| DESSA ROSE - one of A&H's top 3 scores, but sadly nearly unknown | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 06:56 pm EDT 04/17/20 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 06:56 pm EDT 04/17/20 | |
| In reply to: Favorites that got bad reviews - aleck 09:37 am EDT 04/15/20 | |
|
|
|
| This show was unfairly dismissed or given a lukewarm response as I recall. I know many others who saw it too and loved it. A glorious, tuneful, soaring, lovely score. I truly think the score may actually be their best, but if not it still firmly sits in their top 3 with Ragtime and Once On This Island. There are countless highlights, from the beautiful and soaring opening We Are Descended to Something of My Own to At the Glen, Capture the Girl, Twelve Children, and that's just act one! But I think my favorite song from the show and maybe that they've ever written is "The Bend of My Arm" and to go from that right into the amazing "Better If I Died"! Wow. And then right into the perfect comedy/character song "Ten Petticoats" and then the wonderful "Just Over the Line"... it's a masterclass in musical theater writing. I also dare say this score show a maturity that is really notable in how they approach writing. There's an evolution here, to my ear, in how they approached this opening number - similar to OOTI and Ragtime but more subdued and less bombastic. Same as for the act one closer, which shows remarkable restraint in music and intelligence in story. Even in act 2, their sentimental spot is the beautiful "White Milk and Red Blood" rather than the saccharine "Our Children." What moments they choose to musicalize and the way they did so, I was newly impressed with them, and given how much I love Ragtime and OOTI, that's saying a lot. It's also a story of women supporting women, women with agency taking control of their lives and bodies, racial conflict and friendship in the worst of times. And it's not able a white woman saving a black woman, or showing her her value, if anything it's the other way around. The show itself can be a bit difficult because of the dark and harsh subject matter of slavery and violence, etc, and on top of that it relies on two actresses switching from old to young which can be very bad if not done very well. In this production it was handled simply and effectively and I think both LaChanze and Rachel York did it very well as directed by Graciela Danielle, who did a beautiful job staging the show. And as with all their shows I think, there are parts of Act 2 that feel notably weaker in song writing or story, or too sentimental or silly (in Ragtime I detest the blatant sentimentality of "Our Children" and the silly plot stuff of "Buffalo Nickel") and Dessa Rose has a similar issue especially with "The Scheme" which just feels like it's impossible, but the story is based on the scheme working, and this is a novel adaptation so I'm not sure what they do about it, you just have to go with the idea that these slaves could just keep being sold and running away, without getting caught, and being sold again, repeat. The song itself is a fine song, but the credulity is unavoidably stretched. I do think they deal with the fear and danger of it in the score and text, but it's still tough. I hope people will buy the OBC album, which is the entire show I think, including dialogue, and give this score a chance. Whether the show becomes produced much ever or not, the score deserves to be appreciated and celebrated and at least able to be referenced! |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | Favorites that got bad reviews - aleck 09:37 am EDT 04/15/20 |
| Next: | ''A Man of No Importance'' - WaymanWong 03:36 am EDT 04/18/20 |
| Thread: |
|
Time to render: 0.023536 seconds.