Elaine Strich @ Disney Hall.......Oh boy :-( — Page 2
#27
Posted: 5/20/12 at 9:13pm
I was there and I loved the show... I get what everyone is saying and I agree at times it was tough. She knew it... but i look at it as an amazing opportunity to see a legend before shes gone. I felt the same way seeing Liza at the Hollywood bowl last year , shes not the same Liza , but you take what you can get and appreciate that your one of the lucky ones that get to experience her presence good or bad...as for Elaine I Wish she would have used a telepromter .. and an intermission would have done her good , but still enjoyed it.
#28
Posted: 5/20/12 at 11:34pm
Elaine Stritch salutes the Stephen Sondheim canon with savvy
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-elaine-stritch-20120521,0,7366530.story
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-elaine-stritch-20120521,0,7366530.story
#29
Posted: 5/20/12 at 11:43pm
Maybe I'm a bit of a bitch but I LOVE the antics associated with performers. Watching Stritch drop lines, make up lines and scream backstage in NIGHT MUSIC, watching Alice Ripley struggle to sing NEXT TO NORMAL etc. are among my favourites. I wish I could have been there in LA.
That said, thanks to YouTube - we can watch Stritch perform ROSE'S TURN like an Alzheimer's patent escaped from a hospice from the comfort of our homes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZIYX1-U87Y
That said, thanks to YouTube - we can watch Stritch perform ROSE'S TURN like an Alzheimer's patent escaped from a hospice from the comfort of our homes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZIYX1-U87Y
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
Updated On: 5/20/12 at 11:43 PM
#31
Posted: 5/21/12 at 12:10am
Still waiting for someone to explain how she's considered a "class act".
#32
Posted: 5/21/12 at 12:11am
Jordan, is your post intentionally blank to reflect Elaine Stritch's memory?
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
#33
Posted: 5/21/12 at 1:57am
Shoeguy; last time Liza was at the Bowl was 3 years ago so I don't know who you saw last year. And that queen from the LA times blog is not a real critic.
qolbinau: "And thanks to YouTube - we can watch Stritch perform ROSE'S TURN like an Alzheimer's patent escaped from a hospice from the comfort of our homes"
LOL
qolbinau: "And thanks to YouTube - we can watch Stritch perform ROSE'S TURN like an Alzheimer's patent escaped from a hospice from the comfort of our homes"
LOL
HUSSY POWER!
------ HUSSY POWER!
Updated On: 5/21/12 at 01:57 AM
#34
Posted: 5/21/12 at 2:10am
^ Watching that video was painful. I do not think I could sit through one of her concerts. Two hours of that would do me in... What is she even doing?
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#36
Posted: 5/21/12 at 10:41am
I get the whole "I'm seeing a living legend" thing, but performers need to deliver. Whereas a hardcore theatre nut may love "the antics", most of the audience doesn't.
It's like the last few times I saw Liza, she was shot. I'll never see her again. If you are paying top dollar (not sure what Stritch charges, but Liza is 100++++) you deserve a balls out show. That includes singing the songs, hitting the notes, and delivering the goods.
Oftentimes performs have a "moment" where they screw up and it gives the audience a wonderful electric feeling of seeing the performer at their most transparent. Those are lovely.
What's not lovely and kind of sad is Liza's constant apologies, excuses, being winded, and not delivering anything close to a money note.
Let's not forget these women are on stage to deliver SONGS. They are advertised as vocalists. It's not a night of comedy.
People would pay good money for either of these women to do speaking engagements or interviews on stage where they can sit in a comfy chair, sip tea and tell stories. Maybe it's time for that.
If you can sell the songs and deliver them, stop packaging yourself as such
It's like the last few times I saw Liza, she was shot. I'll never see her again. If you are paying top dollar (not sure what Stritch charges, but Liza is 100++++) you deserve a balls out show. That includes singing the songs, hitting the notes, and delivering the goods.
Oftentimes performs have a "moment" where they screw up and it gives the audience a wonderful electric feeling of seeing the performer at their most transparent. Those are lovely.
What's not lovely and kind of sad is Liza's constant apologies, excuses, being winded, and not delivering anything close to a money note.
Let's not forget these women are on stage to deliver SONGS. They are advertised as vocalists. It's not a night of comedy.
People would pay good money for either of these women to do speaking engagements or interviews on stage where they can sit in a comfy chair, sip tea and tell stories. Maybe it's time for that.
If you can sell the songs and deliver them, stop packaging yourself as such
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#37
Posted: 5/21/12 at 10:48am
I'm sorry to hear that Liza is deteriorating. The last time I saw her, two years ago, she was note-perfect in both style and memory.
I don't know how much Stritch charges when she's on tour, but at the Carlyle it's $125 plus a food/drink minimum (and it's the kind of place where a martini costs $20), plus tax and tip. All together, it can easily come to $200 a person, and that's just too much for me to feel uncomfortable watching a legend forget 80% of her lyrics.
I don't know how much Stritch charges when she's on tour, but at the Carlyle it's $125 plus a food/drink minimum (and it's the kind of place where a martini costs $20), plus tax and tip. All together, it can easily come to $200 a person, and that's just too much for me to feel uncomfortable watching a legend forget 80% of her lyrics.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#38
Posted: 5/21/12 at 11:32am
Time to take grandma's car keys away.
#39
Posted: 5/21/12 at 11:51am
I just saw Liza last week in Las Vegas and she put on a great show. Some notes were not hit but she sang all the songs and told great stories. Her audience was not the show queens but rather a silver haired Vegas crowd. They loved her. Elaines show was painful because she couldn't get through it and like someone else said.. it was like watching a alzeimers patient having a bad episode.
#40
Posted: 5/21/12 at 11:51am
At the same time, audiences HAVE to know what they're getting into. It's not like they wander in off the street not knowing who they're seeing. If you're paying for a ticket to see Elaine Stritch, you know what you're getting. She's been like this for years.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#41
Posted: 5/21/12 at 12:05pm
I saw Elaine on Saturday, as well. Kad, I completely agree with you. Elaine has been like this for years.
My brother turned to me after she repeated the portion of "Rose's Turn" that she forgot and said, "This is so sad." I was able to look past the sadness of seeing an 87 year old losing her memory and enjoy the show.
She was word perfect on Ladies Who Lunch-- sang it in the original key. And even when she needed prompting or said "I need help, Rob," she was able to get back into it.
I'm happy I got to see her.
Could her memory be the reason she's cancelled her other upcoming engagements?
My brother turned to me after she repeated the portion of "Rose's Turn" that she forgot and said, "This is so sad." I was able to look past the sadness of seeing an 87 year old losing her memory and enjoy the show.
She was word perfect on Ladies Who Lunch-- sang it in the original key. And even when she needed prompting or said "I need help, Rob," she was able to get back into it.
I'm happy I got to see her.
Could her memory be the reason she's cancelled her other upcoming engagements?
#42
Posted: 5/21/12 at 12:43pm
it was like watching a alzeimers patient having a bad episode.
Having a grandmother with moderate alzheimer's, I find this really offensive. It's not a disease that should warrant jokes.
Having a grandmother with moderate alzheimer's, I find this really offensive. It's not a disease that should warrant jokes.
#43
Posted: 5/21/12 at 12:47pm
Who was joking? But in any case I am sorry you were offended.
#44
Posted: 5/21/12 at 12:53pm
I don't see that as a joke, I see it as a comparison.
#45
Posted: 5/21/12 at 1:12pm
What's offensive is the people who are saying they like to watch this sort of 'scene'.
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>>
“I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>>
-whatever2
Updated On: 5/21/12 at 01:12 PM
#46
Posted: 5/21/12 at 1:19pm
I agree Diva. I don't get that. It is kind of sick.
HUSSY POWER!
------ HUSSY POWER!
#47
Posted: 5/21/12 at 2:04pm
The bottom line is that people are willing to pay to see her in any condition. Do I think some of those people enjoy the train wreck aspect? Absolutely. But I think the more likely explanation is that she's a legend with fans who are so devoted that they just don't care about their idol being so old that she clearly can no longer perform.
To be honest, I think the audience and concert promoters are at fault here. So are Elaine's management. They should be able to identify that enough is enough. Let her retire with dignity.
To be honest, I think the audience and concert promoters are at fault here. So are Elaine's management. They should be able to identify that enough is enough. Let her retire with dignity.
#48
Posted: 5/21/12 at 2:15pm
This David C. Nichols, the LA Times critic or blogger, is the most pretentious thing I've read in a long time:
weaving her sandpaper Sprechstimme around Sondheim's lyrics to wryly irresistible, post-Noel Coward effect
In one sentence he invokes Bertolt Brecht AND Noel Coward! (Excuse me, "Post Noel Coward.")
And what the hell is "wryly irrestible" anyway? Who's on wry? The resister or the resistee?
The next sentence seems to randomly assign fussy modifiers with wrongly used cliches. Watch how he combines all the words in boldface in one sentence:
She followed up that droll insouciance with a jaw-dropping coup: a starkly visceral take on "Rose's Turn" from "Gypsy" that brought the id of that classic into electrifying bas-relief.
That's one starkly visceral, jaw-droppingly insouciant sentence!
Where do I even begin to pick that apart? Am I the only one who never knew that "Rose's Turn" had...an id? What does it look like in bas-relief?
And does anyone here still wear...an id?
And I bet musical director Rob Bowman has bever been called "the fulcrum of a swank six-piece combo" before.
I'm not sure, but I think "upped-ante song reboot" means she started the song all over again. In case you were wondering.
And remember kids: Whenever the word "moxie" doesn't have enough moxie for ya, ya can always call it "tightrope-walking moxie"...because walking a tightrope always makes things moxier.
And never use one word when you can use two: It's not "veneration but "genuine veneration," not "ad libs" but "sassy ad libs,"not "elegiac" but "quietly elegiac"--and don't forget that "Love Is in the Air" is "dove-toned."
But he saves the best for the last: Not only does David C. Nichols call Elaine a "diseuse," he calls her an "ever-infectious diseuse."
weaving her sandpaper Sprechstimme around Sondheim's lyrics to wryly irresistible, post-Noel Coward effect
In one sentence he invokes Bertolt Brecht AND Noel Coward! (Excuse me, "Post Noel Coward.")
And what the hell is "wryly irrestible" anyway? Who's on wry? The resister or the resistee?
The next sentence seems to randomly assign fussy modifiers with wrongly used cliches. Watch how he combines all the words in boldface in one sentence:
She followed up that droll insouciance with a jaw-dropping coup: a starkly visceral take on "Rose's Turn" from "Gypsy" that brought the id of that classic into electrifying bas-relief.
That's one starkly visceral, jaw-droppingly insouciant sentence!
Where do I even begin to pick that apart? Am I the only one who never knew that "Rose's Turn" had...an id? What does it look like in bas-relief?
And does anyone here still wear...an id?
And I bet musical director Rob Bowman has bever been called "the fulcrum of a swank six-piece combo" before.
I'm not sure, but I think "upped-ante song reboot" means she started the song all over again. In case you were wondering.
And remember kids: Whenever the word "moxie" doesn't have enough moxie for ya, ya can always call it "tightrope-walking moxie"...because walking a tightrope always makes things moxier.
And never use one word when you can use two: It's not "veneration but "genuine veneration," not "ad libs" but "sassy ad libs,"not "elegiac" but "quietly elegiac"--and don't forget that "Love Is in the Air" is "dove-toned."
But he saves the best for the last: Not only does David C. Nichols call Elaine a "diseuse," he calls her an "ever-infectious diseuse."
Updated On: 5/21/12 at 02:15 PM
#49
Posted: 5/21/12 at 2:19pm
This is why you are a national treasure. I hope you subsume my regard.
Twitter @NamoInExile
Instagram none
Updated On: 5/21/12 at 02:19 PM
#50
Posted: 5/21/12 at 2:26pm
David C. Nichols, the LA Times critic or blogger, is the most pretentious thing I've read in a long time:
Sweet imbecilities tumbling so lavishly onto his lap.
Sweet imbecilities tumbling so lavishly onto his lap.
Tickets From $59
Tickets From $71
Tickets From $71
Tickets From $95