Sweeney - The First Coming — Page 3

Moxie - you flipped it - <3 is a heart if you tip your head to the side...

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Mrs. F -- thank you for the rational response! I never SAID anyone wasn't a "real" fan. I don't deny their love for the show! All I'm saying is how it affected ME and then everyone took it so personally.

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I believe Sweeney originally opened before ANYONE was ever considering having me, if my parents had even met yet.

In my opinion, if a revival can bring audiences that didn't have the option of seeing the original for whatever reason, then that is a beautiful thing. So is the idea that two different generations can appreciate the same show completely differently, or that one generation can appreciate two different incarnations of a show in different ways. Theatre is a fluid medium, and the types of reactions people have will constantly change.

Though I was familiar with the show beforehand, and have always loved Sondheim, I feel extremely lucky to have been able to see this production.

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Am I allowed to like Sweeney now?

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Updated On: 8/2/06 at 12:12 AM

This is the same immature elitism that ends up with "My friend saw Kristin in a movie and im'ed me about it but SPELLED HER NAME WITH AN E!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW STUPID SHE IS??? Anyway, I liked Kristin all the way back when she was in that Charlie Brown show, so what does she even know?"

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Okay, I guess I don't fail to see it. I just can't comprehend why someone would allow it to happen.

If I like it, I like it. If you think less of me for liking it, then so be it.

::resumes listening to J.C. Chasez's "Blowin Me Up With Her Love"::

Updated On: 8/2/06 at 12:18 AM

I do understand feeling protective of something that you've loved, but I think that you're just letting the annoying fans (and yes, there are undeniably some of them, as there are with ANY show) get to you unnecessarily. They're still supporting the show you love. It's elitist to judge people by the way that they became interested in a show, particularly if as a result they put in the effort to find out about it and appreciate it as a whole. I just feel that, and this is possibly me interpreting some of what you said differently than intended, you're not leaving much room for the possibility that someone can end up a true fan of a show that they might have been initially interested in for reasons that you deem unworthy.

Edited to add: So anyway, although I disagree with jasonf's sentiments, I think that a modicum of self-awareness is helpful. There's no point in pretending otherwise if your primary motivation for seeing a show is a specific actor (which, honestly, I don't think happens that often in the case of Sweeney). Do I love Company? Yes. Would I have traveled to Cincinnati to see a regional productionn, even one Doyle-directed, if Raul Esparza hadn't been playing the lead? Well, no. I'm fine with admitting that. But I would never have made the trip if I didn't think he was a brilliant actor who'd do great things with that part; I would not have made such an effort for a shallow fangirl crush, which I think is kind of the default asssumption given my age group. People see shows for specific performers all the time, but apparently if you're a teenaged or twentysomething girl, it's not possible to truly admire an actor that you also find attractive. Still, there's no point in pretending that Raul wasn't a big part of the reason I saw it -- and that's where I think that some people get into trouble. Does all of that mean that there's no way that I can possibly have appreciated the show? I'd hate to think so.

Updated On: 8/2/06 at 12:20 AM

I did? Or did I write a column about how I was inspired by the crushing, posted it here, and was effectively deemed a condescending witch?

What I've condemned over and over again is the obsessive and unhealthy behavior that some (some. SOME. Like, two) of the Mano fans have exhibited. Sorry...getting PM's calling me a whore because I wrote someone and told them how much I was irked by another poster? Disturbing. Having some of the Mano fans swarm my blog with their rants because they got bent that I posted a comment on Mano's blog? Crazy.

Getting an "anonymous" rant on my blog from someone posing as a friend of Mano's who was actually a poster here who barely knows him other than when she talks to him at the stage door? Disturbing.

Then getting 9 paragraph e-mails from that person who goes on to ramble about how if people here knew how close she was with Mano they'd think she's lying or would be jealous of her while saying over and over again that "she knew him first?"

Having posters then go on to write things about my sex life and my personal life on forum boards? Crazy.

Please. I have said so many times I think the crushing is great. It's the hostile, f----- up behavior that comes with it that I've complained about.

Updated On: 8/2/06 at 12:34 AM

I saw the original cast. Didn't love it, to tell the truth. Sweeney has never been my favorite Sondheim score, never will be. I didn't like it what so ever before the revival, but this new cast really made me love it (and yes, I've seen it six times).

Kids like Wicked, yep, and that's pop. Here's a big, beautiful, SONDHEIM (for god's sake) piece of musical theater that some kids love. You're complaining about this? My thirteen year old niece, as a matter of fact, who I took to see Sweeney, is becoming a Sondheim buff. I think that says something. 'Sweeneyboppers', as you call them (I have to say, nice word), are usually younger theatergoes with an eye for good music.

I don't like how cynical people are on this board (and you all say - "WELL THEN GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!"), but let it go. Young people are getting into good theater. What a horrible, horrible thing!!!

Exactly siamese dream. And who says the originals are always the best? Lansbury was brilliant as Lovett (and I do like her better than Lupone on the cast recordings), but sometimes people can come in. You become slightly brainwashed by a love of one cast/person or another, but the original isn't always the best.

I agree, sd. We're VERY lucky that a filmed version of the original production of Sweeney Todd exists, but the same isn't true of other shows. If I wasn't alive to have seen the original "South Pacific", or "Company", does that mean I can't appreciate, understand or even love a revival? Even a conceptual revival as the one Doyle thought up? No. It's elitist to assume an attitude that anyone unfamiliar with the original is somehow less "worthy", or unable to fully understand a conceptual revival of a certain piece.

Yes, there are a number of obnoxious fans, and it's too bad that they have "ruined it" for others. That shouldn't detract from appreciating the work in itself, which is, I truly believe, a brilliant achievement in theater.

I never saw Company onstage, though I have listened to the OBC recording many times. That's not going to stop me from seeing Doyle's revival. And if I fall in love with it (as I suspect I shall) I don't see why I wouldn't be "entitled" to voice my thoughts on it.

If the cute cast brings younger people to theater (and that goes for any show), it's ultimately not a bad thing.

So what I'm getting from this thread is that one of the possible reasons people like this production is because the cast is hot? This cast? Oh, well. Chacun à son goût, I guess.

Just joking. Kind of.

Anyway, I want to say that anyone who didn't see the original production live at the Uris can't know what the production was like, or at least can't know from the DVD of the national tour. It does not accurately represent what the original production was like on Broadway. Ain't nothin' darker about the current production.

Also, there was an actress named Marjorie Rambeau who was in a lot of movies and also did some Broadway. She was very good. And there was a poet named Arthur Rimbaud. And there was a philosopher named Friedrich Nietzsche. The spelling of his name is particularly confusing.