Hal Prince's Candide at NYC Opera

I had high hopes because it's Hal Prince steering the ship but this production was more like Hal Prince on a beer budget. And the problem with that is he went into his bag of tricks and staged a big production but the sets, lighting (yikes) and the costumes... the choregraphy and the singers and the dancers all just couldn't keep up with him. Even the orchestra was medicore. I knew 60 seconds into the overture we were in trouble. And the sound quality in the Rose Theatre is atrocious. Not a space for Operas. This is a very problematic production. Actors stomping their way around the stage... at one point I was like did anyone ever give them notes on how to move on these clunky set pieces. It sounded like a herd of cattle. I'm not kidding folks. The leads are all fine with the exception of the title character who had the weirdest forced vibrato and sad to say, Linda Lavin, who did the best she could but completely miscast. She was just walking thru this. In fact the entire ensemble seemed like they were just walking thru this. There was a lack of energy on stage too...it didn't pick up til mid way thru act one. Look...Hal Prince is a genius but you just can't put him into a situation like this. He doesn't do small budget stuff...nor should he. Restraint is not Hal Prince. Big and grand and spectacular. But if you don't have the budget to go big then don't. It just ends up falling flat like this production did for me. Given all I've said there are a few things that never should have been able to happen: first a lackluster/underrehearsed orchestra (Bernstein is rolling over in his grave), leads that couldn't sing (not at the NYC Opera...and not in NYC), clunky set movement and the absence of good sound quality and expert lighting. This is NYC...there are amazing lighting and sound directors. They could have helped this so much. And finally when you don't have the budget to go big...call someone else besides Hal Prince to direct...call John Doyle...call Lonny Price.

As a follow up I googled the show because I had never seen it and the 2004 production popped up with Kristin Chenoweth and Patti LuPone. It's on Youtube...an absolute joy to watch. Lots of smart choices, amazing singers and a top notch production. I was bummed out until I watched this and now I get the genius that is possible with Candide.

Updated On: 1/8/17 at 07:14 PM

I think you're making the wrong assumption that Hal Prince had any hand in this, Jimmyb1969. It's clear he wasn't in the room.

The billed associate director directed this Candide. I was disappointed Hal chose to put his name on it.

Updated On: 1/9/17 at 10:48 AM

The Times review is favorable at least.

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/arts/music/review-the-adventures-of-candide-and-of-city-opera.html

Tony's reviews are about as trustworthy as a press release. He probably got a hard on for Jay in those tight pants and let his dick write the copy.

The odd footnote here is that this rendition of the opera house version seems to have returned to the aesthetic of the one-act Broadway version (minus the environmental staging) that spawned it, albeit through necessity rather than invention, but it failed because it's still "a one-joke episodic show with the problem of diminishing comic returns inherent in the story," as Craig Zadan put it in Sondheim and Co. many moons ago, and suffered from being under-performed.

Updated On: 1/9/17 at 03:14 PM