Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Posted by: Unhookthestars 04:13 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - Roman 04:07 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
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| Definitely, at least for me, which is why I found the absence of an orchestra in the John Doyle Sweeney Todd a disappointment. Same goes for the 2019 Fiasco revival of “Merrily.” That music needs to be brassy in many places and that just wasn’t possible with this production. | |
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| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 04:31 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - Unhookthestars 04:13 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
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| I actually admired Sarah Travis' orchestrations - except (and this probably links with your comment) when the full cast had to be singing, meaning sometimes only piano was playing, which was not at all enough. I always kind of wished that Travis would have been asked to flesh out her inventive orchestration to get rid of those "holes" in the sound, and let MTI offer it as an alternate orchestration (i.e. NOT to be performed by the cast.) For me, that production of Sweeney was a very good concert. That's it. For the most part, I felt people were too busy playing orchestra instruments to also look credibly involved in the scene. No acting, no theatre. It was a concert. |
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| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Last Edit: Unhookthestars 08:27 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
| Posted by: Unhookthestars 08:24 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - Chromolume 04:31 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
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| Chromolume — You’re absolutely right. On second thought, I do quite like the “Teeny Todd” orchestrations and listen to the cast recording often. But those same orchestrations felt unsatisfying to me when I saw the show live (on tour); their lack of “oomph” simply failed to serve the story. I also agree that the actors were so busy fiddling with the instruments and trying to keep them in a position that would allow them to be played properly that it probably took up the attention and energy they could have otherwise spent on playing their characters instead. |
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| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 09:09 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - Unhookthestars 08:24 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
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| If I'm not mistaken, "Teeny Todd" was the nickname given to the 1989 revival at Circle in the Square, directed by Susan H. Schulman, the first Broadway revival. It was sadly not recorded. The 2006 revival was also teeny but I don't think it was called that, and was small in a very different way than the 1989. | |
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| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Last Edit: Unhookthestars 12:09 am EDT 08/24/22 | |
| Posted by: Unhookthestars 12:08 am EDT 08/24/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - Chazwaza 09:09 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
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| You’re right about “Teeny Todd,” of course! Thanks for the correction. Now we need a different nickname for the Doyle production. How about “Teeny-Weeny Sweeney”? | |
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| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 03:03 pm EDT 08/24/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - Unhookthestars 12:08 am EDT 08/24/22 | |
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| Creepy Todd? Loony Todd? |
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| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Posted by: skier74 09:36 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - Chazwaza 09:09 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
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| The Forbidden Broadway "Teeny Todd" was DEFINITELY pre-2006. | |
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| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 10:02 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - skier74 09:36 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
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| Oh yeah, I forgot that's where the name came from. Yeah, that revival hasn't had much lasting impact in the annals of Broadway history... largely because it didn't win any Tonys, wasn't nominated for many (though it did get nods for Best Revival, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and there was no cast album or video recording made of it. I would say it is notable because it made Susan H. Schulman one of the few female directors nominated for a Best Direction Tony, it was also the first revival on Broadway of a Sondheim/Prince musical... Forum was revived in 1976 for a short run, but otherwise no other Sondheim show prior to 1989. And then the next one was in 1996 when the Nathan Lane Forum revival competed against the first Company revival (Forum won). If we count Gypsy then of course that had revivals in 1974 and 1989. There was of course the 1984 off-broadway revival of Pacific Overtures, but that was off. And Merrily was done in 1994 off-broadway, again directed by Schulman. Sad that we didn't get a cast recordings of Teeny Todd... unlike the Gypsy and Forum revivals, it was markedly different in approach and scope and orchestration than the original, and so I think justified an album... but of course, there are many reasonable reasons not to record a short lived revival that won no Tonys, had no stars, and opened just years after the OBC album came out. |
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| re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford | |
| Posted by: bmc 11:16 am EDT 08/24/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Boroff: Sweeney: Groban+Ashford - Chazwaza 10:02 pm EDT 08/23/22 | |
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| Can an ANYONE CAN WHISTLE revival be far behind? | |
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