David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
iflitifloat
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/10/03
#0David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:34am
My husband asked me to post his review of Neurotica, which he saw for the second time (by himself...I was stuck at work...) on Thursday night:
On its face, David Gurland's cabaret show is both bizarre and mundane. It is, all at once, a parody and an homage to Madonna. Its premise, in other words, is standard fare in today's post-modern world. The execution, on the other hand, is extraordinary.
Right from the opening kick-ass rendition of "Like A Prayer," we're aware of an exceptional voice, rich, warm, cocoa butter rubbed onto the familiar skin of Madonna's corpus. The sound is Madonna's, and not Madonna's -- smoother, deeper. It's beyond gender, switching, when it needs to, between a strong male voice, and something more feminine, and back again, effortlessly. In songs like "Live to Tell “the notes are big and round, a Mondavi cabernet drunk right at the winery, familiar yet now luscious.
Gurland re-interprets Madonna's own songs to good advantage, as in "Frozen." In the original, the focus is on herself-"if *I* can melt your heart." David tells us, instead, "if I can melt *your* heart." Numbers like "Borderline" are sung more as ballads, which is not only right for cabaret, but right for the song as well ("quick-er than a raaay of lighhahaht..."). A terrific backup group of three musicians and two singers provides some extra juice, without ever stealing the limelight.
Gurland's singing is never imitative, but it can mimic, when it wants to gently mock, as in a rollicking version of "La Isla Bonita." Yet like all great cabaret, there's a minimum of patter. Instead, we get a loving parody, including a short, hilarious reading from "The English Roses." At the start, out bounds this short, muscular, thirty-ish man, balding hair cut so short it's the same length as his face's three-day shadow. An hour later, you see nothing more than a handsome cabaret singer who has breathed new life into songs that that yesterday seemed too stale for anything but an oldies radio station.
The show I saw in mid-August had less shtick than it did in the spring; the voice and music confidently carry it along. Yet there still is the plaid schoolgirl skirt, held closed by a large gold safety pin, and the black sleeveless muscle t-shirt with sequins across the chest: "M O T H E R". (Six letters, completing a compound word, appear on the back.) There's still the audio snippets of Madonna between the songs, her familiar voice damning itself with embarrassing pronouncements about everything from farts to the first amendment, mostly, of course, about her own ego.
And yet Gurland's show never crosses the border of parody into meanness. "For all you Madonna fans-and if you're not, why are you here?" he asks, at one point. Me, I came back a second time because this show has made me a David Gurland fan.
Sueleen Gay: "Here you go, Bitch, now go make some fukcing lemonade." 10/28/10
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#1re: David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:57amThere's really nothing more I can add to that. All I can say is, if it were possible for David and Robbie to have a child, said child would probably take over the entertainment world.
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
iflitifloat
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/10/03
#2re: David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:29pmHas it been mentioned anywhere that Neurotica is going to have an open-ended run this fall at a different venue?
Sueleen Gay: "Here you go, Bitch, now go make some fukcing lemonade." 10/28/10
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#3re: David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:40pm
It has. I mentioned it on the previous Neurotica thread, but I think we should mention it here for good measure.
FRIDAYS at 7:30 p.m. starting October 14th
Doors open 1/2 hour before show
at Ace of Clubs
9 Great Jones (at Lafayette St, across from Fez)
$15 cover at the door - no minimum
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
iflitifloat
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/10/03
#4re: David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:45pm
Ah...that's where I saw it the second time. I like that place...it is well suited for David's show and it is quite a bit less expensive than at Encores. Cool. It means I can go again. And again.
I think a BWW night at Neurotica is in order, yes?
Sueleen Gay: "Here you go, Bitch, now go make some fukcing lemonade." 10/28/10
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#5re: David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:50pmWithout a doubt.
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
Roger-the-Cabin-Boy
Chorus Member Joined: 6/10/05
#6re: David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:55pm
"And yet Gurland's show never crosses the border of parody into meanness.."
Oh, darn.
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#7re: David Gurland's NEUROTICA - A review from the periphery.
Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:58pmBut it does skate RIGHT up to the edge of said border and stay there for a while.
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
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