Pacific Overtures- Page 11
Pacific Overtures
#250Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 12:46amI always find it amusing how defensive people get whenever someone expresses that they aren't a Sondheim fanatic.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#251Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 12:48am
"I always find it amusing how defensive people get whenever someone expresses that they aren't a Sondheim fanatic."
I suppose it could be considered amusing.
To the extent that children's temper tantrums can be found amusing.
Personally, I find it laughably pathetic.
Updated On: 2/7/15 at 12:48 AM
#252Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 12:54am
^^^^^^
I find your melodrama quite amusing as well.
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#253Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 1:00amI watched (or tried to watch) the video of the show and found it really really boring. Maybe you had to be there, but just nothing interested me. The concept was really interesting though and I still like the cast album. Updated On: 2/7/15 at 01:00 AM
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#254Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 1:11am
"I watched (or tried to watch) the video of the show and found it really really boring. "
You can't say I didn't warn you.
"Maybe you had to be there,"
Be thankful you weren't. Imagine being stuck in a theatre watching this thing.
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#255Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 1:14am
"You can't say I didn't warn you."
Yes, you did warn me, but although I agree with you on a lot of things, I wanted to form my own opinion about it. I was sad I didn't like it, though.
jemjeb2
Featured Actor Joined: 6/28/05
#256Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 10:48amWell, AE's childish temper tantrums are often amusing.
#257Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 12:31pmThis thread went downhill pretty fast... and here I was thinking we could actually discuss aspects of the show.
#258Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 6:19pm
"I should have phrased that differently, I personally like his lyrics more than Sondheim's. Sorry."
No apology necessary, Fantod. I knew that's what you meant. I think everyone else did, too.
#259Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 6:25pm
As for G&S, they didn't write "operettas", they wrote "comic operas"
What's the difference?
The same difference between STUDENT PRINCE and PIRATES OF PENZANCE.
Although there are some lovely ballads in G&S, IMO, they are hardly the point of the show. What has been called "twee" and "contrived" in Gilbert's librettos is no more so than "Who's on First?" It's a style of comedy that TV has replaced with the sitcom, but that doesn't make G&S any less masters of the Victorian form.
Contrast that with the gorgeous and serious melodies of Sigmund Romberg. The plots may strike us as melodramatic now, but they were taken seriously at the time.
#260Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 6:29pm
I always find it amusing how defensive people get whenever someone expresses that they aren't a Sondheim fanatic.
Perhaps, but here, Sondheim was referred to as a "pack mule". That goes quite a bit further than merely not being a "fanatic".
#261Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/7/15 at 7:03pm
^^^^^^
I was more referring to the reactions at the more reasonable qualms of Fantod, rather than the vitriol of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
#262Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/8/15 at 7:58pm
Fair enough, Mr. N. I wasn't picking a fight.
My own husband, whom I've been dragging to Sondheim musicals for almost 40 years, recently confessed, rather sheepishly, that his musical taste runs more to Rodgers and Porter.
I briefly considered divorce, but decided it was too much trouble.
#263Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/8/15 at 10:50pmNo worries, I thought nothing of the sort, just thought it'd be best to make sure no one misinterpreted the comment as a defense of AfterEight.
#264Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/9/15 at 11:50pmI listened to the full production in the background while working today. Officially obsessed.
#265Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 11:29amAlso particularly obsessed with Mark Hsu Syers. He seems like a tenor in one number and a bass in others. Along with being kind of beautiful. Very sad to have looked him to see he passed away at such a young age.
#266Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 11:31am
He is sex. He was the also the original Magaldi.
#267Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 11:37amI've yet to listen to this whole show, but I've watched the clip of Someone in a Tree more times than I can count- what a gorgeous song. And yeah, Mark Hsu Syers really is gorgeous and talented.
#268Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 12:35pm
Don't touch the coat.
#269Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 2:25pmMy favorite thing on that taping is the woman in the audience guffawing when the Russian ambassador yells "DON'T TOUCH THE COAT" for the last time.
#270Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 3:49pm
I just listened to the OBC again and this show really does have a beautiful score. I'm just very unhappy with the book.
Maybe I need to re watch the video of the show.
#271Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 4:13pm
Yes, Mark Hsu Syers was wonderful in the show. He was Ensemble but the creators used him all over the place in the show. Voice range was amazing.
Beyond tragic that he died at 30 in a car wreck.
Isao Sato killed in a plane crash at 40.
And I believe Patrick Kinser-Lau died of AIDS.at 30. He was a sailor in the song Pretty Lady and the Dutch Ambassador in Please, Hello among other parts.
Mako is gone and Yuki Shimoda too.
This cast felt like friends. You know that feeling when you see a show multiple times.
I was enchanted by this show-like I've said I saw it 17 times. Used to wait at the stage door before and after the show like Eve Harrington. Usually I was the only one standing at the curtain call. Yes, Pacific Overtures was not for the masses. I don't do those"fan things" anymore but it sure was fun.
So glad the taping of the show for Japanese TV exists.
Updated On: 2/10/15 at 04:13 PM
#272Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 4:16pmI think the main problem with the book is that it felt like a history lesson.
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
#273Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 4:51pm
I've certainly spent a good deal of time browsing Wikipedia articles about Japan since watching. But it's definitely a show that I watch and go, 'I am fascinated by this, but I totally understand people who aren't. Or who outright hate it.' I can't imagine a new musical like it being produced on Broadway nowadays.
Ethel, your post honestly made me teary. I've already been sad lately about Mako after rewatching Avatar, where he was replaced by his long-time student in the third season after he passed away. (He passed shortly after a really lovely episode about his character mourning the anniversary of his son's death.)
#274Pacific Overtures
Posted: 2/10/15 at 4:57pm
I loved hearing Mako on Avatar.
Yeah, the only place I could see this being produced on a large scale as a new musical now would maybe be an opera production (but that might prove controversial.) I mean if there's an opera market for Nixon in China, surely PO wouldn't be SO strange...
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