Will "Caroline" be damned by faint praise? — Page 2

I fall in the middle in terms of my response to CoC. I liked the story, loved the performances, and had some problems with the music. Personally, I need more musical structure to make me happy. But that being said, I paid for my tickets (with a discount code, but still a fair amount of money) and I plan on paying for a return visit.

I think the concept of Caroline is wonderful. The first act felt very long, and it took forever for anything to really happen....and the only thing that *did* happen, was the change. Sort of like Caroline's life, no? And the many voices that played over and over in her head...stylized, but truthful. I thought Tonya Pinkins was terrific; she made Caroline so real. I can't imagine that the actress could be any different, less unhappy or less tired than Caroline. She was THAT convincing. I liked that although events were happening to her generation, that it was unlikely that she would realize any of the benefits during her lifetime....that would fall to her kids' generation. As a story with a plot line, it was slow. As a performance piece...how it was for one woman during an significant time in history...I thought it rang true. My daughter was less enamored, and made the point that the difference in our reactions (to the story and to Caroline) might be due to me having an actual memory of that time. The subservient negro is something she's only experienced through books or film. I think she expected to see Caroline change more significantly. I thought it was more honest that she didn't.

I don't think it's the play of the century, but I love that it made it to Broadway. It's very different than the formulaic musicals that keep showing up to please the masses. It gives me hope that we're not destined to a future of only Wicked clones.

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Updated On: 5/3/04 at 08:10 PM

"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."

Sorry, Auggie, that was too glorious not to repeat.

(I miss AFER DARK)

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jakeB wrote: Hairspray obsessees are not going to be standing room only for this.

That would be a shame, they'd be missing a fascinating show, I loved it.

and bythesword84, if I had a nickel for every show I saw where some man dragged to the theatre sitting by me was sleeping, I would be way rich, so that should hopefully not scare off anyone in here from seeing this wonderful show either.

and yes, I paid for my tickets. and I paid for my dusty stack of After Dark Magazines!

and yes, I LOVE classic musical theatre and challenge any Broadway Bulldog to a trivia contest about Oscar Hammerstein, Larry Hart or Stephen Sondheim

and no, I do not personally know a single person responsible artistically for CAROLINE, but am in awe of their unique creation

I do know one of the producers (Margo Lion), and I wrote her after seeing the show that I am flabbergasted that it was considered a "risky proposition". The list of legendary musicals and dramas we would have never seen if this had always been the case in years past would be endless...

I told her in a world of appetizers and desserts, CAROLINE is offering up a main course, and I wanted to lick the plate!

you may love it or hate it (it unfortunately seems) but go see this show! I'd hate to see it suffer the absolute last fate it deserves..indifference

just my 2 cents (no, that wasn't a "or change" joke!)

Updated On: 5/4/04 at 12:07 AM

I began this thread, but have been late to the "Caroline" party. Now that I've seen it, I'm startled by the naysayers and the amount of grousing the show has provoked.

When I couldn't get in downtown, I didn't mind waiting. The show didn't intrigue me,and as I said to a friend at this board, I feared my seeing it was something of a postponed assignment. The title alone suggested an esoteric and intellectual tone. Plus, I am normally not fond of sung-through work, and was dreading any show that featured musicalized appliances and a lullybye crooning moon.

Yet I found the show in every way accessible, emotional engaging, and at moments, heart-breaking. For my money, this is a deeply felt, distinctly American piece of musical theater. The personification of inanimate objects is handled very subtly, never out of sync with the classic (distinctly American -- i.e. like Carousel's) sense of reality. There's nothing precious in the device, and the staging keeps it as un-Disney as could be imagined. More importantly, Kushner has gone to great lengths to give us a range of POVs, as it shifts, turns, we empathize with just about everyone on stage, from the grieving and remote father, to the giddy grandparents. The Veanne Cox step-mom, who might be a caricature if conceived by lesser artists, is ultimately one of the evening's richest, saddest characters.

And then there's the central relationship between the boy and Caroline, surely one of the freshest, most moving, and yet least sentimental portrayals of an American architype -- the the misunderstood white outcast and the black servant. The piece manages to deconstruct the MEMBER OF THE WEDDING dynamic and find something deeply personal and specific in this Jewish child and the woman who becomes a most reluctant maternal presence. The bedtime duet sequences, one in each act, wring tears in mysterious and profound ways. I won't spoil it for those who haven't been, but when a broken Pinkens sings "weren't never friends," and then only moments later reluctantly admits she misses his lighting her cigarette, my heart ached, as it does when (again, Carousel) Billy Bigelow sings to his daughter at graduation. Is there another moment currently on the broadway stage as simple, full, and uniquely authentic as that one?

Again, this work is a part of a home-grown tradition. CAROLINE is a descendent of the great musical plays, that dared to be ambitious, using the form to explore the biggest themes by detailing the smallest personal dramas. Yes, Tesori's music is elliptical, without "periods," demanding on the ear (and at times, on our patience). Yet it serves beautifully, providing a kind of rhythmic foundation for all the expressed -- and unexpressed -- emotion. The work as a whole is not pretentious or in any way cerebral, as I feared. I sensed that many around me were startled by how immediately they connected to the story. It moves people, and deserves to be seen by a wider audience than the cognoscenti who loyally frequent the Public. The 20 producers who moved it were courageous -- not because it's a hard show to love, but because these are hard times to get people to love anything that isn't a revival or a guaranteed "good time." Whatever a good time is these days. It will be beyond sad if it fails. Broadway needs CAROLINE, just as it needs HAIRSPRAY and WICKED. Unlike many at this board, I believe they all entertain and move the very same audience.

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Updated On: 5/9/04 at 06:44 PM

All I have to say is Caroline Or Change was my favorite musical following Avenue Q this season.
It is a brilliant and I loved the music. Tonya Pinkins is incredible and you should all see it.
I have only seen the version at The Public but the show moved me and I love it.
It is up for Best Musical and it deserves it.
I do have to say that Violet is still my favorite Jeanine Tesori creation and hope Margo Lion or some other fantastic Producer will bring back Violet. I saw the concert version at Playwrights Horizons and talk about being blown away.
Caroline is a great Musical and I hope you all see it.

Updated On: 5/9/04 at 08:45 PM

Nonsense, like wonderful theater, is in the eye of the beholder.

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I would like to applaud Margo and Auggie for their intricately crafted posts on Caroline. Such well-thought-out and articulated points of view can not be undone by one-word posts. Corine, I would suggest you engage MusicMan in Private Messages if you long for a discussion with him about why he disliked Caroline, Or Change and whether or not he even saw the show. After all, he has posted his reasoning before, I know, I know, you don't read all the posts.

I myself was a ticket buyer when the show was at the Public and have since sent four people to see it. Two told me recently how "privleged" they felt to see the show in its development and said they would never have even heard of it back in the fall were it not for me. Two others see it on Wednesday.

I'm surprised that Jose, who likes to think himself a member of the cognescenti (even patted himself on the back and used that word to describe himself because he watches a show on BBC America) would dismiss Caroline out of hand without seeing it and mock those who see it for what it is: something quite unlike anything else out there.

The Tonys will be interesting.

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And that number she does, the sort of down and dirty blues rock tune, WOW!

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