Відео

I agree. I think they just rushed Illinoise onto Broadway for the Tony Award nominations from the Park Avenue Armory. This is not a Broadway musical. It is, as you say, dance theater and belongs in a dance repertory company's season of performances. I hope this does not win Best Musical on the Tonys. If it does, it may start a bad trend of non-musical musicals on Broadway.

Not all musicals end on a high note and honestly it just makes me want to see it again. Just look at Jekyll and Hyde.

Saw the final preview of this. I had seen the movie and knew the story but wasn't really a fan. I'm not a romance person by any means and I've never understood the craze around The Notebook. But I have to say I actually really enjoyed this show. The production to me was just excellent. I've read lots of comments about the water effects being lame but I actually thought they looked incredible. Maybe it was from where I was sitting? Idk. I thought they lit the water really well (like the rain scene). I appreciated them working through the logistics of actually using lots of water onstage and drenching the actors instead of using cheap projectors or just a little bit of water. I thought the performances were also wonderful, Especially from Maryann Plunkett and Joy Woods. I thought Joy Woods would have gotten a Tony nom for sure!

Thanks for sharing! I loved everything you wrote. I think you’re right on the money when you say the patriarch represents a larger idea of our troubled history as a nation. I was willing to suspend my disbelief and go along with the narrative. Im glad you’re enjoying my reviews. I’m going to try and see every show this season and post reviews for most of them.

The ending has entirely lost it's punch in this version - where previously the Emcee would reveal an Auschwitz uniform before whispering "Life is a Cabaret" and the theater crashing to black - we now have Eddie spoofing Trump while the chorus is dressed like kids who raided their Sears sales rep Dad's closet.

Oh, I forgot to mention something: while I think Get Out was an extreme/broad satire, I do think that it's possible to learn about someone's racism in other ways than overt harm. My own broad family lineage has a history of some ugly ideologies, but I only learned that as an adult. I didn't know it till I was talking my mother one day and learned. I'm partly from the South, so I appreciated that point you made.

Sarah Paulson gives a truly volcanic performance in this play. Just give her all the awards now, because she gives a stage performance for the ages! I saw it several years ago when one of our regional theatres did a production. Then I saw this one. A few observations: -I can't decide if I prefer Sarah P's dialed up to 10 and then further performance, or the much more contained fury of the actor I saw play Toni in the regional production I saw. Both approaches significantly alter the meaning of her character's arc. It's a credit to the great script that both ways work. -I think the larger point of the dead father not "seeming" racist was to illustrate how faulty memory is as we age. Each family member remembered him differently so that tells the audience he was a deeply complicated character. Since we never meet him, we only have our own lens. Thank you for sharing your perspectives on that! -I personally read the patriarch as representing the institution of slavery and the insidious power of social institutions in society. He has "died" and yet his ghost haunts the totality of the play. Just like slavery was hundreds of years ago, yet we still feel its impacts now. I think his death as a framing device solidifies that the play operates on multiple levels - literal to metaphorical. (The issue being that the playwright has to show, not tell the audience.) -I think your comment about your father is even more poignant than I realized, because you have an awareness of this fact as an adult. I think many adults are in denial about their parents' idiosyncrasies and human flaws. It's soothing to imagine our parents as perfect, yet it's untrue. I think the questions around the patriarch's flaws in the play illustrate the relationship of the US to the people who make their home here. Last but not least - I really enjoy your very thoughtful and engaging reviews! I hope you'll do more of them!

Very interesting video.

Huh. I totally got it from the beginning. I loved every second of it and didn’t feel any of the disconnect you seemed to.

Everything he said I thought the opposite. Loved this musical. The music is wonderful.

Boiled for too long.

Yes, gluten is what gives structure and that chewyness, I'm sure you can achieve that with something else but those noodles don't have it

There’s a reason why cooking instructions are different to regular pasta. Duh!

Exactly 😅

try Barilla gluten free pasta, they did such a great job i can’t taste the difference

Use PSYLLIUM HUSK POWER! It helps by acting sort of like a gluten to hold together gluten free foods very well! Bread and noodles, buy it and ale them home made, its amazing trust me❤️‍🩹

I’ve ever had a gluten free pasta do this. It looks like it’s just over cooked.

gluten is the protein in wheat. so yes. it literally does stop pasta from disintegrating. that’s what holds almost every dough together

Celiac here- it requires a lot more babysitting at a gentler boil and enough water for the noodles to "spread" into. And yes, gluten is the protein in the wheat- it's the glue!!! There are good brands out there!! Still would never trade it for a regular noodle, if i didn't have to for my health. The barilla red lentil and chickpea ones are good.

Damn! I hope it wasn't expensive, sometimes artisan foods aren't worth the money or taste.

The full 92nd Street Y conversation between Jonathan Goff and Director Maria Friedman was posted yesterday. It's a great look into the crafting of Merrily We Roll Along. Maria drops lots of knowledge. I was inspired after watching this. ua-cam.com/video/K9Rk7ueI9Aw/v-deo.htmlsi=1nazei_OwlXFNYnQ

Looks fucking retarded

I really appreciated this revival. My biggest critique was the pre-show, which felt like a glorified tourist trap. It was overcrowded, and about half as impressive as any gay bar in this city. I opted to go right to my seat (which was a nightmare to find). I think that this staging of the production is best to see after you’ve seen a few others. The most striking moment of the show was the group of tipsy tourists clapping and cheering during “Cabaret”, unaware of their jarring irony. Talk about life imitating art! LOL! But in all seriousness, I found the staging to be innovative, impactful, and worth the ticket price. I sat in the newly built mezzanine and wouldn’t change my seat if I saw it again. It is closer to the stage than the original mezz and gives a great visual perspective. This staging is a fully realized piece of art, and I think that the audience headspace needs to be prepared to take in nuance. This would be something great to see alone. Thank you for sharing this review!

Love the song at the end hahaha. I know this show is closing soon, but I'm surprised by how long it has stayed open. I always look at the weekly grosses and A Beautiful Noise has only been selling around 50-70 percent of their seats each week for the entire run. They must have some very loyal investors, or maybe low running costs.

I saw Lempicka on a Friday night and Suffs the following night. Found Suffs to be much better all the way around. For me, one of the most important comparisons is that Suffs was very true to the historical record (tho you make good points about how Wilson was presented), whereas Lempicka was not in the least historically accurate. Loved Suffs. Love Lempicka’s art but the musical not so much, because it bore little similarity to her real life story.

I like your videos, even when I disagree with you. Best of Luck with that audition.

This show just needed several more stops out of town because someone needed to edit for continuity and all the other things that people edit for.

While I liked this show, the original beginning-ending as bookends with Franklin addressing the graduating classes of 1980 and his own class many years earlier seems a better format!!!

I LOVED this show and am obsessed. I saw it twice on Broadway with both casts. So lucky I had that experience.

I also went into this show unfamiliar with the story. It took me ages to figure out what was going on (or who was who) because of the colourblind thing. I don't know why they didn't just make one of the characters Black and the other White... it would have worked well with the narrative, particularly considering when it was set. Otherwise, I found the music terribly bland and the water effects a bit gimmicky. And why oh WHY did the writer/director insist on doing that Broadway thing where everyone has to come back on stage for the final emotionally-rousing number, as if to put an underline and exclamation point on the night's proceedings? Totally killed what should have been a powerfully poignant fade-to-black moment. Maryann Plunkett however was terrific, and she should absolutely win the Tony.

I bit the financial bullet and saw this last week when on vacation in NYC. I enjoyed it - appreciated the writing and the concept, the direction, and the effective simplicity of the set. I do think the cast are a bit overrated. Lindsay was out in my performance, but her understudy was a very competent singer/actor who gave Mary pathos and humour. I thought Jonathan and Daniel were fine, but just fine. I agree with your questioning Daniel's suitability for that role. I'm not from NYC or the U.S., so the particulars of the Kringas surname and those cultural assumptions are a bit lost on me, but I couldn't help feeling that the character needed to be more robust, more forthright, and a tad rougher around the edges. I also wanted Franklin to exude a more worldly-wise demeanor, which Groff didn't quite capture for my satisfaction, and I didn't believe his relationship with Gussie. A pity the ticket prices put seeing this musical out of reach for so many.

This is probably my favorite performance of Franklin Shepard Inc. featuring Raul Esparza as Charley Kringas. Raul finds so many moments to play within this runaway train of a song. I also like how Charley is sandwiched between the interviewer and Franklin so he can bounce between them as he looses his mind. ua-cam.com/video/l3RAF6jqOYc/v-deo.htmlsi=Of49ijXglRUS5HAz

I saw what I believe is the exact same production back in, I believe, 2018? There was a transfer to Boston from a UK production and I believe it was the same director as this one. That production was staggeringly (is that a word?) good, and I saw it three times. (Only time I ever saw a production more than twice ...) That was the closest thing to perfect I've ever seen, for a musical. At that time, Eden Espinosa played Mary (and sang the absolute HELL out of what is kind of an underwritten vocal part) and two UK-based actors played Franklin and Charlie. The reason I haven't spent my money on this production is - while I like all these three actors a lot, I'm not sure if the production is an exact replica of that late 2010s production, just with different and more famous/celebrity actors? If so, I feel like I would be just paying for the celebrity, when I already saw a simply stunning production of MWRA a few years ago. Any idea if the program referenced this production starting back in the UK in the late 2010s? Did the program happen to mention that? Or, the Menier Chocolate Factory? (Which is where I think that production originated, back then ...) Just curious if it is the very same one, but with more famous actors.

I was in a production of “Merrily …” many years ago at a local community college where I played the minor character of Tyler, the nerdy guy who (supposedly) invented the answering machine. Great fun. Love the score. Also read the original play by Kaufman & Hart. Interesting to see what changes they made when they created the musical. Thanks for the review. (Really like your theme song! 🎵 Did you write it and sing it yourself?)

I disagree with a lot of what you said. A) not once did Charley's character have to be jewish. There is nothing in his character description that says that. B.) If the script added in more about Mary, the show would be clunky. She serves her purpose of being a part of the trio...the glue that keeps them together. More subplot is not necessary and will make the shows intentions too muddy. That's one of the reasons the show bombed originally. They spent too much focusing on the business aspect and what they did. This production geared more towards the friendship and relationships. C.) The pauses in songs are not a problem. Those were acting choices. Direction wise, you can say the reason they didn't interupt charley is because they were too shocked. There could be plenty of reasons. D.) Not every show needs more dancing. I love dancing and this show is not meant for that. Stephen Sondheim was not the composer to do big crazy dancing numbers. He had a couple shows but the majority did not. West Side Story and Gypsy dont count because he wrote the lyrics only. His musicals are complex and layered. Depending on the show, choreography is minimum compared to the story and themes of the show. There are more things i disagreed with but the ones above i had to voice my opinions on. I'll be skipping your other videos.

Could not disagree more. Will not be watching any of your reviews since I obviously share no sense of quality with you.

I didn't love or hate it, but my review as I left the theater last week was that it's "overly reimagined". Didn't help that there's no chemistry between Sally and Cliff and his queer experience is brushed aside completely. In fact, all the queer elements have been so flattened out that they are barely a blip in this production. A disappointing production overall...

Question: having seen this show I don’t know that I agree with your statement that it’s highly immersive or that I would recommend to see it even in the mezzanine. You pay upwards of $200 for nosebleeds and you get a better view than the tables or anywhere else but then it doesn’t matter because Redmayne is mumbling half his lines or speaking like French Kermit. Lots of choices seem to be made for shock value only? The clown suit and skeleton confused the hell out of me and my partner, so much so we are still trying to figure out what they are going for. Cliff is boring and one note, sally scream songs like everything, the only part of the show that was truly exceptional was the portrayal of Herr Shultz, who clearly gave everything he had to the role and it paid off in spades. Trying to understand how you could say that you did and then in the very last second turn around and recommend a show you couldn’t see half of. If anything this production takes some enormous swings that don’t hit the mark. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but yours is in conflict with itself.

So I’m saying this in a friendly voice so not to confuse anyone. And Mathew, this is NOT directed at you. As someone who is well versed in dance and music and NYC theatre I’d like to illustrate something. Musicals on Broadway do NOT have a recipe. They NEVER have. You are not wrong. This was a dance piece inspired by the album and songs of Sufjan Stevens. It was never meant as a musical or written as a dance piece, how haunting is a clown serial killer that hunted boys in Chicago and the young man who lives there who is deathly terrified and thinks OH MY GOD! Am I next? Or when I am at my worst could I be the clown? But Twyla Tharp did something with Billy Joel’s music in 2002 called Movin Out. Bring in Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk was called a musical. Fosse billed as a musical. Dance shows belong on Broadway not hidden at the Joyce. Though I love it there with all my heart. ‘Musicals’ is just a word to sell tickets. We all know artists don’t need to make ANY sense to win Tonys.

Yay!! So glad bored and confused is the show name and not your review LOL. I bought tickets for next week and doing my research!!

Also here probably based on algorithm, but I saw the show last night and thought it was phenomenal. Eva wasnt performing due to fatigue and illness, but fabulous nonetheless. The critics approaches are unfortunaye because I, too, think they were robbed with the nominations. 😢

I’m not sure what was confusing about this show. Saw it. Completely and fully understood it. Maybe it’s an education issue.

this is a great review!! would you be able to review The Outsiders? It's an amazing musical, I'd love to see your take on it and hear your thoughts!

Nothing about how flat Eden was? Cool.

CABARET sucks! Leave it alone already!!! It's been OVERDONE NOW!!! 🤮

JUST SAW THIS 'CABARET' IN LONDON ON 5/11/24. AN AMERICAN THEATER PROFESSIONAL SINCE 1975, I FOUND THIS NEW VERSION OF 'CABARET' THE MOST BIZARRE TWISTED PIECE OF SHIT I'VE EVER SEEN, AND THAT SAYS QUITE A LOT. THEY HAVE TURNED AN ICONIC HISTORY MAKING BROADWAY MUSICAL OF 1965 INTO A SICK, MORBID, HORROR STORY. THE ALMOST TOTALLY RE-WRITTEN CHARACTERS AND DIRECTION DID NOT WORK FOR ME, ESPECIALLY A 'CLIFF' WHO SEEMED LIKE THE CHARACTER AND ACTOR (CAST AS A YOUNG HIGHLY NAIVE BLACK MAN) WHO BELONGED IN ANOTHER SHOW ENTIRELY....AN ALCOHOLIC, SELF-DESTRUCTIVE 'SALLY BOWLES' GETS FIRED FROM THE KIT KAT CLUB IN THE BEGINNING OF THIS NEW PRODUCTION, AND SPIRALS DOWNWARD FOR THE REST OF THE SHOW....AGAIN, A NEW 'SALLY BOWLES' CHARACTER THAT SEEMED TO BELONG IN ANOTHER SHOW......IF YOU ARE READY FOR A PITCH BLACK "BROADWAY HORROR STORY: THE 'CARRIE' VERSION OF THE CLASSIC KANDER/EBB "CABARET", THEN BY ALL MEANS, PAY INFLATED BROADWAY PRICES ($700/TICKET FOR DINNER AND SEATING AROUND THE STAGE CLOSE-UP), AND PREPARE TO PUKE IF YOU SAW THE ORIGINAL JOEL GREY AND/OR ALAN CUMMINGS VERSIONS. INSTEAD, SPEND YOUR MONEY AND RUSH TO SEE THE BEST RE-IMAGINING POSSIBLE OF "MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG". "IT'S NEVER BEEN BETTER, NOR WILL IT EVER BE AGAIN."

I absolutely loved everything about this show.

I really wanted to like this show. But I just didn't. By the second number I was beyond confused. I was bored. I knew that it was trying something new, artsy...and I appreciated that. the Performances were great but I just couldn't wait for it to be over. Glad I saw it.....

I read this book back in 2011 and I'm reading it again now in 2024. I haven'twatch the show but from EVERYTHING THAT YOU SAID IS EXACTLY THE SAME THING, SUPER WELL PORTRAYED. The story is exactly like that,it goes from the old version of the lead character to the younger version from chapter to chapter. The girl from thehorse in presented exactly like that in thebook. We only understand who she is as the story goes by.

Ok so I hated the show! I really enjoyed her general story like I’d be 100% here for a movie of her life that’s NOT a musical but, the music was a MESS the book and lyrics were superficial and contrived! The costumes neither impressed or disappointed me they were just there. The set was a great concept for a pop concert but for this show it 100% took me out of the time period we were supposed to be in. The lesbian bar owner friend couldn’t have been more 2 dimensional there wasn’t a word that came out of her mouth that wasn’t “how do I tell the audience that I’m an overly aggressive under sexed lesbian with out having to say I’m an overly aggressive under sexed lesbian” and the bitter art teacher his act 2 opener was literally “somebody that I used to know” with new BAD lyrics! Loved Eden, loved Beth, and the actress who played the prostitute(forgot her name) but other than that I spent the entire show just annoyed at the whole thing the sounds the lighting the color pallet it was all just an awful night for me in the theatre. Didn’t read a single review before seeing it, saw it, read the reviews… and honestly they were kind! This show exists and it’s closing and that’s just fine! It’s sad the company will be out of work but ehhhh we need better talent in creative across broadway and this is just another example of that fact!