I absolutely hated "Caroline, or change" last night..... — Page 4

We were not enthalled by it. It was OK but nothing great shakes

---

You nailed it, bob8rich. The worst pretentious piece of crap/

(Unfortunately, I think PARADE is not too far behind, either.)





Countess Olenska
New York City

This is such an interesting thread. I was just listening to an NPR interview with Neil LaBute and he was discussing how American audiences have been taught to accept nothing less than a happy ending.

Why is it that Caroline strikes such a nerve with some people. Have the majority of Caroline haters never dealt themselves or known anybody with depression or stress or hardship or poverty or ill-health? Why is that so many people cannot deal with the anger of the character of Caroline? Think for two seconds of all the things that this woman has/is dealing with. Would you be perky? Would you show sudden bursts of sunshine-filled joy when you are taking pocket change from a boy? Would you break out into jazz hands when you are a black woman living in a part of the country that blacks were still be lynched?

That is why Dottie and Emmie are so integral to the story. Dottie is the same age as Caroline, hence change in the present, and Emmie is the hope of change for the future. I found the grumpy Caroline far more cathartic than any other choice.

And PS--Audra COULD play Caroline--the character is only 39. Tonya is considerably older than that.

"Why is it that Caroline strikes such a nerve with some people. Have the majority of Caroline haters never dealt themselves or known anybody with depression or stress or hardship or poverty or ill-health? Why is that so many people cannot deal with the anger of the character of Caroline? Think for two seconds of all the things that this woman has/is dealing with. Would you be perky? Would you show sudden bursts of sunshine-filled joy when you are taking pocket change from a boy? Would you break out into jazz hands when you are a black woman living in a part of the country that blacks were still be lynched?"

All of that is well and good except for one thing--the playwright has failed to dramatize all those salient points you list in such a way as to make us care and sympathize for, at the very least, understand Caroline as an INDIVIDUAL, not a token black. Every human being has his/her problems and disadvantages but expecting the audience to care jes' cuz Caroline's a pore black womans is nothing but playing on white liberal guilt and is excruciatingly bad theater. And that's just the least of COC's problems.


Beneatha Younger
Chicago, Illinois

And your post an ignorant one...and borderline offensive.

And it's "poor" not "pore"

And Mr. Kushner hit all of those points. I think the problem with people liking it or not liking is for several reasons. I loved it because it was bold and different. As I posted earlier, I connected because, for the most part, my mother was a Caroline. I think a lot of people went into this show expecting a show that they didn't have to think about it. And when they realized that they would have to think about it, half of the show had gone by. It makes the audience think. You have to pay close attention. Not something a large portion of the theatre going audience can handle these days! I heard a middle aged, very well dressed, evidently upper class black woman ask the question after the show "Am I supposed to like this because I am Black?" No....black isn't all there is to it. Change faces just about everyone in this world. For a lot of people it isn't easy. And the circumstances are not always the same as in this Musical. And then there are those that just don't like change. (Hmm!) That, to me, was a major part of the core of this musical and the message came through loud and clear. So I would say that you can't say that he did not hit certain points. Remember, the man pretty much lived this and this show is based partially on his childhood. And then there is Ms. Tsori's music. Someone posted that all of the songs sounded the same! What theatre were you in?!!!! JMHO...I ramble. But again....To each his own. If you don't like it, you have every right not to.

---

Lorraine,

I feel more sorry for you that you can't spell your last name right.





Catherine Sloper
Washington Square, NYC

There is nothing that I can say that is new.

All I CAN say is that I count Caroline, or Change as one of my favorite musicals and easily one of the finest musicals of the decade.

truly brilliant in every way.

---

the score is TOTALLY tonal. It's not atonal at all...but regardless I know a lot of people who have had the same experience that you have.

"I disagree. You just have to pay close attention. I hadn't heard the CR before I saw it, though I had seen Lot's Wife on the Tonys, and wished I hadn't. It made the number anticlimactic in context.

Other than that, I loved the show. And the cast."

Oh, no, I understood it. I did get it after listening to the cast album. I just feel it was too heavy handed for other audience members.

---