Sweeney, Color Purple, Poet and Five Course Love

I figured I would just create a thread to post all of my reviews in. I will try to make them brief as there are other threads on these shows.

Sweeney - 11/16 Matinee - It took me a short while to wrap myself around this revival after seeing the original production with Lansbury. After I did, I found it to be brilliant. I was in the mezz. which I am glad I sat there. Great view of everything. I am not a big LuPone fan, as I have said before. But she won me over. This production, to me, was much darker than the original. The staging was interesting. The lighting was incredible. There is a point in the show where Cerveris is just pacing around the stage and it was a bit annoying. It seemed as if Doyle didn't know what to do with the character. I was not impressed with Donna Lynne Champlin as Pirelli. At this performance, her "accent" was so thick that you could not understand what she was singing during The Contest. Back to Lupone, I think she has a good shot at the Tony. Her take on Mrs. Lovett was offputting at first (I was comparing her to Angela of course) but turned out to be a brilliant take on the character. As was Cerveris' portrayal of Sweeney. He was actually terrifying at points. What struck me the most were the brilliant new arrangements of the music. I was in Heaven. I was so swept away with them that I didn't alway notice that all of the instruments were being played by the actors. (Something I thought would be distracting but wasn't). No applause for either star upon their "entrance". What I found interesting is that the show is done so that there is no room for applause between the musical numbers. At first I was a bit annoyed about this but realized it works in that it keeps you in the story. You have no "break" from it until intermission and the end. Very enthusiastic crowd. You could feel the anticipation in the air before the show began. An aside, I got to briefly chat with a cast member of Spelling Bee at intermission.

Color Purple - 11/16 Evening - Hmmm. Well we all know that it should be a fairly big crowd pleaser. I sat Orchestra, row F seat 13. Four rows from the stage on the right. Any farther over, I would suspect you would miss a lot o the right side of the stage. I felt sorry for the lady in the last seat in the 1st row on the right. She had to be missing a lot. We had Jeannette I. Bayardelle as Nettie. She was very good. As was most of the cast. LaChanze was wonderful as Celie. She lost herself in the character and made Celie real. Vocally she was wonderful. A bit rough around the edges, especially during "I'm Here". But she was wonderful. Elisabeth Withers-Mendes nailed Shug Avery. The Church Ladies were fun as comic "relief". (Relief is in quotes for a reason! I will get to that.)Felicia P. Fields should get a Tony nod for Supporting Actrees as Sofia. She commanded the stage every time she was on it. The only disappointing actor, for me, was Kingsley Leggs as Mister. His big second act number "With These Hands" fell flat. Vocally he was off and there was no real emotion. And this is where the "relief" in quotes comes in. The show should have delivered an emotional punch but failed to do so. It went at such a fast pace (even at 2 hours and 40 minutes) that you didn't really have time to feel for any of the characters. Once you started to feel something, it was on to the next scene. I was however impressed with how they adressed Celie and Shug's lesbian "relationship" head on. This, of course, made some audience members uncomfortable. Noticeably the African American members in my section. (Which is no surprise. Just for the record, I am African American) I thought it was done very well and supplied the only real drama during the show. The choreography was fantastic. However the African Homeland number went on to long and I really thought the cast of Lion King had stepped in to do the number. Also missing, though listed in the playbill, was the Overture. The curtain went up and they went straight into Huckleberry Pie. This show needs an overture. Finally, The reuniting of Nettie and Celie was pretty emotionless. It was so rushed. I hope they work on the pacing of this show. Some really good moments are lost because they fly by too fast. And there are a number of times Mr. Griffin could have slowed things down to tug on our heart strings. I have read reviews here where people have said they cried. Maybe I saw an off performance. Maybe they were a bit tired from the matinee and the Creative Coalition reception. But the show still needs to be tightened up a bit and the pacing should be a bit slower. So with all that said (So much for being brief!) Will the show survive in my opinion? Yup. It will be a crowd pleaser as it has some good music, it already is doing good advance sales and will draw more African Americans to, at least, this show and you won't be able to get the title song out of your head (They make sure of that!). My predictions for Tony awards...LaChanze, Felicia P. Fields and Ms. Withers-Mendez. Also nods for choreography, costumes, sets and score. This review is just my opinion! (If there are typos, forgive me. I am using my friend's laptop. I hate laptops!!)

Touch of the Poet and Five Course Love to come.

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Updated On: 11/17/05 at 11:57 AM

I see him this evening! Wil post tomorrow!

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Great job on the reviews, Uncageg.

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Also for anyone interested in what is for sale at the show (Color Purple)....nice purple mugs (I bought 2) for 12 bucks. T-shirts (I got 1) for 25. There is the book , of course and purple bookmarks. There are a few differnt t-shirts. You have the show name on 1 or two. One says "Hell No!" and on says "Push da Button" which appears to be a baby tee. There are posters and magnets also. They were doing brisk business after the show.

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Updated On: 11/17/05 at 12:41 PM

I will certainly purchase the OBCR the day it is released.

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A Touch of the Poet 11/17 - Let me start by saying that the pace of the show is quicker than I expected. It is listed as running 2 hours and 40 minutes. Last night's performance let out at just about 10:30pm. The story - I walked in knowing nothing of the story except for the synopsis of the show I had read. Suffice it to say, this is a story of a slightly dysfunctional family. This dysfuntion is brought on by the father (Byrne) who is living in the past. We were all in discussion about his past when we left the show. I was sitting in the mezz. and unfortunately with the Irish accents the actors used, some dialouge was lost. But not enough to not understand what was going on. An aside...for the time period that this show takes place, the car horns and subway rumblings under the theatre were a bit of a distraction. At one point during the show as they were waiting for Cornelius Melody (Byrne) to return from his confrontation with the father of the son his daughter Sara (Emily Bergl) was taking care of, a blare of car horns went off and, for me, it was a bit of a clash of time periods. Act one, of course, sets up the action in act 2. I don't want to give too much away as there was a discussion about the battle Cornelius fought in and if he did in fact participate in that battle. But the main "action" has to do with a man we never see that Sara is taking care of and plans to marry. There is a "plot" to get money from the man's family for the marriage that backfires, so to speak, and sets off the action in the second act. However, this is not what the play is really about. As for the performances, they were pretty solid with one exception. That exception was miss Bergl. Her accent constantly slipped in and out. At points she was speaking clearly without an Irish accent and then suddenly it got so thick that you almost could not understand her. Dearbhla Molloy turned in a fine performance as Nora Melody, the wife of Cornelius and Sara's mother. Byron Jennings also turned in a fine performance as Jamie Cregan Cornelius' whom we find out fought in this battle with Cornelius and is also a friend of his. Mr. Byrne, of course, has the most challenging role of all as Cornelius. In my opinion, a fine performance. This character runs a small gammut of emotional changes. He could have played this as a wilder crazier man but it is being played with restraint. This, I am sure, is Doyle's choice and a good one. Although, somewhere in the middle of the second act, his performance did slightly get away from him. A number of people around me noticed that during the curtain call Mr. Byrne did not step forward to receive applause. He walked onstage with the cast, standing slightly behind them, took his bows and was gone. He did not have a very positive look on his face. He seeed rather annoyed and distracted. The first thing out of a number of peoples mouths was that it was evident that he was not happy with his performance. I would say that this stemmed from the second act. The actors also stumbled a bit on their lines. They have until December 11th to tighten this play up. I am sure once this happens, it will be an even better evening at the theatre. In my opinion even though their performances were good, the chemistry between the three leads, (Byrne, Bergl and Molloy) is what needs the most work.

My last show is Five course Love which I see tonight. I will post my thoughts tomorrow before I head back home to Denver tomorrow evening!

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