Yankeefan - wow, you're opinion is QUITE the oppoesite of mine and everyone else I talked to about the show...
I thought Act I was OK, but it was rather uneventful (yet everything was neseccary). Act II was brilliant.
John McMartin's career defining role? HAH! The part isn't even that large. He has one meaty scene, the rest bitty parts. Brilliant, yes, but I don't think he'd get a Tony for it. Ebersole and Parker will get nods.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle