The Official Raúl E. Esparza "Spread the Love" Thread, part two- Page 20

[Shiksa Goddess2]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 9:48am

Skittles has skittles! Yay! Okay, it is very hard to concentrate on numbering my iTunes when Raul is singing...

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 10:23am

Raul was designed to be hugged.

[Shiksa Goddess2]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 10:25am

Lol, designed? Yeah, I guess I'd have to agree with that. I've never met him, but he seems very approachable.

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 10:26am

When I look at your avatar one word (well some others I can't say here) comes to mind, HUG.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 11:32am

LOL. Designed. That was cute!

[Shiksa Goddess2]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 1:51pm

Hehe, yes, several words... Hug is definitly one of them. I officially have my mom in love with him. She watched Seth's Chatterbox and listened to tick, tick...BOOM!. She is now jelious that I get to see him in Company.

Speaking of seeing people, I talked to my mom about going to Anthony's book signing in PA, which I was planning on doing no matter what but really wanted her approval so I can tell her all about it later, lol. She is totally okay with it, and is gonna tell my dad that it is a trip with the Arts Villiage Learning Community that I am a part of at my college. We are convieniently leaving out the fact that I am going to be driving 10 hours with 3 other people, and staying in a hotel room with a *gasp* boy. I considered telling my dad about how this guy is gay, but I've decided to leave it out entirely, because he's majorly homophobic.

Gah... Chess is so amazing, sorry, that was really random.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 7:56pm

I started reading TAKE IT LIKE A MAN the other day. I still haven't gotten very far, but so many things he writes remind me of scenes in Taboo. And the picture of Phillip is really cool, too!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 8:05pm

I need to finish that book already.

[Alix7272]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 8:29pm

I loved Take It Like A Man! I never saw Taboo and I read it before really listening to the CD so that was my introduction to Boy George. Quite intense. It gives you a lot of insight and now, especially after reading it, I'm a disappointed in him for going back to drugs or whatever he was caught for. Of course there's no way of knowing what really happened and I'm in no position to judge, but still...I remember it getting slow in the middle but the end, when he's in the thick of his drug use, really picks up, as you might imagine.

I saw Sweeney Todd this afternoon. I wasn't familiar with the show before at all except for one or two songs that I'd heard before. (My Sondheim knowledge is severly lacking.) I was pleasantly surprised to see how meaningful such a ridiculous-seeming plot became. (All I knew was that she bakes people in pies.) The actors are so talented, especially Toby (forgive me for not looking up/remembering actors' names.) Michael just goes without saying. As you said chrys, the production was stunning. It was horrifying, spooky, and beautiful all at once, filled with so much symbolism and so much to take in. I was going to ask about the white coffin, but I just read the conversation on the main board, which helped a little bit. After reading it and after thinking about it more, I want to go back and see it again to really absorb it all and see things I'm sure I didn't pick up on. I was wondering chrys (or anybody else), if you have ever asked Michael about the little coffin or any of the other cast members and what they've said about it.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 8:31pm

Chess is amazing. I like some performances on various cast recordings of it as well as or better than some of the benefit concert ones, but Raul is definitely the best Arbiter I've heard (though, to be fair, most recordings don't have "The Arbiter").

I didn't know that Boy George had written an autobiography, actually. I imagine that it would be interesting...

[Alix7272]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 8:39pm

I just found this cover of the autobiography. I guess this is the version that came out in London. It's scary. I like the American one better.



He has a cookbook too!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1903258162/ref=pd_bxgy_text_2_cp/203-8489355-4231159



Now I want to read Steve Strange's autobiography too! I didn't know he had one! (He was discussed on TILAM a lot.)

Updated On: 2/11/06 at 08:39 PM

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 8:43pm

I'm very amused that he has a cookbook. That's awesome.

[Katt]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 8:45pm

Hah. That's funny.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 9:41pm

Yay, Alix! I'm so glad you enjoyed Sweeney. I'll be honest with you, I think it takes a while to absorb everything that's going on. Seeing the show a second time will really clear things up for you.

I am so proud of Michael. I knew he would do the role justice, but I was frightened for the production. I just couldn't see how it was going to work! But Michael has worked so hard, and he's done his father proud.

Everyone asks about the baby coffin. Basically, John Doyle needed a clever way to get a cheap and easy portable barbers chair. This was it. Michael's said a bunch of times that it can really stand for anything you want to make of it. I personally saw it as a sort of replacement for Joahanna. Sweeney sings "I think we shall not meet again. My little dove, my sweet, Johanna. Goodbye Johanna. You're gone, and yet your mine. I'm fine Johanna, I'm fine." "And though I'll think of you I guess until the the day I die, I think I miss you less and less as every day goes by, Johanna." So while the coffin serves as one of Sweeneys only "friends", in his mind, it almost takes the place of his love for her. Now he loves the chair. It's his new child. I think this is the REAL point where Sweeney becomes completely insane and looses any of the caretaking human traits he still was able to cling to. You see him rocking the coffin, and he seems mad. Also, you have to remember, the coffin is the same exact size the baby Johanna was when he was deported.

I hope this answers your question!

[Alix7272]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 10:27pm

Thanks! I hadn't thought about the fact that the coffin is the size Johanna was when he last saw her or that it is specifically the barber's chair. This is probably something I would look for and pick up on if I saw it again, but I'm not sure I'll be able to, so was everyone who was killed sitting on the coffin at the time? I didn't think so. I did see that it symbolized different things at different times, but at other times, it seemed as though it was just there with no definative purpose, which bothered me a little bit. Not that everything has to always have a special purpose, but it's an object that stands out so much, especially against the rest of the set and costumes, so it was, distracting I guess is the word. However, in thinking about it more, it does reinforce the nature of the show and what this production is conveying. And the white coffin on top of the black - there's just never ending death and corruption and darkness, even where there's supposed to be justice. On the other hand, the white color maybe indicates that the people Sweeney killed deserved. It was the society around him that drove him to be mad, and he's now punishing them. Maybe, in a twisted way, Sweeney is the only just one, or one of the only, in his society in which even the judge is evil. Toby also has some of that in him in being perceptive. Maybe in being crazy, he's the only sane one. Now I'm just thinking out loud...I'll stop.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 10:33pm

*spoiler* (Just in case some folks don't know the story...) The problem you run into with considering Sweeney is the only "just" one is the fact that he murders both Pirelli and Lucy in cold blood. In both their cases, he is pressed for time, and kills them in a panic. Though Pirelli does threaten to blackmail Sweeney, he had nothing to do with Sweeney's deportation. He becomes willing to sacrafice anyone who would stand in his way, which is sadly why he ends up killing his wife, who's only fault was that she recognized him.

[Alix7272]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 10:46pm

That's true. And I guess it would be too much for them to be considered unfortunate biproducts of Sweeney's just cause or just of his sense of justice and what is right. He didn't have another way to get rid of them, and he couldn't let them ruin him. It's true that he was so narrow-minded and focused on his one goal that it drove him mad in a way. I still sympathize with him though and so I can't really accept that he's completely crazy at the end. He's distraught and torn apart and no longer all with it, but he still has a heart. He's just lost sight of it. I would think that most people feel this way, which is why saying that he's just crazy seems harsh, even though it's probably true. You could argue that it's still the society around him that made it necessary for Sweeney to kill Lucy and Pirelli, even though there are probably different alternatives for going about the revenge/justice he wanted.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 2/11/06 at 11:41pm

One of the billion things I loved about this production was the fact that Michael WAS able to make Sweeney a person you could relate to. His main goal was for people to understand how someone could commit such unthinkable crimes. Not to the point where the revenge is justified, but enough so that the audience can relate to Sweeney in some way instead of judge him right off the bat. He wanted you to see the good AND the bad in Sweeney. And Michael is just so intuitive and was able to pull it off beautifully. There were moments where I just wanted to hold Sweeney Todd and just rock him back and forth and tell him everything would be okay and that he can put the pieces back together, etc. I genuinely CARED about him as a person. There are times when he is so gentle. And then, there are times when I just want to run as far away from Sweeney Todd as possible and tell all the people to run for their lives. He's just so evil that it's down right frightening.

At the chatterbox, Michael was so cute when he was talking about what his objectives for Sweeney were. And then he and Seth got on the subject of how he slices Lovett three times. Michael was so cute and chimed in all proud "That was MY idea!"

The way Sondheim wrote it, Mrs Lovett is the true villian of the show. And an actual backround story (which I think is just so interesting) is that Sondheim actually wrote the part with Angela Lansbury in mind. He told her "Angie, I have a great part for you, you are going to love it. It is the part of all parts etc." She said to send her the script. He did. She got the script and said "Steve, the show is called SWEENEY TODD, not NELLIE LOVETT!" She ended up reading it anyways, and of course, the rest is history.

LOL! I have no idea how to tie all of this in with Raul Esparza, but see what all of you folks (that I am extremely jealous of) have to look forward too. I just hope John Doyle starts a tradition and has like a baby Bobby, or something!

[Shiksa Goddess2]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 12:00am

So, this has nothing to do with Sweeney, but I got a new iPod today (my old one broke so the nice Apple people gave me a new one), and I have to name him something, and I've decided that he is most definitly a "Raul". He's black and red and produces really great music.

[ElphieDefiesGravity]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 12:22am

An excellent choice.

[Shiksa Goddess2]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 12:29am

I thought so too.

[gboogie]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 12:33am

I'm loving all the Sweeney talk. Great show! I saw Jersey Boys tonight, that was great as well. A really unexpected night of fun!

[ElphieDefiesGravity]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 12:33am

In French class we had to write a composition about a picture and in the picture there was a cat and I named it Raul. It was the only way I could force myself to write the composition.

[Alix7272]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 1:00am

I did something similar in Spanish, Elphie! We had to "modernize" Don Quijote, so I wrote about a character named Raul in order to keep myself awake and finish the assignment in the middle of the night.

That's how I felt too, like I wanted to give Sweeney a big hug and fix him in a way or show him that there is good and that there are other ways. I never really wanted to warn people of him. Maybe because Michael did such a good job of endearing the character to the audience. Before he killed the first person, I was nervous and wanted to warn him, but that was more because I was afraid of what I was about to see I think, how they were going to depict the murders. I always get really nervous when watching stuff like that or action scenes and kind of turn away or cover part of my face with my hands but watch anyway.

It's really interesting that he wrote the role for Angela Lansbury, because she's more of a comedic actress, isn't she? In the short clips I've seen of her that's true, and the people next to me were talking about previous productions they have seen during which they were laughing almost all the way through. Even though I don't really have any basis for comparison, I think I like it done this way more, a darker interpretation. It's more effective.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 2/12/06 at 1:30am

*sigh* I love Sweeney Todd. It is the best Broadway show I have ever seen. I can't say enough wonderful things about it. I have watched the original version with AL. She was definitely more comedic than Patti's Lovett. That is an EXCELLENT point, Alix, and I hadn't noticed that until you pointed it out!

And I heard Jersey Boys was really entertaining. My friend saw the matinee and liked it a lot! She also said Michael's "competition" is cuuute! I haven't seen the show, so I'm not so sure about him being competition...

LOL! I was so angry when Michael won the Tony for Assassins! I jumped up to my feet and started screaming bloody murder. I wanted Raul to win *so* badly. And of course I sort of agreed with the voters. I loved Assassins. But Raul was just.... Well, I couldn't take my eyes off him in Taboo. But it made me love Michael even more for the speech that he gave. He's so kind. I swear, I don't think that man hates a single living being. He can even get along with gigantic snakes!

And now I'm just blabbing on... Oh yeah. And Shiksa, what you said about your iPod made my night! Very funny!