A Minister's Wife Reviews

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 9:11pm

amNY is mixed (2.5 stars):

Composer Joshua Schmidt, who made a splash three seasons ago with his dissonant and avant-garde score for “The Adding Machine,” has written repeated, minimalist-style musical motifs that are seamlessly woven into the dialogue. It’s all very reminiscent of Sondheim’s 1994 musical “Passion.”

The play, directed by Michael Halberstam and with a book by Austin Pendleton, turns out to be a respectable but unnecessary effort. The unmelodic, chord-based score mainly serves to slow down the story and remove the audience from the original text.

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-a-minister-s-wife-2-5-stars-1.2864344

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 9:15pm

The Faster Times is mixed to negative:

"Kate Fry, a newcomer to New York theater, credibly though not enchantingly reprises the role of Candida that she originated when this musical was first performed in Chicago in 2009, conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam, the artistic director and co-founder of that city’s Writers’ Theatre. Candida has a lesson to teach both men.

...

The music is meant to soften and warm Shaw’s coolly intellectual play. But, no, this is not “My Fair Lady II.” This is not because Tranen and Schmidt are no Lerner and Loewe (who adapted Shaw’s “Pygmalion”), although the songs are not as memorable. “Candida” was a period play whose characters were created to score points about issues of the day. The Victorian-era arguments about the cluelessness of men and the deeper wisdow of women no longer seem fresh presented so pedantically on the stage. Yes, the adaptation makes some changes; Candida’s father, the unrepentant capitalist, is no longer a character on the stage; he is only alluded to, the effect of which is to cut out much of the politics. But, despite the addition of some tuneful music and fine performances, “A Minister’s Wife” is still stuck with the characters from “Candida” and their arguments. There seems little reason to make a musical out of it, and if “A Minister’s Wife” has its charming moments, it is not thrilling. Like Candida with the young poet, you can enjoy the time spent, even love it a little, but it won’t be your favorite."

http://thefastertimes.com/newyorktheater/2011/05/08/a-ministers-wife-review/

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 9:17pm

I wanted so much to love it but the show is just SO BORING!!!!!!!

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 9:20pm

Matthew Murray at Talkin' Broadway is negative:

"The good news about A Minister's Wife, the new musical that Lincoln Center Theater has just opened at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, is that it transcends the ordinary to soar into the realm of the theatrical in the way that only musicals can. Five people bemused or befuddled by love and the responsibility they have to it and to each other, rhapsodizing all at once — to the point that you can't discern individual words, but understand everything anyway — before an infinite star field of promise, is the kind of fusion of sight and sound that suggests the writers had something substantial on their minds.

The bad news is two-fold: First, that this scene of melodic and emotional grace is confined to only the final three minutes of a show that runs an hour and a half; and second, that it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Candida, the 1898 George Bernard Shaw play on which Austin Pendleton (book), Joshua Schmidt (music), Jan Levy Tranen (lyrics), and Michael Halberstam (who conceived and directed) have ostensibly based this musical.

...

Fry comes the closest to delivering: She crisply embodies a Victorian woman of next-to-regal stature, displaying strength and confidence sufficient to make you believe she'd succeed with the role in the non-musical version. Everyone else has more trouble: Kudisch barks almost every line and lyric with a one-dimensional bravado that doesn't reveal James's magnetism; Steggert's Marchbanks is whiny and schizophrenic, openly aggressive more than appealing (the Younger Brother he played in Ragtime does not belong in turn-of-the-century England); and Gehling and Baltes play their supporting roles with towering indifference that leaves you forgetting them whenever they step offstage."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/5_08_11.html

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 9:22pm

I wanted so much to love it but the show is just SO BORING!!!!!!!

RIGHT? I told you! :-P

My review

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 9:27pm

Backstage is negative:

"Now comes "A Minister's Wife," the Austin Pendleton (book), Jan Levy Tranen (lyrics), Joshua Schmidt (music) tuner version of "Candida." They, too, have focused on the emotional subtext, turning Shaw's sociopolitical romcom into a perfervid romantic triangle. Unfortunately, "Candida" is exactly the play Shaw wanted to write, which means that this simpleminded and reductive approach only does violence to the original. Combined with the score's arty pretensions, the result can only be described as unbearably precious.

...

The authors' major change is to eliminate the character of Candida's father, an uneducated, bumptious businessman who pays his female workers so poorly that they must turn to the streets to live. With him go most of the play's politics and a considerable amount of humor. They then go about the misguided affair of goosing Marchbanks into a credible romantic rival. Shaw's Candida is far more worthy and formidable than either of her options, and her decision is never in doubt. But the authors are going for an absurdly sentimental ending in which a self-sacrificing Candida sends Marchbanks off into the night with the secret knowledge that she really loves him. It doesn't fly.

Schmidt's score eschews conventional song form without replacing it with anything equally powerful, relying far too much upon musical texture. In Pendleton's book, the interplay of dialogue and singing is forced and awkward, and there is a soporific reliance upon repetition in both the music and Tranen's underpowered lyrics, which often barely rearrange Shaw's text.

...

About halfway through the show's intermissionless 95 minutes, I saw a couple, seated in the middle of a row, rise and exit despite inconveniencing their seatmates. Rude, yes, but I couldn't find it in my heart to criticize them."

http://www.backstage.com/bso/reviews-ny-theatre-off-broadway/ny-review-a-minister-s-wife-1005173942.story

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 9:41pm

The AP is positive:

"Everything about the new musical based on the playwright's "Candida" seems pocket-sized, from the fragments of songs by Joshua Schmidt to the use of just four musicians to the boiling down of the Shavian story to about 90 minutes without intermission. Even the space where it has landed in New York — Lincoln Center's the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater — is intimate.

All that isn't a bad thing. A fantastic cast of just five, a single set and a book by Austin Pendleton that keeps much of the original playwright's wit makes "A Minister's Wife" a little jewel of a musical, though it may be an acquired taste."

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/f8d0e7e8285445aca28b4d756892a544/US--Theater-Review-A-Ministers-Wife/

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:46pm

Newsday is up.



newsday

Updated On: 5/8/11 at 10:46 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:47pm

"I wanted so much to love it but the show is just SO BORING!!!!!!!"

Yes, on the whole, I would say it was.

It's too bad, really. If only they had written a lyrical score, it could have been really good.

Still, it did have a certain charm, which is a rare commodity nowadays. And as such, I found it more palatable than some other musicals this year.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:05pm

NY Times (Isherwood) is a gush fest. This review seems so utterly mawkish:

"Conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam, and originally seen at the Writers’ Theater outside Chicago, the show features intricately textured music by Joshua Schmidt, co-author of the terrific musical version of Elmer Rice’s “Adding Machine” that was seen Off Broadway several seasons ago. Jan Levy Tranen supplies the literate lyrics, mostly unrhymed and firmly grounded in Shaw’s words, and Austin Pendleton wrote the smartly condensed book.

...

Although it is scored for just a handful of instruments, with piano and cello dominant, Mr. Schmidt’s music has ample texture and variety. The show is not through-composed, but the score weaves itself in and out of the drama so gently that the seams rarely show. The musical language sometimes takes on a waltzing lilt in ensemble songs that evoke the scintillating Stephen Sondheim score for “A Little Night Music,” but Mr. Schmidt often uses spikier, more dissonant colorings when Eugene’s tense misery is doing combat with James’s increasingly ruffled complacency. Even when the characters are not singing, a few somber notes from the cello or a sprinkling of piano arpeggios give us subtle intimations of the inner turbulence in their souls."

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/theater/reviews/a-ministers-wife-at-mitzi-e-newhouse-theater-review.html

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:10pm

Variety is negative:

"Pygmalion" excepted, the works of George Bernard Shaw have not translated well to musical theater. The pitfalls of such tinkering can be seen in the transformation of the 1894 comedy "Candida" -- about a wise and perceptive minister's wife in the slums of east London -- into "A Minister's Wife." Hopes that were raised due to the presence of composer Joshua Schmidt, whose 2008 adaptation of Elmer Rice's obscure "The Adding Machine" was startlingly good, are hereby dashed: Lightning has not struck twice, not this time out anyway. "A Minister's Wife" is "Candida" with a fair chunk of the Shavian stimulation removed.

...

The authors have not adapted "Candida" for the musical stage, exactly; they appear to have merely set parts of it to music. And enigmatically so; "A Minister's Wife" seems to switch from spoken dialogue to sung dialogue at the will of the authors, rather than the will of the characters. Even when there is plenty of singing, there is rarely song.

...

"The Adding Machine" benefited not only from Schmidt's remarkable score but from the visionary direction of David Cromer. (Schmidt's main career thus far has been as a sound designer, his Broadway credits consisting of Cromer's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and the current "House of Blue Leaves.") There is no such directorial vision here, causing "Minister's Wife" to lumber on.

Halberstam and his authors have seen fit to excise one of Shaw's main characters: Candida's father Burgess, the coarse and sordid industrialist who provides ballast to counterbalance the good minister. This friction might have added some welcome color to the musicalization, in the manner of Alfred Doolittle in "My Fair Lady." As it is, though, "A Minister's Wife" is already overlong at ninety intermissionless minutes."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117945171?refCatId=33

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:31pm

NY Post is mixed to negative (leaning negative, 2 stars):

"A marriage's happy balance is upset by the arrival of an in terloper. It's a fairly banal scenario, but in his play "Candida," George Bernard Shaw spiced it up by layering in a strong political, sexual and social subtext.

That element is mostly lacking from "A Minister's Wife," the musical version of "Candida" that opened last night at Lincoln Center. What's left is a love triangle that's tepid for the first 80 minutes and enchanting for the last 15.

...

Emotions run high in this story, but the temperature of the show, directed by Michael Halberstam, seldom rises -- which is weird considering the number of would-be-passionate declarations.

Composer Joshua Schmidt's modernist music for 2008's "Adding Machine" was provocatively angular. But here, his intimate score -- performed by a four-piece band -- feels muted. It's hard to speak of songs when nothing is allowed to develop beyond some kind of tasteful underscore with lyrics (by Jan Levy Tranen), and the numbers have precious little wit."

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/slow_show_clerical_error_EN9yxzQdlmJI2HHiau91YN

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 12:04am

"Composer Joshua Schmidt, who made a splash three seasons ago with his dissonant and avant-garde score for “The Adding Machine,” has written repeated, minimalist-style musical motifs that are seamlessly woven into the dialogue. It’s all very reminiscent of Sondheim’s 1994 musical “Passion.”
The unmelodic, chord-based score mainly serves to slow down the story and remove the audience from the original text. "

Wow umm that wouldn't be how I'd describe the score for Passion whatsoever. ???

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 12:12am

I don't think he was saying the score was similar to Passion's. He was saying it wasn't as good. The comparison to Passion was in the structure and style, not the quality of the music.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 12:30am

OK that makes more sense, although I wouldn't call the musical motifs in Passion "minimalist"...

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 12:33am

I would. In fact, I would call MOST Sondheim motifs minimalist. And if I am being super literal, the definition of "motif" is "the shortest subdivision of a theme or phrase that still maintains its identity as a musical idea." So "minimalist motif" is actually somewhat redundant. In any case, most of Passion's motifs are 4 or 5 notes that get repeated.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 4:16am

Fair enough, I guess that's why I found the term odd. Still--while Into the Woods is based around small motifs (the "bean theme" etc) as is Act I of Sunday, and some other notable Sondheim pieces, Passion is built around longer... well maybe motifs is the wrong term as you say, but more elaborate melodies and themes. And I stand by that :P

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 7:38am

Haha that's fine. As long as you recognize that those longer melodies and themes are really a series of repeated motifs that are each shorter. But that's the beauty of motifs; you can mix and match them to make up much longer lines that each has a different feel.

[abitoftap]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 9:27am

We saw this show last Saturday on a visit from the UK. We'd seen Anything Goes, How to succeed, Book of Mormon and Catch me... over the previous 4 nights.

I'd enjoyed Adding Machine on cd which is why we'd booked this to end the visit.

I really enjoyed the music, quality of singing (all, but particularly the 12 year old looking poet) and the acting. The accents weren't too bad either!

As Sondheim said, repetition is what makes a tune/song/leitmof whatever familiar. I can't honestly say I recall any tunes, only the feel of the show. I look forward to a recording (and someone doing Adding Machine in the UK)

[abitoftap]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 9:29am

Another thing that struck me....the audience was clearly not short of a bob or two, to say the least.

The difference between this audience and the others during the week was v noticeable
Updated On: 5/10/11 at 09:29 AM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 7:06pm

>>>"not short of a bob or two"<<<

This is a phrase we Americans aren't familiar with. Does it translate to "They seemed to be affluent"?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 7:26pm

While not British, it's an expression my British Gradma uses--and that's exactly what it means.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/10/11 at 10:24pm

Thanks for 'splainin', Eric!

[abitoftap]

Posted: 5/11/11 at 4:20pm

..or even rich sods..

[newintown]

Posted: 5/11/11 at 4:29pm

The problem with musicalizing Candida is that the play is all about the words - by hobbling the actors into delivering those words on a pre-determined pitch and in a pre-determined rhythm, the composer has made them mere puppets, and he is the actor/puppeteer. And he just isn't good enough to do that (perhaps no one is).

As already stated, this evening is an amateurish bore. A true "why bother" adaptation. The play is universes better than this stuff.