Saul Williams on the Closing of Holler — Page 2

"Well, Leon is a competent-at-best director."

And certainly more facile with pre-existing, tried and true material than originals.

Either way, Chaplin's movie, although delightful, had no impact on US foreign policy.

Didn't the Bridges of Madison County team also blame audiences for being unable to appreciate the music and story they presented?

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JRB took an uncharacteristically humble tone and did not compare the failure of his show to America allying with Nazi Germany.

Well he probably figured that was understood and he didn't need to spell it out for us.

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I read that interview. To characterize it as 'whining' is deeply unfair. It was a clear-eyed and honest assessment. You can certainly disagree with her...but her tone was not 'whining.'

She certainly wasn't whining. It might have come off that way with the swastika she tattooed on her forehead symbolizing her show being treated like Jews in WWII Germany were, but it certainly wasn't whining.

Note to EVERYONE:

Do not compare your problems with those of people who suffered under Hitler. It will not end well.

This summer will be remembered as "Broadway's Kristallnacht," when the Anti-theatre brownshirts busted the windows of the Palace, the St. James, and the Winter Garden.

Many highly respected American historians make this very same error.

Name two.

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"I am speaking to that American race psyche; that thing that Harry Belafonte said to me after he saw the play, which is, "You took an afrocentric-themed play and placed it on a eurocentric stage. The problems you'll face are larger than you think""

Tell that to Dreamgirls (heck even Lady Day).

"Who are we fooling? More hip-hop musicals are inevitable if Broadway wishes to survive."

Umm..this show closed after a month. And the fact that it was a hip hop musical did not help it. So...umm...I doubt. That hip hop musicals will be Broadways saving grace. Who said Broadway was on the verge death anyway?

Also on that whole other comment he made about America, Germany, and Chaplin. I have no words.

I'd actually argue that DREAMGIRLS is pretty Eurocentric. Though the cast is predominantly African-American, the show is really about how one needed to 'whiten' their sound and look to cross over to mainstream.

"Many highly respected American historians make this very same error.

Name two."

Well for starters, Doris Kearns Goodwin in her landmark book "Rebuilding Germany after World War 1 and Supporting the Nazis: Same Thing, Right?" And how about no less a WW2 authority than the late Stephen Ambrose in his book "How the U.S. Supported the Nazis Until FDR Said Holy F*CK after watching The Great Dictator".

Seriously, I guess I'm too subtle sometimes with my sarcasm. You can say the U.S. should have recognized the Nazi threat earlier. You can say the U.S. should not have adopted such an isolationist policy of "well they ain't bothering us" as country after country in Europe fell to the Nazis before we finally got involved after Pearl Harbor. You can say the U.S. shouldn't have ignored the reports of mass executions at concentration camps that were starting to come out in 1940. You can say the U.S. was heartless in refusing to let passengers on the MS St. Louis disembark even though it was clear to almost everyone what would happen if the ship was sent back. But to say the U.S. were actually allies of Nazi Germany at any point is about the dumbest comment any human being could make. I wonder if that moron even understands what the word "allies" means.

"the fact that audiences prefer stories like Rocky..."

He didn't say that, he said "packaged like Rocky" which makes complete sense to me.
Also, the TKTS people had no right to say that, they are there to sell tickets, not to give personal opinions. A standing ovation doesn't mean much, but it definitely means a lot of the people who went to see the show enjoyed it.

It could have been a good show, it should have been in regional theater. My friend brought 10 of her high school students to the show, they loved it and completely related to some of the characters, they also said it was nice to have people that looked like them on the stage. Saul Williams in an exceptionally gifted musician who lives in Paris. I think he will be just fine.

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