Band's Visit not worth 9 Tonys — Page 6

Simón Bolívar said: "JayElle said: "The NY Times article said voters were voting "against the commercialism" of the other musicals. It showed. Show was okay, but not great."

And the irony is that the best play went to the most commercial of the lot. Just like in theme park ville. Universal is winning and Disney is loosing"

HP is a brilliant achievement. Two parts of dynamite theater, directed brilliantly. It also won many Olivier Awards. Commercial doesn't necessarily mean weak. And vice versa. 

 

UncleCharlie said: "JayElle said: "Not a troll. Didn't think S/Bob or MG were all that great. For musicals, this year was lacking all around. For what I spend on theater tickets every year, I have a right to speak up, especially when the news documented voters voting to protest the commercial nature of recent shows prior to the Tonys."

JayElle, the Tony voters just finished a late night meeting and asked me to convey this message. "You caught us. It was a protest vote and we were wrong to do that. We feel terrible and we want to make it right. TBV is a crappy little show undeserving of 10 Tonys. It doesn't even deserve the one Tony it already had. And it's big number is some chick singing about some dead film star? I mean come on. So please tell us who your pick was and we'll just pull a "Steve Harvey" and blame the presenter for calling the wrong show's name. It's not too late. We can make this right. Thank you for standing up for great theater by starting this thread. It really moved us!"

Isn't one of the user rules of this board, "Be courteous and respectful to fellow users?"

 

Thanks for the warning. I'm not surprised you were not greatly impressed. But I'm actually glad the show won many Tonys, especially Best Musical. Would we have rather seen SpongeBob SquarePants, Mean Girls or Frozen take it? I can't imagine any of those three being worthy of Best Musical over TBV, even thought I've not seen it yet. I'm not sure the NYT article should be taken so literally. They voted for what they thought was the best show, no matter what they might have expressed in the interview. I would have liked to have seen Harry Hadden win Best Actor, and Norbert for Featured Actor. But I'm just happy the Sponge didn't win much, although winning Scenic Design over My Fair Lady seems absurd. Until the "new musical" competition increases, there will always be sweeps. 

Someone in a Tree2 said: "And isn't it fair to ask a Broadway production to convey its charms equally for row F in the orchestra as much as row F in the mezzanine?"

Exactly. I was the last row of the mezzanine for The Band's Visit, and the show did not play well from a distance at all IMO.

 

bwayphreak234 said: "Someone in a Tree2 said: "And isn't it fair to ask a Broadway production to convey its charms equally for row F in the orchestra as much as row F in the mezzanine?"

Exactly. I was the last row of the mezzanine for The Band's Visit, and the show did not play well from a distance at all IMO.

"

I'm not surprised to hear the show doesn't work well from a distance. It is a small show with some understated/nuanced (some might say 'boring' - I wouldn't) performances. But I don't know what can be done about this? This is a similar problem for many plays too, in my opinion. It's the nature of presenting a performance on stage. It's a tough situation - if they went for a smaller theatre (assuming any were available - which is unlikely), the show would risk not making a profit (see: Once On This Island so far). If they went for broader performances, the quality of the story telling/character development would reduce as suddenly the leads don't feel like real people. They couldn't just have a straight film adaptation of the musical and no stage production because no one would pay for that. In my mind, it's just the risk that audience members have to take if they sit further away.