#1
Posted: 8/14/05 at 3:11pm
Talkin Broadway is up -- and NEGATIVE ("scathing" is perhaps a better word):
"Well, Lennon has finally opened at the Broadhurst. If this is fixed, I'd hate to have seen it when it was broken.
Lennon is the most criminally boring jukebox "musical" to open to date, utterly sanitizing and whitewashing its subject's life so as to remove from him any and all controversy and rebellious fire. (This is likely due, in no small part, to the close involvement of Lennon's fiercely protective widow, Yoko Ono.) 27 songs that Lennon wrote or famously performed have been shoehorned into a show-biz saga so bland and non-specific, but for a few specific names it could be about anyone.
_____________________________________________________________
What happens here is what has to happen with jukebox "musicals": As the songs weren't written for dramatic situations, they become either diversions or extraneous theatrical black holes from which useful information, liveliness, and even good, old-fashioned entertainment have no hope of escaping. That makes Lennon no more effective than constantly switching channels between a VH1 Lennon tribute and Beatles night on American Idol.
That Scardino is out of his element and out of his mind is obvious when the show starts, and the production seems more about John Arnone's non-committal industrial set and its three towering projection screens showing a nonstop stream of images. Already Lennon himself isn't a concern, but common sense - let alone respect for the audience - is discarded altogether when the cast's four women try (and fail) to recreate the excitement of the Beatles' now-legendary performance of "Twist and Shout" on The Ed Sullivan Show.
If that number - equally famous in television history and music history - can't fly, what can? The answer, of course, is nothing, though there are plenty of desperation attempts......
_______________________________________________________________
Finally, there's Marcy Harriell, the only thing about Lennon that seems to belong in a Broadway theater. She's an unstoppable burst of focused creative energy, and wakes up the show (and the audience) with her every appearance, whether as a hyperactive Elton John leaping on the piano when playing a gig with Lennon or simply writhing around onstage singing a searing, soulful rendition of "Woman Is the n* of the World."
Harriell should play Lennon, Yoko, and everyone else; anything else is wasting our time.
___________________________________________________________
If you aren't already an aficionado about Lennon's life, you'll learn nothing; if you aren't already a devotee, you'll feel nothing.
Well, that's not entirely true. I did feel something, specifically the desire to travel back to the halcyon days of late 1966, when I could have swelled with respect for producer David Merrick, who closed the previewing musical Breakfast at Tiffany's because it just wasn't good enough. Lennon also isn't good enough. It isn't good. It doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word "good." And yet it's open, for the same reason that garbage shows like Mamma Mia!, Good Vibrations, and All Shook Up opened: The producers don't really care. So why should they give us any reason to care about Lennon?
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/Lennon.html
"Well, Lennon has finally opened at the Broadhurst. If this is fixed, I'd hate to have seen it when it was broken.
Lennon is the most criminally boring jukebox "musical" to open to date, utterly sanitizing and whitewashing its subject's life so as to remove from him any and all controversy and rebellious fire. (This is likely due, in no small part, to the close involvement of Lennon's fiercely protective widow, Yoko Ono.) 27 songs that Lennon wrote or famously performed have been shoehorned into a show-biz saga so bland and non-specific, but for a few specific names it could be about anyone.
_____________________________________________________________
What happens here is what has to happen with jukebox "musicals": As the songs weren't written for dramatic situations, they become either diversions or extraneous theatrical black holes from which useful information, liveliness, and even good, old-fashioned entertainment have no hope of escaping. That makes Lennon no more effective than constantly switching channels between a VH1 Lennon tribute and Beatles night on American Idol.
That Scardino is out of his element and out of his mind is obvious when the show starts, and the production seems more about John Arnone's non-committal industrial set and its three towering projection screens showing a nonstop stream of images. Already Lennon himself isn't a concern, but common sense - let alone respect for the audience - is discarded altogether when the cast's four women try (and fail) to recreate the excitement of the Beatles' now-legendary performance of "Twist and Shout" on The Ed Sullivan Show.
If that number - equally famous in television history and music history - can't fly, what can? The answer, of course, is nothing, though there are plenty of desperation attempts......
_______________________________________________________________
Finally, there's Marcy Harriell, the only thing about Lennon that seems to belong in a Broadway theater. She's an unstoppable burst of focused creative energy, and wakes up the show (and the audience) with her every appearance, whether as a hyperactive Elton John leaping on the piano when playing a gig with Lennon or simply writhing around onstage singing a searing, soulful rendition of "Woman Is the n* of the World."
Harriell should play Lennon, Yoko, and everyone else; anything else is wasting our time.
___________________________________________________________
If you aren't already an aficionado about Lennon's life, you'll learn nothing; if you aren't already a devotee, you'll feel nothing.
Well, that's not entirely true. I did feel something, specifically the desire to travel back to the halcyon days of late 1966, when I could have swelled with respect for producer David Merrick, who closed the previewing musical Breakfast at Tiffany's because it just wasn't good enough. Lennon also isn't good enough. It isn't good. It doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word "good." And yet it's open, for the same reason that garbage shows like Mamma Mia!, Good Vibrations, and All Shook Up opened: The producers don't really care. So why should they give us any reason to care about Lennon?
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/Lennon.html
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 8/14/05 at 03:11 PM
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