Arden Directing "Merrily" In LA- Page 2
Arden Directing "Merrily" In LA
#25Arden Directing
Posted: 5/6/16 at 12:47pm
I think they're both talented and adorable. I have no vitriol toward either of them.
pupscotch
Broadway Star Joined: 1/24/16
#26Arden Directing
Posted: 5/11/16 at 3:46pm
This is officially a Deaf West production! I wish I lived in LA so I could see this!
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Michael-Arden-Deaf-West-Theatre-Will-Next-Take-on-Stephen-Sondheims-MERRILY-WE-ROLL-ALONG-20160511
#27Arden Directing
Posted: 5/11/16 at 3:50pm
pupscotch said: "This is officially a Deaf West production! I wish I lived in LA so I could see this!
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Michael-Arden-Deaf-West-Theatre-Will-Next-Take-on-Stephen-Sondheims-MERRILY-WE-ROLL-ALONG-20160511
"
After looking on the Wallis's website, it doesn't seem like it actually is a Deaf West production, despite what BWW's article says.
#28Arden Directing
Posted: 5/11/16 at 4:23pm
Arden, who also received Drama Desk and New York Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Direction of Deaf West Theatre's SPRING AWAKENING
The above is the only reference to Deaf West in the article about MERRILY. There's no indication that MERRILY will be a Deaf West production or co-production.
#29Arden Directing
Posted: 5/11/16 at 7:54pm
What happened to the second musical he was due to direct in the same season?
edit , just saw its The Pride
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
Updated On: 5/11/16 at 07:54 PM
wicked4l
Broadway Star Joined: 5/19/06
#31Arden Directing
Posted: 5/11/16 at 10:17pm
wicked4l said: "It's Marissa Winouker, Tituss Burgess and Steve Kazee.
"
Great cast
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
#32Arden Directing
Posted: 5/11/16 at 10:49pm
Tituss Burgess should be interesting. Definitely a new kind of role for him. I assume he would be Charlie to Kazee's Frank. Exciting!
#33Arden Directing
Posted: 5/12/16 at 5:55am
That's....completely inspired and outstandingly brilliant. I'm so glad I'll be in the LA area when this is happening.
They/them.
"Get up the nerve to be all you deserve to be."
Annie Daaé
Swing Joined: 5/15/15
#34Arden Directing
Posted: 5/12/16 at 6:41am
I think it's because Mientus has an... acerbic... sense of humor and says things that might rub others the wrong way. Does a lot of shading and subtweeting.
And people probably automatically accuse Arden of the Casting Couch because Mientus plays Hanschen. (Joey Haro was meant to play Hanschen, and he did (rocked it), but dropped out for a movie deal. Mientus volunteered because Arden reportedly had problems finding a replacement on short notice, given that he had already played the role and just needed to learn it in ASL - basically doing half the work compared to the brand-new actor Arden could have hired.)
(I adore these two to bits, by the way.)
#35Arden Directing Merrily: Burgess, Kazee and Winokur Star in Reading
Posted: 5/26/16 at 6:50pm
This article from Playbill says that Titus Burgess, Steve Kazee and Marissa Jaret Winokur starred in a week-long "research and development session" directed by Michael Arden. Are they trying to fix it again?
"Contentment, it seems, simply happens. It appears accompanied by no bravos and no tears."
#36Arden Directing Merrily: Burgess, Kazee and Winokur Star in Reading
Posted: 10/18/16 at 1:05pm
The cast has been announced:
http://www.playbill.com/article/wayne-brady-aaron-lazar-saycon-sengbloh-cast-in-west-coast-merrily
Aaron Lazar (Frank)
Wayne Brady (Charley)
Donna Vivino (Mary)
Whitney Bashor (Beth)
Saycon Sengbloh (Gussie)
Amir Talai (Joe Josephson)
Thoughts?
#37Arden Directing Merrily: Burgess, Kazee and Winokur Star in Reading
Posted: 10/18/16 at 1:23pm
Interesting that none of the leads from the "developmental lab" are returning.
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#38Arden Directing Merrily: Burgess, Kazee and Winokur Star in Reading
Posted: 10/18/16 at 4:40pm
They have been "developed" out.
#39Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 10/19/16 at 12:10pm
I personally think it's good that Titus Burgess has been "developed out." I don't think he's a good fit for Charley, whereas Wayne Brady is perfect for the role.
It's too bad about Marissa Winouker, but I love Donna Vivino and think she is so underrated. She'll be a great Mary.
#40Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/15/16 at 9:22pm
Promo video now out:
https://youtu.be/c1-rJp3lEXU
#41Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/15/16 at 9:40pm
We have tickets for Thanksgiving weekend-- high hopes for what Michael Arden can pull off, but I've yet to see a convincing mounting of this tough show. Will report back between waves of tryptophan comas.
#42Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/28/16 at 11:48am
Has anyone seen this yet? Curious to hear how it is...
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
#43Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/28/16 at 12:02pm
I saw it on Saturday night 11/27 It was amazing. It made me cry multiple times. The set was kind of bland, the direction was outstanding, and Wayne, Donna, and Aaron were stars. I will definitely be going again.
#44Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/28/16 at 12:21pm
There are also some nice notices on Goldstar, though one mentions as a slight complaint that Arden 'recycles' his 'shadowing concept' from Spring Awakening. What could that mean?
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
Wildcard
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/21/06
#45Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/28/16 at 3:26pm
"Arden wrestled with how to deal with some of the so-called problems of previous productions of “Merrily” — particularly the age of the characters: “It always bothered me as an audience member because I was watching a 40-year-old playing 20 or a 20-year-old playing 40.” He toyed with the idea of multiple casting, but Sondheim nixed that idea, telling Arden that he wanted to stay true to the wishes of Furth.
“‘Merrily’ to me was always about looking at how people change, and I thought it would be interesting to see how we could physicalize that change,” Arden says. So he cast actors to dance as “ghost” versions of three actors when they were younger."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-michael-arden-20161125-htmlstory.html
#46Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/28/16 at 4:38pm
I caught the show yesterday, and thought it was fantastic! I knew songs and the basic concept of the show, but I had never listened to the score in full or seen the show. I thought the time concepts was pretty clear, but I'm not sure if there were any revisions to this production.
The design concept was very interesting, and added emotional impact in Act Two (although the reveal was a little expected). The cast was uniformly excellent. Aaron Lazar was in great voice (and those ARMS! Yum!), Wayne Brady was a pleasant surprise, and Whitney Bashor was a stand out in Act Two. The highlights of show, for me, were Saycon Sengbloh and Donna Vivino. Saycon was in great voice and has a great sense of humor for such a diva-esque role. Donna Vivino - wow. She brought such a great bolt of energy every time she came on stage. Her voice is stellar, and she was absolutely hilarious.
There were a couple of small pacing issues with applause breaks (weird spots during "Franklin Sheppard Inc." got applause, while there was no chance to applaud after "Not A Day Goes By" in Act One), but I am so glad to have seen this production of such a seldom-produced show.
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
#47Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/28/16 at 5:06pm
The idea of the "ghosting" sounds a little unnecessary to me, but perhaps I feel that way because I've seen productions of the show that I thought worked without that added embellishment. Perhaps its an idea that works better in person.
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
JVJ93
Featured Actor Joined: 3/27/16
#48Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/28/16 at 5:22pm
Any chance this production will maybe transfer to NY? Off or on broadway
#49Arden Directing 'Merrily' in LA
Posted: 11/28/16 at 9:17pm
I saw the show this past weekend, my first ever view of a professional mounting of Merrily, and sorry to say, I have a very different take than most of the above posters.
To my eyes, this book was perhaps the worst ever to be paired with a Sondheim score (and let's face it, there are quite a few candidates for that honor.) Uniformly nasty characters riddled with cliches inhabit scene after scene making the same point-- rich folks are shallow and evil, and every career path is a binary choice between being successful and being true to your own voice. Weren't the songs brilliant though? Well, sure, but I never noticed listening to my old cast album how every song in Act I was either bitter, angry or ruefully sad. By the time we get to the sublime gems "Opening Doors" and "Our Time", the damage is done and no amount of perfect harmonizing in a major key can repair the gloom.
Would the evening have been any better with the original score and book circa 1981, featuring "The Hills of Tomorrow", and "Rich and Happy", etc? We'll never know, but the mishmash left by all the interpolations post 1985 did nothing to improve matters for me. (And frankly, isn't "Growing Up" an awful lot like Maury Yeston's "Getting Tall"?)
Despite this, there are two huge pluses in this production: a great cast of superb performers who can really sing these songs the way they should be sung, and a terrific band of 13 musicians who make every note of the score come alive. They deserved every bit of rousing applause they got all night.
I'm at a loss to describe Michael Arden's direction. I sort of liked the 3 young dancers who shadowed the 3 leads most of the night, until they actually replace them in the rooftop scene to perform "Our Time". But why does Frank seem to wander through every scene in Act I with a dumbstruck look on his face, like he's as confused by the backward chronology of the script as the rest of us? And why does the set entirely consist of dressing room makeup mirrors in a black void, when backstage dressing room scenes amount to about 3 minutes of the total show?
The day before seeing this show, we watched the making-of doc, "Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened". I'd say skip the live production entirely and just enjoy the bittersweet failures of that original Broadway show. All the emotion, all the heartache, all the wonder and folly of youth, all the pain and joy and tears of growing older that are the essence of the play-- they're all there to be savored in that brilliant film.
Updated On: 11/28/16 at 09:17 PM
