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| "Me and the Sky" | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 12:55 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Come From Away: The Mountain out of a molehill Musical - Singapore/Fling 11:47 am EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| I haven't seen the show. I also don't think it's narcissistic, but it does oddly stand out as a specific character piece in a show using not just an ensemble, but an ensemble representing the experiences of literally thousands. Given my interest in history and use of sources, I've done some reading on the tremendous amount of work Sankoff and Hein did, and regarding "Sky," one reason they had the pilot being so inwardly relfective was that she was isolated from the other plane people--stuck in her hotel, because she had to be where the authorities could contact her at a moment's notice. So she had far less interaction with the locals. All she could do was sit, worry, and yes, rage over how evil men had used the most important thing in her life for such a purpose. I don't know how well the pilot's isolation plays out on stage, but learning that makes me at least see what they were trying for. As for the poster who was criticizing the "darkness" lyrics, as "ooh,,scary"--this show is based on hundreds of hours of interviews. I would bet a large amount of money that Sankoff and Hein emphasized the darkness because that's exactly what thousand of "plane people" told them their first impression of Newfoundland was. Dark. Very, very dark. Unless you've been somewhere really underdeveloped (say, camping in Montana), you don't realize how completely bright our nights are. Those people were coming from Paris, Hamburg, London--major metropolitan areas--and they'd spent the last 12 to 28 hours on a plane, in continual light. Now, without having any real notion of what had happened, they're being taken off the planes, and taken to a very, very small city, stuck on an island with next to nothing near it. Darkness? I should say. Scary? Hell, yes. Laura |
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| re: "Me and the Sky" | |
| Posted by: MarkBearSF 08:24 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: "Me and the Sky" - showtunetrivia 12:55 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| Indeed. As you may recall, some readers of this board were instrumental to arranging tickets for a couple of plane people I met on a ship on the way to NY. After seeing the show (they loved it) - they specifically mentioned how closely it matched their memories. And he specifically mentioned the dark bus ride (and the hours beforehand on the plane). |
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| re: "Me and the Sky" | |
| Posted by: bicoastal 04:56 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: "Me and the Sky" - showtunetrivia 12:55 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| Two comments here. I don't know if you were in L.A. for the '94 earthquake, Laura, but one of the things everyone commented on was how many stars were out that night. They are always out, we only saw them because all of our power was out and there was no light. And the darkness was weird for us. So I completely understand and agree with your point here. Also, like ashleym below, I was also a "plane person" but not in Gander--I was stuck in Brazil. Previous to 9/11 I spend every other week in NYC working for about two years and have good friends living there. I could not call them. I could not be a part of the national angst and bonding that was happening in my home town over this terrible tragedy. I was isolated, along with a small Continental Airlines crew, in a luxury hotel watching planes take off for five days going anywhere but the USA. It was a terrible, terrible feeling. So I am dismissive of the poster who says sitting on a bus in the dark or on a plane in the dark isn't dramatic--it certainly is if you are the one to whom it is happening. | |
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| Darkness | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 05:30 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "Me and the Sky" - bicoastal 04:56 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| Dang! bicoastal, are you a mind-reader? I very nearby mentioned being in LA for the quake and how dark, dark, dark the sky looked, but figured camping in Montana was more succinct. Though the experience of frequent aftershocks in the dark added to the fear factor, which is more relevant to the thread than a camping trip. We were two and a half miles from the epicenter. For that matter, I was here for the Sylmar quake, whch hit on my 11th birthday. :) But I didn't go outside to see the sky that early morning; was nursing a terrible shiner from walking into my bedroom door in the dark, trying to get to my parents' room. Laura |
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| re: Darkness | |
| Posted by: bicoastal 07:19 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: Darkness - showtunetrivia 05:30 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| Yep, Montana was more succinct, but the city lights vs city darkness resonated! | |
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| As did the walls of our house! | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 09:16 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Darkness - bicoastal 07:19 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| Heh. Laura |
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| re: "Me and the Sky" | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 01:44 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 01:39 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: "Me and the Sky" - showtunetrivia 12:55 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| "one reason they had the pilot being so inwardly reflective was that she was isolated from the other plane people--stuck in her hotel, because she had to be where the authorities could contact her at a moment's notice. So she had far less interaction with the locals. All she could do was sit, worry, and yes, rage over how evil men had used the most important thing in her life for such a purpose..." Now all of that sounds like terrific fodder for a song. I don't hear that tension in the one performed. If the song were grounded (!) in that anxiety, that restlessness and unease, if the reflections had an expressed emotional connection -- if she dared to sing that worry you mention -- to me it would be a stronger theater song. Right now, it's not circumstantial until the end -- she could be singing it to anyone at a pilots' convention in Deluth -- and then it stops. I'm repeating myself, I'm still asking the same questions. |
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| re: "Me and the Sky" | |
| Posted by: MikeR 02:04 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "Me and the Sky" - Delvino 01:39 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| Maybe that will become more clear when you see the show. | |
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| re: "Me and the Sky" | |
| Posted by: Ann 03:02 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "Me and the Sky" - MikeR 02:04 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| I had some of the same feelings when I saw the show (which was my introduction to the score). It takes a long time to get to "And the one thing I loved more than anything was used as the bomb," but that's what places it in the show. I don't remember thinking about her being more isolated than anyone else - she was away from her passengers, but she was lodged with her crew and with other pilots and crews, and a lot of the passengers were in small groups. My question about the show (and the same from the friend I was with) is why does Rodney Hicks speak in such an odd way when portraying the character who was scared his wallet would be stolen ... he speaks very loudly and in an awkward way (a non-pc description would be that he seems to have some kind of mental disability). |
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| re: "Me and the Sky" | |
| Posted by: mikem 06:24 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "Me and the Sky" - Ann 03:02 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| I saw Josh Breckenridge, Hicks's understudy, who did not speak in that fashion. I'm not sure why the character would need to be that way. By the way, Breckenridge was really excellent in the role. |
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| re: "Me and the Sky" | |
| Posted by: mikem 06:18 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "Me and the Sky" - Ann 03:02 pm EDT 07/07/17 | |
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| I really like Me and the Sky as a song, although I think it's a bit derivative of Life Story from Maltby and Shire's Closer Than Ever, down to the somewhat random mention of the protagonist's age plopped into the middle of a verse (49 in Life Story, and 51 in Me and the Sky). Jenn Colella's rendition of Me and the Sky is wonderful. But it's very weird to hear this song within this show. As others have mentioned, the song sticks out as being the only solo song in the entire production. And the song is mostly a backstory about the protagonist's struggles against sexism, and it has very little to do with the remainder of the musical. And in the staging, the song ends abruptly before the last lyric when the phone rings, and Colella picks up the phone, says she'll be right there, and walks off the stage. It's a peculiar ending for the audience -- is she coming back? Is the song over? There's no clear explanation later of who called her or where she went; it's just a method to get her off the stage. And none of the themes brought up during the song are ever brought up again in the show. (On the cast recording and in TV show appearances, Colella sings the last word - "sky" - but not in the show. I get that Christopher Ashley wanted to eliminate the applause button, but if you don't want to have the applause button, there are other ways of handling that. ) |
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