Light in The Piazza 6/4

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:30pm

Everyone was in it today

Having said that, We were disappointed. Everything was great except the music. The score was OK but for us it did not deserve some of the raves it got. We liked DRS score much more.

Add to that the fact that the acoustics stink as even though we were in Row M of the Orchestra , my wife & I could not decipher some of the lyrics. The acting, sets, & book were great. Unfortunately, to our way of thinking, the score was not

This is only our opinion & If others on the board enjoyed the score, great. Out of a 10 we gave it an 8.5. Good but not great

By the way, I overheard an usher say that it was extended to Labor Day & if it did well @ the Tonys, it might be extended until the end of the year. It was nearly full today

Updated On: 6/4/05 at 07:30 PM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:37pm

Listening to the score right now. True, it's not as immediate as some other scores, but I find it very rewarding.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:42pm

It may be one of thise scores that sound better on CD than in the theater. We shall see as we got the CD @ Tower before we went in for $ 13.99

[sports620]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:50pm

I was also at the matinee today and I liked the show. But I agree! On the train home we tried to think of a song to sing or hum and we came up with nothing! How frustrating! I don't think that has ever happened to me after seeing a musical before.

[BroadwayBound06]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:51pm

This score is the best score this season. I didn't think DRS even compared to Piazza. Spamalot's score doesn't even compare to Piazza. It's so rich and beautiful. DRS and Spamalot's score can be really ugly sounding at times, but Piazza is always gorgeous and deserves best score this season. DRS and Spamalot is extremely repetitive and I don't like either lyrics. I think Piazza deserves to sweep even though it won't.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:55pm

Mr. Roxy,

You claim that you and your wife had trouble deciphering some of the lyrics. Right?

Did you realize that part of the score is sung in Italian?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 8:02pm

I don't think it is a bad thing that a score is hummable or not. Guettel wrote a score that comes out of the action and character's emotions, and I think that trying to make it hummable would have not served this show and its aim very well.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 8:10pm

Perhaps it's my music background, but personally, I found the score quite "hummable" and tuneful and certainly remembered several melodies immediately after the show and for days and weeks afterward (especially "Dividing Day" "Stories and Statues" "Fable" Let's Walk" "Say It Somehow").

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 11:22pm

"I liked the show. But I agree! On the train home we tried to think of a song to sing or hum and we came up with nothing! How frustrating! I don't think that has ever happened to me after seeing a musical before."

This alone is not a test of the score's quality, but rather how much it resembles other scores. Older musicals tended to showcase fairly simplle 16 ad 32 bar songs that essentially repeated the same melodic ideas over and over. Modern theatre writing, freed of the constraints of writing for a now non-existent pop market, can develop musical ideas through theme and variations in ways that are comparable to the great classical composers. You can't necessarily hum the Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto after one listen .. but it is still a great piece of music!

[Pinguin]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 11:55pm

I will never understand the appeal of DRS. Really I won't. Especially for its score. To me the score is repetitive and bland.

It's funny 'cause I think the score for Piazza is stronger than the book. It's the only time in quite awhile where I actually left the theatre going thinking "I NEED THIS CD NOW!"

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 11:59pm

O, I felt that way about needing to own the score right there and then.

I can see the appeal for DRS.
But it's nothing like Piazza.

~Steven