I don't lust after them. What makes you so personally bitter about them? How did you come to know the professional history of every regional critic in the country? Unless...you don't actually know that! Or else you wouldn't have made such a ridiculous statement. You must be a worthless failure undeserving of respect.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Maybe something like, "Speaking of a serviceable Jesus, it was scandalous to this Catholic boy to lose his maidenhood to a man with that name," or something like that.
Just in reply to out-of-town critics or the board, I think it's def. a case of out-of-town critics. You have to realize that most regional critics typically praise each production because they want to help tickets sales at that theater, or else they're out of a job. I've seen many horrible regional shows where every actor has been praised, etc. However, the reason for this show transferring wasn't the critics praise, if that was the case, most shows would transfer. It's the fact that Webber and his team praised the production, and the Dodgers have deep pockets and saw an opening in a pretty weak season.
Maybe we could turn this thread away from little Matt's seemingly personal rancor about me and back to the show.
I admit that I'm not much of a fan, but this production is almost incomprehensible. It's also so loud they should sell earplugs at the merch booth. It sounds so heavy on the synth and processing, it could be a click-track for all I could tell.
Josh Young as Judas can't dance or act; he can sing a little, but he has definite problems with some of the score. Paul Nolan as Jesus has amazing high notes, but is creepy like a cult leader (which may or may not be what you seek in a portrayal of Jesus). The songs were met with silence (although much of the audience stood [slowly] for the call); Simon Zealotes's song gets the biggest hand of the night, although it's rather unclear who he is (the same holds for Pilate's Dream - if you don't know the show, it's very possible you have no idea who this old man is strolling out and singing some mush about a dream...). Marcus Nance has a great voice as Caiaphas, but from the way he stares at his feet as he descends stairs, I suspect he's from the opera world, not the theatre. I suppose I ought to have some idea who any of these people are, but Tom Hewett (a somewhat bilious Pilate) and Jeremy Kushnier (invisible in the ensemble) were the only familiar names to me.
The choreography is unintentionally funny much of the time, particularly in the Temple (brothel?) scene. When the choreography should be funny (Herod's Song) it's not. For some strange reason, almost everyone carries a messenger bag.
Overall, it felt like a quickly-thrown-together semi-professional production brought in to fill a lacklustre season.
It's a hard role to sing, with the typical Lloyd Webber ignorance of the human voice. She gets the high notes, but has trouble with the low notes in "Everything's Alright."
No one in this production seems to be much of an actor, Kennedy included - she plays Mary as sort of an ultra-clingy, hard-edged Squeaky Fromme (which, again, may or may not be what one thinks is a good choice). The whole Jesus group are really as creepy as the priests in this production, very Manson Family-ish.
Oh newintown, just admit you were being hyperbolic and that you don't know everything about every critic in the country. There are some out there who actually wanted to be theatre critics. They studied and pursued it as a career. And not being respected by YOU doesn't make them failures or their work worthless or that they don't deserve respect. That is what makes you sound like a bitter revolting Tea Party douchebag. Dismissing an entire group and making assumptions on their careers and characters based on...what? Do you also believe all waiters are worthless failures who couldn't get acting jobs? Might as well get all out your derogatory remarks since you got the ball rolling.
Of course, admitting that would be an adult and mature thing for you to do, so I won't hold my breath.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Matt, sweetie baby kittycat - seriously, you need a Xanax. Everyone gets it - you disagree with me. You've made it clear. Now have a nice glass of water and calm down.
with the massive disappointment on this thread towards this production i wonder if the NYC reviewers will share the sentiment of the out of town reviewers or the majority of this board. This still blows my mind how "wrong" these stratford and la Jolla reviewers could have been.
I don't know if "wrong" is the "right" word - if you like JCS, you may like this production. As I said, I'm not a fan of the piece itself. I find it inert and pose-heavy. Lloyd Webber has made it clear in his career that he's not particularly interested in complex stories or text of any kind. He operates on the surface only, and has many like-minded admirers.