Stephen Flaherty's Gertrude Stein Musical

To my knowledge, this was another show that premiered at Northwestern University. At that time it was called "A Long Gay Book," so I don't know if "Loving Repeating" is a newer or older version.

I saw it about three years ago and was not impressed. It was what they called a "chamber musical." Maybe it was Gertrude Stein's strange writings that turned me off, but for whatever reason I did not enjoy it. There wasn't really a plot, though I think that was semi-intentional. Only a very thin account of Stein's relationship with Alice B. Toklas. A lot of metaphors that I think you only get if you are very familiar with her work.

Frank Galati is a professor at NU so he often uses the theatre dept to premiere his new stuff. Stephen was around quite a bit when the show went up, so it was pretty exciting to see him on a regular basis. Haven't heard anything about the show since then, though.

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It's true that Galati and Flaherty make a good team, and I wouldn't outright discourage checking it out, especially since my personal opinion is nowhere near the be-all end-all of what is good theatre. Also, as I said, I am not very familiar with Gertrude Stein's work, so maybe that was part of the problem (though I wasn't too impressed with the music either).

They've likely made some big changes to it, though. So if it's something that you think you might enjoy, then by all means go for it. There were certainly people who enjoyed the NU production, though not too many.

If you do go see it, be sure to report back here. I'd love to know what you thought of it and what changes have been made.

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Stupefyin' Jones
Dogpatch, USA