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| Jesse Green on JAGGED LITTLE PILL | |
| Posted by: Clancy 02:22 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
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| Mixed review of the ART production in Cambridge but he declares it "well intentioned and intermittently thrilling." | |
| Link | NYT Review: ‘Jagged Little Pill’ Breaks the Jukebox Musical Mold |
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| It's one of the best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 06:15 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
| In reply to: Jesse Green on JAGGED LITTLE PILL - Clancy 02:22 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
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| I went into the show hopeful but expecting it to be a mess, and I was blown away. Three brilliant women have created a stunning story of family, community, and the challenges that Americans are facing today. There are aspects of the book that could be sharper, but for a first draft as a production, it's incredible. I was crying throughout the whole thing, and "You Oughta Know" stopped the show, even at a Wednesday matinee in which Lauren Patten seemed to be protecting her voice a bit. Elizabeth Stanley is spectacular, and will likely sweep the awards. Word is they're bringing it to Broadway, and it's ready to go. |
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| re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: lowwriter 02:08 pm EDT 05/31/18 | |
| In reply to: It's one of the best things I've ever seen - Singapore/Fling 06:15 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
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| I do want to see this show and hope it comes to NYC. I did find one of Green's observations alarming. He mentions that the show is playing as if in a large Broadway house rather than a 500 seat intimate theater. I do think that is a problem with every show I've seen directed by Paulus, even ones I have liked. Her shows often play on one hyperkinetic high pitch with little room for subtler moments. It can get exhausting. |
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| re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 08:59 pm EDT 06/01/18 | |
| In reply to: re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen - lowwriter 02:08 pm EDT 05/31/18 | |
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| This was my first time going to A.R.T., but the theater didn't feel that intimate to me. It may be only 500 seats, but it's a quite tall, wide, and deep space (both on stage and in the audience), and the largeness fits with the scale of the music and the storytelling. I do agree that the show has room to find more subtlety, and I wonder if they will keep working on the first 10 minutes (which felt like a first draft in a show that otherwise felt finished), but overall I found that they nailed a wide variety of emotional moments and experiences. |
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| re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: Naughty_Rob 08:51 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
| In reply to: It's one of the best things I've ever seen - Singapore/Fling 06:15 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
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| You should go see some of the Sondheim shows. Maybe try some of the R and H musicals - I hear they are very good. You never know but these shows might just be ‘one of the best things you have ever seen.’ WINK |
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| re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen | |
| Last Edit: gcarl44 01:51 pm EDT 05/31/18 | |
| Posted by: gcarl44 01:47 pm EDT 05/31/18 | |
| In reply to: re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen - Naughty_Rob 08:51 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
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| Really an unneeded and condescending comment. First of all, you clearly have not seen it. Second of all, you do not know what else the poster has seen, so you are in no way capable of judging what is the best thing seen. And finally, you denigrate the poster's ability to critique a show by inferring that only you know what the "best" is. While wonderful in so many ways, Sondheim and R & H are not the be all and end all of theater. You don't allow that anything written now could be great as well. What about Hamilton and Natasha & Pierre, two recent great productions? You should change your moniker from Naughty_Rob to Snotty_Rob. | |
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| re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen | |
| Last Edit: SCH 10:14 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
| Posted by: SCH 10:11 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen - Naughty_Rob 08:51 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
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| Are you ambien posting, Rob?? Are you saying that Jagged Little Pill can't possibly rank among the best things ever seen by a serious theatergoer? Especially when it is pretty clear that you haven't seen it yet? I can't weigh in on the show just yet because I haven't seen it yet either. However, I've gotten enough VERY enthusiastic reports from people whose opinion I trust and admire (and who love Sondheim and R&H) that I'm making the schlep up to Boston this weekend to see it. I'm very excited to experience it first-hand. Maybe you should at least do the same before making such mean-spirited and condescending pronouncements. |
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| re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen | |
| Last Edit: Singapore/Fling 09:21 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 09:18 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen - Naughty_Rob 08:51 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
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| And here I was, listening to my heart. Rob, you're starting to become downright condescending, and you don't have the bonafides to make fun of somebody else's taste, WINK. I, of course, have seen most of the shows written by the composers you mention, and as a piece of popular entertainment and theatrical event, "jagged little pill" stands up next to their best. That makes sense, seeing as how it is directed by one of the theater's great directors, written by a skilled and award-winning writer, and based on some of the best music of the late 20th century. At some point, I will have more to offer about just how skillfully the show is constructed and executed, but for now I'm just living in the glow of its glory. Have you seen it yet? Or do you only see shows that pay you to talk about them? |
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| Other best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 01:21 am EDT 05/31/18 | |
| In reply to: re: It's one of the best things I've ever seen - Singapore/Fling 09:18 pm EDT 05/30/18 | |
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| But as long as the subject has been brought up, other shows on my unordered and incomplete list are: Passing Strange The original Hedwig before many people knew it The LaChiusa Wild Party The original Falsettos and the last 20 minutes of the revival Indiscretions Ivo's The Misanthrope at NYTW Shopping and F... at NYTW Twelfth Night with Mark Rylance in the West End and Julie White in the Park The Dying Gaul with Tony Goldwyn but not with Cotter Smith The Light in the Piazza Passion The Jon Doyle/Raul Esparza Company Syncing Ink Taylor Mac 1890 - 2016 over 4 nights at St Ann's The Steppenwolf Buried Child Spring Awakening at the Atlantic, but not so much on Broadway Fela when it was still a half hour too long off-Broadway And others I've forgotten, it's late and I've been working all night. Alas, I haven't seen "Hamilton", but the album is seared in my brain. I'm curious to know what's on other people's list. |
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| re: Other best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: Bwayguy 01:48 pm EDT 05/31/18 | |
| In reply to: Other best things I've ever seen - Singapore/Fling 01:21 am EDT 05/31/18 | |
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| Haven't seen Jagged Little Pill yet, but your list is impressive. I approve 100%! Except I admit, I prefer Lippa's Wild Party. I know... | |
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| re: Other best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: SCH 10:34 am EDT 05/31/18 | |
| In reply to: Other best things I've ever seen - Singapore/Fling 01:21 am EDT 05/31/18 | |
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| For me I'd have to include off the top of my head and non - exhaustive: The original production / original cast of Sweeney Todd Carollee Carmelo in the Barrow Street Sweeney Todd Bedlam's Saint Joan Bedlam's Hamlet Bedlam's 12th Night (both versions) Hamilton at the Public and on Broadway (Yes, I'm one of those who think it deserves every bit of hype it gets) Peter and the Starcatcher Rylance in 12th Night Three Tall Women with Marian Seldes The current revival of Three Tall Women Angels in America (original and current revival) Homebody Kabul at Steppenwolf Fiasco's Cymbeline Cromer's Our Town Tyne Daly's Gypsy The original production and cast of A Chorus Line Original cast of Love Valour Compassion Chicago Shakespeare's Rose Rage Raul Esparza in The Normal Heart Donmar Warehouse production of The Tempest at St. Anne's Warehouse Original off Broadway production of Falsettoland |
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| re: Other best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: LynnB 08:29 am EDT 05/31/18 | |
| In reply to: Other best things I've ever seen - Singapore/Fling 01:21 am EDT 05/31/18 | |
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| It's too early in the day for me to attempt a list of my own, but among the shows that would definitely be on it: I am my own wife Marjorie Prime August Osage County Two Gentlemen of Verona (the original production) and yes: Hamilton |
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| re: Other best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: kip13 01:14 am EDT 06/01/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Other best things I've ever seen - LynnB 08:29 am EDT 05/31/18 | |
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| Hit with internetitis, where you have to respond to a thread, I got a new password and then verified my email address with a code and logged in AGAIN, and now I’ve found the thread again, and have to report maybe not the best but my FAVORITE things I’ve seen, in no particular order: Yes: Hamilton Sweeney Todd with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury Lucien Pintilie’s production of The Cherry Orchrd at Arena Stage with Shirley Knight as Renevskaya Brian Mehrtes’s production of The Sea Gull at Lake Lucille with Didi O’Connell as Arkadina and Gabe Ebert as Treplev, in a torrential rain Keen Company’s The Hasty Heart with Keith Nobbs At the National, Declan Donellan’s productions of Fuente Ovejuna and Millenium Approaches, as well as Rafta Rafta with Harish Patel, and The Pillowman Joël Pommerat’s Je tremble (1) at Bouffes du Nord Ariane Mnouchkine’s Les Éphémères (Part 1) Elevator Repair Service’s The Sound and the Fury Pig Iron’s Chekhov Lizardbrain and Hell Meets Henry Halfway El Paseo Es un Animal Grotesqu at the Under the Radar Festival; also anything by Belarus Free Theatre ‘night, Mother with Kathy Bates and Anne Pitoniak Running the same summer at the Public, the premieres of The Marriage of Bette and Boo and The Normal Heart (also George C. Wolfe’s revival) Cloud 9 at the Cherry Lane A production or Top Girls at NYU in 1984: never seen it done better. Michael Kahn’s production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Fred Gwynne as Big Daddy and Elizabeth Ashley as Maggie, and decades later, a Glass Menagerie with Ashley as Amanda Winfield, specifically for the way she threaded a needle with imaginary thread and hemmed Laura’s dress—that was Michael Wilson’s production at Hartford Stage Mark Rylance’s Hamlet, directed by Ron Daniels at the Pittsburgh Public with the ART company Bill Irwin’s The Regard of Flight rainpan43’s Elephant Room Alex Timbers’s Boozy and Dance Dance Revolution Yours enthusiastically, Kip13 |
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| re: Other best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 08:55 pm EDT 06/01/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Other best things I've ever seen - kip13 01:14 am EDT 06/01/18 | |
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| Oh my God, I saw a 4-hour Brian Mertes production of Greek plays at Juilliard (the culmination of a 12-hour cycle that the school produced over 3 years), which was one of the most transcendent and viscerally theatrical experiences I've ever had! Thanks for the reminder. And yes, The Normal Heart revival... one of those times where I had to forcibly clamp down my emotions, lest my sobbing disrupted the audience around me. |
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| re: Other best things I've ever seen | |
| Posted by: kip13 10:49 am EDT 06/03/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Other best things I've ever seen - Singapore/Fling 08:55 pm EDT 06/01/18 | |
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| Mehrtes is a truly inspired creator. And Wolfe’s revival was so good. Everyone excellent, but John Benjamin Hickey and Patrick Breen wrecked me. Thinking back on the original cast, pangs for Brad Davis and Tommy Boatwright. | |
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