Topic: AS THE COCK CROWS (Read 16824 times)

PennyO · « **Reply #60 on:** August 21, 2006, 10:09:31 AM »

About that Phantom production... sometimes, I just DON'T GET IT... and it may have more to say about me, than it does about the production or the piece...

I remember sitting in the orchestra section at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, during my NYCO days... we were doing the annual LA 3-week stint... I was covering a role in Massenet's MANON, and was in the house for the first performance. Sitting there, listening to that great orchestra play. The huge Tito Capobianco production, all the beautiful, over-the-top sets and costumes, some of the best voices in the company... and I just didn't GET IT. Watching singers mincing about in a Fragonard painting... I looked around at all the patrons, sitting in rapt attention, facing the stage -- and I thought, "What are all of you looking at? What are you listening to?" It was a bad moment, I tell you.

PennyO · « **Reply #61 on:** August 21, 2006, 10:10:05 AM »

But this Page 3 moment is one I could dance to...

FJL · « **Reply #62 on:** August 21, 2006, 10:16:57 AM »

I found the first act of THE COLOR PURPLE excruciating to sit through, nothing to do with the actual quality of the writing, just that the events of the story pained me and I could find no humor or comic relief at all in the mistreatment the first act depicted. I had never seen the movie nor read the book, and asked at intermission if this is what the story is like the whole way through, and was assured that it was not. And indeed, the show turned breathtaking for me in what i estimate was the last half hour, when it began to fill me with the euphoria of the notion that as bleak as events may seem, there is hope for salvation and redemption. it was the most willing standing ovation I've ever given. And I wondered if the euphoria of the last half hour would have been possible without the unrelenting cruelty of the events up to that point. But it's the only time I almost left at intermission at a show where I truly admired the talents of the writers and director and cast.

So for the TOD; the first act of THE COLOR PURPLE.

PennyO · « **Reply #63 on:** August 21, 2006, 10:18:30 AM »

Oh - yes... I remember HURLEYBURLEY. Hated it. Tried to like it - Wally Shawn, old friend, was in it... lots of good actors. I just hated the play.

PennyO · « **Reply #64 on:** August 21, 2006, 10:19:53 AM »

Off I go to the airport to pick up the same nephew, who has to pack up and move out of his Seattle apartment in the next 2 weeks, to move to Santa Cruz and live in the famous Motorhome of song and legend... now, where will he store all his STUFF???

Ben · « **Reply #65 on:** August 21, 2006, 10:47:14 AM »

Aunt Dan and Lemon - loathed and despised it. I think it's an over-rated piece of tripe. I saw it in London and could not wait to flee the theatre.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #66 on:** August 21, 2006, 10:50:21 AM »

Cillaliz, sounds like you're getting a lot of the non-equity touring versions of shows that have become epidemic.

I would have killed to see JUMPERS. It was a transfer, I believe, from the National in London, where it got brilliant reviews, starred Simon Russell Beale, maybe one of the best actors working today, and written by Tom Stoppard, my favourite playwright. I've read it. It's an hysterically funny play.

Rodzinski · « **Reply #67 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:01:27 AM »

If I'm honest, I also hated ASSASSINS. I find Mario Cantone insufferable.

Ron Pulliam · « **Reply #68 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:13:46 AM »

Hmmmmmmmmmm...........

I see...

Ron Pulliam · « **Reply #69 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:14:05 AM »

London

Ron Pulliam · « **Reply #70 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:14:31 AM »

I see...

Ron Pulliam · « **Reply #71 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:14:46 AM »

France....

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #72 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:28:04 AM »

Quote from: Rodzinski on August 21, 2006, 11:01:27 AM

If I'm honest, I also hated ASSASSINS. I find Mario Cantone insufferable.

Mario notwithstanding, (a major point - he was really annoying), I enjoyed the show.

der Brucer

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #73 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:29:15 AM »

Quote from: Ron Pulliam on August 21, 2006, 11:14:46 AM

France....

is the next post boxers or briefs?

der Brucer

Jrand73 · « **Reply #74 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:33:14 AM »

Hmmmmm...

Aunt Dan & Lemon....ugh

Something by Dan DeLillo which was horrible I have blocked the title from my memory

BUT the most horrible play I have ever seen....it made me mad I was there... LEND ME A TENOR....I hate this play, it is NOT funny....it is dumb....I hate it....it doesn't make any sense...it is a stupid play....I hate it.

But then, I liked AIDA, so there you are. Not saying it's a great show, but I liked it.

Hated THE LION KING....

The absolute WORST musical was a touring company of 42ND STREET....awful costumes, awful music, awful acting....and I think the taps were on tape. When everyone walked out onstage, no clicking sounds from their shoes....but plenty when the dancing started....

Most unexpected - I didn't think I would like Faye Dunaway in MASTER CLASS....but she was great....when she finally started the show 45 minutes late....

Jrand73 · « **Reply #75 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:34:02 AM »

The Taps Were on Tape....that is the name of my new play.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #76 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:34:18 AM »

Learning my lines for MOCKINGBIRD....know most of Act One.....

elmore3003 · « **Reply #77 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:41:28 AM »

I just finished looking at the latest NEW YORK magazine; besides the most frightening photo of Donatella Versace with a really really really horrifying face job, there's an article on THE FANTASTICKS. Tom Jones is 78, and his performance as Henry, the Old Actor is amazing!

bk · « **Reply #78 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:42:58 AM »

Oh, did I hate The Crytogram - I think I actually nodded off for about ten of its seventy-five minutes. I couldn't even go backstage to say hello to some folks I knew.

For me, the most excruciating musical I've ever sat through was the Dutch or Danish or whatever it was Cyrano, on B'way. That was painful, but it was opening night, I was someone's guest, they wanted me to record it, and I could not leave.

bk · « **Reply #79 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:43:27 AM »

Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party was a similar torture-ridden experience.

bk · « **Reply #80 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:44:19 AM »

And I'm afraid that the early preview performance of Passion that I attended literally put me to sleep. But two of the show's "best" numbers weren't in at that point.

elmore3003 · « **Reply #81 on:** August 21, 2006, 11:51:31 AM »

Quote from: bk on August 21, 2006, 11:43:27 AM

Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party was a similar torture-ridden experience.

How could I have forgotten that piece of crap?

?

If there had been an intermission, the second act would have played to half a house.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #82 on:** August 21, 2006, 12:06:40 PM »

I saw Cryptogram. Except for Ed Begley, Jr, being in it, I remember nothing about it.

Ben · « **Reply #83 on:** August 21, 2006, 12:12:30 PM »

One of the absolute worst performances of a musical that I LOVE was a touring production of A Little Night Music. I don't remember the exact year I only remember it was in the mid-70s. It was a bus and truck and played a large auditorium on the campus of St. Catherine's University in Saint Paul. It was abysmal. I loathed it and would have left at intermission except that I was with my sister who wanted to see it and actually enjoyed it. Even the glory of that magnificient score could not keep me from loathing the production. It was cheap, badly acted, badly directed, badly sung. The word BAD does not do justice to the level of awfulness of this production.

bk · « **Reply #84 on:** August 21, 2006, 12:30:38 PM »

Did several errands, made several telephonic calls and have jogged. Must now relax for a moment or three, then write.

FJL · « **Reply #85 on:** August 21, 2006, 12:43:30 PM »

Beale was in JUMPERS when I saw it. But I couldn't follow it at all. I should probably read it, but it's the only Stoppard play I've seen that I've had no luck understanding.

A friend had handed me pages of background notes on it a few days before I saw it, but I foolishly didn't read them. My loss, i know, but still an excrucitaing experience.

FJL · « **Reply #86 on:** August 21, 2006, 12:47:31 PM »

Supposedly true story overheard at HAPGOOD, a Stoppard play that played at Lincoln Center Theater about ten years ago:

Woman: Sir, that signs says gunshots will be heard at this performance.

Usher: That's right, Ma'am.

Woman: Why only at THIS performance?

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #87 on:** August 21, 2006, 12:57:13 PM »

OH DEAR!

der Brucer

DERBRUCER · « **Reply #88 on:** August 21, 2006, 01:02:17 PM »

CALLING SUSAN B. ANTHONY!

Associated Press

Quote

Church Fires Teacher for Being Female

WATERTOWN, N.Y. (Aug. 21) - The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job - outside of the church.

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.

The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

der Brucer

Wonder if she got some PJ's as a parting gift?

Ron Pulliam · « **Reply #89 on:** August 21, 2006, 01:11:53 PM »

Quote from: DERBRUCER on August 21, 2006, 11:29:15 AM

is the next post boxers or briefs?

der Brucer

...do you feel a thong coming on?

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Author Topic: AS THE COCK CROWS (Read 16824 times)

FJL

Ben

Ben

FJL

FJL