#1
Posted: 10/21/04 at 10:15pm
TalkinBroadway.com -
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/
Excerpt:
When's the last time you saw junk on a Broadway stage? No, not Dracula The Musical, but real, honest-to-goodness trash that looks as if it could have come from one of the dumpsters next to a Broadway theater? If it's been a while, you now have your chance with Brooklyn, the new musical that just opened at the Plymouth.
Buried beneath the rubbish of the show's outward appearance is just more rubbish, albeit in the guise of a book and score (by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson) similarly incapable of rising above the esprit debris.
But no one can compensate for the vapidity of what they must speak and sing, and their superb singing voices - all predictably over-amplified by sound designers Jonathan Deans and Peter Hylenski - can only take them so far. And who can blame them for all looking at least slightly embarrassed at having to make countless ridiculous, refuse-inspired scene and costume changes, and walk around in outfits the Salvation Army would reject?
Broadway.com -
http://www.broadway.com/template_1.asp?CI=42993&CT=39
Excerpt:
Someday audiences who saw Brooklyn, The Musical will be able to boast of seeing Eden Espinosa and Ramona Keller in the show that launched their careers. Those who missed this sight will take comfort in the fact that they were spared the experience of seeing Brooklyn, The Musical.
This misbegotten hybrid of Brecht, story theater, Amelie and American Idol fails so dismally on so many levels that the prevailing impulse is to look away from the stage.
But gimmicks only get you so far. Who needs dramatic momentum or remotely interesting characters, the argument seems to go, when you've got a dress made out of police tape and Hefty bags? And who needs a coherent Broadway musical when you've got some nice-looking belters to dazzle the Rent and Wicked crowd?
TheaterMania.com -
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5251
Excerpt:
When Bette Midler was first scooting across stages in the '70s as the Divine Miss M, she coined the phrase "trash with flash" to describe her ebullient persona. Now, the gleeful bunch of people associated with the theater-rock musical Brooklyn have taken that phrase to heart.
Flash is often a substitute for substance, and that's the case with Brooklyn. The story that the Streetsinger spins -- and upon which director Jeff Calhoun festoons abundant imaginative notions -- is mawkish. Perhaps it's hawked as a fairy tale to excuse its broad departures from reality.
Brooklyn is the sort of synthetic confection that it's unwise to question. For instance, it wouldn't be smart to probe the poor girl's arrival in her namesake borough, where she sings a ditty titled "I Never Knew His Name." Ask why her mother forgot to tell Brooklyn her father's name, or whether mom ever even knew it, and the flimsy plot evaporates. As Fred Ebb has Billy Flynn declare in Chicago, "razzle-dazzle 'em and they'll never catch wise." Brooklyn struts its street-trash stuff with enough razzle-dazzle that audiences may never catch wise to its gooey center.
Newsday -
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etledew4014219oct22,0,6538854.story?coll=ny-theater-headlines
Excerpt:
If good intentions guaranteed good theater, "Brooklyn: The Musical" would run forever. If bright, fresh talent and infectious pop-and-soul music could overcome a ludicrous story and cornball lyrics, the show that opened last night at the Plymouth Theatre might not make a mere 105 minutes feel like infinity times forever.
Unlike the fairy tale that these characters are selling, however, the reality of "Brooklyn" defies a happy ending. As a concert, its succession of high- voltage performances might be appealing. As Broadway's only original musical until next year, this won't do.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/
Excerpt:
When's the last time you saw junk on a Broadway stage? No, not Dracula The Musical, but real, honest-to-goodness trash that looks as if it could have come from one of the dumpsters next to a Broadway theater? If it's been a while, you now have your chance with Brooklyn, the new musical that just opened at the Plymouth.
Buried beneath the rubbish of the show's outward appearance is just more rubbish, albeit in the guise of a book and score (by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson) similarly incapable of rising above the esprit debris.
But no one can compensate for the vapidity of what they must speak and sing, and their superb singing voices - all predictably over-amplified by sound designers Jonathan Deans and Peter Hylenski - can only take them so far. And who can blame them for all looking at least slightly embarrassed at having to make countless ridiculous, refuse-inspired scene and costume changes, and walk around in outfits the Salvation Army would reject?
Broadway.com -
http://www.broadway.com/template_1.asp?CI=42993&CT=39
Excerpt:
Someday audiences who saw Brooklyn, The Musical will be able to boast of seeing Eden Espinosa and Ramona Keller in the show that launched their careers. Those who missed this sight will take comfort in the fact that they were spared the experience of seeing Brooklyn, The Musical.
This misbegotten hybrid of Brecht, story theater, Amelie and American Idol fails so dismally on so many levels that the prevailing impulse is to look away from the stage.
But gimmicks only get you so far. Who needs dramatic momentum or remotely interesting characters, the argument seems to go, when you've got a dress made out of police tape and Hefty bags? And who needs a coherent Broadway musical when you've got some nice-looking belters to dazzle the Rent and Wicked crowd?
TheaterMania.com -
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5251
Excerpt:
When Bette Midler was first scooting across stages in the '70s as the Divine Miss M, she coined the phrase "trash with flash" to describe her ebullient persona. Now, the gleeful bunch of people associated with the theater-rock musical Brooklyn have taken that phrase to heart.
Flash is often a substitute for substance, and that's the case with Brooklyn. The story that the Streetsinger spins -- and upon which director Jeff Calhoun festoons abundant imaginative notions -- is mawkish. Perhaps it's hawked as a fairy tale to excuse its broad departures from reality.
Brooklyn is the sort of synthetic confection that it's unwise to question. For instance, it wouldn't be smart to probe the poor girl's arrival in her namesake borough, where she sings a ditty titled "I Never Knew His Name." Ask why her mother forgot to tell Brooklyn her father's name, or whether mom ever even knew it, and the flimsy plot evaporates. As Fred Ebb has Billy Flynn declare in Chicago, "razzle-dazzle 'em and they'll never catch wise." Brooklyn struts its street-trash stuff with enough razzle-dazzle that audiences may never catch wise to its gooey center.
Newsday -
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etledew4014219oct22,0,6538854.story?coll=ny-theater-headlines
Excerpt:
If good intentions guaranteed good theater, "Brooklyn: The Musical" would run forever. If bright, fresh talent and infectious pop-and-soul music could overcome a ludicrous story and cornball lyrics, the show that opened last night at the Plymouth Theatre might not make a mere 105 minutes feel like infinity times forever.
Unlike the fairy tale that these characters are selling, however, the reality of "Brooklyn" defies a happy ending. As a concert, its succession of high- voltage performances might be appealing. As Broadway's only original musical until next year, this won't do.
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela
Updated On: 10/21/04 at 10:15 PM
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