Thou Shalt Not

[adp22]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:07pm

Hello everyone. I have heard a couple of random remarks about how bad Thou Shalt Not was. This of course, makes me want to buy the CD just to see how bad it really was. If any of you saw it, could you tell me why you hated it. Was it because of the music? I remember seeing a performance from Thou Shalt Not that year on the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I remember one of the lyrics. "I'll be right by you, while we're floating in the bayou" I thought the song was catchy, but I remembered that lyric because it was so awful. Please let me know what you guys thought of it. Thank you.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:08pm

im selling an opening night playbill for it on ebay...the auction ends in a few. im mrentertainment1111, for future reference.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:11pm

And can anyone post a synopsis or a link to one? I am little too lazy/busy to look, but if anyone has one handy that would be great.

Akiva

[Matt_G]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:15pm

Please don't ever mention this show again. Just thinking back to the 147 minutes I spent in the theatre that night makes me throw up in my mouth a little. Not only was the score terrible, but this company of otherwise very good actors gave the worst performances ever imaginable.

And I think you're referring to that damn Tug Boat song that drove everyone and their mother crazy.

But I will say this, Kate Levering nude on a rotating bed was perhaps the single worst scene I've ever witnessed on the stage. The theatre Gods did smile down on us because an official cast recording was never released to remind us of this nightmare. A CD was given out to Tony voters that year and I've seen it on eBay a few times going for around $70.

Updated On: 8/23/04 at 10:15 PM

[adp22]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:18pm

i think there is an official cast album on amazon.com. so it must have been released.

[Matt_G]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:21pm

Wow. I never followed the show so I didn't know they had actually decided to release this.

The fact it is out there makes me sad.

[adp22]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:22pm

sorry matt. after i waste 18 bucks on it, ill let you know how bad i think it is.

[Brodybaby03]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:50pm

It really could have been worse....

Songs that I love are : The Other Hours (simply because Craig Bierko speaking in the middle of it has given me many an enjoyable 5 minutes)

I think TUG BOAT is really gorgeous. It was perhaps one of the most intriguing(sp) scenes I've ever seen. I
I like SOVREIGN LOVER only because I saw Rachelle Rak go on for Kate Levering thank GOD and she sang it very well and the lyric is good to me.
Oh Ain't That Sweet and It's Good To Be Home were BRILLIANTLY done by Norbert Leo Butz and
I LIKE LOVE MORE is a really nice duet, and if you had seen it done it was really a very moving song and I think expresses a feeling many relationships go through.

ok now I will TRY and give a synopsis....
Laurent (craig bierko) is reminiscing (sp, im sorry i can't spell) in a bar it seems in like a new orleans creole bar in the 40s about this women he loved,
we flashback
Therese(kate levering, i saw rachelle rak) is washing and hanging laundry , she does a ballet ( i slept...jk) laurent is passing by, watches her, she catched him, he gets yelled at by a women who we assume is her mother (debra monk) he apologizes they make friends, turns out he knows her son Camille (norbert) and they are ol buddies from the war i think so laurent is invited to stay with them , even though camille is sick with some sort of a chronic cough. His mother is highly protective. That night Therese and Laurent are cleaning up downstairs in the bar that Mama Raquin (debra monk)owns and laurent sings to her about who she is when she's not working like a dog cleaning up after everyone else and asks her if she ever longs to be free....
he throws her down onto a table and rips her dress open (we should all be so lucky) and they kiss....Mama Raquin shouts down for Therese to show him to his room in the attic and he asks her if shes gotta run to her mama, and she says shes not my mama and explains its her husands mama....her husband is Camille...DUN DUN DUHHHHHH
They ofcourse go to the bedroom and do it in on a rotating bed in "the other hours ballet" i thought it was hot even though Matt_G did not.
Ofcourse an affair of love insues....Camille is suspect but doesnt really have much to go on....he can't give therese what she needs because he's sick all the time and they sleep in seperate bedrooms....
One night they are all in a row boat @ mardi gras....they sing "tug boat" laurent throws camille overboard and holds him under in an effort to have a life with Therese...but while Laurent is drowning Camille , Camille does manage to scratch open his face....Therese is angry and scared but tries to remain hopeful that this happened for the best.
She and Laurent eventually marry....Mama Raquin has by now had a stroke and is partially paralized the rest of the show ( i thought Monk was brilliant doing this) throughout the rest of the show as Therese and Laurent try to make love or be intimate Therese either sees Camille standing onthe bed smiling, or the wound on Laurents face will re open randomly...he haunts them and they are tortured by him, Camille is determined to have revenge...Laurent and Therese grow to hate eachother, and one night in a heated argument in front of Mama start screaming to her about how the other betrayed and killed Camille...mama is howling in pain...its all she CAN do. Then one night friends are over playing scrabble mama tries to spell out that Laurent killed Camille Laurent flips and has the guests leave.
Therese and Laurent can't take camille's torture anymore, they are tired and so in love but sick of hating one another for what has happened...therese goes out one night and basically has a gang bang to i dont know fill a void physically and kind of emotionally kill herself then comes back and laurent has missed her. she goes to to hug laurent after a talk of how much they love eachother, the audience can see therese has a knife and you assume shes going to stab laurent but instead you hear her groan and he pulls away and we see she has killed herself...he screams we return to the bar we were at in the opening, laurent is finishing his story,,, he takes out a gun and kills himself.

The show is really dark, the audience i saw it with seemed to enjoy it and appreciate what was good about it. It reminds me a lot of my favorite movie , Anna Karenina, and the book it's based on , Therese Raquin is a good read too. I think you will enjoy some of the cast recording. I love it.

[Matt_G]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:51pm

The audience I saw it with barely clapped and just of got up and left. (Those of us who were left, that is)

[musicgal04]

Posted: 8/24/04 at 1:14am

I would just like to add that I saw an amazing production of "Therese Raquin" several years ago that was in the time period of the book. I didn't see "Thou Shalt Not" but the story its based on is very interesting. I'm actually in the process of reading Zola's novel right now.

[wildparty20]

Posted: 8/24/04 at 11:00am

I loved Zola's novel when I read it. When I saw the show, I was less impressed. Kate Levering could not handle the role vocally and her acting was less than impressive. She danced beautifully though. I went to the show just to see Debra Monk, who I think is brilliant, but she couldn't even do justice to this increadibly bad writing. Not to mention that at the top of the 2nd act she ends her short song with a stroke (she was good, but the way it was written was laughable). Norbert was wonderful as Camille... His songs are the best in the show. The Mardi Gras dance/song was fun, although I think Susan got bored with the choreography. There was a large section where the dancers lined up and each came out one by one and did eight counts of tricks. Lazy choreography if you ask me. The set was neat. I think they had turn tables inside of turntables, so set pieces, especially the boat and the bed moved in very interesting ways about the stage. That's the only way I could figure out how they moved. I was very upset at the end when I remembered the beginning of the show and realized the whole show had been a FLASHBACK! I think flashbacks can be effective, but when the whole show is one... hmmm... it made me laugh.

The CD is a good recording of the performances. I like listening to Tub Boat, The Other Hours, and Mardi Gras. I think Harry Connick, Jr. has also released another CD recently with some songs from the show on it with him singing them. I think the CD is called "The Other Hours." Not great dramatic writing. The whole score is a meandering jazz album basically. The lyrics give little to thrust the story forward. I'm glad I saw the show however... I went away with a little less of an appreciating for Stroman, thinking that perhaps she's only good when she has good material to start with? Or maybe she just didn't care about this show?

[jayem1968]

Posted: 8/24/04 at 12:25pm

I thought the show was simply awful - one of the worst I have ever seen. One of Norbert's numbers was decent - but totally out of place in the show (a real Ol Blue Eyes number - I think it was called Good to be Home...or something like that).

When her top came off in the rotating bed scene (which was supposed to be dark and dangerous) someone in the audience started laughing and soon the entire audience joined in - if I hadn't paid so much $$$ to see such a bad show...it actually might have been funny!

[DestinyBeckoned]

Posted: 8/24/04 at 12:33pm

hmm, now you all made me want to see this.

[Brodybaby03]

Posted: 8/24/04 at 1:28pm

is there a lyric that includes "Destiny Beckoned" ??
Why is it sounding SO fermiliar...ahhhh!

[The Goat]

Posted: 8/24/04 at 2:38pm

Thank you all on the "Thou Shalt Not" thread, especially brave synopisis writer BrodyBaby03! This thread has brought back the show in all its OK, so-horrible-it's-memorable, and so-horrible-it's- painful glory! I won't buy the cast album, but I will print out this thread and put it in my "Thou Shalt Not" Playbill for when I'm old and going through my Playbills and want to remember just WHAT this thing was about.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/24/04 at 2:42pm

Brodybaby03 - ...I never reckoned second best...

Does that help?

[Brodybaby03]

Posted: 8/24/04 at 3:49pm

AHHH! thank you Mister Matt! :)

I can sleep!
THIIIIIIIIIS IS THE MOMENT!

[MissElleTow2]

Posted: 8/30/04 at 12:29pm

I must be one of the few who liked this show. I thought it was innovative and different than anything I had ever seen before. The dancing was incredible and the music enjoyable.

I think the biggest misfortune for this musical was having the bad luck to open right after 9/11. It's a dark musical and the entire country was in deep mourning and not in the mood for a darker story like this. The audience was filled with old people. I'm in my late 40's and was one of the youngest in the audience I attended. I don't think the older people understood anything that was going on and were offended by the very brief nudity. Were they offering Early Bird Specials with the purchase of each ticket?

Debra Monk and Norbert Leo Butz were fantastic, but they were also given the best songs in the show. Kate Levering's dancing was beautiful, however, her vocal ability was weak. I thought the entire production completely wasted Craig Bierko's talents by not giving him enough to do in the show except to flex his muscles. Granted, I loved watching the flexing, but was disappointed that his numbers were weak (no fault of his.) I heard his best number, in the morgue, was removed to heighten sensitivity to the tremendous loss of lives during 9/11.

I can't help but wonder if Thou Shalt Not would have been received better if it opened before 9/11 or a few months after. I guess we'll never know.

Elle

[NYLG]

Posted: 8/30/04 at 12:49pm

I attended the last performance. The most innovative part was when they made the announcements right before the show..."Thou shalt not use flash photography...Thou shalt not use cell phones or pagers...etc." It was all downhill from there.

Updated On: 8/30/04 at 12:49 PM