Posted: 8/11/16 at 5:34pm
I hope Michael isn't right. Herheim is such an inspiring choice.
Posted: 8/11/16 at 11:11pm
Oh and there's Riedel. And Daldry? Eeeppp...I hope not, merely for that he'll be at work on the Wicked film, I want whoever directs this to give it the full attention it deserves.
Other than that, there's not much else I can say that I haven't already.
Oak-certainly the fact that's it's overblown doesn't help matters, but it's also pushed the story problems and plot holes it has, and there are MANY...to the forefront which is needed. it's like pulling back the curtain. People are finally realizing this and now there's no place to hide.
Its not just the story issues either, there's no real character development, Lee's screenplay is...frankly not good, hence why I wish someone else would have written it, or at the very least someone can lead her right. The songs...other than being less than spectacular, I don't expect to be changed merely since their all ingrained in everyone's heads that any changes will be noticed, but as I said before...they sit. They don't move the plot, and it's almost like they are they're own scenes since they have no lead in. That's what I mean by episodic. It's not clean, well flowing and linear when it should be. That can sometimes work in musical films but on stage that is DEATH to any good stage show flow. This a movie that doesn't have a few easily fixed problems...it has MANY.
Honestly how the story was conceived is not a compelling one. To really move your audience and make them care, you can't LITERALLY isolate a charatcer. Why? Because then there no working relationship to those around them. Add the fact that no one knows why she's isolated so therefore no reason to 'misunderstand', judge or fear her. Think Hercules. People around him know about his 'power' but still shun and ostracize him out of fear. THATS compelling the plot I want to see. Elsa doesn't have a working relationship to anyone around her, it's like theyre strangers. That doesn't make for a compelling plot that makes people care. To have people not know is ok, but we've got see more than their initial shock. We literally jump from people's initial shock to everyone in 'roses and unicorns land' and accepting her without question and skating as if nothing happened. Wheres the actual 'misunderstanding'? Where's the in between spot where we see how they treat her after she goes ice-wire? That's just one of many issues.
Posted: 8/12/16 at 12:46am
JennH - I agree with most of your explanation of the flaws. I guess for me it boils down to the fact that there's enough in the movie I personally enjoy to outweigh them, but I definitely think that in a stage adaptation it should be a lot easier to fix that problem - for one they have more room to add in dialogue and scenes that can fill in some gaps of stuff that felt missing from the other, especially if they cut or modify some of the stuff that didn't add enough.
The only area in which I kind of disagree with you is that I don't think Elsa's issue was necessarily ABOUT how people reacted to her. It was more about how SHE felt about it. It was an internal problem more than an external, and about her assumptions about how people react rather than how people acutally would. If anything, it'd be even more glaring if there wasn't as negative of a reaction to her power, and that her problems with it were solely a result of her own perceptions and fears due to how she was taught to view her powers by her parents.
I wouldn't mind there being more songs too - one of the things that personally bugged me about the movie was that almost all the songs were in the first half, and then the only one we got later on was that stupid troll song which felt more like it broke the pacing rather than adding anything to the plot. But maybe that's a more personal gripe.
Honestly, I'll enjoy the musical as long as it keeps (and, hopefully, enhances), what I did love about the original movie - the relationship between the sisters, Elsa's problems as a metaphor (whether for depression or for some other things that people like to theorize - will be interesting if the director decides to amplify a specific interpretation, but I'd prefer it be kept more vague), and subversions of some expected things in the usual formula.
Also, I wouldn't mind if some of the cut songs made it back in as well. Especially "Life's Too Short". The "school play" idea of a greater legend they originally had early in the movie before cutting it would be nice too. Cut ideas/songs from Disney movies tend to wind up in the musical adaptation (Lion King, Mermaid, and Aladdin all feature stuff that was originally made for the movies but cut), so it wouldn't be unusual at all.
Updated On: 8/12/16 at 12:46 AM
Posted: 8/13/16 at 7:11am
I think Daldry is an inspired choice, actually. Two of the most inventive and brilliantly directed shows I've ever seen are The Inspector Calls and Billy Elliot.
Posted: 8/13/16 at 10:00am
In today's NY Times article regarding the Met's failed attempt to bring the Salzburg Meistersinger to New York (sigh), Herheim denies being approached for this project.
Posted: 8/13/16 at 1:39pm
JennH said: "Oh and there's Riedel. And Daldry? Eeeppp...I hope not, merely for that he'll be at work on the Wicked film, I want whoever directs this to give it the full attention it deserves."
The Wicked film doesn't come out til 2019. The out-of-town tryout for Frozen is in 2017. I think Daldry will most likely have enough time to do both. If not then the Wicked film will either be pushed back or Universal will have to hire a new director
Updated On: 8/13/16 at 01:39 PM
Posted: 8/13/16 at 10:36pm
CindersGolightly said: "A thin, blonde, white actress walks on stage and stops at center. She looks at the audience, and takes a snowball from the ground. She smears it on her face. Snow falls from the grid. Bells ring. Fifteen white people and two people of color surround her. They, too, smear snow on her face. She puts a snowflake in her hair. She is now Elsa.
"
I still cackle at this.
Posted: 3/16/17 at 12:34am
I've been thinking about this lately and can anyone shed any more light on why Alex departed/was fired? I'm really hoping they try to find the humanity in this show and not just make it cartoony with no real emotion.
Posted: 1/3/18 at 11:50pm
RippedMan said: "Would love it if Timbers posted his design/concept"
Yep. I want this, so bad.
Posted: 1/4/18 at 1:15am
BrodyFosse123 said: "
"
An explanation of these three shots would be most appreciated. Fan art? Pre-production designs for Broadway? Mini-production at one or more of the Disney parks? Cruise ship production?
Thanks.
Posted: 1/4/18 at 1:39am
Sho-Tunes-R-Us said: "BrodyFosse123 said: ""
An explanation of these three shots would be most appreciated. Fan art? Pre-production designs for Broadway? Mini-production at one or more of the Disney parks? Cruise ship production?
Thanks."
Can't speak for the third picture, but the first two look like concept art for Frozen at the Hyperion at California Adventure, the theme park show.
EDIT: I see in the third picture that in the top right corner the name is Jason Sherwood, who is the set designer for the cruise ship production. Pictures from the show from Sherwood's portfolio: http://jasonsherwooddesign.com/#/frozen/
So none of these pictures are concepts for Timbers' vision for the show
Updated On: 1/4/18 at 01:39 AM
Posted: 1/4/18 at 12:08pm
^^^Correct. The first two are from the Disneyland production, third is from the cruise line production on the Wonder. I'll just take the original response with those pics as tongue in cheek, because I would hazard a guess at Timbers' vision being more in line with those than what we currently have seen thus far.
Updated On: 1/4/18 at 12:08 PM
Posted: 1/4/18 at 12:16pm
Yes, I posted those kiddingly but as many have mentioned, here's hoping they implement this staircase for "Let it Go" as the set-free staging seen in Denver was ill-received by everyone who saw the show during its try-out. This number should equate to the helicopter sequence in MISS SAIGON - breathtaking and ridiculously opulent.
Posted: 1/4/18 at 3:36pm
Posted: 1/4/18 at 4:24pm
It seems the danger with this show is an almost unsolvable conundrum -- tethering the entire shebang to this one song. It's the obligatory scene and probably the most known song ever placed in the center of a family musical next to -- irony noted -- "Defying Gravity." In the beginning, "Wicked" didn't have to worry about expectation. We arrived knowing only that Dorothy had to be woven in, no matter how briefly (those who hadn't read McGuire), no other expectation beyond a nodding reference to "Oz". I recall seeing a preview and "Gravity" worked so beautifully because it had the element of surprise.
"Let It Go" can never have the element of surprise, not in terms of content and emotional purpose; only translation. So the problem is entirely conceptual. How to you give the audience what it paid for? And "Let It Go" is probably about half the ticket price in the weight of audience expectation. It must be literal enough, yet rendered anew. "Tarzan" and ""Mermaid," Disney translations that worked with new visual lexicons, didn't have numbers with the same level of investment (though "...World" comes closest). I'm in the minority, but I think "Let It Go" has another issue. It was neither the I Want song nor the midway barn burner. Another animal entirely occurring about 1/3 of the way thru the film. Moving it to the end of the act, even if crafted expertly, creates a stall. Is it a story stall or an audience's feeling of a stall? We'll find out. But it's baked into the challenges for this show.
Updated On: 1/4/18 at 04:24 PM
Posted: 1/4/18 at 4:42pm
^^^^THAT THAT. ALL THAT. I've said the same in a different way, but you said it better. It's gonna feel like a some kind of stall no matter what, that's a story structure problem. The song feels like a scene unto itself, rather than a nicely flowing scene into song. Almost all the songs are like this to some degree.
