Immersive EVITA- Page 6

[Michael Kras]

Posted: 8/14/15 at 4:36pm

Whizzer, I'm very glad to hear of your experience with Fun Home. It's a brilliant show and a groundbreaking one. That's where the show's power lies: it shows us something we haven't seen before. For that reason, it's vital, and I think the fact that people are calling it one of the most important musicals in decades speaks not just to the strength of Fun Home, but to the general weakness of shows around it... Museum pieces that exist without the vitality. That are shaped and formed with the intent of being commercial. And they never, ever change. The whole 'if it isn't broken, don't fix it' idea is observed, the show fails to transcend itself, it stays within it's own safe confines, and it dies a quiet death. Fun Home's artistic aspirations far exceeded its commercial ones, and I think that fact was integral to its success. 

 

That's what we want out of theatre. Broadway is stigmatized as a place to see flashy song and dance... But the shows with the most recent and significant impact where the ones that subverted that. They have, in other words, breathed that new life and vitality into theatre. They are doing something that is so NOW. They are a product of their time, as were other similarly impact flu shows before them. 

 

THAT'S where the life is for me. When a show is quite literally present. The actors and the audience are there working in tandem, the audience is anything BUT a passive observer. The actors are aware of the audience, and vice versa. They are living and breathing in the same space. 

 

I think we see this way less than we should. And that's what I think will save the theatre, if it is indeed dying as I perceive it to be.

Updated On: 8/14/15 at 04:36 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 8/14/15 at 5:09pm

Care to answer any of my questions?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 8/14/15 at 5:10pm

OMG THIS GUY IS LIKE A COMBINATION OF

 

THIS GUY

 

 

AND THIS GUY

 

Updated On: 8/14/15 at 05:10 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 8/14/15 at 5:17pm

That's one of my favorite scenes from Annie Hall! 

[tourboi]

Posted: 8/14/15 at 7:10pm

"How do we make non theatregoers see theatre? That's what doesn't really happen unless you're a big commercial hit on Broadway. I want non theatregoers, because I think theatre should be for EVERYONE, not just the elite. "

Well. I've been on the producing team of several small, "indie" productions that no one had ever heard of. Storefront stuff. Stuff my friends said would never sell.

With smart producing, and marketing... you can sell it. Our audiences ranged from casual theatre goers, the "elite" as you put it (again with the offensive), to people who usually don't go to shows at all and would prefer a game at Wrigley Field but thought that the idea of what we were putting on was interesting enough for their hard earned money. And they liked it, the shows got good houses and solid response. 

Maybe your problem is that your shows aren't being produced or marketed by people who know how to... produce or market competitively? That's where some commercial know how comes in handy! Oh wait, commercial is EVIL. I forgot. 

[tourboi]

Posted: 8/14/15 at 7:12pm

"I'm moved by much more than the story of Fun Home. Seeing last night (again) was so thrilling. During "Changing My Major" the audience was particularly breathing and laughing in perfect sync with each other. The lighting effect for Bruce's final moments sent gasps through the audience- and we all felt it together. I wouldn't have experienced any of these communal things if I was watching it on video in my apartment, even with a group of friends."

 

Exactly. He forgets that several of the (now) COMMERCIAL shows every season are created and developed with non-profit houses, and often considered VERY risky. How can someone say Broadway is only for the easy? Trust me, shows like NEXT TO NORMAL, FUN HOME, TITLE OF SHOW, and more are NOT easy to sell to investors or audiences initially. 

Broadway is FULL of risk taking producers, who frankly don't get enough credit for their efforts. 

[tourboi]

Posted: 8/14/15 at 7:15pm

OH MY GOD YES. Darren Nichols. Deal with THAT. 

I needed that laugh!

 

[Michael Kras]

Posted: 8/14/15 at 7:22pm

Yup. I have never seen a show on Broadway, since I live in Canada and would never in a million years pay an excess of money to travel to see most things on the Great White Way. 

But I have seen touring productions and Mirvish imports of Next to Normal (tragically unmoving, even with Alice Ripley), Spring Awakening (one brief moment of electricity), Wicked (the ending sent me into a fit of giggles), The Lion King, Hairspray, and Rock of Ages among others. And given the general effect each of these shows had on me, it'd take a show like Hamilton to get me to invest in crossing the border. There was no sense of liveness. Except, duh, the actors were alive and stuff. 

 

I will, however, likely be making the trek to see Hamilton. It's the first time a bunch of video footage of a show has literally taken my breath away, which is good indication that the show itself might do the same.