Dessa Rose ticketing question...

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/7/05 at 6:12pm

What's the deal with Dessa Rose not currently offering discount tickets? It got horrible reviews, is at TKTS every night, and they isn't a valid discount code out there?

Posted: 4/7/05 at 6:19pm

Check their website; Lincoln Center has a Student Discount program...

Warning: If you don't have one valid student ID per ticket ordered, they really won't give you your ticket.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/7/05 at 6:20pm

Do u have to have your student ID when you come to the show or just when you purchase it?

[TGIF]

Posted: 4/7/05 at 6:30pm

It is also on TDF.

[Plum]

Posted: 4/7/05 at 7:21pm

It's a bit unfair to say it got horrible reviews. The critics were mixed-to-negative, I think. "Horrible" is a good word for the Good Vibrations or Dracula reviews.

Anyway, I imagine a lot of the tickets are being sold to subscribers.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/7/05 at 7:25pm

Yes, you have to present ID when you pick up your tickets. The only way to get the tickets when you use the new student program is to pick them up at the box office the day of the performnance, for ID checking purposes, I'd assume.

Updated On: 4/7/05 at 07:25 PM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 11:49am

Yes, not horrible reviews-but I think in terms of them selling tickets or getting a transfer to a commerical venue, they were horribly damaging.

[twogaab2]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 12:28pm

To quote someone who saw the show with me last night, as we left the theater "The critics are morons". In this case, I thourougly agree. Dessa Rose is a well concidered, beautifully structured, excelently written, superbly acted, delightfully sung, extrodinarly moving experience.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 12:30pm

Beautifully structured? Aside from the music being totally forgettable, the book was horribly problematic.

[twogaab2]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 12:32pm

More specific information required. Please give examples.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 12:38pm

I thought the choice to have Dessa and Ruth narrating scenes at the age of 85 from within scenes they were acting 16 and 25 (or whatever the exact ages were) was a painfully bad decision. It detracted from the overall story (you knew it would all end well for them) and was just very clumsy. If you need a narrator, write one in. Or write the book more clearly and coherently and then you don't need someone to give huge chunks of exposition.

[twogaab2]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 12:43pm

This is just a matter of opinion, not a critism of the structural arc of the piece. I found the narration extremely charming.

Just my opinion, I may be wrong.

[Plum]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 12:44pm

Not to mention some of the unbearably obvious lines. A character should never have to tell the audience "I changed." That's the supreme instance of "show, don't tell."

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 1:01pm

Exactly. It's not a matter of opinion, it's a criticism of the structure. Had the book been a darn sight clearer, there would have been no need for the constant addressing of the audience in faux old lady voices to tell us things that we could have worked out for ourselves if it had been written better.

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 1:45pm

the critics were maybe a little harsh but nothing they said was out of line or unjustified. you always can disagree, but then its only fair that a critic who presents the criteria and properly justifies his statements ought to be free to express his opinion. Peter Marks said at one point that it isn't their job to speak for the public, only to speak for themselves. The public can't even speak for the public most of the time.

Old-fashioned, stringent, one-sided, narrow-minded, all are reasonable terms to critique a critic. But trying to do so thru personal insults will only emphasize the difference between "educated analyst doing consistent work" and "pissy fan with pen-envy". So maybe it gets a little elitist or even snobbish at times. Let the critics have their high standards in their field, and they'll let us have things like free time and personal lives.

that said, I loved DESSA ROSE despite the glaring imperfections all mentioned already. It's easy to sit there and point out the cliches and imbalances, but I found it to be one show where I could get swept up in the emotion and music to the point where I lost my desire to find flaws. If I didn't like the score so much, I'd have much more to say about the problems in the show. But then I might have run the risk of being called ugly names, so thanks yet again Flaherty/Ahrens. I'm seeing it again Sunday and anticipate a fine time.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 1:57pm

that said, I loved DESSA ROSE despite the glaring imperfections all mentioned already.

See, I am all for loving a flawed show, and God knows none of the shows I love are universally adored and I did want to enjoy Dessa Rose, but I just couldn't do it.

[Plum]

Posted: 4/8/05 at 2:05pm

That's like me and Sunday in the Park With George. Problematic structure? Heavens yes. Does it stop me from crying like a little baby every time I hear "We Do Not Belong Together"? No way. :)