My Life with Albertine thread

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/25/05 at 4:50pm

I'm currently listening to this gorgeous 2003 musical, which starred Brent Carver, Kelli O'Hara, and Emily Skinner. I really love this show. Any thoughts or comments. I would love to hear either praise or criticism. This isn't one of those "fans only" threads. All opinions about this show are welcome.

[GirlfriendFromCanada]

Posted: 2/25/05 at 4:55pm

This show bored me to tears. It's probably the show I enjoyed the least of any show I've ever seen. Which is really sad, because it had an amazing cast. It just wasn't interesting to me at all, and some of those songs were just... not good.

Sorry, didn't mean to take "not a fan only thread" and run with it.

[FranklinShepard-Inc.]

Posted: 2/25/05 at 5:03pm

Book based upon a Marcel Proust novel, quite interesting and highly emotional. The score is not a traditional theatre score but rather tries to assimilate the french expressionist music into it as well as "then" popular way of writing. Great cast anyhow. I'd say, even a bit more difficult to follow than Sondheim. But Ricky Ian Gordon writes very sophisticated indeed

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/25/05 at 7:38pm

BUMP

Thanks for the thoughts. Anybody else?

[bjivie2]

Posted: 2/25/05 at 10:33pm

Yeah, I just don't get it. I'll have to go back and listen to it again. I heard something on the CD that made me buy it, but now I can't find that section or song anywhere. It's interesting. It's definitely one of those CD's you can't just listen to one song at a time, you have to sit and listen to the whole thing. Kind of like Caroline or Change, or Floyd Collins. I'll go take another listen tonight.

[mabel]

Posted: 2/25/05 at 11:15pm

I didn't care for it at all, I must say. As others have said, it was a wonderfully talented cast, but it really just didn't do it for me. I was actually glad when Albertine kicked the bucket! Definitely not a favorite.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 2/25/05 at 11:23pm

i actually did not care for it at all the first time I heard it... i put it on a shelf too collect dust. But thaaan- MEF pushed me to listen to it and now, it's SOOOO calming that i listen to it every night while I lay in bed. it is so beautiful. the music is gorgeous, the lyrics are wonderful, the talent is amazing. i've never read the synopsis or looked at the cd insert but i have a visual picture of how everything should look. although i've never seen the show i wish i had because i think the cd is gorgeous and a rare gem in this wash up of feux rock musicals and cheesy classic wanna be musicals.

[BBBoy]

Posted: 2/25/05 at 11:34pm

The original Playwrights production was definately flawed in many ways - mostly I feel from Richard Nelson directing his own work (almost always a big no no for musicals).
However, there is something very sorrowful and aching about this show. At its best moments, it truly was exciting to witness (especially hearing an emaciated Brent Carver sing "The Different Albertines." It was just heartbreaking. It sported a top rate cast, a beautifully orchestrated impressionistic (though slightly repetitive) score, and incredibly rich source material.
Unfortunately, Nelson really failed to fully realize the playworld which he set up in the show. There is a "show within a show" element, in which older Marcel is putting on a play in his apartment, with hired actors, in order to revisit his youth.
A really potent and dramatic idea, yes, but underexplored. And it was that lack of exploration which prevented this musical from really taking off. In dramatizing something like Proust, it seems the only thing you really can do is characterize beautifully complex characters as best you can, and get us involved in the minute details as much as possible. Nelson put on a visually beautiful stage production, but failed to make the stage action engaging - I feel particularly because he failed to address the self-reflexivity of the piece and the longings and confused emotions created by love and the passage of time. Instead, it just became a quaint piece about a boy who is confused about a girl and then loses her.
Just wait for the next production. If it has a director who really knows his stuff, I think we all might be in for a pleasant surprise.

[ShineOn]

Posted: 2/26/05 at 2:09am

My cat's name is Albertine and it is PURELY coincidental.

Swear.



PS: That show hurt my soul. Scarred my life... ack!

Updated On: 2/26/05 at 02:09 AM

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 2/26/05 at 3:11am

Albertine aside, Mr. Gordon writes some amazing music. His material is complicated indeed, but he is undoubtedly one of the finest contemporary art song composers out there. Bright Eyed Joy frequently plays in my iPod. Any singers looking to sing his stuff should be able to find his books in any major public library (Only Heaven, A Horse With Wings, etc.). He often musicalizes poetry by some of the greats (Hughes, Agee, Merwin, Parker, Millay). Don't expect "musical theatre" when listening to most of his stuff - detach yourself and find the piano/harmonic intricacies and how well the lyric coincides with the music.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/26/05 at 8:14am

All your comments are wonderful. Thanks for posting.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 2/26/05 at 12:38pm

i wonder if we'll see another production in the future?

[Tesse]

Posted: 2/26/05 at 1:25pm

I thought the show was beautifully written and performed, but terribly directed. For example, the musical was set in a small stage in Marcel's Paris apartment, where some actors perform his tale. Okay... Why? What more does that rather convoluted setup bring to the story? True, there were private performances given on small stages in private apartments, but this historical realism adds nothing to the show as a whole. In fact, the gimmick, which was never explained in song or dialogue, was rather confusing and distracting.

But the very emotional and poetic book and score were lovely, and the performances by the uniformly wonderful cast were... well, wonderful. This show is a poignant and occasionally painful reflection on first love, and the many complex feelings that go along with it. I enjoyed the show very much, and saw it four times at Playwright's Horizons. It had its flaws, but Gordon's music and the strength of the cast made it a wonderful theatrical experience.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/26/05 at 3:59pm

Tesse-

I don't know if you read the CD liner notes, but Gordon and Nelson explained that in Paris in that time, it wasn't uncommon for wealthy aristocratic types to have private theatres in their homes. That was the inspiration for the setting.

[CJR]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 12:59am

Um. Why do you have a thread about this god-awful show? Seriously scarred me for life. Only saw it because of a friend in the cast, but it was really one of the most awful things I've ever seen..... Although, I sat through it twice and given how I felt about Brooklyn and Bounce, that has to say something more for Albertine.

That was just a painful, painful show.

All that aside, the song 'If It Is True' is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard and I swear it's gonna be one of the songs sung at my wedding.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 6:58pm

CJR! have i missed you lately? you haven't been around, or is it just me!? anywho... Talk About The Weather is stuck in my head

[jesseeinstein]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 7:29pm

I LOVE the song "But What I Say (reprise)" It's awesome. The most beautiful harmonies I've ever heard.

[CJR]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 7:34pm

Hi Sam... I've been around, but mostly on the OT board. Not as much as before though, due to my new job. I love it but BOY does it keep me busy!

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 7:40pm

oooh new job!!?? still shilling Chicago though?

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 7:47pm

Yeah, yeah, I get it. Balbak is by the mother-fuc*ing sea!

What a drab, boring, horrible musical.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 7:50pm

ooh, did you see it?

i did not but i love the music.

pst- happiest are we, at balboc by the sea

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 8:18pm

All I know is that I heard "But What I Say" on a AccuBroadway and fell in love with it. Beautiful song.

[CJR]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 8:48pm

Dammit. You all suck. It took me WEEKS to get Balbec by the Sea out of my head. WEEKS I tell you. I hate you all now lol

March 13th will be my final time seeing Chicago, Sam, unless there's some really insane and amazing casting choices made. Yes, I have a new job.... working here in Stamford finally. 5 minutes away from my house -- I love it.

[ShineOn]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 10:58pm

BALBEC BY THE SEA! BALBEC BY THE SEA! HAPPIEST ARE WE, at... BALBEC BY THE SEA! *bobs head back and forth* La, la, la-la, la...

*smiles innocently*

(PS: Beyonce and Josh Groban... WHAT??)

[CJR]

Posted: 2/27/05 at 11:04pm

Ooooooh dais..... That's UNFAIR!