i think most of my reaction was based on how much the book means to me. i was really, really young when i read it. i'd never read a book anywhere near that thick. i'd never read a book that dealt with those kind of themes. there is also a real narrative flow to the book i don't think i'd encountered before, it was one of the first books i fell in love with and i fell hard.
i don't think the scope or the themes of that book make for a good musical. i guess with the proper execution anything can be musicalized but this execution didn't work for me. it felt more than anything like a trivialization of a genuinely epic masterpiece of world literature. it still feels that way. it also felt bloated and excessive and sensational in the worst possible sense of the word.
it's a dumbing down and trivialization of a work dealing with themes i think should be neither trivialized nor dumbed down.
i also really, really, don't like megamusicals. i think at the time i didn't understand they were just another trend that would pass. i think i only understood them in terms of this is what musicals now are and i felt that needed to be as strenuously opposed as possible. i was right.
it was the original run. i would have seen it either in the summer of 87 or 88 i think, which means i walked out on my beloved judy kuhn. but you know what? i'm sure - even knowing she was in it - i'd do it again.
i'm not sure what you're asking me in the second part of your post. how do i feel when people ask me about weber and wilhorn? i guess it would depend on which musical you're talking about. i loved JCS and EVITA and, i'll admit it, CATS. i had sort of a strange reaction to PHANTOM. i heard the cast album first and for the first three or four listens thought... this is terrific but it kind of stopped growing on me if that makes any sense. after the first few listens i was like, well, there's not really that much there. i had exactly the same experience watching it. 15 minutes in i was like well, this is nice and shiny but it's all surface. there's no depth here. everything he's done after that just bores me.
wildhorn completely baffles me. i can't for the life of me figure out why he keeps getting produced. there must be something i am missing in his work because the one musical of his i genuinely enjoyed was BONNIE AND CLYDE and even folks who like his work tend to dismiss it.
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