Rosie on NEXT TO NORMAL and Alice...

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 4:02pm

This was just posted in the Ask Ro section of Rosie's Blog:

"Question:
alice ripley in next to normal.......too amazing for words.

Answer:

saw it tonight
she is very very talented"

As a reader of Rosie's site/blog for nearly a decade now, I can tell you that this is definently a negative review and as close to a pan for the show as she is likely to give. She never says when she doesn't like a show because she (like many of us) believe a Broadway ticket sold is a benefit to the theatre at large and saying someone is "very,very talented" means she hated the performance but appreciated the effort of the performer. I gotta say I pretty much agree with her, though I have grown to love the score and recognize its brilliance in spite of this casting.

I actually expected her to really respond to the material given what I've read in her books/blogs over the years, but it seems Ripley's stylized performance has made that almost impossible for Rosie, as it almost has for me.

FEELING ELECTRIC was fanfreakingtastic, though! What a difference a Sherie (and a Norbert) can make.

Ripley ruins the show and NTN will not last out the summer, and it coulda been something really, really special.

Ripley deserves the Tony anyway for her brilliant performance in COMPANY at the Kennedy Center.

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P genre

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 4:03pm

WHAT THE F*CK?


Most random post of the week.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 4:22pm

If you are a devoted Rosie reader, you'd realize what Rosie hates most of all is when people paraphrase or twist what she says.

Thanks for that attempt at interpretation and using it as way to blast N2N and Ripley.

Maybe she means exactly what she wrote and was feeling spare in her words that day.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 4:26pm

...Wow.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 4:57pm

You do realize that 8 words on Rosie's Blog have more influence on popular culture and "news" in this country than the entire three hours on CBS on Sunday will. Or maybe you don't...

Apparently, I am the only person who finds NEXT TO NORMAL as a quite masterful achievement in many ways, yet not enjoying the lead actress's portrayal of a role you have seen other actresses pull off better in essentially the same show (Sherie and Amy Spanger leap to mind) somewhat stymies the whole experience. An actress whom you've enjoyed in most other things you've seen her in (her crowning achievement- COMPANY at the Kennedy Center, SUNSET BLVD, SIDE SHOW, TELL ME ON A SUNDAY... did not like her LES MIZ or LITTLE FISH). But, as an avid Alice fan, I'm sure you've seen her in those seven different roles (and more, I'm sure) that I have and can make a fair and balanced judgement of her performance in NEXT TO NORMAL as compared to actresses in essentially the same role in FEELING ELECTRIC (as it was then called). Right? Right.

If we are to BLAST a show, THOU SHALT NOT seems like a fun candidate... or WICKED, for that matter... and as far as blasting performers, Betty Buckley seems to be the best candidate for that, no?

P

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:03pm

watched Rosie's show sometimes
watched Rosie's variety show
watched Rosie in Grease
read Rosie's blog
When someone posts it here

She is very, very talented

GET THAT?

ROSIE is VERY VERY TALENTED
Maybe even VERY VERY VERY talented

see what i am saying?

I keep giving her the benefit of the doubt but more and more i am sure she is SO SO SO SO SO SO talented

[srg129]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:14pm

Pgenre seems to have this seemingly amazing "talent" for "interpreting" blogs. I didn't know they taught that in the community colleges nowadays.

I, however, like many of the posters on this website, will surely find it to be a seemingly amazing "talent" of utter "bullsh*t" or more simply, diarrhea of the mouth.

As we like to say to the pea-brained and intellectually challenged who need above average levels of attention to feel somewhat self-important, "Go back to your bridge troll, you have no power here!".

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:24pm

Rosie's interpretive dance stylings say even MORE about what she really thinks. And I totally agree that her blog has a much bigger influence than network news. We all craft now, but we don't sit around and discuss current events. Nuff said.

[ryantbo2]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:34pm

Ok this is as ridiculous as other posts have been on here flaming Ms. A - BTW the last one was removed so I don't hold much hope for this one either.

I wish I had the ability to read something on Rosie's Blog and then to be able to interpret so much into it as you seem able to. Are you performing in The Catskills as a mind reader as well?

N2N, WITH Alice I may add - had a successful Off-Broadway run of several months and a DC run of another couple of months plus garnered several nominations (Outer Critics, Drama Desk and Tony) from the theater community for Alice and the show prior to moving to Broadway. So it seems that if she were truly "ruining" the show, the theatre community would not be embracing her so tightly in this role.

Here is yet another example of someone with nothing constructive to say and using the Boards as a way to say it. I'm all for intelligent conversations and discussions on the boards. And I acknowledge that we will not all agree. But posts like this show that in an intelligent conversation, you my friend are an unarmed opponent.

I 2nd SRG's comment go back to your bridge troll, you have no power here

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:36pm

Her performance use to stylized, but she's pretty much toned it down now. She's more "realistic," but I think her voice makes her performance seem stylized, but sadly that's just the way her voice sounds. She's pretty good in the role, but the whole show just strikes me as too forced. I don't know, parts of it I love, and parts of it I can't stand, and the more I listen to the recording the more I realize how bad some of the lyrics are, like "dying alive." I hate when people do things like that. Like the new Transformers movie is called "rise of the fallen." As if just putting two opposite words together makes it seem poetic and smart. It's not.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:48pm

Gee, perhaps since Ro had JUST seen it the night before, perhaps she didn't find the time to process what she saw.

Perhaps she didn't feel there was anything TO say since the "question" wasn't a question at all.

Regardless, Rosie is allowed her opinion...but I'm not so sure the OP is "allowed" to interpret her simple statement into a full blown analysis.

[Candide08]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 5:51pm

"You do realize that 8 words on Rosie's Blog have more influence on popular culture and "news" in this country than the entire three hours on CBS on Sunday will. Or maybe you don't... "

What a load of crap. You do realize CBS is a NATIONAL NETWORK seen by MILLIONS OF PEOPLE right? Sorry to burst your bubble but I think more powerful people (Ben Brantley for instance) have embraced this show and Alice in particular.

[LittleBitRacist]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 6:07pm

"Ripley ruins the show and NTN will not last out the summer, and it coulda been something really, really special. "

you're an idiot.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 6:10pm

So...if you think that "she is very very talented" means "she ruins the show", then I assume you also thought "there will b no more" meant "A full season order of my Variety Show just went through!"...

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 6:24pm

EVERY DAY IN ROSIE'S WORLD IS OPPOSITE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 6:44pm

I find it quite interesting that comparison of seven different performances I have witnessed of Miss Ripley's, and my preferential ranking of them, in addition to a comparion with my preference for the two actresses who preceeded her in the role is the basis for such "unintelligent" not "constuctive" posts. I wish we had as many! Yet "banishing" a "troll" is the epitome of class, taste and intellectual content.

So ATC is all people over 65 (in mind and/or body) and BWW is everyone 15 and under.

Now I remember why I lived a life message-board free for 2 years.

Either way, Broadway is dead and Ripley got to record the NEXT TO NORMAL cast album, (then) mannerred performance and all, so all the more power to those who enjoy that sort of thing.

The rosie content in my post was less than 10% of the total. I will NEVER understand the vitrol people have for this woman, particularly on a theatre message board. And if you read her blog you know if she even mildly enjoyed the show she would recommend it, link to tickets and maybe even blog about it as she has for EVERY OTHER SHOW SHE HAS ENJOYED for the years of the blog. Maybe she will do so, but my interpretation of her remarks (or lack thereof) were merely relayed as a prism through which I expressed my own thoughts/feelings as made quite clear originally were one to have the intellectual capacity to do so, since that seems to be the guidelines for good posts around her.

... and with that I go back under the bridge (and dreaming).

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P genre

P.S. The day intellectualism and collegiate education become even REMOTELY synonymous, let me (and any other graduates with masters degrees) know.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 6:45pm

And ZONEACE just made me laugh out loud with that post!

Made the whole thing worth it!

EDIT: even if he is a jackass.

P
Updated On: 6/3/09 at 06:45 PM

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 7:00pm

the vitriol had nothing to do with rosie, it had to do with your bull**** "translation" of her words. Rosie is not afraid of expressing her opinion, if she didn't like the show, she would have said so. But thank you for speaking on her behalf, I'm sure she's glad you're out there doing that for her.


jackass.

[Craww]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 7:11pm

I can see interpreting that as faint praise from a woman who's regularly so exulting of shows she loves. However, I hardly think it's fair to interpret it as a pan on which you're launching some diatribe against the performance. Even if your interpretation was fair it's still entirely meaningless, because she's obviously no arbiter of taste.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 7:14pm

Rosie has never spoken even REMOTELY negatively about ANY Broadway show on her blog EVER. EVER. Search it and see.

My point EXACTLY in re:Rosie was that were she to like the show, or even midly enjoy it, she would have made that known and over-praise as she is known to do. I took her veiled lack of enthusiasm as a jumping-off point for my own thoughts about the show.

This is the woman who championed THE LIFE and SIDE SHOW and THE WILD PARTY, shows which I get the feeling closed around the time many of you were conceieved and shows which tackled very touchy subject matter and brought performances from those shows to mainstream America.

I hope tomorrow she writes a blog about how fantastic NTN was and mentions the clarion quality of Ripley's voice, but I don't think that's gonna happen.

All publicity is good publicity and no publicity is nothing.

And as Shakespeare wrote in KL, "Nothing comes from nothing".

P

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 7:20pm

Thought I would throw my two cents in, since I am also a regular reader of Rosie's blog:

While I wouldn't go so far as to get inside Rosie's head and put words in her mouth, I would like to point out that when she normally favors a show, she RAVES about it and has many adjectives. Regarding her brief blog response of NEXT TO NORMAL, I get the impression she wasn't BLOWN AWAY by it and nothing more. So did she like it? You'll have to ask her, but I think it is safe to say she doesn't like it as much as she liked previous Broadway shows she discussed on the blog.

All that being said - it's just a small comment made on the ASK RO section of her website -- not even her blog! I doubt it will have even 1% effect on their box office.

[Craww]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 8:01pm

Rosie has never spoken even REMOTELY negatively about ANY Broadway show on her blog EVER. EVER. Search it and see.

Nothing you're saying contradicts what I said. Continuing to rant as though you've made any sort of point is reading a little on the delusional side.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 8:35pm

I read her blog often, and she raves about the shows or performers she loves, so a "very talented" is not what she usually says when she really likes a performer.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 8:42pm

Although I think such an impassioned dissection of a brief answer is ridiculous, the subject of NEXT TO NORMAL was brought up on Rosie's blog again today:

"Nancy Writes:

Saw you at Next to Normal Tuesday night., but you left before I could say hi. Do you think it'll win Best Musical?

no
i think billy elliot will"

Take what you will.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 8:44pm

Yeah, I think Billy WILL win also, that doesnt mean anything. It certainly doesn't deserve to win, but it will.