if "Desperately Seeking Susan" comes to Broadway- Page 2

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/17/07 at 1:30pm

Paul Taylor in the Independent –

“Here, a delightful film has been adapted with clunky literalism (by Peter Michael Marino) and the resulting mess has been pumped with phoney energy by the uninspired direction (from Angus Jackson) and by the well-executed but terminally banal choreography (by Andy Blankenbuehler). Easing with finesse into Madonna's ripped tights, Emma Williams is in strong voice but fails to tantalise as a SoHo vamp. She and Kelly Price as the housewife from Squaresville who assumes Susan's identity are swamped by the idiocies of the adaptation. Take the glorious bit in the movie where Madonna dries her armpits using an upturned hand dryer in the toilets. Williams is allowed to raise her arm for all of three seconds in the vague direction of an unmodified machine. The moment does not work either as an allusion to the film or in its own right … Frantically seeking profit, this is a show that may have to be renamed ‘Desperately Avoiding Closure’.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/17/07 at 1:33pm

As much as i LOVE Emma Williams (in fact we were in stage school together at stage 84) she is hideously miscast as susan, she has none of the charisma Madonna had in that role.

Though even with a new actress in that role it would not help this lackluster show

here is a video from their website of the show

http://www.seeking-susan.com/

I also love how on their web site there is a section devoted to News and Reviews....oddly enough it has no reviews in it lol

Updated On: 11/17/07 at 01:33 PM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/17/07 at 7:10pm

Variety mixed to negative

I can see it now: Some bright spark will grab the back catalog of the Doors and open a musical version of "The Towering Inferno" with "Come On, Baby, Light My Fire." To be fair, "Desperately Seeking Susan" -- the stage blending of Blondie's hits with the 1980s cult movie -- never stoops that low. But it's soon depressingly clear that this combination of on-the-beat rock and off-beat comedy is less a collusion than a collision.

The production's basic problem is its lack of imagination. The book, by Off Broadway writer/performer Peter Michael Marino, doesn't so much cleave as cling to the movie's mistaken identity/life-swap plot, which was none too watertight to begin with.

Frustrated housewife Roberta (Kelly Price in the Rosanna Arquette role) escapes suburbia by following sassy drifter Susan (Emma Williams stepping into Madonna's shoes) who has accidentally become involved in the fall-out of a heist plot.

A blow to her head from the bad guy leaves Roberta with amnesia, and, because she's dressed as Susan and everyone thinks she's Susan, she does, too. Inappropriate romantic complications ensue for both women until a happy ending is reached for almost everyone.

The movie switches with ease between the two women's trajectories. All it has to do is cut. Onstage, that's not only cumbersome, it's time-consuming with so many locations and set-ups to, well, set up.

Tim Hatley's functional, twin-level stage space edged by two barely used iron stairways helps matters along, but with so much plot to get through, almost no scene is given time to breathe let alone allow for audience engagement. The consequent lack of emotional connection is the show's single most grievous and damaging omission.

The other structural problem is unexpected. It's not that the well-loved Blondie songs don't fit the action -- it's that they do. The opening sequence finds Roberta feeling frustrated and Susan irritated and disaffected. They're both dreaming: Cue song of the same name, which augurs well for the evening as a whole.

But, after that, in almost every instance, instead of advancing plot or building tension, the numbers merely (over)illustrate what we already know. The songs don't dramatize situations -- they prolong them. In "Atomic," for instance, during which Roberta and Dez (under-used Alec Newman) fall for each other, the lyrics simply restate an emotion endlessly, leaving no room for dramatic development.

The singing is the show's strongest point. The cast have uniformly solid voices, especially Mark McGee as Susan's band-singer boyfriend, who delivers serious rock vocals. Williams' sneering Susan, made up to look more like Debbie Harry than Madonna, compensates in vocal power for what she lacks in real sexual threat.

When it comes to adding Blondie to pump up the sex, Paul Schrader got there first. He hired Harry to sex up his movie "American Gigolo," singing "Call Me." But that was soundtrack embellishment; here the music is very much present. But is the music or the movie in the driver's seat? Fatally, director Angus Jackson never makes it clear. The show wants it both ways but winds up delivering on neither.

The unchanging atmosphere and absence of tension are also attributable to Andy Blankenbuehler's anodyne choreography. For no convincing dramatic reason, dancers fill otherwise intimate scenes. What comes off is neither heat nor excitement, it's the effort involved in the numbers' execution. No matter how different the songs are, the largely characterless movement means they all end up feeling the same.

As if realizing the show needs help, Hugh Vanstone's busy lighting plot flings color and cues at everything in an attempt to generate energy.

In pursuit of the same goal, the sound designers whack up the volume. That causes the singers to struggle for audibility; the top of almost everyone's registers sound harsh, which is particularly unflattering to Price's otherwise sweetly naive Roberta. Her performance is equaled only by Victoria Hamilton-Barritt's zinger as the eye-flashing, reproving maid Maria, who goes gloriously wild at Susan's impromptu party.

The clue here, sadly, is in the title. The desperation on display is that of a production team trying to hide the awareness it has painted itself into a corner. Instead of keeping the basic plot and then ditching and reimagining everything else in theatrical terms -- see "Billy Elliot" or "The Lion King" -- the fidelity of this screen-to-stage transfer is its undoing.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935449.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 5:26am

Now, with all the press crits in, this show will have dissapeared within 3 or 4 weeks. Only to be remembered as one of those classic West End musical (major) disasters.

Updated On: 11/19/07 at 05:26 AM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 9:08am

we just love our bad musicals dont we wickedboy2

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 9:26am

.....bring em on! Whats next, now lets see?????

Updated On: 11/19/07 at 09:26 AM

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 11:19am

....oh yes! The next one to say hello / goodbye to will be 'Gone With The Wind', unless something better/worse comes along before April and im sure there will be.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 3:05pm

I cant say im surprised about Susan's failure

i was shocked at how little people cared about this show opening

[ruprecht]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 3:27pm

Why Songman? It was a decades old indie film which was only popular because it had new star Madonna (and her hit song) in it. Not exactly a great idea for a musical.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 3:30pm

The film was a huge hit for its time, critics loved it and yes whilst madonnas great performance and presence helped the film was still praised to about the same degree Legally Blonde or the Wedding singer was

[ruprecht]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 3:37pm

I'm not debating the films merits although to my knowledge, it was still a bigger "hit" because of Madonna, I was giving a possible reason why "people cared so little about it's opening".

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 6:37pm

There was absolutly no buzz around the theatre world for 'Susan'- none what so ever. I spent many nights talking with friends and after a few weeks noticed that not on one occassion did the show get mentioned. A very unusual situation for a brand new West End show. Sad but true. I sat thru it on 2 occasions and was totaly inmoved by what was on stage. Its a souless production with nothing going for it.

Updated On: 11/19/07 at 06:37 PM

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 11/19/07 at 6:44pm

"Besides, it's got 2 strikes against it. It's a musical based on a movie AND it's a jukebox musical."

Exactly what I said when I first heard about this.