| Not from my courtroom, you won't be. | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 04:22 pm EDT 06/23/24 | |
| In reply to: Am I going to Theatre Jail for not really liking MERRILY? - DistantDrumming 01:00 am EDT 06/23/24 | |
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| I'm happy for all concerned that this recent production was a hit, and I think it's highly likely that it's the best production of this show that we'll see in my lifetime. Kudos to Friedman and the cast. But I still don't think much of the show itself. The book is still thin, the characters not all that compelling, the score second-tier Sondheim, and that backward-story gimmick still both unnecessary and crippling. (Yes, I know, and no, I don't care, that it was that way in the original Kaufman and Hart play.) Wouldn't it really be a better, stronger, and more heartbreaking show if we saw these characters as idealistic young people before we saw them as jaded elders? I'm working on a theory, not entirely fleshed out yet, that for best results a musical's story should not take place over too long a period of time (as in, several decades), for the same reason that you should not try to adapt a huge classic like Gone With the Wind, Lord of the Rings, or the entire Bible into a single musical of average length: It's trying to fit too large a story into too small an amount of stage time, so that important things are going to get skimped and glossed over. |
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| Previous: | Am I going to Theatre Jail for not really liking MERRILY? - DistantDrumming 01:00 am EDT 06/23/24 |
| Next: | re: Not from my courtroom, you won't be. - DistantDrumming 10:25 pm EDT 06/23/24 |
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