| I wouldn't bet that this is going to be a "truly thoughtful production". | |
| Posted by: portenopete 11:56 am EDT 06/23/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Commentary: "The Music Man" is the wrong Broadway revival for this crucial moment - chrismpls 11:19 am EDT 06/23/21 | |
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| I don't imagine that anyone involved- the now-departed Scott Rudin or the headliner Hugh Jackman particularly- were planning for this iteration of the show to be groundbreaking or revelatory. By hiring Jerry Zaks, Rudin obviously wanted to replicate the success of the Bette Midler DOLLY by mounting a lavish and starrily-cast recreation of the original Morton da Costa original. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Daniel Fish's OKLAHOMA! was a self-conscious and deliberate overhaul of the original R&H piece that ten years earlier would never have been given the green light for Bard College, let alone Circle in the Square. In the intervening decade, I think Ted Chapin & Co. realised that the market for their catalogue was perhaps drying up, at least in terms of big productions on Broadway. A new generation of YouTube and TikTok-raised kids did not have the attention spans for three hour tuners with dream ballets and cringe-worthy politics. So they started allowing directors to fiddle and some really interesting productions have resulted. (OKLAHOMA! is particularly reinvented between the Fish production, Molly Smith's version at Arena Stage- which was looking to transfer to Broadway- and the OSF version in Ashland with trans performers and gender-reversals.) I loved the Fish OKLAHOMA! and I loved the more reverential Bart Sher SOUTH PACIFIC and THE KING AND I. There is room for both and if the epic productions that Lincoln Center has invested in can make money and run, then I will be happy to put my $150 down to see them. And I will also happily drive up the Hudson to catch some weird multi-media take on an old warhorse being performed in a barn. In an era of increasing diversity, let's celebrate the gamut of styles and sensibilities that are being offered to us by creative artists both young and old, traditional and revolutionary. |
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| Previous: | re: Commentary: "The Music Man" is the wrong Broadway revival for this crucial moment - chrismpls 11:19 am EDT 06/23/21 |
| Next: | re: I wouldn't bet that this is going to be a "truly thoughtful production". - chrismpls 02:11 pm EDT 06/23/21 |
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