#1
Posted: 4/1/06 at 11:46pm
Spoilers...
The Longwood Players (located at the Cambridge YMCA) have a pretty good production of Merrily We Roll Along and I would recommend it, especially since its so rarely performed.
This is actually one of the Sondheim shows that I knew very little about going in. Basically, it's the story of three friends and their backwards journey through time. Yes, there are some flaws but they don't negatively impact the show too much, and in fact, the audience tonight was wildly ethusiastic.
I'm going to single out the three main characters:
Don Ringuette (Franklin Shepard) was good. He's got a great voice, but swallows some of his words sometimes. Although the story's about three friends, it really focused on Frank and Ringuette was fine, although I really don't have anything to compare him to, so who knows. Katie Pickett (Mary) was a nice surprise. I was afraid from Mary's first appearance that she would just be a stereotypical drunk, but no. "Not A Day Goes By" was beautiful, and it was heartbreaking to see her reaction as she meets Frank for the first time. Michael Kripchak (Charley) was the highlight for me. A character full of hope for an optimistic future, despite everything. He's got lots of energy, and "Good Thing Going" was gorgeous.
One downside is that the lyrics in some songs tended to get jumbled. I'm not sure if it was because the band was playing too loud or the acoustics or lyrics being difficult, perhaps a mix of all three. Still, it's wonderful.
The Longwood Players (located at the Cambridge YMCA) have a pretty good production of Merrily We Roll Along and I would recommend it, especially since its so rarely performed.
This is actually one of the Sondheim shows that I knew very little about going in. Basically, it's the story of three friends and their backwards journey through time. Yes, there are some flaws but they don't negatively impact the show too much, and in fact, the audience tonight was wildly ethusiastic.
I'm going to single out the three main characters:
Don Ringuette (Franklin Shepard) was good. He's got a great voice, but swallows some of his words sometimes. Although the story's about three friends, it really focused on Frank and Ringuette was fine, although I really don't have anything to compare him to, so who knows. Katie Pickett (Mary) was a nice surprise. I was afraid from Mary's first appearance that she would just be a stereotypical drunk, but no. "Not A Day Goes By" was beautiful, and it was heartbreaking to see her reaction as she meets Frank for the first time. Michael Kripchak (Charley) was the highlight for me. A character full of hope for an optimistic future, despite everything. He's got lots of energy, and "Good Thing Going" was gorgeous.
One downside is that the lyrics in some songs tended to get jumbled. I'm not sure if it was because the band was playing too loud or the acoustics or lyrics being difficult, perhaps a mix of all three. Still, it's wonderful.
"The sense that everything's going right is a sure sense that everything's going wrong."
-The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
