"I mean, how can you reconcile Laurie playing the reprise of the title song as Lucia’s mad scene with what you know that scene to normally be?"
"One person dances the entire dream ballet!
This revival is like Oklahoma trapped in a production of Spring Awakening."
"Beautifully sung? It’s differently, perhaps even unusually sung. For example, the People Will Say We’re In Love reprise, which is normally an ecstatic moment of operatic rapture is here almost purred like two cats finally retracting their claws and cuddling. Like I mentioned, there’s no ensemble, so Many a New Day, Out of My Dreams, Scandal Outrage- these are all going to sound very different to what you and I are used to."
"I thought Rebecca Naomi Jones fell completely flat as Laurie. I didn't care for her voice or acting choices (maybe because there weren't any). I also didn't care for her random outbursts of American Idiot stomping around."
"It was like an orgy of classic R&H, 80s MTV music videos, and “American Psycho”."
"Damon Daunno really needs to pick a key and stick with it. He was between traditional country, country pop, and a cracking pubescent falsetto - and melding this all together really took the “oomph” out of “Oh What A Beautiful Morning”."
"It is shocking that everyone’s singing sounds so untrained - it causes the glorious music to really fall flat.
Curly has absolutely nothing impressive about his voice, not a beautiful baritone at all. He croons and riffs his songs with an all too often screech or stylistic crack, reminiscent of a Brooklyn bar performer.
Rebecca Naomi Jones, apart from making NO acting choice other than simple anger, doesn’t have the vocal chops for Laurie/ the songs are in the wrong key for her and she is not a soprano. She has zero likeability onstage. "
"The most interesting scenes in the play are done in complete blackout, so you can’t see ANYTHING - when the lights come up the actors are emotional and crying, clearly having a wonderful cathartic moment, while leaving the audience “in the dark” - it quite frankly ruins the momentum of the show and interferes with the payoff in the end.
The final scenes of the play, meant to be riveting and emotional, fall completely flat because there is almost zero staging- the actors just flatly say their lines from chairs for the most part sucking all life and intention out of every possible moment. "
"This production feels like a Quentin Tarantino version in a lot of ways, kinda experimental, edgy."
"This revival attempts to drain the show of romance, but there’s no denying it’s there in the text and music."
"Not sure what the microphone situation is. Most times it felt like they were just projecting without mics which worked, but there were moments where they were very soft or the music was drowning them out."
"Jones can’t sing or act. And if you’re going to have the actress belt and screech the role, for chrissakes, transpose it. She’s also so unrelentingly unappealing that you can’t imagine why Curly or anyone else would be interested in her.
The Curly is vocally challenged as well, with absurd yelping and yodeling—and also lacks appeal."
I'm open to thoughtfully reinterpreted revivals and I certainly have no problem with critically rethinking idealistic narratives about America. But some of these descriptions sound torturous. (Out of all the shows name checked, Spring Awakening, American Idiot, American Psycho... the only one I have a favorable opinion of is Lucia di Lammermoor.) I've been burned by many an off-Broadway show. I find so-called edgy and provocative material can sometimes be even more offensive to my progressive values than traditional musical comedy; for example, when it's exploitative of the pain of women.
Is this edgy for the sake of being edgy or is all the darkness actually in service of something? I've never bought that angst and pain and misfortune are necessarily more narratively compelling than joy or happiness or romance. In fact, I think it can be courageous for a story to try to present solutions to problems or truly imagine a radically different future rather than either just representing misery or tacking on an unearned happy ending.
Also, I think I've heard most of the main cast sing in other shows so I know they can sing but with the new arrangements is it at least... pleasant? I don't know. Some of these reports are scaring me off.
But Kad, your interpretation of the show is drawing me in.
