LA: Virginia Woolf & City of Mahagonny

[thenewmoon]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 2:20am

I'm sure others will post more erudite (and lengthier) reviews, but two recent openings at the LA Music Center bear mention. Saw "Virginia Woolf" at today's matinee (which I believe opened last night) at the Ahmanson, and it was just as brilliant and devastating as when I saw it on Broadway in May 2005. It was interesting to see how Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner have settled into their roles since then, yet still keep the sparks flying. Act I was particularly hilarious and the audience (myself included) laughed constantly. The more serious monologues in Acts II and III were weaker, I thought, and I could tell this immediately because I felt my mind wander... the Honey (Kathleen Early) and Nick (David Furr) owed much to the NY originals (Mireille Enos and David Harbour) yet the dynamic was completely different, especially Martha/Nick. Heartily recommend this to anyone who hasn't see it, or those who saw in NY with the first cast. Be sure to get tickets close to the stage-- the $20 Hot Tix are at the extreme side of the orchestra but you won't miss a thing. The backs of the mezz and balcony are blocked off, but you wouldn't want to miss out on the actors' faces by sitting even in the front of the mezz.
After that I saw the opening night perf of LA Opera's John Doyle-directed "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny." I am struggling to find anything redeeming about it. It makes the Roundabout "Threepenny" (which I hated) seem in retrospect as crowd-pleasingly entertaining as "Hairspray." Except for the presences of LuPone and McDonald (who were, of course excellent-- and leggy), I was bored to the proverbial tears. Doyle's frontal, static blocking is frankly more staid than "real" operas I've seen at LAO (which, in fact, I do quite often) and the Iraq references stuck in at the end seemed awkward and forced. I couldn't believe that there was an LED scroller-- must've been salvaged from "Threepenny"! Recommendation: for die-hard Weill and Broadway diva fans only!

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 3:55am

Great opinions.

I'll care more about them when you've been posting for longer than a week or more.

[d5johnston]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 4:42am

Just behcause thenewmoon hasn't been posting on this website long, doesn't mean that the opinions of that poster lack validity.

[mallardo]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 6:42am

TheatreDiva what is your problem??? Opinions don't count unless you've put in a couple of years on this board? Get a grip, please.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 1:34pm

She posted her opinion, I posted mine.

I don't need to get a grip on anything, thanks.

[noahrp3]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 3:50pm

Did anyone whos on the Ahmanson mailing list receive the promotion for $35 tix to Virginia Woolf? I want to see this next week and I lost the postcard they sent me and on it was a promotion code for $35 tickets. If anyone can post that, that would be great. Thanks

[thenewmoon]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 4:41pm

You don't need a code; you just have to call or go in person to get the $20 "Hot Tix." You can't order them online.

[dramaqueen2]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 8:01pm

"Just behcause thenewmoon hasn't been posting on this website long, doesn't mean that the opinions of that poster lack validity. "

took the words right out of my mouth!

[noahrp3]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 8:44pm

I know about the HOT TIX. They dont tell you where your seats are and I want to make sure Im not in the balcony...but there was a promotion for $35 seats where you get to choose your seats.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 10:19pm

Maybe if Doyle did something... I dunno... unusual, then maybe MAHOGANNY would work better. Something... hmm... unexpected, like... I know! Put instruments in the hands of the performers! That's it! Thatll make this ol' Kurt Weill piece really sing!

[DAME]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 10:31pm

Code 6305

[noahrp3]

Posted: 2/11/07 at 10:59pm

Thanks DAME.

[TimeSuckage]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 11:58am

I agree with thenewmoon. I saw Mahagonny Sat. nite and it was really stagnant. Plodding. Pretty lifeless. A lot of wonderful voices, but so what? And the English translation was pretty crappy. If they were going to do the supertitles, why not perform it in German and do the titles in English? And during the trial sequence they used onstage video, which was old when I saw Trevor Nunn use it in the original production of Chess in London.

Patti was out of her depth, sorry. She didn't have much to do, either, and I felt her abilities were wasted. Audra is an absolutely goddess, sounded and looked like a dream, and was not doing opera acting but real acting. She's like some genetic theater freak - just ridiculously gifted.

Disappointing overall. Doyle is better than this.

[JJPeachum2]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 3:30pm

Well, the "stagnant," "out front" staging might owe more to Brecht than to Doyle. I love this piece, and I really wish that I could see it. I can only hope that it gets recorded.

TimeSuckage, when you say "the English translation was pretty crappy," what do you mean? How well do you know the original German? I love very nearly all of Feingold's Brecht-Weill translations. Although his THREEPENNY is not the strongest available, I find his HAPPY END and his MAHAGONNY to be the most successful in terms of being very faithful to the original German but still being "singable" for the performers.

You also say: "If they were going to do the supertitles, why not perform it in German and do the titles in English?" Supertitles in English opera productions mainly have more to do with the lazy diction of most opera singers and little else. The reason that the opera is being performed in English is because it is an agitprop piece. Brecht wrote these plays (and operas and oratorios, etc.) to teach people (in some cases the performers as well as the audience), and to do something with so striking a message in another language would diminish the power of that message. I have no doubt that Brecht (and, for that matter, Weill) would want these works to be performed IN THE LANGUAGE OF the audience experiencing it.

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 3:47pm

I could not disagree more about Mahagonny. The production is a must-see for fans of musical theatre as well as for opera afficionados.

Direction, orchestra and exceptional cast come together in this post-modern production of Mahagonny. While McDonald and Lupone do not disappoint, Anthony Dean Griffey is a revelation as Joey, the ex gold miner. John Doyle proves that he can work without the tired the actor-musician concept and James Conlon shows why he's the premier go-to conductor for Weimar Republic composers.

Yes, it was an operatic production rather than a musical theatre production- there were no "production numbers", no real choreography to speak of and the aesthetic was definitely post-modern European opera house than Broadway.

Yes, there were a few over-the-top bits such as the televised trial and Audra's character suggesting Condi Rice in the 2nd act. Yes, the Feingold translation sounds a bit stuffy (a new one by someone like Frank McGuinness would have been better) but overall, the production was very true to the Brecht/Weill message.

[singingbackup]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 6:14pm

I couldnt disagree with the disagreement more. Saw it last night and, while it wasn't horrible, it just left me cold and bewildered. The storytelling was so muddy--it's the gold rush, but Audra is on a cell phone, and then a nod to Nazi-ism (yes I know it's Brecht and German and all) thrown in along with Irag, etc... Patti and Audra are always a treat to witness live, but I found little else all that moving, enjoyable or though-provoking. As far as the supertitles, the fact that some were missing and that the words on the screen didn't match what the performers were saying was a huge deal. Plus, seeing some of the more 'interesting' (read awful) lyrics in print as it were, didn't help. The sound was so inconsistant, often times the chorus (which had some interesting melodic passages) couldnt be heard above the orchestra.

Staging was stark, but felt empty and the direction seemed lazy. Scenery often did look cheap (the cheeky and telegraphing "route 666" sign looked like it was made at some middle school shop class)

At $150 a seat (yikes!) it wasn't all that worth it.