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Monday, October 16, 2006
Hey big spender, spend a little time with these decades-old Broadway shows
The Seattle Times: "Between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s, something big happened to the Broadway musical. It got sexier. It got grittier. It got ironic, even cynical. It got more ethnically diverse. It went concept."
This article made a little note about the fashions and theatre being combined. I find this to be especially interesting because often we will see something as a period piece or contemporary. Everything in the middle seems to be labeled as dated. So as fashions come and go it would seem that certain musical's popularity comes and goes. -Harriet
"We always look back at other times to see our own time more clearly." This article is very interesting. I am curious to find out exactly how these shows are recieved given the similarities in circumstance of 30 years ago and now. However, I doubt that the public will catch the connection the article lays out. These are just some other shows to revive.
Interesting that they are saying that Sweet Charity has more sex in it. I think if they keep the Fosse choreography it does;however, the revival version on Broadway decided to take the whole Fosse thing and throw it out the window. I had the unpleasant opportunity of seeing it, for free, and it lacked all the sex appeal the original had. And on the notion of trends, I feel as though we are very much now in a trend of fantasy shows: Wicked, Chitty Chitty..., Hairspray, in direct response to the Sept. 11th attacks. It is all about what people want to see.
I felt like this article had potential to really examine the reasons these shows are being revived right now and totally skimmed the surface. I think that the issue of political climate is a huge one right now. With our country in the midst of a war that many don't agree with, and about which we are not being give the straight scoop, along with the growing nuclear threat abroad from fairly unpredicatable countries, this is so much like the era in which thyese plays were written that I think a 4 sentence reference is a throw away. I also agree with harriet's comment that the article notes little aboutthe meeting of fashion and theatre. I feel like the article was only an advertisement, when it could have been a better examination of the whys of theatrical production decisions. Or perhaps they don't want to give those secrest away...
4 comments:
This article made a little note about the fashions and theatre being combined. I find this to be especially interesting because often we will see something as a period piece or contemporary. Everything in the middle seems to be labeled as dated. So as fashions come and go it would seem that certain musical's popularity comes and goes.
-Harriet
"We always look back at other times to see our own time more clearly."
This article is very interesting. I am curious to find out exactly how these shows are recieved given the similarities in circumstance of 30 years ago and now.
However, I doubt that the public will catch the connection the article lays out. These are just some other shows to revive.
-Julianna Slaten
Interesting that they are saying that Sweet Charity has more sex in it. I think if they keep the Fosse choreography it does;however, the revival version on Broadway decided to take the whole Fosse thing and throw it out the window. I had the unpleasant opportunity of seeing it, for free, and it lacked all the sex appeal the original had. And on the notion of trends, I feel as though we are very much now in a trend of fantasy shows: Wicked, Chitty Chitty..., Hairspray, in direct response to the Sept. 11th attacks. It is all about what people want to see.
I felt like this article had potential to really examine the reasons these shows are being revived right now and totally skimmed the surface. I think that the issue of political climate is a huge one right now. With our country in the midst of a war that many don't agree with, and about which we are not being give the straight scoop, along with the growing nuclear threat abroad from fairly unpredicatable countries, this is so much like the era in which thyese plays were written that I think a 4 sentence reference is a throw away. I also agree with harriet's comment that the article notes little aboutthe meeting of fashion and theatre. I feel like the article was only an advertisement, when it could have been a better examination of the whys of theatrical production decisions. Or perhaps they don't want to give those secrest away...
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