Good shows with unusual/bad staging

I reay enjoyed Rock of Ages when I saw it (ok that doesn't make it a "good" show) and the one thing it had was terrible direction. There are a hell of alot of partial view scenes in that show because alot takes place in the two back corners of the stage.

Last 5 Years was great top to bottom.

I think Titanic's physical production was weak- The score would be great in concert (and is on CD) but the production never quite worked visually.

Stoppard's ROCK AND ROLL was hands down the worst piece of stage direction I've seen in years. Just as the play started to get going, as some type of interest or energy was being generated, the scene would come to an end, loud rock music would start playing and a black curtain would descend on which was projected information about the song, the band and the studio in which the song had been recorded, none of which was even remotely relevant to the play. Then the curtain would go up, and there would have been only minimal adjustments to the turntable, and all of the interest and energy of the previous scene was totally GONE.

Torture. The Trevor Nunn way. A 90 minute play dragged out for three solid hours. Unforgoddamngiveable.

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Updated On: 9/2/09 at 11:31 AM

Roscoe, if that's all you got out of Rock and Roll then I think you missed the point dude.

I just wanted to add that if you look at the play itself. It is in the script that they play the given songs the way they did and show the info about them.

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Updated On: 9/2/09 at 12:52 PM

Rent.

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I strongly disagree about ReNt. I think the staging was one of the strongest elements of the production along with the score.

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DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES.

John Rando spent the entire MONTH of previews in Texas attending to his dying mother and John Carraffa more often than not put forth a few steps and told the dancers to "just groove". That's why Crawford took the reigns and directed the show himself, essentially. Steinman was long gone by that point (he didn't even come to opening night).

Those was THE LEAST of the show's problems.

Score is still divine, though.

And the end of Act I had one of the most chilling theatrical moments I have ever seen. Than Mordden agrees, if that means anything.

P

It was definitely something I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it myself.

A Tale of Two Cities had a fantastic set, with horrible and copy-cat-esque direction and staging.

As soon as I read the thread title, I immediately thought of Last 5 Years. Couldn't agree more. So unfortunate...the music and premise are fantastic.

WTF was that set supposed to be, anyway?

Those frustrated with Doyle's SWEENEY TODD should check out his staging of THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY for the LA Opera (available on DVD). I loved SWEENEY, but MAHAGONNY was a flat, turgid disaster that reeked of pretension. I tried my best to enjoy the score and the fine performances, but Doyle sunk the evening beyond repair.

More recently, I thought Doug Hughes's OLEANNA was a mess, and the play is my favorite of Mamet's. Too many mistakes to get into here, but the actors seemed barely directed at all. It didn't make sense until I saw his terrific production of FARRAGUT NORTH at the Geffen, which made it clear what west coast venue had received the better share of his attention.

Roscoe - I think you would have enjoyed the Goodman production of Rock and Roll I saw last June. One set, mostly platforms and scaffolding, no blackouts that I can recall, and no projects with song information. It was quick and fluid and I think the show ran about 2 hours 20 minutes. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I left really enjoying the show.

Jekyll and Hyde on Broadway - Awful set and terrible projections reminiscent of a family vacation slide-show. The act one closer was just embarrassing to watch.

All You Need is Love in the West End - A wonderful revue of Beatles tunes with incredible arrangements that was destroyed with the ugliest set design I've ever seen in the West End or Broadway and a useless attempt to stage it in a way that tried to tell some sort of story (which was never conveyed as the device was used intermittently at random). Had they simply ramped up the lighting, used a few multi-level platforms and let the songs speak for themselves, it could have easily been a hit.

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