#1
Posted: 2/15/05 at 10:58pm
So here is my "review" of BROOKLYN. I had heard some of the music before, but this was my first time actually seeing the show. Well, I finally broke down and went to the show after hearing some people rave about it, and others say it's terrible. So here is my review:
The set, contrary to what I've heard, is actually incredibly realistic and absolutely perfect. Yes, as some critics said, the set is very ugly - but it's completely perfect for the show and everything about it was 100% realistic. The lighting was great, and the way the cast interacts with the sets and various prop pieces is wonderful - very creative and very entertaining - I really liked that aspect of the show.
Unfortunately, that IS the only good aspect of the show. And when I say good, I'm being very kind. I had heard some really awful and nasty things about this show beforehand and was very disheartened and angry (but not surprised) that the warnings would in no way prepare me for what I was watching onstage. There is no doubt that the cast has talent, but it's very hard to measure that talent because the material they're working with is so terrible and poor that they can't help but look bad performing it.
Eden Espinoza has some set of pipes on her, but come on! She is in no way as remarkable as some people on here have made her seem. She sounds great during most of the show, but again - she doesn't sing very much and when she does, the material is among the worst ever written. I must admit that her "Once Upon a Time" is very enjoyable - a guilty pleasure, and she sounds absolutely remarkable singing it, save for the end when she decides to screech like a banshee.
Cleavant Derrick's was extremely unnecessary and obnoxious - the entire show he screeched and screamed like a preacher on the Praise the Lord! channell - grating on the ears, unnecessary, but annoying. I am convinced that he has the hardest task on Broadway - to deliver all those God-awful, deplorable lines with a straight face - now THAT is acting.
Ramona Keller was funny. Nice voice, but still, like everyone else in this show, can't shine because the show is so bad. I just can't even begin to describe the crappy lines SHE gets in this show. Again, she was funny, but (and I'm not being racist,) the cynical, sarcastic, snobbish African American comedic relief role is really really tired. Atleast some of her lines were actually funny, because if it wasn't for her the show would have absolutely NO good points.
Karen Olivo was fine - another nice voice, but such bad material.
Lee Morgan (understudy) was okay. Nice rock voice, but couldn't really shine until the end. He has the worst role to play in the entire show, and I pity him that such talent is being wasted.
The book. Oh, the book. The worst book I have ever heard in a show, EVER. That's including TABOO, NEVER GONNA DANCE, and DRACULA. The worst. The story line makes absolutely no sense, jumping from NYC, to France, back to NYC, to a bar, to flashbacks of the war (WTF,) and so on. It really makes absolutely no sense. They cover every "theme" that has now become cliche - from war and racism, to homelessness and drug abuse. Even if it makes absolutely no sense with the plot, it's in there. The only now tired cliche that isn't present in BROOKLYN is someone dying of AIDS, which I was shocked didn't happen. It really really is the worst show I have ever seen. It makes NEVER GONNA DANCE look like a masterpiece, and I am not just being sarcastic for the hell of it. I felt completely ripped off, cheated, and BORED. Worst of all, you could tell that the cast knows how bad it is and they they're suffering through the show as they know the entire audience is. Really terrible - they have some nerve to charge admission to this show. In hindsight, they are very smart to perform the show straight through with no intermission. If there was an intermission, I'm positive that the house would appear even more empty than it was before. Now, I haven't seen GOOD VIBRATIONS yet, but from what I've seen so far, BROOKLYN sets a level of quality so unbelievably low that I'm convinced that no show to open this season could possibly be worse. The music is absolutely terrible, and the lyrics are the worst and most poorly-crafted lyrics I have come across thus far - and that's counting Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears songs. Why this show is still running is a complete mystery to me.
So in the end, one of the lines in BROOKLYN struck me as being very true and representative of the show as a whole, and forgive me for paraphrasing, but they went something like this:
STREETSINGER: They call me streetsinger!
PARADICE: I call you a waste of my time!
And I couldn't have said it better myself. I will probably post more after this as my brain starts working again. It was left numb once the show started. I have to go put cotton back in my ears - they're still bleeding and I think I may be deaf.
The set, contrary to what I've heard, is actually incredibly realistic and absolutely perfect. Yes, as some critics said, the set is very ugly - but it's completely perfect for the show and everything about it was 100% realistic. The lighting was great, and the way the cast interacts with the sets and various prop pieces is wonderful - very creative and very entertaining - I really liked that aspect of the show.
Unfortunately, that IS the only good aspect of the show. And when I say good, I'm being very kind. I had heard some really awful and nasty things about this show beforehand and was very disheartened and angry (but not surprised) that the warnings would in no way prepare me for what I was watching onstage. There is no doubt that the cast has talent, but it's very hard to measure that talent because the material they're working with is so terrible and poor that they can't help but look bad performing it.
Eden Espinoza has some set of pipes on her, but come on! She is in no way as remarkable as some people on here have made her seem. She sounds great during most of the show, but again - she doesn't sing very much and when she does, the material is among the worst ever written. I must admit that her "Once Upon a Time" is very enjoyable - a guilty pleasure, and she sounds absolutely remarkable singing it, save for the end when she decides to screech like a banshee.
Cleavant Derrick's was extremely unnecessary and obnoxious - the entire show he screeched and screamed like a preacher on the Praise the Lord! channell - grating on the ears, unnecessary, but annoying. I am convinced that he has the hardest task on Broadway - to deliver all those God-awful, deplorable lines with a straight face - now THAT is acting.
Ramona Keller was funny. Nice voice, but still, like everyone else in this show, can't shine because the show is so bad. I just can't even begin to describe the crappy lines SHE gets in this show. Again, she was funny, but (and I'm not being racist,) the cynical, sarcastic, snobbish African American comedic relief role is really really tired. Atleast some of her lines were actually funny, because if it wasn't for her the show would have absolutely NO good points.
Karen Olivo was fine - another nice voice, but such bad material.
Lee Morgan (understudy) was okay. Nice rock voice, but couldn't really shine until the end. He has the worst role to play in the entire show, and I pity him that such talent is being wasted.
The book. Oh, the book. The worst book I have ever heard in a show, EVER. That's including TABOO, NEVER GONNA DANCE, and DRACULA. The worst. The story line makes absolutely no sense, jumping from NYC, to France, back to NYC, to a bar, to flashbacks of the war (WTF,) and so on. It really makes absolutely no sense. They cover every "theme" that has now become cliche - from war and racism, to homelessness and drug abuse. Even if it makes absolutely no sense with the plot, it's in there. The only now tired cliche that isn't present in BROOKLYN is someone dying of AIDS, which I was shocked didn't happen. It really really is the worst show I have ever seen. It makes NEVER GONNA DANCE look like a masterpiece, and I am not just being sarcastic for the hell of it. I felt completely ripped off, cheated, and BORED. Worst of all, you could tell that the cast knows how bad it is and they they're suffering through the show as they know the entire audience is. Really terrible - they have some nerve to charge admission to this show. In hindsight, they are very smart to perform the show straight through with no intermission. If there was an intermission, I'm positive that the house would appear even more empty than it was before. Now, I haven't seen GOOD VIBRATIONS yet, but from what I've seen so far, BROOKLYN sets a level of quality so unbelievably low that I'm convinced that no show to open this season could possibly be worse. The music is absolutely terrible, and the lyrics are the worst and most poorly-crafted lyrics I have come across thus far - and that's counting Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears songs. Why this show is still running is a complete mystery to me.
So in the end, one of the lines in BROOKLYN struck me as being very true and representative of the show as a whole, and forgive me for paraphrasing, but they went something like this:
STREETSINGER: They call me streetsinger!
PARADICE: I call you a waste of my time!
And I couldn't have said it better myself. I will probably post more after this as my brain starts working again. It was left numb once the show started. I have to go put cotton back in my ears - they're still bleeding and I think I may be deaf.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
Updated On: 2/15/05 at 10:58 PM
