A Chorus Line reviews — Page 2

I'm not going out tonight until I read the NY Times review...

That's really frightening. My love for ACL has officially taken over my life.

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Everybody loves Margo... and rightfully so.

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Watching my tape of Martha from today, and they just showed an ad for the 11pm news just to tell us they're reviewing ACL tonight. Keep an eye out!

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Thank you for these Even if they are up and down...

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Brantley's review should appear sometime between 11:00 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. EDT.

The Times has been up for a little while. He calls it "pedestrian," I'm afraid.
New York Times - A Chorus Line

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I really don't understand Brantley. The beginning of his review calls it "otherwise pedestrian," but then he's pretty positive, especially as Brantley goes. And I understand that the rave parts of the review consist of Brantley's raving of the material, but if the material is so fab and this production is so close to the original, what gives? He's probably justified to say that it feels "recycled," as he does because of course some of the spark is going to be missing, but this is one of those cases in which I wonder if it's impossible for him to say anything nice without a counteracting jab. It's almost like he's made a conscious decision that he cannot truly like anything and feels he must hold to that.

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No one will miss Brantley when he retires. I'm sure that's why he's such a ****in his reviews.

And I owe this year to Margo!

I'm not sure he could have been any clearer about what was wondrous, those first five minutes. Nor could he have been any clearer in illustrating while the rest of it doesn't achieve that high-water mark. I mean he lays it out clearly.

This line resonated for me as somebody who loved the original and was looking forward to the revival until that press introduction a few months ago: "It doesn’t feel fair to the cast members to have them stand in the same poses and the same clothes as their predecessors, on whom the roles were custom-fitted."

As soon as I saw that stupid ascot and that ugly-ass reproduction of the Zach sweater, I thought, "uh-oh."

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Honestly, I don't find Brantley's review that bad. I just saw the show tonight, and it was AMAZING. I didn't see the original production, so for me this was a new experience. The only things Brantley didn't seem to like were things that he compares to the original. But, we don't necessarily have to assume that just because the staging is the same that the actors all have to take the same take on their characters as the original cast members did. I thought, with this version as a stand alone performance, Diedre was awesome as Sheila (not necessarily vocally). If comparing her to Kelly Bishop, then I can see why people would disagree, but this is a revival afterall. When Sweeney was revived, did anyone complain that Patti was bad because she didn't play the exact same Mrs. Lovett as Angela Lansbury? No. So overall, I think Brantley is saying the performance was good, but compared to the original, it had some weak spots. But that's ok, since many people didn't have the chance to see the original.
-BJH

EDIT: And P.S., Brantley's treatment of Charlotte was totally fair. She was the only weak thing about the show (her acting fine, her dancing slightly unenergized, her singing pretty bad.

Updated On: 10/5/06 at 11:20 PM

But they're two different kinds of revivals. Sweeney was an artistic adaptation type revival, whereas Chorus Line is simply being revived to bring a hit musical to a new generation. So they didn't want to change anything about the set and costumes. That doesn't mean that the actors don't have individual artistic freedom.

But you're proving my point. You can't complain that people compare the present to the past of something that is "simply being revived" and then say that people didn't do the same thing over a recent "artistic adaptation type revival."

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I am not the biggest fan of Brantley (who is) but, I thought this review was very well written and he got his point across very well. He really took care in explaining why this production does not take off, for him. I thought this was one of his best and he had very little indulgences in this review.

Updated On: 10/5/06 at 11:36 PM