ZHIVAGO 5/20/06, my impressions

[dented146]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 8:11pm

About two weeks ago, while Tarzan was opening on Broadway, the musical Zhivago opened quietly in previews at the La Jolla Playhouse. I attended the last preview performance on Saturday. What follows are my personal feelings and observations.

Zhivago is good. I'm not sure how good. Audiences in New York might respond differently. It was a home crowd. Standing ovation-positive buzz-everything you'd expect. But putting that aside, or at least trying to, I still feel that " good " falls well within the lines. I'd see it again in a heartbeat. I was very moved at the end and enjoyed the show very much. I believe the audience genuinely felt the same way. You can see it in the faces


Des McAnuff came out prior to the start to warn that there could be a train wreck at some time during the show but it went very smoothly and, believe me, a lot goes on. After reading about the trials of Lestat and Tarzan I can say with certainty that Zhivago is not a mess. The storyline is defined, complex,and cohesive. The characters are very well drawn. It is not evenly good. The scenes in which there are only two or three main characters are the strongest. The war scenes and protest scenes have to be there or else it's not Zhivago. and to my mind they are staged with quite a bit of finesse. But it's the intimate scenes between the leads that lifts this musical.

Lucy Simon has composed several wonderful ballads and they are used beautifully at times. Spoiler next as a example.

In act 1 behind the battle lines, Yuri and Lara sing a letter left by a dead 15 year old boy to the girl he has always been afraid to approach. It's a lovely song. And it's clear that the sentiment in the letter is the same one that Yuri and Lara have been afraid to admit to each other. Without a word spoken, Lara and Yuri know they can no longer deny their love. I thought it was great theatre. There are a number strong scenes with music and lyrics which do grab you.

Act 1 is about 70 minutes. Act 2 was just under one hour. The cast numbers about 26.


The musical gets better as it goes along. I believe it is because the relationships between the characters become more personal and Michael Weller who wrote the book is clearly,very comfortable with that one on one interplay.

On a tread prior to previews someone stated that the lyrics were weak and some people were laughing at inappropriate times. That was not the case. The lyrics by Michael Korie (Grey Gardens)and Amy Powers seemed just fine to me.

There was one battlefield/medical scene which was a little corny but that was about it. Of course, a different audience might see it differently.

The cast was very good. Ivan Hernandez is a terrific Zhivago and Jessica Burrows, she will make Broadway hers. She has grace and a wonderful voice. Matt Bogart was terrific as a tormented Pasha and Rena Stober fit nicely as Tonya

The staging is complex. There is a large flat train car that enters from a tunnel at the rear of the stage. It is used to move troops and relocate people. The lighting was extremely well done and played a big role in the production. In the second act the backdrop was a huge frosted stained glass. Very simple really but very effective. It lent aymosphere to the intimate scenes and could be projected upon.

Overall, you lose the incredible scenic spectacle found in the movie but the story is very well presented. We are kept abreast of the time frame very simply by having a member of the ensemble say,between scenes " Moscow two years later". It is a big story played over a period of several years with war, riots civil war-chaos. But in the audience, you know when and were you are.

Paramount to everything else, this is a love story. And this is where, I believe, the creative team has made the leap successfully. The relationship between Lara and the three men who love her, holds you attention with both the words and the music.

I liked it very much.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 8:12pm

McAnuff sure loves those "it may be a trainwreck" speeches.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 8:18pm

I saw it's final dress and it was 2 hours 45 min. I also really liked it, its not AMAZING, but it is certainly a nice piece of theater and I found it very touching.

[sanda]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 10:33pm

Thanks for the great review. I am looking forward to this show making to Broadway someday.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 12:35am

I'd love to get Matt Bogart back on Broadway.

[zannadont]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 12:37am

hey do you think i need to get advanced tickets for this or will i probably be able to get a student rush ticket for it?

[respeck]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 1:25am

When I saw it some of the set actually broke and fell down. I loved it.

Anyway, I think the biggest problem is that if you don't know the movie, you're lost. I had never seen it and had a hard time following it. My mother knew the movie and had to explain some of it to me. Now, I'm in college, so it's not like it went over my head. I just think it lacks some of the character and story development that the movie and book must have.


zannadont, I don't think La Jolla does student rush.
Updated On: 5/23/06 at 01:25 AM

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 1:43am

Respeck did you see the production from last summer? That was very different from the one that is at the playhouse right now. I didn't see the movie, and I did not find it hard to understand at all. They changed a lot about it. Yesterday (Sunday May 21st) there was a great article in the LA Times Calender Part Two, about the changes that it went through.

[dented146]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 2:01am

respeck, I think what you're saying will be true for anyone who isn't somewhat familiar with the history of Russia at that time. I suspect that a minority of college students these days hear much about that time period.

Zhivago is a love story that passes through that turbulent period. The writers can't change the history. In fact, the characters in the story often refuse to believe that so many bad things have befallen them.

Also, according to comments by Michael Weller, the musical was never meant to follow the plot or events of the movie. The book by Pasternak was the source for the play.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 2:11am

dented146, thanks for passing so much on about this play.

The movie was a great classic.

I look forward to seeing the stage play and its interpretation of the story.

I'm glad it's not intended as a mere imitation of the movie as I hope it utilizes the advantages of live theatre to tell its tale...

[zannadont]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 9:53am

i read on their website that they do $20 day of tickets

[respeck]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 12:43pm

neddy, I actually saw it last week. The show I was supposed to see the day before was cancelled because of the set malfunctioning, so of course I had to go to the next day to see it. It stopped the show for about 15 minutes. But after that it was fine.

and dented, I guess I should rephrase what I said. It's not like I wasn't getting what was going on historically. It just seemed amazingly dull, and later I heard people from the movie talking about "the amazing snow in the movie" and "beautiful shots they re-did on stage." So I think this production had lost both the characters and the setting a little.

But any sort of Broadway run is far in the future so I'm sure it will have changed

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 1:21pm

MY bad respeck, I thought that you meant you had gone into college after seeing it. The only thing that I found hard to understand is when the house was given away, and they said they donated it.

[respeck]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 1:25pm

No problem.

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 1:40pm

I can't wait to see how this show turns out. The story itself is so classic and is perfect to transfer to musical theatre.

And not to mention of love to big epic, historical, romantic musicals.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 5/23/06 at 1:44pm

Yes and they perfectly transferd it to a musical theatre. I think that themajority of the people will like it, maybe a few of the critics won't, because the critics will prob. just point out it's flaws which they tend to do instead of focusing on what is good.

[Labashier]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 11:59am

I personally thought it was a trainwreck. The majority of the material was brilliant, and the score was gorgeous, but the soldier scenes and songs seemed terribly out of place. The show shifts rapidly between an intimate love story with a soaring chamber score to a wanna-be Les Mis imitation, complete with bright flashing lights and overdone orchestrations and forgettable songs.

The set was also a mess; in true Des McAnuff fashion, set pieces were moving on and off every ten seconds, yet they were still vague enough that actors had to come onstage and announce the current location, workshop-style.

The cast is fantastic, there are a number of really touching scenes, and the good parts of the score give Secret Garden a run for its money, but in my mind the soldier scenes just ruin it. I think part of the problem is that they are trying to do too much; you can't effectively communicate a gigantic novel in a 2-hour musical without cutting something out.

[ShuQ]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 12:43pm

Would you say it has potential though? Is it a revisable mess?

[respeck]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 2:48pm

It's hard to say when this is the same team that did Dracula, you know?
Updated On: 5/24/06 at 02:48 PM

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 2:52pm

I think this is far better than Dracula.

[respeck]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 2:55pm

True, but it still needs work of course.

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 3:35pm

I saw it on SUnday the 21st. I thought it was good but not the kind of show that would succeed on Broadway in this pleasant climate. I think the days of dramatic mega-musicals (Les Miz, Miss Saigon, Woman In White) are gone. People want comedy and entertainment, not serious mega-musicals.

[beav]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 4:50pm

I saw Zhivago, and while it had some problems, I thought it was excellent. Very emotional. The score is the best I've heard in some time. And the performances, especially by the men, were all top notch. It gets a little melo-dramatic at times, and a bit over the top. But to me it works. The 2nd act rushes a little bit. Hopefully they will even out the pace. It definitely has similarities to Les Mis, but it's a bit more impressionistic. This was on purpose--the announcing of scene locations I thought was kind of cool. When I saw it, there was almost an immediate standing ovation. I think this is because the final number is very emotional. It makes you feel like you've been on a journey. When the chorus comes in at the end it is really striking. It made me realize that the theater can provide real emotion, and not just half-witted mediocre humor.

[Labashier]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 6:23pm

I feel the show would be VERY fixable under a different director. I think that if they flat-out cut all the soldier material, the show would be ready to take to Broadway. The removal of 1/3 of the material could also be used to slow the pace down, stopping the show from feeling so rushed. But knowing Des, this won't happen.

[SPOILER]
Here's an example of what I think is wrong with this show. The third-to-last scene is this really emotional scene between Strelnikov and Zhivago. It's a fantastic scene, and works really well in context. The last scene is also very touching(except for Zhivago's grand descent from the ceiling, which was so corny it made me laugh). However, in between, they have a mood-breaking scene with a bunch of soldiers marching around and singing some awful song to remind you that Communists have come into power, just in case it hadn't already been made 100% clear in the previous scene that they were going to come into power, or you hadn't caught the hints that they were going to get into power throughout the entire show. Or, for that matter, your knowledge of history. So to tell you something that you probably already know (and, honestly, doesn't affect your enjoyment of the story in any way), they completely ruin the mood of the show heading into the final scene. Brilliant, just brilliant.
[END SPOILER] Updated On: 5/24/06 at 06:23 PM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 7:29pm

I waited too long.....everywhere I look says SOLD OUT.