#1
Posted: 10/28/08 at 10:06pm
So I went to see the first preview of ROAD SHOW this evening with basically blind. I had never heard any of the music, only knew about the plot from the synopsis on the Public Theater website, and only knew it was Stephen Sondheim's new show starring Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani.
And to be honest that's about as much as I know after seeing the show. It's very uninvolving and very cold-feeling. None of the characters are fleshed out fully and the book is so bad that you don't care for any of the characters or the outcome of the plot. The first half of the show (up until the entrance of the characters Hollis) I found to be, truthfully, terrible. It's poorly paced, almost laughably conceived, and the music seems like recycled Sondheim songs. Then after the entrance of Hollis, finally we see some character development that actually works. The scene wherein Addison begins to build houses first for Hollis' aunt and then for the rest of the town really was the only moment in the show where the score soared, the drama clicked, the comedy was sharp, and the show really worked like a well-oiled machine.
Everything else is very clunky, very forced, and very (again) cold. That was what I felt throughout the show...none of it seems real or relatable or involving it's all very obvious that we are WATCHING A MUSICAL not INVOLVED IN THE MUSICAL.
As I said, the book is honestly pretty awful and ill-conceived attempts at dark humor come off as awkward and forced. And then there's the score. God knows I love Stephen Sondheim and when he's inventive and smart, his music is incomparable. He is a genius. But when he rips himself off, as he is doing here, creating the same melodies and rhyming patterns we have heard again and again from him, his music is less organic-feeling and it doesn't register because we have heard it before. And for those who aren't familiar with Sondheim, the score will seem repetitive and (I'm using a direct quote I heard from someone who left the theater in front of me) "pretentious."
And then there are the performances, the aspect of the show I was most interested in seeing. The cast is (vocally) strong and can pull of Sondheim's trademark quick rhymes and unique melodies like gangbusters. Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani were both, truthfully, somewhat underwhelming. They are obviously trying very hard to give good performances but Cerveris comes off a bit too crazed and manic and Gemignani is a bit too naive and innocent. Since the book doesn't let us get deeply involved in either, I was clinging to the idea that these two great talents would give us something to grab onto but there wasn't much there. They sound great and when they are hitting the right emotional notes, it rings true, but those moments (for me) were few and far between.
The best aspect of the show is the direction. John Doyle is a freakin' genius. He has done such brilliant work show after show after show and here he takes a lot of chances directorially and most of them pay off. The one thing that doesn't pay off is that throughout the show characters are constantly throwing dollar bills into the air so that by the end of the show the stage is littered in money...it's a good idea but it was overkill after the five millionth time it happened. The set (also designed by Doyle) is a barricade of suitcases and drawers and file cabinets and crates and trunks and Doyle has the cast working around them and on them in ways that I found to be truly innovative and at times brilliant. He is a master at being able to be innovative and fresh as well as classic in terms of helping the progression of the plot.
The rest of the technical aspects were all fine (I liked the costumes, especially the idea of the ensemble wearing dresses and suits made out of what seemed to be some form of blueprints).
All in all, I really was dissapointed by ROAD SHOW. It's kind of a mess and (at this point at least) will doubtfully be making it to Broadway. I had a weird feeling after the first half hour of the show. I thought, this show should be two acts...everything feels so rushed. And then about twenty minutes before it ended, I thought, nevermind...the show is an hour and forty minutes and it feels WAY longer. The pacing is really a huge problem in the book and it doesn't know what to focus on. With an unfocused book, a good but not great cast, and a Sondheim score that seems to be a rip off of himself, ROAD SHOW is undoubtedly a strong effort (the idea is there) but the execution is just a mess. And it's a shame.
*1/2 out of ****
There was no song list in the Playbill, FYI.
And to be honest that's about as much as I know after seeing the show. It's very uninvolving and very cold-feeling. None of the characters are fleshed out fully and the book is so bad that you don't care for any of the characters or the outcome of the plot. The first half of the show (up until the entrance of the characters Hollis) I found to be, truthfully, terrible. It's poorly paced, almost laughably conceived, and the music seems like recycled Sondheim songs. Then after the entrance of Hollis, finally we see some character development that actually works. The scene wherein Addison begins to build houses first for Hollis' aunt and then for the rest of the town really was the only moment in the show where the score soared, the drama clicked, the comedy was sharp, and the show really worked like a well-oiled machine.
Everything else is very clunky, very forced, and very (again) cold. That was what I felt throughout the show...none of it seems real or relatable or involving it's all very obvious that we are WATCHING A MUSICAL not INVOLVED IN THE MUSICAL.
As I said, the book is honestly pretty awful and ill-conceived attempts at dark humor come off as awkward and forced. And then there's the score. God knows I love Stephen Sondheim and when he's inventive and smart, his music is incomparable. He is a genius. But when he rips himself off, as he is doing here, creating the same melodies and rhyming patterns we have heard again and again from him, his music is less organic-feeling and it doesn't register because we have heard it before. And for those who aren't familiar with Sondheim, the score will seem repetitive and (I'm using a direct quote I heard from someone who left the theater in front of me) "pretentious."
And then there are the performances, the aspect of the show I was most interested in seeing. The cast is (vocally) strong and can pull of Sondheim's trademark quick rhymes and unique melodies like gangbusters. Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani were both, truthfully, somewhat underwhelming. They are obviously trying very hard to give good performances but Cerveris comes off a bit too crazed and manic and Gemignani is a bit too naive and innocent. Since the book doesn't let us get deeply involved in either, I was clinging to the idea that these two great talents would give us something to grab onto but there wasn't much there. They sound great and when they are hitting the right emotional notes, it rings true, but those moments (for me) were few and far between.
The best aspect of the show is the direction. John Doyle is a freakin' genius. He has done such brilliant work show after show after show and here he takes a lot of chances directorially and most of them pay off. The one thing that doesn't pay off is that throughout the show characters are constantly throwing dollar bills into the air so that by the end of the show the stage is littered in money...it's a good idea but it was overkill after the five millionth time it happened. The set (also designed by Doyle) is a barricade of suitcases and drawers and file cabinets and crates and trunks and Doyle has the cast working around them and on them in ways that I found to be truly innovative and at times brilliant. He is a master at being able to be innovative and fresh as well as classic in terms of helping the progression of the plot.
The rest of the technical aspects were all fine (I liked the costumes, especially the idea of the ensemble wearing dresses and suits made out of what seemed to be some form of blueprints).
All in all, I really was dissapointed by ROAD SHOW. It's kind of a mess and (at this point at least) will doubtfully be making it to Broadway. I had a weird feeling after the first half hour of the show. I thought, this show should be two acts...everything feels so rushed. And then about twenty minutes before it ended, I thought, nevermind...the show is an hour and forty minutes and it feels WAY longer. The pacing is really a huge problem in the book and it doesn't know what to focus on. With an unfocused book, a good but not great cast, and a Sondheim score that seems to be a rip off of himself, ROAD SHOW is undoubtedly a strong effort (the idea is there) but the execution is just a mess. And it's a shame.
*1/2 out of ****
There was no song list in the Playbill, FYI.
Updated On: 10/28/08 at 10:06 PM
. And I really loved the Overture. 
