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| re: Harold Prince: The Director's Life and the case for original productions | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 07:16 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Harold Prince: The Director's Life and the case for original productions - EvFoDr 06:49 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
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| I'm coming from a very different perspective in that Evita is not one of my favorite musicals. I saw a production last year at Asolo Rep, Sarasota Florida, directed by Josh Rhodes. This production catapulted him to his getting the director assignment for Encores Grand Hotel, which from reports was brilliant. So was Evita. I always had my issues with Prince's original, the material with the chorus commenting on Eva's social position as she rose seemed not part of a unified whole. I felt it when listening to the Broadway Cast Album as well. Rhodes wove these moments into an entire tapestry, Eva's rise and fall a unified dramatic arc. I also felt that after seeing this production that Prince's was just driven from start to after Don't Cry for Me, Argentina when it finally took a moment for the audience to collect itself. If that is what you mean my energy, then yes that production had it. I rather liked a slightly less frenetic take on the work, and while I can't say that Rhodes made me fall in deep love with this musical, he certainly made me like it ways I never had before. I vote for talented directors taking their own crack at musical masterpieces. This year Asolo is doing The Music Man with someone primarily known for his dancing as Harold Hill. For the first time I didn't think the leading man was trying to channel Robert Preston (not to knock his for the ages performance), but Jeff Calhoun allows his leading man to bring his own unique talents to one of the greatest male leads in musical theater. |
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| re: Harold Prince: The Director's Life and the case for original productions | |
| Posted by: EvFoDr 04:07 pm EST 12/03/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Harold Prince: The Director's Life and the case for original productions - Snowysdad 07:16 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
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| Thanks for the post. I am certainly willing to concede that there have been effective non-Prince stagings that I haven't seen, such as Asolo. Based on what Rhodes did with Grand Hotel--which I loved--I imagine I would have liked his Evita. Both shows are high concept and highly stylized. | |
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