Caroline, or Change is back! — Page 4

Oh, God, not the old snobbery argument. I've already had it out with MusicMan over this, I think, so I'm not repeating myself.

I once dated a theatre snob. Didnt work out.

cant we all just GETALONG???

The show has a libretto and lyrics by Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and score by Jeanine Tesori (Thoroughly Modern Millie). The plot is prosaic- it's about a black maid working for a Jewish family in 1960s Louisiana- but it has plenty to say about politics, economics, race, and the nature of families.

It's a lot to take in in one performance- in fact, I don't think you can take it all in in one performance- but it's really lovely. And the cast, which is, with one exception, the same as the one on Broadway, is really exceptional, with great actingcskills and beautiful singing voices. I haven't heard about a San Francisco transfer, but no one really knows what will happen to the show after this LA run.

hi plum...nice to see you, thanks for the basic run down of caroline show!

uno, it sounds interesting i like a good story and well i guess we will have to keep our ears open if it comes to SF!

i get a bit tired of the shows out here cause we don't get nearly as many as NY and LA! of course we had the big shows like Phantom and le mis. etc.. and i saw a few shows in london a few years back!

i do think SF needs to improve on the shows they get and hopefully these tours stop by the golden gate city by the bay! LOL>> it's a lovely place...

well, maybe caroline will come up north to SF after it's LA run, we can only hope for a new show up here! i saw some stupid commerical for a show for kids that a plant eats the audience it was some theater thing, but i really wish we would get a real show in Sf i seen everything mostly that i was intested in!

i am Not a Lion king fan too much, so my mom thought it was nice, but not one of the better shows she has seen! i have no interest in it i'm sure it is good!

soo if any producers read this board don't forget San Francisco cause we need more shows please! lol..

if anyone ever does visit SF the beach blanket babalon is really funny its like that movie 'bird cage' its a drag show musical i guess it's very worth seeing and is hysterical! lol.. it's a famous show in SF been around for years!

unless i want to see lion king there is just nothing to see in SF at this time i don't think? i saw Phantom like 5 times and Le mis a few times also i use to love those shows!

i'm bored good thing it is Ice skating season i do enjoy watching skating!

if caroline is as good as you all say, then i will check it out if it ever comes to SF...

jj, u a boy or girl?

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well I'm in NYC right now. I've been out here for school since January, but I'm from the San Jose area originally and spent my last few summers there. Now that I'm working and taking more units at school, I'm pretty much full time out here, but I am making a point to get out to SF for maybe a week over the holidays. Gotta see the family and catch White Christmas. I don't know too much about the stage adaptation of the movie, but it's been running a few days now so buzz must be starting to go around in Nor Cal. I only know that it's basically the movie, with the same famous songs and an adapted stage text built from the screenplay. Brian d'Arcy James is the lead, so I'm there. He's one of the only 2 performers that I'll travel cross country to see. If you were debating whether to see it, I'll go out on a limb and say See It! It's sure to be a fine piece of Christmas theatre! And I predict that, after this holiday run is over, the next time we see BDJ will be in a Broadway lead role. Mark my words.

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bump bump bump bump bump bump bump

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Bronxbound, I didn't know this was a game. Do I at least get a consolation prize? A lifetime supply of sardines?

No?

Gosh darnit.

...

The day I need to defend my tastes to you, bronx, will be a very sad day indeed. Like I said, I've addressed that moronic "snobbery" accusation in plenty of other posts. Search for them.

Rumor has it that Harrison Chad wasn't asked back b/c he's too big for the role now.

What? That's the first I heard of that. Maybe he, you know, wanted to go to school in one general area. He's a kid, after all.

Please. Harrison Chad was miles too big for the show on Broadway too. I've said it before and I'll say it again - there's no reason that character had to be eight years old. Call him ten - that was the only part of the show that bothered me. Having to believe that kid was 8. But he was so wonderful in the role...I'd rather they change the age in the script than change the kid. As long as he doesn't have facial hair and his voice isn't changing, there's no reason to dump him.

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Here's a very well-written and perceptive review of the LA production from The Hollywood Reporter/Reuters (can we get this guy to come and review theatre in NYC? -- he's better that 90% of the critics we have here):

"Tony Kushner's "Caroline, or Change" is one of the strangest musicals you will ever see.

No one gets kissed, killed, seduced or falls in love; the main character has a stubborn heart filled with resentment and bitterness; and the moon, radio and washing machine are as personable as any of the humans we meet onstage.

This might help explain why "Caroline" is also one of the most thrilling and moving shows ever presented at the Ahmanson Theatre. Kushner, who already has given us "Angels in America" and the prescient "Homebody/Kabul," once again has left the conventional radar screen to take us into his own oddly slanted, oddly imaginative zone of reality. In doing so, he has very likely created a masterpiece.

As musicals go, "Caroline" does something novel and important. Kushner's book and lyrics and Jeanine Tesori's score are written in the form of a sung-through opera that is both realistic and a fable........

What Kushner, Tesori and director George C. Wolfe have done is to tell this story in such a way that the interior life of the characters -- the play's hidden psychic landscape -- becomes paramount. Moreover, Kushner appears to get their psychology right, and in getting it right on a very personal level, he gets it right on the racial level as well. He especially gets right that part of the "race problem" that is usually most hidden and resistant to change -- the wounds inflicted that run deeper than flesh; the stored feelings of anger and alienation that can settle in bone, as they have in Caroline.


This is why the personification of ordinary objects onstage works so well -- because it illustrates in a touching way how Caroline's bitterness has isolated her to the point that the inanimate world surrounding her is capable of filling some of her basic human needs for community. Without resorting to a drop of sentimentality or racial cliche, Kushner has taken us to the dark heart of the matter for Caroline. Pinkins has a brilliantly written and sung aria in Act 2 in which she gives voice to these buried feelings and the difficulty of changing them; the scene is cathartic in the best sense of the word and almost unbearably moving."


Caroline, or Change Review from the Hollywood Reporter

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It is slated to play the Curran Theatre in San Fran(I thnk that's the theatre's name) in January. This show is in my all time top 3 shows.

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Updated On: 11/16/04 at 11:26 AM