Posted: 7/5/15 at 1:56pm
It's by Kai Harada, and attention must be paid. Among the less discussed pleasures of this sublime production: the subtle (by the standards of the day) amplification of voices. I noticed it yesterday afternoon. Unlike almost any other show, the voices actually seem to come from the singing actors. Wherever you're sitting (see many other threads), you turn to the character or shift your gaze because the sound guides you as the focus shifts. The generally lowered volume contributes to the intimacy and also to the strategically planned and realized scale of the staging. Even when characters are voicing the most heightened emotions, the singing feels life-sized. I was also struck that the show's one lullaby, sung late from Bruce to young Allyson in a truly appalling circumstance, is daringly hushed. Instead of the usual full-throated "Bring Him Home" approach, we get the actual equivalent of a father singing his young child to sleep. The song is tender and beautiful, and the moment is all the richer because it doesn't sound like, well, musical theater in 2015. Two people waiting in the rest room line afterwards remarked at how refreshing it was to hear a musical in which voices had range, from softly spoken dialog to full-out arias of unleashed torment. We weren't subjected to the wall of sound that too often makes musicals sound like concert stagings, even when they are not.
Updated On: 7/6/15 at 01:56 PM
