Posted: 7/26/15 at 6:46pm
"The MUNY is an absolutely enormous theatre, seating about 11k. It necessitates bright colors and simple costumes and sets so people can see what's going on."
Ahh yes. So now we know where all the resources were put. Cause it wasn't in the acting.
Posted: 7/26/15 at 6:52pm
It is a pretty nightmarish place to see theatre. In the past 18 years I've gone there exactly three times. When they got a new artistic director a few years ago it was supposed to herald a new era, but all it really heralded was a janky LED screen on the back of the stage and new fans that (allegedly) keep the seating area cooler than it used to be.
I do wonder if the "happier" change was intentional or a misprint that stuck from when the scripts were printed.
Posted: 7/26/15 at 7:41pm
I saw the show on opening night (my review is linked in the other thread), and although I don't think it was the best show I've seen at the Muny this year, and especially in the past 4 years (since Mike Isaacson took over as Executive Director and everything go noticeably better), I enjoyed it a lot. It's not a groundbreaking production, but I don't expect those at the Muny. Aside from a few relatively minor timing issues (that I mentioned in my review), I thought it was good.
As for the children, there were about 12 to 15 kids, I think, and they were sitting onstage at the beginning. Ken Page (as the Narrator) starts telling the story to them, then they all put their black robes on and leave the stage as the Prologue starts. Then throughout the show they served basically as stagehands helping with scene changes, and they also were the birds. Their coming back on stage at the end was, I thought, a carry over from the first scene. The story is being told to them. It was a somewhat thin framing device, but the Muny always seems to want to use its kids ensemble as much as they can, and this seemed to work well enough, at least for me.
As for the costumes, I thought they were fine. They weren't spectacular, but they were fine, and like with a lot of the Muny's video clips, they looked a lot better live than in the video. The set was excellent, I thought.
As for paraphrased lines, I am most familiar with the OBC version of the show (had it practically memorized at one point), so any changes I heard, I assumed had been made for the revivals. I didn't assume the actors were making them up.
It was a good show, I think, at least on the night I saw it. Rob McClure and Elena Shaddow were, I thought, the most impressive performance-wise, and Sara Kapner was about perfect as Little Red Riding Hood. I liked Heather Headley as the Witch as well. Her voice is excellent, and I thought she portrayed her possessiveness toward Rapunzel especially well. I did notice that her makeup didn't change when she transformed, but I didn't mention that in my review because the transformation would be a spoiler.
The Muny is well-known, but as someone who sees many shows in St. Louis every year, I would hardly call it representative of the St. Louis theatre scene. The Muny has to be more broad appeal simply because of its nature. It's huge, and it draws audiences made up largely of people who aren't regular theatregoers. For good or ill, they know what works and they do that. Still, the quality has improved a great deal in the last few years as I mentioned before. There are other, much smaller theatre companies in St. Louis that are doing some great work. I wouldn't judge all of St. Louis theatre by the Muny. Love it or hate it, there's only one Muny.
Posted: 7/26/15 at 8:12pm
Were you sitting in the free seats? I would imagine the costumes look better back there.
Posted: 7/26/15 at 8:27pm
"Were you sitting in the free seats? I would imagine the costumes look better back there. "
We are planning on trying for the free seats on Monday.If successful, will let you know!
Posted: 7/26/15 at 8:30pm
I was sitting in Terrace A.
Posted: 7/26/15 at 8:40pm
Me too! It was a great place to take in the Baker's Wife's inexplicable 1940s hairstyle.
Posted: 7/28/15 at 11:56am
The Free Seats were fun - and, indeed, the view was better than I remember. We barely used our binoculars. I was a little sad that they rented binoculars instead of the pop-up opera glasses I remember. We had a little 15-20 minute "intermission" in the first act after "it takes two" due to light rain and lightning. One additional benefit of the free seats - close to an overhang!
The costumes were fairly bright - we were spared seeing how bad Rapunzel's wig was (except when I used the binoculars). And was she dressed up as Elsa from Frozen? The kids slowly walking on at the end of the show was awkward - some sit, some stand - no rhyme nor reason. And it was also odd that they used three big Book Covers to start the show and then rotated them for house interiors - but they bring the Book Covers out for the start of Act Two, but don't rotate them.
Act Two was much stronger than the first act. Rob McClure was heartbreaking in "No More." Erin Dilly was a different Baker's Wife. She seemed a much stronger character - and one who was not particularly enamored of the Baker at any time. She was on her own quest - to find happiness - at first with a child. As such, her handing the child off to go into the woods for her fateful meeting with the Prince seemed odder than ever. Elena Shadow was quite good as Cinderella. We also enjoyed Jason Gotay's Jack. Ken Page picked up the easiest paycheck in his career - it was disappointing to us to see him only be the narrator and not the Mysterious Man. Just seemed a waste to me.
And Heather Headley - well, she was doing her own show. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy her performance - because I did - but it was a lot of the Heather Headley show - she was all over the place, riffing or channeling Eartha Kitt or having some Southern Sass or speaking in a plain accent. She was blowing off the roof with Last Midnight - but the ending was so anticlimactic. She moves atop the revolving set - she is on a platform and steps forward center stage and as the song ends I fully expected her to drop through a trap - but instead, the lights went out (and a bit late) and that was it. Missed opportunity. That said, she did generally command the stage whenever she was on it. And I definitely would love to see Headley in a Cabaret setting.
The conductor deserved special applause as the tempos for many of the actors was all over the place - the conductor trying desperately to alternately match and guide the singing. This was most apparent in the opening, Agony and any time Ms. Headley was singing.
But, since the show only cost us was half a tank of gasoline - it was a fine time!
I am curious how many people attended last night - seemed at least 80% full - but it's hard to tell.
Updated On: 7/28/15 at 11:56 AM
