Posted: 5/22/15 at 10:24pm
I saw the musical the Visit twice and found it interesting but dull. It had no dramatic tension;there is no question of how it the musical will turn out. The people are downtrodden and grey. There is no out but money.
Now Chita Rivera is a Musical Comedy Goddess and she is wonderful in The Visit and the Kander and Ebb Score is quite good. Kander and Ebb have long been my heroes but after watching the movie, I realized that this was a missed opportunity. I don't know if the problem was Terrency McNally or John Doyle or a collaboration of everyone, but after viewing the film, I realize there is something terribly amiss in the musical, The Visit.
I just watched the movie The Visit with Anthony Quinn and Ingrid Bergman. The citizens of the "poor" town are originally aghast about what Claire Zachanasian wants. There seems to no way that they will put her lover to death. For half the movie they dismiss the idea. But slowly, Claire tempts them into seeing it her way. And there are more twists to it then just that. (I don't want to give it all away in case you check out the movie).
The townspeople of Galen (in the movie) are real people; not Brechtian pale people of Brachen (in the musical) . It also made it more interesting having real people instead of "gray Brechtian People."
The justification for Madame Zachanasian wanting justice in the movie makes sense. Claire Zachanasian was impregnated by her lover at seventeen in both the movie and the musical. In the movie, however, a pregnant Claire brings her lover to court to prove paternity. In order to get out of marrying Claire and marrying wealthy, the lover hires two men (with a bottle of brandy) to lie in court and say they slept with Claire many times. They ran her out of town in shame and she became a whore in Trieste where she married the wealthy Mr. Zachanasian.
The justification for kiling of the lover?? You killed me when I was seventeen. You shamed me in front of the town. Now its my turn to shame you. Now its my turn to shame you.
This suddenly makes sense. There is dramatic tension. There are real people here.
And Anthony Quinn is not a milquetoast but puts up a fight to live. He gets angry and afraid and paranoid and has a hand in his own demise. You realize in the movie that he is greatly at fault. Marrying for money; hiring people to lie in court. He is a real human being that did some heinous things. The character of the lover in the musical is almost non existent and a milquetoast. He and the town are so grey that revenge seems redundant. There is no struggle.
I urge people to see the movie and see the difference and put your thoughts about this.
Updated On: 5/22/15 at 10:24 PM
