Pacific Overtures previews — Page 3

I've waited so many years to see a full production of this show, and I'm worried that I've paid full price for a cliffnotes concert.

justoldbill said: "I have a history with this show; two performances at the Winter Garden (including the final performance- I met Boris Aronson), the revival at the Promenade, somewhat streamlined (no Goble, no ricksha- it probably wouldn't get through the stage door), the snoozer from Japan at Avery Fisher, and the IRMA LA DOUCE-influenced production at the Donmar in London (via Chicago), with it's ridiculous reference to 9/11 (WHAT?????)! I thought I'd never pass up a production that came my way. I was wrong. I'm disheartened. I'm done. This year's PACIFIC OVERTURES, like this year's TEENY TODD, is something I will just have to live without."

"the snoozer from Japan at Avery Fisher"

I'm surprised you felt that way. The National Theatre of Tokyo's PACIFIC OVERTURES was one of the most thrilling productions of any musical I've ever seen.



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Scarywarhol said: "I've waited so many years to see a full production of this show, and I'm worried that I've paid full price for a cliffnotes concert."



I feel the same way. Was so looking forward to this but now feeling very bummed that some of my favorite songs were chopped.

Okay, now I'm not sad I'm missing this.

You have an issue with someone being disappointed about songs being cut from a rarely performed classic?

I think the show needs "Kanagawa" because it's the sole light-hearted comic moment in the entire evening. "Chrysanthemum Tea" and "Please Hello" are funny, but in a very dark vein.

Funny is a relative term, I suppose. I remember it being very funny when performed by Thomas Ikeda in the Promenade revival. Not so much by Francis Jue in the 2004 revival, who I felt mugged too much.

Oh, that was 33 years ago, Kad, and I didn't know the show as well then as I do now. So I couldn't say.

I'm flattered. But even an encyclopedia has some lacunae...

themysteriousgrowl said: "

Get a fucxing room, guys."

You're just miffed that you weren't included.

Updated On: 4/13/17 at 11:36 AM

GUYS!

But seriously, I agree with newintown that "Kanagawa" is a light moment where it's important to have one. Even if it doesn't work for you as funny (Kad and I are going to have a fistfight over this someday) and/or feels more tedious, it serves to ease the tension. That being said, I agree with Kad that if you're going to cut anything, it should be "Kanagawa" over "CT." There are plenty of opportunities in the show for humor. "Kanagawa's" useful in that way, but not vital. Hell, I'd even say cut "There Is No Other Way" or "Poems" before "CT," and I LOVE both of those songs. I kind of don't want to keep reading about this production because I'm fearful of spoiling whatever pleasant surprises there may end up being, but so far it's been very useful for managing expectations, as this was probably my most anticipated show of the spring. So thank you to everyone for your reports.

(Also, newintown, I hope you give us a fuller post/report on your GROUNDHOG DAY experience. I suspected you weren't going to fall too hard for it, but despite that -- or maybe especially because of that -- I'm interested in your deep dive.)

Updated On: 4/13/17 at 11:41 AM

I went to see Pacific Overtures Tuesday night with a friend of mine. Both of us adore the musical and we were BEYOND thrilled to step into the theatre that night and see what Doyle, Takei, Harada and everyone were planning to offer us. Before the house opened, we were discussing a little trepidation we were feeling about the running time being cut down to 100 minutes. Personally, the many 'asides' of the play are exactly what seared the play into my mind in the first place, aside from the beauty and spectacle of the original production that initially drew me in.

When the house opened, an announcement was made that the show would be 90 minutes. woof. Okay, I never really thought that the only thing I needed from a show I adored was just to have less of it, but okay, maybe there's some really good justification for these cuts. Things like the rakugo-esque scene in act 2 (the story about the tiger in korea) and I suppose the lion dance could be cut down or deleted. Welcome to Kanagawa is delightful, but never very funny. I looked through the program to see what actors were laying what, and realized no one was credited as the shogun's mother. "oh no" was my friend's reply. "How could they- hm..."

John Weidman was sitting across from us, pen in hand, ready to begin taking notes when the lights dimmed. When they did, the wonderful orchestra got to the task at hand. The cast came in, already in modern dress, to the sound of a little bit of air escaping the audience's nostrils. This was looking worse and worse. Megan Masako Haley stepped on stage and stood in solitude (the entire cast standing opposite and staring at her) in that universal "I'm the one being told the story! I'm a symbol!" kind of way and George Takei began the opening speech in voiceover.

Right as "Advantages" started I knew for sure that we were in real trouble. The song carries with is a heavy task. An entire society is supposed to be represented in broad strokes at a fast tempo. Without Takei singing (or even being on stage) the duty of all of that fell on the ensemble, whose modern dress and lack of props and scenery did nothing to help bring us into this world. It also didn't help that everything was so sloooooooww. Not just the tempo of the singing, but the nonspecific, floaty blocking. When the screens were arranged, we had no screens. When the rice was arranged, we had no blessings or protection or purchasing, just an actor holding a bowl and walking in a circle. At this point I was wondering if Takei was even going to be in the building, or were we just going to be stuck with a voiceover the entire night?

Finally the man himself shows up for an extremely unsatisfying button, says one little bit and then has to stay on that stage for soooo long doing nothing at all until the end of Four Black Dragons. There is no sense of spectacle, no sense of humor and no sense that we are moving from one moment to the next. Everything simply... happens for a long time. We get one early laugh from Harada's delivery of "Women being praised" that hints at a better production that actually utilizes its actors well. For some reason, Haley is supposed to be Tamate, as well as the everywoman. For reasons.

Now, Lord Abe is the Shogun. Or something. So none of the drama regarding the shogun, his absence, or his ahistoric poisoning factors into the sense of upheaval in the story. Four Black Dragons comes and goes, and we see lots of fabric with the Great Wave of Kanagawa printed on it. Because HEY REMEMBER THIS JAPANESE THING? For a long time, that fabric and occasional swords are the only props onstage. And SPEAKING of swords.. everytime they are brought onstage, they are merely unsheathed, held straight up and sheathed again. So much for "glided through the air like the gulls."

For a brief segment, you can tell the director actually gave a ****. I actually laughed a lot at "Welcome to Kanagawa," mostly because Ann Harada is such a pro, she realized that the song is funny when we focus on the girls, not the madam, and she does an excellent job of not getting in the way. Someone in a tree is more touching and intimate than you would expect. DIFFERENT fabrics get brought onstage! And Please Hello is a delight. This stretch of the show made me feel my evening wasn't completely wasted.

But then we go back to the muddled mess of whatever John Doyle is doing. Now, I have to say, I love someof his direction. Sweeney Todd was magnificent, and Company was amazing. I believe those things wholeheartedly. I do not think he is bad at what he does, nor do i think his head is just entirely up his ass. I honestly think he just has no connection with the material of this piece. Pacific Overtures is not a play about political maneuvers, nor is it a play about Kayama and Manjiro. It's a play about tectonic change within a society that managed, in the end, to compete rather than be crushed. It's more about culture than politics or even characters.

Doyle's production seems to disagree wholeheartedly with that assertion. And even the amazing work by Ann Harada, Thom Sesma, Orville Mendoza and mother****ing Kelvin Moon Loh can't complete a show that now exists as a fragment at CSC. I first saw Pacific Overture, like a lot of folks now, on Youtube. However, back in 2008, the only bootleg online was one that existed in ten minute increments, from a tape copied from a tape copied... etc. The color was drained, the tracking was terrible, segments would repeat, yet I knew how special it was, even in this butchered, garbled form. That was nothing like what i saw this week. Had I not been intimately familiar with the material going in, I would have left the theatre not only angrier than I am now (don't even get me started on that ridiculous contemporary gun that does absolutely nothing) but utterly confused about what I had just experienced. This production turns a truly great musical into an unnecessary trifle, and it is not at all what any of us need.

I believe the current published script, from Theatre Communications Group, reflects the revisions perpetrated on the Promenade production (or- the start of the downward spiral). Try to find the original script published by Dodd, Mead the first time around. It's an education, even if you've seen the 1976 video. I, too, lived on those bleached-out YouTube snippets for years because they showed the real engine of the show, Harold Prince. And John Doyle sure isn't Harold Prince.

Updated On: 4/14/17 at 11:59 PM