After Miss Julie

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 9:37pm

A completely electric night at the theater. The whole cast is excellent. The play itself, excellent and sharply written. The set is very moody and suits the production well, as does the lighting. The pacing can get quicker, but it WAS just the first preview. Overall, truly great. Surprisingly great.

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 10:01pm

That's good to hear! Was anyone else there? I think we learned with Superior Donuts that their was quite a variety of opinions.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 10:02pm

Wow. I thought it was terrible. The first 30 minutes were nothing but tedium. It picked up the pace and got more interesting the morning after, but then it was just bizarre and I had trouble believing any of the characters. I'm completely unfamiliar with this play. Is it meant to be a dark comedy? Because the last 20-30 mins or so had people laughing in disbelief (and not nervous chuckles. I mean loud raucous laughter.)

Updated On: 9/18/09 at 10:02 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 10:06pm

And why did you have to post this three times?

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 10:09pm

They are most likely on their phone and it's hard to work these kinds of sites on phones.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 10:14pm

Speaking of phones, someone down in the Orchestra let their phone ring on three separate occasions before finally switching it off! (And right before Jonny Lee Miller's speech about how you have to answer ringing bells or they just get louder, ha!)

Updated On: 9/18/09 at 10:14 PM

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 10:50pm

It's an old play by August Strindberg that's being updated (I haven't seen it yet and will play it by ear). The Strindberg is definitely NOT a comedy, but a study in twisted sexuality, class distinctions, etc. It has its moments of bitter humor, but I wouldn't characterize it as a dark comedy in the sense of Harold Pinter, Joe Orton, etc. I believe Strindberg influenced Tennessee Williams, whose plays, although they have much humor, are not strictly comedies. IMO.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 10:56pm

I just got back after seeing the show tonight as well and besides a few moments here and there it's just a bore. I can't fault the cast, they were all quite good. Sienna Miller more than exceeded my expectations of her acting wise and Johnny Lee Miller (who was the real reason I was excited to see it in the first place) was great. The material they have to work with though drags. And drags. Thank the Lord it's only 90 minutes long and they have no intermission because honestly, I don't know if I would have stayed for an Act 2.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:13pm

What is it with Roundabout and the American Airlines theatre?

Seems that anything that goes in there is a bore (PHILANTHROPIST, HEDDA GABLER, MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES) while all their good shows play in Studio 54 (WAITING FOR GODOT, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, 110 IN THE SHADE, ASSASSINS, CABARET, etc.)

Hoping that means positive things for WISHFUL DRINKING!

Updated On: 9/18/09 at 11:13 PM

[wexy]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:15pm

I'll see next Friday. Wasn't this the first preview?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:21pm

Yikes, this was a rough one! At least there were some unintentional laughs to be had in the last 20 minutes!!

To quote Marin Ireland's character, I have low expectations and they're rarely exceeded. As mentioned above, the first half is an absolute bore. Loooooong stretches of time with one character on stage and nothing happening. WAT mentioned that it reminded him of the first 10 minutes of Prymate when only Andre de Shields was walking around making monkey noises! If these stretches had any effect it was tedium.

Marin came off the best of the three, except her accent was going all over the place. Her acting was pretty on though. Sienna was fine until the final 20 minutes or so when she caused the audience to burst into, what I took as, unintentional laughter. Lines like "We can all run off together and start a night club!" which I took to be said out of desperation and panic turned into high comedy.

I guess I blame the direction most, as it shifted between lengthy period of boredom and brief periods of shouting. I don't think this is exactly what Roundabout needed after Hedda and The Philanthropist last season.

Did anyone else feel that the silences were very uncomfortable? Like the audience just didn't know what to think of this one?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:29pm

When you talk about the silences, you mean the 5 minutes each time when someone was on stage doing absolutely NOTHING? They weren't uncomfortable they were just odd and very boring. We looked at each other and just shrugged more than a few times.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:34pm

Yes those silences, but also some of the odd overly pauses in the dialogue. For instance Sienna said she didn't have any money and Johnny Lee paused for seemed like 30 seconds before saying, "Oh well."

I guess maybe the people around me were just fidgeting a lot, and the silences were just so deathly quiet that it accentuated the restlessness.

In the end I still felt like this went by faster than A Steady Rain, which isn't much of an endorsement for that production.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:38pm

Well this sounds like it's going to be an absolute blast tomorrow night!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:41pm

I was not a fan. The cast is the only reason to see it, they're all quite good.

Marin Ireland was actually the weakest of the three, I thought. Not that she was bad, cause she definitely wasn't. The biggest issue is her accent. It either needs to be strengthened or thrown out the window completely. She was good enough...knocked it out of the park in her final moments onstage and even garnered exit applause. But I don't know, I didn't love her performance.

Sienna Miller makes a really strong Broadway debut. She loses her footing at the end of the second act, getting unintentional laughter but I have to blame that on the director, Mark Brokaw, who directs this thing so ploddingly that it makes an hour and 35 minutes feel like two and a half hours, and I'm not exaggerating. He clearly had no idea what he was doing here, or at least took a very wrong approach to the material. And with a poor directorial job, it's gotta be difficult for someone making their Broadway debut to be 100% secure with their acting choices, etc. But Miller was very good, I thought. Jonny Lee Miller was good too. The cast is hardly at fault here.

The set was very nice, but the lighting design was really odd (why did it get bright and then dark at random parts of the show?).

The biggest problem here is the direction. It's just pretty terrible. I was complaining about the long pauses during SUPERIOR DONUTS yesterday but this is in another league. Literally at least three LONG pauses during this already plodding show did not help any. The first long pause had to be five minutes long...or at least it felt like it was. I also wasn't really a big fan of the adaptation by Marber. It felt rushed and the changes in emotion felt totally unreal to me.

This was one of the longest-feeling 90 minute shows I've seen. I'm glad I only paid $10. Roundabout...what's going on?! Boring, boring, boring. I feel very bad for this cast. The weird thing is that I didn't hate it, it just barely registered for me. Like...it didn't even seem like worth hating, if that makes sense. Just a blip on this seasons radar I hope. There was nothing there to HATE...it just kinda...laid there and never took off.

* and 1/2 out of ****
Updated On: 9/18/09 at 11:41 PM

[bythesword84]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:41pm

Well, I knew I'd be in the minority, but I loved it. I loved all three of them and I loved the production (save for the odd amount of times they had JLM and Ireland have their backs to the audience which was annoying).

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:49pm

Wickedrocks- I totally agree with your last statement about not hating it because it didn't register enough to hate.

I guess I also agree with you that it wasn't Sienna's fault that the last 20 minutes garnered the laughter. Brokaw is to blame, and should go back to the drawing board on his approach to this piece.

It's a shame that Sienna makes her debut in this production, because I think with a different director she would have been able to really wow.

[JeaniusIsMe]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:52pm

Add me to the list of those less than impressed. Granted, I went in with almost no knowledge of the piece, save for a Wikipedia summary of "Miss Julie." But I was expecting it to be darker. The first hour was long and tedious, as has been said. It simply drags. Add to it that there is little to no chemistry between JLM and Sienna Miller, and I spent the majority of the first hour trying to figure out why I was supposed to even care about these characters.

The last 30 minutes are pretty funny, and made me think perhaps it was supposed to be a comedy. The final scene had me rolling my eyes (and that cell phone going off was perfect for ruining any ambiance that might have creeped in past the high melodrama). They also need to tighten up the lighting cues- they seemed a bit off.

Like others, I don't fault the actors- they seem to be trying their best with what they have to deal with. Marin Ireland does steal the show, but I agree that she needs to decide to use an accent or not because whatever she's attempting isn't working. JLM was a bit stiff, but was fine.

Question for those who have seen the show prior- Julie's supposed to be certifiably nuts right? Because if that's the case, then Sienna Miller hit it on the head. Otherwise, I spent most of her performance trying to understand what made the character tick, but could only surmise that she has some sort of mental illness that's causing her to act crazy.

All-in-all, it was worth $10, but I don't really seeing too much improvement unless they hype up the first hour.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 9/18/09 at 11:56pm

Whizzer, I didn't know you were there! I should've though, being the first preview and all.

And side note but (as was mentioned) MAKE SURE YOU TURN OFF YOUR PHONES. This would be the worst show ever to have your phone ring during. Or even vibrate. The woman behind me had her phone vibrate and even that made people turn around to glare at her. That's how long and quiet the pauses are.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 12:05am

Haha, you know I wouldn't miss a first preview!

***possible spoilers***

Jeaniusisme- I didn't take Julie to be crazy or mentally ill. I thought she just had some sexual fetishes that at the time were obviously viewed as "deviant." I thought she was suffering from depression over her father, his attempted suicide, the death of her mother, her search for love, etc. She reached a breaking point, but IMO she wasn't crazy.

[JeaniusIsMe]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 12:23am

Whizzer- Yeah, that reading did occur to me. I guess I was just hoping for more depth into the character to set me officially on that path. It could just be the play itself though- it just seemed as if Julie jumped around so much from calm to emotional that it read more to me as if there was something more than just a psychotic break.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 12:24am

The first half was good I thought. A little tedious at times, but still very strong. All the acting is wonderful in the first half.

The second half though...yikes! Sienna Miller just got ridiculous. The other two fared better in the second half, but the play itself is mightily flawed. The way the character flip-flop intentions is borderline confusing at times. And it gets pretty wacky. Far beyond sexual fetishes. I mean,

SPOILERS the wiping the dead bird on his face SPOILERS*

W-T-F?

After the first half, I was confident that by opening this would be a great production. But the second half is too bad to salvage I fear. Sets, costumes, and lighting were stellar though!

And F that person who let their phone go off three times!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 12:32am

HAHAHA the bird wiping was amazing.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 12:34am

I felt like there was a lot of unintentional laughter. Not to say there are some humorous moments, but I don't think there's supposed to be THAT much,

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 12:43am

I believe all the laughter in the scene near the end between Marin and Sienna was unintentional. To me that was supposed to be a heightened panic, but it ended up being quite comic.