Dessa Rose???

So finally I am listening to this CD and I am wondering how they changed this fast between Old Ruth and Young Ruth (both Rachel York) and Old Dessa and Young Dessa (both La Chanze). How did they make it on stage?

Could somebody explain?

Thanks

Okay, so it was nothing spectacular?
Thanks very much.

I quite enjoyed this technqiue actually, since York and LaChanze delivered it so beautifully.

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For myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the show in every aspect of the production. I saw the show three times (woulh have seen it more if it lasted longer). Though the technique used gave away the ending, I felt it allowed you to focus on and appreciate the two women's journey through life.

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I thought the device of using Dessa Rose and Ruth as elderly narrators worked beautifully for this show. I agree with apdarcey that the whole story is based on oral traditions. Much of black history and women's history would have been lost had it not been for the storytelling passed on through the generations. In DESSA ROSE, you get a palpable sense of what these women went through and how their impact on one another lasted their whole lives.

I don't think any drama was lost at all by knowing that the women survived. I again agree with apdarcey that the focus was on the growth of the women as individuals and their relationship. And there WAS a dramatic build-up in wanting to know what direction their lives took. Do they stay together? Where do they end up? What about Nathan and Ruth? Do their daughters grow up together? Having read the book, the ending came as a surprise to me. In the book, Dessa's child is a boy, and the naming happens about halfway through the story. The way Lynn Ahrens incorporated that element into the stage production was a stroke of genius.

The ways in which LaChanze and Rachel York moved back and forth between their younger and elderly selves on stage were seamless and graceful. Their vocal and postural changes seemed very natural, and their personalities shone through beautifully. In listening to the CD, it's amazing to me how they are able to communicate all the nuances of their performances using voice alone. Nothing is lost, in my opinion.

In fact, in listening to the CD I came to realize that the eldery women DON'T narrate that much of the show. The use of the device was quite judicious on the part of Lynn Ahrens. It adds to the emotional impact by letting us react to the drama of the young women being acted out and by bringing us inside the minds of the old women as they relive their own pasts. I thought it was quite effective.

DESSA ROSE definitely breaks from musical theater convention. It is more of a dramatic oral history set to music than a traditional book musical, but for me, it was very moving. In all honesty, it's quite possibly the most powerful musical theater experience I have ever had - and I have been seeing shows of all kinds for more than 30 years. I wish it long life in regional theater.

LC

apdarcey,

Thanks for the compliment! I do enjoy writing. And you are right. I have been a member for much longer than my joined date states. There was a mix up with my log in information, and I had to register a second time. I have been on the boards for a year and a half.

Let me enable my pm feature. I'd love to hear from you.

LC

bump

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Ahhhhh!

Well, that was constructive.

Updated On: 1/10/06 at 10:16 PM

I actually really liked the opening number of the show- if I ever get the CD, it will be for that song. (It's "We Are Descended", right?)

But really, I have to say that the old/young transitions, and the use of the elderly Ruth and Dessa in general, just didn't work for me. There was way too much exposition where there should have been action, especially in the first act. Yes, I know "oral tradition" was a theme, but I don't think that justifies something that works so poorly onstage. They could have just shown the elderly Ruth and Dessa at the end or something.

Rachel York was magnificent, and Kenita Miller, who was in that day, was wonderful in her part as well, but even they couldn't prop that material up completely.

And yes, apdarcey, I know this is an old, old disagreement between us.

They must have had to cut things then. I'm not sure that's legal. Unless Lynn and Steve revised it. There are direct references to age in the show.

hmm that's weird. If I saw an actor say at the top of the show "At this age my mind wanders." I would immediatly say... "what age?!" I personally feel that playing the age was what sold me on Rachel York's performance. It just reinforeced the sense of "storytelling" for me. That's what Ahrens and Flaherty have been doing forever. Very once on this island-esque

I suppose it would make the production much less literal. I think Steve Suskin said that he thought that was what was wrong with the show. It was staged too literally.