Overheard at "Sunday..."

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 12:13am

MAN: I didn't understand it.

WOMAN: That's why it won the Pulitzer.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 8:55am

Yeah, right, the Pulitzer often goes to challenging puzzling difficult works of art, like LOST IN YONKERS.

[nmartin]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 9:01am

Caroloine, that's great. You can't make stuff like that up.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 9:51am

Yeah, really gives you an idea of the smarts of the average theatre-goer. Shows you how MAMMA MIA and CATS can have such long runs.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 6:37pm

The man and woman next to me kept on sighing loudly during the first act. Not muffled, "ho hum" sighs; but big, large, make-your-whole-body-quake sighs of boredom. The man whistled and checked his phone, as well.

Needless to say they were not back for the second act.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 6:43pm

They'd be masochists if they sat through the second act.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 9:41pm

I'll drink to that! In fact, a drink might have helped me understand the second act.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 9:51pm

Overheard at "Sunday..."

MAN: I didn't understand it.

WOMAN: That's why it won the Pulitzer.

I happen to think this little exchange is funny and clever. And true.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 9:52pm

Couldn't agree more.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 9:53pm

See, the second act is the part I like. Much more so than the first.

On the DVD, I watch the title song, and then skip to Sunday, and then watch from there to the end.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 9:56pm

Having seen it last weekend, and subsequently purchasing the OBCR, as cute as Jenna what's her name is, Peters gets more across in two dimensions than Jenna did in three.

The second act - and that first scene is fun, I'll give it that - is just a little too vague and easily tied up for me. And I'm a huge Sondheim fan.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/20/08 at 10:40pm

I too am a big fan of the second act. It clicked for me after seeing it live this time. (I have only seen the VHS and knew the OBC CD). I can fully understand the struggle to get your art made and how you have to sell yourself. I can also understand the struggle of being tied to the past and what went before.

(SPOILER?)

The Gasp of George when he turns to see the blank canvas finally filled with possibilities cinched the deal for me! A perfect driving home of the point!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 12:48pm

I really hated that final gasp he did. But I'd hated pretty much everything else Evans had done, so it was just one last twist of the knife. I don't usually describe things this way, as I believe it is really offensive, but this one time I'll do it: that little gasp was one of the gayest things I've ever seen on a stage.

[wexy]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 3:33pm

I saw 'Crimes Of The Heart' last Friday and I have no clue how that won a Pulitzer.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 3:35pm

Wexy, I feel that way about most Pulitzer winners. TOPDOG/UNDERDOG? Jesus.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 3:55pm

Sorry, Roscoe. While you are often wrong, this is the most wrong you've ever been. That gasp he gives is the ENTIRITY of the theme of the show shown in a single breath. It is so economical I can hardly stand it, and it is the sole justification for his goofy characterization. If it didn't send you over the edge crying, you weren't watching the same show I saw.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 4:19pm

Well, clearly we saw the same show, but on different days. It wasn't the ENTIRETY of much of anything to me except an extremely annoying, catastrophically ill-conceived performance. I don't see how the ENTIRETY of the show can be summed up in a single girlish little gasp.

You liked it, I didn't. C'est la vie.

Updated On: 3/21/08 at 04:19 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/21/08 at 10:55pm

It didn't send me over the edge crying. I had no feeling for that character from beginning to end, except for finding him amusing in the first scene of the second act.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 1:49pm

That moment isn't about crying for the character, it's about "getting" the theme of the show. I don't think we're supposed to "feel for" George. I think the point of the show is to look at the artistic process. And, that moment at the end is the fulfillment of the show's promise.

[vmlinnie]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 1:55pm

CQTB!!!!

There you are! I missed you. I'd PM you, but I can't. Won't allow me to.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 3:07pm

Yes. touchme. it is the moment; of getting beyond what other people think of your work, getting beyond the hurdle of worrying if your work is relevant, of doing what is expected of you, letting go of the past ( for it's inspirations have passed and changed with time), of moving forward unencumbered, seeing the possibilities there are with a new eye. All these, I feel, were captured perfectly in a brief shocked look of amazement and a simple gasp standing in front of the stark white set.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 3/22/08 at 7:13pm

thank you jesus! I really loathed Topdog/Underdog as well but I'm the only one I know, so I thought it was just me.

As for the second act, it's flawed but enjoyable (at least it's short). I think what the second act is 'saying' has been done over and over again but I love the music.

LINNIE, where've you been hiding?