Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Yes, “Hand to God” is just as funny as you’ve heard, and if you haven’t heard, you must live too far away from the South Side to hear the gales of laughter. But “gales” isn’t strong enough — make it tornadoes.
I got to see this production of Hand to God and I thought it was great! I did not know what the show was about before I came to see it and I thought it was super funny. The acting was really good especially the guy who played Jason. A lot of the time it seemed like his puppet was a separate character and it was not the same person as Jason. I really liked the set especially the automation, which transformed the set into three different locations. I was not expecting the set to be on a turntable and rotate to another scene. I really liked the sound design as well and all of the transition music was really fun and helped with the feeling of the show. I would highly recommend this production to anyone who wants a good laugh and a crazy time. I have never seen a show at The City Theatre and I was very impressed by their production quality.
I've read a bit about the making of Tyrone, the foul-mouthed church basement puppet in this production, and am really looking forward to seeing the production, especially after this review. I've recently been more interested in puppetry after reading about Tyrone earlier and after reading about some of the insane puppets Cirque makes. I'm so impressed by how technical, artistic, and personal they can be. After reading about all of the emotions, anger, sexual tension, depression, humor, and more, which are in this show, I am curious to see the balance of the actors with the puppet and how it can reveal the emotions of the teenager and also be a source of comic relief. A puppet is obviously unrealistic, yet in Hand to God especially, it personally and emotionally impacts the audience. The cross between actor and prop is really interesting, and this positive review is another compelling reason for me to research more examples of puppetry and, of course, to see this show.
I think that this review really nails the performance. I saw it last Saturday and was laughing and howling the whole way through the performance. One of my co-workers from this summer works at City Theatre and I was able to chat with her for a little bit after the show. One of the things that I was a little surprised by was that the actor who plays Jason/Tyrone has the same role booked for another theatre after the run in Pittsburgh. She mentioned that the show is selling incredibly well and were looking at extending the run however he was already booked. And honestly, I wish this show would run longer as I would love to see it again because of the overall production value and level of detail in each design, but more importantly that as many people as possible could see the show. We often get so caught up in our day to day and this show put that in perspective and reminded to enjoy yourself every so often.
I just saw the show this afternoon and it fully lived up to my expectations. The acting, the designs (especially the scenic design, which had me enthralled as soon as I entered the theater), and just the show itself were the perfect mix of hilarious and aggressively thought-provoking. Everyone in the theater was laughing throughout the entire show, even though it was a fairly stark divide of 50% people under the age of 30 and 50% people above the age of 45. The acting was incredible, especially the performance of the man who played Jason/Tyrone because even in Tyrone's most visceral and powerful moments, it was clear that Jason wasn't really in control of himself. The puppet seemed to take on a life of its own, which was terrifying but enthralling to watch. I'm really interested in how they designed the puppet, because something about its facial features along with actor's amazing control of it made it seem very much alive and menacing. Something that I thought was clever was the use of music in between scenes: Christian pop that slowly turned into Christian rock that turned into regular punk rock as the show progressed and got darker and darker.
Like I said last week, I just saw this production of Hand to God. I said it last week and I'll say it now, I liked it a lot! I thought it was really clever and a lot of the technical aspects were really clever and well thought out. The actors were all funny and I had a great great time. But, would I say that the jokes garnered "nuclear explosions" of laughter? No. This was not the kind of laugh-til-you-cry funny. I have been to two shows that have actually made the entire audience laugh so hard that the actors had to pause before moving on because everyone was laughing so damn hard, and that definitely did not happen here. There were some jokes that made you go "oooooh!" because they were clever, and some jokes that made you go "ha ha" because they were silly. Then there were some jokes that sucked.
The one example I have of a joke that just sucked but the audience still lapped up like the weak plebeians they are (not the whole audience, just the people that liked this joke) were when one character was making fun of another boy for being gay (he isn't gay, but the guy is bullying him). The girl teenager says "You are so far in the closet that you are in Narnia." Alright. Pretty common joke. Not a ton of set up, heard it before. I did not laugh due to this. The two people left to me LOVED that. That weak, weak joke. I was horrified. How on earth could you have that level of comedy delight you like you were being tickled by kittens? Listen, people sitting next to me, if you ever read this: watch more TV. Get a feel for easy jokes and throw them away. Only laugh for the jokes that work for it.
I so want to see this production of Hand to God! I missed the show on broadway but heard incredible reviews. This show, from what i've heard, evokes a certain type of humor and challenges the typical comedic experience which I find extremely interesting and puzzling. I love when shows make u think rather than give you inappropriate humor from the top. An example, Book of Mormon. Although I do really love the show, sometimes the jokes are so crude that it almost seems like a cop out- I understand that is the nature of the beast with those specific writers but I personally enjoy dry or witty humor rather than saying a joke full frontal. I have heard wonderful reviews about this specific production and I find it so interesting that audience members of all ages enjoy this show.
6 comments:
I got to see this production of Hand to God and I thought it was great! I did not know what the show was about before I came to see it and I thought it was super funny. The acting was really good especially the guy who played Jason. A lot of the time it seemed like his puppet was a separate character and it was not the same person as Jason. I really liked the set especially the automation, which transformed the set into three different locations. I was not expecting the set to be on a turntable and rotate to another scene. I really liked the sound design as well and all of the transition music was really fun and helped with the feeling of the show. I would highly recommend this production to anyone who wants a good laugh and a crazy time. I have never seen a show at The City Theatre and I was very impressed by their production quality.
I've read a bit about the making of Tyrone, the foul-mouthed church basement puppet in this production, and am really looking forward to seeing the production, especially after this review. I've recently been more interested in puppetry after reading about Tyrone earlier and after reading about some of the insane puppets Cirque makes. I'm so impressed by how technical, artistic, and personal they can be. After reading about all of the emotions, anger, sexual tension, depression, humor, and more, which are in this show, I am curious to see the balance of the actors with the puppet and how it can reveal the emotions of the teenager and also be a source of comic relief. A puppet is obviously unrealistic, yet in Hand to God especially, it personally and emotionally impacts the audience. The cross between actor and prop is really interesting, and this positive review is another compelling reason for me to research more examples of puppetry and, of course, to see this show.
I think that this review really nails the performance. I saw it last Saturday and was laughing and howling the whole way through the performance. One of my co-workers from this summer works at City Theatre and I was able to chat with her for a little bit after the show. One of the things that I was a little surprised by was that the actor who plays Jason/Tyrone has the same role booked for another theatre after the run in Pittsburgh. She mentioned that the show is selling incredibly well and were looking at extending the run however he was already booked. And honestly, I wish this show would run longer as I would love to see it again because of the overall production value and level of detail in each design, but more importantly that as many people as possible could see the show. We often get so caught up in our day to day and this show put that in perspective and reminded to enjoy yourself every so often.
I just saw the show this afternoon and it fully lived up to my expectations. The acting, the designs (especially the scenic design, which had me enthralled as soon as I entered the theater), and just the show itself were the perfect mix of hilarious and aggressively thought-provoking. Everyone in the theater was laughing throughout the entire show, even though it was a fairly stark divide of 50% people under the age of 30 and 50% people above the age of 45. The acting was incredible, especially the performance of the man who played Jason/Tyrone because even in Tyrone's most visceral and powerful moments, it was clear that Jason wasn't really in control of himself. The puppet seemed to take on a life of its own, which was terrifying but enthralling to watch. I'm really interested in how they designed the puppet, because something about its facial features along with actor's amazing control of it made it seem very much alive and menacing. Something that I thought was clever was the use of music in between scenes: Christian pop that slowly turned into Christian rock that turned into regular punk rock as the show progressed and got darker and darker.
Like I said last week, I just saw this production of Hand to God. I said it last week and I'll say it now, I liked it a lot! I thought it was really clever and a lot of the technical aspects were really clever and well thought out. The actors were all funny and I had a great great time. But, would I say that the jokes garnered "nuclear explosions" of laughter? No. This was not the kind of laugh-til-you-cry funny. I have been to two shows that have actually made the entire audience laugh so hard that the actors had to pause before moving on because everyone was laughing so damn hard, and that definitely did not happen here. There were some jokes that made you go "oooooh!" because they were clever, and some jokes that made you go "ha ha" because they were silly. Then there were some jokes that sucked.
The one example I have of a joke that just sucked but the audience still lapped up like the weak plebeians they are (not the whole audience, just the people that liked this joke) were when one character was making fun of another boy for being gay (he isn't gay, but the guy is bullying him). The girl teenager says "You are so far in the closet that you are in Narnia." Alright. Pretty common joke. Not a ton of set up, heard it before. I did not laugh due to this. The two people left to me LOVED that. That weak, weak joke. I was horrified. How on earth could you have that level of comedy delight you like you were being tickled by kittens? Listen, people sitting next to me, if you ever read this: watch more TV. Get a feel for easy jokes and throw them away. Only laugh for the jokes that work for it.
I so want to see this production of Hand to God! I missed the show on broadway but heard incredible reviews. This show, from what i've heard, evokes a certain type of humor and challenges the typical comedic experience which I find extremely interesting and puzzling. I love when shows make u think rather than give you inappropriate humor from the top. An example, Book of Mormon. Although I do really love the show, sometimes the jokes are so crude that it almost seems like a cop out- I understand that is the nature of the beast with those specific writers but I personally enjoy dry or witty humor rather than saying a joke full frontal. I have heard wonderful reviews about this specific production and I find it so interesting that audience members of all ages enjoy this show.
Post a Comment