small h Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 I had pretty high hopes for a musical by David Byrne (I liked American Utopia when I saw it on the tv) and Fatboy Slim, even if it did sound a bit like Evita performed at the Limelight. Well, I wasn't bored, partly because it was only 90:00, partly because the stage kept being reconfigured like a set of Legos, and partly because performers kept popping up near me up in the cheap seats, and I kept being surprised by this. Also, the on-stage deejay - "stage" being something of a loose term, since there were stages all over the theater - periodically exhorted the audience to get up and dance. Which it did. The audience was very happy to be there, in the way it was when I saw Mamma Mia many years ago. It's nice to see an audience so engaged. It's also a little lonely to not feel engaged along with them. None of the songs was successful all the way through. The opener, the title song, had a great hook that wasn't repeated often enough, and the song didn't have enough else going on to make it an actual great song. Its hook was very similar to the hook from some other song, possibly by Roxy Music, I can't think of it right now. Now that I'm obsessing over it, I think it might actually be Sweet Caroline. The lyrics to nearly all the songs were straight up bad, not like lyrics at all. I may have read that they were mostly taken from actual people's actual words describing the events of the plot, which explains a lot, since most actual people cannot write decent song lyrics. The story was the story of Imelda Marcus, only without any mention of her shoes, which seems an odd choice, to say the least. She's treated very sympathetically, which I guess she has to be in order for a musical to be written around her. But not addressing how she bled her country dry - save for a very brief aside about an expensive cultural center - seems like even more of an oversight than ignoring the shoe thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakeater Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 When this first played here several years ago, I just didn't like it. I thought I would. But I didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
small h Posted September 11, 2023 Author Share Posted September 11, 2023 Yes, at the Public. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.