#1
Posted: 7/7/04 at 11:04am
So...my boyfriend is on a trip to visit theme parks below the Mason-Dixon line because he and his friends are rollercoaster junkies. Although fun, I do not understand the obsession. So I kissed him goodbye, sent him off and decided to finally catch up with a show that I've put off for a while, Caroline, or Change.
The second that washing machine started in singing, I thought, 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph, am I in for a looooooooooong evening.' I just didn't think I could buy into the conceit of this show.
And then, not much later, I found myself completely absorbed in this story and the lives of the people on the stage of the Eugene O'Neill. One of the reasons I'd been putting it off was because of the adjectives I'd heard bandied about regarding this show: pretentious, slow, dark, intimate. Although I love my Tony Kushner and adore my Georgie Wolfe, I've never been a huge fan Jeanine Tesori. And the thought of a sung-through piece of just her music made my head throb.
I also was wary of another 'serious musical'. I loved PARADE and WILD PARTY and wished they had succeeded. But I also knew that one of the reasons they failed commercially was they were crushed by the weight of their darkness. They were unrelenting in their seriousness. And I feared the same for this show. What was so shocking, then, was the lightness with which this story was told. I thought it was going to be a miserable show about a miserable woman. Instead, the compassion and love that the authors and actors had for their characters made the evening almost fairy-tale like. I've rarely, if ever, seen a show with so many well-drawn characters. This goes to show you that you don't need major songs or soliliquies to express character. Sometimes, brief moments brilliantly acted is all one needs to get to the very core of a character. I'm thinking of David Constabile, who plays the Noah's (Harrison Chad) father. He has very little to do in the show, but it's so honestly written and performed that it's all that is needed to make a big impact.
I had heard the score was one that needs to be heard several times to really be appreciated...and I'm sure that's true. But on first hearing, the sounds of that era (1963) rise and meld to somehow create the perfect vocabulary for this tale. I found nothing pretentious or even off-putting about the score. It was, on its own terms, perfection.
The performances were all truly terrific. There was not one character on that stage (including singing appliances) that was in any way a caricature. Even the Trotskyite father of Rose (Veanne Cox) was given a depth that most other authors would not accord. Anika Noni Rose is enchanting as Emmie. The boys who play her two brothers are amazingly unmannered child actors. Veanne Cox is both hilarious and heartbreaking as the stepmother who is only trying to do right. Harrison Chad simply is the young Tony Kushner. And then there's the force of nature that is Tonya Pinkins. At times terrifying and hilarious, she shades her performance so beautifully that you can't help but love this angry, miserable woman. 'Lot's Wife', the number from the Tonys, is one of the greatest moments of theatre in the last decade. It's harrowing, heatbreaking and, in the end, beautifully redemptive.
I would like to state that I was stunned by how full the orchestra was for a Tuesday night (though I have no idea what the mezz. was like). And the response was overwhelming. I hope more and more people are finding this wonderful, entertaining (I will NOT use the term 'important' because that scares people...even though it is...very important) work. Run and see it. No matter what awards other shows have won, this is truly the best musical of the year.
The second that washing machine started in singing, I thought, 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph, am I in for a looooooooooong evening.' I just didn't think I could buy into the conceit of this show.
And then, not much later, I found myself completely absorbed in this story and the lives of the people on the stage of the Eugene O'Neill. One of the reasons I'd been putting it off was because of the adjectives I'd heard bandied about regarding this show: pretentious, slow, dark, intimate. Although I love my Tony Kushner and adore my Georgie Wolfe, I've never been a huge fan Jeanine Tesori. And the thought of a sung-through piece of just her music made my head throb.
I also was wary of another 'serious musical'. I loved PARADE and WILD PARTY and wished they had succeeded. But I also knew that one of the reasons they failed commercially was they were crushed by the weight of their darkness. They were unrelenting in their seriousness. And I feared the same for this show. What was so shocking, then, was the lightness with which this story was told. I thought it was going to be a miserable show about a miserable woman. Instead, the compassion and love that the authors and actors had for their characters made the evening almost fairy-tale like. I've rarely, if ever, seen a show with so many well-drawn characters. This goes to show you that you don't need major songs or soliliquies to express character. Sometimes, brief moments brilliantly acted is all one needs to get to the very core of a character. I'm thinking of David Constabile, who plays the Noah's (Harrison Chad) father. He has very little to do in the show, but it's so honestly written and performed that it's all that is needed to make a big impact.
I had heard the score was one that needs to be heard several times to really be appreciated...and I'm sure that's true. But on first hearing, the sounds of that era (1963) rise and meld to somehow create the perfect vocabulary for this tale. I found nothing pretentious or even off-putting about the score. It was, on its own terms, perfection.
The performances were all truly terrific. There was not one character on that stage (including singing appliances) that was in any way a caricature. Even the Trotskyite father of Rose (Veanne Cox) was given a depth that most other authors would not accord. Anika Noni Rose is enchanting as Emmie. The boys who play her two brothers are amazingly unmannered child actors. Veanne Cox is both hilarious and heartbreaking as the stepmother who is only trying to do right. Harrison Chad simply is the young Tony Kushner. And then there's the force of nature that is Tonya Pinkins. At times terrifying and hilarious, she shades her performance so beautifully that you can't help but love this angry, miserable woman. 'Lot's Wife', the number from the Tonys, is one of the greatest moments of theatre in the last decade. It's harrowing, heatbreaking and, in the end, beautifully redemptive.
I would like to state that I was stunned by how full the orchestra was for a Tuesday night (though I have no idea what the mezz. was like). And the response was overwhelming. I hope more and more people are finding this wonderful, entertaining (I will NOT use the term 'important' because that scares people...even though it is...very important) work. Run and see it. No matter what awards other shows have won, this is truly the best musical of the year.
"I'm so looking forward to a time when all the Reagan Democrats are dead."
