Will "Caroline" be damned by faint praise?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 10:23am

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?

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

[mominator]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 10:38am

I was hoping for beter reviews, but my husband and I will still see this one. I rarely listen to Mr. Brantley, rather I gage his reviews. Hopefuly we can get to this one by July. (Too many weddings this June)
Barbara

[MusicMan]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 1:31pm

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

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 1:35pm

Gosh, it's almost as if the only thing Brantley left out is MusicMan's name: "Now Ms. Pinkins finds herself having to win over midtown audiences who prefer their musical stars brassy, outgoing and panting to please."

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 1:40pm

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.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 1:46pm

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who would be intrigued by a review like Brantley's and those who would give it MusicMan's assessment. If the review brings people who are open to an experience that is not the same old thing, great. Those who would be turned off by it should probably not go anyway. Even though experiencing the show may expand their horizons.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 1:51pm

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.

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

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 1:56pm

I agree Master. When I saw it, I kept thinking, "Wow, it's so unsentimental." And then there's a moment where it heads straight toward sentimentality and I thought, "Oh, who can blame it, it's earned some sentimentality." And guess what? It veered right away in a different direction from the obvious sentimentality. I respect that so much. Let's just say, there are no surprise trap doors that please the audience at the end, a la Wicked. None.

I would urge anybody who is intrigued by what Brantley had to say to see the show. It's so worth it.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 1:58pm

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.

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

[henry]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 2:18pm

So this is where you've been keeping yourself, Master. I'm fairly new here.

I'm looking forward to this. As for Brantley, if he praises a show I usually avoid it, and if he hates it, I'm intrigued. If find myself agreeing with Margo Jefferson more often.

[JoizeyActor]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 3:11pm

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.

[bythesword84]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 3:25pm

I'm sorry, I don't normally talk on here because I generally keep my opinions to myself but I was at Caroline's opening night last night and let me tell you the men on either side of the people I was with both fell asleep. One left during intermission (along with about 20 others that I saw) and I even saw a group of 5 or so more leaving during the second scene of Act II. I've seen a lot of Broadway musicals and this show was one of, if not close to, the worst production I've ever seen. I admired the cast's talents but the musical itself was long, boring, tedious, and I kept counting the scenes until it was over. Any score which attempts to rhyme and resorts to the words "Bomb" and "Program" to do so, needs some serious help. I generally prefer deeper shows like this attempts to be, but honestly this was awful.

[JakeB]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 3:39pm

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.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 3:44pm

I'm seeing the show this weekend, after not getting in downtown. What fascinates me is the polarity of the opinions -- the love it or hate it camps. Rarely does any show so thoroughly divide the audience and reviewers. That suggests real ambition, something sorely lacking on and off b'way. (Sidebar: These days, "new" doesn't translate into ambitious or daring. Personally, I'm fed up with the Manhattan Theater Club/Playwrights Horizon taste, the preponderance of post-FUDDY MEARS sustained sketches with calculated, wink-wink, irony-drenched cartoon figures masquerading as characters.) Caroline, accused of trying too many things, in aiming for the head AND the heart, at least seems to be aiming high.

Updated On: 5/3/04 at 03:44 PM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 3:59pm

"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".

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 4:26pm

Where is Larry Hart when he's truly needed?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 4:36pm

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

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 5:00pm

Ask Richard Goldstein, Executive Editor of The Village Voice (and noted Kushner shill).

As I recall Goldstein caused to be published his rather extensive opinions on Gibson's film THE PASSION without having seen the film. He proudly stated how he was banned from screenings but was relying on the comments of friends to form his opinions

Not seeing the film didn't stop Mr. Executive Editor.

Go figure.



Updated On: 5/3/04 at 05:00 PM

[MusicMan]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 5:08pm

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.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 5:14pm

I guess this means this will be now be known as

COC



Updated On: 5/3/04 at 05:14 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 5:26pm

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.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 5:54pm

This is a terrific, smart, and moving show. Brantley is an idiot who prefers ding-a-ling entertainments. He's just not a very smart or astute critic, there's no passion in his reviews the way there was in Frank Rich's or even Clive Barnes'. They are like high-brow book reports. I can just picture his review for something like the original production of "Company": Well, it has no plot, the characters are unlikable...there's no way this will survive on Broadway." All this obsession with what's "bankable" in today's critics, it's bull****. That's not their job. I agree that Margo Jefferson should take over his post.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 6:22pm

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.

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

[Menken Fan]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 6:24pm

I saw Caroline for the second time on Saturday, and loved it even more than the first. It's a smart story, with complex emotions and outstanding acting. Tonya blows me away with her quiet fury in this role. If you're looking for a feel-good show, production numbers, "bloopers", flashy costumes, fountains, chandeliers, or a book awkwardly molded around a music catalog, this isn't the show for you.

I thought it was a lot like Falsettos or Violet. But, I did notice that it wasn't entirely unique. It's the third current show to feature a Supremes-like trio, and the second current show to feature an African-American, Tony-Award-winning actress doing some ironing (third if you count Harvey).

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/04 at 6:31pm

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