Anyone going to see The Most Happy Fella?- Page 2

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 3/8/06 at 4:03pm

Munkustrap, I bought the CD to prepare myself for this staging of it, and I still have not been able to listen to the whole thing. I usually get about halfway through before I realize I am just not listening and I switch to something else. It's so long... so boring... the accent is so incredibly annoying... I only skip to the more famous songs.

BUT what I have is some revival they did where the whole thing is played on two pianos. Perhaps if I had the OBC, I'd be able to get into it more. Unfortunately that CD took Happiest Fella off the top of my list :

Twogaab, Piazza is miles ahead of The Most Happiest Fella. Hate to give a cliche example, but you asked for a current score at least half as good. And please do not accuse me of needing to listen to more varied music. I don't even own RENT.

Inlovewithjerryherman, check the performance schedule. I don't think it really has a long run.

[Broadwaylady]

Posted: 3/8/06 at 4:05pm

It is a limited run and I have tixs for every month to July. I would think Paul Sorvino would be great in it.

[Jamie Hat]

Posted: 3/10/06 at 2:27pm

MHF is one of the most beautiful scores I've ever heard. Ever.

Sorvino ruins a lot of it.

Anyone who doubts its brilliance should sit down at a piano and play the score.
And then say it's boring and it sucks.

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 3/10/06 at 3:18pm

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I simply ADORE this show. I bought the 3-LP set before I was old enough to drive and listened to it endlessly, memorizing every note, lyric, and crossover. I traveled from San Francisco to Los Angeles to see the two-piano version with Spiro Malas and was simply overwhelmed.

I wish I could say that I was overwhelmed with the NYCO production I saw last night. This production has so many things against it that it never rises above the level of merely adequate, let alone brilliance.

First of all are the limitations of the 2800-seat NY State Theatre. Quite honestly, I hate this barn. Even sitting in C-115 in the first ring, I felt miles away from the stage. I never use binoculars on Broadway but I found myself using them again and again just trying to see the actors' facial expressions.

Second, in a pre-performance discussion with musical director George Manahan (for an extra $12, how cheap can they get?), he mentioned that they sped up the tempos and pace of the dialog. For me, this really hurt the dramatic portions of the show. So many impactful moments that come through as so moving on the OBC get lost in the shuffle once on stage.

Lastly, I must agree that Paul Sorvino is just wrong in the role of Tony. Firstly, he is too handsome to be believable as the 'ugly old WOP' as he describes himself. Robert Weede was a bald, odd-looking character who fit the role perfectly. Not only is Sorvino a rather dashing character with his abundant dark hair and classic good looks, in every scene he's dressed in his best Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes. He runs a RANCH for God's sake. In photos of the original production, Weede was costumed in average, workingman's clothing. It was hard to believe that anyone would buy Sorvino as an ugly man.

But appearances aside, Sorvino insisted on mumbling his was through some of the more dramatic dialog portions and doing really disturbing things during the songs. It may be as a result of acting so much on television and the movies, but his gestures and vocal infections are just too small to be effective on stage. In 'Mama, Mama', which is a hugely dramatic moment in the second act, Rosabella has just told him she loves him but the audience knows something about her that Tony does not. He's absolutely overjoyed and sings a soaring aria to his dear, departed mother about what a wonderful woman she is. We feel his joy but we know it's not going to last. Last night, at the end of the song, Sorvino reached for a really odd note and then seemed surprised he was there and didn't seem to know quite how to come down once he found himself up there. The ‘big finish’, which should’ve really rattled the rafters disintegrated into a rather feeble petering-out of the voice, leaving the orchestra to finish the song by itself. What should have brought a cheer from the audience elicited only a smattering of applause. In addition, Sorvino muffed a few lyrics and had visible trouble recovering in 'Young People Gotta Dance'. (It's even more obvious when the supertitles are right above everyone's head displaying the correct lyrics).

I'm not a regular NYCO patron, but it seemed to me that the audience couldn’t wait to get out of there at the conclusion. The only people who stood were those bolting for the exits.

Lastly, a purely subjective peeve. The show is set in 1934. The opening scene takes place in the Golden Gate Diner in San Francisco. At the entrance to the diner is a neon replica of the Golden Gate Bridge. The only trouble is that the Golden Gate Bridge wasn't built until 1937. Grrrrrr.

PS: According to George Manahan, the first song in the show, Cleo's 'Ooh My Feet' was originally written for a policeman to be sung in GUYS AND DOLLS but was cut. It ended up in Loesser's trunk and resurrected for MOST HAPPY FELLA.

Posted: 3/11/06 at 1:23am

Just got home from seeing The Most Happy Fella, and finally I understand why they're doing Broadway shows at the opera house. Last year we saw the New York City Opera do Candide, which we chalked up to that Bernstein-philia aroma that Lincoln Center seems to give off. But this really is opera, and it really is a Broadway show. One set of characters sings arias (some even in Italian), and then another set of characters square dances. Almost every bit of dialog is a song, and they even had their supertitle translation machine giving us all the lyrics in English.

It was almost as if Puccini's Girl of the Golden West had been crossed with Oklahoma!. One could almost imagine the ranch hands at one of Tony's parties breaking into plagarized Rodgers & Hammerstein ditties: "Oh the opera and the show tunes can be friends!" And then when they got around to spelling out "Big D, little A, double L, A, S" in the second act, you're half waiting for Aunt Eller and Curly to walk on.

We went tonight having already had our expectations somewhat lowered by the chatter here and in the papers all week. And yeah, Paul Sorvino ain't no Pavarotti, and his Italian accent isn't very convincing. But he is a competent opera singer, and when he and Lisa Vroman hit the high notes of "My Heart Is So Full of You," I wondered to myself why some of those old Italian baritones who work next door, for whom English really is a second language, hadn't ever tried this show on for size.

We saw Kismet a few weeks ago, and we're hoping to see The Pajama Game if we can shake loose some discounts before it closes. And we're looking forward to seeing them and other gems from the 1950s covered in that TV special Broadway: The Golden Age this Sunday night. But I have to say, for people like us who weren't around 50 years ago when The Most Happy Fella was new, this is the golden age of Broadway, where on one block we can see modern stuff like Spelling Bee and Wicked, and a short walk away we can see classic revivals like this.

[liotte]

Posted: 3/11/06 at 1:28am

I saw it tonight too, was pleasantly surprised.

[tophertilson]

Posted: 3/11/06 at 8:03am

"Adequate" is the word that springs to mind. Considering how vitriolic the response to Sorvino's performance has been, I guess he was better than I expected him to be. But is that saying so much. Competently directed. And I guess one must give the director points for not re-imagining it in some strange way. But at no point was I swept away.

I should have stayed at home, listened to the cast album and looked at pretty pictures on Vineyard.com.

TT

[seabyrd]

Posted: 3/11/06 at 11:31am

ahem --- not for nothing did the original production star a bona fide Met opera singer - Robert Weede, baritone. Later, Giorgio Tozzi. Is that telling us something? I saw it with Weede and Jo Sullivan, Susan Johnson as Cleo, and Art Lund as Joe. Unforgettable. Paul Sorvino? I rest my case.

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 3/11/06 at 12:29pm

I am quite jealous of your having seen the original. If I were to be transported back into time, it would be to 1956 and FELLA would be the second show I would see (after MY FAIR LADY but before HAPPY HUNTING, BELLS ARE RINGING, CANDIDE, or LIL' ABNER)

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 5:23am

If you've never seen THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, this contains SPOILERS!

I saw Fella yesterday at Lincoln Center. I agree with many of the comments made above about Mr. Sorvino's performance (I observed dropped lines/lyrics, intonation problems, and his being out of tempo with the orchestra). I would give high marks to the rest of the cast.

At the end of Act One, when Joe is sweeping the newly arrived Rosabella off her feet at Tony's ranch, Marie appeared on the front porch and witnessed the scene. I believe that was totally wrong. (Marie later sings to Tony, "I don't know what's been going on, and whatever's been going on, please please please, let her go if she wants to go.")

[bschneid76]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 7:02am

I went and saw the opening night performance, and I felt it was pretty good *** 1/2 stars out of 4. I'm not much of a fan of the music, but I thought the score was beautiful. Not to keen on mixing opera with musical theatre, but it didn't bother me. What did bother me were those supertitles, each time an actor changed a line you could totally tell. I kept looking up because they were there. If they had been shut off it would have made the experience better. I loved Leah Hocking, she was amazing! Paul Sorvino was pretty good, but doesn't seem to be able to hit all the high notes well enough. Overall an enjoyable evening.

[cathywellerstein]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 8:00pm

Just bought an old TMHF recording and it made me miss this NYCOPERA production so much. It's a shame that Leah Hocking and Lisa Vroman couldn't have been captured on a recording.
This was a truly beautiful show. I wish I could have seen it more than just once.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 8:57pm

It is a beautiful show. I did it in summer stock a few years ago. The score brings tears to my eyes.

[cooperross]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 9:43pm

'At the end of Act One, when Joe is sweeping the newly arrived Rosabella off her feet at Tony's ranch, Marie appeared on the front porch and witnessed the scene. I believe that was totally wrong. (Marie later sings to Tony, "I don't know what's been going on, and whatever's been going on, please please please, let her go if she wants to go.")'

I don't see that as wrong at all. It's believeable that she would feign ignorance in front of her brother to try and protect him. It in essence is the one glimpse we'd see of her other than as a Mrs. Danvers type.

[elmore3003]

Posted: 10/2/06 at 8:34am

I believe the director was an idiot to put Marie into the end of Act One; Marie's been trying to dump Rosabella from the moment she enters. Secondly, she'd be much more worried about her brother at that point: "Eyes Like a Stranger" was put before the wedding, not after it. If she had such a knowledge, she would have used it for an immediate annulment, and she would have let Cleo know in Act Two during "I Don't Like This Dame." She's certainly spilling all the other beans in that number.