Pacific Overtures- Page 4

[HorseTears]

Posted: 2/2/15 at 6:21pm

0:09 to 0:58 is dedicated to After80 Updated On: 2/2/15 at 06:21 PM

[Fantod]

Posted: 2/2/15 at 6:40pm

It's funny that people think that Herman and Sondheim are at war with each other, when Herman has actually said, and I quote, "[Sondheim]'s a genius, and I'm a songwriter". Herman appears to think very highly of Sondheim, and the two are so different it isn't fair to pit them together. Would anybody actually want a Sondheim Mame or a Herman Sweeney Todd? Herman is about celebrating life, Sondheim is about making a comment on life.

[jv92]

Posted: 2/2/15 at 7:20pm

I think Jerry Herman should have thought more carefully before he made his 1984 Tony speech, because he's been paying for it ever since. And according to FOS (Friends of Steve), there's no love lost between the two, as much as Jerry wants to make up stories about singing around a piano with Carol Channing and Sondheim. Sorry, Jer.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 2/2/15 at 8:11pm

I think of "Next" as being the interpretation of the Westernized country, thematically as well as literally. It's so different from the rest of the show because Japan is now so different from the way it once was, starkly and (it seems to many) in a bad way. It also goes along with the negative aspects behind the facts read off so cheerfully.

And the "welcome to Japan" line always gives me chills on the OBC.

Updated On: 2/2/15 at 08:11 PM

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 2/2/15 at 8:55pm

I really like Next, it's a great, dark, sharp underlining of the brutal way Japan was forced into the rest of the world. That list of statistics that starts out as a joyful celebration of Japan's ingenuity that quickly turns into a harsh criticism of the dark side of industry/capitalism gives me the creeps. You could update it and have it be just as eerie today, too.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 2/2/15 at 9:25pm

Yeah, you could do that, but it would still sound SO 70s.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/2/15 at 11:51pm

"After several thousand posts calling Sondheim's work "bad", I've yet to see After Eight define "good" and "bad"

Are you capable of reading, or of processing what you read?

In this thread alone, I clearly defined what was bad about this show:

Heavy-handed, pretentious bore.

Score: wan, pallid, enervated, enervating.

Song: Endless, repetitive, self-indulgent.

Honestly, try seeing straight.

[Fantod]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 12:00am

Quick question, when you say "heavy-handed", what exactly do you mean? I looked up the definition, and it means clumsy or insensitive or overly forceful. How would that translate to a stage musical?

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 12:16am

"I looked up the definition, and it means clumsy or insensitive or overly forceful. "

That's what I mean.

"How would that translate to a stage musical?"

Think of Harold Prince's work for Zorba, Phantom, Evita, Pacific Overtures, Grind, the execrable Sweeney Todd....

Updated On: 2/3/15 at 12:16 AM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 12:30am

You didn't like the original Evita? Sorry, my dear After Eight, but that's a deal breaker.

[Fantod]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 12:41am

Sorry, but I only saw the original production of Phantom, and the worst I could say for its direction is that it was bombastic and lacking in any subtlety. Is that somewhat what you mean?

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 12:45am

Good lord, After Eight!
I don't often comment in these threads, but generally love to hear intelligent discussion and interesting points of view from those who do post regularly.
But jeez, you are just soooo boring. Everything you say is just so mean-spirited, dismissive and self important. What's the deal? Did Stephen Sondheim run over your dog decades ago? Are you a scorned lover with a chip on your shoulder and axe to grind? Regardless, you just come across as a bitter Salieri-type person who cannot resist the urge to trot out your redundant, predictable and boring diatribes as the self appointed 'voice of every audience member'. Reading your never ending vitriol is far more boring than the cumulative boredom you've had to endure when seeing Sondheim musicals ....again and again and again and again and again....
I've heard that if a shark stops swimming it dies....perhaps your incessant bitching about Stephen Sondheim and any person who enjoys his work is what keeps you breathing. If that is the case, then may you find as many opportunities to be miserable at a performance that nobody is forcing you to attend as you need for sustenance.

Ok. Now Let's wait for my statements to appear in quotation marks with the word of our Lord, Audience Advocate After Eight, stated underneath as if written in the warm blood of a newborn babe.
Since I have gleaned you are fueled upon the words of those who speak against your 'wisdom', This should be enough of a feeding to get you through a day or so.

Maybe you actually ARE Stephen Sondheim and this is just some sort of Internet alter ego. If so, BRAVA MAESTRO!

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 12:46am

Fantod,

Yes, but also heavy, overbearing, laying it on with a trowel.

Updated On: 2/3/15 at 12:46 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 1:02am

Undercoveractor,

You're infantile. How old are you anyway? Five, six? It's long past your bedtime.

If you find reading my posts so boring, all you have to do is use the ignore feature. Or is that too difficult for you to figure out?


"If so, BRAVA MAESTRO!"

Your ludicrous tirade is bad enough. Must you mangle Italian as well?

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 1:16am

Why is this person still on these forums?

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 1:48am

SWIM, SHARK, SWIM!!!!!!

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 7:13am

I suppose my question is going to go unanswered.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 7:25am

The lack of an answer is the answer.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 7:35am

taz, in your infinite wisdom, you are correct, sir.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 9:53am

"If so, BRAVA MAESTRO!"

You mean "Bravo, Maestro" not "Brava, Maestro."

If you intend to use the word "brava" to indicate the feminine gender, you are obliged to use the female form of the noun "maestro": maestra.

But "maestra" is considered rude and unnecessary by female conductors--Maestro Marin Alsop points out that female astronauts are not called "astronettes," are they?--so the use of "maestra" is inadvisable under any circumstances.

Updated On: 2/3/15 at 09:53 AM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 4:41pm

A8, after seeing the film of ITW, my son-in-law--an engineer/race car aficionado and not a regular theatergoer--said to me, "That isn't music I would play around the house just for pleasure, but I loved how it helped to tell the story." (And BTW, English isn't even his first language.)

When an engineer exhibits better critical skills than a self-acclaimed expert such as yourself, it might be time to reevaluate your posting.

Merely adding a list of synonyms to your vague and repetitive complaints is NOT the same as critical analysis.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 4:43pm

Adjectives are enough, Gav. They're MORE than enough.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 4:47pm

You're right, growl. I guess I was just longing for a few specific examples after so many years of reading the same nonsense.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 4:49pm

When you're that right, you don't need to explain anything. It should be as plain as the noses on our faces.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/3/15 at 8:08pm

"That isn't music I would play around the house just for pleasure, but I loved how it helped to tell the story."

That sickly, whiney, tuneless music and the excruciatingly forced and self-indulgent lyrics would never be anything I would--- or ever could --- listen to in my home, and I hated how they both contributed to the mean, mean-spirited, subversive, rotten story (ITW).