A TALE OF TWO CITIES Reviews- Page 2

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 7:17pm

"Can you hear the people sing?"

Can you feel the guillotine swing?

Oh, my.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 7:32pm

Talkin' Broadway is Mixed-to-Negative:

'Hope on, lovers of the throat-stretching megamusical: This revolution will not be energized. It will, however, crusade its limited heart out searching for equity on a Broadway no longer dominated by Europop epics, so it deserves a modicum of credit for tenacity. And for the quality of its writing? Need you ask?

The good news about Jill Santoriello's musical version of A Tale of Two Cities at the Al Hirschfeld is that it's better than it has to be. But despite a cast blessed with voices that would send thrills up the spines of Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Alain Boublil, and Claude-Michel Schönberg, this adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1859 novel about the French citizens overthrowing the ruling class is still an éclair desperately searching for its cream filling and chocolate icing...'

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/TaleTwoCities.html

Updated On: 9/18/08 at 07:32 PM

[Trekkie2]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 7:40pm

I wish the reviewers would mention how it's a bit like Les Miz. And they should also make more reference to the "best of times, worst of times" line.

[Erin1980]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 7:40pm

Boy, it's a good think they can rely on their Florida reviews for ad quotes...

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 7:56pm

NY1 (with video) is Mixed-to-Negative:

'...Dickens’s story of a drunken profligate named Sydney Carton who's redeemed by a good woman is engaging, if not entirely engrossing as it unfolds in highly-abridged fashion. The show's best asset is James Barbour, a charismatic actor with a booming baritone that rocks the rafters. He's matched in voice by lovely newcomer Brandi Burkhardt as Lucie Manette. Gregg Edelman, another “Les Miz” alum, stands out as the goodly Dr. Manette.

Designed to be a crowd pleaser, there's no denying “A Tale of Two Cities” succeeds to a degree. While it’s not “the best of times” in a theater, it is certainly not “the worst of times.” But “Les Miz” has already been there, done that and done that much better.'

http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/theater_reviews/85998/ny1-theater-review---a-tale-of-two-cities-/Default.aspx

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 8:39pm

USA Today is negative:

"Do you think Les Miserables stands as the greatest accomplishment in the history of musical theater? Would you argue that the musical version of Jane Eyre that plodded onto Broadway in 2000 never got the respect it deserved?

Boy, have I got a show for you.

It's fitting that the cast and producers of A Tale of Two Cities (** out of four) include Les Miz alumni, and that leading man James Barbour starred in Jane Eyre. Tale, which opened Thursday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, has all the ingredients that made the previous literary adaptations irresistible to admirers, and insufferable for the rest of us.

There's the air of stuffy, often grim reverence, alternately suggesting a stern English teacher and a Monty Python parody of Masterpiece Theatre. There's the derivative score, offering vehicles for histrionic showboating in lieu of memorable original tunes."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2008-09-18-tale-of-two-cities_N.htm

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 8:47pm

...has all the ingredients that made the previous literary adaptations irresistible to admirers, and insufferable for the rest of us.

:)

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 8:47pm

Don't listen to Elysa Gardner, she doesn't know what she's doing: she doesn't like Audra McDonald.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 8:48pm

I didn't realize Audra was in TALE OF TWO CITIES. Who'd she play?

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 8:54pm

Surely you remember her classic review of 110 IN THE SHADE! A review that wasn't really a review; more an essay on why she didn't think Audra was that great.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2007-05-09-110-shade_N.htm

(Note: this thought generated by IntoleranceBot V3: everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.)

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 8:55pm

I liked 110 in the Shade.

I also like Elysa Winter, even though a lot of her stuff is very inept.

Roma Torre is the one I hate.

[Patash]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 8:56pm

YankeeFan, huh? Is it possible that Elysa Gardner has written another review sometime before? What makes you say anything about Audra being in Tale of Two Cities? Are you insane?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 8:58pm

Well, I'm sane enough to know I was making a joke. And I think Bustopher was, as well.

[Erin1980]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 9:01pm

You forgot to put the joking wink after your statement.

Example:
Don't listen to BustopherPhantom, she doesn't know what she's doing: she doesn't like Elysa Gardner.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 9:04pm

Would you argue that the musical version of Jane Eyre that plodded onto Broadway in 2000 never got the respect it deserved?

Yes...

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 9:11pm

The New York Sun is Mixed-to-Negative:

'Who says you can't walk out of a Broadway musical humming the score anymore? My subway ride home from "A Tale of Two Cities" was filled with fond musical memories, as stirring martial songs of revolution jostled for primacy with plaintive laments sung by young lovers torn asunder as the turmoil of 18th-century France boiled over.

A subsequent look at my Playbill, alas, confirmed that the songs in my head were all from "Les Miserables." The memories of "Two Cities," Jill Santoriello's pell-mell pageant of bad wigs, worse lyrics, and a handful of decent melodies, were a bit dimmer despite being some two decades fresher...'

http://www.nysun.com/arts/decent-melodies-bad-wigs-a-tale-of-two-cities/86187/

Updated On: 9/18/08 at 09:11 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 9:12pm

Yeah, but they don't count. They're folding at the end of the month.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 9:21pm

Did you like Mary Stout?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 9:32pm

David Finkle: the second critic to mention how he left humming LES MISERABLES.

"When word got around that daily changes were being made to the new tuner A Tale of Two Cities, a waggish friend of mine said, "Maybe they're adding a third city." They haven't, but first-time composer-lyricist-librettist Jill Santoriello and her colleagues still needed to do something radical to raise their blatant attempt at cloningLes Miserables above the level of Anglo-Gallic mediocrity that now appears on the stage of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

Primarily, though, Santoriello had to do a far, far better thing with the show's score (harped up by orchestrator-arranger Edward Kessel and three others) than she did. She's picked out no end of barbed melodies that nevertheless are the antithesis of catchy, and she's learned nothing from Stephen Sondheim -- the writer she most admires -- about crafting lyrics that are simultaneously witty and pithy or that reveal three-dimensional characters while expressing genuine emotion. Her gifts as a librettist are equally meager; she's learned nothing from Dickens' own use of startlingly evocative language. (She admits, albeit foolishly, that she's avoided immersing herself in Dickens' turn-of-marvelous-phrases by never having perused any of his 19 other novels.)"

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/15288

[sparrman]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 9:42pm

In his AP review, Kuchwara could have dug a little deeper in his research. He points out that both "Nicholas Nickleby" and "Les Miserables" were co-directed by Trevor Nunn, but in fact the two shows had the same directorial TEAM, Nunn and John Caird.
Updated On: 9/19/08 at 09:42 PM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:19pm

NY Times calls it "lumpish".

"This stolid poperetta, which features book, music and lyrics by Jill Santoriello and is directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, is one of those unfortunate shows that are neither witty in themselves nor able to inspire wit in others. To say it could have been worse — i.e., gloriously, hilariously bad — is not a cause for rejoicing."

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/theater/reviews/19tale.html?ref=theater

Updated On: 9/18/08 at 10:19 PM

[being.jeremiah]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:21pm

Whoa.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:23pm

"If you want grotesque, look (bizarrely enough) to the show’s star, James Barbour, who portrays the worthy but dissolute Sydney Carton, he of the “far, far better thing” spiel. Mr. Barbour, who played Mr. Rochester in the Broadway musical of “Jane Eyre,” is giving the kind of high-camp, hair-tossing performance New York hasn’t seen from a leading man since Robert Cuccioli lashed the air with his ponytail in “Jekyll & Hyde.”

With a voice that combines the boom of thunder with the breathlessness of Marilyn Monroe and a leaning posture that appears to be in eternal search of a lamppost, Mr. Barbour invests every minute he’s onstage with heavy-lidded, overripe languor. Some might call his performance de trop (well, in Paris they might). But hey, at least he shows signs of life, something otherwise perversely lacking in this tale of historic turmoil."

[SingingCats]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:23pm

NY Times is up on Did He Like It.

http://www.didhelikeit.com/reviews/tale-of-two-cities-review/newyorktimesreview.html

Updated On: 9/18/08 at 10:23 PM

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:26pm

So, I'm not sure. Did Ben Brantley like it?