Dave Malloy's THREE HOUSES at Signature- Page 2

[sm33]

Posted: 5/19/24 at 11:34pm

Organized my spring trip around seeing this show, and yeah, absolutely worth it. I liked this even more than I liked Octet, probably because the sound is a little more reminiscent of Comet/GQ and those are my favorite Malloy pieces.

Despite the fact that it's about the pandemic, something I was really not begging for a musical about, it was funny and dark and weird and specific in a way that really worked for me (like most of his work, tbh). I enjoyed the theme, the lyrical patterns that are introduced and reinforced throughout, and most of the performances - as another commenter mentioned, JD Mollison doesn't really do it for me, either.

Not sure to how to do the spoiler cut, so I'll be vague, but I will say a specific detail present in every story had me googling his personal life, and my suspicion was borne out.

Really hope we are getting a cast album!

[kurtal]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 3:06pm

I saw this on Thursday and I was not ready.

I'm a huge Malloy stan, but I don't think he's beyond reproach (Moby Dick was an hour too long; Don't Stop Me has too many plot lines; Octet felt like a first draft of an idea).  That said, I always appreciate his willingness to take big swings, and I always take something away from his work.

The second I realized this was about the pandemic, my shoulders tensed.  I've seen a few pieces recently set in and around the pandemic, and it almost always feels too soon (I Love You So Much I Could Die is a noteworthy exception).  But the way each "house" centers on one person's lived experience during the pandemic kept It grounded and easy to relate to.  Each of the sections brought up different emotions for me, and by the end I was a complete puddle.

Somehow Malloy managed to represent the trauma of the pandemic in a way that was relatable, hilarious, devastating, and cathartic.  Honestly, I feel like sending him a bill for rent because it certainly felt like he's been living in my head for much of the last few years.  

It's a challenging piece (it's Malloy after all), and each of the sections could probably be tightened up by 3-4 minutes.  But I found the show beautifully moving overall.  Strong recommend

[steve.sometime]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 12:10am

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/theater/three-houses-review-dave-malloy.html

[raddersons]

Posted: 5/22/24 at 3:03pm

Extended thru June 16th.

[DoTheDood]

Posted: 6/2/24 at 6:31pm

I did a three show day yesterday of Stereophonic, Titanique, and this, and Three Houses was the highlight of my trip, absolutely adored it. This might be a bit of an out there reference, but I kept thinking about the way the pandemic was handled is in a similar vain as how Bo Burnham handled it in his special, Inside. It is "about" the pandemic, but is far more universal, using that as a catalyst to dissect these characters' vices and over excessive self-isolation.

Have to agree with Margo Seibert and Mia Pak being standouts (though the whole cast is solid, including J.D. Mollison). Dying for the cast album already, and I hope this has life after this run, would love to see it again

Updated On: 6/2/24 at 06:31 PM

[raddersons]

Posted: 6/12/24 at 11:14pm

Margo Siebert confirmed on the Signature Theater instagram that a Kickstarter to help fund a cast album will be coming out soon. I imagine it will reach its goal quickly like the Octet one, so a cast album is more or less confirmed.

She also talked about how The Wolf had a song in early previews but it was cut. Such a shame, I actually think The Wolf is the least developed character and I would have loved for him to get a song. Well, outside of the dance. 

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 6/16/24 at 1:23pm

I was lukewarm on Natasha, and I missed Octet, so I was curious to see another Malloy project. The talent is there- like in Natasha, some lyrical moments and melodies are just perfect and haunting in the best way. And while the style isnt necessarily for me- both shows kinda felt like a jumble of one long song without stops/starts-- i liked what he constructed here in many ways.

And if it werent for the last 1/3 of the show, i might have loved the whole damn thing. What felt like subtle through-lines in the first two pieces came bursting out the seams in the third, hitting us over the head with an extreme version of loneliness/delusion that undermines the first two. Part of it was the cute, fun way the "puppets" were include in Parts 1 and 2 vs the heavyhanded monster in Part 3; part of it was the absence of color/detail around the physical space being lovingly described (a house in the Latvian woods, a New Mexico mansion and a reconstructed childhood paradise vs.... a bare room in Bklyn); part of it was JD Mollison, who was harder to understand and less spectacular (but still v good!) than Margot Seibert or Mia Pak. 

but it just felt like the steam seeped out in the third piece, and the overt tying it all together failed. Why abandon the open mic thing entirely? Why ignore how the third character came out of the pandemic, while having him be all hostile to the Wolf? Who the hell was the Wolf really? 

Feels like this needed a workshop or two to make more sense, but I guess they think it does, so the loss is all mine. Loved the cast, loved the staging, would pay to see a show that is just Mia Pak telling stories through song. 

[Skip23]

Posted: 6/16/24 at 3:48pm

I probably would’ve enjoyed it more if I could’ve understood what the singers were singing about.  Especially Margo. Why is it that this is happening in so many shows lately?  Even with a mike, you still have to enunciate properly…

 

It’s also staggering how the performers actually learned all the material. 
 

 

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 6/16/24 at 3:54pm

I saw the show and loved much of it.  I have seen many things at The Signature.  Sometimes with these playwright residencies, or whatever you call them, I feel like the playwright has a homework assignment due and they write something to fulfill that assignment.  Or maybe they have a draft of something sitting around that they try out. Maybe that isn't a bad thing.... it's just the way it feels to me.

[schubox]

Posted: 9/3/24 at 11:08am

Kickstarter just launched

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davemalloy/three-houses-a-concept-album

[AndreyIsntHere]

Posted: 9/4/24 at 3:45pm

Damn, it’s already reached its goal! Malloy sure has a mighty fandom. Can’t wait to get the digital album and my prizes. 

[schubox]

Posted: 12/23/24 at 12:28pm

A snippet of Birch Trees from the cast album

https://bandcamp.com/private/CM61FV0Y

[Kitsune]

Posted: 12/23/24 at 1:00pm

I say this not meaning to stir things up (I'm also excited about the snippet!), but I think this was meant for Kickstarter backers only.

[Fan123]

Posted: 2/8/25 at 5:44am

The full album will be released on 10 February, with the track 'Haze' already available.

https://davemalloy.bandcamp.com/album/three-houses

[Ptero2]

Posted: 2/14/25 at 1:06am

The cast recording is up on streaming services! Highly recommend giving this a listen if you're a Malloy fan.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 2/14/25 at 2:49pm

I just finished the album. Absolutely phenomenal.

This has some of my favorite orchestrations of any of Dave Malloy's shows. The horn with the strings works so well.

It's incredible how clear his influences and pastiches are, while still sounding completely original and new.

We're never getting another Stephen Sondheim, but with Dave Malloy, we're pretty close. He is the only composer writing for the theatre today that is reaching Sondheim's level, in terms of innovation, intricacy, and experimentation.

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 2/18/25 at 12:55pm

Kinda forgot about this and then came back to listen to it a couple days ago. Really fantastic work by Malloy. Most of these songs don't work outside of the show, but that's absolutely not a problem in my book. There are a few true standalone gems though. Basically any time the grandparents are involved is just gorgeous and each of the main three gets a great solo, birch trees for Susan, haze for Sadie, and love always leaves you for Beckett. the berries and the plums might be my favorite new musical theatre song from last year. It's just gorgeous and heartbreaking and Ching Valdes-Aran and Henry Stram are phenomenal. So glad this show was able to get preserved like this because it doesn't strike me as one that will be produced much in the future. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 2/20/25 at 12:17am

I definitely agree about Malloy being the closest to Sondheim we get nowadays, in no small part due to how much much further study of a show really reveals all the layers it has.  I didn't get a chance to return to this show when it was off Broadway so I'm especially glad to have this album, which I already love quite a bit.  The ending feels different from what I remember so I'm curious how much they changed over the course of the show, but possibly there were just things I didn't quite understand in the first watch either.  The melodic line in Berries and Plums really touches something in me every time I hear it (I'm embarrassed to say I almost cried just hearing it on the album the first time).

There's something about this show that manages to touch on the experience of living through the pandemic in a way nothing else has, despite me having almost nothing in common with any of the characters.  But it also manages to be so much more than that, and I can't even begin to describe all the different themes and ideas that are folded into this piece. It's really an album that kind of demands you sit and listen to the whole thing through, but it tells such a captivating story. What a gorgeous gorgeous show, I truly hope to see it again some day.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 1:50pm

By the way, as he is wont to do, Dave Malloy has put the lyrics on Genius and also included a good amount of spoken dialogue not heard on the cast album.  I don't know if it's the full script but it sure seems close to it (and there are also some annotations about cut verses and such which make it a pretty interesting read to just go through each song)

https://genius.com/albums/Dave-malloy/Three-houses

[raddersons]

Posted: 2/24/25 at 6:28pm

Excellent find on the Genius lyrics. Not as many annotations as you see on other Malloy shows, but this one from the Library song says a lot about the origins of the show from Dave. It also touches on all three houses:

so i don’t want to get toooooooooo into the autobiographical details of this piece, but i do want to shout out and thank the woman who was responsible for the seed of this piece: my dear old friend claudia’s late mother, cynthia gopp. after spending the first three months of the pandemic alone in a brooklyn apartment (with a basement, still crowded with boxes from my move), i realized i had to get the f*** out of nyc; so i went to visit my friend claudia in taos, where i had been earlier in the year (pre-pandemic) for an ayahuasca ceremony. claudia’s mother cynthia had passed away a few years earlier, and her house had been left empty and pretty much untouched. she was a dear old soul i had met many times over the years, but hadn’t really known deeply. i moved into her house, a beautiful adobe ranch home with a porch swing out front, a hot tub out back, and an incredible collection of completely unorganized books. so i spent my days and nights organizing the library, learning who cynthia was in the process. the rest of my time i hung out with claudia and her family, played way too much animal crossing, and plunked out new songs on a beat up old upright i found for $300 on craigslist.