Scratch My Itch

Hi Friends!  It's hard to believe it is May already and a lot of exciting things have happened since last week, the most thrilling being the end of classes this week.  All that remains of the semester is my semester review, commonly referred to as "crit", where I make a pretty display of the highlights of my academic and production work for the semester and then present/defend this to an audience of captive faculty and peers.  We do this at the end of every semester in order to reflect on our previous work and set goals for the next year.  If you talk for too long the head of our option will drag a chair, start coughing, use an air horn, or find some other creative way to make your session come to a dramatic finish.  Every faculty and staff member in the department then has the opportunity to give you feedback on your work and suggestions for further improvement.  I attest it is far more stressful than one can explain, but an enlightening experience.  It's also a much appreciated opportunity to see the work of my peers, especially those in the design department.  A picture of my shoes will surely be taken.

In recent news, I went to see the movie version of the Tony Award winning musical Memphis this afternoon after a failed attempt last evening where the entire theatre was sold out.  I found out today that there is an ensemble member from Pittsburgh in the current Broadway production and his mother bought out the entire theatre for a party and then invited the audience back to her house for drinks.  This sounds like something my mother would do so I guess I can't fault her.

I had the pleasure of seeing Memphis live this summer on Broadway and it quickly became one of my favorite contemporary musicals due it its excellent writing, character development, and high-spirited music.  In New York I was able to rush in for around $30 on the day of the show.  In Pittsburgh I had to pay $20 to see it in the movie theatre.  At this point I contemplated why I didn't just get a $10 bus ticket and go see it live again.  Regardless of the cost, I was extremely excited taking my seat and passively sat through the "backstage look" before the actual movie started where they interviewed David Bryan and Joe DiPietro.  Memphis committed two cardinal and classic movie-musical sins.  The first was the fascination with the closeup.  Particularly in a production with such a complicated and frequently moving set, it was a touch disappointing that they continually focused on tight shots of the actors, so much of this was missed.  Projections never had a hope of making it.  Shot types aside, it was well edited and I never felt angry that I was missing something important on stage (other than the scenery and lighting).  I'm unsure how I felt about the inclusion of the black and white processed video shots in Act II made to look like period camera shots.

The second sin was the sound.  I was impressed with the "backstage look" where they played a sample of the original movie recording and then the actual movie track with the sound engineers' ability to locate voices and instruments to help give a more dimensional feel to the movie.  While an expert surround design is increasingly important in movies where we need to feel enveloped in the environment, it is even more of a requirement in recordings of live performances so that we feel like we are actually sitting there in the house.  My biggest criticism of the sound, actually, was that it was too good.  It was clear they took the live feeds from everyone's body mics and did not include much, if any, sound from other mics.  Such pure sound gave a bit of lip-syncing feel to the movie that perhaps is a product of other contemporary movie-musicals where the soundtrack isn't performed live during recording.  Actors' location on stage, proximity to scenery, and interactions with each other were not reflected in their voices.  As an example, when an actor runs upstage in a theatre facing the back wall, their voice takes on a different quality.  When this happens in the movie their is no change in their voice.  For me, at least, this seemed a bit fake.  The blending was excellent and although the purity of the sound made me twitch a few times, it was not nearly as disappointing as the lack of wide shots.

These two sins aside, I would qualify this as an excellent recording and a rare opportunity to see a stage production of a musical on film that isn't in some way modified artistically for the recording.  Most shows only get a one camera archival shot from the rear of the house that then gets locked away in the basement at Equity and the Lincoln Center, so this deserving show now has the opportunity to quickly and indefinitely reach an international audience.  The movie will only play in theatres again on Tuesday, May 3 and I highly suggest you go (order your ticket now before the show moms do)!  Click Here to find your local showtimes and locations.

Ripley, Believe it or Not

I've been seeing a lot of theatre lately and that makes me happy.  Tonight was the Next to Normal tour, which opened at the Benedum Center this evening.

I'm not really what to say about the production so I'm going to make a modified venn diagram (my fifth grade teacher will be proud) of some fleeting thoughts in my head.

Things I Liked
Bartender with a heavy hand in the lobby (I gave in and got the sippy cup)*
Kevin Adams' lighting design, appropriate use of bumps and fades
Having the orchestra on the levels of the set and fully embracing this fact

Things I Am Unsure About
Gabe's choreography in which he always had to be squatting or leaning
A depressed teenage girl is cured by a hot guy in a blue suit
Does some poor Props guy have to sort all those pills in the bucket by color each show?

Things I Didn't Like
Union stagehands not wearing blacks who appeared on stage during transitions
Alice Ripley's voice, perhaps the worst diction I've ever heard
All sad musicals must have an uplifting flashy number at the end that makes it all okay


* Andrea Approved

Adult Sippy Cups

This evening I had every intent of escaping reality for two hours and experiencing the sheer splendor that is Seussical the Musical.  The plot is fairly simple, centering on the story of Horton and his friends on a clover, with some characters from many other stories mixed in.  There is, of course, the Cat in the Hat to round out the cast who switches from narrator to filling in character bits in each story.  Although most of the other characters on stage are recognizable to those of us who grew up memorizing the books before we could even read, the Cat is arguably the most iconic image from the series.  Thus, his role is pivotal in any production related to these stories.

I arrived at the Byham Theatre with my friend David Beller and knew we were in for a treat based on the patrons entering with us.  It was a pleasant mix of parents with their young children and grandparents in toe.  There was also a surprising contingent of high-school aged students.  Anybody who has ever seen a production for youth knows nothing compares to the energy and passion an audience full of children can give.  Working in this environment was a major component in my decision to study Educational Theatre for my B.A.  I stopped at the bar in the lobby and grabbed a glass of $7 white wine and joked with David about the $3 adult sippy cups you could buy in order to take your drink into the theatre.  NOT buying one proved to be a fatal error.

When buying the tickets I fully realized this was a local production including some AEA actors and a large contingent of the community.  Knowing this, my expectations were (I hate to admit it) lowered.  I fully believe that many of us who work professionally forget our roots in "local" theatre and how much it can influence the lives of those involved even if they don't plan on pursuing a career in the performing arts.  The scenery was simple, but smart with a variety of levels that served the show well with so many large chorus numbers.  Lighting...hmmm, well...Seussical is generally what we call a 'flash and trash' show that has lots of colorful and moving light cues that clearly aren't environmental, but move in rhythm with the music and mood of the show.  There was a valiant attempt at this, and I'm giving the LD the benefit of the doubt and predicting he didn't get enough cueing time to adequately finish the show, because there were a lot of questionable cues.  It didn't help that Horton REFUSED to ever stand in his light, even if the only light on stage was a single toplight special.  Concluding my judgment on design, the sound was horrible, I mean the worst.  You couldn't understand anything any girl sang, ever.  There was a lack of guys in the ensemble so they didn't have any hope.  We were in the balcony, so maybe they didn't care about us, but we paid just as much for half price tickets as everybody else did.

Besides the frequent questionable cues and inability to understand anything coming out of any singers' mouth, there was one driving force that seemed determined to ruin this production, and that was the Cat himself.  This man was bad, and I use the word man because everybody else on stage was under the age of 25 and he was clearly at least in his mid 40s.  His overt sexual flirtations with several characters during the show drew more attention to the age gap, making David and I (as well as the patrons behind us) uncomfortable.  At one point the patrons behind us, who I will henceforth call 'The Fans', yelled out "I didn't think we were watching To Catch A Predator".  The Cat continued to bring down the show with horrible and inappropriate ad libs that would make even the most experienced dancer at Cheerleaders blush.  The highlight was his flirting with a grandmother in front of her granddaughter during a scene that included both physical and verbal contact.

The moment that ruined the show for me, however, was an extended ad lib about Charlie Sheen that ended in a seductive "Winning!".  As much as I think the whole Charlie Sheen thing is way overplayed, I must give Charlie credit for marketing such a brilliant line that will be ingrained in our pop culture at least until the next time a star has a breakdown.  However, my friends, I find this sort of material horribly inappropriate for such a show.  Argue away that family shows are just as much for the parents as they are for the kids, but when your main character spends a majority of the play seducing the Who's and then breaks out "Winning!", I lose all respect.

All the technical and artistic choice elements aside, I found this production blatantly offensive and tragic, which is a bold accusation for Seussical.  I was willing to excuse anything...but the Cat's ad libs really made me wish I had gotten an adult sippy cup from the lobby.  The only people in the balcony who enjoyed themselves after intermission were The Fans behind us, who one could have easily mistook for crazed Steeler's fans at a playoff game.  I suspect there wasn't Diet Coke in their sippy cups.