| re: A Pre Tony Nod to Flying Over Sunset | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 07:38 am EDT 06/11/22 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 07:26 am EDT 06/11/22 | |
| In reply to: A Pre Tony Nod to Flying Over Sunset - ianx73 07:31 pm EDT 06/10/22 | |
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| Saw a preview and ended up with house seats for a Wednesday matinee, via TDF. The Beaumont about 40% full. The show was breathtakingly beautiful, fully deserving of all of its design element awards, the use of projections fresh and unlike anything. And the four stars (I consider Sella really the 4th major character) were heroic, each given moments to shine musically and dramatically. The first act was bubbling with promise, introducing us to three figures worthy of our time. And then the second act, ambitious and full of ideas, just couldn't push the show over the edge for me. The Luce material felt repetitive, since she'd fully explored her mother's and daughter's deaths in the first act. I expected that the teasing sexual sparks with the men might've invited her to learn more about her failed marriage in an erotic trip. But she doubled back and went still deeper into the two losses. Even if with new prisms, too similar to earlier material. It may have felt exploratory to the creators, but the audience learned nothing new. The score rose to the occasion (though I find her big 11 o'clock spot, "Why?" far too literal -- overwrought -- and musically unmemorable, the one time Kitt lets the character down.) The end, however was lovely ("The 23rd Ingredient'). If the second act had found more transcendence, and pushed the three characters together more surprisingly, the show might've soared. The big idea in its conceit -- pulling these three into common cause -- is where the storytelling let us down. I didn't find it cerebral, beyond the basic therapeutic premise; it's emotion-driven. Yet it needed to find more emotional connections among the individuals in the strange threesome. Since it's all fiction, anything was possible. Yet other than the men swimming together, they were as alone as in act one. If that was the point, it's theatrically flat. But the score, oh, what a keeper. "A Sapphire Dragonfly" is exquisite, my favorite, but the title song is haunting and serves so well. And then "Funny Money" is just heartbreaking. And Huxley's signature song, "The Music Plays On," a kind of Maury Yeston waltz, is just perfect theater music. I listened to it from the day it dropped, and have only grown to appreciate almost all of it. (If ianx73 or another FOS fan wants to make a case for "Why?" have at it. It feels like either a first draft song that would've been replaced with something more interesting, or a late add to explain the character's stalled catharsis. I've tried to understand why some people love the song, but it's just so prosaic, and Cusack, who can sing anything, is forced to do some heavy lifting. |
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