| One of Broadway's Memorial Day serving misses: why "Bandstand" didn't ultimately work | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 10:23 am EDT 05/27/24 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 10:18 am EDT 05/27/24 | |
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| Discussion of this holiday-enhancing show - its capture still showing up in pay per view-ish venues - came up this weekend among friends. I was an admirer of Richard Oberacker's score - evocatively arranged, played in part by actors portraying vets - and some of the poetic staging by Hamilton's Andy Blankenbuehler. The first act was often daring in its unsentimental focus on PTSD, without sugarcoating aftershocks. One image lingers: a moving tableau of dead soldiers positioning a piano to help the haunted protagonist write his song. Even the by-the-numbers trad romance folded believably into the construct. And then, somewhere between Papermill and NYC, a series of decisions to turn the piece into a feelgood entertainment muddied the second act and the whole endeavor's mission. The grit in much of act one - played on a realistic set in drab period clothes - was replaced almost the way Loveland descends on Follies. A serious purpose if imperfect piece of musical theater storytelling turned into a 40s movie, with primary colored sets, satin costumes, and a ludicrously grafted finish that turned an ordinary Ohio vet into a movie star. After a blistering eleven o'clock spot that should've ended the show - "Welcome Home" - they slapped on stardom for a young man with no logical trajectory to achieve it. I've always wondered how the original Papermill ending played, the players more realistically becoming (only) a successful cover band in Ohio, having made their mark. Imagine a scene of the group playing for a new group of vets, say, returning from Korea? The finished product, which admittedly some on this board genuinely loathed, was always at cross purposes with itself. Still, if you're looking for a theater song to honor Memorial Day, you can't do better than the honesty of "Welcome Home." |
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