The Musicals where NOTHING happens!- Page 2

[jagfkb]

Posted: 1/29/11 at 3:02pm

The thing is, for Drowsy Chaperone, Man in Chair does under go a sort of change through the piece: if anything, he should keep moving forward and stop resisting love (after all, when the cane is dropped, he mentions live and leave as an option, but doesn't realize love could be the true answer). The piece is one of my favorites because it so aptly places what one would consider to be bland and crass musical theatre with that of the most developed and well loved Sondheim piece, where everything and nothing is going on at the smae time.

And another thing... in effective musical theatre, something always happens. There's some kind of dramatic change or emotional shift which enraptures audiences. Thus why Sunday, Company, and Follies all work: the end of the world isn't approaching, but the characters you see are facing it.

[musicalperson17]

Posted: 1/29/11 at 5:16pm

the sorcerer. everyone is in the same situation they began in

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 1/30/11 at 1:50pm

Hah, thanks, ljay, for the pass-off. Gladly.

The story in Company, if you want to make it linear, goes like this: Bobby comes home (probably from work), listens to his messages. Finds out about the surprise party. Proceeds to, for however long, sit alone in his apartment and get completely drunk. Thinks about all of the stuff we see on stage: those vignettes are all memories we're seeing with him as he remembers them. (So, that adds an extra layer of seeing it, perhaps, not "as it happened," but as Bobby remembers it -- through, in other words, his rather cynical filter.) Has this moment of realization, triggered by what Joanne tells him.

(One of the things I've begun to wonder recently is whether Being Alive occurs in "real time" or if it's in his memory. So... whether that breakthrough happens immediately after Joanne tells him what she does, or if it's not until he's recounting it in his mind that it pulls the trigger, so to speak. I had always, for years and years, been very sure of the latter -- that he has that breakthrough by himself, in his home, on his birthday. But then I saw it staged in a way that suggested otherwise. I'm pretty sure I think that's a mistake and a misinterpretation, but it's made me think a lot about that moment in a new way.)

Anyway, assuming the latter, he has this breakdown/breakthrough where he finally realizes that something's got to change. That's Being Alive. The commitment to change. And then he leaves. And then his friends come, can't find him, etc. Raul has actually described it several times as a process of "growing up." Or, at the very least, Bobby realizing that it's time to grow up, and he must do so. (And since you mentioned catharsis, I won't let it go without saying that that last 20 minutes is one of the most cathartic experiences I have ever had.)

That's if you want to look at the story linearly (is that a word? Whatever.) But you have to remember that Company isn't called a "plotless" musical for nothing. Not having a traditional, linear plot doesn't mean you don't have a story. And it doesn't mean nothing "happens." Most of the "action" occurs in memory, but it still has an impact on the character(s).

Ironically, however, that phrase brought to mind an interesting and related point that has to do with Company, Sondheim, and the idea of "doing nothing." Think about Barcelona; I've had that song described to me as a perfect dramatization of someone (figuratively, of course), standing completely still. Sondheim has managed, in that song, to dramatize something that almost resists the process. But if you look at what's happening in the song, all of the equalizing adds up to not moving at all; nothing "happening." And yet, we watch it, we engage. So it's not nothing. I thought it'd be interesting to bring up because it's sort of a microcosm of the question you're asking. For what it's worth.

I always write too much about Company. :/

Updated On: 1/30/11 at 01:50 PM

[shrekster224]

Posted: 1/30/11 at 3:52pm

Someone said American Idiot, but it's really about interpretation. Sure, if you take it all literally, than not much happens. Johnny meets a girl, Tunny gets a war draft, and Will gets stuck at home. You could also take it as a symbolized journey through growing up and experimenting with different things until you realize that you have to do something with your life, and the show is actually pretty interesting in that sense.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/30/11 at 6:39pm

Did someone really say MY FAIR LADY?

Yes, I did! It is a three hour show where the story basically goes nowhere.

[peerrjb]

Posted: 1/31/11 at 1:07am

Well, bwayphreak234, you are certainly entitled to an opinion.
But, simply from a dramaturgical point of view...
In MFL, as in Pygmalion...
A young woman who doesn't speak proper English is propelled into becoming the object of a bet between two highbrow Englishmen who use her situation and then train her to speak well, dress properly, act like a lady, and pass herself off as one of their own, against the odds of the situation as well as the "morals" of the girl's fight with her father, who is in the middle of his OWN life-changing growth as a person.
(And that's just Act One.)
Act Two shows us the action of what occurs when the girl's personal success is met with the distain of her teachers because they take all credit. As she grows into a better person than the others, she deals with her father becoming more of an adult himself. Then she turns on her teacher and (though she has "feelings" for him) she walks away, having become a LADY in truth, more than he is a "gentleman" in fact.
Oh, she comes back to him for final curtain, but that's just for the audience to have a little "romance".
OK.
If that is "basically going nowhere", I'd be very curious to hear your version of a show that actually DOES go somewhere.
Just sayin'.

[dramarama3]

Posted: 1/31/11 at 2:44am

You were ENGAGED by Barcelona, Emcee?!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 1/31/11 at 10:33am

"Engage" is not naturally synonymous with "enthrall," as some people tend to hyperbolically use it. I was making a point about the ability to dramatize a sense of non-action, not about the excitement level of Barcelona. And remember that "dramatization" does not always have to mean pushing you to the edge of the seat, I mean it in the literary sense of the word. "Drama" =/= melodrama.

Updated On: 1/31/11 at 10:33 AM

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/31/11 at 2:53pm

peerrjb- When you describe the story like that, it seems like the perfect show with a great story. However, in my opinion, the story goes nowhere. The events you describe happen at a snail paced speed with boring song upon boring song. I personally think the story just drags on with shallow character development and some bad songs. I have seen many different productions and no matter how well done it is, it is just a boring show in which nothing happens.

[Q]

Posted: 1/31/11 at 3:10pm

"the story just drags on with shallow character development and some bad songs."

All cliches about opinions aside, I never would guess that someone was talking about MY FAIR LADY by just hearing that comment.

[newintown]

Posted: 1/31/11 at 4:49pm

Reminds me of the things my more delightfully lunk-headed undergrads would say when I was a TA in grad school... It makes me feel young again just to hear opinions like that.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/31/11 at 5:30pm

That is my opinion of the show. I am not saying you have to agree, and just because you disagree does not make it a stupid opinion. Just because someone feels differently about a show than you do does not mean you are right and they are wrong. It is called a personal opinion and we are all entitled to it as long as we can explain why we feel the way we do, which I did.

[Eastwickian]

Posted: 2/1/11 at 8:08am

But it is wrong to say that nothing happens - peerrjb outlined the plot and there's plenty going on. It's just that what does happen, and the speed at which it unfolds, doesn't engage you. Which is a different question, surely?

[newintown]

Posted: 2/1/11 at 9:16am

bwayphreak234, sweetie, no one here said you aren't allowed to voice your opinion.

Conversely, anyone who thinks that opinion is lunk-headed ALSO has a right to express that opinion.

See, it's simple.