CMU School of Drama


Monday, September 22, 2008

PHOTO CALL: 9 to 5: The Musical Plays in L.A.

Playbill News: "Allison Janney stars opposite Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty as the office gal trio with Marc Kudisch as their boss. Andy Blankenbuehler choreographs."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only reason I am commenting on this "article" is becasue I read a lengthy one on the production of "9 to 5" before and now I would like to discuss the pictures becasue while reading the other article, there was no mental picture of the scene I could capture in my mind. I am pretty much sticking with my original thoughts on the play, why would they put something like this on as a huge production. The set, obviously, extremely realistic, is not what I would have expected. It doesnt seem to have that many "wow" momnets, based off the pictures but I think I can appreciate a show more for that actually. I am still pretty set on my view point I hold for this show, but I would not mind being proved wrong.

Anonymous said...

These musical almost always get somewhere because there is a set audience basis for them. It's like Mamma Mia, a horrible show, but one that has lasted a long time because of people's ties to the music. I watched a special trailer thing on youtube yesterday, and I wasn't really impressed by the music or the production quality. We'll see though.

Josh Smith said...

This show it seems to me is a further continuation of Scott Pask's "I'm going to pick a shape that I feel 'fits the show' and use it whenever possible."

With 9 to 5 it's triangles (on the overhead fixtures, portals, and other masking devices creating the 'world' of the show.)
With Cry Baby it was parallelograms with rotating axis.
With November it was Ovals.

Its an interesting trend to see the show decks, portals, and other large scenic units being dominated by abstract shapes and ideas, and have the world of the show live within these abstract 'containers.'

My only hope is that shows begin to move back to their roots - away from the spectacle, and towards the heart of the show - because I can surely tell you - it has nothing to do with triangles.