I Saw The Light in the Piazza Today!

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 6:39pm

This is an amateurish review because I have to write about 8 drafts to write a good review and I'm too tired. I didn't like the show. I didn't understand half of the first act because it was in Italian. The songs were nice, but unmemorable. I loved the cast, except that Kelli O'Hara's diction was terrible and Victoria Clark's accent kept disappearing and was unconvincing.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 6:42pm

I think enjoying the show really isn't much a matter of being able to understand Italian. I don't speak a single WORD of Italian, and had no trouble at all. I don't think the fact that it's in another language is really much to harp on so much, other than that it's clearly a barrier between Fabrizio and Clara. To say that you didn't like it because it was hard to understand is quite limiting, no? Open up a little bit to stuff that may not be so black-and-white.

Updated On: 4/27/05 at 06:42 PM

[Aphexis]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 6:47pm

luvtheEmcee - I agree with you 97%. I think it's important to be open to different things but at the same time...this was his/her opinion and if the Italian was a barrier for him...so be it.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 6:48pm

I know of quite a few people who didn't like it, so that's fine. I just wish that if someone's going to have such a strong opinion, they'd back it up with more than "I didn't like it because I don't understand." I feel like with a show like Piazza, especially, there's SO MUCH more to the show than the language barrier, and so much more to take from it than a few words in Italian... if that makes sense.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 6:51pm

I'm learning Italian next year, and that wasn't the major issue for me. There were a few reasons why I didn't like it. The score was nice, and I liked the story. For some reason, the whole show just seemed forgettable and mediocre to me. For some strange reason, I can't really verbalize my thoughts of the show.

[Aphexis]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 6:59pm

Hmmmm... Well, I do know Italian and My Fair Lady, I didn't really enjoy the show either. I've seen it twice now...and I haven't been hooked yet. Everyone connects differently with different material and in my experience, I didn't care enough about the character's and also felt that most of the score was forgettable. All of the actor's give commendable performances and although not enthralling, the score is relatively beautiful...but all the same, it missed the mark for me.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 7:12pm

Be still my heart but John Simon gave it a qualified rave

Another sign of the end of times - John Simon giving a good review. When Brantley gives one, it is all over.

[Dummy]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 8:02pm

Piazza's music, while rich and hauntingly beautiful, isn't the kind of catchy stuff you're going to be humming and snapping your fingers to when you leave the theater. The set/scenery/lighting is evocative, gorgeous, memorable, but there's no spectacle to hit you over the head. The performances are human, not over-the-top or in-your-face. The story is graceful, low-key, not overly melodramatic, not gothic, not a rollicking hoot.

For these reasons, and many others, Piazza just isn't what many Broadway theatergoers are looking for. For me, it's intoxicating--like sipping a dry martini while listening to a good lounge singer do classic jazz. But that's a matter of personal taste, and some folks just aren't going to cotton to Piazza even if the rest of us try to serve it up with a couple of olives.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 9:43pm

I am in the middle here. I loved its sophistication and subtlety (and italiano, which I speak un po...), its rich ambiance, its use of the 50s aesthetic (yes, Ben was right -- FAR FROM HEAVEN does come to mind). And I loved something many people don't like -- that it's a very "small" story played out in an extraordinary space. There's something breathtaking about all that sun-washed space around the minimal number of actors and the narrow scope of the story. Like being in a Piazza, no? That wasn't a problem for me; that was its central concept. It is wonderfully alive and at home on the Beaumont stage, and uses that area better than any show since ... the Andre Serban CHERRY ORCHARD. (How's that for an ancient history?)

(SPOILER) But it keeps preparing us to have our hearts broken, to feel something soaring, transcendent cathartic, particularly, of course, late in act two. And that's where, for me, Mr. Guettel's work, while ambitious and probably brilliant on its own terms, doesn't reach our hearts. Sorry, MY heart. For me, the show needs a ... a ... how else to put it ... a "Send in the Clowns" moment. "Dividing Day" in act one comes close, but for me, the attenuated, too coolly metaphorical "Fable" does not, and it's in the moment that must achieve that critical catharsis for this tortured mother who fights to let go and then must do so. I so wanted to cry! And just when we should linger over the hard-won nuptials, they rush the final curtain. I thought we deserved some theatrical equivalent of "close ups," and we are held off, and back, when we most need to be on top of the emotional undercurrents. Again, very subjective feelings, and I still felt there is much to cheer.

Updated On: 4/27/05 at 09:43 PM

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 11:04pm

Auggie, well put. I agree in so many ways, still I love it more and more as time goes by.

[Joshua488]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 11:11pm

Wait... It's in Italian??

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 11:14pm

No, only a few songs.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 4/27/05 at 11:33pm

Since John Simon questioned TLITP as a "noble failure" and admitted his praise was largely by default, I would hardly call his review a rave of any kind. As a writer, I'd prefer a flat-out pan to Simon's damning with faint praise any day.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 12:04am

Yeah, Simon did that same thing many of us have done: voiced his codependent reaction to the show's ambitions, rather than its achievements. In a season with GOOD VIBRATIONS, ALL SHOOK UP and (fill in the blank),the higher-bar PIAZZA is in the "attention must be paid" category. But I felt, clearly, that Simon squirmed through a lot of it, unable to cheer, unable to dismiss.

[Dummy]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 2:51am

Excellent review, Auggie. I think many people who left the theater disappointed with Piazza feel somehow slighted for similar reasons. And you said it very well: "...it keeps preparing us to have our hearts broken, to feel something soaring, transcendent cathartic..."

I think though, in fact, Piazza does accomplish this, but subtly. I can imagine what it might be like to be a mother in the situation Victoria Clark's character is in. It does break the heart to learn what she reveals about her daughter and her own role in it. What her observations of the young couple's courting (and her interactions with the older male characters in the play) reveal about her own disappointments in life and love is also heartbreaking. The transcendence and/or catharsis come in how she finally deals with all this.

I do have to agree that the metaphors in "Fable" are a bit heavy handed and don't quite work, but I think the story and Victoria Clark's performance provide enough ballast that such flaws can be forgiven (can't say that opinion will transfer to a cast recording). I also like the audience's removal from the final scene because we're forced to take the ending (without revealing too much) mostly as Margaret's moment rather than Clara's and Fabrizio's.

[sparky310]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 7:13am

Dummy..you are no dummy i agree. and what a great way to describe it. i also felt that love was out there again..for everyone no matter the "handicap"

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 8:12am

Well, that's because the ultimate journey in this musical belongs to Margaret, not Clara. I, for one, was COMPLETELY heartbroken.

********SPOILER*************

I was heartbroken because Margaret sees for her her daughter the chance at real, actual, unstoppable love. The kind she has come to realize she will never have...and even the curious attraction she and Fabrizio's father share can never culminate in anything as they are both married and neither quite willing to mar those bonds.
That said, the final moment worked brilliantly for me. Here's a woman seeing her daughter find true love and happiness despite all of her attempts to thwart it (however subtly at first, bluntly later, and all because she thought she was protecting Clara) and knowing it is not to ever be for her. And, in truth, she can't even be really happy for Clara and Fabrizio, only sort of resigned to her own fate. And, in that, I think Fable works brilliantly and I'd rank it right there with Guettel's other amazing closing solo, "How Glory Goes." I love his apparent joy in bringing a musical to a close with the central character's "theme song" as it were.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 9:07am

I've resisted placing any blame for my dry eyes at the end ... on the gifted Ms. Cohenhour, whom I saw on Sunday. Clark's first absence. But I'm wondering if she simply hasn't had sufficient experience with the role to fully chart it's journey, a journey that has been so beautifully described by bwaysinger and dummy. I don't think it's fair to leave "catharsis" up to actors -- but a show is, after all, a kind of blueprint that requires the unique alchemy of actor and role. Cohenhour was lovely, but perhaps there was something more tentative in her work -- understandably -- that kept us from connecting as fully as we would with Clark.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 9:11am

Auggie, you could be correct, and certainly, Clark has a LOT more experience and time with the role, having done it in two previous productions.
And I also agree, it shouldn't be completely up to an actor to provide everything. But we know that's usually the case, even in brilliantly-written pieces, otherwise, even Shakespeare would be community-theatre proof (and god knows it isn't!).

All I can say is, you didn't have a fully-pleasurable experience with the show, which is fine, but at least you have been able to better articulate this beyond the atypical "She just didn't do it for me" line most people seem stuck on.

[robbiej]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 10:22am

Dummy said something very interesting and it comes down to one word: subtly.

I guess I fall into the category that these emotions, these events...indeed, musical theatre, isn't subtle. Nor should it be. Subtle moments? Of course. But the whole should remain an overwhelming experience. I don't mind not being able to hum the tunes on the way out...I do mind not having felt a whole lot. Obviously, that's very personal, as others have had extrodinary reactions to the work.

Even if the event is seemingly small (taking the change from a coffee cup), the emotional investment needs to be huge (Lot's Wife). At least for me.

[gabybon]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 10:44am

Hi, I'm Italian and reading this topic now I'm very interesting about "The Light In The Piazza"...I don't know the show, but if some songs are sung in Italian finally I will understand a Broadway musical song from the begin to the end!
A special request: can you write me a short synopsis of this musical and the titles of the italian songs?
Thanks

Posted: 4/28/05 at 1:01pm

La storia è una madre con sua figlia andava a Italia per vacanza. La madra ha paura quando un uomo l'ama la figlia perche la figlia non è normale, ha avuto un incidente quando era giovane e non ha sviluppato normalmente. La madre deve imparare a vedere sua figlia come un adulto. La protegge troppo. Anche, la madre non ha un matrimonio felice.

Solo due canzoni in Italiano, la prima si chiama "Il Mondo Era Vuoto" a la seconda si chiama "Aiutami" ma anche ci sono delle scene, per esempio, dove la mamma del ragazzo dice qualcosa in italiano e poi suo padre lo traduce per la madre della ragazza.
---

I hope that makes sense, Im not totally awake yet.

[Dummy]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 1:38pm

Brava, Mistress! Wow, what an accomplished community of posters we have on this board...breaking the stereotype of the monoglot Philistine-American daily. Color me impressed. Have you (or has someone else) posted translated synopses of the Italian songs yet?

[gabybon]

Posted: 4/28/05 at 1:39pm

Thanks so much Mistress, You're Italian is fine!!
Why do you speak italian??
I understand all very well
Ciao Grazie della trama dello show, il tuo italiano è molto buono, dove l'hai imparato?? hai forse origini italiane?
Un caro saluto,
Gabriele.

Posted: 4/28/05 at 3:20pm

Dummy, I havent seen the lyrics translated except for a few lines in one of the reviews. I understand all the lyrics when hes singing, I just cant seem to remember all the words by the time I get home! Maybe after a few more listens I'll have it all memorized, or maybe the CD will come with lyrics- if theyre written in Italian, I could translate them. The unexplained title means 'The World Was Empty.'

Gabrielle, se ti ricordi, abbiamo parlato quando tu hai visitato questo website prima. I miei genitori erano nati in Italia, ero nato in America, ma la mia nonna parla soprattutto Italiano. Ho imparato nella classe e nella casa.