Post by jackjackjack on Nov 10, 2005 15:17:18 GMT 11
There’s a lot to like in the in this show, but I’m a picky bastard, so this review should be interesting. Oh, and warning, this review contains spoilers of what I think might’ve happened.
There are a lot of good songs. Especially Falling, Superhero Man, Perfectly Reasonable Yes, Waxing and Nails, Forgiving the Dog and Chill Baby Baby (Never Think Too Much). Perhaps an overload of ballads though.
There was mostly good acting, some great singing, some well written monologues, but all the elements never came together at the same time.
The concept is dreaming about skydiving etc, while perhaps you’re also dying. It’s one of those concepts you can force anything into and say it’s what they’re dreaming, but the lack of coherency makes it more of a review than a musical.
It’s acceptable these days not to have a plot, but you still have to have structure, and you shouldn’t have to go in search of it. The skydiving theme only really exists in the two songs that were done at Hats Off. There’s a second, related-at-a-stretch theme of terrorism that appears almost as much. The other 80% of the show and characters are only connected in the sense that they’re dreaming and may or may not be about to be, or have just been, blown up in a terrorist act. (Confused?)
Many of the individual characters get half way up their arc and are left suspended, while others don’t even go anywhere, to the point that they couldn’t decide what to call the characters from one side of the program to the other. Only the craftsman (read terrorist) has anything resembling a full arc. Now this might be the point, but if so it needs to be hit home more. I guess I had an expectation in this area, having heard the song Chill Baby Baby (Never Think Too Much) at Hats Off, and looking forward to finding out how skydiving brought a character to this philosophy. Unfortunately the character singing it has a story that doesn’t relate to thinking too much at all. Oddly enough, neither does the story of the character whose scenes intercut the song.
My first thought was that the composer had wanted to toy with writing the book without really being dedicated to anything other than songwriting. The news in the program that he has won playwriting awards makes me wonder why he didn’t put any of that into this.
One last nitpick. One of the songs has a major grammatical error, in the title no less, that implies a group sperm donation session. At least the teenage boys in the audience seemed to appreciate it.
Anyway, I bought the sample CD, and I’m sure it’ll get a bit of play, but that’s partly because it benefits from being separated from the book.
James
There are a lot of good songs. Especially Falling, Superhero Man, Perfectly Reasonable Yes, Waxing and Nails, Forgiving the Dog and Chill Baby Baby (Never Think Too Much). Perhaps an overload of ballads though.
There was mostly good acting, some great singing, some well written monologues, but all the elements never came together at the same time.
The concept is dreaming about skydiving etc, while perhaps you’re also dying. It’s one of those concepts you can force anything into and say it’s what they’re dreaming, but the lack of coherency makes it more of a review than a musical.
It’s acceptable these days not to have a plot, but you still have to have structure, and you shouldn’t have to go in search of it. The skydiving theme only really exists in the two songs that were done at Hats Off. There’s a second, related-at-a-stretch theme of terrorism that appears almost as much. The other 80% of the show and characters are only connected in the sense that they’re dreaming and may or may not be about to be, or have just been, blown up in a terrorist act. (Confused?)
Many of the individual characters get half way up their arc and are left suspended, while others don’t even go anywhere, to the point that they couldn’t decide what to call the characters from one side of the program to the other. Only the craftsman (read terrorist) has anything resembling a full arc. Now this might be the point, but if so it needs to be hit home more. I guess I had an expectation in this area, having heard the song Chill Baby Baby (Never Think Too Much) at Hats Off, and looking forward to finding out how skydiving brought a character to this philosophy. Unfortunately the character singing it has a story that doesn’t relate to thinking too much at all. Oddly enough, neither does the story of the character whose scenes intercut the song.
My first thought was that the composer had wanted to toy with writing the book without really being dedicated to anything other than songwriting. The news in the program that he has won playwriting awards makes me wonder why he didn’t put any of that into this.
One last nitpick. One of the songs has a major grammatical error, in the title no less, that implies a group sperm donation session. At least the teenage boys in the audience seemed to appreciate it.
Anyway, I bought the sample CD, and I’m sure it’ll get a bit of play, but that’s partly because it benefits from being separated from the book.
James