City Center's 24-25 Season: Ragtime, Urinetown, LaChiusa's Wild Party, Love Life- Page 20

[yfs]

Posted: 3/27/25 at 5:07pm

I haven't read the article but in my one interview with Hal Prince he was very vocal about how much Love Life meant to him and how influential it had been on his thinking once he became a director. 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/27/25 at 5:35pm

From all I've read, I do see her point that playing up the kids sentimentalizes the show which maybe mixes its intention.

I found Steve Suskin's review interesting.  I know him mostly as a Broadway historian (his amazing but rather academix book on the history of Broadway orchestrations, etc) but he seems to have it out for Love Life in general calling it basically "a bad musical" I expected him to be one of the few defenders, and indeed he seems to think the Encores changes were mostly wise.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/27/25 at 5:39pm

yfs said: "I haven't read the article but in my one interview with Hal Prince he was very vocal about how much Love Life meant to him and how influential it had been on his thinking once he became a director."

Is that interview online anywhere?  I don't doubt you--and the article does make a much stronger case than I was aware of before for these influences--at least when it comes to Prince, Ebb, and Fosse, not so much Sondheim.  And I can't help thinking when Prince helped re-conceive Girls Upstairs into Follies, that with Loveland, the final Minstrel Show (or whatever it's been changed to now) sequence was on his mind, although there is precedent for that as well in the final longest "dream", the Circus Dream, of Kurt Weill's much bigger earlier Broadway hit, Lady in the Dark (which Suskin feels was a bigger influence on later concept musicals than Love Life, or Allegro for that matter.  Hrmm.)

In Prince's own memoir and elsewhere I've read a lot about how Josh Logan's staging for South Pacific, a year after Love Life, was a huge influence on his take on musicals, and blew him away--which of course had little to do with 'concept' but was known for its groundbreaking "cinematic" qualities with seamless "wipes" being used for scene changes so that the action would never stop, etc.

 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 3/27/25 at 10:25pm

Kate was great. Stokes was great. I love Kurt Weill.

 

The show was torture to sit through.

[yfs]

Posted: 3/27/25 at 11:55pm

I described it as an interview, but it was not formal (I was invited rot his office) and it was never published. 

[Skip23]

Posted: 3/27/25 at 11:58pm

TotallyEffed said: "Kate was great. Stokes was great. I love Kurt Weill.



The show was torture to sit through."


Talk about “Old School”. Creaky with all the seams showing. But John Edwards is a Star. Next up for him - Leading Player in PIPPIN.  

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/28/25 at 12:33am

The average age of the folks around tonight led me to believe most of them took their grandkids to the original production in 1948 and hoo-boy did a lot of them HATE this. Lots of walk-outs and people not coming back after intermission I noticed. More looking at phones than I've noticed in a long time along with people audibly asking what the hell was happening. 

But while all that was going on, I was fascinated by what I was watching. Some truly gorgeous music (I was familiar with more of it than I thought I'd be) led by arguably two of the best voices we have working in the theater today. As for the book and the show itself, from a purely Theater History standpoint, I was intrigued. I need to read up on just how much was changed from the original because yes, I can understand people saying it was a mess but I was just too busy taking in this show I'd heard about for so long. To me, this is what Encores SHOULD be doing. It's fine that they're doing shows from the 2000's now but getting back to shows written by the likes of Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner with scores people would probably otherwise never hear is so important. 

So while this won't be something I'll be raving about and telling everyone they MUST run to go see before Sunday, I'm so glad I saw it and now know this musical.

[pagereynolds]

Posted: 3/28/25 at 12:49pm

Jordan Catalano said: "The average age of the folks around tonight led me to believe most of them took their grandkids to the original production in 1948 and hoo-boy did a lot of them HATE this. Lots of walk-outs and people not coming back after intermission I noticed. More looking at phones than I've noticed in a long time along with people audibly asking what the hell was happening.

But while all that was going on, I was fascinated by what I was watching. Some trulygorgeous music (I was familiar with more of it than I thought I'd be) led by arguably two of the best voices we have working in the theater today. As for the book and the show itself, from a purely Theater History standpoint, I was intrigued. I need to read up on just how much was changed from the original because yes,I can understand people saying it was a mess but I was just too busy taking in this show I'd heard about for so long. To me, this is what Encores SHOULD be doing. It's finethat they're doing shows from the 2000's now but getting back to shows written by the likes of Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner with scores people would probably otherwise never hear is so important.

So while this won't be something I'll be raving about and telling everyone they MUST run to go see before Sunday, I'm so glad I saw it and now know this musical."

Where were you seated? Nobody at all left at intermission from what I could tell last night in the grand tier.

[mitchern]

Posted: 3/29/25 at 3:07pm

I stayed, but I dozed. And I did have people next to me who said goodbye and left at intermission. A puzzling choice, but with some of the more commercial offerings of late, was glad to see one done that didn't feel like a Broadway tryout. More like their original intention. 

[Mark Waltz]

Posted: 3/30/25 at 7:33am

I saw Love Life last night and was surprised as to how much I enjoyed it, initially apprehensive over seeing the running time, but the very long first act moved surprisingly fast, while the second act (set in the present day of 1948, the show's year of release) seemed like it was way under an hour. I had tickets for it 5 years ago but of course it was canceled so as a last minute decision decided to see what I had hoped to see then, especially because of the stars. The kids threaten to walk away with it, but Kate Baldwin, Brian Stokes Mitchell and John Edwards all have fabulous moments. To whoever said he should be the leading player in Pippin, right on! I thought of him immediately during that big sequence in the second act. 

This is definitely perfect for Encore's, and I would like to see more forgotten or lost shows from the 40's and 50's. Only one area in the front mezzanine where I was left at intermission, about three or four people, but everybody else around me stayed. The book is indeed practically non-existent because it seems like a brief dialogue sequence ultimately turns into a musical number, and the production numbers were a lot of fun. I was humming the score which I was not familiar with when I left, at least a few of the songs that stuck in my mind. Kate Baldwin always blows me away with how incredible she is, a powerhouse voice and humorous presence, and having seen her in Finian's Rainbow Giant, Fiorello, and three times in Dolly (with each of the leading ladies), she's a top ranking Broadway leading lady who deserves the types of roles that have made Kelli O'Hara, Carolee Carmello and Beth Leavel more well known in terms of stage star power. 

This was a double day return to the theater for me after not going for a year and a half, having seen All the World's a Stage at the matinee. It's almost a companion show to "The Prom" in terms of a conservative community surrounding the high school, and was quite enjoyable and certainly timely in many ways. 

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 3/30/25 at 9:37am

Saw this last night. Absolutely gorgeous singing. I expected it from Mitchell and Baldwin but the company as a whole just sounded terrific when singing together. It seems some didn’t like the ballet, but I thought it was terrific — reminiscent of Robins. I may in the minority here too, but I thought the kids were underwhelming except when they were tapping. 
 

I appreciated the vaudeville interludes but they came at the expense of character development. The book is a bore and I never felt engaged by the characters.  I hated the ending narratively. 
 

There was a song that sounded just like Brush Up Your Shakespeare and as others have noted it had evocations of Pippin and Follies. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 3/30/25 at 3:54pm

I enjoyed this a lot last night and I was actually a bit puzzled that so many people would leave at intermission because it's far from the worst or even most unusual show I've seen (but hey that's just me).  I think if you go into it just accepting the premise that this same family will show up in different time periods, it really isn't that hard to follow, and I think it has some interesting commentary on how different events and cultural shifts can affect relationships and family.

I liked the songs a lot and I'm glad there will be a cast recording coming out from the UK (though I wish this cast would get recorded) and it's a shame that it had been forgotten for so long.  Particularly a lot of the choral work in early numbers I thought was gorgeous to listen to.  I can see how the book can be challenging to less seasoned theatergoers, but I'm so happy this production was put on.  It's interesting noting the changes after listening to the BBC recording since there are a few differences in the libretto (more than I expected).

I did note that in the program there was a timeline of some of the world events that were happening around each period that this show touches and it mentions that there was always some significant economic downturn shortly after each of the scenes we see.  It did make me wonder whether that was something the audience would be expected to know since it does explain a lot of Samuel Cooper's character and drive.  And thinking of the 1948 scene as being contemporary to when the show first opened does add a different level of immediacy to its messages (and I can't help but wonder what it would be like if the show had extended to the 21st century and the digital age).

It's not that the show is without flaws, but I thought this was about as perfect as an Encores show could get, both in the production and in serving the original mission statement.  What a joy to see these two leads and to have a large ensemble and orchestra to back them up (and I enjoyed the choreography quite a bit too!).  For someone interested in the evolution of musical theater, this was right up my alley and very worthwhile to see.

[EthelMae]

Posted: 3/30/25 at 8:14pm

Hope this has not been discussed before here but I saw today’s matinee of Love Life, which I very much enjoyed, and I have a question about the ending tableau. I was sitting in the Balcony, Row H, about half way back. When the two leads go upstairs and are speaking about how they will try to get back together again, I could only see them from the waist down. I assumed the proscenium was cutting them off but it looked strange with the children looking up at them from the stage. If anyone was sitting closer, can you tell me if you could see the two actors in full?  I assume it was just bad sightlines but I’m curious if it made a difference. Thanks! 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/30/25 at 8:25pm

Yes, you could see them in full. They’re walking the tightrope back towards each other. I don’t think any director who has ever staged a show at City Center has gone up to the balcony and watched how it plays up there - it used to be every single show you couldn’t see half of because of that. 

[EthelMae]

Posted: 3/30/25 at 8:28pm

Thank you so much!

[Shalfoard]

Posted: 3/31/25 at 10:20am

I was in the rear orchestra for the Sunday matinee and couldn't see Baldwin on the tightrope.

I had listened to the BBC radio broadcast of the recent Opera North production and REALLY liked it; it worked for me.  I was looking forward to seeing the Encores production.  No reason to beat a dead horse.  IMHO, the Encores production was truly TERRIBLE.  Vincentelli in the NYT was spot on, actually too kind to the production.  Weill and Lerner deserved better.  I'm glad it's the Opera North production that's been recorded.

Updated On: 3/31/25 at 10:20 AM

[Sauja]

Posted: 4/30/25 at 11:34pm

Wonderful Town rounded out what was, for me, a bit of a bummer of an Encores season in solidly meh fashion. The jokes didn’t land, and it never achieved the kind of zing that it feels like it COULD have had. 
 

Anika Noni Rose, in beautiful voice, is a tough sell as “the frumpy one,” and Aisha Jackson, also sounding lovely, felt like she could have been directed in a daffier or more “man-hungry” way. I kept thinking that I could imagine the show working, but the production in front of me was off somehow. I don’t know the show, so maybe my problem is actually with the material, but this was a bit of a snooze for me.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 4/30/25 at 11:38pm

Cues really needed to be picked up and I admittedly fell asleep several times but the voices on stage were stupendous. The leading ladies voices blended so beautifully together.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/1/25 at 12:11am

This was a disappointment for me.  The pacing is unforgivably slow and the direction is uninspired.  Why cast two women of color if all you're going to give us is Etai Benson's character signaling to Aisha Jackson when he mentions chocolate ice cream...? I cringed so hard. "100 Easy Ways" was over-staged for zero reason, other than to distract from the fact that Anika Noni Rose (who I normally love) is terribly miscast.  She doesn't have the grit and gusto (or sharp comic timing) this role calls for.  Aisha Jackson fares much better.  

The physical production is so cold, dark, and drab. This is a musical comedy!! Where is the color?! Where is the light?!

The evening wasn't without it's pleasures.  The orchestra sounded great, as always, and I agree Anika and Aisha were both in fabulous voice. 

All in all though, a very underwhelming ending to this years' Encores! offerings.

Updated On: 5/1/25 at 12:11 AM

[UWS10023]

Posted: 5/1/25 at 12:18am

I wonder when they will announce next season?

Updated On: 5/1/25 at 12:18 AM

[inception]

Posted: 5/1/25 at 2:18am

UWS10023 said: "I wonder when they will announce next season?"

If you look at the first post of this thread, Kad posted it May 14, 2024.  So perhaps in about 2 weeks time they may be ready to anounce next year's season.

[Shalfoard]

Posted: 5/1/25 at 2:23am

Here's what the original production with Rosaline Russell looked like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsxzyqJX5wY

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/1/25 at 5:46am

Shalfoard said: "Here's what the original production with Rosaline Russell looked like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsxzyqJX5wY"

That is one of my all time fave TV productions of a musical, and I listen to its cast album (which is in stereo) more than the original cast album, which does contain two (I believe) songs left out of the actual telecast although What a Waste at any rate isn't performed the way it is on stage.  VAI was planning to release it on DVD remastered as best as possible (they had released the TV Kiss Me Kate, Bloomer Girl, etc) which was confirmed on email to me but I don't know what happened.

Of course it isn't exactly what the original looked like--only some of the original cast is there (most notably, apparently Roz Russell refused to have Edie Adams return as Eileen,) there are some edits, and the original choreography and production is different (with a young Herbert Ross contributing there.)  But it is absolutely terrific to have.

 

[Shalfoard]

Posted: 5/1/25 at 6:58am

BTW, IIRC the periodic explosions actually occurred.  The tunnel were being excavated for the PATH.train.

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 5/1/25 at 7:16am

Wonderful Town was just awful. Lines didn’t land and it was sooo boring. The act 1 dance finale (Conga) was the low point and I left at intermission (seemingly with plenty of other people) and the choreography for  Christopher Street was chaotic but not in a good way.
 

I love the score and Kathleen Marshall and Donna Murphy showed how good this can be (and Murphy was so great that every actress playing Ruth will pale in comparison). I agree that Anika and Aisha sounded terrific, but Aisha’s acting barely scratched the surface of Eileen - she was just a giggling flirt.

There were a bunch of pauses while actors fumbled for their scripts and I can’t figure out what went wrong with What A Waste — it looked like Javier picked up a section for another another actor but then went up on the lyrics. The set was very confusing because it was unclear what was happening inside the apartment and what was outside. And I don’t recall the scene where Ruth’s short stories were acted out as they are read from the Marshall production.  Perhaps it was wisely cut?