Pacific Overtures Preview # 1 Review — Page 2

This revival is "Noh" style I believe. B.D. has very little make up on. It's quieter, sort of slower than Kabuki (which was the original's style).

Noh is much, much slower than Kabuki. I'm pretty sure the actors wear masks, too, but I guess that isn't the case here. A Kabuki/Noh hybrid, then?

The whole idea of "Next" is that some of the Japanese achievements are supposed to be sort of dubious.

And I always found "Please Hello" to be hysterically funny, but maybe it isn't that well-performed here.

Sorry you didn't like the show. I'm going in a week and I'm seriously worried.

Plum,
BE worried, be VERY worried.

If there was a satirical or ironic underpinning to "next" it was completely lost in its overblown reading.
I personally think the irony is in your eyes, and not implicit in the writing (if you call that "writing")

Oh, I forgot to add that it's too bad Gilbert & Sullivan can't sue for the British portion of that piece... although the difference is that G&S had humor. And talent.

Updated On: 11/21/04 at 07:57 PM

While I made an impassioned plea on another thread yesterday for the right to review shows while in previews, I hesitate to jump in on Pacific Overtures--I saw the show last week, and am looking forward to seeing it later in the run, hoping that some of the weakest elements will be revised or removed.

I've seen the show previously only once--at the Arden in Phila., where it was done with a very spare staging and a smaller cast, and I thought it was really brilliant--funny, complex, smart and moving.

At Roundabout, I think the staging is quite good. The actual set is lovely, and I think the water ("floating island") is aesthetically and dramatically very pleasing. Beyond the basic stage, the sets are simple and the integration with the choreography good. I thought the choreography itself was very good.

I have to agree that B.D. Wong (whom I adore and would gladly pay to watch read the newspaper) is not well-suited to his role--he's playing it cute, and that is not appropriate.

"Chrysanthemum Tea" is an incredibly dense, rapid-fire Sondheim lyric, and at this early point in reviews, Alvin Ing is absolutely not up to the task--the song should be razor sharp, full of exposition, humour and danger, and the night I saw it, it was almost incomprehensible and lacking any emotion whatsoever.

"Welcome to Kanagawa", too, fell flat, althought the voices seem like they have the potential; I'm hoping it only needs practice. I agree that the decision to cast 3 women and 2 men in the role of the Geishas is odd and distracting.

"Please Hello", again, is incredibly dense lyrics, sung at lightning speed with layers of over-lapping lyrics. The decision to have the Admirals wear masks which obscure their diction is a disaster. I have nothing against the wigs--I don't particularly like them, but agree they are perhaps intended to show us how the Japanese saw the hair of the "barbarians"--but they don't interfere with the delivery of some of Sondheim's best work, and the masks do. They've got to go. It kills me that Weedy only heard the Russian saying "don't touch the coat" but Scot Watanabe was the only Admiral whose lyrics were comprehensible.

"Next", frankly, does nothing for me--we are shown the rapidity with which Japan not only caught up with the rest of the world but surpassed it in some areas; the lyrics arent' much, and the staging here is very "Star Search". If the whole show were at this level, it would be a minor work, but the fact is the rest of the show should be amazing--taut and smart and funny. At this point it isn't. I'm really looking forward to going back in a few weeks.

Oh, and I'm all for Manjiro keeping his David Barton membership. His character has been to America, after all. Very hot.

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Updated On: 11/21/04 at 10:11 PM

Thank you for the review. The masks didn't make it hard for me to understand the lyrics, but that's probably because I know the lyrics already.

Saw it last night, and probably "float" more in the middle.

I remember the original as almost epic in scope and design, moving with great formality and grave purpose from one stunning coup de theatre after another; I didn't expect anything comparable from the Roundabout's version. Perhaps my far lower expectations (this thread) allowed me to meet this production on its own terms.

Unlike any previous stagings, and modest in scale (but decidedly NOT done on the cheap, or in any way lacking in visual elegance), this version scores its own points, particularly in the first half hour, and in the 2nd act build toward the fight. The incomparable MacDevitt's lighting plot is particularly brilliant, I thought -- haunting upstairs, where I suggest everyone sit for this production. I won't belabor all the issues thoughtfully raised here -- but I did appreciate the use of women in key roles, cutting through the level of stylization to allow profound connections, particularly to the main couple we follow and with whom we gain much through greater feelings of empathy.

Musically, it's a mixed bag. Wong is just okay, not a liability but not a star turn. His singing was hoarse and pitchy, and he tends to disappear on the stage during bigger set pieces -- not good for the Reciter. There is some pretty work --"Pretty Lady" and "Bowler Hat" certainly are lovely to listen to, and to my eyes, staged simply with all emotional weight intact. The only numbers that really didn't work properly for me: "Please Hello" due to much discussed sloppy diction and an overuse of forced front row access entrances (why?) and the DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES approach (net shirts with sequins on the buff guys--what Japan is this?!) to "Next." I thought the use of dubious achievements -- buying the Empire State Building -- was minimized here, and I doubt the Japanese participation in the war in Iraq landed with much irony.It sounds very Miss America Pageant, sailing over the heads of most of the audience.

But it didn't strike me as a pitiful reduction, as the Roundabout's paper-thin FOLLIES did. Anyone who hasn't seen it, especially anyone who's a Sondheim afficianado, should not miss this. Enough of its values and theatrical power are intact. Put it somewhere between the mediocre COMPANY and ASSASSINS.

And by the way: It came down at 10:28. They've clearly done much tightening since the first preview; that alone can have an enormous impact, particularly in this type of economical (cast size, design palate) approach. Less, in terms of time, is decidedly more.

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Updated On: 11/28/04 at 11:21 AM

I think Auggie was using mediocre to describe the Company revival, with the Assassins revival being at the other end.

I was there this afternoon, and...damn, I have a thing about talking during previews.

I'll say this much- it may be because I've never seen Pacific Overtures in any form, but I didn't find this production to be the atrocious disappointment people earlier in the thread described. That's why I hate reviewing during previews in the first place- I'm sure everything's been tightened up since they started.

I'll gladly yak about the show once it opens officially, but for now I'll leave it. :)

I posted the link to the Jesse Green article because I thought it captured the colorful personality of a director that I, for one, new nothing about prior to this morning. I also thought it was interesting in that it addressed some of the issues (female casting, B.D. Wong's performance style) that have come up on the thread. On the other hand, I found the tone of the article pretty offensively snide and homophobic. "How many cliched phrases and loaded descriptions can I use to say 'HE'S A HOMO' without just saying it?" And why do we need to make that point in any case?

Yes, I guess the COMPANY book has grown dated in its war-of-the-sexes rhetoric, but the lyrics and the orchestrations keep getting better and richer, and smarter with each passing year of (at least) weekly playing.

Really looking forward to going back to Pacific Overtures. I felt the same way after seeing BOUNCE at the Goodman, and never got my chance.

I'm also really interested in the taboo of talking during previews. Is this a theater superstition or is it just considered bad form? I think it's the most exciting time to talk and compare notes and see how the show finally shakes out. Sorry if I've offended anyone, though....

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Updated On: 11/28/04 at 08:20 PM

bta: you raise many good points. I have not lost either my affection or admiration for COMPANY. I do think the book is very era-specific, but then, so are more books. The lyrics remain character-defining perfection, in no way dated.

But to me, the Jesse Green piece is more than borderline homophobic. Who is Jesse to marginalize "show queens" who haven't found a niche in the biz even as he touts one who "made it." Who is Jesse, anyway, if not a show queen himself, who found a job with the NY Times and a venue in which to behave ...frankly ... as show queen with a place to gush? Is he really so removed from the very sensibilities he's claiming Miyota has risen above? (See my thread on that, if anyone gives a damn.)

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