Silence - the musical - a review

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 8:24am

I saw Silence (March because I won the tickets from StageGrade.com I did see the movie years ago and was familiar with the CD. I was only able to get through that one time and promised myself I would delete it from my iPhone the next time I plug my phone into my computer. The music and lyrics are childish and inconsistent. The songs that are good and somewhat memorable are also not something you are going to play unless you have your earbuds in your ears. Profanity, and I mean a generous dose, abounds in this show.

When I first entered the theater I knew it was going to be a touching night. Oh, I didn't mean the show...although there is plenty of leg room the actual chairs are so close together that everyone's arms actually overlap! Therefore, if you are a POS (Person of Size), as the airlines call it, then you are certainly going to NEED two seats!

I was not initially impressed with what I saw when I sat down. The audience looks down to the floor from what feels like bleachers. Once the show started my feelings changed and I was very surprised at how successful the choreography and staging was for this show. I will note though that anytime a joke is performed several times it completely loses it. For me this was the over the head spread eagle leg lift about 10 plus times in the same song to play on the SAME joke.

Jenn Harris (Clarice) IS the primary reason to see this show. She is hysterically clever. She maintains character throughout the entire performance and she rarely gets boring to watch. The one moment I found stupid was her 2 or 3 minute screaming phone session where she used "Fu@k" as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc She must have said it 100 times in this one scene. The audience laughed but for me it was tiring and not clever.

David Garrison (Hannibal Lecter) filled the role but was not a stand out performance for me.

Stephen Bienskie (Buffalo Bill) was perfectly creepy and gave a great performance. His big song was fantastic and I think I got the biggest laugh from him.

Another knock-out performance was the incredibly underutilized Deidre Goodwin. If you've seen Chicago the movie you have seen this classy woman. When she came out towards the end of the show and belted out her song it left me wishing she had a bigger role!

Overall, I enjoyed the show. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. If parody and childish humor is your schtick then you most definitely should go to this show. If you are a big fan of the original movie then again this is for you. For me it wasn't the best nor the worst I've ever seen.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 9:39am

Your review could have used a bit more snark.....

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 10:19am

The ads for it on Cable have totally turned me off from wanting to see this.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 10:46pm

I think I need to see this. I'm happy it's still running.

[THDavis]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 11:34pm

It's mindless fun. If you're able to let loose, sit back, and just enjoy something, this show can be a lot of fun. If you're looking for a piece with more "meat", so to speak, this wouldn't be the show for you.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 3/10/12 at 12:12am

I would disagree with Brian's review almost entirely, except that I agree Goodwin was fantastic and vastly under-rated. Her 11 o'clock number was sheer brilliance (and very hot). I also agree some of the jokes were beaten to death - and there Brian and I part company.

I loved Garrison (though I wouldn't call myself a fan), and probably would not have seen this without him. I thought he was subtle and sly, underplaying his role, the perfect villain. He was an excellent counterpoint to the over the top Jenn Harris, whose antics annoyed me nearly beyond bearing. She's a fine actress as a rule, but she's just too much here, and her corpsing with her colleagues (a practice that I've despised since the days of Carol Burnette) seemed forced, and probably happens nightly.

I think it's more properly defined as crass and lowbrow than childish, for it does have its clever and intelligent moments. It wasn't my cuppa, but I certainly laughed out loud at much of it, especially the pas de deux that Brian found repetitive (it was, but I thought it was a riot paired with the profane ballad that accompanied it, especially as sung by Garrison).

THDavis pretty much said it right. Mindless, silly, fun, profane fluff.

Also, I may not be a Person of Size, but I'm not a tiny thing, and I wasn't uncomfortable in the least.







Updated On: 3/10/12 at 12:12 AM