Pacific Overtures- Page 8

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:03am

AE - you "share" pain and frustration? No thanks, keep it all to yourself, you silly old curmudgeon!

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:07am

^

Learn English.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:08am

I don't disagree that there are emotional scenes- I love many scenes individually and find them full of emotion too- but, structurally, the use of narration and meta-theatrical numbers such as Please Hello and Next create a Brechtian style distance which means that the show has that same Verfremdungseffekt as a whole.

PS I think Someone in a Tree is one of the most exciting and uplifting compositions I know of.

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:10am

And Fantod, sorry, but if Granny attended theatre for 30 years and never heard of Sondheim, she is clearly asleep at the wheel and your "casual" theatre going parents are indeed VERY casual.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:13am

"but if Granny attended theatre for 30 years and never heard of Sondheim, she is clearly asleep at the wheel,"

Don't refer to another person's relative in that way.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:14am

Watching episode 2.1 of Call the Midwife last night, I was struck by this lovely sentence:

"If you had more experience and less confidence, I might be inclined to listen to you."

[Kad]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:14am

"There's definitely a crazed menace to Next that I think implies "too much too quickly", which wouldn't have seemed much of a stretch back in the 70s when Japan was exploding with technology and influence."

Not just in the 70s- Japan advanced into a world power EXTREMELY quickly after the events in the show took place. In less than a hundred years, after all, they were part of the Axis powers.

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:16am

Lessons in etiquette from Miss Manners herself - what an honor!

[Fantod]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:18am

"And Fantod, sorry, but if Granny attended theatre for 30 years and never heard of Sondheim, she is clearly asleep at the wheel and your 'casual' theatre going parents are indeed VERY casual."

Rude.

And my family is just regular theatre folk. Not everyone takes the time to learn who wrote every show they see. They do, however, know Porter, Berlin, and Rodgers and Hammerstein

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:37am

So ÿour "regular" theatre folk family ARE familiar with musical theatre artists from 50 or more years ago, but just "don't take the time to learn the name of who wrote every show they see" now. Hmm- ok, I'll let that wan explanation lie.

You appeared to use your grandmother's ignorance of Sondheim (in spite of her being a 30 year regular theatregoer) as an argument that Sondheim is not that well known, and are offended by a bit of mockery at that supposition. Really?

Updated On: 2/5/15 at 11:37 AM

[Fantod]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:45am

Wait, what? I was just making a comment that Sondheim isn't as famous as people think. None of his shows have run over 1000 performances.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:55am

Could one of the enlightened analysts of this piece possibly explain how a brilliant show like this could have ever prompted such a response (or lack thereof) from......... the public?

Because musical theatre is an art form. And as with every other art form, academic analysis and criticism have nothing to do with subjective public opinion or commercialism. Now you know. You're welcome.

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 11:56am

How famous do "people" think he is?

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 12:59pm

Does fame really matter? Is there another Broadway composer as honored as him?

6 Tony Awards
Tony for Lifetime Achievement
15 Drama Desk Awards
Oscar for Best Original Song
Grammy for Song of the Year
Pulitzer Prize
Kennedy Center Honor
Presidential Medal of Freedom

And I'm sure more. That list must make AfterEight sick.

[Fantod]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 1:12pm

I didn't say that he wasn't well-awarded. I'm just saying that people on this board think of Sondheim as some celebrity composer, when Oklahoma! will always be more well known than Follies; Anything Goes will always be more well known than Sweeney Todd; and Annie Get Your Gun will always be more well known than Sunday in the Park With George

[South Florida]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 1:15pm

How much music is in this musical? The first 45 minutes seem like a play.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 1:37pm

Fantod,

I wouldn't be too sure of that. The bad guys/elitists are really the powers that be now, and they are one committed --- and efficient --- bunch. They know how to bulldoze their darlings into the public's consciousness, leaving the beautiful and worthwhile to languish by the wayside.

And as we've seen, they've already done a very good job of it!

Just look at that list of awards!

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 1:42pm

Generally in arguments, using "never" or "always" is going to be problematic. Your assumptions about what "people" will ALWAYS know is based on your own opinion. And yes, being famous or not, is a different issue altogether from having/lacking talent.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 1:42pm

That makes no sense. If this made-up cabal "bulldozed" his works into the public's consciousness then he would be popular.

[Kad]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 1:48pm

"The bad guys/elitists are really the powers that be now, and they are one committed --- and efficient --- bunch. They know how to bulldoze their darlings into the public's consciousness, leaving the beautiful and worthwhile to languish by the wayside."

You are delusional.

So works you dislike Pacific Overtures that flopped - that's the audience rejecting a bad product?

But works you dislike Once which succeed, or composers like Sondheim being honored and produced - that's the audience being bamboozled by bad guys?

[South Florida]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 2:08pm

After Eight, does it get better after an hour? Does this thing suck to high heaven like every other Sondheim musical? Do they all sound the same? Was this Sunday in the...?

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 2:15pm

South Florida,

No, it does not get better.

And though it may be hard to imagine, some of the other shows were even worse!

It was a handsome production, at least.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 2:17pm

South Florida, to quote John McEnroe, "You can not be serious!" - what do you think After Eight is going to say? Have you been reading this thread?

If you're so desperate to know if it "gets better", just watch for fvck's sake.

[Consistency]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 2:21pm

"I wonder how AE will respond to that?" said no one ever.

But AE will probably shower you with lots of praise for seeing through the awfulness that is Sondheim's music. (Until the inevitable point in the future when you disagree with him about something, at which point you'll be consigned to hell with all the rest of the board.)

[South Florida]

Posted: 2/5/15 at 2:32pm

"Stand aside I take large steps". Did he write that?