened to the same kind of reviews Dessa is getting. It was almost like critics went in expecting NOT to like it. And now look what's happened to it. Sometimes on opening night, the critics are against it, but in this case, a lot of them went back later to see what they apparently "missed" the first time.
So folks, I think the tragedy here is that a lot of people don't accept serious theater anymore, we're now more accustomed to things like Spamelot, etc... But I think if word of mouth continiues to be good, than this lovely show will be more than fine!

[magruder]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 5:49am

This isn't quite true. I haven't seen Dessa Rose yet, so I'm not commenting on that show. However, Passion opened to very strong reviews, despite having a very turbulent preview period, and went on to win four Tony Awards, though it did end up with a short run. West Side Story lost most of its Tony Awards to The Music Man, but it opened to much better reviews than Dessa Rose received. I've linked the original Brooks Atkinson review in The New York Times below. As far as Ragtime, it received a somewhat chilly review in the New York Times, but I remember most of the other critics liking it.
New York Times - West Side Story

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 5:56am

I don't see the show for another two weeks, and the reviews will play zero into my views of the show, but I must say that I was expecting it to do better with the critics.

Then again, Aherns and Flaherty haven't always been critics' darlings. Most reviews for "A Man of No Importnace," which I loved, were mixed-to-negative, like Brantley's, which I've linked:



Not Just a Nobody, He's a Wilde Man Updated On: 3/22/05 at 05:56 AM

[hannahshule]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 6:03am

Sorry Magruder, my mistake. My point however is that i think in the theater, Reviews don't play as big a part as opposed to the cinema. (that's from my limited experience) But I still believe that this show isn't in any trouble, because it's sold out basically all performances, and from what it seems, people love this show as opposed to critics.

[magruder]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 6:20am

I think movies are far more impervious to bad reviews than Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are. Bad reviews don't seem to keep movies from becoming Number 1 at the box office (at least for a week or two)if it's something the public wants to see. Look at Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Hitch, The Pacifier and The Ring Two for recent examples. Hitch has made more money than Million Dollar Baby and Sideways COMBINED.

However, if you are looking for some recent musicals that should have opened to better reviews, particularly from The New York Times, I'd submit Violet, Parade, the Michael John LaChiusa Wild Party and Caroline, or Change.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 6:23am

Didn't the Times pan "Marie Christine" as well?

[hannahshule]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 6:31am

I just got my New York Times and read the review. It wasn't as bad as expected. However, I think Isherwood focused too much on material and not on performances, which I believe many people agree are outstanding. I can't understand why he thought it was so depressing. (i think he used the phrase "doggedly something"... i forget)What do critics have against serious, thought-provoking theater?

[magruder]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 6:52am

Again, I haven't seen Dessa Rose, but it doesn't seem like this is a time to open up a serious musical, under the current Ben Brantley/Charles Isherwood regime. Brantley (who of course, didn't review Dessa), likes his musicals hip, ironic or fluffy. Apart from Side Show, I'm hard pressed to think of a musical with high-fallutin' goals or aspirations that he has liked. Isherwood, though harder to pigeonhole, falls somewhat into that camp as well. Everything gets a "I'm all for serious musicals, but this is too serious" kind of review.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 7:45am

A serious musical that is thoughful and moving and contains beautiful performances. I disagree with the critics.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 8:15am

On the occasion of KISS ME, KATE, a critic wrote:
"Let't not get bogged down about what constitutes "importance" on the stage or, for that matter, "seriousness." It isn't the subject matter that defines a show but the quality and truth of whatever world that is evoked.
In KISS ME, KATE, the wit and extreme high spirits of the music, the lyrics, the choreography, and the performances have a way of deepening our sense of connection to life itself. It is thus an important, serious show."
In other words, "seriousness" in and of itself is meaningless if it doesn't communicate with its audience. Too many musical theatre writers today labor under the old-fashioned, 20th-century notion that only tragedy, gloom or cynicism have any 'significance.' Scores like THE WILD PARTY, MARIE CHRISTINE, PARADE, CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, etc, desperate to impress with their "importance," only manage to advertise their superficiality through meandering, notey, cluttered faux-recitative, lacking any central lyric thrust or title resolution or emotional payoff. These shows could care less about connecting with their audience and audiences, not surprisingly, are only too happy to return the favor.
Finally, when a show has little word-of-mouth circulating on the street, it's almost always a sign of a show in trouble. DESSA ROSE is no exception.





Updated On: 3/22/05 at 08:15 AM

[midtowngym]

Posted: 3/22/05 at 8:58am

I also loved Dessa Rose.