CAMELOT (2023) - Reviews- Page 2

[pethian]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:11pm

MemorableUserName said: "dan94 said: "These are really not good. It doesn't get more crushing than " How many more Golden Age musicals can Sher and Lincoln Center Theater lavish their love on before the project turns into Encores! with elephantiasis?"


The best part is the bit that follows: "Is Kelli O’Hara in “Flahooley” next?

Well, to be honest, I’d be there for that."



As would I!"

 

I'm right behind ya!

 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:17pm

Brutal. Might be easy to get comps soon enough. 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:25pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "That’s an excellently written piece of criticism by Green."

Agreed. He gets a lot of flack around here, but that piece is simply a pleasure to read.

A gifted version in case anyone is paywalled, because it deserves to be read.

 

 

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:28pm

This review bloodbath was NOT on my bingo card. I know that audience reviews I have heard so far have been lukewarm but not so much that I expected so many negative reviews from publications.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:33pm

DTLI Consensus: Fie on Sorkin! A new book only further exposes Camelot’s flaws, beautifully sung as it may be.

7 mixed, 4 negative (including the NYT), 3 positive. 

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/camelot/

[ElephantLoveMedley]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:37pm

EDSOSLO858 said: "DTLI Consensus:Fie on Sorkin! A new book only further exposesCamelot’s flaws, beautifully sung as it may be.

7 mixed, 4 negative (including the NYT), 3 positive.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/camelot/"

Wow. This is probably the most evenly mixed show of the season. Really spread out.

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:47pm

Im not really surprised. I saw this in early previews and really disliked it. Some of the stuff I thought could have been early preview jitters but Sorkin's clunky, talky book wasn't something I thought could have been fixed. 

[sppunk]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:49pm

Seeing this next Saturday - these reviews really lower my expectations. Yikes. 

[musikman]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:51pm

These were the types of reviews I thought Sweeney should have gotten and not this, but I suppose I’m in the minority here on that.  

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:56pm

These reviews, however correct, are SAVAGE

I think DANCIN‘ may have just snuck itself into the Best Revival race

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 10:58pm

Several of those seven mixed reviews are pans with footnoted pleasures. Those of us who read them incrementally might’ve imagined a less generous tally. But the consensus is arguably leaning negative. 

[BCfitasafiddle]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 11:04pm

It's funny: I don't disagree with almost anything negative that a critic said, yet I didn't walk out of the theatre saying I disliked it either.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 11:14pm

Brutal.

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 11:16pm

Well these reviews were rough. It seems like the Sher Lincoln Center productions are diminishing returns. South Pacific to The King & I to My Fair Lady to Camelot have all gotten progressively less acclaim. 

I was pretty sure it was already a Parade vs. Sweeney showdown for Revival even before this but that's definitely true now. Into the Woods will get nominated but I don't see it winning. Now, the question is - does Camelot still get in or will it be Dancin'? I still think Camelot for now but I guess we'll see. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 11:21pm

BCfitasafiddle said: "It's funny: I don't disagree with almost anything negative that a critic said, yet I didn't walk out of the theatre saying I disliked it either."

Excellently worded. I think that's the score, the performances, the overall story, and some of the directorial choices.

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 11:37pm

So Camelot had a famously unwieldy and disappointing libretto. Nonetheless the show grew to mythic proportions thanks to its score and the Kennedy connection. Sixty years later, it gets a new unwieldy and disappointing libretto.

It’s now occurring to me that the Camelot I want to see is either a new show on the Arthur storyline that isn’t Lerner and Loewe’s… or a Shuffle Along style meta musical about Camelot, “Camelot” and the Kennedy era.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 11:44pm

darquegk said: "It’s now occurring to me that the Camelot I want to see is either a new show on the Arthur storyline that isn’t Lerner and Loewe’s… or a Shuffle Along style meta musical about Camelot, “Camelot” and the Kennedy era."

That was my reaction when I saw it: A play about King Arthur probably would have been a more satisfying project for Sher & Sorkin, instead of trying to shoehorn a new book into a score that doesn't fully serve the story.

In CAMELOT, there are songs that exist in places where there should not be songs, and vice-versa, and that hasn't been solved here. So the way to fix that in a musical would have been going further in the adaptation: rewrite some lyrics, add & subtract songs (hello trunk tunes), and engineer a score to better serve the new book/story. But at that point they might have been better off just writing a new show, since we saw the results of that with 2013 CINDERELLA and the revisal of UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN.

Updated On: 4/13/23 at 11:44 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/13/23 at 11:46pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "BCfitasafiddle said: "It's funny: I don't disagree with almost anything negative that a critic said, yet I didn't walk out of the theatre saying I disliked it either."

Excellently worded. I think that's the score, the performances, the overall story, andsome of the directorial choices."

Add me to this, as well. I saw the show again last night and we walked out talking about certain performances and how beautiful the score sounded with that orchestra. These reviews are interesting because like was mentioned, the show has a myth around it that it’s this incredible musical, one of the best and it never has been. 
 

So what I DID walk out of this show respecting in Sorkin’s rewrites is that he tried something. Was it completely effective, no. But for a show that has a book so plagued with issues the fact that he attempted it and still couldn’t really fix it should now lay to rest the idea that it *can* be fixed. That said, I still enjoyed a LOT of what he redid here. I do wonder if Lincoln Center did the show exactly as it was on its original opening night if the reviews would still be as mixed, citing the issues it’s always had. In any event, as I’ve said before it’s truly one of my all-time favorite Broadway scores so just getting to hear it with those voices and that orchestra made the evening more than worthwhile for me. 

Updated On: 4/13/23 at 11:46 PM

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 4/14/23 at 12:19am

i guess i havent read all of these reviews but I dont see them as "brutal" to the production-- they unanimously agree that Camelot doesnt work,  and Sorkin/Sher havent saved it. 

Thats different than trashing the production itself. 

So yes, I think this leaves Parade and Sweeney standing atop the heap, and this might kill any hopes of a very lengthy run (though I maintain that reviews simply don't mean anything if the marketing/audience is there). But I see lots of praise for the score, the performances--even Green is saying that he enjoyed it in its failure.

[UWS10023]

Posted: 4/14/23 at 12:44am

I predicted that the reviews would focus on Sorkin. The chance you take when someone famous does a rewrite. At least the reviewers were kind to the performers who give decent performances.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/14/23 at 2:11am

ElephantLoveMedley said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "DTLI Consensus:Fie on Sorkin! A new book only further exposesCamelot’s flaws, beautifully sung as it may be.

7 mixed, 4 negative (including the NYT), 3 positive.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/camelot/"

Wow. This is probably the most evenly mixed show of the season. Really spread out."

There is nothing even or spread out about these pans.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/14/23 at 2:11am

Is there a reason he chose to rewrite it? Seems like he didn’t understand the mechanics of musical theater - which I’m sure is harder too working with composers you can’t collaborate with.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 4/14/23 at 2:50am

Because the pre-Sorkin version is a silly bore as far as its book goes. There's a reason it hasn't been restaged on Broadway in decades. Yes, purists will resist updates and edits, and one can surely not like the manner in which Sorkin modernized it, but if there was ever a classic score crying out for a book rewrite...

[bear88]

Posted: 4/14/23 at 3:29am

blaxx said: "ElephantLoveMedley said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "DTLI Consensus:Fie on Sorkin! A new book only further exposesCamelot’s flaws, beautifully sung as it may be.

7 mixed, 4 negative (including the NYT), 3 positive.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/camelot/"

Wow. This is probably the most evenly mixed show of the season. Really spread out."

There is nothing even or spread out about these pans."

The "mixed" reviews emphasize positives like, "The large orchestra is quite good" and revelations that Phillipa Soo and Jordan Donica can sing well. But most of the rest blasts Aaron Sorkin's book mercilessly for replacing a weak book with an incoherent and boring one. The main Camelot thread on this board had mixed reviews, with pans along with praise and comments that, even if critical, made me curious to see the revival. The published reviews, with a few exceptions, don't do that at all.

Updated On: 4/14/23 at 03:29 AM

[Owen22]

Posted: 4/14/23 at 7:00am

I am sick of "revisals". None have really ever worked. I so much prefer the original Funny Girl book (another "problematic" golden age libretto). Hated the Damn Yankees rewrite. Flower Drum Song??? Please. I happen to think the original Camelot book is literate and at times beautiful. But if I am in the minority, don't rewrite, just don't do the piece! Or preferably, find a director with enough talent to make the hoary original book work! It CAN be done.

I fear the new book to A Little Night Music in 2083 when it's times find elements of THAT book "unworkable" or politically incorrect!