FAR FROM HEAVEN reviews

[notabb]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 8:34am

This show has gotten feedback that ranges from hated it to loved it and much in between. I loved it and wish it well with many good reviews.. Here's hoping for a cd too.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 1:51pm

My personal Review
Saw it 6/1/13 at 8 pm

The brilliant film Far From Heaven was a modern take on the fifty's soap opera. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, it satirized the perfect fifty's family and the fifty's soap opera with opulent fifty's soap opera colors and great attention to detail. It was full of surprising plot twists and turns. It took us into forbidden territory not allowed in the original fifty's soap opera such as homosexual longings and miscegenation. It informed us with no holds barred that the perfect family was a lie and that the fifty's values were far from heaven. A great film in so many ways.


Instead of getting a satire or a fresh modern take on the fifty's soap opera, the Muscial Far From Heaven gives us a mundane soap opera with atonal music which gives the audience no doubt or theatrical tension where this plot is going.
It makes us not care about the couple in question as we know they are doomed from moment one. The doom is firmly planted in the lugubrious music.


The show may have worked if they opened with and heightened the concept of the Fifty's Perfect Modern Family; made everyone likeable from the get go. Great father; great mother; great kids...perhaps even a peppy opening number called "The Perfect Modern Family." Then we could have seen the family disentegrate as the night bore on. Instead we get sad music, sad situations, sad plot and sad people. The result? An unsatisfied audience.


The musical Far From Heaven is ... well Far From Heaven. The music was atonal and discordant. The tone is far from peppy; it is soap opera dirge. Two women after the show were heard saying "how do you do a musical with not one good song.?" The applause was polite.



There are big flaws in the direction, writing and conceptualization. It makes me think the Richard Greenberg, a very good playwright, should not be adapting other peoples' work. Breakfast at Tiffany's was a hatchet job on his part and he seems to be struggling to swim on this one.

Director Michael Grieff and librettist Richard Greenberg nor its composers did not rethink this as a musical and this is why musical is a misfire. The incessant projections kept reminding me that it should have stayed a film.



The cast is first rate and they can not make this material take flight. Kelli O 'Hara does all she can as does the cast. Quincy Bernstein as Sybil the maid is a stand out. It is not their fault. The only problematic performance is Stephen Pasquale as the father. I'm not certain if he was directed to be so unlikeable from the get go or that was his choice. Either way it is a misfire. Having that character unlikeable from the get go gives the show nowhere to go. We don't root for their relationship; the relationship is doomed from the opening notes and falling leaves.

This show falls into the category of musicals that started as great films and became unsatisfactory musicals. Musicals like "Ghost"or "The Color Purple."

I am of the opinion that if you can't improve upon the original material than don't do it. It's not only far from heaven, it's far from good.

[notabb]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 2:10pm

Goldenboy, how many threads do you have post the same review. You didn't like the show , we get it. Obviously , this was for the real reviews. Also, I don't care that you hate the score but please learn the definition of atonal. The score to FAR FROM HEAVEN is not atonal.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 4:28pm

I know it's al about perspective, but I'm not sure I would call the film "firmly tongue in cheek." It has irony, and was a homage but I don't think most people watching it laughed and rolled their eyes throughout.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 7:13pm

I use this forum to express my heartfelt instinctual reactions to theatre pieces. I always seem to offend someone with my outlook. You are always welcome to express your instinctual reaction especially if it contradicts with mine.

The show really bothered me and I couldn't put my finger on why. I thought about it and came up with my review. I'm sorry if you don't agree with me or find it duplicitous which it isn't--. This is a longer more thought out
review than the quick reation I had on another board. I'm curious to see how the professional reviews match up to or disagree with mine.

As for the tongue in cheek look at fifties' ... it was a very subtle tongue in cheek comment on fifties mores. Not an overstated over the top tongue in cheek complete with guffaws.

If you don't want me to keep writing how much I thought this show was a total misfire, than stop feeding energy to it by telling me how wrong I am or telling me I am double posting.

It's just an opinion.



Updated On: 6/2/13 at 07:13 PM

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 7:36pm

atonality (?e?t???næl?t?, ?æ-) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]

— n
1. absence of or disregard for an established musical key in a composition
2. the principles of composition embodying this and providing a radical alternative to the diatonic system

sounded atonal to me.

[NewYorkTheater2]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 8:09pm

To enjoy “Far From Heaven” without reservation, it might help to stay away from Netflix....
Far From Heaven Review

[mc1227]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 8:25pm

I have never seen the movie so my take on the production was based solely on what i saw on stage. For me, it was a disconnected production. Kelli is exquisite as usual but it was an uninspiring experience for me.

[notabb]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 8:34pm

Golden boy, you can read , right? I never said you were wrong. I always noted people have a wide range of opinions on this so don't put words in my mouth or say I said things I didn't. All you have to do is look at my first post on this thread to know I see people feel very differently about this.

[dexter3]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 9:42pm

I haven't seen the show, but both reviews posted so far are heinously condescending.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 10:22pm

AP is very positive: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/review-romance-and-racism-mix-and-the-musical-far-from-heaven-is-pretty-close-to-heavenly/2013/06/02/9ef0eeb4-cbe5-11e2-8573-3baeea6a2647_story.html

NY Times is mixed: http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/theater/reviews/far-from-heaven-at-playwrights-horizons.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Talkin' Broadway is negative: http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/6_02_13.html

Newsday is mixed to negative: http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/far-from-heaven-review-far-from-great-1.5380886

TheaterMania is negative: http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/06-2013/far-from-heaven_65279.html

Hollywood Reporter is positive: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/far-heaven-theater-review-561656

EW is mixed to positive with a C+: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20364394_20705611,00.html

NY Mag is negative: http://www.vulture.com/2013/06/theater-review-far-from-heaven.html

AM NY is positive: http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-far-from-heaven-3-5-stars-1.5390903

Time Out NY is mixed with three out of five stars: http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/far-from-heaven

Bloomberg is mixed: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-03/-far-from-heaven-returns-as-heavy-handed-musical-review.html

NY Post is mixed to positive with three out of four stars: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/sounds_heaven_sent_R1gJdeovYMcrRzJVaKgdgJ?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Theater

Updated On: 6/2/13 at 10:22 PM

[mc1227]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 10:34pm

Seems as if the critics are as divided about this production as most of this board's posters are.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 10:53pm

Ben Brantley's intricately excessive love letters to pretty blonde actresses continue to be downright creepy.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 11:20pm

Brantley can't help it. He puts his fetish above fair dramatic critism. We need to respect that.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 11:22pm

Maybe it's instinctual, for him. Since that's the word you like to use.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 11:35pm

NY Daily News is mixed with three out of five stars: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/heaven-theater-review-article-1.1359778

Variety is mixed to negative: http://variety.com/2013/legit/reviews/legit-review-far-from-heaven-1200491156/

Updated On: 6/3/13 at 11:35 PM

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 11:42pm

Now now Namo... there is no need to be instinctualy bitchy.
I guess you can't help it. It's instinctual.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 11:52pm

No it's a learned behavior.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 11:54pm

Well you may have a point. There is a lot of it on these boards.

[egghumor]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 12:07am

WiCkEDrOcKS, thanks so much for posting all the reviews. I think you're generous with the term "mixed."

[notabb]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 12:18am

Don't think yourself above the fray , Goldenboy , your pretty bitchy yourself.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 12:57am

I don't jump on people because they have an opinion. Or they dare to speak out. Or find a word in their postings...AND HARP ON IT.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 1:54am

Brantley has forgotten to write a review again.

"Playing layers has never been Ms. O’Hara’s strength. What makes her one of the best performers in musicals today is her direct, unconditionally sincere way with a song."

Examples? Like...?

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 2:12am

i don't think the variety review was mixed, I am going to say a full out pan.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 9:56am

Thanks, WickedRocks, for putting that list together. The reviews really are all over the place! I am guessing the show, aside from such divided reviews, will still have a life after this run, what with those involved and selling out the run.