| re: what are the "true head scratchers" in score of The Life? | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 12:25 am EST 03/13/22 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 12:20 am EST 03/13/22 | |
| In reply to: re: what are the "true head scratchers" in score of The Life? - standingO 09:29 pm EST 03/12/22 | |
|
|
|
| But many great musicals (and plays and movie etc) are not only able to contain a variety of dramatic and comedic scenes/shifts etc, but they are better for it. The Life isn't West Side Story level by any means, but it's like saying "what were they thinking" about Gee Officer Krupke and I Feel Pretty... those songs seem like they're in a different show than most of the score (in the opposite way). I think people (like Billy Porter and Lear) like to talk about The Life like the issue was that it portrayed oppressed people on the fringe in sad and desperate situations and told their stories with comedy and "zazz", and thereby glamorized and/or romanticized the situations that have them there. I definitely do not agree. And The Life would be unbearable if it didn't have comedy and "numbers", and it would be *actually* guilty of romanticizing it without songs like “Someday' is for Suckers" / "We Gotta Go" / "My Friend". A lot of plays/movies have a journey from light drama and plenty of comedic tone into a darker tone as the events and seeds planted bloom into the drama and the stakes start to become heavier and consequences played out in the play. I love that the 2nd half of The Life gives us a song from the sex workers POV that isn't just "it's my body and my business" and "the police are hypocrites" etc, but shows the darker realities and the risks and the hopelessness... and then caps it all with a song about the friendship of the two main women who got through it. (and let's be real, there's plenty of darkness in act 1, including in what is dealt with in a more comedic tone. The comedic tone is more of a "fuck it" tone of comedy than a "isn't everything fun?" tone -- but are we really meant to think sex workers don't ever have a sense of humor? Often the people who have the most darkness in their lives have the most engaged senses of humor about it -- I think the scenes and characters in The Life gives us a variety, not always perfect, but not as bad as some make it out) It is a very mixed bag, for sure. And very hard to pull off. But I, too, and glad any time I find other admirers of it. It's truly one of my favorite scores... it's so fun and so rich in many ways. I am sure the fact that I call a musical about sex workers on the streets in NYC suffering abuse and exploitation and betrayal etc is exactly what's wrong with the very existence of the show and approach of its authors, and to them I say, "they can sell it their way... let me sell it mine!" |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | re: what are the "true head scratchers" in score of The Life? - standingO 09:29 pm EST 03/12/22 |
| Next: | re: Sonja (White's character) is definitely in My Body. - standingO 03:07 pm EST 03/12/22 |
| Thread: | |
Time to render: 0.026318 seconds.