| re: A Face in the Crowd | |
| Posted by: sf 06:09 pm EDT 10/07/24 | |
| In reply to: re: A Face in the Crowd - Ann 04:56 pm EDT 10/07/24 | |
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| I liked it more, but it needs work. I saw it the day before reviewers went in, and attributed some of the tentativeness I perceived in it to a relatively short preview period (just over a week) in which four performances had had to be cancelled (some for technical reasons, some because of cast illness), and maybe I was a little too generous (I'm going back before it closes). I think there are some very good things in it, but it needed - at least - another three weeks of previews with both writers actively working on the show. Costello played a series of gigs elsewhere in the UK while it was in previews, and that wasn't a wise choice. Karimloo and Anoushka Lucas are great. The direction can't decide whether it's telling the story in the style of a piece of television from the 1950s, or just using a 1950s television studio as a unit set. The Walter Matthau character is badly underwritten, and his first song is the thing in the score that most needs a rewrite. And the show needs to make it clear from the beginning that it's taking aim not just at Lonesome Rhodes but at the audience that cheered him on - and there's an easy way to do that, dropping the current rather limp opening number and having 'American Mirror' open *and* close the show would make what the authors are trying to say much clearer. The direction is not Mr. Kwei-Armah's best work. The design would work better if the direction committed fully to it - it's as if the director and designer had half an idea each and never quite followed it through. And the writers need to get back to work, because there's a very, very good show locked in here - and if it does get another production somewhere else, they both need to be present and working on the show during rehearsals and previews. |
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| Previous: | re: A Face in the Crowd - Ann 04:56 pm EDT 10/07/24 |
| Next: | ALWAYS love reading your reviews! 'The Other Place' sounds especially interesting! (NMI) - DistantDrumming 04:33 pm EDT 10/07/24 |
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