Threaded Order Chronological Order
| Stop listening to other people! (Other than me!) | |
| Posted by: portenopete 12:35 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
| In reply to: THE FERRYMAN: What am I missing? - Teacher64 08:11 am EST 01/06/19 | |
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| What you're missing is the experience of seeing the play through your own eyes rather than through the lenses of critics and advertisers. One of the biggest challenges of being a regular and media-obsessed theatregoer is to tamp down one's expectations when going to see things that are buzz worthy. I saw The Ferryman in London after it had transferred to the Gielgud and changed casts twice. I hadn't read any reviews but I was aware from the ads that the reviews had been adulatory and that everyone I knew who'd seen it was impressed and felt it was a worthy follow-up to Jerusalem (avoiding the inconvenient fact of The River). The only disappointment I had was missing Paddy Considine. His replacement- or rather his replacement's replacement- was very good and blended into the ensemble but didn't dominate the piece the way I suspect Considine does. (It was only the third or fourth performance of this iteration of the cast, so his work may have deepened and embiggened.) But I didn't know the story or the time period or the huge number of characters or the fact that there was a goose and so these things were all revelations. And to complain about a character "telling a story" in the middle of a scene? Well, the device goes back a long way and in the hands of the actresses I saw, the stories were spellbindingly told and I was riveted to my seat and deeply moved to both laughter and tears. (Did no old relatives ever tell you a story when you were a kid?) As to Hamilton.... I saw it in its first months at The Public. Foolishly I had refrained from pressing "Buy" when the tickets first went on sale because $125 seemed like a steep price for an Off-Broadway show, no matter how much I had liked In the Heights. But within the first lines of Brantley's review- about all I had planned to read regardless of its verdict- I threw my paper down and went on line and of course there was nothing left. But a few weeks later I waited for five hours for a return and was even gifted with a Cadbury's Easter Creme Egg- it was Easter Sunday- for my pains. (The Easter Bunny in question was Lin-Manuel Miranda hisself: when he came into the lobby and saw the crowd waiting he popped across to Walgreens and came back with gifts for us.) I had heard not a note of the score and was amazed how this insanely intricate work was still accessible on a first hearing to a middle-aged white guy with no particular love of rap or hip-hop. Before the end of the opening number I was in tears, both for the story itself but equally for the craft of the composition. I know not everyone can see things the second they open- and for the record I am neither rich nor a New Yorker so it's not like I just had to walk around the corner- but if you are the sort of person who is constantly disappointed by things that others go apes**t over, then I'd consider trying to catch the earliest performances before the hype men and women start pumping up the publicity. I remember having dinner with a friend who'd seen a preview of The Book of Mormon and having to literally put my fingers in my ears and go "La la la la" while he insisted in talking about a particularly funny scene to someone. I'm glad I did because, similarly, I have never laughed so hard at a show and I have heard so many people complain after years of waiting and viewing clips on YouTube and elsewhere that it wasn't all that. (Stone & Parker were brilliant in not releasing any footage of the piece for months after opening: they really whet people's appetites.) |
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| Embiggened | |
| Posted by: stevemr 01:39 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
| In reply to: Stop listening to other people! (Other than me!) - portenopete 12:35 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
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| THANK YOU for this wonderful word. I was so sure you made it up that I checked, but damned if its not real! I can't wait to use it. | |
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| re: Embiggened | |
| Posted by: portenopete 04:58 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
| In reply to: Embiggened - stevemr 01:39 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
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| I'm glad you liked it! I knew I hadn't made it up; I always thought it was a word from The Simpsons, but I just heard a story on the radio where they mentioned its usage had been discovered a century or two ago. If "enlarge" is a word, why not "embiggen"? | |
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| Using it would be perfectly cromulent. | |
| Posted by: garyd 02:03 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
| In reply to: Embiggened - stevemr 01:39 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
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| re: Embiggened | |
| Posted by: ryhog 01:52 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
| In reply to: Embiggened - stevemr 01:39 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
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| and I knew the word but thought it was "enbiggened" so I learnt something today too. | |
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| re: Embiggened | |
| Posted by: sirpupnyc 02:55 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Embiggened - ryhog 01:52 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
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| ...and I thought it was something "The Simpsons" made up. (I've never used it or seen it used outside of internet-speak.) | |
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| re: Embiggened | |
| Posted by: Teacher64 03:15 am EST 01/07/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Embiggened - sirpupnyc 02:55 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
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| The word a (and its connection to THE SIMPSONS) was a Jeopardy question just within the last two weeks. | |
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| Paddy Considine (mild spoilers) | |
| Posted by: mikem 01:24 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
| In reply to: Stop listening to other people! (Other than me!) - portenopete 12:35 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
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| (mild spoilers) While I think Paddy Considine is a great actor and certainly did what the part requires, he also blended into the ensemble. His character is on stage quite a bit but doesn't really have flashy speeches that would bring him forward. A case could certainly be made that all of the actors should be nominated for Featured roles rather than Leading ones. Laura Donnelly made a much larger impression on me than Considine did. Although she's not going to win any of the season's awards over Elaine May (or potentially Glenda Jackson), she is definitely giving an award-worthy performance. |
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| re: Paddy Considine (mild spoilers) | |
| Posted by: AC126748 08:42 am EST 01/07/19 | |
| In reply to: Paddy Considine (mild spoilers) - mikem 01:24 pm EST 01/06/19 | |
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| Laura Donnelly made a much larger impression on me than Considine did. Although she's not going to win any of the season's awards over Elaine May (or potentially Glenda Jackson), she is definitely giving an award-worthy performance. Donnelly deservedly won the Olivier Award for Best Actress last year, and I would say underestimate her chances for award recognition here at your peril. |
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