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| re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW | |
| Posted by: singleticket 11:13 am EDT 03/20/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW - Michael_Portantiere 11:06 am EDT 03/20/21 | |
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| I didn't see that revival. My sense was that it didn't really engage with the book in terms of its problems or its possibilities. | |
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| re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:36 am EDT 03/20/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW - singleticket 11:13 am EDT 03/20/21 | |
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| "I didn't see that revival. My sense was that it didn't really engage with the book in terms of its problems or its possibilities." I don't fully understand what you mean by that, but still, I don't agree :-) They did add some narration, and there were some cuts. |
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| re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW | |
| Posted by: singleticket 12:12 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW - Michael_Portantiere 11:36 am EDT 03/20/21 | |
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| Coppola brought the book’s patchy politics into the era of the sit-ins, at least in part. I didn’t get a sense that the recent Broadway production had any interest in doing something similar. It seemed very pre-BLM... stepping around the racial politics of the original rather than engaging with them and hopefully bringing something new to them. | |
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| re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:09 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW - singleticket 12:12 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
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| "Coppola brought the book’s patchy politics into the era of the sit-ins, at least in part. I didn’t get a sense that the recent Broadway production had any interest in doing something similar. It seemed very pre-BLM... stepping around the racial politics of the original rather than engaging with them and hopefully bringing something new to them." First of all, I thought we were discussing the Irish Rep production(s), but now you seem to be referencing the most recent Broadway revival. Anyway, whichever production you're referencing, you said in a previous post that you didn't see it. I hope you're not making these comments just based on your "sense" of what a production was like without having seen it. P.S. I do think it was neat that the politics of FINIAN'S RAINBOW fit in so well with the sit-in era of the 1960s, but neither the Irish Rep productions nor the Broadway revival updated the action to the '60s, so obviously they didn't feel the politics needed to be updated in that way. Nor did I. |
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| re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW | |
| Last Edit: singleticket 03:32 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
| Posted by: singleticket 03:23 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW - Michael_Portantiere 03:09 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
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| I do think it was neat that the politics of FINIAN'S RAINBOW fit in so well with the sit-in era of the 1960s, but neither the Irish Rep productions nor the Broadway revival updated the action to the '60s, so obviously they didn't feel the politics needed to be updated in that way. Nor did I. Just to be clear, I'm not insisting that the action of the musical needs to be updated. But I do think that the politics of the book need to be engaged with in some way by the production to bring the musical into the present. I don't necessary feel this way about other musicals, operas or plays but I do think FINIAN'S RAINBOW needs it and makes even less sense as a frozen period piece. There is quite a bit of continuity between the leftist anti-racism of the late 1940's and the 1960's and actually the present BLM era. I didn't see the Irish Rep. production either. From the NYT's review: After all, “Finian’s Rainbow” occupies its own special real estate in the universe of musical fantasy. It’s a place where talented people can be any age they choose, and where a racially divided American South can resolve its tensions with a sprinkling of gold fairy dust and a swell, soaring song. It is a fine little corner, in other words, in which to escape the shrill din of a contentious political fall. The Coppola film's climax is actually pretty violent and scary even with the story's pixie dust and it makes that final swell of soaring song even more poignant. |
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| re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:39 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW - singleticket 03:23 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
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| "I do think that the politics of the book need to be engaged with in some way by the production to bring the musical into the present." Okay, but "the politics of the book need to be engaged with in some way" sounds very amorphous to me, and since you didn't see these revivals, I really don't think you should comment that they DIDN'T do so. I agree with you about the climax of the Coppola film. I don't remember if this is in the original show script, but in the movie, Sharon is labeled a "witch" by the villains of the piece, after her wish turns Senator Rawkins into a black man. And then, at the climax of the movie, the villains attempt to burn Sharon (and Woody) to death by setting to flames the barn they're locked into. So, in this way, the movie also references the Communist "witch hunts" of the HUAC era, which occurred between the time the original production of FINIAN'S RAINBOW played on Broadway and the movie was made 20 years later. Very, very neat. |
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| re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW | |
| Posted by: singleticket 03:51 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW - Michael_Portantiere 03:39 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
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| The witch definitely felt to me like something out of HUAC, yes. The church burning, at least in Coppola's film, feels like a reminder of the white racist retaliatory church burnings in the 1960's. | |
| Link | 1963 September 15 - Four Black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham church bombing |
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| re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 01:52 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre, surprising 1968 FINIAN'S RAINBOW - singleticket 12:12 pm EDT 03/20/21 | |
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| It seemed very pre-BLMM Perhaps that's because it was. The production was in 2009, and BLM didn't come to be until mid 2013. |
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