Mandy Patinking - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Mandy Patinking - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
#0Mandy Patinking - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:23pm
I've set up a couple lachiusa threads of late, as I am REALLY getting into his work. Mandy singing Gin/Wild is just incredible. His take on Burrs must have been incendiary. I absolutely love this song!.
Updated On: 2/8/06 at 10:23 PM
BSoBW3
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/21/06
#1re: Mandy Patinkin - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:26pm
Are you...me?
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardname=bway&thread=844660#1691325
(~Thenardier)
Damn, how much has changed.
I feel like I was in first grade reading that thread. Now I have graduated college!
BSoBW3
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/21/06
#3re: Mandy Patinkin - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:30pm
I'll repost this here:
I just rediscovered this old thing.
I can't believe how much I have changed since I posted this.
April...when I first discovered LaChiusa. And now, today, he has because my favorite composer. Not only that, I wrote a paper on his work MARIE CHRISTINE.
I guess, finding this thread, is like my RENT nostalgia.
I read what I wrote and it is so simplistic but it is great to read my initial impressions of this work.
LaChiusa's The Wild Party is undoubtedly my favorite show. And having spent so much time with both pieces, studying LaChiusa's technique through different shows, and finishing the poem, I feel like to NOT know this work is just wrong.
After sitting through SWIWS, I have learned a great deal about the process of bringing LaChiusa's music to the stage. Techniques he uses to not only give you an aural understanding, but also a visual understanding. There are rhythms and melodies he uses that are, somewhat, set. Almost as a template. For example, the "swirling sound" I referred to in "More" represents, of course, descent into madness, so to speak. Then when a character abruptly belts out a high note it signifies climax - be it emotional or sexual...something that has greatly improved my understanding of HELLO AGAIN....and MARIE CHRISTINE for that matter (as in the song "Prison in a Prison" when MC embodies Helena, in a way, and completely destroys Dante.)
Having done a report on Medea/MC I learned very much about the piece. Underlying themes that I discovered, that completely tip their hat to old Greek Theatre. And, although MC does not have a final song for MC, should there be? I think a look can be much more powerful. I really think Dante deserves the last song. Why? After reading Medea, and studying Medea, I cam to the conclusion that Medea knew what she was doing before the "11 o'clock" number area. Although, I don't think "I Will Love You" was the best choice, necessarily - I must say, after long hard study, Marie Christine is one of the most brilliant shows written in our time. Singer, in "EVER AFTER," says that Marie Christine challenged Sweeney Todd in the idea that we have to sympathize with no-good people (ie: Sweeney, who we just watched kill people lose his wife and MC, who killed her children). I don't think this is true though. I really think Medea, and therefore Marie Christine, is not necesarily black and white - sympathize or not. In Sweeney, we are forced to sympathize with him - he tried to get revenged and in the end killed his wife, whom he was trying to avenge. Yet, Medea/MC depends on a director and actor. The title role is extremely difficult to act - trying to get the audience to sympathize you and be afraid of you at the same moment. Meanwhile, in Sweeney, there is a definite shift from "being scared" to "sympathizing."
Anyway, I don't know why I am posting this other than to say I cannot wait for Mr. LaChiusa's future endeavors. I am extremely happy to have discovered his work and to be fortunate enough to gain a vast understanding of it. I look foward to studying his work more.
#4re: Mandy Patinkin - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:31pmAny information on how this was staged, the show in general that is. I've been really curious.
BSoBW3
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/21/06
#5re: Mandy Patinkin - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:33pm
The vaudeville scene was staged as, surprise-surprise, a vaudeville show, complete with black-face and "signs."
"Dry" was done in front of a back drop. After this song, when Queenie arrives, the backdrop lifts to reveal the beautiful apartement, completely furnished, on a turn-table.
Actors were always walking through the stage (with doors, different rooms, etc.).
As the scenes changed, the turn-table would turn.
P.S. - No 'g'
#6re: Mandy Patinkin - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:40pmYeah, i just noticed the g. I also just read Brantley's review of the show..depressing. I'd imagine it was quite a marvel though. It's so funny to think of Mandy who is on Lipitor or some other commercials singing "Gin, Sin.." and dancing in blackface.
BSoBW3
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/21/06
#7re: Mandy Patinkin - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:41pm
Ben Brantley doesn't have a clue about musical theatre.
#8re: Mandy Patinkin - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:45pmHis reviews fascinate me. I mean I have agreed with some of his points and shuddered at others. I for some reason thought this would be his cup of tea ..owing to his interests in the dark ones i.e. Assassins, Sweeney,etc.
#9re: Mandy Patinkin - Gin/Wild ..UNREAL!
Posted: 2/8/06 at 10:49pmBen Brantley occasionally has intelligent responses to the theater, but sometimes the guy throws me for a wicked loop.
joey
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