| Job and The Connector, my disagreements/agreements with the reviews | |
| Posted by: fm_15 05:40 pm EST 03/03/24 | |
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| I knew Job was a critical darling and that audiences were rushing to go because I tried for weeks during the initial run and could not get tickets. This time I made sure to see it at their current home in the terrible Connelley Theater (I've never had such terrible sight-lines from a downtown theater that small!). Imagine my surprise when I found my attention starting to shift and my mouth starting to yawn at some moments! It's a charming little play featuring some witty banter covering oh-so-topical subjects related to inter-generational differences, but I was led to believe from the stellar reviews and the sold out tickets that this was in the running for the next Pulitzer. The writing really isn't that poetic and that "twist" ending just unravels any good the playwright amassed in the 80 minutes before it. The entire play was out-of-sight, out-of-mind by the time I got to the end of the block walking home. The Connector on the other hand, was a show that had a lot to process in the question: Is it good? Is it bad? A very mixed bag for me. What I loved was reading the conflicting takes on the show - people seem to have completely divergent takes on the same aspects and I LOVE a divisive show!! Particularly, the music -- I'm a devoted acolyte of JRB's but even I recognize and accept his flaws. The main one being his overuse/missuse of pastiche. A minor quibble is how overwrought some of his songs are (second only to the team of Shaiman and Wittman imho). The song set can be roughly divided into 2 types: the narrative, continuation-of-plot-but-sung-type songs and the full stop, remove-you-from-the-story pastiche songs (of which there are 3, the Scrabble number, the Willis "rap", and the utterly baffling Western Wall number). I loved reading how some people loved the second type of songs and declared "JRB's done it again" while other people (Jesse Green at the NYTimes) correctly recognize how problematic these songs can be, no matter how exciting and likeable they are. I'm of the second camp, except I give a pass to the rap number that is saved immediately after when the same actor in another role calls out the very overdone nature of that song (thereby acknowledging it as over the top and accepting it as irony - you have to see it to understand what I'm talking about but I thought that was a BRILLIANT trick!). I reacted hardly to any of the other songs with the glaring exception of Muriel's "Proof" which burns like a hot lancet. The entire cast is great and they are all in fine voice. Ben Levi Ross and Hannah Cruz have particularly strong voices. Criticism of Ross that he was being too much like Even Hansen is unfair and I suspect in accurate. His charm and confidence felt genuine. And it's not his fault his character was written so flatly with no exploration of why he does what he does. Overall, very problematic show but it held my attention captive unlike Job. Too bad it's closing next week. I wish more people saw this so that we can all debate more. There is a lot to unravel. |
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