LEMPICKA Reviews — Page 17

BorisTomashevsky said: "Jordan Catalano said: "I want to know what Beth Leavel was thinking, having to stand there and listen to all of that."

This is a really good point. I did notice Andrew Samonsky keeping an EXCELLENT poker face throughout the speeches."

not that excellent. the actors' faces are worth watching. 

and re the lesbian relationship- the show strangled itself in this regard. in reality, she had female lovers, but we dont know any historical "love of her life" that was one woman. they (understandably) created a composite character. but then they turned it into a big love story. ok but then they didnt want to pretend she had any ill will toward her husband (no evidence to suggest she did), so they tell us she was in love with two people--but the show only shows us their frayed, complicated relationship and little love between them. they wanted to launch a lesbian love story, but they didnt, but then they did, but then they didnt sell it... what a mess.

but ill die on this hill, i guess. that mess still had better music, and was more fun to watch/listen to, than MANY others this season (including some nominated for best musical). This butchered love story is shakespeare next to Alicia Keys and her summer of statutory rape, for example. We arent still talking about Water For Elephants because theres nothing remotely interesting happening in that story at all. So all these knives out, some well deserved, I get the frustration by this team who put together much to admire and got shafted. 

i just wish they could react to it like, i dunno, adults.

BorisTomashevsky said: "Jordan Catalano said: "I want to know what Beth Leavel was thinking, having to stand there and listen to all of that."

This is a really good point. I did notice Andrew Samonsky keeping an EXCELLENT poker face throughout the speeches."

I was too busy looking at the two lead producers on SL during Matt's speech, wondering what was going through their heads.

Jordan Catalano said: "AKarp2013 said: "I thoughtWater for Elephantswas just okay but it is leaps and bounds better thanLempicka.In any case,Water for Elephantshas a show tomorrow night."

Damn lol. Savage."

Sorry but those curtain speeches really, really, REALLY irked me.

I was watching them, also.  They started it on a classy note.  They looked more and more uncomfortable as the rants went on.  

Those speeches are embarrassing, and Matt Gould needs to stop getting hold of a microphone and cursing and ranting at people. 
Maybe the show should just have been better. Maybe he should focus on that and his part in it. 

chrishuyen said: "But I'm not quite sure what Chavkin was talking about when she mentioned that the reviews didn't mention the queer love story. I just did a quick look and all the reviews I checked (which were the first 5 or so that popped up in a Google search) referred to Rafaela as her lover, or mentioned her bisexuality. Sure they may not have said "there is a queer love story in the show", but people reading the reviews would have no doubt about there being one. And I mentioned this earlier too about how the show's marketing itself didn't seem to advertise that there was a lesbian romance at the center of the story either--it seemed unclear if they wanted to save that as a surprise for people watching the show. So why didn't the show market it more if that was such an integral part?”

I also took a quick glance at the first few reviews on Google and they all refer to Rafaela as Lempicka’s lover or girlfriend. I am sure there were some reviews that didn’t but an awful lot of prominent reviews did.

I never saw the show so I don’t have a dog in this fight, aside from being an admirer of Chavkin’s last two Broadway musicals. But part of me is honestly surprised that an experienced, Tony Award-winning director with a long-running musical across the street would make a statement that is at best highly misleading.

The reviews might have been unfair, or held a musical to an unrealistic standard of historical accuracy. Sunday in the Park With George just invented an entire story about a real person, after all.

But I am surprised that the creatives, having had weeks to deal with the disappointment, kept up the public bitterness. (Sondheim, plenty bitter after Merrily and no fan of most critics, quietly contemplated quitting the business.) Even a fan of Lempicka, commenting on Reddit, viewed the comments as an unsubtle slap at new musicals nominated this season. 

I assume this is just the usual internet dust-up and will be forgotten by Tuesday. It just seems odd.

 

Watching (and listening) to the show, it’s so clear that one of the guiding principles the creative team worked under was to redux Evita (I mean just look at the ripped off logo) and put on a Madonna music video. Thats where it begins and ends. The show doesn’t really make a a meaningful commentary on fascism, nor does it actually say much about being persecuted by fascists for being queer either that isn’t already baked in. I found the only glimmer of depth came in the epilogue when Rafaela spoke of Lempicka’s women. It spoke to a larger impact of the artist that was absent from the rest of the show that could have been a strong concept, but felt like they said “oh **** we haven’t said anything about her lasting impact…lets shoehorn this in.”

And from the sound of these speeches, this creative team is simply delusional. Sure, love your work, but it’s not some grand capitalist scheme to squash new work. There are plenty of new works crossing $1mil+ last week. Even with closing, Lempicka will be nowhere close. 

Didn’t Chavkin say something along the lines of “support new work” when Great Comet closed?

Jordan Catalano said: "I’m sure Matt Gould will take the stage blaming everyone and everything except the mediocre show itself for the lack of tickets sold."

Or Matt and others will start to work on their next ventures and continue to build beauty and live out their dreams and goals while others sit behind a keyboard, achieving nothing, doing nothing and awaiting to celebrate what they deem failures or misses with vitriol from actually remarkable (and in this case extremely talented and kind hearted) people who are actually offering something. 

If some of you can do better there is a world of opportunity out there for you. Make it happen! Some of us await whatever you can meaningfully contribute and will celebrate your success (or at the very least your attempt).

Thanks to Matt, Rachel, Carson, Raja and the entire team for bringing something new, going big and bringing underrepresented stories to the forefront. Thanks to the investors for putting their capital behind it. While it was not perfect (and nothing is), I personally enjoyed the experience and the attempt and await for more.

Jordan Catalano said: "“But I think it’s a shame to fabricate a legacy that this show was less than deserving. It was one of my favorite shows this season”

What it sounds like you’re saying is you think it’s unfair the majority of people who saw it didn’t like it, when you did.
Thats not “fabricating a legacy”, its sharing opinions on art - the exact same way you just did.

And you put WAAAAAAY too much stock in the reach our opinions have here as far as selling or killing a show goes. The show was capitalized at 20 million dollars which means they need to reach Joe and Betty Smith from Iowa who want to see a Broadway show on their first trip to the big city and they ain’t checking what Jordan Catalano on Broadway World has to say about it."

"I enjoyed it, so others are required to as well" seems to be the mentality surrounding this show. I completely agree with you Jordan