Gin/Wild (Patinkin)- Page 3

[Thenardier]

Posted: 4/3/05 at 10:53pm

Yes.

I would not say Li's is a bad score. It is fun. But I think LaChiusa's has more emotion.

Updated On: 4/3/05 at 10:53 PM

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 1:29am

I just rediscovered this old thing.

I can't believe how much I have changed since I posted this.

April...when I first discovered LaChiusa. And now, today, he has because my favorite composer. Not only that, I wrote a paper on his work MARIE CHRISTINE.

I guess, finding this thread, is like my RENT nostalgia.

I read what I wrote and it is so simplistic but it is great to read my initial impressions of this work.

LaChiusa's The Wild Party is undoubtedly my favorite show. And having spent so much time with both pieces, studying LaChiusa's technique through different shows, and finishing the poem, I feel like to NOT know this work is just wrong.

After sitting through SWIWS, I have learned a great deal about the process of bringing LaChiusa's music to the stage. Techniques he uses to not only give you an aural understanding, but also a visual understanding. There are rhythms and melodies he uses that are, somewhat, set. Almost as a template. For example, the "swirling sound" I referred to in "More" represents, of course, descent into madness, so to speak. Then when a character abruptly belts out a high note it signifies climax - be it emotional or sexual...something that has greatly improved my understanding of HELLO AGAIN....and MARIE CHRISTINE for that matter (as in the song "Prison in a Prison" when MC embodies Helena, in a way, and completely destroys Dante.)

Having done a report on Medea/MC I learned very much about the piece. Underlying themes that I discovered, that completely tip their hat to old Greek Theatre. And, although MC does not have a final song for MC, should there be? I think a look can be much more powerful. I really think Dante deserves the last song. Why? After reading Medea, and studying Medea, I cam to the conclusion that Medea knew what she was doing before the "11 o'clock" number area. Although, I don't think "I Will Love You" was the best choice, necessarily - I must say, after long hard study, Marie Christine is one of the most brilliant shows written in our time. Singer, in "EVER AFTER," says that Marie Christine challenged Sweeney Todd in the idea that we have to sympathize with no-good people (ie: Sweeney, who we just watched kill people lose his wife and MC, who killed her children). I don't think this is true though. I really think Medea, and therefore Marie Christine, is not necesarily black and white - sympathize or not. In Sweeney, we are forced to sympathize with him - he tried to get revenged and in the end killed his wife, whom he was trying to avenge. Yet, Medea/MC depends on a director and actor. The title role is extremely difficult to act - trying to get the audience to sympathize you and be afraid of you at the same moment. Meanwhile, in Sweeney, there is a definite shift from "being scared" to "sympathizing."

Anyway, I don't know why I am posting this other than to say I cannot wait for Mr. LaChiusa's future endeavors. I am extremely happy to have discovered his work and to be fortunate enough to gain a vast understanding of it. I look foward to studying his work more.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 1:31am

ha, i thought you were responding to yourself and i was so confused!

you know i love the score, but i despise patinkin. weird thing is i always perform "his" songs. stuff from sunday, falsettos, wild party, secret garden... did he play tateh at one point too? i feel like he did.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 1:32am

He played Tateh in the movie of RAGTIME - not the musical.

I wouldn't say I'm a Mandy fan. But I love him in TWP. Scary as hell. A perfect Burrs.

I'm still, and I suppose always will be, trying to decide if I wanted more compassion from LaChiusa's Burrs.

I never really read Burrs as compassionate at all. But Lippa's adds some sympathy into him.

"How many women say, 'OK, it'll Do'?" Updated On: 12/18/05 at 01:32 AM

[apdarcey]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 1:35am

oh yeah, i knew that he was somehow related... he could play the role.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 1:46am

He would be great, IMO.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 4:03am

LaChiusa's The Wild Party was robbed of all the TONYS - It deserved a total SWEEP! And, Let us not forget Kitt as the incredible Delores who can't wait to get back where she belongs, UPTOWN!

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 10:50am

Sending out some LaChiusa/Wild Party love. This score still, after zillions of listens, sends chills down my spine. And I think Mandy's work here is superb.

Someone needs to get Toni Collette back on the Broadway stage, ASAP!

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 10:57am

Someone needs to get Toni Collette back on the Broadway stage, ASAP!

*coughEVITAcough*

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 1:15pm

The beauty of this piece when it stands next to Lippa's is that it is such a more dramatic telling of the story. LaChiusia's music oozes sex, obsession, drugs, liquor. In LaChiusia's, you see what alcohol really does to people and, best of all, you hear it in his music.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 2:36pm

Not to mention his music tells a story of its own...

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 2:39pm

LaChiusa's version is also musically, more period appropriate.

Electric guitars Lippa? WTF?

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 2:54pm

Who'd ever thought an electric guitar would kill a show?

He said it was supposed to be contemporary.

I call it out of the ordinary.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 3:00pm

That's great that he wants it to be contemporary, but too bad he wasn't writing a show set in contemporary times. I find a lot of Lippa's work to be a tad lazy. I actually like some of the songs he wrote for Wild Party.

I'd like them even more if they were in a more appropriate show.