Broadway Banter - Autumn '10
Oct 24th, 2010 | 02:05 PM
#61
Joined: Jan 2003
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Well, you all may be right. I expected a show about "the boys" - hence the name and all the hype in our program about the history, photos, etc. The Guthrie is big on back story and history. So that was my mindset. I was very disappointed. If one looks at "the boys" as a collective vehicle for telling the history of racism in a particular era of our country, maybe it works on that level. However, if I am supposed to feel some since of guilt for the sins of previous generations, it would have helped to build in some compassion for the victims, ala, To Kill a Mockingbird or Cry, The Beloved Country.
Maybe I missed the point, but I kept feeling that the producers weren't a heck of a lot better in their treatment of the boys than society had been in the 30s. How are the producers of this Broadway show different than the producers of a minstrel show? White men making money off of the stories/performances of black men. I would never attend a minstrel show, so maybe that is why I disliked The Scottsboro Boys so much -- I felt like I had been coerced into watching something that I find distasteful to the core. I came away angry to have underwritten the performance with my ticket purchase.
Maybe I missed the point, but I kept feeling that the producers weren't a heck of a lot better in their treatment of the boys than society had been in the 30s. How are the producers of this Broadway show different than the producers of a minstrel show? White men making money off of the stories/performances of black men. I would never attend a minstrel show, so maybe that is why I disliked The Scottsboro Boys so much -- I felt like I had been coerced into watching something that I find distasteful to the core. I came away angry to have underwritten the performance with my ticket purchase.
Oct 24th, 2010 | 04:18 PM
#62
Joined: Jan 2007
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Or, perhaps the boys aren't treated as individuals because too little is actually known about them individually. I wouldn't want the producers making up back story or personality traits for the 9 just to make us feel more sympathetic. Even in a History Channel show I've seen on the Scottsboro boys, far far more details are included about the lawyer than any of the 9 boys.
Oct 24th, 2010 | 04:41 PM
#63
Joined: Oct 2006
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"I felt like I had been coerced into watching something that I find distasteful to the core."
Exactly and I think that was my point. A distasteful to the core treatment of a distasteful to the core event. Not an attempt to "glorify" or even "explain" the event. But yes, I can easily see how it wouldn't work for everyone.
Exactly and I think that was my point. A distasteful to the core treatment of a distasteful to the core event. Not an attempt to "glorify" or even "explain" the event. But yes, I can easily see how it wouldn't work for everyone.
Oct 26th, 2010 | 06:27 PM
#64
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>
Wow, TC! I don't think about producers when I consider a play I've just seen. I think of them as business investors looking for a good return on their money. Your description makes the boys sound victimized once again - an interesting idea. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a fine example of a story that resonates so deeply with the reader (or viewer of the movie) resulting in empathy because the characters are so well developed. This play did not come close to arousing those type of feelings - not in me anyway.
Wow, TC! I don't think about producers when I consider a play I've just seen. I think of them as business investors looking for a good return on their money. Your description makes the boys sound victimized once again - an interesting idea. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a fine example of a story that resonates so deeply with the reader (or viewer of the movie) resulting in empathy because the characters are so well developed. This play did not come close to arousing those type of feelings - not in me anyway.
Oct 26th, 2010 | 07:33 PM
#66
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 84,782
Likes: 46
I LOVED Million Dollar Quartet. LOVED it.
90 nonstop minutes, 24 songs, the true story interwoven in between.
On the night of Dec. 4, 1956, Sam Phillips made arrangements for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and the unknown Jerry Lee Lewis to be at Sun Records at the same time. An impromptu jam season occured and this is a recreation of that jam session with a couple of nice surprises at the end.
I looked around and was happy to see big smiles on a wide assortment of faces. It's just a great show for everyone.
The quartet had honed the show in Chicago for 2 years so when it hit Broadway it was a finely tuned show. Loved, loved, loved it. It was my biggest surprise and my favorite show from my NYC Broadway week - well after seeing Miss Barbara Cook onstage for the first time.
http://www.milliondollarquartetlive.com/about.html
90 nonstop minutes, 24 songs, the true story interwoven in between.
On the night of Dec. 4, 1956, Sam Phillips made arrangements for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and the unknown Jerry Lee Lewis to be at Sun Records at the same time. An impromptu jam season occured and this is a recreation of that jam session with a couple of nice surprises at the end.
I looked around and was happy to see big smiles on a wide assortment of faces. It's just a great show for everyone.
The quartet had honed the show in Chicago for 2 years so when it hit Broadway it was a finely tuned show. Loved, loved, loved it. It was my biggest surprise and my favorite show from my NYC Broadway week - well after seeing Miss Barbara Cook onstage for the first time.
http://www.milliondollarquartetlive.com/about.html
Oct 29th, 2010 | 04:13 AM
#69
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'Angels in America' opened last night. I would love to see this. Anyone going?
http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/10/2...ml?ref=theater
http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/10/2...ml?ref=theater
Nov 1st, 2010 | 04:06 AM
#70
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'Scottsboro Boys' opened last night and was reviewed by Charles Isherwood. There were many aspects that were liked; the score, choreography and of course, the fine cast.
I've posted the link to the full review, but the excerpt below sums up what I had posted earlier about my feelings on seeing the play:
" Anyone who has seen “Chicago,” the glorious Kander & Ebb musical that has become the longest-running revival in Broadway history, will sense an affinity in the neo-Brechtian style and aggressively satiric tone of “The Scottsboro Boys” (not to mention recognize a few musical vamps and rhythmic riffs). The difference is that the moral stakes in “Chicago” were nonexistent. Although it was also based on a sensational real-life court case, the saga of Velma and Roxie was a lurid tabloid stew of cheating wives and jealous husbands. Watching the merry murderesses exploit gullible journalists and greedy lawyers to pursue their own ends was guilt-free fun, as the American justice system was mocked as just another branch of show business.
The spectacle of the same system destroying innocent lives does not make quite such an appealing subject for winking jokes and soft shoes, particularly when the victims are potent historical symbols. (And when racism in the American courts has not necessarily gone the way of segregated lunch counters.) For queasy-making moments in musical theater, I’m not sure anything can top the number crisply titled “Electric Chair,” a tap dance presented here as the nightmare of the youngest prisoner.
The laughs should curdle in your throat, unless you simply choose to disengage with the underlying story completely. Mr. Kander and Mr. Ebb have written a zesty if not top-tier score, but the pleasures of a jaunty ragtime melody and a clever lyric are hard to savor when they are presented in such an unavoidably grim context. Like “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” the intermissionless “Scottsboro Boys,” which runs a bit under two hours, suffers from a problem of monotony, as the scabrous comic tone spreads like shellac across almost every sequence.
But the musical never really resolves the tension between its impulse to entertain us with hoary jokes and quivering tambourines and the desire to render the harsh morals of its story with earnest insistence. The occasional portentous sound of a single bass drumbeat is like a summons from recess back to the schoolroom. “The Scottsboro Boys” earns admiration for its stylistic daring and obvious ambition, but I’m not sure it’s possible to honor the experience of the men it portrays while turning their suffering into a colorful sideshow."
http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/11/0...ml?ref=theater
I've posted the link to the full review, but the excerpt below sums up what I had posted earlier about my feelings on seeing the play:
" Anyone who has seen “Chicago,” the glorious Kander & Ebb musical that has become the longest-running revival in Broadway history, will sense an affinity in the neo-Brechtian style and aggressively satiric tone of “The Scottsboro Boys” (not to mention recognize a few musical vamps and rhythmic riffs). The difference is that the moral stakes in “Chicago” were nonexistent. Although it was also based on a sensational real-life court case, the saga of Velma and Roxie was a lurid tabloid stew of cheating wives and jealous husbands. Watching the merry murderesses exploit gullible journalists and greedy lawyers to pursue their own ends was guilt-free fun, as the American justice system was mocked as just another branch of show business.
The spectacle of the same system destroying innocent lives does not make quite such an appealing subject for winking jokes and soft shoes, particularly when the victims are potent historical symbols. (And when racism in the American courts has not necessarily gone the way of segregated lunch counters.) For queasy-making moments in musical theater, I’m not sure anything can top the number crisply titled “Electric Chair,” a tap dance presented here as the nightmare of the youngest prisoner.
The laughs should curdle in your throat, unless you simply choose to disengage with the underlying story completely. Mr. Kander and Mr. Ebb have written a zesty if not top-tier score, but the pleasures of a jaunty ragtime melody and a clever lyric are hard to savor when they are presented in such an unavoidably grim context. Like “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” the intermissionless “Scottsboro Boys,” which runs a bit under two hours, suffers from a problem of monotony, as the scabrous comic tone spreads like shellac across almost every sequence.
But the musical never really resolves the tension between its impulse to entertain us with hoary jokes and quivering tambourines and the desire to render the harsh morals of its story with earnest insistence. The occasional portentous sound of a single bass drumbeat is like a summons from recess back to the schoolroom. “The Scottsboro Boys” earns admiration for its stylistic daring and obvious ambition, but I’m not sure it’s possible to honor the experience of the men it portrays while turning their suffering into a colorful sideshow."
http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/11/0...ml?ref=theater
Nov 1st, 2010 | 06:33 AM
#72
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Thanks TC. Everyone has their own opinion - especially in the arts - and I frequently don't agree with reviewers, but I posted this because it captured my feelings and perhaps, stated it more clearly than I had or could.
Nov 4th, 2010 | 05:26 PM
#73
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Another new production coming to Lincoln Center (the smaller Mitzi Newhouse theater) for December through February. Called 'Other Desert Cities,' it's to be directed by Joe Mantello; Stockard Channing, Stacy Keach and Linda Lavin are in the cast. It should be exciting to see them in such a small venue. Member tix on sale 11/22 and public tix on sale 11/28. www.lct.org
Nov 6th, 2010 | 08:33 AM
#78
Joined: Mar 2007
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My husband and I will be in NYC for 16 days from the end of this month. We have tickets for Driving Miss Daisy with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave and Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino. First Broadway shows, first time in NYC, first time in the USA. Very excited!
Nov 6th, 2010 | 07:51 PM
#79
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Bwino - I'm excited for you. Have a fantastic time!
We saw 'Merchant of Venice' this afternoon. Although I am so glad that I got to see Al Pacino perform live - he is a real pro - I did not like the play nor the production. More tomorrow on that.
We saw 'Merchant of Venice' this afternoon. Although I am so glad that I got to see Al Pacino perform live - he is a real pro - I did not like the play nor the production. More tomorrow on that.
