'Light in the Piazza' is all sugar and fluff- Page 2

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 6:47am

I liked PIAZZA and had no problem with the electicism of the score, but I always had the sneaking suspision that it was less about love triumphing over complications than Margaret's sneaky triumph in palming off her daughter on a group of passionate but spectacularly clueless Italians so she could get back to a life of tea sandwiches, bridge parties and shopping for fabulous hats.

Updated On: 11/5/06 at 06:47 AM

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 7:07am

i also thought that his lack of information (not even knowing that the show won best actress) really gave this review less credibility

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 7:17am

I couldn't disagree with the review more. LITP is a great musical.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 7:44am

Amen to that. What was this critic smoking? The Light in the Piazza was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Sugar and fluff, my butt!

[All_For_Laura]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 8:59am

I do not understand what this critic was seeing. Piazza is one of the most intricate and intelligent shows broadway has seen in a while, but I guess you cannot please everyone when you take a brilliant show on tour. Just disturbs me that people do not get the brilliance piazza has to offer.

[Bruce Memblagh!]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 9:06am

I think it is down to personal opinion and frustrating as it might be when people have different views or they do not "get" something that you do, and vice-versa, it happens.

I love Piazza but there are bits of it that are deathly dull. I think it is good for people to have, and air, different opinions on productions and the actors etc. I, for instance, cannot bear Bernadette Peters' singing voice yet she is revered in an almost god-like manner it would appear.

[IssaMe]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 9:15am

While I love this show, I have no problem with people who don't...it's up to individual taste and preferences in entertainment.

But you'd have to know Jim Farber to realize how ill-suited this formerly quite prominent critic (in the old days), now at the Breeze, is to review this particular show...other shows, yes - but this one?

He didn't "get it"???...tell me something I don't know and couldn't have guessed in advance. They simply sent the wrong reviewer for this type of show.

But that happens a lot. So what?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 9:27am

Of course his statement that there really was no competition for best score if totally accurate. Was there ever a doubt it would win with those other weak contenders? However, I think this score would have stood a fine chance of winning in any year.

[HumATune]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:05am

I disagree with him about the score: it’s lovely. But he makes some valid points about the plot. I like Piazza, but the book is flawed.

[Horton]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:14am

Piazza did win best actress

[Horton]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:18am

As much as I loved Piazza I can see his points, I went with a few people and half of us loved it, and the other half were board out of their minds, it is a matter of taste some people just did not like it, and that is fine.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:35am

I can't believe this. This show is possibly one of the greatest musicals ever written for the stage. It really is up there with GYPSY and A CHORUS LINE.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:38am

Well, PIAZZA wasn't written for the stage. It was a novella, then a film, then on stage. A CHORUS LINE and GYPSY were written for the stage.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:40am

GYPSY was based on something, a book I think.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:44am

I disagree with the review and totally agree with what jazzy said.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:47am

Gypsy is loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses on her struggle with her mother, Mama Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business mother."

[TomMonster]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 3:25pm

Hilarious review. He clearly didn't do his homework. Maybe he can take over for Clive Barnes...



PS: Gypsy was VERY loosely based on the memoirs of GRL. It was just used as source material. The book by Laurents is very different and could be considered original (more or less). It is partly his structure of the piece that makes it so brilliant.

[Ciaron McCarthy]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 3:41pm

When did Jim Farber become a theater critic? Isnt this the guy who does album reviews for The Daily News here in NYC?

[Kringas]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 3:52pm

Personally, I found the plotline rather gruesome and the music unspectacular. If that means I didn't get it, then so be it.

[shiksa_goddess]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 4:11pm

I too am one that did not get the "Piazza Craze." I found it overly sentimental, boring, and trite.

Different strokes for different folks.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 4:37pm

Though I actually like Piazza and think it's a beautiful show, I hate it when people insist that if you didn't like or see the appeal of something, you didn't understand it. That's so insulting... is it that difficult to imagine that a show just might not have been one person's cup of tea, even though they fully understood what it was trying to say?

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 7:24pm

I think Jim Farber is actually a jack of all trades reviewer for all things artistic at the Breeze. HE's got music critiques, dance critiques and theatre critiques. When I see this it makes me a little leery of the review. I think the same of John Simon who seems like a vicious reviewer who doesn't like theatre.

I often wonder what makes a person be able to review. An English major? I find it odd that so many people carry these 3 hats. Do you really know that much about ALL of that to be reviewing it? I mean really if one has NEVER taken a dance class, how can they know what good technique is? If they don't know basic theory and compositional structure, how can you say this person is a great composer? If you don't direct, have enver taken an acting class and have never really sat in on a rehearsal, what makes you think you can tell everyone what's great theatre or great acting? This has ALWAYS bothered me. I wouldn't tell a surgeon his stitch is off, I wouldn't know what's on.

[soapguy17]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 10:49pm

MasterLcZ, I don't know who you saw as Margaret, but I imagine with even the worst of actresses in the world that would not seem to be the case. Even a mediocre one could read the liberetto and see that she loves her daughter and hates giving her up.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 10:54pm

Though I actually like Piazza and think it's a beautiful show, I hate it when people insist that if you didn't like or see the appeal of something, you didn't understand it. That's so insulting... is it that difficult to imagine that a show just might not have been one person's cup of tea, even though they fully understood what it was trying to say?

Exactly. And I do think it's funny that fans of a show will let a critic's mistake slide if it's a postive review. "Oh, they liked it, so that's okay..."

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 10:55pm

DISAGREE!!!!!!


"Too bad she isn't given anything noteworthy to sing."

I think Piazza has a GORGEOUS score, and I would LOVE the honor of singing it someday....


GRR... oh well..there's apparently LOTS of musicals that only I love....