Journey's End - brilliant.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 2:20pm

Go see this play before it closes. From top to bottom.. simply incredible. I am a Stark Sands fan for life ow. He walks off with the Tony Award with this performance. Please, please support this production. Even the curtain call tableau is simply brilliant.
Last nights performance was made all the more poignant by the presence of Fleet weekers in the audience.
I must say, however, that given the audience demographic and people in attencence, the audience was INCREDIBLY rude.... when a show is that dimly lit, cell phone lights are all the more apparent when they are on... and no feer than five seperate cell phones going off.... ugh.
If show can justify it, Journey's End shows the need for a sound design Tony Award.

As far as the theatre.. such a great, historic and beautiful theatre. Shame on the Shuberts for letting it rot away in such a state... it was heartbreaking to see how they do not care for it. Not to mention that house staff.. aweful!!!!

[SNLMedia]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 2:24pm

I'm seeing this Saturday night and I am beyond excited. I've heard nothing but greatness about the show.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 2:31pm

Stark Sands won't win the Tony. You just want to **** him.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 2:41pm

munk, while i cetainly would not mid doing that, it has nothing to do wth it. I thought he gave a pitch perfrect performance, and standing outside ater, he was the ONLY one people were talking about. Granted, he had the most powerful scene in the show at the end, but regardless... the comments were ALL about him.
Did someone remember their bitter pill this morning?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 3:53pm

You spoke to everyone in the theatre?

[Bwayfan4]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 5:42pm

Broadywayguy, I agree with you completely.

I saw the show a few weeks back and really enjoyed it. I went expecting Hugh Dancy to be the "stand out" actor (to me), but I have to say that Stark Sands (in my opinion) was MUCH better.

The curatin call IS fantastic...it must have been emotional with all of the "fleet weekers" there...I felt the same way when I saw it. (There were many veterans present)

[gustof777]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:04pm

will he walk off with HIS award...not so sure. He damn well should though!
I liked Crudup but it wasn't at all on the same level as Sands

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:11pm

I liked Crudup but it wasn't at all on the same level as Sands.

Hah, that's funny. I mean, I loved Stark. I thought he was truly fantastic. But there is nobody giving a performance like Crudup's this year. That monologue in Voyage was one of the most brilliantly delivered pieces recently on Broadway.

[gustof777]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:13pm

um...which is why Crudup walked away with the Drama Desk right??

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:13pm

Don't be stupid, gust.


Anyway. I think Anthony Chisholm should win the Tony.

[gustof777]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:16pm

I didn't mean to be stupid but to say that nobody is giving a performance like Crudup's is just ridiculous

[loverly]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:19pm

I think Translations was a far superior production.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:31pm

Journey's End is far superior to Translations, and Crudup didn't win the Drama Desk because Boyd Gaines was considered featured instead of leading.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:59pm

Even after everything, one of the most emotional moments, for me, was during the final curtain call tableau, when they final unfreeze and remove their hats and acknowlege the audience, stark sands slowly looked around the house, first across the front row, then up to the back of the orchestra, and gave a small now to the sailors in the back of the house, saluting the cast.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 7:02pm

I'm SO EXCITED to see this!
I'm sitting front row of the Mezz. in a couple of weeks!
I'm just SOOOO glad I'm able to catch this masterpiece before it closes. Here's to it taking some home at the TONYs!

Best,
- Mike

[NJgirl]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 9:33pm

I agree...it's brilliant. And Stark was a standout..esp his scenes in the last 30 mins of the show. I think he played the character and his transition? (is that the right word?) extremely well. I was excited to see he was nominated.
I hope to get back again before it closes.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 11:01pm

<< Anyway. I think Anthony Chisholm should win the Tony. >>

Munk... ya beat me to it !!!! Chisholm is BEYOND brilliant !!

[mint0621]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:18am

OK, I may drop by this weekend to see the fleet weekers in the audience...it'll be my fourth time!!

Although I love Sands' performance, I think this year is Crudup's year. Sands has so much potential; I doubt we have seen the last of him yet.

[claudia2]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 7:05pm

My friends went to see the show about two weeks ago. They just flew in from LA and they really wanted to see Journey's End and that was the only night they would have been able to. I told then to just get the tx at the box office right before the show instead of buying them in advance

There plane ended up getting in late and they didn't make it to the theater until about 8:30 and the box office was closed. The woman who was in the lobby guarding the door to the theater sold them two tickets for cash. She had a bunch of tickets in enveopes and looked through them and gave t hem two.

Is this legal?

[lisa902652]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 10:37pm

I think the only place you can buy tickets at the theater is from the box office. That sounds strange.

[MotorTink]

Posted: 5/27/07 at 4:36pm

I saw this show last night and it was phenomenal. Absolutely captivating and touching. The actors were amazing. It is a shame this show is closing.

[genwesclark]

Posted: 5/27/07 at 5:47pm

Journey's End put me to sleep. The acting and design are quite brilliant, but the text is a bore. If you've ever seen Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, or Apocalypse Now, you already have an idea about the personal stuggles of wartime soldiers. I swear, that play just would not end!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 5/27/07 at 7:55pm

I had a discussion about THAT recently as well. Journey's End is written in three act form and wa meant to performed as such. Here, they readjust and perform it as two acts. Act One felt endless, but Act two moved swiftly along. In retrospect, that feels just how it should. Act One is almost all one scene and pure exposition meant to set up the characters, the history, what is coming, and drive home the shear boredom and slow, dull pace of life in the dug out. Act Two takes place over the course of three days or so and moves more swifty, giving the plot..... Once again, as it was intended and how you SHOULD have felt. The piece was meant for realism and for you to feel as though that were YOUR life as well.

Updated On: 5/27/07 at 07:55 PM

[DevDev]

Posted: 5/27/07 at 8:50pm

I saw the show last night as well. I'm still digesting it (like a full course meal). Just, there are still some aspects I want to think over. It truly impacted me even though I wanted to die of bordem in the first act. But broadwayguy2 brought up such a good point. It was meaningful to feel as bored as those men (even if I didn't feel like that at the time)

At the end of the performance, a woman was so deeply moved that she started screaming at the top of her lungs. A high pitched scream that she just continued to go on with. She was sobbing and just screaming. I really thought an ambulance was going to have to be summoned. I was moved to tears and certainly impacted, but with the way that woman was screaming, I would guess she was way more impacted. It was kind of surreal to go from the ending of the show (with all the bombs and bullets and the loudness of it all) to her screaming. I don't know if the woman lost someone due to war or whatever, but her screaming just... from the bombs to the grief at home? You know? It's hard to put into words. I almost felt like I had just seen all those men meet their end and then suddenly I was privy to their families learning about it.

[mint0621]

Posted: 5/27/07 at 8:55pm

Dev,

I sent you a PM :)

But chatting with the actors afterwards...they heard her and were surprised because they never saw anyone react that way before to the play. I was sitting in front of her; she was chatting away with her friends about the NY Times review, the history of the play, details about the author...nothing personal...which made the actors and I think that perhaps she just was a big fan of the piece.

Her reaction was very odd. Especially since I was sitting right in front of her....I got the majority of the force of her reaction.