Another reason I WILL be going to New York this year: ‘South Pacific’ opened last night and, if the first-blush reviews can be believed, it looks like a spectacular production (for a more in-depth story with sound clips, check out the NPR story). Beyond reviving a monumental piece of Broadway history, I think this production is interesting because of the story’s tangential commentary on current events (that is, life during wartime) and its treatment of racial prejudice.
It also comes at a pretty fortuitous time for me as I’m currently finishing up a term paper for grad school on anti-Asian prejudice as depicted on stage. Thank you universe, Rogers and Hammerstein, and director Bartlett Sher for providing me with a great opening paragraph!
One last idle thought (but NOT an 'Idol' thought, though those seem to generate more controversy...): as I was driving into work today, I had a vague notion that it'd be pretty funny if the casts of RTP's "Say You Love Satan" and the Mill's "Once Upon a Mattress" got switched. I don't really know enough about "Satan" to know what the result would be, but my sense is that these are two shows that are pretty dramatically different in tone and content -- perfect for a mash-up!
Have a great weekend!
(Update! I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the opening of Gypsy recently as well. Here's a pretty long piece at CNN interviewing Patti Lupone and the New Yorker review of the show. John Lahr has been to every iteration of Gypsy on Broadway, all the way back to Ethel Merman -- can you imagine?)
2 comments:
Great idea, if not only for the sheer fact that it would be interesting to actually see some different folks performing at the mill instead of the same old crowd.
Jeanie Rule (Jeaneatte in The Full Monty at Barksdale) and I were talking just two days ago about Gypsy. She has also seen all of the Broadway productions of Gypsy...well...on her way to see this one this summer.
It's nuts!
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