#1
Posted: 12/31/14 at 4:47pm
So, I want to start by saying I have absolutely no familiarity with the original production of Side Show and went into this production without that context, which I'm sure affected my perception of the show. I also searched and couldn't find a general thread for reviews, so if there is one, please point me there and feel free to delete this post. Honestly, I never really write reviews of shows but I was so confused by all the cult love for this one and would be interested to hear from others.
I honestly, genuinely have never been so frustrated by a show in my life. The story is inherently interesting and full of incredible opportunity for the musical treatment and there seems to be no team less qualified to do the job than Bill Russell and Henry Krieger. The lyrics were so bad, I had secondhand embarrassment during a lot of the songs. There's so much material for storytelling in the setting of the Side Show and then on the vaudeville circuit and no shortage of interesting imagery and unique emotions to be portrayed and instead the show is full of platitudes, vague descriptions, and everything sounded like a cookie-cutter 80s ballad or pastiche number we've heard a thousand times before. I couldn't hum you anything but "Come Look at the Freaks" and the maybe a bit of the chorus of "I Will Never Leave You". I couldn't help but wonder what the story would've looked like in the hands of someone like Larry O'Keefe (Bat Boy feels like it would be a good direction for this, stylistically) or Jeanine Tesori.
The first act felt overlong even though it isn't in terms of time because, to my mind, the entire first 40 minutes could've been condensed to about 15 or so onstage. Why do we need that much lead up to them leaving the Side Show? It felt like that was just the beginning of their story and then there were so many events and plot points crammed into the second act and not given room to breathe, I was baffled as to why things weren't condensed/shuffled around a bit. The scene where the wedding is called off and on and off and on never felt authentic to me and I wasn't interested or "sold" at all on the relationship between Terry and Daisy. The "gay" revelation about Buddy also felt forced to me. I also wanted something more, deeper, in the conversation between Jake and Violet when she rejects him.
"Come Look at the Freaks" made me feel optimistic since I thought the costuming was very interesting and again, that the setting itself had a lot of promise for a fascinating story to be told, but I kept waiting for the story to get going. I did very much enjoy the number where the girls described their backstory and would've enjoyed hearing the twins voices, individually, more than giving more and more songs to Terry.
Honestly, most of the performances fell flat for me, save for Erin Davie. I loved her and found her portrayal of Violet incredibly moving and I'm still thinking about it today. I really hope she does something else soon and it lasts a little longer than this. Emily Padgett was also good, I had no complaints about her performance, but she just didn't connect emotionally for me the way that Erin did. I was mostly frustrated because this is a show and a story that, in the right hands, could be told so well and be so riveting onstage, and instead it was given this bland, lackluster production that doesn't do any justice to the gritty, dark, underbelly of the business these "freaks" were trapped in.
Was the original vastly superior to this or was there something about it that stirred up so much fondness among fans clamoring for a revival or for the show to have another shot? Because without any nostalgia for the piece, I can't say I was impressed and wasn't really sure what to make of the affection many people have for it. The audience around me seemed pretty split, some younger folk were wildly applauding and cheering after every number, especially "Who Will Love Me As I Am?" and as I was exiting, heard many comments about being confused and a few people calling it awful. Clearly, the show is pretty polarizing and I guess I fell on the negative end of the spectrum. Whew, that was a novel, sorry everybody!
I honestly, genuinely have never been so frustrated by a show in my life. The story is inherently interesting and full of incredible opportunity for the musical treatment and there seems to be no team less qualified to do the job than Bill Russell and Henry Krieger. The lyrics were so bad, I had secondhand embarrassment during a lot of the songs. There's so much material for storytelling in the setting of the Side Show and then on the vaudeville circuit and no shortage of interesting imagery and unique emotions to be portrayed and instead the show is full of platitudes, vague descriptions, and everything sounded like a cookie-cutter 80s ballad or pastiche number we've heard a thousand times before. I couldn't hum you anything but "Come Look at the Freaks" and the maybe a bit of the chorus of "I Will Never Leave You". I couldn't help but wonder what the story would've looked like in the hands of someone like Larry O'Keefe (Bat Boy feels like it would be a good direction for this, stylistically) or Jeanine Tesori.
The first act felt overlong even though it isn't in terms of time because, to my mind, the entire first 40 minutes could've been condensed to about 15 or so onstage. Why do we need that much lead up to them leaving the Side Show? It felt like that was just the beginning of their story and then there were so many events and plot points crammed into the second act and not given room to breathe, I was baffled as to why things weren't condensed/shuffled around a bit. The scene where the wedding is called off and on and off and on never felt authentic to me and I wasn't interested or "sold" at all on the relationship between Terry and Daisy. The "gay" revelation about Buddy also felt forced to me. I also wanted something more, deeper, in the conversation between Jake and Violet when she rejects him.
"Come Look at the Freaks" made me feel optimistic since I thought the costuming was very interesting and again, that the setting itself had a lot of promise for a fascinating story to be told, but I kept waiting for the story to get going. I did very much enjoy the number where the girls described their backstory and would've enjoyed hearing the twins voices, individually, more than giving more and more songs to Terry.
Honestly, most of the performances fell flat for me, save for Erin Davie. I loved her and found her portrayal of Violet incredibly moving and I'm still thinking about it today. I really hope she does something else soon and it lasts a little longer than this. Emily Padgett was also good, I had no complaints about her performance, but she just didn't connect emotionally for me the way that Erin did. I was mostly frustrated because this is a show and a story that, in the right hands, could be told so well and be so riveting onstage, and instead it was given this bland, lackluster production that doesn't do any justice to the gritty, dark, underbelly of the business these "freaks" were trapped in.
Was the original vastly superior to this or was there something about it that stirred up so much fondness among fans clamoring for a revival or for the show to have another shot? Because without any nostalgia for the piece, I can't say I was impressed and wasn't really sure what to make of the affection many people have for it. The audience around me seemed pretty split, some younger folk were wildly applauding and cheering after every number, especially "Who Will Love Me As I Am?" and as I was exiting, heard many comments about being confused and a few people calling it awful. Clearly, the show is pretty polarizing and I guess I fell on the negative end of the spectrum. Whew, that was a novel, sorry everybody!
