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| Jerome Robbins' Broadway at the Muny: a lost Broadway comes back again | |
| Last Edit: mikem 09:21 am EDT 06/19/18 | |
| Posted by: mikem 09:20 am EDT 06/19/18 | |
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| Unlike dramedy, I still have about 10 more Tony-winning musicals to see. But Jerome Robbins’ Broadway was the one I had missed that felt completely out of reach. So I felt a lot of excitement as the curtain went up. As the show went on, I felt a different emotion. I started to feel saddened that Jerome Robbins’ Broadway is a show that is trapped in the past. It’s a type of show that just doesn’t happen anymore. The cast size is huge. There are 38 kids dancing in the gym in the West Side Story number, and the rumble really feels like a chaotic rumble. There are 15 sailors dancing in On the Town. Those are small bumps in number from the recent revivals, but the extra dancers make a difference. More importantly, Robbins used dance as a mechanism for the audience to learn about the characters. They are showing us who they are through their dance. I am having trouble thinking of the last non-revival on Broadway that used the ensemble in that way rather than as backdrops for the stars. Meanwhile, few top Broadway stars are strong dancers, and few new shows give them any reason to be. Norbert Leo Butz is a great performer, but there is no way he should have won an Astaire Award for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. But there weren’t really any other options that year. And the situation hasn’t gotten any better in the years since. So I was thankful for having finally seen the show, but it seemed like a relic of a bygone era. And I wish that era would come back again. I also wanted to add that there’s something really special about watching a show outdoors on a beautiful night. I was very lucky with the weather, because a thunderstorm had stopped about fifteen minutes before showtime, leaving the temperature in the low 70s. Now, can someone tell me how I can see Kismet, Raisin, and Redhead? |
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| re: Jerome Robbins' Broadway at the Muny: a lost Broadway comes back again | |
| Posted by: Britannia 09:22 pm EDT 06/21/18 | |
| In reply to: Jerome Robbins' Broadway at the Muny: a lost Broadway comes back again - mikem 09:20 am EDT 06/19/18 | |
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| I am not equipped to respond to everything in your post--I certainly agree that it would be wonderful to see shows with mega-choruses again. I would disagree that few Broadway stars are strong dancers--I saw belters Stephanie J. Block and Rachel York tackle a ton of dancing in "Anything Goes" in a production where the role was originated by another amazing dancer, Sutton Foster. Laura Osnes, Patina Miller, Laura Bell Bundy, Brian D'Arcy James, Rob McClure, Santino Fontana, Ben Fankhauser are all names that come to mind of stars who have danced (though I know Ben Fankhauser isn't a bankable name). If I wasn't at work, I could think of more. It was Harold Prince who said (in the bonus interviews on the "Broadway: The American Musical" DVD) that in the old days the stars could sing a little, dance a little (then acknowledged that their were big exceptions), but many of the stars back in the day were not triple threats. I think there is this glossy memory of old Broadway that, in some ways, couldn't hold up to our standards today. When watching old footage of shows, and it seems like some of the actors can hardly act or the singing chorus seems to be standing around awkwardly. What I think we should be nostalgic for is the WRITING; how many shows from the past twenty years can touch "Oklahoma!," "The Pajama Game," "The King and I," "Hello, Dolly!", "Fiddler on the Roof," and others from the Golden Age. A number of shows from the past twenty years can match those shows, but not enough of them. We have some phenomenal talent on Broadway these days, and I hate to see them discounted when compared to a version of history that probably doesn't hold to the way things really were. But yes, I too would love to see great dancing on Broadway again and huge choruses. |
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| re: Jerome Robbins' Broadway at the Muny: a lost Broadway comes back again | |
| Posted by: mikem 11:03 pm EDT 06/21/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Jerome Robbins' Broadway at the Muny: a lost Broadway comes back again - Britannia 09:22 pm EDT 06/21/18 | |
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| Britannia, I wasn't trying to be dismissive of current stars' dancing talent. Sutton Foster is someone who quickly came to mind who is a star who is known for being a strong dancer. And I think most musical stars can dance. But I don't really know whether most current stars are strong dancers because they don't have to do all that much dancing in most new musicals. For example, the last four Tony-winning musicals (The Band's Visit, Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, and Fun Home) didn't require their stars to do much dancing. (Leslie Odom's The Room Where It Happens being an exception.) | |
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| re: Jerome Robbins' Broadway at the Muny: a lost Broadway comes back again | |
| Posted by: Britannia 02:02 am EDT 06/22/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Jerome Robbins' Broadway at the Muny: a lost Broadway comes back again - mikem 11:03 pm EDT 06/21/18 | |
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| I didn't think you were being dismissive; I just feels (to me) implied when you hear people talk about how much better stars of ages past were. But you are right that many shows don't require stars who dance a lot. | |
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