Dreams Of Noise

Oh, so very many. Equus and Amadeus by Peter Shaffer. The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Noises Off by Michael Frayn. I won't even start on the musicals, or I'd be here all day.

But there's no question at all, the single most intense experience I've ever had as an audience member was at the Fisher Theater in Detroit, seeing all seven hours of Tony Kushner's Angels in America They did the first half, Millenium Approaches in the afternoon, and the second half, Perestroika, in the evening. When the last line was spoken, every single member of the audience was instantly on his or her feet, cheering. There was a moment in Perestroika that had me simultaneously laughing, crying, and applauding, the only time that's ever happened to me.

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jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com

I wish they would remake the movie of Equus with Radcliffe and Griffiths. I didn't like the Firth/Burton version.

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True, the movie wasn't very good. I've seen it twice on stage. The second time was about ten years ago, at the Stratford Festival, with Brian Bedford as Dysart. Brilliant.

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judifilksign.livejournal.com

Cyrano de Bergerac, Arsenic and Old Lace, Amadeus (like

markbernstein and Twelfth Night.

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FYI, they're doing Cyrano at the Stratford Festival next summer.

And I do love Arsenic and Old Lace.

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selenesue.livejournal.com

Hijacking the topic... I have to voice some appreciation for Tom here, how he not only brings us news first, even the sad but important news; but he makes a discussion topic out of it every day. Don't think it's not noticed nor appreciated.

I have had a crush on your brain for years. Oh, your real life girlfriends can have you in real life, but I just love your brain. Just saying.

Merry Christmas, big guy.

Oh and my favorite stage plays are STAGE PLAYS, performed by real local people with maybe more sincerity than talent. Tech-gasms are fun but somehow it's not the same skill-set anymore. Call me old school.

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I agree with you, darlin'. I didn't much like Cats for that reason. Too much glitz, not enough humanity (or felinity, as the case may be).

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Well, thank you, Susan m'dear. I do try not to just toss stuff out there pointlessly or out of context, and especially in the case of lesser-known people or events or whatever, it just makes sense to tie it in to our own likes, dislikes, experiences, etc. I think it's better than Just One More Thing To Click Past On The Web, in any case.

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I love nearly all musicals. My favorite is A Chorus Line (which is coming to Detroit next month!). [The movie was a great disappointment; I think the director didn't have a clue what it was really about.]

Non-musicals? Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap.

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Re: A Chorus Line -- that's what I understand. I've been deliberately avoiding the movie because of that; someday I'll see the show.

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I knew I wasn't going to like the movie when I saw the shot of the tap dancing from the knees up.

On stage: Detroit's Fisher Theatre, January 13 - February 1. For real.

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"What I Did..." being sung by Cassie. About Zach. There are a few things I like about the movie, but that one I'll never forgive them for.

I saw the revival tour with Donna McKechnie around 1990, but unfortunately was a bit disappointed in her. I could deal with her diminished technical capability (not everyone is a mutant like Chita Rivera!), but not with being unable to believe "I haven't worked in two years." It was probably literally true, but the hunger just wasn't there. The rest of the show made up for it, though.

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""What I Did..." being sung by Cassie. About Zach."

GACK! I'd forgotten that part. Yes, that's #1 on the list of "The director just Did Not Get The Point." The song "Hello 12, Hello 13" is my least favorite from the stage version, but the song that replaced it in the movie was ... look, it was not a Bob Fosse musical and they shouldn't have tried to make it one.

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Got it in one. The writer and director of that movie reached into one of the greatest musicals ever created, ripped out its still-beating heart, and stomped on it.

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That made me crazy when I first saw Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance. Dude, it's not your smiling mug that's made you a star, it's your frickin' fast feet. A little camera time for that, mm...?

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The Crucible, hands down. Though directors who believe it is only and solely a metaphor for McCarthyism make me sad.

To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday (which was stripped of its lyrical-but-completely-contemporary language on the way to the screen), The Skin of Our Teeth, Much Ado About Nothing, Cymbeline, The Shape of Things, A Bright Room Called Day. I'm sure I'm going to go "d'oh" in five minutes, but that'll do.

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I was in a production of The Crucible as Reverend Paris. My dad told me that mine was the first depiction of Paris that he could feel any kind of sympathy for, which made me very happy (I was in high school at the time).

Unfortunately, the overall effect was ruined by our John Proctor, an actor so bad he ... that he was ... guh, my mind just can't form an adequate metaphor for how awful he was.

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Parris is tough, especially for students. Get it once into your head that you're "the villain," and you're hosed. He has to acknowledge the pain he's causing (if he's indifferent to it, you're also hosed), and absolutely believe that the world will fall apart if he doesn't.

I directed the yellow bird scene in college, and a full production several years later. It's possible I have opinions. *sheepish g* Though I will be forever geeked that Miller's screenplay adaptation gave Martha Corey back her own testimony instead of that weird mishmash of Sarah Good and Bridget Bishop that's in the play, because I had done the same earlier that year. Couldn't pass up the dramatic possibilities of the "gospel witch" business.

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Wow. That's one hard play to direct. Kudos to you!

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Cool! I also played Reverend Parris a few years back, with Ann Arbor Civic Theatre. It was a fantastic production, one that constantly challenged me to up my game to keep up with the other actors on stage with me. (The review in the local paper was the very definition of mixed emotions. I was called "brilliant" by a critic I had absolutely no respect for. :) )

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mishboi.livejournal.com

Sad indeed. Thanks for the news though.

Angel's in America, Equus, Twelfth Night, and Sweeney Todd.

My Fair Lady, King and I, and Westside Story are childhood favorites that I have yet to see live.

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ashkitty.livejournal.com

My favourite remains Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Noises Off is always hilarious, but I also love anything by Shakespeare...or a good musical....

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I think my favorite stage show of all time (that I saw in person) was the musical version of The Full Monty. The musical transplants the action from the north of England to Buffalo, NY, but it's still a wonderful story, and the music is just awesome. I saw the premier, here in San Diego at the Old Globe. It then went on to Broadway to HUGE success.

If you ever get a chance to see it, do! You won't regret it.

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jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com

The Miracle Worker, by the recently deceased William Gibson, always gets to me, especially the "wah-wah" scene at the end. I had the good fortune to be permitted to direct a production in Bloomington, IL back in the early 80's. In my research I visited the annual Helen Keller Festival in Tuscumbia, AL and saw the Keller home.

A follow-up, Monday After the Miracle, also by Gibson (about how Annie helped Helen through her college years and they had a rift which nearly put an end to their friendship), was less stirring but quite interesting. I consider it a must-read for anyone familiar with the first play.

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Ooooh, and that reminds me -- I was introduced to Gibson's A Cry of Players by my acting coach earlier this year, and wow. I'm particularly struck by the similarity of the climax to Proctor's "I have given you my soul, leave me my name!" The copyright on the play is late 40s, predating not only The Crucible but the McCarthy era (another point against the reductionist reading of the later play, in a roundabout way) by several years, but it wasn't produced until 1968, and I'm intensely curious whether that was the shape of it at that time, and/or whether Miller might have encountered it.

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Actually, red-baiting didn't start with McCarthy. The House Un-American Activities Committee dates back to WWII, and the Hollywood blacklist, which may have been one of the many influences that fed into The Crucible, started in 1947.

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I think Players is copyrighted 1947, so it's feasible that it's part of the influence there too. Either way, it's very striking to see Will, like Proctor, giving the lie against his convictions to appease authority in order to protect his family, then take it back because the convictions are more important. Anne doesn't share the convictions the way Elizabeth does, but she understands the need anyway. Interesting parallel.

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technoshaman.livejournal.com

Branagh and Thompson's Much Ado about Nothing... it didn't *matter* that Denzel is black, or that Keanu is... Keanu (and looks nothing like Denzel)... the sparks coming off the two leads' relationship were just... amazing. And speaking of Branagh, he totally one-upped Sir Larry in his version of Henry V..

Fiddler on the Roof is always a winner, this one actually on stage, since I found Topol's movie version darn near unintelligible... although if you nab the Broadway version with Zero Mostel it's a good recording....

The new one that really got me was Miss Saigon...

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I *adore* Branagh & Thompson's Much Ado About Nothing. It *sparkles*.

I loved Denzel Washington as Don Pedro. (Denzel in leather pants! Worth the price of admission!) Even Keanu's sullen monotone worked; the bastard half-brother was surly and resentful, after all. It took me a moment to get used to Michael Keaton's Dogberry, but then I realized the original audience probably would have been rolling in the aisles at the broad schtick.

The scene with the deck chair? Priceless.

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unclelumpy.livejournal.com

Do you suppose his eulogy will have a bunch of pregnant pauses in it?

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...

...

... We'll just have to see.

Won't we?

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tomreedtoon.livejournal.com

Okay, you got me. I have two soundtracks and the script for, but have never seen, Sondheim's Assassins. It is exactly the sort of play that would knock the blue-haired matinee ladies for a loop...but it is a solid play with troubling ideas about American ideals. Because all of the assassins from Booth to Sam Bick are imbued with certain American ideals...twisted badly.

At one time I had season tickets to the Broadway Series here in Orlando. Included as a last-minute add one year was a small unpretentious show called The 1940's Radio Hour. Since World War II-era America was one of my favorite eras, this was a delight - not simply replaying the pop culture of the time, and showing an audience how radio worked some of its magic, but showing the passions and problems Americans had in those years.

I'll wind up with a few of big road-show presentations like Evita, West Side Story, The Wiz, Oklahoma! and Tommy. They don't make musicals for music much any more; they prefer cat makeup and helicopters hanging from the lighting grid to performance art.

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...exactly the sort of play that would knock the blue-haired matinee ladies for a loop...

Q: How many matinee audience members does it take to change a light bulb?

A: "Look Maude, he's changing a light bulb!"

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