"Caroline"- Sat Nite 8/7 (W/WARNING!) — Page 3

running the risk of sounding like a another margo-groupie (lol, we do seem to be popping up all over the place) i'd like to extend a very sinciere "thank you" for all of your posts on this site. you've managed to say what you have to say without being condencending to other posters who lack your knowlege of theater, as so many other posters do. you never enter a thread for the singular purpose of mocking everyone who has already posted about the subject, and for that matter, whenever you post you manage to bring the subject to new light with you insight. some of the other posters on this board, regaurdlessof how long they've been posting or how praise-worthy their "wit" or "sarcasm" supposedly is, should learn from your example.

"Tesori wrote a score that was mostly blues and jazz and gospel and and '60s R&B...straight out of...Bessie Smith and Etta James and Sam Cooke..."

But that's exactly the problem. When Richard Rodgers had to write a cowboy song for OKLAHOMA!, namely "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," it may have resulted in a cowboy song via Vienna but it was singularly, stylistically, and memorably a Rodgers cowboy tune. Tesori's 'blues and jazz and gospel and 60s R&B' are indistinguishable (as is her C&W/bluegrass/gospel score to VIOLET and Broadway-20's score to TMM) from the countless generic examples that have preceded her. The scores are banal and melodically bereft, not just in the sense of "tunes," but in the ability to generate emotion/feeling through sound in fresh yet inevitable ways. And, sadly, that dearth of melodic invention and singular "voice" is commonplace in Broadway musicals today.

Updated On: 8/10/04 at 10:51 PM

That's the best articulation of your reasons for disliking Caroline I've read, MusicMan. I still wish you'd give it another try, but it's better than saying it's intellectually snobby.