Threaded Order Chronological Order
| Chicago/Cabaret | |
| Posted by: reed23 06:00 am EST 12/03/18 | |
| In reply to: Harold Prince: The Director's Life and the case for original productions - RufusRed 09:55 am EST 12/02/18 | |
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| I was excited to see the Encores' "Chicago," which had enough elements of the original to convey a vague sense of it. I was flabbergasted when the Weisslers opened that version on Broadway with almost no changes, no additional scenic or costume elements – a black box concert. There are still people who could have restaged the original Fosse choreography, which was vastly superior in every regard to the unintellectual, random hash of moves offered by the revival. And I never understood why bare-bones-black-box with primitive minimalist lighting (compared to the blaze of glory in the original) was considered in any way a service to a piece about blinding flash and razzle-dazzle. Just for the record, the Hal Prince 1987 "Cabaret" got four Tony nominations and two Drama Desk nominations. I call it "the forgotten 'Cabaret'" – it's almost as if it never happened, with the wild sensation inspired by the Mendes production which followed not that many years later. I was always annoyed that large quantities of the Mendes direction was an intact lift from what Prince had done – which few seem to recognize. Meanwhile, the Mendes production completely contradicted the theme of the original piece, saturated in easy gas-chamber imagery and what-not, and a repulsive M.C. from the git-go, as opposed to the be-tuxed oddball gentleman tantalizing the audience to come into his world (based on a real-life individual whom Prince had seen during his service in Berlin.) The British revival cut-downs of "La Cage" and "A Little Night Music" were two of my agonizing evenings in the theatre, having seen the originals. |
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| re: Chicago/Cabaret | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 08:01 am EST 12/03/18 | |
| In reply to: Chicago/Cabaret - reed23 06:00 am EST 12/03/18 | |
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| Re the Mendes CABARET. I was fortunate to see the original version at the Donmar Warehouse, and it was quite brilliant. Alan Cumming wasn't 'Alan Cumming' yet, so the performance was more in line with what we think of. No mistake - a lot of Mendes 'emendations' were already in place. but it was much more satisfying as a piece of theatre than the version that played for 72 years on Broadway. | |
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