BARE Announces Off Broadway Engagement at New World Stages; Arima, Wall and Werle on Creative Team — Page 4

CPD -- I totally hear you, and can understand FEARING the changes will be too much. (and I hate that Claire is gone!) But the poster I referred to stated that he hated this version -- none of us KNOW this version yet. His assumptions that is has killed Bare is preposterous.

He might NOT be wrong, but why not stay hopefull -- even if it is a skeptical hope?

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"I quite enjoy Shankel's work, so I will wait with baited breath."

Unless you're hanging worms from your mouth, you wait with "bated" breath. If you are hanging worms from your mouth, who am I to judge?

But regarding another comment about "preconceived" notions - I can say my notions about Bare were conceived before this moment, based upon the ATA production, which I found to be glitter lipstick on a pig - a lot of wonderful talent being used to tart up a string of Dawson's Creek-style clichés.

Bwaydide: Perfect point, the "coming-out to a parent/having a child come out" rite of passage is here to stay. If you want the show to cater only to kids, that's fine. But the Parent/child relationship allowed older people a thread to feel this show.
If the new songs are "better" than the originals than write a new show! Why tamper with a score that is generally considered decent?
I don't really have to give the new show a chance, that's not up to me, it's being produced (so far) and people can judge for themselves, but it won't stop me from discussing it.
As for the new team being "smart" and know what they are doing, that has yet to be decided. People said that about CARRIE too.

Not to repeat many of you... but.... THEY CUT CLAIRE? I never found Bare to be perfect, it was always filled with cliches and some tacky lyrics, but it never failed to move me on a very deep level - mostly during "See Me" and "Warning". I'm interested to see how the show has developed and changed, but I'm worried this is going to be a musicalized after-school special.

I'm equally annoyed by the changes to Nadia's character. I really, really hope this doesn't adversely affect "Quiet Night at Home", one of my favorite songs in the show. (I don't know if this has already been re-written? I don't know much about the changes the show has already gone through).

Does anyone know how much Damon is involved in this?

After I read the press release I said, "Wow", Shankel wrote COMPANY?
I did not know that.

While I embraced the show and the characters the first time I saw it, I can't pretend that it rang true from my personal experience. I grew up during a time when boys with certain inclinations kept them hidden; I can't even imagine a high school conversation where I was offered a baseball bat "there's one in my pants."

So, for me, "See Me" is the one truly relatable moment in the show. I don't correlate it to any one conversation with either of my parents; instead it's a composite of hundreds of conversations over the course of many years. While I love the show despite its many missteps, it's only during "See Me" that I see myself on the stage.

I can only hope that if they cut the character of Claire in an effort to focus on the main characters, that they keep the song with an unnamed mom character in silhouette, perhaps to allow some percentage of the audience to paint their own pictures from memory of how she looks.

I don't know anything about Damon's issues with a proposed film version, but I do know he felt like his work on the show was very much done once they completed the studio cast recording and subsequently released the performance rights to the show a few years ago. He'd been notoriously adamant about not wanting it licensed for years prior to that, and the point of doing that recording was to get a "complete" version of the show out there that could help its performance profitability, which it very much did.

Since he hasn't returned to theater since BARE, I could see him having a very "been there, done that" attitude about this incarnation of the show, especially if he's resistant toward major changes to the material. He's certainly a problematic (if incredibly talented) guy, but he'll obviously profit from the show having a life regardless of whether or not he's actively involved wit it.

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Updated On: 6/22/12 at 08:50 PM

CurtainPullDowner, people won't be happy to hear this, but I've heard the major revisions have come from ideas that Stafford Arima has had in collaboration with Jon Hartmere and Lynne Shankel.

That being said, while Arima has been directing readings of the show for the past five years, these major changes didn't begin to be implemented until the reading before this most recent one in October of last year. Up until then, they'd been working with the existing version of the show.

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Updated On: 6/22/12 at 10:07 PM

Did I miss that someone said Nadia isn't fat anymore? I've been told her character has changed quite a bit, but I never heard there was a change to her physical size.

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I didn't think about the omission of that description. Hmmm....

Well, I'll reiterate -- the show has way too many stereotypes for me, so maybe this is one they decided to do away with. (of course, changing it to another drug issue isn't much better.)

Well, we will see, I suppose. But all these details coming out are taking a bit of the wind out of my sails.

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Yippee!!! Good to know. This is why rumors and assumptions suck.

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I'm trying to keep an open mind about these changes, but Bare isn't Bare without "See Me" and "Warning"

Similarly, if the characters are not al the same age and therefore not graduating, how does "No Voice" fit into this new plot? Again, Bare isn't Bare without this song...

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A daggar in my heart.


Pooh.

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