"After The Fall"----- Falls !!!

[testing123]

"After The Fall"----- Falls !!!#0

Posted: 7/2/04 at 10:48pm

Just got back... you may notice that my post is a bit early, being that the show began at 8PM. Yes, we left... The fact that my wife is a bit under the weather made the decision a lot easier. This is news for us. We have NEVER before left a show at the intermission. Came close at "Cats", but stuck it out. This was too much.

A lot of talk about Peter Krause being miscast. Dont know if that is true or not, because I am not familiar with this work from Arthur Miller. Loved every other piece that we have seen from Miller. So, cant say that he is miscast. Can say that he is bland, and seems bored. Best way that I can describe it. I dont know what type of character Quentin is supposed to be. Old? Young? Crabby? Confused? Brilliant? Not? .. what I do know is that Krause shows just about no emotion at all in this role.

15 minutes in, we knew we would be in for a long night. 20 minutes in, we counted 5 people that left. At intermission, at least 20-30.

There was hope that the 2nd act would be better. Carla Gugino was very good, for the brief amount of time that we saw her, but by that time, it was like getting excited for a baseball game after a 2 hour rain delay. We could not understand much of the dialogue from Holga (Vivienne Benesch) due to the accent. As the mother, Candy Buckley seemed to be overacting to the max. Dan Ziskie as the father was okay. As a whole, this cast seemed to be the anti- "Death of a Salesman" Bway cast.. and I am not even thinking about Dennehy and/or Franz. The other members of "Salesman", in my opinion, were all superb.

Overall, this seemed like a bad college production, written by one of the greats. Well, we did think the set was pretty cool !!

Well, you win some, you lose some. Off to "Wicked" tomorrow !!

"Get a job!!!" "Thank you... honey"

[Borstalboy]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#1

Posted: 7/2/04 at 11:00pm

I haven't seen this production but I have read it and "After The Fall" is one clumsy, odd play. The main problem is that the character of Quentin is such a bore (Jason Robards hated playing him in the original production)...however, the second half of the play heats up considerably when the Maggie(Marilyn) character starts to lose it. The casting of Peter Krause strikes me as very strange. Ah, well....would love to hear other views on this one, but...DO stay for the second act!

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

[mallardo]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#2

Posted: 7/2/04 at 11:52pm

Testing, you should have stayed because Carla Gugino was wonderful in the second act - she had everything the role asks for. Just an amazing performance. For me she was worth the price of admission.

As to Krause, what can one say? It needs an actor of real charisma and weight to pull off this deeply ungrateful role and he is not that actor. I liked Jessica Hecht as the wife, Louise, sympathetic and plausible in another part that can be deadly in the wrong hands. Also Mark Nelson as Lou, the HUAC victim, had some nice moments.

I don't know what to say about the production. It certainly didn't solve the play's many problems. Only the Maggie scenes have life but --- this show has a great Maggie.

Faced with these Loreleis, what man can moralize!

[CurtainUp]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#3

Posted: 7/3/04 at 1:09am

Ms Hecht was my favorite in taht show! Besides part of the script, she was my favorite thing about the entire show

Rosencrantz: "Be happy - if you're not even HAPPY what's so good about surviving? We'll be all right. I suppose we just go on." - from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

[J.]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#4

Posted: 7/3/04 at 1:34am

shut up! CATS is an awsome show (only if you see it in NY or london) and i didnt even read the rest of your post after that all i herad was "almost left CATS." If there was a god, CATS would be its gift to theatre.

[Musetta1957]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#5

Posted: 7/3/04 at 2:37am

Meow.

"Shut up! Cats is an awesome show -- only if you see it in New York or London -- and I didn't even read the rest of your post after that. All I heard was 'almost left Cats.' If there was a god, Cats would be its gift to theatre."

[Benzy92]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#6

Posted: 7/3/04 at 9:27am

Seeing it early August.. I hope they get their acts together!

[NuggetMonkeys]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#7

Posted: 7/3/04 at 11:57am

Wow. You think people would have realized truths already...CATS sucks.

sorry.

boohoo
-d.b.j-

Vary My Days.

[testing123]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#8

Posted: 7/3/04 at 12:29pm

J. - Everyone has their own opinions. Most of the people that I know did not like Cats. If they loved it, good for them. I wont tell them to "shut up", but that's just me.

"Get a job!!!" "Thank you... honey"

[Borstalboy]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#9

Posted: 7/3/04 at 3:28pm

People. This thread is not about CATS. How is it that every thread about straight theater always turns to threads about musicals?

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

[Matt_G]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#10

Posted: 7/3/04 at 3:31pm

I am not familiar with this show at all. What is it about?

"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."

[Borstalboy]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#11

Posted: 7/3/04 at 3:45pm

Miller swears it's not autobiographical, but really it is. It's about a middle-aged man named Quentin (Miller), his feelings about being Jewish, the fallout of the Holocaust, the ethical dillemas of the HUAC trials. That pretty much sums up the first part.
The second half of the play deals with his relationship to a sexy, innocent singer named Maggie (Marilyn Monroe). Her mood swings, the violence of their marriage, and her penchant for destruction. This is where the play really heats up and becomes searing. As harsh as Miller is on Maggie/Marilyn, she's the life force of the whole play, and witnessing these two struggle with each other(and it gets pretty ugly)is fascinating. Like a fight between the cerebral and the emotional.

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

[Matt_G]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#12

Posted: 7/3/04 at 3:48pm

Is the character of Maggie a movie star like Monroe?

"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."

[Borstalboy]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#13

Posted: 7/3/04 at 3:49pm

No, she's a famous singer. Miller swears up and down that she's not based on Marilyn, but it's kind of a (coy, creepy) tease. Even Elia Kazan, who directed the original version, acknowledges that Maggie is in fact Marilyn.

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

Updated On: 7/3/04 at 03:49 PM

[Unknown User]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#14

Posted: 7/3/04 at 7:05pm

In the original production Maggie was costumed to look like Marilyn.

I didn't see it but I remember the production stills.

[CurtainUp]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#15

Posted: 7/3/04 at 10:49pm

Oh C'mon how could that not be the Marilyn type?

Rosencrantz: "Be happy - if you're not even HAPPY what's so good about surviving? We'll be all right. I suppose we just go on." - from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

[broadway1564]

re: 'After The Fall'----- Falls !!!#16

Posted: 7/4/04 at 12:33am

I had a friend who saw it last week and said the EXACT same thing. He said that 15 minutes into it he was looking for the exit and realized it would be difficult to leave the theatre without being noticed, so he waited until intermission.