The Beautiful Game — Page 2

Really?

Its a horrible, horrible score with a pretty insipid book. Even Manoel Feliciano (original washington company) agreed with that and he was in it

Seriously I have seen the WE and the cheap UK tours...not a good prospect. There is a much better version of the story but ALW bought up the rights I believe. The National Youth Theatre did a completely different version the year before and it met with resounding critical success....sadly money talks and Webber made sure his version made it to London.

I saw this show twice and enjoyed it for what it was.

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I loved that scene. All the men were standing across the stage putting their pants on and getting ready to go celebrate. So cute!

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On the subject of Whistle Down the Wind, I have only ever experienced the show through the London Cast Recording (which you can't really call an "experience") and clips of a video bootleg. Other than that...

It was almost there. There's still a few things they need to work on. I have been a fan of Jim Steinman and his music since the age of five. But I do agree that Whistle Down the Wind needs work.

It's the book's fault, IMO. It's the way the story is executed. Aside from "Unsettled Scores", one of the most pointless songs I've ever heard, it's some of Steinman's most clever lyrics in years. I wish he would do more musicals. "A Kiss is a Terrible Thing to Waste", for me, beats out anything in Phantom. It's IMO the best song Andrew Lloyd Webber ever composed. Whistle Down the Wind, No Matter What, Try not to be Afraid, The Nature of the Beast: all haunting and stirring songs. Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts, Cold, Vaults of Heaven, Wrestle With the Devil: inspirational and uplifting. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman working together is an explosive combination: two of the 20th century's mad geniuses, and most oddly successful.

But I do feel, where everything else lacks, that the score and lyrics are very powerful IMO. It still needs work...

I haven't seen Beautiful Game, and I don't know a lot about it: but what are the conflicting worlds? Like, in Joseph, we have the Twelve Brothers in the desert,and then the rich pharaohs. In Superstar, Hosanna, we see the dark room of Caiaphas and then celebratory streets around Jesus. Evita has the aristocracy and the middle-class, Phantom takes place in varying contrasts; the dark underground lair and then the foppery of the managers, Sunset Boulevard contrasts all the doomed cynical Hollywood writers to the reclusive world of Norma Desmond, and Whistle has the kids against the parents. So what's the conflict in Beautiful Game? Also, Woman in White.

My opinions on the Phantom sequel: Frederick Forsyth should be taken out and publicly beaten for suggesting that everything Leroux ever wrote was a lie, and that Lloyd Webber was the reason Phantom exists. LOL. Seriously, go for a thrilling read with Phantom of Manhattan. It would definitely have been interesting to have seen how the Phantom sequel would have fared

R.L.

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"God's Own Country" was not only the best song in the show but I think the staging of this song - in all simplicity - was brilliant. First there's the female lead, Mary, singing her part and then this Protestant Girl walks on stage and joins her. They don't do anything else but sing. As the key changes, several small windows open(/curtains go up) in the back wall to show a beautiful green landscape. And in the end of the song, during the last verse, as the song starts to quiet down, the windows close and the song ends. It was very plain and simple - but very effective and beautiful!

And for the same reason - simple and plain, just people singing - I enjoyed the opening scene of WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, the church scene where the whole cast sings "Vaults Of Heaven", one of the best songs in that show.

A bit off-topic but: it concerns "Vaults of Heaven".

Get out (if you've got a copy) your video-cassette or DVD of Jurassic Park. Watch the scene where they're watching the big longed-neck dinosaurs (whatever they're called LOL), and the score plays its theme. Sound familiar?

Now go back and listen to "Vaults of Heaven". Pay careful attention to the lines "open up the vaults.. open up the vaults". You'll know what I mean

Changing Whistle: it needs a better song for The Man. What's the point in keeping "If Only"? It's a good song, but it just slows down the show. "Long Overdue for a Miracle" is pointless, because it serves the same purpose as "When Children". Either choose between the two, but don't use both. I do think that "No Matter What" works at the end of Act One. I can't imagine it starting out the second act. "Try not to be Afraid" should be an important motif, not a stand-alone song. There needs to be a better reason why The Man sends Swallow out into the dark; thus invoking the song "Kiss is a... etc."

How on earth would an emissary deliver a package to The Man when he's escaped from prison and no one knows where he is? I always found that extremely confusing. Anything else? Just discuss.

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Updated On: 2/2/06 at 09:56 PM