Have you ever had the "What are they doing? Why?" moment during a show?
Have you ever had the "What are they doing? Why?" moment during a show?
NDR
Leading Actor Joined: 11/16/06
#1Have you ever had the "What are they doing? Why?" moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 9:08am
I was thinking about the JCS tour I saw a few weeks ago and mulling over how annoyed I was to hear Corey Glover bastardize some of the melodies with Mariah Carey/Christina Aguilera inspired trills and runs. It started me thinking about moments in shows when you are sitting there going "What are they doing? Why are they changing the melody? Why are they adding that note?"
I understand that each performer is an individual and that some play with the melodies as a means of making their version different than their predecessor, but sometimes it just doesn't work.
Anyone else have any examples?
#2re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 9:15amYes...Check out the current revival of Gypsy. All I kept saying to my self was why? why? why?
#2re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 9:22amNot necessarily a performer, but a production. I have the original version of A Chorus Line memorized. Not just the song lyrics, all the dialogue. When I saw the revival, I was so confused when they dropped and altered a few lines. The birth years, fine, I can understand, but they dropped a few lines from Bobby's monologue. Every time I saw it, I thought the actor had forgotten his lines before it occurred to me that they made a point of taking out the inoffensive, non-dated lines. That's the only cut I can think of off the top of my head, but there were more. It was just weird. "We're going to revive the show exactly as it was, down to the bad 70s dance wear...but we're going to randomly cut lines without reason, and hope no one notices!"
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
Updated On: 5/2/08 at 09:22 AM
Wanting life but never knowing how
#3re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 9:24am
Yes...Check out the current revival of Gypsy. All I kept saying to my self was why? why? why?
I expect this will be a popular opinion around here...
///pulls out lawn chair and popcorn///
Mattbrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/23/05
#4re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 9:31amI still think the clock motif in Wicked, as well as the giant Time Dragon, is utterly unnecessary.
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Zeitoujo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/3/06
#5re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 9:50amI love Gypsy- one of my all time favorites. But when Louise mimes a window it's kind of uneeded and crazy.
"Those You've Known And Lost Still Walk Behind You"-Spring Awakening
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#6re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 10:03amEverything entirely in CORAM BOY.
#7re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 10:38amIn a GOOD way, during Cry-Baby, lol. When I saw the gas mask waltz number, through my hysterical laughter, I was like "What are they DOING? Why? Is this even OKAY?" but I loved it, thought it was hilarious.
"Get mad, then get over it." - Colin Powell
#8re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 10:52am
Kelly2..I agree --when I first saw the gas mask waltz there was that moment of
"What?" but it was actually quite a brilliant stroke. I know a lot of people on here hate that moment....but its truly inspired!
#9re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 11:20amThe little coffin in the Sweeney revival. Didn't get it. At all. And I agree about the Dragon clock in Wicked. That had nothing to do with anything that was happening on stage
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...I'm the good cop, he's the bad cop.
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#10re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 11:23amThe yoga choreography in SA. Why, why, why??
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#11re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 11:25amThe moment the yoga choreography in SA won a Tony Award.
#12re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 11:39am
To explain the Dragon Clock, in the book, it has this huge mythic shadow that hangs over the life of the Wicked Witch. It's quite an interesting concept and the way Gregory Maguire weave religion and mysticism is amazing.
HOWEVER.
I believe (someone feel free to correct me) that the set designer for the show wasn't actually involved in the production, but he was interested. So his wife (I think) told him to read the book and build a design off of that. And they loved it and kept it.
So basically, the Time Dragon Proscenium is a brilliant set design idea for the books, not so much a musical where the ENTIRE idea is cut.
PLEASE! Do not post anything negative or dramatic! DidYouReallyHearMe has LOST the ability to ignore such posts and he will comment! Please, help him.
With Clay Aiken in Spamalot, all of Broadway is singing a collective "There! Right! There!" -Me-
"Not Barker, Todd is the only person I've ever known who could imitate Katherine Hepburn...in print." -nmartin-
With Clay Aiken in Spamalot, all of Broadway is singing a collective "There! Right! There!" -Me-
"Not Barker, Todd is the only person I've ever known who could imitate Katherine Hepburn...in print." -nmartin-
#13re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 12:37pm
The Leigh Bowery Costume Parade in TABOO...okay, so a bunch of people walk out in avant garde outfits and then they walk back off. THRILLING.
Vespertine1228
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/30/05
#14re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 12:46pm
There's always a twinge of pain in my heart for any poor actor who has to deliver bad jokes onstage. Especially when I remind myself they have to do it 8 times a week.
That said, a few recent examples:
The dance number at the end of The New Century.
The moment where Daniel Breaker sings "On the Street Where You Live" in Passing Strange.
The majority of November.
ShbrtAlley44
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/1/03
#15re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 12:48pmThe manlamb in Gypsy, the Papermill production of Godspell, and Young Frankenstein.
#16re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 12:54pmPapermill's costumes for MY FAIR LADY some years ago--like Richard Simmons and Malificent got hold of a Bedazzler.
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#17re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 12:59pm
I second the entire unspeakable nightmare of CORAM BOY.
The current refrigerated revival of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. Why is George acting like a pissy schoolmaster? Why is Dot so utterly without sex appeal?
And most importantly:
Why is one of the most gorgeous scores ever written being played by 5 instruments? And why do 5 instruments sound so much like 2 instruments?
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#18re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 1:06pm
Amour has my favorite "What are they doing?" moment. *possible spoilers* The show is such a small, sweet, and gentle show until the courtroom scene when Dusoleil is found innocent and the prosecutor is taken away.
All of a sudden everyone started dancing the can-can with manic energy. It's revealed that all the women are wearing can-can skirts, and Melissa Errico begins high-kicking (quite splendidly) across the stage. Then the judge stood up to show that he too is wearing a can-can skirt under his robe. It was such a bizarre scene and felt totally out of sync with the rest of the production.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
nmartin
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/3/05
#19re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 1:15pmWhen I sat through Legs Diamond, question marks flew out of my eyes, ears, nose and throat.
#20re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 1:37pm
The yoga choreography in SA. Why, why, why??
I agree.
The choreography of "The Word of Your Body." Holding hands, walk forward 1, 2, 3, hold, walk back 1, 2, 3, hold, repeat, repeat.
Truly middle school production-like staging.
#21re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 2:49pmNot Barker, Todd I read the book before I saw the musical, and so I was trying to figure out the first half of the show how they were going to fit the dragon clock thing of doom into the show.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...I'm the good cop, he's the bad cop.
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#22re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 2:57pm
In DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES, there was a song entitled "Carpe Noctem." It involved a bunch of dancing demons and vampires and assorted Creatures of the Night, and it just went on and on and on and on.
At one point, at the height of the awfulness, a bunch of long scraggly looking hairy boa things were brought out, and assorted characters started to flog other characters with them, and all I could think was: Oh My GOD, it is Vidal Sassoon's nightmare! I thought I'd never stop laughing.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#23re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 2:59pmPretty much all of Lestat was a 'What are they doing? Why?' moment. I was slouched down in my seat with my program over the lower part of my face throughout most of the show, so that any jaw-dropping wouldn't be evident to the poor actors a few rows away.
'"Contrairiwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."'
~Lewis Carroll
#24re: Have you ever had the 'What are they doing? Why?' moment during a show?
Posted: 5/2/08 at 3:11pm
The yoga choreography in SA. Why, why, why??
I don't know if you know. But every single move sybolizes something going on within the charecture.
Such as when Melchior during Mirror-Blue Night grabs his hands behind his back, it to symbolize his hands being tied and him not being able to escape.
I know im just a "swing" and I dont know anything. But I just thought it was cool when I found out.
It was very inovative and abstract. which is not for everyone but it a diffrent look at movement.
Most everything in Spamalot left me asking...why?
Updated On: 5/2/08 at 03:11 PM
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