NEXTpittsburgh: Reinventing ancient Illyria as a circa 1912, pre-World War I locale filled with the sounds of jazz music and the sights of grand mansions and gardens (think: Newport, Rhode Island), the play showcases original new music composed by Michael Moricz. Music director and arranger for Broadway’s annual “Jimmy Awards,” Moricz has worked with John Lithgow, Chita Rivera and Marvin Hamlisch, created original music for Showtime, Disney and PBS and served as music director and pianist for the acclaimed children’s television series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
2 comments:
I'm really excited to see how the PPT recreates Twelfth Night with this World War I adaption and their emphasis of music. I've been a fan of Twelfth Night ever since I've read it but I've never seen it on stage, so it would be great to see this more modern take along with a classical one. Moving on, Twelfth Night has such a strong theme of music throughout the book which connects the lovers and acts as a narrative, ("If music be the fruit of love, play on"). So, I'm glad that they seem to have taken this theme into account, employing a CMU alum for Fester, a singing role, and incorporating the jazz music of the 1910's. It'll be interesting how they pair up the Newport, jazz, street light, vibe with the composed, Shakespearean script. Also, I've read about Ted Pappas (the artistic director) before and I'd love to finally see a show he directed himself.
I LOVE THE SHOW TWELFTH NIGHT! I first saw it at the Griffith park Shakespeare Festival, and it was wonderfully funny! That performance had a more classical take on the play, so it would be so excited to see it in a different historical point. Which makes me wonder if any themes of the original script would change or be viewed drastically different because of the setting? The reason I wonder is because of my experience with seeing to kinds of production of the same play. I saw Taming of the Shrew, also at Griffith park Shakespeare Festival and another version of it, I forgot the name of the place, and I ended up hating the Griffith park version, but loving the other version. The two productions were very different in costuming, direction, set, etc., but both were set in sort of this timeless place. The reason I hated the Griffith park version was because of this weird message that it really emphasized this misogynistic undertone. I don’t entirely blame the people in that Shakespeare company because well, the original is kind of questionable in the first place. It is just that the second production I saw of it, didn’t really have that same “something isn’t right” with me. So I am very eager to see how this production of Twelfth Night goes and to compare it to the other performance I saw.
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