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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