Chicago Tribune: There’s a Broadway story about “The Lion King.” Julie Taymor, the conceptualist genuis, first wanted, in Act 2, to take Simba and his crew to Las Vegas. After they picked their chins up off the floor, the Disney brass set about keeping the action in Africa, rather than on the Strip. It wasn’t that hard, they just said “No.”
4 comments:
I am amazed more than i should be I suppose at the sheer level of disrespect that some directors have for classic shows. Everything needs to be flashy and new and updated and modern and this and that and more and it’s just not the case. I get it, some shows need some tweaks to bring a fresh new twist to and others just shouldn’t be touched. I get that you want to update costumes and maybe reinvent the story using current events, but clearly that is not the case here. What is a suppose to be a wholesome family show is now another seedy Vegas strip show. Bright flashy lights, sparkly costumes, girls in fishnets. Those are audiences want to see, right? *insert eyeroll here* Yes, in a majority of cases, a fresh new look is welcomed. While the classic Phantom runs on Broadway, and recently celebrated its 30th year, the touring production, re imagined but still with the classic style helps to give audiences a new appreciation for the story. While some costumes remained the same, the locations were given a different look altogether. That’s what a show like Joseph should do, not gut the production and turn it into a lounge act.
Clearly, from this review and the many other reviews about the shocking revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, there is a lot of hate about setting it in Vegas. Although I know nothing about the show and have no emotional attachment as the author of the article seems to have, I see positive in this failure. Drury Lane took a risk by updating an overdone show (I am always seeing that high schools and community theatres doing this show) and trying to make it new. Drury Lane had faith in its concept and artists. This is amazing to see. These theatre artists and creative team were experimenting with theatre, something that should be looked at in a positive light. Maybe at the expense of “Joseph” fans but this choice to change the context of the show wasn’t offensive and I’m sure had good intents. It might not have done the show a good service but Andrew Lloyd Weber and his team had to approve the show being done like this in order to give Drury Lane rights to the show so clearly Weber wasn’t too upset. Yes, it might be terrible and corny but this experiment in theatre is something that can be looked at in a positive light.
Yikes, although this concept of Joseph in Vegas is not a huge hit, the critic seems to be ripping it to shreds happily. I understand the concern of setting a predominantly family friendly show in a risque style, but also....it's just a show! No one is forcing people to take their children to the show, and there are plenty of warnings at box office and in the Playbill. I was actually very intrigued so I looked up the Drury Lane Theater and it does seem like a very traditional style wholesome theater. I applaud them for trying something new. I think it is always exciting when theatres try new, "scary" work. Sometimes restyling an old classic is a good way to try something new, but also know you'll sell seats to the show. Perhaps the theatre critic was correct, but I think it is a bit harsh to criticize style over show quality. Maybe it wasn't the biggest success, but shooting it down will only diminish new works and new creativity in the future.
Well somebody really messed up. No I take that back a lot of people really messed up. In todays age of theatre its very rare that someone can have the control to take a show into their hands entirely. As a base concept have Joseph set in Vegas just sounds like a bad thing waiting to happen. It just doesn't fit the message of the show but then it takes it another step by actively trying to go against the underlying intention of the original show. You can't just ignore a shows true audience just because you want to try and create something new and different. The show has name recognition with that comes some rules and perceptions from it audience when they are buying their ticket. That all being said this review seems to be really harsh on the production and should allow the creative team and the director some more say in what actually happened and take the artistic choices into better consideration.
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