| THE ROYAL FAMILY OF BROADWAY video clips: reaction? | |
| Posted by: portenopete 06:06 pm EDT 06/14/18 | |
|
|
|
| Just looking at clips from Barrington Stage's THE ROYAL FAMILY OF BROADWAY. I'm not a massive William Finn fan and I feel that if the timing hadn't been so right for musicals about the gay closet and AIDS experiences when IN TROUSERS, MARCH OF THE FALSETTOS and FALSETTOLAND debuted, then they wouldn't have gone on to be such beloved classics of their day (and still admired). Admittedly there are some nice tunes that evoke nothing much more than Finn's own brand of syrupy sentiment or attempts to capture the frenetic nature of city life in music. The lyrics at best leave me neutral but are sometimes aggravatingly and hilariously inept. (I would love to know Sondheim's take on his work.) But I am in the minority and for a lot of people his stuff means a lot, so for that and for them I am glad. This piece seems very ill-suited to his abilities. I've never heard anything of his that remotely suggests another era or another world, and yet that is what you've got with Kaufman & Ferber's original. It's a charm piece that even its day was looking back a generation to the barnstormers of the late 19th century. If I'm not mistaken the Cavendishes are primarily a family of classical and serious actors with a black sheep couple who are low comedians. (Am I getting this right?) In this version it looks as if Fanny and Julie and the rest are all vaudevillians. Fanny seems to be singing a Jolson-esque song about Broadway (which would not be the vein I'd imagine her to be singing in). Julie's clip seems to be a song completely devoid of melody. Tony's song about movies contains some truly execrable lyrics ("the director was a fart"? who has ever said this?). The juves look like they have a number that attempts a period quality, although the melody is moribund. It may be the memory of Chip Zien as Mendel that makes me warm hearing his song, which sounds pretty and perfectly nostalgic. And I couldn't make out just what Laura Michelle Kelly was singing about in what looks like Julie's eleven o'clock number in a show-within-a-show. Curious that Herbert & Kitty make no appearance, when surely there is a lot of possibility for something funny for the two low comedians. If I could I'd see it and judge it on its own merits, not on some clips. But presumably the producers feel these are the best bits to recommend it? I'd think there is a lot of opportunity for a musical of THE ROYAL FAMILY with the right composer/lyricist. Curious to hear from anyone who may have seen it. |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | re: Kaley Ann Voorhees and TDF Phantom - lowwriter 02:42 am EDT 06/16/18 |
| Next: | re: THE ROYAL FAMILY OF BROADWAY video clips: reaction? - elyse 08:46 pm EDT 06/15/18 |
| Thread: |
|
Time to render: 0.012133 seconds.