Light in the Piazza Reviews- Page 2

[QueenMuppet]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:34pm

Me too, DGrant.

QM

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:36pm

Do you all think the reviews will give Clark a leg up in the Tony race?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:39pm

I think Clark is probably the front runner, but again its not a very accesible show. Still, her competition is weak. Sutton Foster won't win a second Tony so soon with such a limpid show as LITTLE WOMEN. Clark's closest competition may be Christina Applegate if she can pull off a coup -- but that remains to be seen.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:40pm

What Michael Bennet says is true. Without a noticeable jump in sales tomorrow and the next day, it's probably unlikely that they'll extend. However, given that nothing is booked at the Beaumont for the summer, it's certainly possible that they might give it another month or two.

Clark is perhaps the favorite for Best Actress right now, the sets, costumes and lighting are all strong contenders, as are Guettel's score and the the orchestrations. If they get the fourth slot for Best Musical (fairly likely, I believe), have a good showing on the telecast and walk away with three or four Tonys, that would be more than enough to sustain ticket sales through the end of summer.

Updated On: 4/18/05 at 07:40 PM

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:41pm

sure the reviews can definitely give her a leg up, but why give it to someone when the audience wont be able to go see her, if the show does close on schedule, a week after the awards ... thats something that unfortunately comes into play more than it should.

maybe im just optimistic (ive been called much worse in life) but i figured the lead getting great reviews would lead to the sales boost, thus the extension.

i dont know exactly when they need to announce such things, maybe the nominations will be the deciding factor... Updated On: 4/18/05 at 07:41 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:42pm

I think Piazza will win Score and Actress. I actually think costumes/sets will go to something bigger like CHITTY or SPAMALOT, though they are beautiful.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:47pm

Mistress -- It's good to be optomistic! But the truth is, that top reviews for a Broadway performer who is not a recognized name doesn't typically boost ticket sales.

That goes for PR as well. When it was announced that Miss D'Amboise was taking over CHARITY, the NYTIMES did an enormous story on her, pushing her as an unsung star getting her chance at last.

The story did absolutely nothing for the show's box office.

Even if the reviews for LIGHT had been through the roof raves, its still a tough sell. Audiences are fickle. And tourists typically like a different sort of musical.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:47pm

I think it has to also be the favorite for orchestrations -- nothing else is even close. Not a big category in terms of box office, but, hey, it adds to the total and looks good in the ads.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:50pm

Yes I agree Margo about orchestrations. Unless there is some sentimental old favorite attached to one of the other shows who hasn't won yet.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 7:58pm

True. Tunick is always a contender since he is best-known orchestrator of them all becasue of all of his work with Sondheim over the years. But, somehow I doubt he'd get it for "The Frogs" or for his reduced orchestration of "Pacific Overtures," lovely as it was.

Harold Wheeler has a definite shot for "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" since he's been around for decades, but hasn't won yet since they added the orchestrations category a couple of years ago.

[Benzy92]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 8:09pm

Is it completely out of the question that Sondheim will win Best Score for The Frogs because it is eligible and he IS Sondheim? Not saying this is going to happen, just wondering..

Posted: 4/18/05 at 8:16pm

I understand your point about not being a big tourist trap, but I think Charity was different, they were trying to sell an unrecognizable name as a *replacement* for a household name (if not applegate, then atleast kelly bundy is a household name)-- i think things wouldve gone quite differently had she been the scheduled lead from the start.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 8:16pm

I think that's an open question. With all the attention Sondheim has gotten this year with 75th birthday celebrations all over the place, the incredible level of love and respect there is for him in the Broadway community and the fact that "The Frogs" could possibly be his final new (-ish) score for Broadway, I don't know that we should count him out just yet for a possible nomination this year. Not to mention, it's not as if there have a whole bunch of stellar original scores this year. If it were me -- not to say that my tastes will in anyway reflect the nominating committee's -- I'd give score nods to Piazza, DRS, Spelling Bee and The Frogs. But, again, that's just me.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 8:30pm

though i'm going to be yelled at relentlessly, i think that the four best original scores are drs, piazza, spelling bee and little women. those would be my nominations.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 8:45pm

No one is going to yell at you

I just know that for me, most of the critics and most of the people on the board, the score of "Little Women" was pedestrian, monotonous, uninspired and down-right sleep-inducing.

"The Frogs" score includes "Invocations and Instructions to the Audience," "I Love To Travel," "Ariadne," "Dress Big," "Hades" and several other highlights that it would be a shame to overlook at nomination time.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 8:48pm

most of the songs you mentioned weren't original though... i thought most of the score really suited the story well of little women well and i walked out humming many of the songs. i definitely don't think it's the best thing ever, but i think it's good in the context of the show.
you know what new sondheim score is under-appreciated... bounce. yes, the show was terrible, i didn't care about a single character throughout the night. but the score had some really lovely melodies in it.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 8:56pm

The Brantley review might not be a traditinional "money" review, but in the current climate, it's a kind of validation of the piece's notable ambitions. These days, in a season with VIBRATIONS and ALL SHOOK, ambitious is high praise, if through the stage door.

As for Clark, well, this time last year, Tonya Pinkens, with a not dissimilar reception, was a shoo-in. Remember? At this very board, it was a done deal, with Donna the dark horse. Or perhaps, the same two, in reverse. Donna, shoo-in (blessed by Brantley), Caroline, blessed by cogniscenti. Then, the closer we got, Idina moved forward, from way behind, against many odds. Perhaps it's increasingly hard to call in April.

Updated On: 4/18/05 at 08:56 PM

[Plum]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:12pm

Yes, but if this year's Wicked-esque best-seller is Spamalot, there is no Best Actress nominee to parallel Menzel.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:18pm

Of all the contenders Victoria Clark may not be a shoo-in yet. We are still yet to be decided on Applegate on SWEET CHARITY. As of now, Clark has the upper-hand and no one is pulling an Idina Menzel like last year (in response to what Auggie said). Who knows? My money's on Clark though.

Updated On: 4/18/05 at 09:18 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:20pm

I'm really starting to think that SPAMALOT will get just Best Musical (and featured actress and maybe Nichols for Direction) and everything else gets doled out between SPELLING BEE, DRS and PIAZZA. CHARITY gets Best Revival just for the fact that Applegate and Weisslers worked so hard to get it to New York (not for actual quality of the show itself), unless it gets totally trashed by the critics (and if so, then probably LA CAGE wins).

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:26pm

Such a shame that Pacific Overtures will be forgotten (although, I doubt it would have had a chance even if it was still running).
Updated On: 4/18/05 at 09:26 PM

[Plum]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:28pm

I'm waiting until the Spelling Bee reviews before I say anything, but I think you might be right, Margo. I don't know if the Tonys will go for the "little show that could" 2 years in a row. Might be too much to ask.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 9:50pm

Kuchwara from the AP is a RAVE:

"Funny where love may turn up. In "The Light in the Piazza," which opened Monday at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, it arrives on a gust of wind, blowing a young woman's straw hat across a Florentine plaza and into the hands of a handsome, almost fairy-tale fellow.

This enchanting musical celebrates the unexpectedness and intensity of it all, no matter what the roadblocks, and does it with style. "Piazza" is a show of considerable beauty -- more melodically, emotionally and visually satisfying than any other musical this season.
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In a Broadway season awash in clever if strenuously constructed silliness -- "Monty Python's Spamalot" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" come to mind -- "The Light in the Piazza" stands out as something more: a truly adult musical with serious intentions.
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And Guettel, who wrote the off-Broadway musical "Floyd Collins," has provided some intricate yet gorgeous melodies for them to warble. The composer has a distinct musical voice, not flashy, but quietly insinuating. His songs sneak up on you, capture a character or a moment and then quickly move on. Yet the memory remains. And his lyrics refuse to find their way to easy rhyme.

The cast serves this material with astonishing skill, starting with a perfectly realized performance by Victoria Clark as the distraught American mother. Clark, a musical-theater veteran of such shows as "Titanic" and the Matthew Broderick revival of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," flourishes here.

The tremulous, pent-up Margaret brims with love, for her daughter and for her husband, a love that is not consistently returned. In "Dividing Day," one of the show's pivotal musical numbers, Margaret realizes love has disappeared from her marriage. It's a shattering moment that the actress turns into an aria of devastation.

Kelli O'Hara is lovely as the childlike, impetuous Clara, the show's most vocally demanding role. Matthew Morrison is properly ardent as Clara's newfound love. And there are firmly etched portraits by Mark Harelik and Patti Cohenour as the youth's parents, Michael Berresse as his wandering brother and, particularly, Sarah Uriarte Berry as his spitfire of a sister-in-law.
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Bartlett Sher has directed the show with remarkable fluidity. Designer Michael Yeargan's elegant sets float effortlessly across the vast Beaumont stage. Columns and arches, along with a statue or two and drops of Italian renaissance paintings, represent the glories of Florence. Catherine Zuber's costumes, particularly for the women, are witty time capsules, instant reminders that we are in 1953, an era of full skirts and trim, tight suits.

"No one with a dream should come to Italy, no matter how dead and buried you think it is. ... This is where Italy will get you," Margaret says during one of her many asides to the audience. That bright Italian sunlight will expose, for better or worse, all your secrets. In "Piazza," those secrets -- and how they are dealt with -- make for an entrancing, affecting musical.

AP REVIEW

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 10:36pm

I am glad that Bartlett Sher is getting some attention in these reviews for his direction. I live in Seattle, and he's the artistic director of the Intiman theatre here. The shows he directs himself there are always so visually stunning, with an incredible use of the actors and stage pictures. He didn't direct Piazza here though, Lucas did, sort of the weak link in that production, so glad Sher had some success with it.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 10:39pm

Although I disagree with such positive reviews, I'm happy for them.

As far as the "Tony" talk above in this thread regarding orchestrations, I still think ALL SHOOK UP has the best orchestrations of the season so far, and they are my pick to win.