#1
Posted: 7/27/07 at 4:50pm
Which closing performance would you see?
a) BEAUTY & THE BEAST
b) GREY GARDENS
c) GYPSY
d) 110 IN THE SHADE
That's got to be the toughest call to make. The 29th is going to be a media circus.
With BEAUTY you have a 13+ year show closing. And a Disney show. And a well-written show. And a show with a great Alan Menken score. It's bound to be a grand-scale event.
With GREY GARDENS you have a show that worked it's way to Broadway keeping most of its original stars intact. Two of its performers won Tony Awards and are of legendary scale: Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. Ebersole's performance is rated as one of the best this generation will ever see.
With GYPSY you have a wonderful backstage tale of LuPone FINALLY getting to do this role. Not only is she playing the legendary character of Mama Rose, but the show is being directed by Arthur Laurents - it's book writer. The reviews of LuPone are just as good as that of Ebersole, except LuPone's story is much more fragile.
And finally with 110 IN THE SHADE you have a limited engagement of a show that kept on extending. A show that hasn't been revived since the original. A show updated to great standards for today. A show lead by the extremely talented and crowd favorite, Audra Macdonald.
So which do you see, assuming you can only choose ONE?
a) BEAUTY & THE BEAST
b) GREY GARDENS
c) GYPSY
d) 110 IN THE SHADE
That's got to be the toughest call to make. The 29th is going to be a media circus.
With BEAUTY you have a 13+ year show closing. And a Disney show. And a well-written show. And a show with a great Alan Menken score. It's bound to be a grand-scale event.
With GREY GARDENS you have a show that worked it's way to Broadway keeping most of its original stars intact. Two of its performers won Tony Awards and are of legendary scale: Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. Ebersole's performance is rated as one of the best this generation will ever see.
With GYPSY you have a wonderful backstage tale of LuPone FINALLY getting to do this role. Not only is she playing the legendary character of Mama Rose, but the show is being directed by Arthur Laurents - it's book writer. The reviews of LuPone are just as good as that of Ebersole, except LuPone's story is much more fragile.
And finally with 110 IN THE SHADE you have a limited engagement of a show that kept on extending. A show that hasn't been revived since the original. A show updated to great standards for today. A show lead by the extremely talented and crowd favorite, Audra Macdonald.
So which do you see, assuming you can only choose ONE?
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
