Love the cast, love Clarke's work, and love the prospect of seeing this piece in a small venue. Probably one of my "most looking forward to" shows for spring.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
perfectlymarvelous and I will be there on Wednesday!
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
I don't know if everyone saw this, but Threepenny will have a lottery for two seats to each performance for three cents each. It seems like a tie-in with an iPhone app (TodayTix), but definitely a good tie-in.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
PalJoey is taking me for my birthday in a few weeks, and I can hardly wait! I love "Threepenny," and I've been a devoted Clarkehead for years--again, thanks to PJ. I don't think I've missed any of her NYC works (and I've caught a few outside the city).
Going tomorrow. I really hope this is a good Threepenny Opera. I sat through the Three Sting Penny Opera, which was horrible, and then the Cindy Lauper Threepenny Opera, which was terrible, I wanna see a good production of this show! Hopefully Martha Clarke gets it.
I was there tonight. I was hoping Clarke's production would be the one to make me love this piece, but alas, it was not to be. I'll leave it to others to describe the production at length, but I felt it to be drab and rather uninspired. It's a production that seeks to be transgressive, but is just kinda dull.
As a positive, Laura was quite impressive: such a turn from her work in Cinderella and Anything Goes.
I was there tonight with givesmevoice and I wasn't blown away but didn't hate it. I thought Laura Osnes was excellent, any time she was onstage I was infinitely more engaged, and she sang the role beautifully. I also really enjoyed Mary Beth Peil as Mrs. Peachum. I'm also not someone who is typically bothered by nudity in the least, but basically all of the nudity in this production seemed sort of unnecessary. All in all, I felt very meh about the whole thing, which I don't think is really the point of the piece. *slight spoiler maybe?* The bulldog they used got the biggest laughs of the night, which I think says a lot.
This is also kind of irrelevant, but I cannot believe that Sally Murphy is 51 since she doesn't appear to have aged in 20 years. Onstage she doesn't really read much older than Laura Osnes.
I was there last night too and I pretty much agree with what you two have said. I thought the visual aesthetics were spot on; an appropriate dinginess permeated the design and if they want to do this in rep with Urinetown they could use the same sets and costumes.
They are using the Blitzstein translation, and although it's probably the most well-known I would have preferred to hear a more modern, explicit version to match the attempted daring of the production.
Laura is indeed amazing. Her "Barbara Song" was well-sung and "Jealousy Duet" was one of the few times the show seemed to find its groove. Mary Beth Peil and Sally Murphy are also doing strong work. When a friend and I saw Murphy in the Apple Family plays earlier this season we also remarked that she could still play Julie Jordan. She truly hasn't aged.
Despite not being blown away I think this has the potential to get a lot better during previews, but they have their work cut out for them. The piece is lacking energy and momentum. Right now it's just a very dour episodic revue rather than a cohesive narrative. The humor also barely registered- the one exception to that was Rick Holmes as Tiger Brown.
If you want to go it might be wise to wait a few weeks and then check it out.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
I'm not at all disheartened. Martha Clarke is not the kind of artist whose work lends itself to first previews. She comes from experimental dance and experimental theater, where things tend to evolve.
I first saw her "Garden of Earthly Delights," a theater/dance piece based on the painting by Hieronymous Bosch, in 1984 at the Theater at St. Clements Church on West 46th Street. Then Reginald Tresilian and I saw at the Minetta Lane Theater in 2009.
The production employed Flying by Fox and was pretty miraculous, but I imagine the first "preview" of it must have been nothing short of a mess. A glorious mess, but more like the hunk of marble into which Michelangelo peered and saw his David.