Light in the Piazza tour - Broadway transfer?- Page 2

[Valentina3]

Posted: 12/19/19 at 7:41pm

^ thank you everyone. TZOO was slightly better than TodayTix for the seats that looked good so went with that. With any luck, there will be enough empty seats for us to move up but either way - I expect the voices to carry well.

Thanks again!

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 12/20/19 at 8:09am

I got a postcard from the Lyric this week with a discount offer (LIGHT for 20% off select seats) and I scored a front-row spot for this Saturday night. I am excited to see this production, even if it is flawed. The Lyric was advertising it a lot when I was in Chicago during September, including a ticket giveaway at a Walgreens on State and Randolph. Here is a picture of that Walgreens window...

Updated On: 12/20/19 at 08:09 AM

[musikman]

Posted: 12/20/19 at 10:01am

Ravenclaw said: "I first fell in love with Light in the Piazza when I saw a recording of the PBS broadcast over a decade ago. It's been years since I've seen a production, so I was rather excited for this, especially considering Chris Jones's stamp of approval. I wish I shared in his admiration for this production.

Solea was out tonight (in the most bizarre understudy announcement I've ever seen, a man walked onstage with a handheld microphone and said that Ms. Pfeiffer "is indisposed and is unable to perform". Her understudy was fine but nobody in this production has any real fire or passion. The whole thing was cool to the touch. Clara seemed generally capable of handling herself despite minor freakout, Fabrizio seemed generally interested in Clara but not head-over-heels in love, and Margaret seemed generally concerned about her daughter but not shaken to the core by anything. Renee Fleming's acting has none of the woodenness of false "I'm really a singer first" quality her performance in Carousel did, and she does sound lovely and I could understand every word, I'll give her that, and she is probably the strongest part of the cast, but the whole thing kind of fell flat. I don't know if Solea's performance would have brightened things up (her understudy had a nasally placement and a wobbly vibrato that really grated on me), but the problems were deeper than any one person.

Daniel Evans's production just didn't feel very well staged. The blocking very "let's cross to the other side of the stage since we've been standing still for a little while" instead of being motivated by the text.The unit set looks pretty when you walk into the theatre but it doesn't really serve the piece. For a musical with multiple songs about walking, the set didn't really give them many places to go walking or for people to enter/exit from. There's a platform that's horizontally raked, on which all of the indoor scenes take place, so whenever we're in the Nacarelli home everyone slants to the left a little bit. And there were a few theatrical "tricks" that didn't do much for me--rather than the hat being swept away, actors sitting on stairs above Clara carry it away and pass it off to each other (my companion who'd never seen the show asked why others stole her hat), and during The Beauty Is, actors recreated paintings in the background, adding nothing to the story and upstaging Clara's performance of the song. And I couldn't stop wondering why there was a donut-shaped piece of sky suspended from the flies the whole evening (Evans of course directs Fleming to look at it when she sings of "a painted ceiling" in the final song--which earned a chuckle from me).

I have a lot of minor, nitpicky gripes I could list off, but really, I could forgive most of them if the production had more semblance of heart. I didn't buy that anyone was falling in love in this show, I didn't buy that Clara and Fabrizio's love for each other inspired Margaret to realize the problems in her own marriage, I didn't buy that Clara's happiness was so overwhelming that Margaret had to give her a chance and let her go, I didn't buy that Clara's problems would be anything that her new family couldn't handle. There was an alarming lack of conflict. This production just doesn't "get" what makes the show tick, and so this musical I love so much ended up kind of boring me."

That is typically how it is done in the opera world when someone is out, especially when it is either last minute or one of the leads. Happens all the time at The Met.  The lights go down, spotlights come up on the lower part of the curtain, guy in a suit comes out and you hear all the groans from the audience cause you know what’s coming.  Sometimes they just come out to say “So and so is ill this evening, but has GRACIOUSLY agreed to perform this evening.  He/she begs your Indulgence.” 
 

Also, agreed that the next NYC production should be with Kelli as Margaret.  

Updated On: 12/20/19 at 10:01 AM

[daisybeetle]

Posted: 12/20/19 at 5:38pm

I went to the Sunday matinee and thought it was wonderful-- I choked up at the end. Renee Fleming really didn't "belt out" any notes until her last solo which I found mesmerizing. The scenery stayed the same throughout the show, they just turned the statue around in the second act. I found all the supporting players really great especially Solea. This show does not have any choreography to speak of , so I can't say anything about that.

We had second balcony tickets which were upgraded to the main floor when we got to the theater. That was nice. One of the scenes was strictly spoken/sung in Italian , and we were wondering if that was the case in the Broadway production.? Anyway we were in an opera house, so when in Rome!

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 12/21/19 at 4:45am

I would love to see it come to the Met. The combo of a beloved Broadway musical and Renee Fleming could really sell out the met on a limited schedule and be a triumph for the composer, and musical theatre crossover in general. 

[carnzee]

Posted: 12/21/19 at 6:20am

MadonnaMusical said: "I would love to see it come to the Met. The combo of a beloved Broadway musical and Renee Fleming could really sell out the met on a limited schedule and be a triumph for the composer, and musical theatre crossover in general."

I get the impression that the Met just doesn't want to do musicals, unlike so many other opera houses. They've done Porgy and Weil's Mahagony, but both have always been called "operas" by their creators from the beginning, although both works have been performed outside of opera houses. 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 12/21/19 at 9:32am

daisybeetle said: "One of the scenes was strictly spoken/sung in Italian , and we were wondering if that was the case in the Broadway production.”

Yes, significant stretches were performed in untranslated Italian in the original production. I believe the creators have stated that their intent was to give the audience a taste of the disorientation that Clara would be experiencing. 

 

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 12/21/19 at 2:46pm

carnzee said: "I get the impression that the Met just doesn't want to do musicals, unlike so many other opera houses. They've done Porgy and Weil's Mahagony, but both have always been called "operas" by their creators from the beginning, although both works have been performed outside of opera houses."

Very true... but that could end up being their downfall. Broadway musicals have always really just been a new form of opera. Opera is musical theatre. We don't appreciate older operas because that music has gone out of style, and the style of writing, comedy, drama, have all gone out of style... but it doesn't change the fact that when those older operas originally debuted, they were beloved as "popular music."

Yes, there is a distinction between high brow and low brow... and good and bad quality. Broadway has a mix of both good and bad quality, highbrow/lowbrow shows... The met should do highbrow, good quality musicals such as: The Light in the Piazza, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Carousel, South Pacific, West Side Story, Les Mis, Miss Saigon, She Loves Me... and yes... eventually... (though I promise I am not advocating for it right now, but eventually... like in 100 years)... Hamilton. 

Fight me. 

 

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 12/21/19 at 2:53pm

I saw this in Chicago by the way and it was wonderful... most of the comments above are valid, sure, but I didn't care because Renee Fleming's voice turns this already amazing score into something almost sinful to listen to. It's like eating a Devil's food cheesecake from Junior's. You know it shouldn't be happening but Gosh Darn it you are going to indulge as long as it's in front of you.