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| re: Am I the only one???? | |
| Posted by: Ncassidine 11:49 am EDT 10/07/21 | |
| In reply to: Am I the only one???? - GreatMartin 10:47 am EDT 10/07/21 | |
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| I enjoyed it from a "this is so campy it's fun" perspective. | |
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| re: Am I the only one???? | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 01:30 pm EDT 10/07/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Am I the only one???? - Ncassidine 11:49 am EDT 10/07/21 | |
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| Right. It's not a fundamentally different show than "Moulin Rouge", save that the latter has iconic pop songs and the former is pleasantly generic - but we go into "Moulin Rouge" expecting campy ridiculousness, and so it's okay when we laugh at the absurdities of musical theater (a number of the song cues elicit guffaws from some of the audience), whereas with "Diana" we view that as a failure. | |
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| re: Am I the only one???? | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 02:16 pm EDT 10/07/21 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 02:14 pm EDT 10/07/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Am I the only one???? - Singapore/Fling 01:30 pm EDT 10/07/21 | |
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| I've argued elsewhere than independent of this project's disappointing execution, Diana Spencer is not really a strong subject for a musical. She has no accessible, understandable goal -- an I Want -- to drive her. She stumbles into the royal family, accommodates her husband's chilliness, 24/7 whine, and betrayal, and looks about for something to occupy and define her. She's mostly putting out fires, not driving herself or a show toward anything with enough specificity. Anastasia connected with many because the character's quest for loving family is knowable and touching. Eva Person, love her or hate her, possessed a compelling raw ambition, reason to follow her for two hours. Even shows that break structural rules require drive, i.e. Bechdel desperately wants to understand her father's closeted life and death; it's an investigation. The creatives of Diana can't decide if the show is a cautionary tragedy or a just -- worst of all -- "a portrait." That's why the character so often stands in the middle of the stage changing clothes while everything swirls around her. The show's one theme, the abject awfulness of media, would only work if something new could be said about it. But chasing a woman all over the globe until she dies in an accident isn't much of a story, and the aftertaste is sad and bitter. |
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| re: Am I the only one???? | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 10:38 pm EDT 10/07/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Am I the only one???? - Delvino 02:14 pm EDT 10/07/21 | |
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| Good points all. I think the story they're trying to express is about her quest for love and how in failing to find that she instead finds purpose (say what you will about the bad parts, but the AIDS hospice scene was, I thought, very effective), and I thought the show was at its strongest when they were in the love triangle. But yes, she has a hard time articulating her goal, and the show doesn't quite give us enough insight into why she thinks she can find that love from Charles. The Crown did a better job with that, and I actually would have had a very hard time following the musical if not for watching the TV show. | |
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