Bounce

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 12:15pm

I haven`t SEEN the show but I LOVE the cast recording! Is it good? I know it floped outa town on it`s pre-broadway try out but some flops are still good!

Thanks!

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 1:02pm

This past February there was a workshop of the revised version but no further word on that.

I saw the show near the end of its run in Chicago. Though Richard Kind and Howard McGillan were both good, the show really needs two dynamite star players. (Nathan Lane and Victor Garber did one o the workshops when it was called WISE GUYS.) Jane Powell largely wasted and her voice a mere wisp of what it once was. As always, Michelle Pawk was great.

The audience (the day I saw it) was filled with vultures who even before the Overture began, had already decided to hate it and tell all their friends how horrible it was. It was NOT horrible, but it was not ready for Broadway either.

Act One suffered from over length and a lack of focus. It also contained a glaring error that neither Sondheim nor Weidman seems to want to correct: They keep referring to the Gold Rush in the Yukon but keep saying it is in Alaska. No. The Yukon Territory is in Canada and the gold rush was never in Alaska. After that strange episode things started to improve. "Addison's Trip around the World" was inventive and brilliantly staged. So was Willy and Nellie's wedding where the Alter folded down to make a large bed around upon which most of the New York Sequence was played. The biggest problem for me was that much of Act One was staged cartoon style with overblown characters. Then in a sudden departure at the end of the Act things got more serious.

Unfortunately a lot of people left at intermission, because Act Two was much much better. It was tighter, more focussed, and had Gavin Creel as Addie's lover. Creel got one of the best songs in the show "Talent" and later in Act Two came the fantastic "Boca Raton" sequence: The whole Florida land boom and bust covered in one five minute number. If the rest of the show had been at the level of this, the New York sequence and Addison’s trip the show would have been perfect. After all this, though, the ending seemed a little flat and uninspired.

So overall the show was problematic yet filled with potential and as the cast album reveals, the score has many memorable moments. The logo on the CD box should sum up what the show needs to try and establish...how one brother's success impacts on the other as they bounce back and forth. It is a great premise but that isn't what the musical shows us.

What is sad is that Sondheim has spent 12 years on this show. At this point I wish they would set it aside and work on something new, then maybe come back to this one later. But at 76 how much more does he want to do? He seems to be kept busy advising on revivals.

In Toronto a few years ago (5 to be exact) he mentioned he was at work on two shows..One a biography (That became BOUNCE) and the other an original. He also expressed the desire to write one more "big romantic piece...not like PASSION but more in the style of SWEENEY TODD."

We can only hope...

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 1:10pm

oh lets pray for that one!! pleease sondheim! please one more good one!

Posted: 6/25/06 at 2:59pm

After Bounce closed out of town a benefit performance with the cast of the closed production was announced for New York City and tickets were sold. The performance was cancelled. Does anyone know why?

[apdarcey]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 6:22pm

they didn't want to show the work in its then-current state.


i agree that it was just too cartooney. the score actually is pretty great, but the fault is in the book. it left you no opportunity to actually care for any of the characters. the main 3 you were just like, "it's all good, but why should i be moved." (pawk's performance was fantastic though, of course.)

the one thing that i did manage to care about was how jane powell and gavin creel basically filled the same space in addie's life. thus there was a give and take between their two characters. their two solos were the standouts musically.

anyway, make it more real and people will be more affected.


also, he wants to work on groundhog day fyi.

Posted: 6/25/06 at 6:29pm

"they didn't want to show the work in its then-current state."

That doesn't really answer the question. The powers that be knew what state the work was in when they allowed the concert to be adverstised and tickets sold. No answer would be better than one that is fabricated

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 6:33pm

I knew about the workshop before with Nathan Lane and Victor Garber! They should`ve done it! They Richard and Howard were great!

There`s talk of it being made into a movie with Nathan!

[Christoph]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 8:05pm

Frontrowcentre2's review is pretty close to the mark. It has some good music, but the narrative is unfocused and the tone of the show is uneven. Act 1 seems very long. There were some cartoony moments, but I thought the show suffered in its more serious passages. There was literally no growth or character arc for the two main characters. I thought, perhaps, that Addie (the Richard Kind character) may break that mold, but no dice. They end up exactly the same as when they started, having learned little or nothing. Kind and Howard McGillin are fine, but I agree that more dynamic leads may have helped. Michelle Pawk is exceptional in what could have been a throwaway part. Gavin Creel and Jane Powell are both strong as well. I agree that Powell is underused, but I thought her voice was quite robust when I saw it. I can easily see why it closed prior to Broadway - there were just too many elements that did not effectively gel, but it was by no means a bad viewing experience.

[LostLeander]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 2:31am

I LOVE Jane Powell's voice.
On the recording, (I didn't see it live) sounds weak, and aged, and simple. Isn't He Something is one of my favorite songs in the score.

The score is VERY well written, I think. Sondheim does GREAT things with musical themes, leitmotifs, etc. What many people have said is the score is kind of derivative of his other shows. I agree to a degree. What's Your Rush sounds to me like a mixture of Wait from Sweeney, and Sooner or Later.

I really care about Addie, not so much about Willie. Gavin sounds great, but I think I'm disappointed with the ensemble. They just don't sound very good - I'd expect more. There are some vocal glitches here and there, and they don't sing together well.

I do indeed like this score, and recording a lot though.

BTW, I thought his next project was something called Mabignon, or something like that.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 3:37am

I am glad they DIDN'T take the imperfect show to Broadway where it surely would have flopped. (I wish other producers would know when to pull the pug or send a show back for more workshopping.)

But yes, the score is treasurable and I am glad Nonesuch recorded it.

Whats scarey is that I just realized it was 3 years ago that I went to Chicago to see it! Where did those 3 years go?

I have a few extra playbills if anyone wants one.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 4:20am

Never having seen a production, I can only comment on the cast recording. I guess I'm alone on this thread, but I was so dismayed with Sondheim's score for Bounce. I just couldn't believe that the man who gave us Sunday in the Park w/ George, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music could create such a sub par work. It feels watered down and many of the themes sound like regurgitated parts of his earlier scores. I really hope they'll leave this one dead and buried. Time for a fresh start for Mr. S.

By the way, a small snippet of Nathan Lane singing 'An Architect Sketching a Design' from the earlier Wiseguys version is available on the NPR website at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1075706

I believe this was performed at a 70th Birthday concert for Sondheim. Does anyone have a better quality recording of this song? If only the rest of the score could be this lovely.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 8:55am

For a moment I thought they made a musical out of that wretched Gwynneth Paltrow/Ben Affleck movie. I was like, WTF?

[apdarcey]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 11:44am

tom - No answer would be better than one that is fabricated


before you start telling me off. the producers found sufficient demand in new york to show the work. they sold tickets to make money. sondheim decided he did not want to show the work. this was told to me by sondheim's assistant. so please. do not tell me what i have fabricated. producers sold tickets, and then the creator decided he didn't want to show his work to new york in its then-current state.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 11:53am

StageManager2 - THANKS!!!!!!!!!! That made my day!!!! I always knew about Nathan in it but never actually heard or saw it! Thanks!

[Theatreboy33]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 12:09pm

quite simply, the show was relentlessly boring.

Posted: 6/26/06 at 12:10pm

OK, apdarcey, I would have thought that Sondheim knew the shape the show was in before the producers even thought about doing it in concert form as a benefit. Quite frankly, I think he should have stopped fiddling with it when it was still called Wise Guys, as the recording of that verion makes the show seem like a good one.

[Someday]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 2:46pm

There's a recording of the Wise Guys version? Cool. How does one find it?

[BobbyRobbyBobbyBaby]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 3:03pm

I went to a Sondheim Q&A in London 3rd week in May and Sondheim said the reworked version of Bounce is about 4 weeks away from completion. He said this was his last try before he lets it go. So it should be ready right about now.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/26/06 at 3:14pm

Thanks for the update. That seems to imply the workshop they did in Feb must have gone very well. (Otherwise they would have packed it in then.)

If GROUNDHOG DAY is on the horizon - even though I am not a fan of screen-to-stage transfers, it could be an interesting show given Sondheim's interest in theme and variations.