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| THE LIFE Tonight | |
| Posted by: sergius 10:38 pm EDT 03/20/22 | |
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| THE LIFE was never a very good musical—hackneyed hooker hash—and now it’s a lecture, a hostage to sanctimony. It’s not that its sentiments aren’t appreciable, it’s that they take the form of hectoring rather than characterization. This makes for self important, deadly theatre. And this on top of the many other baffling directorial choices. The opening of the second Act alone bounds, inexplicably, from a political vaudeville turn to a Chorus Line homage. And then, in the next scene, there’s an actual Greek chorus for good measure. What? Ledisi is the eleven o’clock spot and she’s terrific, but everything else here is just a bumptious mess. This iteration of THE LIFE is really too tiresome to get worked up about. May it rest in peace. | |
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| re: THE LIFE Tonight | |
| Last Edit: mikem 11:42 pm EDT 03/20/22 | |
| Posted by: mikem 11:26 pm EDT 03/20/22 | |
| In reply to: THE LIFE Tonight - sergius 10:38 pm EDT 03/20/22 | |
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| (spoilers, not that it matters because the run is over and I can't imagine this version being produced again) I saw the show this afternoon and agree with everything Sergius wrote. When previous attendees had said there was speechifying, I didn't realize that meant actual speeches where characters essentially step out of the show to declaim about whatever it is that Billy Porter thinks needs to be lectured about. At my performance, when the actress playing Queen started on the "I am a Black trans woman who is in danger every day in America" speech after she shot the gun, it was such clumsy writing and so out of place dramatically (who exactly is she talking to? Not the only other person in that scene) that some people around me started laughing. The same thing happened at the top of the second act. A fine cast (it's not them). I have certainly heard some doozies of a lyric now and then, but this was some of the most amateurish writing/directing I have ever experienced at a Broadway-caliber production. As with the reports on The Tap Dance Kid, it seems like there is no one in the rehearsal room who is going to provide that counterbalance so that the room isn't an echo chamber. |
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