Saturday, March 14, 2009
For a Revival of ‘Dreamgirls,’ Pacific Overtures
NYTimes.com: "Several months ago, when John F. Breglio told fellow New York producers that he was not only remaking “Dreamgirls,” the 1981 Broadway hit musical based loosely on the career of the Supremes, but that he was also going to South Korea to do it, they were puzzled, to say the least."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This is really interesting. I'm not so sure how I feel about taking the 'out of town tryout' all the way to another side of the world though. It almost seems like the producers are avoiding at all costs an early exposure of the show to American audiences.
It sort of bothers me that there are so many technicalities that make the Seoul 'try out' better than one in the United States. It makes me feel that they've lost the idea of what the out of town try out is. Its not a glorified technical rehearsal - as it seems this is described as. The out of town try out is for the show to grow and develop in the same conditions that a run would experience.
Not only does this outsource from American union workers, but the language barrier seems like it would stop a trial run its tracks. I don't understand how you can direct a show in Korean for a Korean audience, which is very culturally different from America, and expect that direction to smoothly change back into english and work with American audiences. The out of town preview is too far out of town this time.
I understand the financial incentive but to sacrifice putting together a good show to do that destroys what I perceive theatre to be.
Post a Comment