dogfight — Page 2

Thanks for answering, Katurian2.

I never heard of him before, I hope he's good. As you said, It's not an easy job to make this character likable (something River managed quite well in the movie).

---

The score was good, not incredible though. haha, there was a bit of riffing though. Not excessively. And there's one song that makes such clever use of the lyric-less 'bah dah bum' phrasing that it was absolutely forgivable. Mostly though, it was pretty tightly written- effective, but the more traditional songs were more straight forward than clever in many ways. Luckily, the direction and the actors added in plenty of touches during them that fleshed out their characters and ideas.

I think the biggest lost opportunity of the score was to not incorporate a bit more of the folk scene element in, which is a bit glaring since the character of Rose finds it so essential in her life. The song she's give to 'write' is folk-oriented, and one of the highlights of the whole score. It was too bad there wasn't a bit more of that, a bit less of the sung though as spoken type typical number.


kadu- it is a difficult task! The show is not rife with likable characters in the first place, with only Rose really sticking out as the one you pity and eventually come to love. His work in Act II, along with Mantello's really touching direction in the romantic portions, does accomplish the task a bit though.

---

I saw it tonight and thought it was just ok. I can't believe I'm agreeing with After Eight, but I found Act One to be much better than Act Two. In fact they should cut quite a bit and turn it into a 100 one act musical. All plot and conflict is wrapped by the end of the first act; the dogfight is won and done. There's zero tension is Act Two and it drags on and on.

Most of this musical takes place on the same day as one of my favorites, Caroline, or Change, but this is nowhere near as interesting musically, challenging thematically or has characters half as well-drawn. I found little in the music, dialogue (aside from constant references to Vietnam) or scenic design that invoked the early 60s.

The performances are the best part of the show, and as others have mentioned Lindsay Mendez does a great job. She really holds back vocally and doesn't oversing or riff all over the place. The control is much more impressive than the other style of singing. She gets to sing the best songs in the show too.

Annaleigh Ashford is fun, but her part is small and doesn't appear in Act Two. Derek Klena sounds great, but his character is pretty unlikable, so it's hard to care about his plight. The other Marines all seemed interchangeable- for the amount of stage time/songs they were allotted we never got to see them as unique characters. Rather than build up their storylines they should cut them down and let the focus lie with the two leads.

I will say nothing is ever campy or cringeworthy. It's all respectable and polished and above board. Great voices, correct pitches, no technical glitches. It just never involved me nor moved me.

---