New Sondheim Doc To Air On HBO In December- Page 2

[jv92]

Posted: 11/26/13 at 3:46pm

Would anyone expect anything LESS THAN shameless mugging from two of those three actors? (Guess which two and you win a prize! Hint: His name is not Jeremy Jordan.) Darren Criss BUTCHERS his reading of "I sort of enjoyed it." Like he's surprised. Wrong.

However, I sort of enjoyed the visual take. No pun intended. I'm really looking forward to the interviews and archival clips A LOT-- not so much the new film segments. Audra McDonald is a really bad choice for "the song", especially since she's been somewhat overindulgent vocally lately. (Save for the last album, which was quite wonderful.)

Updated On: 11/26/13 at 03:46 PM

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 11/26/13 at 4:05pm

"All that circling and strange angles."

To compensate for the fact that entire sequence was filmed on one soundstage with a green screen.

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 11/26/13 at 10:28pm

loved the clip..and i for one love the performaces..they are trying to do what the actors did in the movie ON THE TOWN in a SONDHEIM vein...i get it...and i love it...:)

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 11/27/13 at 6:12pm

I'm no musician, but is the tempo a little draggy, too?

Or are the orchestrations thinner?

It has no... pulse. And it's not the singers. I mean, it's the singers.

But it's not only the singers.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/27/13 at 6:24pm

"Darren Criss BUTCHERS his reading of "I sort of enjoyed it." Like he's surprised. Wrong."

Why is that a bad way to play it?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/27/13 at 8:08pm

Thank you, Mr. Midwest. I've been wondering the same thing since yesterday. (FTR, no, I'm not a Criss groupie.)

But he sounds considerably less surprised than Jim Walton on the OBCR. I think the point was supposed to be that Frank expects MY FAIR LADY to be crassly commercial (after all, the writer of the source material, Shaw, largely opposed the adaptation) and is surprised to find it artfully constructed.

(I've always thought of that line as Sondheim himself speaking, but I admit that's entirely a figment of my imagination.)

[RooMcGoo]

Posted: 11/27/13 at 8:48pm

I cannot wait! This is going to be amazing.
Roo McGoo: Stories that Sing

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/27/13 at 9:10pm

There's no "wrong choice" with "I sort of enjoyed it."

The problem is that it's a much weaker choice, because there is no revelation if you genuinely "sort of" enjoyed it. Because My Fair Lady was a monster hit, got rave reviews, and won a slew of Tony Awards. For Franklin to say he enjoyed it (and mean it) is like one of you saying, "I enjoyed Chicago" or "I enjoy Gypsy." Really? That's so unusual and worth mentioning to us!

It's a weak choice. The "sort of" is more of a guilty admission that it didn't suck, especially to a young, up-and-coming show tune writer who doubtlessly thinks he can do better, at that age. I "sort of" enjoyed it, is more that he can't actually say he hated it when he at least "sort of" understands why it's a popular show that everyone loves. He "sort of" gets it, even if he didn't love it himself.

OR ... he "sort of" enjoyed it, meaning he really DIDN'T enjoy it, but he doesn't want to piss his friends off by telling how badly done the show was and how he could do it much better himself.

Yeah, that's a lot of subtext, but this is Sondheim, who would never have a character say, "I tried ice cream, and I liked it."

It means nothing to say that. It's a wasted, banal thought.

[jv92]

Posted: 11/27/13 at 10:19pm

I guess because I always thought Sondheim was talking through that line, since he did indeed "sort of" enjoy MY FAIR LADY, it made Criss' delivery less true for me.

It's a "weaker choice", as best12 says. Maybe not "wrong."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/28/13 at 12:16am

It's an unfortunate acting choice by Criss, whom we all would like to make perfect acting choices because he is so appealing.

But it is, sort of, wrong.

His "surprised" choice misses the joke Sondheim was making about the pretensions and pretentiousness of young artists (and Frank, in particular--and, therefore, by extension, Sondheim himself!), who think themselves superior to crowd-pleasers.

So the "grudging" choice makes the joke because it shows that the pretentious Frank couldn't help but enjoy My Fair Lady. That's the joke the "sort of" makes. The "surprised" choice misses that point, and therefore portrays Franks as more wide-eyed and not necessarily having those kind of artistic aspirations.

Someone tell Darren Criss that PalJoey is available for subtext-coaching, any time he wants.