Mini-reviews and suggestions of shows to watch at home

I'm not trying to steal the moderator's thunder for books to read and shows to watch as a group, but I figured I would share my thoughts about any plays or musicals I catch online. If anyone has suggestions for filmed productions of available shows I should watch or you enjoyed, please let me (and everyone else) know.

My first show was one I had seen before, both in a local production and on screen: the original cast of Sunday in the Park With George - on YouTube. It's one of the rare shows where my wife and I disagreed strongly. I loved the musical; she didn't. I think I had a key advantage: I had actually seen the Mandy Patinkin-Bernadette Peters production before I saw it in person.

I wanted to see what my daughter, home from college, would think of it. She really enjoyed it, and I got new things out of seeing it again. The first and obvious thing: Bernadette Peters is marvelous. She takes minor laughs and gets big ones. The opening scene/title song is a master class that she pretty much has to carry by herself. Peters plays two different roles, arguably three (because who is Dot at the end?), and goes from infatuated if frustrated young lover to a much older woman who's funny and sentimental in a different but recognizable way. The role isn't exactly underwritten, but Peters takes what's on the page and creates two memorable, three-dimensional characters.

I liked the score from first listen, but it's definitely one that gets better the more times you hear it. It's a show that forces you to pay attention to the lyrics because you don't want to miss anything. The best songs are classics, and "Sunday" is one of my favorite first act closing songs in any musical.

The second act is always controversial, because plenty of folks say it's not really necessary. I understand that perspective. But odd as the time jump is, the second act feels like a risky but rewarding exploration about art and artists that enhances the first act. Plus, it's got "Children and Art" - one of the few manipulative musical theater songs that works every time I hear it. The directing of the song in the filmed production is very effective. (Peters' "Goodbye, Mama" just gets me.) And then there's "Move On" and the finale.

Next on tap for me, when I get around to it: the original cast of Into the Woods, since I'm now in a Sondheim mood. I saw the movie, which was just OK. I'll see what I think of the filmed stage production (which I didn't know existed).

More Sondheim, this time with the recorded original cast production of Into the Woods. I enjoyed it a lot more than the film. Once again, Bernadette Peters steals the show (at least in the first act) as the hilarious witch. She's less fun in the second act with your youth and beauty restored but her powers gone. The first act is a charming and well-constructed hoot. The second act works as a concept, deliberately messier, but I'm not sure the execution hangs together as well, with the darker themes spelled out a bit too obviously. Joanna Gleason is quite good as the Baker's Wife, so I guess I understand why won all those awards.

bear88 said: "I watched ACT in San Francisco's production of Gloria on Saturday night. I was happy to support the theater, disliked the play a lot in what could only be described as an Unpopular Opinion. Part of that is my fault for failing to click the link to read theextensive warning.I wrote up a longer critique in the thread on the play. I have another local show to catch on video, School Girls at the Berkeley Rep, but I'll probably catch an old videotapedmusical before then."

I'd agree with you here. Was happy to support ACT, but after hearing a lot of hype about the play (and knowing the "big" spoiler), I was underwhelmed, to be sure.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1121855

Two very different shows yesterday, both on BroadwayHD...

- Indecent (the filmed production from 2017 with Katrina Lenk) - The play was very intense from the beginning and manages to overcome the deliberate repetition to work powerfully. It's one of those shows that really made me miss live theater, though, but I certainly couldn't complain about the excellent performances and imaginative staging. Sholem Asch's controversial career (not just about God of Vengeance) continued throughout his life - too much to be included in Paula Vogel's powerful play.

- Cats (filmed production from 1998 with Elaine Paige) - I never had any particular interest in seeing the musical back when I visited New York City several times in the early 1990s, so I thought I ought to see it. I guess it's a truncated version of the show, with some songs trimmed or eliminated entirely. There's really not much to say that hasn't been said. It wasn't for me. The musical's success, I concluded as my mind wandered, must owe to the fact that it arrived many years before Disney brought its family-friendly adaptations of popular films to Broadway.

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (the HBO production with Audra McDonald on BroadwayHD) - I was ambivalent about the play, which got a bit tedious as the biographical details are dutifully arranged and the substance abuse gets repeated a little too often, but McDonald makes most of it work. It is fascinating watching her rearrange her voice to try to sound like Billie Holliday. There are moments of tension and beauty in the show that are quite compelling, and McDonald's performance of "Strange Fruit" is extraordinary.

Beardo (Shotgun Players in Berkeley on Vimeo from 2011) - It's an interesting local production that starts strong, with some good performances and music by Dave Malloy that occasionally sounds like an early draft of a subsequent musical, Great Comet, set about a century later in Russia - this time about Rasputin. Beardo is often silly, lewd and flat-out weird. Some of that is clever, but it's less interesting after the players are introduced. I think its two-week run online is about to end.

I thought it would be worth bringing this thread back because there seem to be more online theatre options available than ever. Which is great, for audiences and creators both, but it can be difficult to figure out what to spend time/money watching. Especially when there are a lot of lesser-known companies and creators putting out new streamed productions, often for limited periods of time. Any tips on what is, or isn't, worth watching would be appreciated.

Here's one short review: I watched the Landestheater Linz stream of 'The Wave' (ie 'Die Welle', the musical written by Or Matias of 'The Great Comet' etc, which I've been posting about in another thread. In short, I thought it was pretty well done, but not mind-blowing. If you have an interest in themes such as social experiments and fascism, Or Matias' work, shows suitable for young adult performers, German-language theatre (English subtitles are available) etc, it's definitely worth a watch, but I wouldn't call it a general must-see.
Ironically, I found it a bit difficult to buy into how quickly and drastically the student characters were swept up by the Wave. That's part of the point of the show: incredulity about it happening again, could in itself help facilitate it happening again. But I still wish the show had been able to take me along for the ride more, somehow. I wonder if this type of theme would work better in a theatre experience which got the audience directly involved, and made them complicit in the situation. (Not a possibility for a streamed production like this, obviously - unless each audience member was encouraged to use an app to choose between variant pre-recorded plot points or something like that? But I digress.) Anyway, I can provide more specifics on the show if anyone's interested, but that's it in a nutshell.