Far From Heaven musical at Playwright Horizons

[bigbelterbaby]

Posted: 11/5/16 at 5:44pm

thoughts on this show? It looks like Far From Heaven is now available for amateur licensing through the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog. http://www.rnh.com/show/343/Far-From-Heaven . If you click on "Upcoming" the University of Nebraska is performing it for their Spring 2017 Musical. 

I was really excited for this 2 years ago but it seems like Kelli O'Hara did Bridges instead and this show died. Would love to see it on Broadway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLGGrQmUQ1c

..

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 11/5/16 at 5:50pm

The Julianne Moore film is one of my all-time favorite movies.

As for this show, I've only listened to the score, but I think it is beautiful. "Tuesdays, Thursdays" is absolutely masterful. It's very similar to "Days and Days" from Fun Home.

The show received mixed reviews, but the costume designer (Catherine Zuber) rightfully got acclaim for perfectly masking Kelli O'Hara's baby bump at the time.

I'd love to play the role of Cathy Whitaker one day.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/6/16 at 6:24pm

I didn't see it, but the OC recording has become one of my favorites. I actually like it even better than GREY GARDENS (which I love).

In another thread, some posters felt the score was too "jazz", but anyone who knows Bernstein's TROUBLE IN TAHITI and/or A QUIET PLACE will understand what the creators of FAR FROM HEAVEN were doing.

By the same token, if you don't like those Bernstein operas, FAR FROM HEAVEN may not be for you.

But it makes me a little sick to know I may never see a first-class production of the show.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 11/6/16 at 6:32pm

The "jazziness" of the score is a big part of what I love about it.

Building on what I said in my first post, the sheer power of the echoed lyric at the end, "How did I end up being the only one?" gives me so many chills.

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/6/16 at 7:54pm

The score has some beautiful music, but the show didn't work on stage. It didn't come close to achieving any of the visual or emotional depths of the film, and a lot of the music just seemed like filler. The costumes were great though -- although by the time I saw the production, O'Hara was noticeably pregnant, which added perhaps an unintended subtext. 

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/6/16 at 8:41pm

Have to agree with AC. The score is pretty much exquisite. Some numbers just hauntingly beautiful.  But the production couldn't find the tone of the film. Which is heightened, reverential (Sirk, 50s melodrama) yet never close to camp. The show suffers from a surfeit of -- for lack of a better descriptor -- earnestness.  That odd real-ness to all that was (also) fake, lush, too big and primary colored in the film should make musicalizing big scenes powerful. But until "Miro" and "The Only One," the score -- lovely as it is -- treads a certain amount of water. I left the theater thinking: The absence of a powerful opening establishing what the film did -- that homage mixed with deconstruction -- hurts the show.  We need a musical way in, and the drab opening about autumn in CT is just not nearly (tonally) specific, character defining, or ultimately evocative enough. The second act has gorgeous, dangerous material, and Pasqual's brilliant take on "I Never Knew" took Frank's character to a place the film didn't quite explore, good as Quaid was (better than good -- Oscar level). But the show doesn't launch and they pay off a launch. It eases into its subject without enough command. 

[Soaring29]

Posted: 11/7/16 at 6:29am

I find the music to be good , but lacking. I find it too be too jazzy and overly stylized, problems I had with  Grey Gardens before it(Although that show's music and story grew on me immensely and I like it quite a lot, much more then this show's score).  The score has  way too many  filler numbers and even some of the bigger numbers could have been better. I would have preferred more of a legit sound to a lot of the score, especially in regards to Kelli's songs which didn't showcase her enough in my opinion although it was cool to hear more of a mix belt sound from her in some parts of the shows(Secrets,  Tuesdays And Thursdays). In fact, an opera of this might  have worked  better. I also feel I would have preferred an older actor to play Raymond, Isaiah Johnson reads too young to me. I find the treatment of the material too predictable, but that's because of the nature of Musical Theatre: It's all about telling a story  with  music to audiences   and  that  requirement makes the stunning, hypnotic  power of the film impossible to recreate. The film is largely about what's beneath the surface which doesn't lend itself to the Musical Theatre format. And although Kelli does good work with what she has, it's nothing we haven't seen from her before, although that is more  because of the nature  of the material  then her acting/vocal  ability.  

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/7/16 at 7:55am

The film is first and last an extraordinary exercise in controlled style.  Ed Lachman's cinematography, the art direction, the framing of the autumn. It's a particular way into its subject(s) in strictly visual terms, masterfully managed in every shot (look at the lush, saturated color and lighting in the evening sequences, Quaid cruising the movies, heading into the bar, etc.).  The stage show needed the music to do that job, and (per my post above) just did not find a strong way in, a point of access that might've translated what Haynes accomplished. Even if the physical production had not been so ugly - -and projections aside, it was a startlingly unappealing thing to look at (black skeletal framework) -- the music needed to do the heavy lifting.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 11/7/16 at 8:28am

Slightly off-topic, but do you think someone will give the musical treatment to Carol (another Haynes period film) in the future? Would it work better than FFH?

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/7/16 at 10:38am

Flaws and all, I loved this show.  And I know I'm in the minority.

And, I don't say this lightly, Kelli's performance was the best I've seen her onstage.  She was truly incredible.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 11/7/16 at 12:56pm

I too liked this musical. My biggest disappointment with it was that it didn't capture the lushness of the movie. The sets were just too bare and dark.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/7/16 at 10:29pm

Count me in as a great fan of the film. And I agree the creators needed to find a theatrical alternative to the hyperrealism of the film.

I don't understand the criticism that the score is full of "unnecessary" numbers--having nothing but the score from which to judge, the entire score seems necessary to me. But I very much appreciate the reports from those of you who were lucky enough to see it.

[mc1227]

Posted: 11/7/16 at 10:36pm

I didn't love this show but agree that the songs were the best part and Kelli was amazing.  There was a disconnect that I've never been able to define but it just didn't work for me.  However, seeing Bridges made me realize how wonderful Pasquale is and I've become a huge fan of his as well.  

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/7/16 at 11:40pm

Adore Grey Gardens and enjoy War Paint's score quite a lot, but I missed this one at Playwrights.

 

How was Nancy Anderson in this? She was incredible in a one-woman piece at the Barrow Group recently. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 11/8/16 at 12:17am

I thought Anderson was wonderful in this and remember wanting to see more of her in it.  

Add me to the list of liking the movie more.  Stylistically it didn't work for me at all Playwrites.  I remember Pasquale's drab raincoat.  Maybe subconsciously I was looking for Sirk visuals.  I also agree that I would have preferred an older actor to portray Raymond.  Isaiah Johnson seemed too young to me as well.

I enjoy the cast recording especially on longer trips in the car.

[Another Winter]

Posted: 11/8/16 at 7:30am

As a huge Grey Gardens fan I really wanted to like Far From Heaven but after listening to the cast recording I felt bored. I love "The Only One," "I Never Knew," and "Tuesdays, Thursdays," but I feel like the rest of the score was more like dialogue that was sung rather than actual songs (IDK if that makes any sense). I have the same problem with Side Show.

[Hadassah]

Posted: 11/12/16 at 10:43pm

Drove out to Harrisburg, Pa to see a production of this unloved beauty just a few weeks ago. Thank you Theatre Harrisburg.