| re: That was a great Reprise production | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 06:19 pm EDT 07/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: That was a great Reprise production - Jackson 05:33 pm EDT 07/06/18 | |
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| Well, I'll ignore the way the productions got bigger and more elaborate--far too much for their budget, expected b.o.and original mission--because I think they were heading down that road before his tenure. But he made many, many missteps in artistc direction. Not as an actor, I'll admit. He was quite good in I LOVE MY WIFE (a show I don't like much), THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG, and rather touching in a reading of TWO BY TWO, though too young for Noah. But nothing can scrub from my memory his travesty of DAMN YANKEES, which shifted the action to early 1980s Los Angeles. Longtime Chatterati will have heard me rant about this before, so apologies to them. I threw seventeen different fits when I heard about this and exhanged emails with him (actually via a flunky; his, not mine--I wish I had a flunky). I noted this was wrong, wrong, wrong--and clashed with both baseball and theatrical history. The early 80s Dodgers were champions and contenders, not the losers the 50s Senators were. They're in the National League, so they were not in a pennant race with the Yankees. They would never even face the Yankees, excpet in the World Series. And even though ball players of the 80s weren't the zillionaires of today, they certainly would not have to resort to boarding in a room with a woman whose husband has mysteriously left her. He countered: well, I want to make this a multi-ethnic casting, and the 50s Senators were as white as bread. As for your baseball history, hey, it's a fantasy. If I wanna have the Dodgers fighting the Yanks for the pennant, I can do that, because it's a fantasy, right! With the devil and all that magic. Me: if it's a fantasy, then why can't it just be a multi-ethnic Washington Senators team? Any baseball fan will balk (heh!) less at an anachronistically-cast team roster than at this wholesale perversion of baseball history. Those Dodgers beat the Yanks in 1981; how can Joe be mourning, "Those damn Yankees, why can't we beat them?" Him: no, no, it's gonna be great. Come see it. So I did. And spotted the big ad thanking the Dodgers for their support. Ka-ching! I will say the cast was fine, but I was too unhappy through the whole thing to enjoy their work. In fact, I admit to squawking "What?!" at a line they rewrote: "Mr. McCourt (then the horrible owner of the team) wants to see you in his office, Joe." I'm sorry--it was completely involuntary. I don't usually squawk during plays. Then there was Alexander's THE FANTASTICKS. With a mother for Matt, cuddling with Luisa's dad. With a female Mute making goo-goo eyes at El Gallo. With the Mute prancing across the stage with a stuffed cat covered with some sort of raspberry-colored sparkle goo, meant to be "jam." And lots of stupid magic tricks. Anyone who can futz up THE FANTASTICKS should not do musicals. There's more, but ya getnthe gist. Laura, off to play TITANIC and ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVE ME as counterprogramming to 114* |
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| Previous: | re: That was a great Reprise production - Jackson 05:33 pm EDT 07/06/18 |
| Next: | I'm a diehard Dodgers fan, lifelong Yankmes hater and that - Esther 09:37 pm EDT 07/06/18 |
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