Posted: 9/16/16 at 1:28am
Haven't seen this, but I hate the notion that audiences today won't comprehend or be interested in things that aren't modern. Like, WTF. So if Chekov references snapchat, then suddenly we'll be all about it? Like, c'mon. Look at the success of King and I or South Pacific, etc. They didn't change a word of it, and it was a smashing success. We're all smarter than that.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 2:57am
I was disappointed that this will production will close before my trip, but perhaps that's for the best. What a bummer though - the production sounded marvelous on paper. Hopefully things will tighten up during previews.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 3:01am
Roundabout is really off to a bad start this season...
Updated On: 9/16/16 at 03:01 AM
Posted: 9/16/16 at 4:11am
In NY1 On Stage's coverage of The Cherry Orchard during their Fall Season Preview, David Cote mentioned that Roundabout hasn't had a great track record when it comes to Chekhov.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 4:32am
¿Macavity? said: "Roundabout is really off to a bad start this season...
"
Last year they weren't off to a good start either - Thérese Raquin and Old Times didn't exactly inspire critical praise.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 7:32am
I'm still scratching my head over the experience of seeing this last night. It was one of the worst theater experiences I've had.
The source material and the new adaption do not gel. The adaption does not enhance the play, it distracts from it. As mentioned by Whizzer and Sauja, the direction was all over place.
This felt like a preview. I don't believe they were ready to go up. It simply didn't feel like the majority of the cast were comfortable up there.
I was hard pressed to find one character who was likable.
The previous comments regarding Lane from Sauja and Cooper echoing Jackie Hoffman from Dave1606 are pinpoint perfect. I also found John Glover exhausting. Perrineau really seemed to be having trouble with his lines in the first act.
The 2.5 hour runtime felt like 6.
There were quite a number of empty seats at the start of the second act. Scanning the crowd that stayed, I also observed more than a few people closing their eyes and napping.
The drag racing taking place on 43rd street didn't help the situation. It could be heard in the first act but became ridiculous in the second act, especially during the last 30 minutes. At first, some thought it was a sound effect designed by the production. It was a true distraction.
I hope the cast and play find better footing during the preview period.
Updated On: 9/16/16 at 07:32 AM
Posted: 9/16/16 at 7:45am
Thank you so much to everyone (except After Eight) for weighing in with your impressions here. I’m in the process of trimming a 10-show list down to a 3-show list, and these reviews have made chopping this one easy.
Updated On: 9/16/16 at 07:45 AM
Posted: 9/16/16 at 7:56am
Sunset- was that drag racing? I couldn't figure out if it was a sound effect or coming from outside. For a while I thought it was the sound of chainsaws in the orchard. Maybe you were just thinking about how much you were missing Drag Race by being at the show last night! :)
Posted: 9/16/16 at 8:29am
"It was one of the worst theater experiences I've had."
That's how I felt about the adaptor's two previous opuses. He's really on a tear.
"The drag racing taking place on 43rd street didn't help the situation. It could be heard in the first act but became ridiculous in the second act, especially during the last 30 minutes. At first, some thought it was a sound effect designed by the production."
I thought it was part of the production, as well. An ominous presence, as it were. Of course, the production itself was an ominous presence, as it was!
And so now they allow drag racing on 43rd Street?
Updated On: 9/16/16 at 08:29 AM
Posted: 9/16/16 at 8:30am
As I've given up on seeing a good production of Chekhov in New York, I have no plans to see this, particularly after the Roundabout's fiasco of a Three Sisters back in 97. (I did enjoy the all-star Seagull in the park years ago, but I enjoyed it the way one enjoys a three ring circus where the tent collapses during the last act.)
The major problem with Americans doing Chekhov is that they seem to believe, oddly, that late 19th Century Russia was, except for clothes and furniture, exactly like contemporary America - or rather, that these plays are "timeless." One can argue that there are things that these people care about that we still care about today - love, power, money, reputation. But the manner in which they cared, and they way they lived with these cares, was radically different. Chekhov was writing about a time and a race that were exceptionally different from us.
Unfortunately, this approach to Chekhov is necessary, because most audiences have little to no interest in seeing a world different from the little one they inhabit, and "history" is just uncool.
Regarding the use of "translation" for Karam's approach to this, clearly the word choice is wrong. If phrases like "lipstick on a pig" are being interpolated, this is an "adaptation" - that is, someone else's version of Chekhov's play (which translations all end up being anyway).
Updated On: 9/16/16 at 08:30 AM
Posted: 9/16/16 at 8:34am
Regarding the "drag racing" mentioned above - Chekhov's own stage directions note that the audience hears the orchard being cut down throughout the last act. Although I do doubt that chain saws were intended.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 8:50am
newintown said: "Regarding the use of "translation" for Karam's approach to this, clearly the word choice is wrong. If phrases like "lipstick on a pig" are being interpolated, this is an "adaptation" - that is, someone else's version of Chekhov's play (which translations all end up being anyway)."
Roundabout IS billing it as an adaptation.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 8:57am
WhizzerMarvin said: "Sunset- was that drag racing? I couldn't figure out if it was a sound effect or coming from outside. For a while I thought it was the sound of chainsaws in the orchard. Maybe you were just thinking about how much you were missing Drag Race by being at the show last night! :) "
HA! Whizzer, you figured it out:)
I exited on 43rd street and saw three motorcycles revving their engines as they went down the block...Apparently it was a combination of both...There were sound effects used for cutting down the orchard but they were "enhanced" by the street noise...
I was sitting in row L, right center aisle and I could barely hear Diane Lane for the last 20-30 minutes...
Posted: 9/16/16 at 9:27am
I think there were only one or two brief uses of the chainsaw sound effect, but it's hard to say given the distractions from outside. I was right against the 43rd street side of the theater and can say with some certainty that 99% of the noise was coming from the motorcycles outside. Exiting the theater, the smell of burned rubber was in the air. It certainly didn't help the production that there was so much distraction from outside, but...greater issues were the real downfall.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 9:36am
Seeing this tomorrow afternoon....trying to remain hopeful!
Posted: 9/16/16 at 11:27am
It was curious re: the chainsaw effect as chainsaws weren't around at the time, but knowing the "chopping" sound effect was supposed to take place then I just assumed the noises were a bizarre choice by the director.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 11:27am
I'm seeing this in a few weeks... I was hoping that Karam could give a nice adaptation of the material, the way Annie Baker did with Uncle Vanya.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 12:43pm
I'm seeing it Tuesday - I'm re-reading my copy of the original play (translated, of course) and I'm saddened at the reports. However, I'm still (tentatively) looking forward to it.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 12:56pm
There's nothing wrong with adaptation per se. It can be good or bad. Lipstick on a pig? Hmm? Does Karam want the audience to think about McCain, Obama and Palin?
Strongly disagree with Newintown that the typical problem with Americans, or Brits for that matter, and Chekhov is that we treat him as of today or timeless. Rather, these plays are almost always botched in the English speaking theatre by a misplaced dry reverence and a lack of humor and soul that Chekhov certainly never intended. If anything, I would think this affected style is a misguided effort to portray a false Chekhovian world, thick with a past we are wrongly conditioned to believe his work represents. This effort hardly rejects the historic. It just gets it wrong.
Updated On: 9/16/16 at 12:56 PM
Posted: 9/16/16 at 1:05pm
I just consulted my copy of the Mamet adaptation. His line is "perfume on a pig." Stoppard used "like a pig in a parlor". So Karam's "lipstick on a pig" is not that far afield.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 1:11pm
Sad to hear this from many people I respect. Oh well. Hope it improves a little bit by the end of the month.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 1:42pm
Saw this production last night. Sadly, I must agree with the naysayers. The direction was all over the place. For me, Glover was the standout as he was about the only actor who elocuted perfectly and maintained a vibrant sense of character. And what the heck was going on with the costuming in Act II? Those who walked out during intermission (including my daughter) missed a WTF discussion on that point. I willed myself to stay awake, but I think my time would have been better spent catching a few z's, as did some of those sitting around me. So disappointing.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 1:44pm
I remember taking a class in undergrad where we read The Cherry Orchard. My professor said that too many productions of The Cherry Orchard, and other productions of Chekhov's works, focus on loss and thus the tone is always on sadness. They almost never get the humor or full-faceted humanity right.
Posted: 9/16/16 at 1:48pm
^ Yes, I had several professors say that. I believe Cherry Orchard is supposed to be a comedy, according to Chekhov.
Posted: 9/17/16 at 1:38am
What in the world is Roundabout thinking? This may not be the worst thing I've ever seen, but it is certainly the worst production of Chekhov, I have ever seen (and I walked out of the Cate Blanchett, Uncle Vanya travesty).
I agree that Whizzer is being way too generous. My companion leaned over and whispered to me "am I missing the funny?" I replied, "No, they are."
I love Diane Lane and most of the cast I've seen before and enjoyed, but their direction was as though they all rehearsed separately, with different directors and, met for the first time, on stage. A true waste of talented actors.
The lighting is just annoying and sometimes, noticeably weird.
Those costumes (especially the party scene). Did they raid a thrift shop garbage can? They are ugly and make no sense, irrespective of how "modern" they think this version is.
Chainsaws, running shoes, velcro and other fun anachronisms, litter this mess and make it, at times, laughable.
And, that brings me to the root of the problem. Stephen Karam, is almost totally to blame. The cast can't perform his adaption and the director has nothing to direct, because he gives them nothing to work with. At times, it seemed as though the cast simply learned the lines and recited them, with no depth or meaning (except Tavi Gevinson, about whom, the less said, the better). I agree that John Glover was about the only one who squeaked out a character. At one point, I was thinking I would have preferred a version in Russian with subtitles.
After the boredom of Holiday Inn, this wasn't so much boring as it was, dreadful. Roundabout is not off to an auspicious start, this season. I hope it gets better from here.
