My Passion Review at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre- Page 2

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 11:16am

Re: The Tony voters. The only other musical up that year was Beauty and the Beast. At that time,many voters were opposed to the idea of the Disney franchise taking over the Broadway stage. So, by default, Passion won. There seems to be some unwritten law that something must win the Tony Award; ergo, some non-Tony worthy shows have taken the prize because there was no viable alternative. (Big River and Drood come to mind)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 11:32am

Actually, there were four nominees for Best Musical in 1994:

Passion
Beauty and the Beast
Cyrano
A Grand Night for Singing

Beauty and the Beast may have been Passion's only serious competition, but those two were not the only musicals up that season. And honestly, if the voters had been too divided, they could have tied and possibly one of the others could have taken the prize. But there was a lot of negative buzz regarding Disney's presence, which is a load of crap, if you ask me. Disney is a producer like anyone else and voting against a producer you don't deem suitable for Broadway is a highly bigoted stance to take. But three short years later, they bestowed The Lion King the top award, so I'm not sure that theory holds water. I believe Passion won because it was the Best Musical of the season. Why not give it the award?

Updated On: 10/16/07 at 11:32 AM

Posted: 10/16/07 at 11:37am

Big River was a great show.

[BreakingTheCircle07]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 1:52pm

Here's mine from final preview:

Stephen Sondheim's Passion may have only ran for 280 performances in the 1994 season, but its four heavy-hitting Tony Awards, including Best Score, Book, & Musical, helped launch it into a cozy nook among small cult high-brow musicals. Passion's stirring & romantic subject matter at the forefront, it truly remains an intimate chamber piece, a fact Chicago Shakespeare Associate Director Gary Griffin displays & executes gorgeously.

Though lacking in much color & scope, Eugene Lee's double-decker Italian parlour set & Paul Miller's isolatingly hazy lighting design has transformed Chicago Shakespeare's Studio Theatre into the most intimate space in which I have ever experienced a Broadway musical. What's special about Passion, though, is it does not need a large set or expansive movement space to tell its tale. At the center of James Lapine's word-perfect book is a hauntingly painful love story between an Italian officer, his lover, & his superior's tragically sick cousin.

Griffin found a lovely sung Clara in Broadway regular Kathy Voytko. Thought Clara is mainly restricted to letter-reading with her lover, Voytko's conflicted emotions grow more complex throughout the piece, allowing compassion for the woman behind the pen (or the woman without a top, depending). Leading man Adam Brazier's Giogio has the good looks & boyish charm everyone's always singin' about, but leaves little to be desired in the acting department. Against his female counterparts (and strong military male ensemble led by the equally strong Kevin Gudahl's), Mr. Brazier simply comes across as the boy he still appears to be. Unfortunate in a leading man, especially for a character as stage-and-plot-heavy as Giogio.

The highlight of the evening, & Passion's appeal in general, is the character of Fosca, played heartbreakingly by Ana Gasteyer. Shedding many years of former SNL characters (and Chicago & Broadway's Wicked's hat & cape), Ms. Gasteyer takes command over the troubled & homely Fosca with respect, control, & hidden elegance. When Fosca gains control of Giogio's situation, the room becomes still & scared. She has us in the palm of her crippled hand. The look is there. The singing is there. Gasteyer is the unexpected perfect choice for the role.

All in all, Mr. Griffin has, yet again, crafted a wonderfully pretty evening. Unlike his Sunday in the Park with George or Pacific Overtures, nothing has been remarkably reinvented. What we do get, though, is Sondheim's lush chamber score, Lapine's meticulous book, & some wonderful performers showcasing the obsession of love.
My Review in Blog-form

[doinkwillreturn]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 2:10pm

truly amazing. 27 different people....27 different thoughts,.......

I also have seen it, and will say that i enjoyed it. i do not like the show, nor do i like sondheim for that matter. I had someone offer me a couple of tickets. I am not writing a review since they have already run the spectrum in opinions.......i would mainly be repeating the same thing that someone else said....

But know that it was enjoyed, even for a non sondheim fan. The Male voices when they sing together are power, and truly perfect.......it was quite refreshing to hear 4 or 5 men singing together and having it sound like 20, as opposed to the other way around.........

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 2:53pm

Passion is one of my favorite shows, actually... Guess that I'm just weird.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 3:42pm

First, mea culpla. You are correct -- there were four nominated musicals that season. Second, my comment about Tony voters being loath to vote for Beauty and the Beast was based on the fact that Disney was a new player in the Broadway ballpark at that time and some voters were deterred by the thought of a Disney takeover, the idea of a musical based on a cartoon couldn't match flesh and blood people, the homogenization of the product, etc., etc. and all the other fears that were going around at the time.. That apprehension had lessened by the time The Lion King rolled around. Although Ragtime was a very viable contender that year, you couldn't get around Julie Taymor's staging, which was fabulous (at least for the first ten minutes or so). I still maintain that Lion King is not a great musical; a fun family entertainment, yes. And the subsesquent Disney product has gotten worse, show by show: Aida, Tarzan; Mary Poppins and, if out-of-town reports are to be believed, now The Little Mermaid.

[kelzama]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 8:53pm

"BTW, the show was not "Jeff recommended," which is a pretty big slap in the face considering the pedigree of those involved in the production."

Jumped the gun on that statement. The show is Jeff recommended.
Passion Jeff-Recommended. Updated On: 10/16/07 at 08:53 PM

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 9:12pm

Quite true--I just saw that for myself on the Jeff Awards website. I thought the show wasn't "Jeff Recommended" since the show had opened almost a week ago and it hadn't been on their list of recommended shows until today. Obviously they just took a while to update their site.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 11:47pm

I agree with buffyactsing that Gasteyer's Fosca seems bitter and angry. I believe those are very understandable characteristics in this character though. I can't really comment on Gasteyer's performance since I haven't seen the actual show, but from the clips it seems like something worth watching...yet, I wish I could be blown away by a Fosca like I was by Murphy's interpretation on the DVD.
And no, I didn't see Murphy play the role during previews but Sondheim has gone on record saying that Donna Murphy's audition for PASSION was one of the best he has ever seen, actually, her "I Read" didn't change much from the way she did it during the audition from the way she ended up doing it on stage.
Votkyo reminds me of Mazzie which is a good thing.
Brazier is the only one that seems inadequate in those clips, however, the role of Giorgio is such a difficult role to pull off, I can't really blame him.
Phyllis, please post a review when you see it.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 10/17/07 at 12:45am

I do believe angry and bitter are completely valid choices as part of Fosca. I can see an angrier, more bitter Fosca working well. There still needs to be that sadness and desperation to connect at the core of the character. It just seemed to be that angry and bitter was ALL that was coming across. Her Fosca didn't seem layered. But then again, this isn't a very fair judgement as those were just two very short clips early in the run. Voykyo also reminds me a bit of Marin Mazzie.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 10/17/07 at 12:59am

A bit, but judging from the video clips she's just not that force of beauty, richness, and also vulnerability that Marin Mazzie was. The only thing that clip made me want to do was listen to Donna Murphy (not to mention Jerry Shea).

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/17/07 at 9:54am

There still needs to be that sadness and desperation to connect at the core of the character. It just seemed to be that angry and bitter was ALL that was coming across.

Gasteyer does indeed obediently display a variety of emotions as they are required for each scene, but to me, they came across as superficial, rooted in physicality rather than in emotion. It was only in her quiet moments of reflection that I finally saw a spark of Fosca, when Gasteyer wasn't concentrating on the physical aspects of Fosca and her illness, which was a distraction. I think that's what put Murphy's Fosca over the top. She never tried to appear ill or in physical pain. Her focus was on the emotion on the text and the "pain" shone through on its on.

But can we talk about her makeup? Awful. In that small of a space, she looked like a ghoul in a Halloween getup. It was just comical. Very Forbidden Broadway.

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 10/17/07 at 10:53am

"But can we talk about her makeup? Awful. In that small of a space, she looked like a ghoul in a Halloween getup. It was just comical. Very Forbidden Broadway."

- I felt that way about Patti LuPone's makeup job when she did Fosca with Cerveris and McDonald.

Fosca is so incredibly difficult to pull off, and it seems that Gasteyer is making a valiant effort. I would much rather her Fosca have a trace of realistic bitterness and anger then be so overdramatic that it becomes comical. That was the problem with Friedman's interpretation.

[jeffsatenor]

Posted: 10/17/07 at 3:31pm

Actually, the show WAS Jeff recommended.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/17/07 at 4:28pm

Since I moved to Chicago, I never found Jeff to be an indicator of anything. I know it's an honor to receive and whatnot, but I have seen way too many shows that have been recommended or received citations or awards that were just embarrassing. Reviews don't usually help much, either. In Chicago, attending theatre is riskier than playing blackjack at the Bellagio, thought the advice from "experts" will be just as varied and plentiful.

[Thoroughly Modern Cara]

Posted: 11/3/07 at 11:20pm

Just reminding everyone that CST's production of Passion ends its run on November 11th!

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's staging of Cymbeline, which is currently on its main stage in the Courtyard Theatre, also closes that day. It is an incredible production and I highly reccomend it!!

[Broadway_freak]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 11:10am

Glad to see Kathy is doing so well...she has gotten some of the best roles in musical theatre!

[pc1145N2]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 1:37pm

I'm wondering if I saw the same prodcution as everyone else. I've seen Passion with Patti LuPone, MIchael Cerveris & Audra McDonald and it was phemominal. I thought this was just as good. Completely different takes on the characters....but I really enjoyed every minute of this. I had seen Kathy in Pirate Queen and wasn't impressed....here she was a revelation. Ana Gastyer was perfect. Anyway, I loved this production.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 2:23pm

Thanks for the link Popular, but can we please talk about that Hunchback clip? What is that from? it's horrible.

[Celticblockhead]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 2:59pm

"...she has gotten some of the best roles in musical theatre!"

Damn right she has. I loved her as Clara and as Grania. Can't wait to see her next show.

My thoughts on this particular production would get trounced, so I'll keep them to myself. I'm more biased then some having known people in the show, so yes. I liked it and I can honestly say I like a Sondhiem for the first time in my life.