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| re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:29 am EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - mikem 11:22 am EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| "I agree with a prior commenter who said he loved the show live but only liked the streaming version. Although the cast had already done the show at the McCarter Theater in Princeton for 5 or 6 weeks, this was filmed in the first week of NYC previews, and the performances are not yet modulated to perfection. The audience is also dead, which doesn't help." And I agree with you, although my sense was that the issue was more the second thing (a dead-ish audience) than the first. Of course, one feeds upon the other, so it's hard to tell for sure. |
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| re: audience- this performance was just after Hurricane Sandy. I wonder how full it actually was | |
| Posted by: Esther 09:46 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - Michael_Portantiere 11:29 am EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I was supposed to attend this particular preview, but I was stuck in NE Queens with no power and no way to get into Manhattan thanks to Hurricane Sandy a few days prior. Ended up seeing it about a month later with a rather lively , appreciative audience |
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| re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: NewsGuy 12:50 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - Michael_Portantiere 11:29 am EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I would presume a lot of background/audience noise was eliminated from the production. Having been an audience member for a limitless number of concerts recorded for video or audio recordings, the end result is far far far far different than the actual experience as an audience member. The sound is usually taken from the soundboard feed, because there was often so much screaming and singing along that the artist would have never been able to have been heard singing their own song at all. Stevie Nicks singing "Landslide" in the 24 Karat Gold Concert, Madonna singing "Holiday" in her hometown of Detroit on the Drowned World Tour, and Cher singing "Believe" on her recorded tours instantly come to mind, followed by many, many others. |
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| re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: mikem 11:43 am EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - Michael_Portantiere 11:29 am EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| There are few things better than when the audience for a comedy and the actors are in sync and feeding their energy to each other back and forth in an upward spiral, and the show just gets better and better and better. And the opposite is awful, where the audience is completely dead, and the actors sometimes either overcompensate or kind of give up. There were several times during this streaming version where I was thinking, "C'mon, that was funny! Why is no one laughing?" That must be really frustrating for the cast. |
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| re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:17 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - mikem 11:43 am EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| ***There were several times during this streaming version where I was thinking, "C'mon, that was funny! Why is no one laughing?" That must be really frustrating for the cast.*** I had the same reaction. I suspected we were in a bit of trouble about five minutes into the show, when Sonia smashes that first coffee cup and there was almost no laughter. Whether that was the audience's "fault," or whether Christine's timing and/or acting were a bit off, I can't say for sure. |
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| If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - Michael_Portantiere 12:17 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I saw V&S&M&S at the Mark Taper (same production with Nielsen and "Cassandra" recreating their roles) and then I did the show (as V) and then I watched the LCT stream. Ultimately I don't think it is a great play and not even top-drawer Durang. I think it emerged as a success in a very weak season and appealed to the snobbishness that V&S&M's parents suffered from in naming their children: it flattered the egos of theatregoers who "got" the references and that was seemingly enough. But that's just me. When I'm watching a show I will laugh regardless of what the people around me are doing and conversely, all the guffawing in the world won't seduce me into joining in. The coffee cup throw didn't work in any of the versions I was present for. nor did the Cassandra histrionics. The only consistently successful moments were the Maggie Smith impression, the big V speech in Act II and anytime Spike took his kit off! |
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| I Have to Agree With You | |
| Posted by: Jax 04:01 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| "Ultimately I don't think it is a great play and not even top-drawer Durang. I think it emerged as a success in a very weak season and appealed to the snobbishness that V&S&M's parents suffered from in naming their children: it flattered the egos of theatregoers who "got" the references and that was seemingly enough." Durang partisans like Ben Brantley wet themselves over this after ages of dissing the bourgeois Neil Simon. Yet what did V&S use for its first act curtain? Neil Simon's "California Suite" scene w. Maggie Smith....almost word for word. Come the second act curtain, for a moving moment, they just put the Beatles "Here Comes the Sun" on the loudspeaker. Hard to go wrong with that. Durang was a very clever sketch writer. Never much of a playwright. |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:36 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| "Ultimately I don't think it is a great play and not even top-drawer Durang. I think it emerged as a success in a very weak season and appealed to the snobbishness that V&S&M's parents suffered from in naming their children: it flattered the egos of theatregoers who "got" the references and that was seemingly enough. " I might agree with your first sentence, but I think the rest of your comment is unfair. I really don't think much or maybe even any of the humor in the play relies on the audience "getting the references." In fact, as I recall, most if not all of the references are explained in the text; I specifically remember that the Cassandra reference is fully explained. |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: MRH 02:52 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| It's not just you. I agree with EVERY word; and it seemingly happens a lot (at least to me) | |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 02:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| Based on my live viewing of the show, I agree with you about the Cassandra histrionics. But when I saw it, as I recall, the throwing and smashing of the first coffee cup got a pretty big, shocked laugh, and the throwing and smashing of the second one an even bigger laugh. | |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: portenopete 05:25 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - Michael_Portantiere 02:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I'll grant you that the LCT archival response was weaker than the Taper version or for the one I did. I can definitely imagine it would have gotten a bigger reaction than....nothing (IIRC). In Los Angeles the late and lovely Mark Blum was DHP's equal, I thought. And David Hull was a very sexy and funny Spike. I seem to be in the minority that liked Weaver, but having read all the Durang one-acts in my youth with her voice in my head (knowing she'd come up with him), I think of her as the supreme Durang interpreter. I have always thought her vague and airy line readings highlighted the lunacy and amoral utterances of his characters. And as you (or another in this thread) said, I think he is best lauded as a sketch writer. And that is meant to be a major complement. |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: mikem 11:53 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 05:25 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I would agree that there is some inconsistency to the characterizations from scene to scene. The Sonia smashing cups over nothing in the first scene has little resemblance to the Sonia we see later in the show. | |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 02:56 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - mikem 11:53 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| "The Sonia smashing cups over nothing in the first scene has little resemblance to the Sonia we see later in the show." Interesting, I never thought of it that way. My take is that Sonia has a lot of anger in her, much of it in regard to Masha, but also in regard to other aspects of her (Sonia's) life. At the beginning of the play, that anger comes out in the form of her smashing coffee cups, later she expresses some of her anger verbally, and eventually I think her anger begins to fade when she very unexpectedly meets a man who's interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with her, and also when it turns out that the house will not be sold out from under her and her brother. |
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| re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: mikem 12:36 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - Michael_Portantiere 12:17 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| The smashing of the coffee cup was my "uh oh" moment as well. I wonder if the LCT preview audience is not a good fit for this kind of show. I saw Happiness at its first preview, but I don't think I've ever seen a comedy at LCT early in previews. | |
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| re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: duckylittledictum 02:00 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - mikem 12:36 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I also noticed that there was very little response to Vanya's tirade/aria in Act 2. When I saw it in its LCT run, there was a huge explosion of applause. In the video, it was quite more polite. That being said, I wondered what I had liked about the play in the first place. The Cassandra character in particular seemed worse than ever and felt drafted from another play. Totally forgot it had won a Best Play Tony. |
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| re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 02:53 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - duckylittledictum 02:00 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| "That being said, I wondered what I had liked about the play in the first place." Which only goes to show how much the response of the rest of the audience can affect our own feelings about a play, even if sometimes we don't like to admit that. "The Cassandra character in particular seemed worse than ever and felt drafted from another play. " Yes, and sorry to say, I only really understood about half of the lines spoken by that actor. Which was also the case when I saw the show live. |
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