It's A Lemon: In My Life Reviews - Brantley's Included!- Page 3

[emo_geek]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:17am

They think Bklyn is worst? Brooklyn has a fan base of loyal die hard fans that have been inspired by the story, songs, costumes...etc. In my life has a fan base of people who love to look at a show that is a joke and flop of flops.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:18am

No, IML is better than BKLYN.

Better, because it's entertaining.

[spintoboy]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:19am

"Can not wait to see what FB will do to it."

I saw FB about ten days ago and it already included an IN MY LIFE sketch.

It's very short: on stage is William Barfee from SPELLING BEE. He is asked to spell "In My Life." Then, with the aid of his magic foot, he spells out "F . . . L . . . O . . .P"!

[AndSoItBegins]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:20am

Talkin' Broadway makes me giggle.

An open letter to Joseph Brooks, whose new musical In My Life just opened at the Music Box.

Dear Mr. Brooks:

Congratulations! You've achieved something that few people ever will: You've written an original musical that's opened on Broadway. That takes a lot of determination, courage, and fortitude. I won't speculate on how it compares to making and scoring your own film, which you did with You Light Up My Life in 1977, but it's nonetheless a noteworthy accomplishment.

What's even more remarkable is that, as with your movie, you've done it all yourself: producing; directing; writing the music, lyrics, and libretto. Those are five hefty hats to wear - many of musical theatre's most respected talents never attempted so much. Lyricists have written musical books, composers have written lyrics, and some brave souls have written everything. But even they generally stop there, because they realize how vital collaboration is in the creation of great musicals.

After all, even the best writers need someone to help shape the material and provide an outsider's perspective. A writer can easily get trapped in his own little world, especially if he's directing his own work, and not realize what he's doing that's preventing his vision from being adequately communicated to the audience. In short, he needs someone to say "no" every once in a while.

And, Mr. Brooks, as you have apparently not been so blessed during the creative process of In My Life, I'm going to do that for you now.

No, you should not have attempted all this yourself. The people capable of doing it all and doing it all well are unusually gifted geniuses, a rather exclusive pantheon to which, I'm sorry to tell you, you don't belong. Know your limitations - don't be afraid to work with people who will challenge you, yell at you, and not let you have your way all the time. Your work will only benefit.

No, you shouldn't try to put everything you can imagine into your show. Your combination love story and death story, which purees Hammerstein, Beckett, and LSD in a malfunctioning celestial blender, is too busy. You'd be better off just focusing on J.T. (Christopher Hanke), the Tourette's Syndrome-afflicted pop musician, and his girlfriend/soulmate Jenny (Jessica Boevers), the Village Voice personals editor. Once your firm up the story of how they learn to love each other and come to terms with his myriad ailments and their potentially serious repercussions, you'll be on the right track.

No, the subplot about Jenny's friend Samantha (Laura Jordan), who lost her boyfriend Nick (Michael Halling) in a car accident, won't play if you don't fully develop either character. If you want to involve another couple in the story, particularly when half the scenes are set in Heaven, their roles must be less extractable than these are.

No, you shouldn't rely so heavily on Winston, the flouncy, Goth angel-narrator that David Turner plays with such jovial relish. He allows for easy comic relief, but the laughs should come from J.T. and Jenny, so we understand and care about them more. Having Winston produce an opera about their bizarre, tragic affair and comment on it, often meta-theatrically, in every other scene is just asking for trouble.

No, a song in which Winston dances with a skeleton isn't a good idea. It will only elicit derisive laugher and shove your show even closer to complete camp. Once people see it, they'll have trouble taking seriously anything that comes afterwards. (The same is true of Winston's pirate opera parody.)

No, depicting God as a good-naturedly schlubby auto mechanic-type named Al (Michael J. Farina) isn't smart, especially when you write Him as a clueless bystander who can't bother to be lured away from His vacation. (And no, interpolating your own Dr. Pepper and Volkswagen jingles isn't a good way to round out Al's songstack.)

Finally: No, even if lemons factor vitally into your story, as they do here, they should never grace your marquee or Playbill cover. Thematically structuring your musical around citrus is a unique idea worthy of some respect; have some for yourself and don't give critics and snarkier audience members such an open invitation to tear you down. Your show is more lemonade than lemon, so focus on the sweet instead of the sour.

However, Mr. Brooks, as important as it is for you to be told "no," sometimes you also need to hear someone say "yes."

Yes, much of your score is attractive. You'd do well to eliminate Winston's songs (and, really, Winston), but you bring theatrical respectability to the pop stylings of the soul-searching title song for J.T. and Jenny, and I'll be surprised if there's a more beautiful song on Broadway this season than your luscious, dramatic "Not This Day" near the show's end. If your compositions occasionally venture too close to American Idol in sound and construction, they're almost all right, and music director Henry Aronson and orchestrator Kinny Landrum make them sound great.

Yes, you picked a first-rate design team: Allen Moyer's depiction of heaven as an infinity-spanning collection of filing cabinets and Jenny's apartment as an earthbound refuge is a master class in contrasts; Catherine Zuber's costumes, blue-based for Up There and with a more varied palette for Down Here, burst with visual appeal; and Christopher Akerlind's lights and Wendall K. Harrington's projections are typically excellent.

Yes, you cast your show well. Hanke and Boevers, if somewhat lacking in charisma, are both likable, and project enough optimistic innocence to involve us in their plight. Boevers has never been better, and Hanke convinces as a well-meaning borderline basket case. Chiara Navarra is a comic and vocal spitfire of a find as J.T.'s sister; thanks for providing us a future opportunity to say we saw her when. Farina's an appropriately cuddly omnipotent. Roberta Gumbel's gorgeous, shimmering soprano is an utter joy to hear; feel free to expand her role as J.T.'s mother as much as you like - she's superb.

Most important, yes, you should have written this show. You'll take a lot of flak for it, but despite your miscalculations, you've given us a one-of-a-kind musical comedy we'll always remember and talk about. True, less of it should be unintentionally funny (thank Winston for most of it). But the Jenny-J.T. relationship is engaging, full of honesty, heart, and a pervasive, sincere sweetness that more shows need. Thanks for not giving us another cold-blooded, committee-crafted crowd pleaser like Wicked, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, or Spamalot.

I must be honest with you, though: I doubt In My Life will find the success those shows have. But whatever happens, you've likely written the weirdest Broadway musical that most people will ever see. Not the worst, mind you, or even the worst this season - Lennon and The Blonde in the Thunderbird have lowered that bar farther than you could ever reach. But you still have a lot to learn, though please, don't lose your passion or individuality. We're in desperate need of them right now.

Regardless, welcome to Broadway, Mr. Brooks, and feel free to come back again. But do us - and yourself - a favor: Don't return alone.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:56am

I'm so glad this show has finally opened. I get to watch all the videos on it!! I really want to see this show!!! UGH, i'm so jealous of you all for getting to see history in the making! lol .... maybe, since Brooks is so stubborn it will tour and i'll get to see it!

[spintoboy]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 1:10am

David Finkle calls it "repugnant" and says David Turner "looks to be made from parts left over from the creation of Johnny Depp and Alan Cumming." He likens the show itself to Portofino, Via Galactica, and Carrie:

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/6933

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 1:12am

Brantley looks like David Guest! LOL

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 2:38am

I really like Matthew Murray's TB review. What a paradox: a kind-hearted pan.

[hannahshule]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 6:49am

the wall street journal gives it until Wednesday

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 11:03am

LOL, I love Barnes.

These reviews are definitely interesting.

[ElphabaRose]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 11:21am

I have got to see this show! I hope it lasts until Thanksgiving since I love a good trainwreck.




The sad thing is, this might be what the production is going for, something so bad that everyone wants to see the trainwreck.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 11:26am

The Talkin' Broadway Review has had me laughing for an hour now.

I really need to see this again. For a third time.

This is the campiest of the camp!

Anyone care to join me in the future? Rush, maybe?

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 11:55am

Finally...someone came out and said it in print:

"The other horror in this heaven is a little girl named Vera, who is played by Chiara Navarra as the scariest child actress ever. (Vera is the sister of J.T. She apparently died in a car crash.) She's like a small, wizened adult, who insists on singing louder than anyone else onstage at every opportunity."
link

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 11:57am

FIIIIIIINALLY.

Thank Al, someone finally said it!

[mominator]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:05pm

Can not wait to see what FB will do to it."

I saw FB about ten days ago and it already included an IN MY LIFE sketch.

It's very short: on stage is William Barfee from SPELLING BEE. He is asked to spell "In My Life." Then, with the aid of his magic foot, he spells out "F . . . L . . . O . . .P"!

Thanks spintoboy, have tickets for tomorrow night. (tee hee0

[spintoboy]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:40pm

Eric Grode compares it to CARRIE, PORTOFINO, KELLY, and PRINCE OF CENTRAL PARK. The headline on the review is "A Flop For The Ages":

http://www.nysun.com/article/21833

[i*heart*fame]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 1:32pm

I actually really agree with TB's review. I thought that it was an entertaining read, but still interesting, and most definitely true.

[AuditioningWaitress]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 1:45pm

I have to say I agree with the critics...But I did get a "guilty pleasure" out of seeing the show though!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 2:03pm

<>

I thought it was hilarious. The sketch was a total of 15 seconds long, shortes Forbidden Broadway sketch I've ever seen. He spells "FLOP", and the lights go off. And that's it. It was breathtaking.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 2:20pm

It must suck for the cast to read the reviews, calling the show they're doing every night a "sure fire flop." I Mean that sucks. I know how hard it is to go up everynight and put your heart in ur performance and try to be serious while people in the audience are cracking up and just not "getting it." I have yet to see the show, but i dunno, it just seems like it must be hard for them. my hats off to um.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 6:23pm

I'm getting sick of this being referred to as the next Carrie.

The fact is, Carrie was a good musical inside a horrible musical that ended up being entertaining (not to mention costly).

It has a beautiful score between mother and daughter that was NEVER boring, while it unintentionally turned 'Bye Bye Birdie' and 'Grease' into Camp 500.

Carrie was a serious attempt at creating a great show. It suffered from an untalented, lackluster production team that, had the book, staging, set design, etc. been better, the show could have survived.

Good Vibrations can hardly be placed into this category of "flop musicals" because it isn't original. When you go to see a jukebox, it's about how the songs will be used...that's all. Everything else is built around that.

In terms of theatre, Good Vibrations is non-entertaining dribble.

Now Brooklyn is a bit different. It is completely original (well, 'supposedly'). Brooklyn is a slaughterhouse of emotions for anyone sitting in the theatre. It is completely misguided and embarrassing, not to mention offensive.

When you are going to talk about something as serious as AIDS and try to comment on the political system of a country, it's best not to use cheap jokes, corny lines, and a fairy tale about a girl named Brooklyn from Paris, who doesn't have a French accent (mind you).

I was not entertained for one moment while seeing Brooklyn. That is to say, Ramona kept me on the edge of my seat...but the material itself was not entertaining.

Although IML's material is horrible, it is still entertaining. Sometimes camp is fun to watch.

Like Carrie (though I hate to say that), IML is a dual musical - half of it is actually good (that would be the Winston stuff - entertaining, self-realizing camp) and the rest is boring and monotonous. However, unlike Carrie, each part relies heavily on the other to make the "good" parts work.

Anyway, in that sense it is similar to Carrie...however, IML is entertaining because it tries hard to be bad (in the right spots) - and succeeds! However, it also tries to be a good show in other spots - and fails.

That is what makes it different from Carrie - which tried to be good in some parts - and succeeded...and tried to be good in other parts - and failed.


Updated On: 10/21/05 at 06:23 PM

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 6:33pm

Brooklyn, to many, was an amazing musical.
It got a strong fan base which continues to support it!
Happy Anniversary!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 7:08pm

Happy anniversarry to BKLYN!

Anyone know how many stars Barnes gave it?

[newsieboy23]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 7:15pm

what ever happend to the off bway musical about MArk Schoenfeld... the writer? that still happening?

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 7:16pm

hmm... i hope it'll be around Thankgsiving... ill be in NYC than