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We had a picnic allll afternoon in the park by Catherine's house, and I lounged in the shade of a tree and poked Denver (he's here visiting Catherine today) and ate fruit with Nutella and listened to music from my computer. They went to climb a tree and I was still bushed from days of walking and a cracked instep, so I read a book. It was thoroughly pleasant. And then came the evening.
We just got home from a production of Hair at Santa Clara University. It was the glibbest, flashiest, shallowest production of something with so much potential to be meaningful that I've ever seen. They appeared to have learned all the lines and lyrics very thoroughly and given no thought to a choice about their meanings. There were good bits, of course, and very few bad voices onstage, but everything was in 1990's pop vocal style or macho Broadway wobbling, which makes me grind my teeth. They also included everything Rado and Ragni ever wrote, whether or not it made dramatic, musical, or dramaturgical sense. They were very well-rehearsed. Perhaps over-rehearsed. They did have superb costumes, convincing props, a crazy scaffolding set upon which to be dynamic, and lots of well-operated lights and microphones, both lapel and handheld.
Their band was in a rectangular pit about 12 feet down in the middle of the stage. I was waiting the whole time for them to fall in it. It was very stressful. And their band was just as overproduced and overpolished as the singers. It sounded like a commercial. Very unsettling, in an antiestablishment show.
Not Berger, nor Claude, nor Sheila made any particularly memorable choices in acting. They weren't out-and-out bad like Hud was, but they seemed to be substanceless. Woof was sweet and fairly genuine, but he couldn't wipe the glitz off of everyone else. It was a thoroughly captivating spectacle with a veneer of moderate socialism, mostly empty of all but the most unavoidably scripted intention. Still, always good to see another production of a show I've done. Wish I could be here for the pro production in July.
But I'm off to the city of the angels in four hours!
Oh yeah, guess what came on the radio with Catherine, Denver, and Catherine's friend Dana in the car? The 1971 recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, right off the album. Since when do they play that song on the radio? I know, since 1971, right? But now? We had a very intense session of missing Joodles, but other than that it was pretty serendipitous.
We just got home from a production of Hair at Santa Clara University. It was the glibbest, flashiest, shallowest production of something with so much potential to be meaningful that I've ever seen. They appeared to have learned all the lines and lyrics very thoroughly and given no thought to a choice about their meanings. There were good bits, of course, and very few bad voices onstage, but everything was in 1990's pop vocal style or macho Broadway wobbling, which makes me grind my teeth. They also included everything Rado and Ragni ever wrote, whether or not it made dramatic, musical, or dramaturgical sense. They were very well-rehearsed. Perhaps over-rehearsed. They did have superb costumes, convincing props, a crazy scaffolding set upon which to be dynamic, and lots of well-operated lights and microphones, both lapel and handheld.
Their band was in a rectangular pit about 12 feet down in the middle of the stage. I was waiting the whole time for them to fall in it. It was very stressful. And their band was just as overproduced and overpolished as the singers. It sounded like a commercial. Very unsettling, in an antiestablishment show.
Not Berger, nor Claude, nor Sheila made any particularly memorable choices in acting. They weren't out-and-out bad like Hud was, but they seemed to be substanceless. Woof was sweet and fairly genuine, but he couldn't wipe the glitz off of everyone else. It was a thoroughly captivating spectacle with a veneer of moderate socialism, mostly empty of all but the most unavoidably scripted intention. Still, always good to see another production of a show I've done. Wish I could be here for the pro production in July.
But I'm off to the city of the angels in four hours!
Oh yeah, guess what came on the radio with Catherine, Denver, and Catherine's friend Dana in the car? The 1971 recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, right off the album. Since when do they play that song on the radio? I know, since 1971, right? But now? We had a very intense session of missing Joodles, but other than that it was pretty serendipitous.