| re: SHENANDOAH: Thoughts and Memories? | |
| Last Edit: hugoP 12:31 am EDT 08/23/20 | |
| Posted by: hugoP 12:29 am EDT 08/23/20 | |
| In reply to: SHENANDOAH: Thoughts and Memories? - EvFoDr 02:53 pm EDT 08/20/20 | |
|
|
|
| I was in high school when it premiered on Broadway, and was just starting to travel into the city (from Long Island) to grab half-price tickets or standing room for any new show that looked interesting. It was also in those early years of Broadway tv commercials, and SHENANDOAH had a really exciting one-two punch of tv spots-- one of John Cullum doing his stunning soliloquy, the other featuring the song "Freedom." Together, those two numbers (or the 30 seconds or so we got to see of them) promised a powerful old-fashioned Broadway musical... I wasn't surprised it ran for a long time. I saw it several times during its run, and I really liked the score and the book. I remember loving the fact that it was set in a really pivotal moment in US history, and it might have been my first appreciation of how musicals could use history effectively. I thought SHENANDOAH had a lot of, well, gravitas. Not long after, though, I saw PACIFIC OVERTURES and that production really blew me away with its incredibly powerful and challenging look at history, and complicity and responsibility. Suddenly, SHENANDOAH seemed a bit, I guess, simplistic. Final thought: I did not see another production of SHENANDOAH til last year, more than 40 years after I saw the original. Serenbe Playhouse outside Atlanta did a site-immersive version and, while it was beautifully staged and sung (everything there has been), it made me realize the show itself is not very good and has not held up well at all. "We Make A Beautiful Pair", a lovely country number, was the highlight this time around. "Freedom" seemed naive, at best. |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | SHENANDOAH: Thoughts and Memories? - EvFoDr 02:53 pm EDT 08/20/20 |
| Next: | re: SHENANDOAH: Thoughts and Memories? - EvFoDr 08:14 am EDT 08/23/20 |
| Thread: |
|
Time to render: 0.052948 seconds.