Will "Caroline" be damned by faint praise?

It's been several seasons since I have seen such a major work -- in light of the track record of at least two collaborators -- so tepidly received. The Times didn't re-review it, but buried an update by Brantley that was far from anything close to a money review. (Suggesting that the show is not remotely in the same league as ANGELS is damning indeed.) And Linda Winer has basically dismissed the show as pretentious. I think this bodes badly for a show that needs someone to say "You must go!" to succeed. Only the Pinkens' performance has invited superlatives across the board, and even some of those are muted.

If it sweeps the Tony's in an anti-WICKED backlash, look for some disgruntled voices to bemoan how pretentious the Tonys have become. On the other hand, the award season could go the way of LA CAGE vs. SUNDAY IN THE PARK. Remember that?

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Updated On: 5/3/04 at 10:23 AM

It's a dreary, dramatically inert show which will deservedly blow out of town real soon.

Way to be supportive, MusicMan. Do you get pleasure out of watching actors face unemployment?

I'm quite intrigued by this show. The story sounds unique and original and I am fond of Tesori's scores. Not every musical must be tap-dancing and toothy smiles and nothing I've read about Caroline or Change would lead me to believe it is an upbeat and happy musical, so I certainly wouldn't expect it.

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I saw this a few weeks ago, and it is by far the most compelling and engrossing new musical of the season, with a more genuine sense of magic and wonder than all of WICKED. The 'personifications' of the appliances is a marvel, and reminds me of the use of allegorical personifications seen in seventeenth-century operas and court entertainments. Somethings don't quite work (the upbeat ending was a 'near miss' for me), and someone (maybe here) thought the Jewish family was "Too Falsettoish" (which has a point, but I still enjoyed them), and the bit about the statue sort of meanders - but even with its minor flaws, I found a lot to love. Perkins is a hard gal to warm to - Kushner doesn't go for obvious sentimenality here, and he and Perkins - keeps Caroline refreshingly unlovable and sullen. You may not get all warmly cozy over her, but you understand and ultimately like her. And nobody does more with a 'look' than Perkins. You can't keep your eyes off her. All the kids - particularly Anika Noni Rose - were terrific.

While I thought Tesori's MILLIE contributions forgettable, her contributions to CAROLINE sounded downright Gershwinian at times.

It has stayed in my mind for weeks. I REALLY liked it - far more than I thought I would.

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Updated On: 5/3/04 at 01:51 PM

It's an anti-MEMBER OF THE WEDDING.

More tid-bits (SPOILERS here kiddies):

The scene where Caroline calls her children into the front yard and has them close thier eyes.....Pure thatrical wonderment.

The stepmothers funny and mournful phone call to her Dad.

"Aint never friends."

Yeah, Caroline is a tough, bitter cranky woman. But she's EARNED her right to be that way. And you respect that.

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Updated On: 5/3/04 at 01:58 PM

I have to say that the show really doesn't interest me. The only reason I would go see it would be to see what Tonya is all about. I've never heard her before but she seems to be getting a lot of praise.

But none of the reviews are really making me want to see the show either. I'll probably have to sit this one out unless a really good discount comes around.

This is a show that I think needs good reviews to do well. It'd be a shame to see it do financially badly, but I guess you have to know your audience, and Hairspray obsessees are not going to be standing room only for this.

"Any score which attempts to rhyme and resorts to the words "Bomb" and "Program" to do so, needs some serious help."

You misheard the lyrics. It was "bomb" and "pogrom".

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Oh, so you've seen "Caroline" by now, Jose? Or is this another one of your second or third hand opinions?

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MisterMatt, it has nothing to do with "upbeat" or "happy" or anything of the kind (Case in point--I am sitting here listening to Shostakovich's LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK as I write). It's holding a show, whatever its subject, to a standard of excellence in dramaturgy, music, and staging--and COC fails in all departments. It's cast is talented, without a doubt, but that alone is not sufficient to turn this boring and untheatrical evening around. Five minutes into the interminable musical appliances sequence which opens the show and it is quite clear the show is dead in the water. And if that doesn't finish it off for you, the singing bus will. Finally, comparisons between Gershwin and the thoroughly mediocre Tesori are absurd beyond belief and best left to the unintentionally hilarious writings of Frank Rich, who made them first.

Your use of "dreary" I took to mean in tone, rather than dramaturgy, music and staging because the adjective was completely nonspecific in its use. Comparing Gershwin to Tesori is not quite so absurd in a theatrical sense. It's too bad you are so biased against Tesori (as well as LaChiusa) or maybe you could see the similarities in some of Tesori's tunes for Thoroughly Modern Millie (intentionally camp) and (though I did not specify, but will use for the sake of argument) Gershwin's Pardon My English (retroactively camp). But it does leave me wondering, are there any musicals written beyond 1962 not by Sondheim that you actually like? But if you're looking for excellence in every aspect of every show, then it's no so difficult to see why you are consistently negative.

But we do have one thing in common - we both like Shostakovich. I'm partial to symphonies 5 and 7.

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I'll 2nd Borstal's appraisal of Brantley. I can't bear the way he consistently allows his one-too-many Sidecars in the piano-bar tastes to determine his vote (always in the goosey grip of "absolute bliss!" in the presence of a diva he annoints, i.e. Murphy or Chenoweth; and he's put off by the "grimaces" of "gals" who aren't much "fun.") He fancies himself as a keeper of the musical theater flame, holding dear anything bubbly and bliss-inducing that bespeaks any era but this one. Sometimes, after hearing him deliver his prissy precis versions on WQXR, I wanna smack him and take away his big old dusty stack of AFTER DARKS.

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Updated On: 5/3/04 at 06:22 PM

Here's a summary of critic's reviews of COC courtesy of Broadway.com.

For those of you who value these journalist's opinions.

Folks who like this type of musical should and most likely will see the show. There may be others, myself included, who would be hard pressed to pay $90+ for something I have marginal interest in seeing.

P.S. How many of you who are COC supporters actually paid for your tickets?


Broadway.com's critic's summary of COC

Updated On: 5/3/04 at 06:31 PM