| re: ZORBA! Tonight | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 11:33 pm EDT 05/06/15 |
| In reply to: | ZORBA! Tonight - sergius 11:16 pm EDT 05/06/15 |
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| Your comments are very similar to those in an email I just got from a friend who saw it. And he really loves the show. He saw the original production, and it's a particular favorite of his. He's concerned that people will come away from this feeling that the show is the problem. Btw, I've never seen an exclamation point in the title. The original production did have a big acute accent over the A in the title as printed in the playbill, souvenir program and cast recording, but I think I've never seen it used in later productions. | |
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| re: ZORBA: is the show the problem? | |
| Posted by: | B_Rabbit 05:41 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - AlanScott 11:33 pm EDT 05/06/15 |
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| I confess to be just what your friend feared, Alan, someone who'd never seen Zorba before and now believes it to be a poorly-written show. Those un-merry villagers do such hateful things. "The First Time," as a statement of one's life-view, is, to me, unimaginative and off-putting - and I usually love Fred Ebb lyrics. The Leader and her Greek chorus, loudly and somewhat desperately proclaiming that what we are seeing is terribly profound: I found the show never lived up to what she claimed it to be. Hortense's humor, also built on desperation, failed to tickle me. Now, I suppose older-and-wiser fans will try to convince me that I can't judge the piece without seeing Prince's staging, Field's choreography, or more charismatic leads. But everything I didn't like about it was in the writing. Did John Weidman cut the meat and leave the fat? | |
| Link | Last, and not just alphabetically |
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| re: ZORBA: is the show the problem? | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 01:05 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA: is the show the problem? - B_Rabbit 05:41 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| Yes, the villagers do hateful things. Worse than hateful. It's not a pretty show. It's not a pretty story. I didn't see the original production. Personally, I question the use of the bouzouki circle. I find the "let's tell a story" setup generally pretty problematic, and I'm not wild about the opening section of "Life Is." But I like the rest of the song, and I think the score is mostly excellent. The book is arguably underwritten. Lehman Engel certainly felt it was lacking, but he seemed to feel that characters in musicals should not be mysterious. I'm told that the second act of the book is very heavily cut at Encores! so that may be making matters worse. Whatever is wrong with the piece, there are some lovely things in it and some really searing, thrilling things in it. It does sound like those strengths may not coming through very effectively at Encores! | |
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| A shout out to Lorraine Serabian who's truly wonderful on the recording | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 03:59 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA: is the show the problem? - AlanScott 01:05 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
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| My friend who saw the show said her voice was still ringing in his ears several blocks away from his theater after the performance. | |
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| re: ZORBA: is the show the problem? | |
| Posted by: | Chazwaza 09:19 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA: is the show the problem? - B_Rabbit 05:41 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| It depresses me to hear this, and to find out Weidman is doing the book work for the concert... I think he's a great book writer so I'm surprised that he's doing a poor job with this show. But I think the score speaks for itself... Life Is The First Time The Butterfly Goodbye Canavaro Only Love Zorba's Dance I Am Free And others I'm forgetting or not highlighting... I think it's a great and unique score. | |
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| re: ZORBA! Tonight | |
| Posted by: | falcon15 08:40 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - AlanScott 11:33 pm EDT 05/06/15 |
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| I also love the show, and it saddens me to say that the Musicals in Mufti production was better than this. Santino Fontana is the only actor who betters his Mufti counterpart, with Marin Mazzie coming close to Emily Skinner (although it looks like Mazzie was given zero direction and is doing very little with the role.) Still, it's Zorba, and "Happy Birthday" made me cry because the material is just so strong. And it's nice to hear those orchestrations live. | |
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| re: ZORBA! Tonight | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 10:02 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - falcon15 08:40 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I am surprised to hear about the cuts to the opening number and the minimal and extremely generalized frame. Honestly, I'm not especially surprised to hear these things about the cast. Maybe I'll be satisfied with having seen the Mufti. Or maybe I'll yet try to see this. I don't have a ticket as of now. | |
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| re: ZORBA! Tonight | |
| Posted by: | student_rush 10:12 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - AlanScott 10:02 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| If you are a fan of the show (or even if not), John Turturro, Zoe Wanamaker, and Santino Fontana are all giving extraordinary performances. I believe Matthew Murray's assessment of Turturro and Wanamaker's youthful energy to be precisely on the mark. | |
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| re: ZORBA! Tonight | |
| Posted by: | falcon15 10:52 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - student_rush 10:12 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I have to say, if I hadn't seen Jeff McCarthy and Beth Fowler play those parts, I probably would've been happy with Turturro and Wanamaker. But McCarthy was a force of life and a powerful singer, while Turturro gives kind of a small performance IMO. He's pretty good at being a lovable rogue in the dialogue scenes, but Zorba has to be much more than that. And his singing is not good, he sounds very tentative when he sings. Wanamaker comes off better acting-wise, but at least last night she did not seem solid. She went up a few times, including during "Happy Birthday," and she is a worse singer than Turturro. I did like Fontana a lot. I think it's worth seeing, but I wish it had been much better. | |
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| why do they cast non-singers in Encores shows?! | |
| Posted by: | Chazwaza 04:47 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - falcon15 10:52 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I've never understood it. The point is to hear and celebrate a under-sung score... why would you bring that score to life for an audience, presumably many of whom aren't very familiar with it, with actors who can't sing the score? | |
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| re: why do they cast non-singers in Encores shows?! | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 05:37 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | why do they cast non-singers in Encores shows?! - Chazwaza 04:47 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| They also cast tenors in baritone roles many times which doesn't land their songs like they are meant to be sung. They've also cast people who are presumably singers but mostly do contemporary or rock shows but can't handle very legit or traditional shows like some of the principals in their "Kismet" and "No Strings", among other things. Of course, Anthony Quinn wasn't much of a singer re: "Zorba" but had starred famously in the film. But given the choice between a fine actor who cant' sing and a great singer who can't act, well, there are great singers (who can do the style required) who can act. I choose them! | |
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| re: ZORBA! Tonight | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 10:46 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - student_rush 10:12 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| Unfortunately, I'm not sure it's going to be possible for me to see it so I'm trying to console myself. But it may happen. | |
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| I saw the ZORBA tour way back when ... | |
| Posted by: | flaguy 08:31 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - AlanScott 11:33 pm EDT 05/06/15 |
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| And there was certainly no exclamation point used in the title at that time. Must've been early 1970, winter, at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, MI. Starring John Raitt, Chita Rivera and Barbara Baxley. And it was ... wonderful! | |
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| I saw the Anthony Quinn tour in the 80s | |
| Posted by: | dramedy 10:42 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | I saw the ZORBA tour way back when ... - flaguy 08:31 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I think at Masonic temple in Detroit, but maybe it was Boston. I was actually excited for the bandaras production a few years ago that didn't materialize. I listen to the cd occasionally. It's a good score and considered going to ny to see this production. Good thing I didn't. | |
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| I saw Marc Kudisch and Judy Kaye... | |
| Posted by: | StageLover 07:12 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: ZORBA! Tonight - AlanScott 11:33 pm EDT 05/06/15 |
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| in the LA Reprise version about 10 years ago. I probably wouldn't have cast Kudisch but he was excellent (and unrecognizable!). Here's the ATC review... | |
| Link | https://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/la/la213.html |
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| They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. | |
| Posted by: | Delvino 07:56 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | I saw Marc Kudisch and Judy Kaye... - StageLover 07:12 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| That stood out to me, as (to the best of my knowledge) it hasn't been employed since the original and its tours (the bus and truck I saw), and the 83 revival (unmemorable to me) changed the Leader to The Woman. Since then, hasn't the licensed version of the show dispensed with the conceit entirely? I must confess I'm still enamored of the original premise, because it allowed the story to be told from a contemporary frame of reference. Rewatching the Tony broadcast from 1969, I'm startled by the gritty neo-realism in the bousouki circle motif, the wafting cigarette smoke, the rude improvisational behavior of the ragtag assembled company as they vie for attention and the spotlight. The almost naturalistic approach with the three microphones baldly placed downstage focused the evening on impromptu storytelling. When the Leader silenced the others to make her case, she was topping a disparate collection of contemporary players to reflect on a fable worth hearing. It's still brilliant to me, and watching it now, I see how powerful it was in 1969. Somehow, simply having someone appear as a kind of designated Earth Mother to help tell the tale -- certainly viable -- loses that original authenticity. We were introduced to the Zorba tory as myth by people who were not obvious myth-makers. Now, we get larger than life Greek Chorus attired like, well, a Greek Chorus. (I see Mazzie is done up rather like a Muse in "Hercules" or "Xanadu".) Lorraine Serabian wore a drab black, almost shapeless dress and represented nothing but her own sensibilities. It's my bias, but that concept introduced by Hal Prince made the flash backed story more compelling. I will be interested to see this production on Sunday. But from the footage, it looks rather prettified. Certainly acceptable, sure, yet I remain haunted by the way the show was first imagined. | |
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| re: They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. | |
| Posted by: | Alcindoro 08:52 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. - Delvino 07:56 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| >I see Mazzie is done up rather like a Muse in "Hercules" or "Xanadu"< Actually, she looks more like Maria Callas in Cherubini's opera MEDEA. But hey, it's all Greek to me. | |
| Link | Callas Medea |
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| re: They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. | |
| Posted by: | Delvino 09:25 am EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. - Alcindoro 08:52 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| My, but you nailed it! | |
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| re: They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. | |
| Posted by: | Alcindoro 12:01 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. - Delvino 09:25 am EDT 05/08/15 |
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| I'm QUITE sure that's what they were going for. It's appropriate to reference Medea on Mother's Day weekend. Cute anecdote: The recently deceased Jimmy, an elderly Greek neighbor, once told me he had actually seen Callas play Medea in the amphitheater at Epidaurus. He said that he had lived on the island of Lesbos. I said, "Oh yes, home of Sapho!" He rather proudly proclaimed, "She was FIRST lesbian!!" Για τη ζωή! | |
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| re: They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. | |
| Posted by: | MikeR 11:02 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. - Delvino 07:56 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| When I did the show three years ago at 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco, the bouzouki circle was part of the script. Although it's possible we had access to an earlier version of the script... | |
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| I keep spelling bouzouki wrong; apologies (nmi) | |
| Posted by: | Delvino 08:43 am EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | They restored the bousouki "parlor" circle in L.A.; still my preference. - Delvino 07:56 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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