Post by jackjackjack on Aug 17, 2006 2:55:48 GMT 11
To anybody who hates it when I preface a review with a story, sorry, but you have to hear this one. 
Now, I'm a non-practicing statistician, so I naturally believe in coincidence, but it spins my head that I only seem to encounter it around musicals. The first two productions of Into the Woods I saw both had trouble with the same prop; I’ve bumped into Sally by chance at more than half the shows I’ve seen in the past year, and now this.
I went to see MUMCo’s Into the Woods tonight, and I went alone because everyone I know is sick of ITW, and few of them know where Dandenong is. At intermission I was a little bored, so I started reading the program. I had already read the bios and I didn’t need to read the synopsis, so I started reading the logo, which is made up of a paragraph of text that forms the shape of a tree. It occurred to me pretty quickly that it wasn’t the script, and then it struck me as familiar. “Hang on,” I thought to myself, “I wrote this!”
MUMCo had formed their ITW logo out of the text on my website. It took me a minute to ponder over how I felt about it. I considered being offended, but I couldn’t manage it. Then I considered being proud, but then, it was picked by a graphic designer, so there’s no guarantee he actually read it.
After the show I sought out the producers (who thought the website was from Germany) introduced myself and negotiated a jumper with the logo on it at cost price.
Well that’s the end of the story really, but think about it, people are walking around wearing my words. Cool!
Now, to review the show:
The original Broadway production of Into the Woods contained very little dancing, and no ensemble, more roles were played by plastic models than by unknown actors, this is certainly not the only way to do it, but companies who try to find roles for a large number of people inevitably end up grasping at straws.
This production had three wolves singing “Hello Little Girl”, and seemingly no attempt was made to show why only one ended up at Granny’s. Dancers were used effectively in a few places but were just as often distracting and superfluous.
Performances were mostly solid. I am picky when it comes to ITW, but I’m not going to pick here. I will say however that I was very impressed vocally with Natasha Bassett as the Witch, Lucy Hotchin as Red, and Alexandra Clover as Cindy. Paul Watson as the Baker seemed to be channelling Chip Zien from the OBC (you could do worse) and I want to give a special mention to Anjali Brown as the hen, who has threatened to take Fowl acting in this country in a whole new direction.
There were some problems with lines and sets, but they didn’t detract too much. The audio on the royal family was pretty bad though and after starting out well visually, towards the end they seemed to run out of sets, so much so that the marks on the stage floor were the major visual for a while there.
But hey, it’s ITW, I loved it.
That’s all for now,
James
"Nobody ever quoted me back to me before."
Bruno Kirby in When Harry Met Sally
Now, I'm a non-practicing statistician, so I naturally believe in coincidence, but it spins my head that I only seem to encounter it around musicals. The first two productions of Into the Woods I saw both had trouble with the same prop; I’ve bumped into Sally by chance at more than half the shows I’ve seen in the past year, and now this.
I went to see MUMCo’s Into the Woods tonight, and I went alone because everyone I know is sick of ITW, and few of them know where Dandenong is. At intermission I was a little bored, so I started reading the program. I had already read the bios and I didn’t need to read the synopsis, so I started reading the logo, which is made up of a paragraph of text that forms the shape of a tree. It occurred to me pretty quickly that it wasn’t the script, and then it struck me as familiar. “Hang on,” I thought to myself, “I wrote this!”
MUMCo had formed their ITW logo out of the text on my website. It took me a minute to ponder over how I felt about it. I considered being offended, but I couldn’t manage it. Then I considered being proud, but then, it was picked by a graphic designer, so there’s no guarantee he actually read it.
After the show I sought out the producers (who thought the website was from Germany) introduced myself and negotiated a jumper with the logo on it at cost price.
Well that’s the end of the story really, but think about it, people are walking around wearing my words. Cool!
Now, to review the show:
The original Broadway production of Into the Woods contained very little dancing, and no ensemble, more roles were played by plastic models than by unknown actors, this is certainly not the only way to do it, but companies who try to find roles for a large number of people inevitably end up grasping at straws.
This production had three wolves singing “Hello Little Girl”, and seemingly no attempt was made to show why only one ended up at Granny’s. Dancers were used effectively in a few places but were just as often distracting and superfluous.
Performances were mostly solid. I am picky when it comes to ITW, but I’m not going to pick here. I will say however that I was very impressed vocally with Natasha Bassett as the Witch, Lucy Hotchin as Red, and Alexandra Clover as Cindy. Paul Watson as the Baker seemed to be channelling Chip Zien from the OBC (you could do worse) and I want to give a special mention to Anjali Brown as the hen, who has threatened to take Fowl acting in this country in a whole new direction.
There were some problems with lines and sets, but they didn’t detract too much. The audio on the royal family was pretty bad though and after starting out well visually, towards the end they seemed to run out of sets, so much so that the marks on the stage floor were the major visual for a while there.
But hey, it’s ITW, I loved it.
That’s all for now,
James
"Nobody ever quoted me back to me before."
Bruno Kirby in When Harry Met Sally
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