| Mack & Mabel tonight. | |
| Posted by: Amiens 11:29 pm EST 02/19/20 | |
|
|
|
| Highly disappointing, I'm sorry to say. I only know the show from its original LA try out and the Broadway cast album so I can't speak of any changes that have been made here at Encores or over the years. I usually love Douglas Sills but as Mack he puts on an aggressively macho voice and snarls and shouts much of his dialogue, some of it beyond comprehension (maybe that's the sound design), where an effortlessness is desperately needed. Alexandra Socha is new to me and what she simply lacks here is the star charisma that Bernadette Peters brought to Mabel. Mack's attraction to Mabel is not believable, nor vice versa, though much of that problem can certainly be blamed on the lame book (much lamer than I remembered it, but chalk that up to my youthful enthusiasm). The staging by Josh Rhodes is very uneven. Some of his choreography is fun but a lot more is messy and doesn't help the confused storytelling, case in point Tap Your Troubles Away in which so many plot points are fighting for attention. The staged silent movie bits, pie-throwing, Keystone Kops, etc., musical and otherwise, are just not very funny though I imagine they're almost impossible to pull off in this day and age. The wonderful orchestra seemed to crowd a stage that seemed more cluttered with set than usual. Lilli Cooper and Michael Berresse are both very good in supporting roles. I could be more critical but I am sympathetic to the endeavor it takes to put on such an ambitious and imperfect show in very limited time. I appreciated seeing it, even in this less than perfect mounting. But this production only enforces my feeling that Encores needs to return to simpler, less fully-designed productions with more severely cut librettos (do they cut them at all any more?). |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | re: Any buzz on SING STREET? - lowwriter 09:39 am EST 02/20/20 |
| Next: | Sad that M&M won’t be redeemed - Zelgo 02:06 pm EST 02/21/20 |
| Thread: |
|
Time to render: 0.079565 seconds.