CHAPLIN Reviews — Page 2

Egghumor, I'm not taking your bait,thanks. It's too early for me to have a sense of whether a well(but not rapturously)received lead performance in a likely flop is going to get a Tony nomination approx eight months from now. If it's a weak season with few well-regarded lead male performances, then sure he's got a shot.

And ACL2006, I doubt the show will even make it to New Year's. Though I'm not wishing for it, I wouldn't be surprised if the show closed very quickly.

That's what I thought too, but you read the review wrong since the link actually took you to page 2.

Why does Warren Carlyle continue to get work ? Especially as a Director. It's baffling !

Brantley's review was firmly negative. The only person he had a kind word for (grudgingly) was Jenn Coella. He didn't like the book, score, concept, direction or choreography, and although he didn't pan McClure per se, he didn't have many kind words for him. It certainly wasn't a "star is born" reception. If anything he said McClure is capable, but can't rise above the material and often blends into the background.

---

"immensely appealing" - The New York Times

pulled from:
Flashback! It’s the East End of London at the turn of the 20th century, and little Charlie (the immensely appealing Zachary Unger) is being encouraged by Hanna (Christiane Noll), his loving but mentally unstable mother, to observe the passers-by on the streets.

I wasn't expecting raves, but I was kind of hoping the reviewers would be a little kinder to this one.

I'm not one to often side with Ben Brantley, but in this case, I agree with him.

Brantley is off his meds again. When was his last musical rave? Old grouch.

Lysistrata Jones

Increasingly, imposed concepts -- here the circus motif -- which once marked shows as stylistic and cutting edge -- seem to produce charges of pretentiousness and over-thinking at best and cliche-ridden at worst. Everything in musicals now must be framed as metaphor, the sustaining of which requires arch adherence to an overly familiar set of devices, indeed gimmicks (either a master of ceremonies or a chorus on hand to tell us what we're seeing and why). It's almost as if the genre must go full circle, to find new-slash-old-fashioned ways to tell a story that don't hammer theme and take-aways for us. It's become daring these days to start a show with a scene, the 4th wall not broken, and the characters singing to one another. The new high concept might be no concept.

---

I, too, often find fault with Brantley's bad writing and weird opinions, but this time I have to admit that we're exactly on the same page. This show was mediocrity across the board.

Whatcha gonna do?

The reviews, although pretty much down the line negative, don't really tear the thing to shreds. It's not even that level of bad- it's just shrug-worthy. And all of the reviewers mention the same issues that members here have said.

---