Site-specific musicals?
Site-specific musicals?
aces25
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/13/04
#1Site-specific musicals?
Posted: 9/16/15 at 5:18pm
Where have you seen some good examples of musicals being designed in a site-specific space?
#2Site-specific musicals?
Posted: 9/16/15 at 6:48pm
Due to audio requirements, its harder to do a site specific musical vs. a play. So they are usually rare.
Though not a musical in the traditional sense, The Donkey Show at ART makes great use of the club space at their Oberon venue. The actors are singing along to tracks of disco hits (which helps with sound issues/being able to hear everything). The direction is quite smart in the way it utilizes the setting and naturally moves the audience around the space.
They tried another musical in that venue, Prometheus Bound, which...wasn't great. Though Uzo Aduba had a killer song and Gavin Creel was there in his shirtless glory. Could barely understand many of the songs though, especially ensemble numbers. And some confusing directing/storytelling choices turned a straightforward story into something incomprehensible.
I saw an incredible version of The Threepenny Opera in Chciago, done by The Hypocrites. They used the garage space at Steppenwolf, which of course has been re-purposed for theatre. But it fits the site specific bill since its the bottom level of a parking garage and a very unconventional space. The score was performed with a sole piano in the center of the space, seating all around the edges and around two giant wooden tables (which performers frequently performed on top of. The stomps and claps in the choreography took the place of the other instruments in the orchestrations. It was pretty awesome.
Those are the only musicals I can think of off the top of my head. Any other site specific work has been plays. Which seem more easily transferred into unconventional spaces.
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#3Site-specific musicals?
Posted: 9/16/15 at 6:52pm
Prometheus Bound had everything going against it. It was an original musical directed by Diane Paulus. There was simply no way for it to succeed.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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#4Site-specific musicals?
Posted: 9/16/15 at 7:01pm
It was a bit of a mess. I left thinking "I think I'm fairly intelligent, and I know this myth is fairly straightforward....and yet I have zero clue as to what just happened". But Gavin DID rub his shirtless body against mine, so all was not lost. And lets be real...thats essentially what I (everyone) was there for anyway.
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#5Site-specific musicals?
Posted: 9/16/15 at 7:12pm
That's our Diane for you!
Twitter @NamoInExile
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#6Site-specific musicals?
Posted: 9/16/15 at 7:15pm
I didn't see Murder Ballad downtown, but I did catch it at Studio Theatre in Washington DC earlier this year -- I really didn't realize that bar was built for the show until my friend (a DC theatre regular) told me. Great use of the space. I could see it being done in an actual bar, though I guess the logistics would be a pain.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#7Site-specific musicals?
Posted: 9/16/15 at 11:30pm
I saw a MASSIVE scale, Sleep No More style musical titled Brantwood that was an immersive, site specific, promenade piece of theatre. It took place in a high school... We actually had to put on grad gowns and take a 15 minute bus ride to the high school. We were all cast as alumni coming back for a big reunion for the school's 100th anniversary.
When we got there, we congregated in the gym for a ceremony. Part of that ceremony was to open a time capsule buried 100 years ago. When the capsule got opened, the ghosts of the students throughout the school's history appeared and sang to us, then running off around the school. We then had three hours to go wherever we wanted in the school and watch scenes play out. It had everything from Nazi students in the 1940s to an undercover drug op involving faculty in the 1970s.
There were dozens of terrific and period specific songs written for the show, which added to an impressive 15 hours of material. The show was so huge that it was only possible to see a maximum of 20% of what there was to see. One of the coolest theatre experiences I've ever had.
Phantom4ever
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/17/07
#8Site-specific musicals?
Posted: 9/17/15 at 12:42pm
The part in Hedwig where he opens the door at the back wall of the stage and you hear the roar of a crowd and he says an it's Times Square is site-specific. If (when?) the show tours, they can just say that The Hurt Locker musical was just cancelled at each specific tour stop of the show. And so the show will still be taking place and set in the actual theater. However, that concept would get muddied when Hedwig has to acknowledge that he is in New York, not, Bumbleweed, IA, or wherever the tour is. Or perhaps he can open the door and say that it's just downtown Bumblweed that's making all that noise.
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