#26
Posted: 10/31/06 at 1:16pm
What a horrible review! And I mean the review is bad, not the opinion expressed in the review. Hedy Weiss just doesn't get it and she never has.
Someone else has already commented on her saying Linda Balgord steals the show (someday but not until they fix the singing to make her intelligible - although note that I saw it all the way back on 10/7). So I'll comment on her comparing Donal to Javert. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Donal is the villian of PQ and Thenardier, not Javert, is the villian of Les Miz. Donal knows he's bad as does Thenardeier but Javert honestly believes he's right (he can't see that he's wrong about Valjean but that's very different). That makes Javert a tragic character but not a villain.
At the start of her review, Weiss says "too much Les Miz and not enough Riverdance." Well, my thoughts, the more I've thought and read comments, is "too much Riverdance and not enough Les Miz". PQ is clearly a book show and yet I've increasingly believeing the PQ creative team doesn't understand that. The producers' main experience is with Riverdance, a mostly visual, non-book show. So long as you can see what' happenning on stage and heare the music, that's all you need for a non-book show.
But for a book show you need to understand the book and for that you need to understand the words. If this were non-book, Balgord's high but unintelligble voice would work since the actual words wouldn't be important and the singing style would convey all that's needed.
I get the feeling that with their Riverdance experience, they started with the idea of let's find something to feature more Irish dance (even though the Irish dance craze came and went almost 10 years ago) and then let's find a story to put around it. I've only seen Riverdance once but Lord of the Dance (LotD) several times and while LotD has a story, understanding that story isn't really important to enjoying the show. Understanding PQ's story is very important.
Hmmmm. On second thought, maybe Weiss is right. Turn it into Riverdance II and make the actual story so unimportant that it doesn't matter if you can understand anything. But that is not Broadway (and is so "not Broadway" that I believe Equity considers shows like Riverdance and LotD to be outside its jurisdiction).
Someone else has already commented on her saying Linda Balgord steals the show (someday but not until they fix the singing to make her intelligible - although note that I saw it all the way back on 10/7). So I'll comment on her comparing Donal to Javert. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Donal is the villian of PQ and Thenardier, not Javert, is the villian of Les Miz. Donal knows he's bad as does Thenardeier but Javert honestly believes he's right (he can't see that he's wrong about Valjean but that's very different). That makes Javert a tragic character but not a villain.
At the start of her review, Weiss says "too much Les Miz and not enough Riverdance." Well, my thoughts, the more I've thought and read comments, is "too much Riverdance and not enough Les Miz". PQ is clearly a book show and yet I've increasingly believeing the PQ creative team doesn't understand that. The producers' main experience is with Riverdance, a mostly visual, non-book show. So long as you can see what' happenning on stage and heare the music, that's all you need for a non-book show.
But for a book show you need to understand the book and for that you need to understand the words. If this were non-book, Balgord's high but unintelligble voice would work since the actual words wouldn't be important and the singing style would convey all that's needed.
I get the feeling that with their Riverdance experience, they started with the idea of let's find something to feature more Irish dance (even though the Irish dance craze came and went almost 10 years ago) and then let's find a story to put around it. I've only seen Riverdance once but Lord of the Dance (LotD) several times and while LotD has a story, understanding that story isn't really important to enjoying the show. Understanding PQ's story is very important.
Hmmmm. On second thought, maybe Weiss is right. Turn it into Riverdance II and make the actual story so unimportant that it doesn't matter if you can understand anything. But that is not Broadway (and is so "not Broadway" that I believe Equity considers shows like Riverdance and LotD to be outside its jurisdiction).
