NYMF History of war

[iagowasframed]

Posted: 10/9/10 at 6:29pm

Took my son to this today and we were very disappointed. There was a LOT of talent on stage and they did their best but the show just didn't make it at all.

It went back and forth between being a wacky comedy and a preachy anti war drama and for the most part it missed on both. I'm not a critic I want to love every show, but this was just not good.

[notabb]

Posted: 10/9/10 at 10:54pm

I felt much as you did. I was saddened by all the wasted talent on that stage. The mother , step father and son are respectively such clueless,ball-less or totally obnoxious characters you quickly find you don't want to spend time with them.. Anyone who has seen a Twilight Zone will see the big twist coming a mile away.The worst are those pallid Sondheim imitations they call songs. The score is so boring. You get these Sondheim vamps ( go see the show and see if you don't start humming " And is she beautiful and pale , with yellow hair like wheat" ) that you come to find are the most interesting things about the songs. If you've got Ghengis Khan,Hitler, Bin Laden, Napoleon in a room bitching at each other and you can't make it funny ,well that's just sad.

[sheila2]

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

I am usually a lurker, not a poster, but considering that this is a small play and your comments could influence someone to see/not see it, I have to speak up. I must have seen a different show than you did. I thought this show was clever, the music memorable and varied, the lyrics and book incredibly witty and sophisticated. Yes, the ensemble was composed of extremely talented actors, and the show may not be developmentally at its peak just yet, but I for one came out marveling at the potential of the composer and lyricist, as well as the book's hilarious representation of these historical figures. NYMF is about potential, not finished product. I was in stitches at the actor's singular interpretations of the great warriors of the past. Yes, the characters, both present-day and historical, are simplistically drawn, but I think that's intentional--they are seen from the perspective of a pre-adolescent mind. I was thoroughly entertained, amused, and moved by this piece. The dramatic devices used and the level of sophistication reminded me of Caryl Churchill's "Top Girls" and Sondheim's "Assassins" and I consider these comparisons positive. Can't wait to see what the creative team does next, with this project or a future one. Just my two cents.

[Barbour Pole]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 12:50pm

Wow. As a lover of musical theatre, I too feel compelled to comment. How you could see this show and not realize how good, if not IMPORTANT, Yesnowitz and Abramson, are to the future of this form. Sure, the show is imperfect, but I came away thinking that these two writers were trying to do something, and do it in their own VOICE. And how nice is it to hear young writers with their own distinctive voice nowadays! I worry that every time we marginalize good, really good writers, for not pulling off a difficult show perfectly, we are condemning ourselves to a future where only tourist-pleasing jukebox musicals like MAMMA MIA, or smarmy shows with limp-wristed rock/punk pastiche underscoring masquerading as a score (I'm looking at you BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON)can survive. I'm so glad I saw HISTORY OF WAR and am more glad that writers like these are getting an opportunity for their singular work to be seen.

(stepping off soapbox)

[iagowasframed]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 3:58pm

You misread my post. I didn't go expecting a polished finished product, I went expecting to love an exciting new show at the beginning of it's journey. Please don't preach to me about that, I spend 80% of my time at venues like Fringe, NYMF and other small scale low cost venues because I love to see artists push the form and be free to grow as artists.

I wanted to love this show, as I want to love every show I've ever gone to but I didn't. It was in my opinion a wasted opportunity.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 5:10pm

I would hardly call Osama Bin Laden talking about blowing up the NY, London and Chicago transit system a "hilarious representation" of anything.

I also certainly wouldn't call Osama, Hitler, and Idi Amin the "great warriors of the past."

But you are all obviously shills (not you, iago and notabb), so it doesn't really matter what you say.

[sheila2]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 5:17pm

To each his own, YankeeFan. Everyone who doesn't agree with you is not a shill, believe it or not. This is why I don't post. You people think you own the board. I'm not gonna reply again, I won't sink to your level anymore. I loved the show, I'm sure that all those people on the stage and behind the scenes have more talent in their little fingers than you would ever hope to have. Why don't you (and the rest of you) hold off with your harsh and unrealistic criticism until you've written your own musicals. Let people make up their own minds. Your kind of comments color perceptions before giving people a chance and sink shows. Don't call yourselves lovers of theatre.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 5:22pm

I'm perfectly happy when people disagree with me; the more violent, the better, actually. I don't like when people who are clearly tools of the public relations organizations start posting in an effort to try to make the naysayers seem like unappreciative idiots.

[sheila2]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 5:30pm

Got news for ya buster, I'm not a PR person, I'm just a schmuck with too much time on his hands, just like you...

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 5:45pm

No, I've got a perfectly marvelous, exceedingly busy life, thanks.

PS: Glad to see you've decided to start posting again. Updated On: 10/10/10 at 05:45 PM

[sheila2]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 7:21pm

Well, you bring out the petty, childish behavior in people. You should be proud of that. I await your next putdown with bated breath, but don't know WHEN you'll be able to get back to me, you've SUCH a BUSY, PRODUCTIVE, life! We shall see...the time is now 7:21 pm

[iagowasframed]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 7:36pm

"hold off with your harsh and unrealistic criticism until you've written your own musicals. Let people make up their own minds. Your kind of comments color perceptions before giving people a chance and sink shows. Don't call yourselves lovers of theatre."

I'm sorry this is just rude. I'm a huge lover of theater, and developmental theater in particular. You are a little extreme in your response to me, you are acting like I'm Frank Rich when I'm just a theater lover expressing his(and his sons) opinion on a theater board that is set up for people to share opinions(good and bad) of theater.

I think it's important to share bad reviews, I am a teacher and have limited time and money to take the train into the city and see theater, so I use places like this to help pick shows that I may like, and that might work for my son as well.

[Sauja]

Posted: 10/10/10 at 11:27pm

I'm astonished to see a positive review of this show. Reminiscent of Top Girls and Assassins? Maybe in intent, but certainly not in execution. I consider myself a pacifist and thought the show was so small-minded and hackneyed that I wanted to reconsider my anti-war stance by the end. All I could do was watch the proceedings and wonder what would have happened if the people behind the show brought an ounce of the talent the performers displayed to the project. They took a concept that could have been controversial, incisive, thought-provoking, and unnerving and turned it into an hour and a half of historical inaccuracies wrapped in a shockingly one-sided diatribe delivered in cringe-inducing rhymes. A brilliant concept can still be crushed under the weight of terrible material.

As for the argument that people with negative things to say don't love the theater, that's completely idiotic. In fact, I love the theater too much to see brilliant actors be put through material as juvenile as this. Even looking at this as a draft toward a future project, it's an embarrassment.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 10/13/10 at 1:34am

I saw this tonight and I have to agree with iago, Yankeefan, and Sauja...just not good, even looking at it as a work in progress. I think the concept is fascinating and the talent onstage (for the most part) was excellent, but the execution was just poor. They seemed to be going for something Assassins-like in tone, but they just didn't get anywhere close. I found it really odd that they didn't really give much background for any of the "titans" or what they did and just assumed that the audience knew...it also didn't help that the songs told us nothing about any of the characters at all. It's a shame, this was the show I was most looking forward to seeing at NYMF this year and it was sad to be so disappointed by it.

[Broadway Doctor]

Posted: 10/13/10 at 3:44pm

The Doc fixes THE HISTORY OF WAR at Nymf.
The Doc does Chip Zien's 'History of War'