The Big Voice: God or Merman? starts tomorrow...

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 4:16pm

Yes, I'm a bad Jew for going to an opening night on Yom Kippur.

But I'm excited! :)

[G]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 4:18pm

What's this about, actually? I heard about the two guys doing it being hilarious and really good. But i don't know what the show is about.

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 4:25pm

Synopsis:

PLOT SYNOPSIS

The Big Voice is an American story. Jim, a Catholic who dreamed of being the first Brooklyn born Pope, and Steve, a Baptist preacher's kid from Arkansas who meet in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, fall in love and live to sing about it.

Future Pontiff Jimmy describes his vivid childhood journey to Lourdes and Rome, followed by his disappointment that that he didn't hear "The Big Voice." Then, a random act changes his life. At the age of 13, he sees a performance of Gypsy with Ethel Merman, meets her backstage and his life is changed forever.

We learn about Steve's life through songs. After Jimmy tells his story of almost meeting the Pope, Steve sings a song about almost meeting a famous evangelist. As Jimmy tells of being gay in a military boarding school, Steve sings of hiding in a redneck country high school. Several of the songs intercut with short stories by Jim.

The musical traces their meeting aboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, about their marriage, their interplay with Steve's family, their struggle with disease, the writing of a hit musical, their personal separation, their rapprochement ("The divorce failed!"), and finally, the realization that people "affect the course of each other lives and never even know it," illustrated by a dramatic moment in front of a religious picket line where a woman thanks them because something they wrote changed her life.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 4:27pm

I'm seeing it next week.

From the NYMF site:

"Praised from coast to coast by the Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and the Houston Chronicle, The Big Voice is a true story about a Baptist from Arkansas and a Catholic from Brooklyn who find Eternal Salvation in the Temple of Musical Theatre! (And in each other).

In a year where gay marriage has risen to the forefront of the national debate, "The Big Voice" chronicles the strains and tensions of gay life and marriage... performed by the gay, married couple itself, Jim & Steve. It's true "reality theater" -- a love story that is unbearably funny and painfully lovely.
Voted Best Score by the LA Drama Critics Circle and nominated for Best Musical and Best Actor in a Musical at the Theatre LA Ovation awards, this funny, touching love story is a truthful and joyful look beyond the media stereotypes to the actual realities of gay marriage.

From the creators of the cult off-Broadway hit The Last Session."

Updated On: 9/23/04 at 04:27 PM

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 4:29pm

"From the creators of the cult off-Broadway hit The Last Session."

I love that.

(Edited five times b/c my coding skills suck)

Updated On: 9/23/04 at 04:29 PM

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 6:04pm

saw it in Houston at Stages Repertory. Well worth it. Get there if you can.

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 9/24/04 at 9:12am

Bumping to bypass the many BKLYN reviews :)

[steveshack]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 8:20am

We had a sensational opening last night, although it was tough because the audience, probably "festivaled out" was sitting there at the beginning with arms crossed, their body language saying, "Okay, we heard you people think you're good. Now prove it to US!" Wow, was that tough. But it didn't take long for them to embrace us with laughter and tears.

The venue director told us it was the best audience response she's witnessed of any show in the NYMF -- and given how enthusiastically NYMF has been received, I take that as a great compliment.

It's hard to describe The Big Voice in so many words, because it's not plot driven and everyone who sees it sees something a little different. Some people see it as a love story. Some people see it as a tribute to the power of musical theatre. Some people like the fact that we're tracing our Catholic/Baptist heritages in funny ways. It's really not something that can be put into so many words.

There is a second act costume change that is so funny, we've literally had to hold for minutes at a time waiting for the audience to just stop laughing. (If you see it, please don't give it away).

All I know is I'm sitting here relieved. And the ROAR that greeted us at the end was almost scary, it was so loud. I look forward to hearing honest responses from people here on the board. We've been carefully working, rewriting and honing this show for two years so I think if you love musical theatre -- and, for me, this show is a love letter to musical theatre and how theatre can be even more powerful than any church experience -- I think you'll "get" it.
NYMF presents The Big Voice: God or Merman?