I La Galigo

[Forester]

Posted: 7/16/05 at 3:39am

Did anyone see this show yet? Today is the last show. It is very avent-garde and the story is based on an Indonesian sacred epic from the 13th to 15th century.

Here's the review from the NY Times:
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/theater/reviews/15gali.html?8dpc

A good background article about how this "musical" was created:
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etlede4340194jul13,0,5683410.story
Updated On: 7/16/05 at 03:39 AM

[Liz_Bennet]

Posted: 7/16/05 at 12:32pm

I think calling it a musical, even a "musical" with post-modern scare quotes, isn't very appropriate. I thought it was very interesting that the reviewer is not one of the Times theater regulars or even Margo Jefferson (she wrote a feature about it, among other Lincoln Center Festival productions, on July 8th); he seems to mostly write about visual arts.

[Forester]

Posted: 7/16/05 at 12:36pm

I would say that a musical is a form of theater that have music, songs and dance. In this regard, the production have all three. All of three factors are used to forward a story. Updated On: 7/16/05 at 12:36 PM

[Liz_Bennet]

Posted: 7/16/05 at 12:42pm

Ooooo! Semantics! I just think that the label of "musical" comes with too much baggage here to encompass something as avant-garde as this production. I think the Times referred to it as a music-theater piece, which sounds kind of odd but doesn't impose so many probably inappropriate expectations on it.

[Forester]

Posted: 7/16/05 at 12:45pm

True true, when one think of a musical, it's broadway. I do think that it's time we enlarge what we think is a musical. Musical theater have been a part of civilization before the western civilization even existed. It does us musical theater fan a great disservice to limit what we think musical theater is to what we see on broadway or the West End.

[Liz_Bennet]

Posted: 7/16/05 at 4:53pm

Expanding the borders of musical theater is fine with me. I seem to recall someone asking on this board a month or two ago if Piazza is a "play with music" instead of a musical, so obviously some people here interpret musical extremely narrowly.

I went to a Chinese opera last year that could be possibly called a musical, but so little of it was translated and explained I couldn't tell the role the music was playing in the story, which I mostly didn't understand as I don't speak Chinese, the program notes were very sketchy and surtitles non-existent.

[Forester]

Posted: 7/17/05 at 3:34am

I hope the producer would take more risks in getting non-Western musical into Broadway. Sure it needs to be tweked and translated so it can be sustainble in NY, but I believe there are so many musical theater out there that haven't even be touch by producers. So many musical styles, dances and stories that we don't know about.

[mandy2loveRB]

Posted: 7/17/05 at 3:51am

I saw it on Friday. I was almost 3 hour show without intermission. It was a musical and it was a ballet. Yet, the actors rarely sang, it was the band who sang. Oh, what it reminds me was actually NOH of Japan.

First it starts very, very slowly but now you are totally amazed by the story and performance, and 3 hours went by fast.

I am not sure I could say it contained authentic dancing and movement since I don't know, but it felt that way.

I really did not know who Robert Wilson is. Only name I knew. Does anyone tell me about him? It was created someone who knew the story and culture deeply. It was amazing.