Yes, Another BROOKYN Review - 10/9 — Page 4

Attended Brooklyn last night. It was a benefit performance for The Best of Brooklyn. Most of the house was sold to Brooklynites who were there with Borough Pres. Marty Markowitz. They came there excited but I noticed that atmosphere deteriorate throughout the almost 1 hr. 45 min. show.

Many people leaving the theater expressed disappointment at the show being way too loud with one performer trying to outscream the other. The music began to sound the same. By the end of the first half hour, I observed people all around the orchestra section beginning to squirm, check their watches and demonstrate other signs of boredom. About half the audience gave the show the obligatory standing ovation but no one went out humming anything but La La La La La and not in the proper tune.

I had hoped for better and would rate the show a weak 6 out of 10. I went there wanting to love it but must say it just didnt have the book, music and moment of explosion needed in a great musical. It might work better off broadway in a smaller house with about 20-30 mins. less material. I predict very mixed reviews mostly on the negative side and a struggle to last on Bway. I hope I am wrong and never enjoy seeing a show close HOWEVER I know what I observed and it wasnt a memorable night of theater.

Lol, Wickedfan2, I think I might be getting confused now too! :)

Okay, the way I viewed this was that: The moment streetsinger starts the story, Brooklyn becomes that famous singer and I'm not saying that she should wear what the street performers are wearing BUT she should wear something a lot nicer than what she ends up wearing. She's a famous singer (within Clevant's story) and I just think that should be represented more (but nothing to elaborate that it stands out and is too distracting).

As to your point about Brooklyn being famous but is homeless, I thought about that too and perhaps all the references to Brooklyn saying she's homeless might do with the fact that because she doesn't really belong anywhere and have a family... that makes her homeless. But I just think that's way too confusing but I think our posts back and forth represent a HUGE problem with the musical. It's really confusing and no one really KNOWS what is going on and what is fantasy and what is reality. And that's a problem from what I hear hasn't been fixed yet. I mean taking out Karen coming out 15 minutes before the show is good but that could have stayed compared to the other issues this musical faces. And I'm not trying to trash it in anyway but there's a problem when a storyline is as confusing as Brooklyn and it's not being fixed or clarified a bit more.

Thanks NStar - It is a bit confusing...but I thought that was just me... :-0

Not to diss something that I know some people love and/or start a fight or antyhing but sadly, I must concur.

I saw 5 shows this weekend and Brooklyn was the only one I even remotely disliked - and I was extremely disappointed.

I agree - Eden has nice chops but overall I wasn't very impressed with her. I DO feel like that was because there's more there than is shown in the show. Ramona - TOTALLY reminded me of a young Patti Labelle as well! She is amazing and so captivating to watch. I felt she stole the show. Cleavant was wonderful as well, just such a veteran of Broadway - I felt that shone through. However I also feel like there is m uch more HE is capable of than just 'narrating' and such - give him something with some emotional chops, y'know? I also LOVED Karen Olivo and felt she was extremely underused. Kevin Anderson - I didn't think he was bad at all but he didn't blow m e away or anything.

The set and costumes...can't find the right way to describe it. It was extremely creative and neat to watch...but to the point that A: I found myself more excited to see what neat set or costume gimmick was coming next rather than what would happen in the show and B: it was a bit over the top for me. If you're going to use that concept of poor street people performing a show, than it should have been something a little more simple - yes, fix the garbage bag costume up a bit so it's not just literally a garbage bag, but making a gorgeous gown out of it is a LITTLE too much for me and just made it unbelievable and made it feel more like a gimmick than a justified concept to me.

The songs felt absolutely pointless. They neither captured a great moment where we were dying to know what that character was thinking, showed a big change in the character, nor served to move the story along. The only one I liked for its musicality (for I felt there was no other purpose for the songs anywasy) was Brooklyn Grew Up, and even that was eh. It felt like a musical of Diane Warren songs or something.

And the story...it seemed like it was trying to be too deep, jumping around A LOT, pretty farfetched at times, and I felt a bit self-indulgent and preachy. Had I NOT known the personal story of the composer however, I dunno if I'd have felt the same.

Someone had told me prior to my trip not to see Brooklyn - to save my money. For whatever reason I felt I needed to see for myself. Fifty-five dollars later I wish I'd have waited for a bootleg if anything.

But by all means, judge for yourself.

I certainly do not wish for this show to be unsuccessful. I just think it has a lot of revisions and work before it gets to where it needs to be to be successful for its run. I certainly wish it the best though! :)

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Reviews come out later this week... and i'm kinda nervous. I feel like there is so much dam hype around this show, that it's going to get reviews it doesn't deserve. It has to say somehting when every single person comes back from it saying that same things.... the performers are good but the show is crap.

they have really bright futures though... 4 of them are relatively young, and Eden is gonna kick ass in whatever she does..

P.S.

That wasn't meant to start anything more.
Love U All and Justin G-string.

Updated On: 10/18/04 at 02:19 PM

BLUEROSES- I agree with you. There was a ton of hype surrounding her, and i only heard great things about her performance in Wicked. And although I beleive she has great talent, and "Once Upon a Time" blew me away, I in no way agree that she is any type of gift from G-d. She still sounds very young, but still has plenty of time to mature.. and grow out of that "screechy" aspct of her voice.
I have no doubt that she will do well.... in a better show than BKLYN : )

who are you, miss cleo with your predictions?

Didn't Miss Cleo go to jail for fraud?

oh noooooo Amneris you didn't!!! LOL

ooh ooh ooh - I finally pinpointed a way to word my probs with the costume and set:

It was very poor use of suspension of disbelief. The story gets you to the point where you believe what yu're seeing, despite so many things that aren't possible, but then tries to pull itself OUT of that suspension of disbelief by saying "we know you won't believe that they could really be wearing a nice ball gown here or that the angel would have wings cause these are poor streetsingers putting this on for you" by making things even MORE unrealistic in their use of garbage bags as fancy gowns, etc.

does that m ake more sense?

They should have just gone with teh suspension of disbelief, ignored the 'pulling you back to reality' bit, because unlike Brecht it didn't have (although it could if done right) a heavy personal message to ring through to each audience member, and let it get fancy, and at the END return us to teh world of the storytellers on the streets.

Just my opinion.

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