This Beautiful City: Anyone Seeing It?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/4/09 at 5:49pm

I saw an article about it on the NY Times website, and it looks really interesting. Anyone seen it at the Vineyard? It just started previews last night.

[RocksInMyBed]

Posted: 2/5/09 at 11:50am

I popped in last night and grabbed a 20at20 ticket. The show has its moments, but it's largely disappointing. Similar to The Laramie Project, the show sprung from a series of interviews that the authors and actors did with folks in and around Colorado Springs about the effects of evangelical Christianity on the area. While they were there, the Ted Haggard scandal broke. There is an incredible richness of material there, but I thought it was largely squandered.

First, I have to address the music. It just didn't work, and it didn't even need to be there. It felt like they just set random interviews to music. It was non-lyrical and frankly uninteresting. Two e-mails from Ted Haggard that were set to a sort of soft-rock track seemed especially pointless. If you're not going to make something musical out of it, then don't bother with music.

The cast was solid with Emily Ackerman being a standout. As a transgendered woman reaffirming her faith in the face of much hostility and as a New Life Church member coming to terms with her father's homosexuality and his distance, not to mention her own drug-addled past, Ackerman not only turned in the most moving performance, but managed a degree of shading to these characters that not only forced the audience to ask tough questions about spirituality and acceptance, but showed the characters' inner struggle with those same issues.

Largely, though, I just felt that this was a subpar effort. The company seemed unprepared for the windfall that was the Ted Haggard scandal. Brilliant material dropped in their laps, but I don't think they were prepared to cope with something so large. As the play's structure (or lack thereof) showed, they're much better with small details than with big pictures.

Even though Ackerman managed to make me tear up twice, I'm not sure it's worth the time investment to see it. Certainly not at full price.

[Sauja]

Posted: 2/5/09 at 11:53am

Sorry for the repost. So odd...I actually wrote this. I'm not sure where the glitch was but don't want to have attributed my thoughts to RocksInMyBed (whoever he or she might be!).

I popped in last night and grabbed a 20at20 ticket. The show has its moments, but it's largely disappointing. Similar to The Laramie Project, the show sprung from a series of interviews that the authors and actors did with folks in and around Colorado Springs about the effects of evangelical Christianity on the area. While they were there, the Ted Haggard scandal broke. There is an incredible richness of material there, but I thought it was largely squandered.

First, I have to address the music. It just didn't work, and it didn't even need to be there. It felt like they just set random interviews to music. It was non-lyrical and frankly uninteresting. Two e-mails from Ted Haggard that were set to a sort of soft-rock track seemed especially pointless. If you're not going to make something musical out of it, then don't bother with music.

The cast was solid with Emily Ackerman being a standout. As a transgendered woman reaffirming her faith in the face of much hostility and as a New Life Church member coming to terms with her father's homosexuality and his distance, not to mention her own drug-addled past, Ackerman not only turned in the most moving performance, but managed a degree of shading to these characters that not only forced the audience to ask tough questions about spirituality and acceptance, but showed the characters' inner struggle with those same issues.

Largely, though, I just felt that this was a subpar effort. The company seemed unprepared for the windfall that was the Ted Haggard scandal. Brilliant material dropped in their laps, but I don't think they were prepared to cope with something so large. As the play's structure (or lack thereof) showed, they're much better with small details than with big pictures.

Even though Ackerman managed to make me tear up twice, I'm not sure it's worth the time investment to see it. Certainly not at full price.

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 2/5/09 at 7:52pm

I have not seen the version at the Public, but I did see the Civilians' premiere at Studio Theatre in DC a while ago. I agree with the previous poster's assessment.

Perhaps it would be more intriguing to others, but I know this group (Evangelical Christians) very well so there was nothing new. Stereotypes were a bit too far extended.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 2/5/09 at 8:18pm

I am a HUGE fan of The Civilians,

Gone Missing ranks as one of my favorite musicals and (I Am) Nobody's Lunch is up there. That being said, I have not seen This Beautiful City yet but I plan to.

I know that wasn't really helpful, but I just thought I would affirm my love for The Civilians

[Jack Hughes]

Posted: 2/5/09 at 8:24pm

I liked this show a lot. It was funny at times; sad at times and surprisingly compassionate towards all its characters (even the ones that would normally be portrayed as stock villains). I had never heard of The Civilians before this but I'd go back and see anything else they did in a minute.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/6/09 at 1:10am

Well $20@20 ends this Sunday, so I might try to check it out before then. It seems like an interesting piece, and I've never experienced The Civilians before. It looks really interesting from the pictures. Is the theater pretty small? I know it housed [Title of Show] and Avenue Q, so I assumed it had to be a fairly larger off-Broadway house.

[seymour krelborn]

Posted: 2/6/09 at 6:11am

What's the running time?

[Jack Hughes]

Posted: 2/6/09 at 9:34am

I saw it a few months ago in LA so I don't remember the running time but I'm pretty certain it was 2 hours or less.

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 2/6/09 at 10:52am

At Studio, it was around 1 hr 45.

[barcelona20]

Posted: 2/6/09 at 10:54am

A long 2hrs and 20 mins.

[Sauja]

Posted: 2/6/09 at 11:14am

Indeed, it's only 2 hours and 20 minutes, but feels like 3. I was stunned at intermission that it was only 9:15.

The theater is intimate--maybe 10 rows of 15 seats?

I hadn't seen The Civilians or their work before. Though I wasn't won over, I'd give them another chance.

[thejcm]

Posted: 2/6/09 at 3:56pm

Caught this at The Humana Festival last year (along with Becky Shaw). I would catch what I could in the first act between cleaning my bar up and then getting it ready for intermission, but it never interested me enough to go see the full show when I wasn't working. It also got really mixed to negative comments from the patrons at my bar.

Every time I would sneak in the balcony to watch it, I would walk back out 20 minutes later saying "I still just don't get it."

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 5:47pm

So the Vineyard production is 2:20?