The CHAPLIN musical — Page 4

"A big misstep in Chaplin that illuminates the difference is that the act one finale centers on a Chaplin look-a-like contest. The entire cast is dressed up like Chaplin (much like all the Alices in Wonderland, though this isn't campy/in poor taste)."

Exactly. That first act finale was bizarre, to say the least. It totally should have been NcClure, selling Chaplin, and what we got was a ton of chorus members in makeup, to absolutely no effect. A look-a-like contest? Really?

"We can forgive the book of Funny Girl because the score and Streisand's performance are so wonderful. "

There's nothing to forgive.

Did you see it?

leefowler- Mary Martin had dropped out of the project before a note of the score was written. As I understand Bancroft was then approached and a few of the songs were written. She didn't think she could handle them and didn't get along with Merrill so she bowed out.

With Streisand the show had two out of town tryouts in Boston and Philly. The score was continually tweaked and it came out fitting Streisand like a glove. This was a star vehicle designed for her.

It's not just bio-musicals that can be star vehicles of course. Something like "Happy Hunting" was created to show off Merman.

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Whaaat?

I'm surpirsed no one has mentinoed Hugh jackman in The Boy from Oz. GREAT performance (one of the greatest I've ever seen) in, at best, mediocre material. BTW, I saw Streisand in FG and she was fabulous - IMO, much better than in the movie and the score has some real gems in it. I recently re-bought the CD (remember those?) and still love it -- the songs are terrific (Streisand's)but the rest of the show is, well, so-so.

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I always wondered if they wanted Funny Girl to be a sort of follow-up (ie another bio-musical) to Gypsy. I don't kow if Laurents was ever asked, but I know Sondheim was asked to do lyrics at one time, and Jerome Robbins to direct (in the end I believe he only had time to do some doctoring). I love the score (yes, even the non Streisand songs that were largely dropped from the movie), but I think the script for the movie is an improvement on a fairly mediocre (but perfectly serviceable) book. I do think Whizzer's point holds--many of those songs were written to suit Streisand, so even without her she is somewhat responsible for the sound of the finished score (somewhat...)

Ed, Boy From Oz was mentioned, but it's a good example.

Yes find an actor who can pull off all of the physical characteristics of Chaplin, sing a full score, dance, do circus tricks, and play the violin perfectly. It's to bad.

Rob did say that he's been learning these things in a "Chaplin bootcamp". The violin is really hard to master, I doubt anyone could do it in the matter of a few weeks... give him time, and I'm sure it will sound just fine. I'm just impressed that he's doing it at all!

@LavieBohem: it's kinda like going to a show and seeing complex dance moves that the main character is trying to do but is failing terribly. You'd want them to do it right, wouldn't you? As an audience member I was a little bit offended because I didn't come to see a show where actors are trying to do their jobs, they better be correct and impress, and go above and beyond our expectations.

I mean, is it me or does this seem like this year's Bonnie & Clyde? Except BnC was ready and had some great performances by professionals.

If this is this year's Bonnie and Clyde, then McClure will become a star despite it. Like Mr. Jordan.

"Star" is such an overused word, particularly so considering its lack of any real definition.

Add it to the list of words/phrases that would be best left unused, along with "definitive," "spot on," and "X is a lock for the Y Award."

Considering Company, Once, et al., why don't we just stop asking actors to play instruments on stage? Let's just have them act.

Jeremy had a song in BnC where he played the ukulele and he could actually play it.


Stars (at least my interpretation of stars) are people who are given parts to play and wow everyone to the point of receiving awards and so on...

I'm just saying I wasn't wowed. And like Whizzer said it could be cut and no one would have ever known that there was half-assed violin playing.

The lady who came out later on in the show and played the violin was incredible.

Erin Mackey comes out in the 2nd act and is perfect, I loved her. She has an incredible voice and plays a great Oona.

BESIDES THOSE 2 parts where McClure played the violin, I liked how he played Chaplin through the years and it was exciting to see him actually become "the tramp" and change his entire life around. I loved his performance throughout, especially his solo in the movie theater towards the end of act 2. The songs were great, the dancing was pretty good too and I felt like the little subtle jokes were more funny than when they actually tried to be funny (in the act I finale).

In the end I was moved and I can't wait to see what this looks like in a couple of weeks after previews. Sorry if I offended anyone I was just expressing my feelings and you can call me ignorant or whatever if you want... McClure was so well cast that I couldn't tell which were the real Chaplin videos and which were actually McClure.
Kudos to costume, makeup, and casting.

Updated On: 8/24/12 at 02:42 PM