Random Theatre Thoughts

[Culturegeek]

I mean.... I think he's going to be in the minority in acclaiming the film higher than the stage musical, to be honest. Beyond that, I think that season was actually a really strong one for Broadway musicals. I think Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 is a staggering achievement and Groundhog Day and Come From Away have their partisans. I do think, though, that Dear Evan Hansen is a story that will date very badly.

re: age - film is a more literal medium.

[NUguy514]

(09-11-2021 06:46 AM)NGL Wrote:  I find it interesting that Peter Debruge could write a middling-at-best review of Dear Evan Hansen and still say it was better than the Broadway musical, which dominated its years Tony Awards. Could it be that there are so few Broadway openings in any given year that all the competition is to open on Broadway, and, once something opens it has much less competition to go all the way and win the Tony Award, even if it is fairly mediocre? Also, with the comments about Ben Platt's age, it appears that age appropriateness of actors is much less an issue for Broadway than the movies. After all, Platt comes off as a triviality compared to Celia Keenan-Bolger, who as a 40-year-old woman, won a Tony for playing the pre-teen Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird.

As Cg said, that actually was a strong year for musicals; DEH was the zeitgeist show that year, and that's all it takes a lot of the time. Debruge is going to be pretty lonely in preferring the film version to the stage version. I loved the staged version when I saw it here in LA in 2018 and happily admit to weeping during "So Big, So Small"; however, when I started thinking about the show, I liked it less and less because Evan is completely manipulative (and where Zoe is concerned, arguably criminal) and isn't really punished for it. Cg is right that the show will not age well, and I think the film is accelerating that souring because the problems with the story are much less easy to obfuscate on film.

As far as the criticisms of Platt's age are concerned, it's absolutely different on film because you're so far away from the actors on stage and because the environment of the theatre is completely artificial to begin with; age discrepancies are just not as apparent, and you don't really care that much. Film trades in verisimilitude much more heavily. It would be one thing if all the actors playing the teens looked like they were north of 30 (like in Grease); Platt is the only one who really does (and whatever gross CGI the filmmakers employed to make him look younger has had the exact opposite effect), so he looks fifteen years older than the other teen characters and comes across as a total creep as a result. This also makes Evan's actions even more loathsome because it looks like a grown man manipulating kids. And, of course, the cherry on top is that Daddy obviously bought the film rights in order to cast Platt and get him an Oscar (like, it's sooooo obvious), so the whole exercise looks totally desperate, gross, and revoltingly nepotistic – even by Hollywood standards. Platt hasn't helped his case by coming across like an entitled asshole about the whole thing either.

[Above the Title]

The comparison to CKB playing a preteen Scout isn't fair either because the stage telling of "To Kill a Mockingbird" makes it into a memory play where Adult Scout is remembering.

[misplaced validity]

(09-11-2021 06:46 AM)NGL Wrote:  I find it interesting that Peter Debruge could write a middling-at-best review of Dear Evan Hansen and still say it was better than the Broadway musical, which dominated its years Tony Awards. Could it be that there are so few Broadway openings in any given year that all the competition is to open on Broadway, and, once something opens it has much less competition to go all the way and win the Tony Award, even if it is fairly mediocre? Also, with the comments about Ben Platt's age, it appears that age appropriateness of actors is much less an issue for Broadway than the movies. After all, Platt comes off as a triviality compared to Celia Keenan-Bolger, who as a 40-year-old woman, won a Tony for playing the pre-teen Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird.

I haven't seen the play or movie DEH, but the general reaction to the movie has been fascinating to me. I've seen lots of "The movie doesn't clear up all of the problems" type of statements, yet as you noted, DEH was huge and dominated the Tony Awards. I don't remember these criticisms at that time. (NuGuy did provide some reasoning above.)

[Above the Title]

The criticisms to the original show were fringe remarks made on Broadway fan sites and Twitter mostly that, like with everything else in life these days, are now being touted as being mainstream and prevalent opinions. That's not to say the critiques are invalid - I agree with some of them - but it's revisionist history to say when it had a sold out off-Broadway run and opened to rave reviews on Broadway that it was already widely viewed as having a problematic libretto.

[NGL]

(09-13-2021 11:53 PM)Above the Title Wrote:  The comparison to CKB playing a preteen Scout isn't fair either because the stage telling of "To Kill a Mockingbird" makes it into a memory play where Adult Scout is remembering.

I was unaware of that. Now that I am, I'll retract my comment about CKB.

[emmygrammyoscartony]

The 2017 recording of "Sunday in the Park with George" is so fucking gorgeous.

I swear, "Sunday" gets me every time.

[emmygrammyoscartony]

These reviews of "Funny Girl" are...not great.

[Above the Title]

Jennifer Hudson is cited as one of the producers of "A Strange Loop," which just got nominated for Best Musical, so if it wins (which I think it's the odds-on favorite to do so), she would complete her EGOT. She won a Daytime Emmy this year for producing.

[emmygrammyoscartony]

I always applaud the Tony Awards. I love them. This is a great list of noms. I especially love that they nominate MULTIPLE PEOPLE IN THE SAME CATEGORY FROM THE SAME SHOW. They do not do the bull shit that the Emmys and Oscars do with, "We can only have one contender for each acting award." Bravo to them!!!

This is one of the first times I have felt a LITTLE bit like it feels like pre-COVID. Refreshing!