| re: Once Upon a Mattress Tonight | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 02:11 am EDT 08/07/24 | |
| In reply to: re: Once Upon a Mattress Tonight - Chromolume 07:46 pm EDT 08/06/24 | |
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| Yes, that's always been there and no one ever seems to notice. Because it doesn't pay off. Because, though a clever idea, it is not well written as it comes in this song. At least not in my opinion. If Mary Rodgers meant it to pay off, she has a LOT of time to tinker with it and get it there and never has. Winnifred doesn't say any version of a lyric expressing "I want to be a pair" or "I want a marriage but" or something... so the thing she is one man shy of isn't quite set up, even if it's fair to hope/expect we are on board for it, but it just comes at the very end and that's it, it's not built on or built to. Also the entire song is spent on one joke, one take on the "shy" angle, and then she throws this play on words in at the end. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying if she wanted it to pay off it would have to be written differently. Perfect good way to end this song if you're not expecting it to land with a comedic bang there due to the new play on the word/idea. I mean it's not even, unless I'm misremembering, established with Dauntless saying he's one woman shy of a kingdom or something like that. In preparation for writing this reply, i rewatched the SJP revival performance of "Shy" on the Tonys. My god... just terrible. I am genuinely baffled why they got Gerald Gutierrez, who was by all accounts a splendid director of plays (and not outright comedy plays) to direct this. This needed a musical comedy director BAD. And a musical comedy star. But look no further than this performance to see what I mean by "trying" vs being naturally funny. Besides being just totally miscast for this role. Though I do find that when not in the very right hands, this is not all that great of a song/number. Sutton is, I admit, much better for the role than SJP (I know no one mentioned SJP or that production except me)... but still. I just don't think the song works the way it's meant to when the only thing a traditionally pretty actress can play to make the song work is "loud and annoying". |
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