Wednesday, September 15, 2010
LEO BLOOM'S DREAM COME TRUE: Have you ever wanted to be a Broadway producer? The much-postponed Broadway revival of Godspell is offering the general public a chance to invest and technically get a producer credit. I love the score of Godspell, but the revival, which in early development had Diana DeGarmo attached to it, does not seem to me to be the best investment decision.
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Agreed. Godspell is a fantastic cast album in search of a better book.
ReplyDeleteWho is DeGarmo playing?
I actually kind of like the book, but it's VERY dated and ill-suited to a big house (it's very much of its birth in the small theatre in the 60s). I saw a production a few years back at the York (beneath Citicorp Center) that was solid because it reorchestrated the music to contemporary rock styles--"Save The People" was reorchestrated as a REM-style jangle pop number.
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect, was quite cool since it was a tiny house and several of the folks who performed (Barrett Foa, Leslie Kritzer, Shoshana Bean) have gone on to bigger and better things.
Having done Godspell, I've always believed the book can only work as it was originally created--improvised around a set outline of parables by a cast playing a loosely defined collection of archetypes. A few scripted bits here and there to get signpost moments across but otherwise improvised each night. I don't think it really works as structured if scripted. And yet that's always how it's done.
ReplyDeleteAlas, alas for you, you're not making your investment back.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of albums in search of a better book, have any other DC-area Thing Throwers seen Chess at the Signature Theatre? What did you think? (I'd be willing to provide a comprehensive review if there's any interest.)
ReplyDeleteMy brother's stage debut (as a junior in high school) was as the lead in Godspell. The rest of the cast was horrible-- I don't think a single other member of hte cast could sing on key but my brother was captivating. I don't know that I'll ever love another production as much.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, we listened to Godspell nearly every Sunday afternoon during Lent.
Even with my love of the album, it seems like a bad investment to me too.
I hadn't heard that this was being performed. Was it any good? I actually really love a couple of the songs from Chess, but I have some trouble envisioning how it would be performed in this era.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a professional production of it - only colleges and high schools. Perhaps the book goes over better when done in a more professional production, but otherwise, I find it clunky and yes, very dated. I find myself tuning out until the next musical number. But man, is that one hell of a score. All for the Best is one of my favorite show tunes.
ReplyDeleteWhen my theater company in college did Godspell, at one of the rehearsals someone started singing the "Oh G-d, I'm dying" line and following it each time with the clunk on the head that follows "dona eis requiem" from Monty Python, and now that's the only way I can hear it. Alas for me, it means at the main dramatic moment in the show, I desperately want to giggle.
Definitely would be interested in your review, Eric. I loved it. (Disclaimer that I am a major Signature fan and know several people in the cast.) I came to it brand-new, without knowing most of the songs or the various versions. Performances were fabulous, orchestra rocked out, the very 80's set and costumes were fun and evoked the time. My only issues are issues with the book, though now that I've watched the concert version, I'm quite glad about almost all the songs that were cut (I wish they'd been able to keep the one sung at the embassy by the bureaucrats, but don't see how it could've fit in the new structure), and don't think I miss any of the plot points that were cut. It's certainly a lot tighter than the concert version, and I never felt like it was lagging.
ReplyDeleteI should say, my only real book issue (and not a major one) was the ending, but in general the re-written book worked for me, as someone new to the story - and when I watched the very different version of the story that's in the concert version, I definitely preferred the Signature one to that one.
ReplyDeleteIf they do a revival of Godspell, it has to be nothing like the movie whatsoever. Not one bit. I saw our high school production and liked it, but can't picture that version in a big Broadway house; recently saw the movie and hated every minute of it.
ReplyDeleteIf investors would technically get a producer credit, and then lightning struck and it won a Tony, would they all technically have won a Tony?
Because of the proliferation of producer credits on Broadway (particularly for musicals whose primary/sole reason for opening it to get attention and win a Tony like "Caroline or Change"), I believe they have a "no more than three" rule. This isn't the easy way for Cher to complete her EGOT.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know the rule limiting producer credits, but I'm baffled by your comment about "Caroline, or Change," which I thought was a terrific show.
ReplyDeleteI thought there was a lot to admire in "Caroline" (though the show didn't have an ending even after the extensive tweaking), but it was never going to be a commercial success. The sole reason it transferred was in hopes of winning Tonys (and the slim possibility that those Tonys would then catapult the show into commercial success).
ReplyDeleteI can still recite "All For The Best" by memory, thanks to my middle school production circa 1974.
ReplyDeleteI have tickets for the 28th. I have a friend who saw it--and is a huge Chess fan--and really really liked it. I'm quite excited for it. Of course, I have yet to be disappointed at anything I've seen at the Signature.
ReplyDeleteI saw it over Labor Day weekend and enjoyed it far more than I expected to. I mean, I had hoped to like it a lot, and had been wanting to see it for 25 years, but I'd heard enough mixed reviews (of the show itself, not the Sig's version) that I had doubts. I have some very minor quibbles (one of the leads is less strong than the others), but I was extremely happy to have seen it. Go see it, and enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI saw it too, in the first week of previews, and ALSO enjoyed it more than I expected. The music is fab in a very 80s-orchestrated way. The soaring ballads in this one really soar. And I adore Euan Morton's voice. After seeing him do cabaret at Signature in recent years, it was a pleasure to see him in a full-out role. Actually, I liked all three leads, and thought they managed to bring emotional depth to some thin characters. That said, I didn't buy any of 'em as chess geniuses. In fact, the thematic parallels between a chess game, international US/Soviet intrigue, and the battle, as it were, for love, all seemed pretty muted. For me, it played more like a straight-up love-triangle story.
ReplyDeleteOnly one performance stood out as clunky/poorly sung to me (a supporting role). And it must be said that dancing is at the bottom of Signature's priorities. I accept this!
Morton was terrific. And so was the female lead. I thought that the actor playing Freddie/The American was an excellent actor but a weaker singer than the other two. (And, as I said to Genevieve separately, I don't think "One Night in Bangkok" really coheres with the character in the Sig version, as he has (apparently) evolved over time. The song paints a picture of a cerebral ascetic snob. Whether or not the character was originally written this way, our Freddie isn't that character.)
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I really liked it, but had soem quibbles. I thought the show as a whole was too heavily weighted towards Florence, and the brief prologue didn't make me care about her and her father much at all. One of the problems with the show post-Broadway is that it's always going to be more about Florence than either of the players, because "Nobody's Side" and "Someone Else's Story" are both too good to cut, even though the basically serve the same purpose.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest song missing for me was "The Story of Chess." There were a number of places they could have put it in, I think.
"One Night in Bangkok" really worked for me. I thought it was better integrated into both the character and the story than in any other version I've heard. Likewise "Pity the Child" was one of the few versions where I came away with some compassion for Freddie, rather than writing it off as whining self-justification.
One of the biggest problems I had with the show was Svetlana. It was simply race-blind casting taken too far. It took me out of the show and significantly detracted from the second act. (Svetlana, the Russian's (Russian) wife, was portrayed by an African-American woman.)
And the ending just kind of ground down to a leaden stop. One honest conversation between Anatoly and Florence in the last 15-20 minutes would have removed what felt like a lot of unneccesary angst.
All that being said, I hope this production leads to a Broadway revival- do you think Norbert Leo Butz could stand to play another obnoxious American named Freddie?
I have to disagree strongly on the race-blind casting issue - I don't think it detracts in the least, particularly when the performer is so good, and I think the more often it happens, the more people get used to it and cease to be "taken out of" the show.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in many instances, when you think race-blind casting is "wrong" because there wouldn't have been people of that race in that place/time, it turns out not to be true. For example, there are about 40,000 Afro-Russians, with enough born in the 50s and 60s to have a colloquial name, "Children of the Festival": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Russian
I feared for that guy's voice, Russ, thinking, "There is no way he can keep hitting those high notes, night after night." That is some crazy, belty Steve-Perry stuff there.
ReplyDeleteI'm not superfamiliar with the various iterations of Chess (although hey, the Murray Head video!), but this Freddie (arrogant, reckless, cynical, bit of a sleaze) and his ironic reading of "One Night in Bangkok" worked fine for me. The intimation that Freddie was not at all above getting his kicks below the waistline certainly made his flipping out at "discovering" Florence and Anatoly together hypocritical, but I thought that immaturity was just right for the characterization.
That's a good point about familiarity, Genevieve. Does anyone bat an eye at race-blind casting in Shakespeare productions anymore? It's now so commonplace and expected in classical roles that not only do we easily accept nonwhite actors as Genoans or Scottish royalty, but we aren't even phased when Lear's daughters, Northumberland and Percy, or Prospero and Antonio are of different races. Yet a friend with whom I've seen plenty of Shakespeare, including productions cast exactly as above,commented in a chastened and confessional way that the casting of this Svetlana was a big distraction to her, despite the performer being so good (she is!) and having a glorious voice.
ReplyDeleteSince I've been going on about Chess in this thread, I'll contribute to the Godspell discussion by saying my only experience with it was seeing a late '80s student production at UVa, featuring Tina Fey. Admission was maybe $10, and the audience sat on the floor, on quilts. And that seemed absolutely the right way to experience Godspell.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting point about taking ONiB ironically. Was it ironic in the mid-80s Murray Head version? I had a tough time reading it ironically, but maybe I wasn't looking at it the right way. (In any event, the song really paled next to Nobody's Side, which was tremendously catchy and fit right in, even if it was a little melodramatic. (But I like my melodrama.))
ReplyDeleteMurray Head, practically sneering in his neat white suit, fits the "effete snob" profile. Having just watched that video again (wow...80s MTV), I think you're right that the song's a poor fit for the kind of Freddie in Sig's Chess. I expect it's a case of them deciding ONiB was too well known to be cut, but that lots of the people who'd recognize it (me, for example) wouldn't have thought much about the lyrics. Props to the actor, because the approach he took to it worked for me.
ReplyDeleteMurray Head, practically sneering in his neat white suit, fits the "effete snob" profile. Having just watched that video again (wow...80s MTV), I think you're right that the song's a poor fit for the kind of Freddie in Sig's Chess. I expect it's a case of them deciding ONiB was too well known to be cut, but that lots of the people who'd recognize it (me, for example) wouldn't have thought much about the lyrics. Props to the actor, because the approach he took to it worked for me.
ReplyDeleteMurray Head, practically sneering in his neat white suit, fits the "effete snob" profile. Having just watched that video again (wow...80s MTV), I think you're right that the song's a poor fit for the kind of Freddie in Sig's Chess. I expect it's a case of them deciding ONiB was too well known to be cut, but that lots of the people who'd recognize it (me, for example) wouldn't have thought much about the lyrics. Props to the actor, because the approach he took to it worked for me.
ReplyDeleteYeesh. Triple post?! What happened there?
ReplyDeleteYeesh. Triple post?! What happened there?
ReplyDeleteYeesh. Triple post?! What happened there?
ReplyDeleteWhoa. Do you happen to remember which song(s) Tina Fey sang?
ReplyDeleteMm. I see your point, but I'm in favor of quality dramas being on Broadway even if they aren't commercial successes.
ReplyDelete