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| re: CAROUSEL Tonight | |
| Posted by: sergius 03:18 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: CAROUSEL Tonight - pagates 12:40 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| I did see the Hytner production. It was 25 years ago (!), but I remember it was thrilling and felt entirely new. The opening, as many here have noted, was transporting. The stage design was expansive and very beautiful. And still the show felt intimate and almost naturalistic; the various relationships between characters registered as more honest and sincere, stripped as they largely were of their musical comedy gloss. There really is no comparing the Hytner production with the present one. This one has its moments, but it isn’t cohesive; it lacks a point of view. And, as I mentioned, the design elements are peculiarly bad, unaccomplished as verisimilitude or as poetry. The current production is worth seeing for the performers but it isn’t nearly as expressive, as feelingful as the Hytner which blew by like a crisp, invigorating wind. | |
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| re: CAROUSEL Tonight | |
| Posted by: pagates 05:48 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: CAROUSEL Tonight - sergius 03:18 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| Thanks, Sergius. I'll never forget it. Until Hytner I had no idea that Carousel was anything other than an audition opportunity for a singer to make us weep for the special someone who is watching over us (oh wait, that's a different play). Of course, all I'd seen were HS & other amateur productions along with the movie; but I'd seen plenty of them. Walk Alone being so well loved, everyone wanted to prove themselves with it. In the Hytner production I discovered that musical theater could actually speak truth about life's hard parts, as well as the joyful ones. It was so honest. And so much more moving for that. I've always contended that its putatively weak vocals were one of the production's strengths, and decidedly not a weakness. Soliloquy was devastatingly gut wrenching. Topping it all off, there was Audra Ann showing us (save a peculiar critic) that the important differences among Down Easters has nothing to do with color and everything to do with character. That, of course is still true (and not only in Maine). | |
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| re: CAROUSEL Tonight | |
| Posted by: sergius 07:56 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: CAROUSEL Tonight - pagates 05:48 pm EDT 04/05/18 | |
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| Thanks for these thoughtful comments, pagates. | |
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