#26
Posted: 6/2/14 at 11:27pm
First of all, happy first preview of first show of the new season. I always am filled with such hope at the downbeat of a new season, and truthfully I was looking forward to seeing Holler If Ya Hear Me tonight.
Kenny Leon started things off with a curtain speech reminding us to tweet, text and call everyone we know after the performance, granted that we enjoyed it. If we didn't like we were told to keep our mouths shut. One of the messages I took from the show was to stand up and tell the truth, so with all due respect to the director's wishes this one was a stinker.
There are no words to describe the book of this show. The first book scene was so deadly I felt like I was in the twilight zone. No dramatic thrust at all, no character development. It's not just that the plot is paper thin, the actors aren't even characters. The score doesn't help in this respect because none of the songs are character driven. They are all about social issues, which makes the characters nothing more than mouthpieces for the topics at hand.
The script is basically devoid of humor and there are so many dramatic pauses it would make Pinter blush. The actors certainly were expressive and emoted when they sang, but when given a page of dialogue they went all wooden. It was like they were so confounded by this book that they were scared to say the next line.
The songs fared better, but sometimes it felt like they were part of a revue rather than an overarching story. The lyrics discuss prison, the state of the neighborhood, drugs, violence, death- but they don't deal in characters so it gets old after a while.
California Love, the jam you could tell everyone in the audience was most excited for, kind of got shoehorned in there, and the worst part was it has an abrupt ending that denied us the chance to applaud. Many of the songs need buttons added instead of just fading out. Keeping the energy up in the audience is VITAL in a musical like this. Let us have a place to clap after the numbers.
The story is kind of like half of West Side Story. It's the Jets vs the Sharks, but the Jets' story takes place completely off-stage. The conflict is building up the to the big rumble in act two and you keep thinking, how are they going to pull this off because we've never seen the rival gang.
The worst crime committed is underusing Tonya Pinkins. She is the only one who was truly able to navigate her book scenes, and though her one song was somewhat extraneous, she sold it. Hey, it's a paycheck, and it's a step up from A Time To Kill!
The set = non-existent.
Despite having a negative reaction to this one, I hope others don't give up on trying to create a musical like this for Broadway. The unoriginal score really hurt it- imagine what In the Heights would have been like with a Jennifer Lopez jukebox score- and they needed a stronger book writer to string it all together.
Kenny Leon started things off with a curtain speech reminding us to tweet, text and call everyone we know after the performance, granted that we enjoyed it. If we didn't like we were told to keep our mouths shut. One of the messages I took from the show was to stand up and tell the truth, so with all due respect to the director's wishes this one was a stinker.
There are no words to describe the book of this show. The first book scene was so deadly I felt like I was in the twilight zone. No dramatic thrust at all, no character development. It's not just that the plot is paper thin, the actors aren't even characters. The score doesn't help in this respect because none of the songs are character driven. They are all about social issues, which makes the characters nothing more than mouthpieces for the topics at hand.
The script is basically devoid of humor and there are so many dramatic pauses it would make Pinter blush. The actors certainly were expressive and emoted when they sang, but when given a page of dialogue they went all wooden. It was like they were so confounded by this book that they were scared to say the next line.
The songs fared better, but sometimes it felt like they were part of a revue rather than an overarching story. The lyrics discuss prison, the state of the neighborhood, drugs, violence, death- but they don't deal in characters so it gets old after a while.
California Love, the jam you could tell everyone in the audience was most excited for, kind of got shoehorned in there, and the worst part was it has an abrupt ending that denied us the chance to applaud. Many of the songs need buttons added instead of just fading out. Keeping the energy up in the audience is VITAL in a musical like this. Let us have a place to clap after the numbers.
The story is kind of like half of West Side Story. It's the Jets vs the Sharks, but the Jets' story takes place completely off-stage. The conflict is building up the to the big rumble in act two and you keep thinking, how are they going to pull this off because we've never seen the rival gang.
The worst crime committed is underusing Tonya Pinkins. She is the only one who was truly able to navigate her book scenes, and though her one song was somewhat extraneous, she sold it. Hey, it's a paycheck, and it's a step up from A Time To Kill!
The set = non-existent.
Despite having a negative reaction to this one, I hope others don't give up on trying to create a musical like this for Broadway. The unoriginal score really hurt it- imagine what In the Heights would have been like with a Jennifer Lopez jukebox score- and they needed a stronger book writer to string it all together.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
