Side Show on Broadway

#1

Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 7:40pm

I've seen *ahem* footage of the original production of Side Show on Broadway and I was wondering what people who SAW it thought. I know the musical is good, but the staging seems weird.

Whenever they sing or speak to each other, the Hilton sisters sing or speak directly forward over the audience. I would think they would look at each other sometimes. They also don't move very much. It just seems...boring. Was it?

#2

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 7:43pm

NOT AT ALL!
I mean THINK about it....don't you get a little annoyed when you have to keep looking over your shoulder or turning around to talk to someone....eventually it catches up with you. It worked I think, and it was a very intense show...never boring. Really beautiful.

#3

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 7:47pm

Good to hear. I figured they wouldn't want to look over their shoulders the entire time.

I wish I saw it!

#4

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 7:50pm

Oh wait, upon further review I have now seen them looking at each other. It's official.

#5

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 8:02pm

i think i must be the only person here who disslikes Side Show... oy...

sorry, little threadjack there.

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"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed

#6

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 8:15pm

How dare you.

#7

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 8:24pm

i saw it! i got the album! i tried to enjoy it! i really did. but, i realized that i had to face the truth.

the music was normal, the lyrics bland, the book bit.

the only good features were the cast and the physical production

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"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed

#8

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 8:54pm

Side Show, in spite of all it's flaws, is very easy to get wrapped up in. I recently saw a production that was pretty bad but I still was engaged and interested.

#9

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 9:00pm

I think I'm the only one who thinks Side Show has some really clever and beautiful lyrics...

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#10

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 9:04pm

I haven't seen Side Show at all...on Broadway or in any other venue...but I absolutely loved the music...except for the first song...somber and boring...every other song...superb!!!! Incredible!!!! Fabulous!!!!

#11

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 9:05pm

You Should Be Loved is probably one of my all time top ten favorite songs. Otherwise, it's got some other good songs in the show, but not GREAT.

I saw it with Alice Ripley and Lauren Kennedy I think filling in for Emily Skinner. I really enjoyed it when I saw it...

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#12

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 9:16pm

I saw the original production and thought it was horrible. It reduced their lives to soap opera. Will he love me? Can he love me? blah, blah,blah. A musical about Siamese twins and that's the best they could do. If it were Sondheim they'd probably have a song about getting dressed.Or any of the one million things you'd wonder how Siamese twins handle. The score was mediocre except for a song the wonderful Norm Lewis did called The Devil You Know and the vaudville number We Do Everything Together.But otherwise, what a bore.

#13

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 9:53pm

I think the lyrics are awful (with a few exceptions) but I thought the book was awesome and it's seriously the most addictive music ever.

#14

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 10:07pm

I saw it twice on Broadway...first during previews, then again, during it's last week. I saw both Alice and Emily both times, and it is one of my all time favorite show memories.

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#15

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 10:08pm

I saw it on Broadway pretty shortly before it closed. Call it a guilty pleasure, but I loved it. Flaws and all, the intimacy and emotion of the Broadway show was fabulous. I've never seen Alice Ripley hurl herself into a role like she did Violet. Sadly, Lauren Kennedy couldn't match Emily's distinctiveness.

#16

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/14/06 at 11:55pm

I really like "private conversation" but nothing else in the score really does much for me. Oh, i like the way the show opens too. Kinda like Taboo.

#17

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 12:08am

I saw the OBC. Some friends and I tried to get tickets for something I can't remember anymore but couldn't, so we saw Side Show instead. I thought it was great, though I can appreciate most of the criticisms believe have with it. My only regret is that I didn't see it again before it closed.

"Tunnel of Love" is a number that stands out in my memory.

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Updated On: 3/15/06 at 12:08 AM

#18

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 12:14am

Tunnel Of Love was a Great number
when the Roustabouts took off their shirts
and Ripley sang "Where Is MINE"???
The music is hit and miss but when it does hit it is wonderful!

#19

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 12:27am

well, keatonbynumbers, I guess thats what life is all about....disagreement.

I LOVE Side Show lyrics-

Feeling's You have got to hide is BRILLIANT.

#20

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 6:26am

I saw the show 6 times (yes, I was kinda obsessed with it) and every time it was magnificent. Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner gave two of the most incredible performances I have ever seen. I think some of the music is among the best I've heard for the musical theatre in a long while: "You Should Be Loved", "Private Conversation", etc...all gut-wrenching and beautiful tunes.

I would give anything to see it live one more time with the original cast.

#21

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 6:58am

I saw Side Show shortly after it opened and it was amazing, though the book did have it's problems. The staging at times did seem rather plain and unimaginative (The Hiltons always stage center with Buddy and Terry perpetually stage left and right respectivally) but in the theatre you often got tied up in Emily and Alice and they made you look past the blocking.

But for all it's flaws it remains one of the only pop-theatre scores that I enjoy (perhaps that's because Emily and Alice continued to act while riffing - as opposed to belting at the top of their lungs with glazed over eyes).

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#22

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 7:07am

I saw it and disliked it greatly. In retrospect, I think it was the production that turned me off, not the score or book. It was very drab and bare bones. Normally, I appreciate the "less-is-more" aesthetic. But in this case, it just screamed out to be garish and Tim Burton-esque. It needed that tacky sideshow glamour and instead it had this patina of self-important art.

Great cast, though.

TT

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#23

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 12:07pm

I didn't think I would like Side Show but I had the CD forever and I didn't listen to it that much. But when I started doing the show I warmed up to it.

We're doing the show here at UM in Alabama.

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#24

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 12:13pm

I saw it primarily because an old friend, Ken Jennings, was in it; I had mixed reactions, although the performances were excellent. The bare-bones staging was going for a kind of Brechtian-alienation effect that was often at odds with the rather sentimental lyrics. I thought "Come Look at the Freaks" set the right tone, but the show did not sustain it.

Updated On: 3/15/06 at 12:13 PM

#25

re: Side Show on Broadway

Posted: 3/15/06 at 12:16pm

i saw it at GSA here in the UK and have been a fan of the recording for a very very long time

the music is beautiful, and its lyrics tell a gorgeous story...

well i like it!! alot!

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