This post is of particular interest to Yale Mafiosos (though all theatre afficianados are encouraged to read on).
This week, I have had the pleasure of seeing two shows written and performed by Yalies at the NYC Fringe Festival. I had seen Usher in several incarnations at Yale, and it has gotten better every time. Usher is a musical adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Molly Fox and Sarah Hirsh.
In the musical, James (Casey Breves) is invited to the estate of his university friend, Roderick Usher (Ben Wexler) to paint Roderick's final portrait. During his time in the Usher home, James discovers that Roderick is spinning a web of lies to keep James from seeing his childhood love (and Roderick sister) Madeline (Claudia Rosenthal). These events are overseen by the malevolent portraits that haunt the Usher home.
The show is brilliantly executed. As at Yale, Casey and the rest of the cast do a brilliant job bringing life to cleverly-sketched characters and well-painted portraits. Casey's angelic tenor produces notes so beautiful that I was on the edge of my seat, hardly daring to breathe for many of his songs, and he is well matched by Claudia's haunting soprano. Fox and Hirsch give all their actors great material to work with. (Pariticularly good turns from Aaron Lee Lambert and Danielle Ryan as the Ushers servants in the song "Water and Gruel" and, in the chorus, Emily Jenda shines (without pulling focus) every moment she is onstage).
But perhaps the best recommendation for the show comes from the man on the LIRR platform this morning who complemented my singing (I couldn't get Usher out of my head). Since the only person I usually get singing complements from is my tone-deaf father, I have to assume he was moved by the songwriting prowess of Fox and Hirsh.
Usher has 4 performances left:
Sun 17 @ 4:15
Tue 19 @ 4:30
Wed 20 @ 7
Fri 22 @ 10
In addition, audio and video clips are available at the Usher website at http://www.usherthemusical.com/
The other Yale show at the Fringe is @lice in www.onderland, a dance/multimedia show based on the Lewis Carroll story. It is very difficult to translate a story so dependent on textual jokes to an essentially silent medium, but the production includes some charming moments. The two dancers who embody the Caterpillar is particularly inspired. For now though, my favorite Alice remix is still Alice in Quantumland.
@lice in www.onderland has 3 performances left:
Mon 18 @ 7:15
Tue 19 @ 5:15
Fri 22 @ 9:45
Showing posts with label Yale Theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yale Theatre. Show all posts
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Bad Reason I Didn't Like Hair
I know I ragged on The Public's staging of Hair, but credit where credit's due; there was one really good moment in the production...
"Hair" rang out over the speaker system. The cast danced like dervishes through the audience and soon, half the audience (including me) had joined them on stage. The mood was electric, members of the audience dances with the cast and with each other as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and, at the end of it all, Jonathan Groff autographed my Metrocard. So what was the problem? The dance number came after the curtain call.
The actors were talented and appeared passionate, but, until that last number, I couldn't really believe it. The lack of plot or character development for most of the characters meant that all of the mood swings (mostly back and forth between bliss and comatose) were chemically fuelled and difficult for the mostly sober audience to share.
But the show wouldn't have been fixed by simply pulling the audience on stage earlier. Interactivity is great, but not in the form of blind enthusiasm. Ultimately, Hair suffered from comparison with my friend and classmate, Rafael Kern's production this year of The Bacchae.
Rafa incorporated audience participation from the opening of the show, when the cast threw open the doors of the theatre and pulled the audience in for dances and revels. He and the cast kept the energy high, so I spent the nearly the entire show in a state of Dionysian exhilaration. Which made the crash so much more wrenching.
Before the physical dismemberment of Pentheus, the cast circled on him and tore apart his concept of self. (Hard to describe on paper, frightening in person). They turned on him with now-playful-now-earnest cruelty, and the worst part was, if they had transitioned to this abuse straight from the dancing, it was hard to imagine that the audience wouldn't have joined in the taunting or that we might have gone so far as to strike Elliot (the actor playing Pentheus).
Rafa's production had the biggest impact on me of all the shows I saw this year because he transported you into the world of the play, and then, once he sucked you in, he made you complicit.
Hair failed for me because, even at its most engrossing, it was without consequence. The main characted, Claude, is lost to the drugged-out collective, but solely due to the outside influence of the US Army. Nothing suggests that the culture presented is not self-sustaining. If I wanted a happy-go-lucky musical with confusing shifts in mood I'd rewatch Mamma Mia!
Sorry, Public Theatre. No guilt. No good review.
"Hair" rang out over the speaker system. The cast danced like dervishes through the audience and soon, half the audience (including me) had joined them on stage. The mood was electric, members of the audience dances with the cast and with each other as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and, at the end of it all, Jonathan Groff autographed my Metrocard. So what was the problem? The dance number came after the curtain call.
The actors were talented and appeared passionate, but, until that last number, I couldn't really believe it. The lack of plot or character development for most of the characters meant that all of the mood swings (mostly back and forth between bliss and comatose) were chemically fuelled and difficult for the mostly sober audience to share.
But the show wouldn't have been fixed by simply pulling the audience on stage earlier. Interactivity is great, but not in the form of blind enthusiasm. Ultimately, Hair suffered from comparison with my friend and classmate, Rafael Kern's production this year of The Bacchae.
Rafa incorporated audience participation from the opening of the show, when the cast threw open the doors of the theatre and pulled the audience in for dances and revels. He and the cast kept the energy high, so I spent the nearly the entire show in a state of Dionysian exhilaration. Which made the crash so much more wrenching.
Before the physical dismemberment of Pentheus, the cast circled on him and tore apart his concept of self. (Hard to describe on paper, frightening in person). They turned on him with now-playful-now-earnest cruelty, and the worst part was, if they had transitioned to this abuse straight from the dancing, it was hard to imagine that the audience wouldn't have joined in the taunting or that we might have gone so far as to strike Elliot (the actor playing Pentheus).
Rafa's production had the biggest impact on me of all the shows I saw this year because he transported you into the world of the play, and then, once he sucked you in, he made you complicit.
Hair failed for me because, even at its most engrossing, it was without consequence. The main characted, Claude, is lost to the drugged-out collective, but solely due to the outside influence of the US Army. Nothing suggests that the culture presented is not self-sustaining. If I wanted a happy-go-lucky musical with confusing shifts in mood I'd rewatch Mamma Mia!
Sorry, Public Theatre. No guilt. No good review.
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