Give My Rebukes to Broadway

[Senator Jack]

Cole Porter, Richard Rodger, Oscar Hammmerstien, Moss Hart, Noel Coward, Frank Loesser - ah, to be back in the days when Broadway marquees announced 'A New Musical' by any of these men. What a time it must have been when people of talent - real talent - lorded over The Great White Way. And what do we have now? Bloody Billy Joel Revues. Scores penned by schmendriks like Phil Collins and Elton John. Nauseous films like 'The Wedding Singer' turned into musicals. What a mess.

But while I'd never willfuly subject myself to any of these new offerings, I managed to have myself tortured for some two and a half hours yesterday as I sat through the revival of The Threepenny Opera. Having seen the lead, Alan Cumming, in the revival of Cabaret a few years back, (and quite enjoying the production) I bought tickets for Threepenny before it opened. It was only supposed to run for two months, and now I wish it had run for only two days so I could have got my money back.

Travesty isn't quite the right word for what I witnessed in that theatre. When the cast came out for opening number, Mack the Knife, in 80's goth dress - patent leather, silver crosses, kohl X's on the eyes - I sensed I was in for trouble. This trouble was made fact when Mackie Messer came out under a mohawk. For the duration of the show I was alternately enraged, embarrassed, ashamed, and bewildered. Lyrics were changed to include as many 5th Grade references to sex as possible. Lucy Brown was portrayed as a campy transvestite who exposes himself on stage (though I'm sure (hope) it was a prosthetic that was flashed) During 'Ballad Of The Easy Life' the chorus came out dressed in t-shirts featuring coporate logos (McDonalds, Target, Nike, etc) and the Mounted Messenger that brings the Queen's order to free Mackie is a beefcake guy clad only in gold shorts and thigh high boots. And, oh yes, like Mercury, he descends from the gallery on a neon horse?!

During the prison scene between Lucy and Mackie, the gay marriage agenda was addressed which brought mixed applause from the audience while I had to refrain from booing. Not that I'm against gay marriage, but I was truly offended by this mockery of Weill and Brecht. Again, at the finale, we're treated to this ham-fisted approach, Mackie wondering why street thieves are tried and convicted while corporate thieves are allowed to plunder the country. Though I may agree with such sentiment, it has no place in Threepenny.

The first thing I asked my friend after the show was 'Were there any adults involved with this production?' Puerile, prurient, abominably misdirected, it seemed there was no one attached to it - no grown, thinking person - who stepped aside during the rehearsal and said 'This stinks.' I truly believe everyone involved with the production must have been on crack, from the director down to the kid who changes the light bulb in the bathroom.

Is this theatre today? Is this all there is? Kids who have grown up on Saturday Night Live (Mrs. Peachum was played by an SNL castmember) given free reign over Broadway? I realize that Broadway now caters purely to the tourist market, but is this what Ma and Pa Kettle really want to see on their trip to Gotham City? I'm at a loss.

I posted this critique as a warning to my fellow loungers. The show's been Tony nominated for best revival and has been extended. I'm sure there will be a touring company. If you don't want to feel as sick and swindled as I do, AVOID THIS PRODUCTION OF THE THREEPENNY OEPRA!!!!!

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[PrettySquareGal]

That is the best contemporary Broadway review I have ever read. Seriously. I can't stop giggling.

 

[Zemke Fan]

Jeez, Jack...

... how do you REALLY feel about it? These on-the-one-hand-on-the-other kinds of reviews really leave my puzzled...

 

[LizzieMaine]

But...but...it's a *hip and ironic take!* Don't you realize that today's audiences are incapable of appreciating anything unless they can walk away afterward congratulating themselves on how *hip and ironic* they are?

What I wonder is, when everything's "hip and ironic," can hipness and irony even exist?

 

[LaMedicine]

'Kay, if they ever make it to Tokyo, I'm going to avoid 'em. Thanks for the warning, tickets for Broadway tour companies can cost up to $100 here. I am not going to spend that kind of money on that kind of c***.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Sounds like it was done in today's "style",...which is simply cheesy and tasteless, much like most of the garbage that poses as entertainment these days.
My condolences for your misfortune of witnessing such an atrocity. :eusa_doh:

 

[Hannigan Reilly]

ugh ugh ugh! This passes as art, now. What a waste. Thanks for an insightful review, Senator Jack.

 

[Senator Jack]

What seemed to happen is that because the Cabaret revival was so successful, the Roundabout Theatre company must have given carte blanche to the producer/director for Threepenny. The Cabaret revival was certainly a lot steamier than the original - but someone must have been there to tell them exactly how far they could push the envelop. No such control on this production, and had there been no such control on Cabaret, I'm now sure that production would have been just as bad.


LizzieMaine has expressed the exact problem with today's entertainment. Everything has to be hip, and people have to walk away thinking they're 'in on the joke'. Perhaps that's especially true for a city that's thought to be hip. (New Yorkers know that isn't the case) If the producer was trying to shock Ma and Pa Kettle, he must still be unacquainted with the workings of the Internet - a nifty little piece of jiggery that, among other things, brings the once exotic world of transsexual, sado-masochistic, porn to every farm house in Iowa.

Was there any redeeming value to this production? No! In italics. In spades. In capital letters. It made me long for the days when you could bring a bag full of rotten tomatoes and cabbages into the theatre.


Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[scotrace]

Art vs. politics.

Seems like the overlording purpose of art today is to be sure it's "on message."

 

[LaMedicine]

Seems like the overlording purpose of art today is to be sure it's "on message."

What a big pity and waste of talent.
Senator Jack, the next time I'm in NY, I'll have to buy you a drink with the money I saved thanks to your review.

 

[Feraud]

But...but...it's a *hip and ironic take!* Don't you realize that today's audiences are incapable of appreciating anything unless they can walk away afterward congratulating themselves on how *hip and ironic* they are?

What I wonder is, when everything's "hip and ironic," can hipness and irony even exist?

Ah yes! The hip & ironic crowd. My favorite NYC group. What they fail to realize is while decked out in their velour track suits (imprinted with 'baby girl" on the butt) and "bling" hanging off their cell phones, they totally have no idea what hip or ironic really is.

Thanks for the review Senator Jack. Now I have one less horrible Broadway show to sit through.

 

[pablocham]

Alienation might be the point

Sounds like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verfremdungseffekt">verfremdungseffekt</a>. Sorry it sucked, but isn't there something to be said for attempting to keep a musical fresh and relevant, even though in this case the attempt fails completely? I never met Bert Brecht and don't presume to speak for him, but my guess would be that, were he still living, he would rather make the audience angry and uncomfortable than allow them to safely wallow in bourgeois nostalgia.

 

[Senator Jack]

Take my word for it Pablocham, this wasn't the good sort of alienation that Brecht would have been proud of. Perhaps if this production had been staged twenty-five years ago, it might have succeeded (I really believed I had somehow been transported back to 1981), but as this ham-fisted politicking has already been done to death for the last five years, it appeared it was even more nostalgic than a straight revival would have been. The director must have been a regular at The Pyramid Club back then, and is just yearning for a return of those days. (Feraud, I believe, will understand this 'hip' reference )

It was just old hat - plain and simple. The 'gang' was dressed like something from a Fassbinder film I once saw (can't recall the title), and being that this future concept of 'gang' fashion is now part of our past only compounded to that nostalgia.

I personally like watching uncomfortable theatre - to this day I'm still mesmerized by Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe - but it takes genius to pull it off. Were Ma and Pa Kettle alienated? Perhaps. But I wish there had been a warning at the website that this production was going to focus only on alienating Ma and Pa Kettle and forget about minor things like plot and character. Every man and woman of any intelligence could have saved themselves quite a bit of jack.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Forbidden Broadway

There are other links to this parody of "Ya Got Trouble" from Music Man which I can find at the moment, but this one will do. It speaks to the point of what dreck there is in the theatre today.

If you haven't heard of Forbidden Broadway before, it started out as a one-time only cabaret act spoofing the musicals on Broadway that season that the performers felt were awful...and of course, it's a huge hit, hottest ticket in town, and has spawned a new version almost annually. The year they did the first incarnation was an embarassment of riches when talking about bad or tired shows. You had Annie (a gray-haired Annie with cane & heavily patched dress singing "I'll learn a new song tomorrow, but until tomorrow, tomorrow wil have to do...redundant, redundant, this song is redundant, I sing it 87 million times a week..."), Ethel Merman & Mary Martin in a two-woman Legends of Broadway show ("It's Delovely" redone as "Turn off the mikes and hold your ears, I'm getting ready to start singin' here, I'm da thunderous, I'm da noisy, I'm da Merman" and Martin's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" gets redone as "I'm Larry Hagman's mother" because JR had been shot that year) and of course, Carol Channing trotting out Dolly Levi for the umpteenth revival. The re-released some of the older years' on CD in the last few years and they're always a hoot.

 

[otterhound]

I wonder whether musical comedy is just running out of steam as an art form, and will suffer the same fate as vaudeville.

... or maybe it will just retire in Vegas.

 

[Feraud]

I do not think the musical comedy is dead but there is a very limited talent pool in any field.
An example I came across is this article about film producer Avi Arad and how he has decided to remake (or redo?) The Hulk!
Hollywood and Broadway spend most of their efforts trying to milk franchise opportunities rather than create new work.

 

[Clyde R.]

That's not surprising- The Hulk- but it is really sad. Where's the creativity?

 

[Paisley]

“If you want to send a message, use Western Union.” -Sam Goldwyn

 

[artdecodame]

Take my word for it Pablocham, this wasn't the good sort of alienation that Brecht would have been proud of.

I haven't attended the actual show, but did see a snippet while my mother was watching the Tony Awards last night. Even from that bit I totally agree with your review and comments.

 

[Doctor Strange]

This thread, and particularly Lizzie's comment, really touches on something that I've been feeling for a few years now: If *everything* now has to be hip, post-modern, ironic, and "meta", how can anybody take anything seriously? And how can generations raised with this POV all around them ever appreciate something serious, something that isn't trying to be ironic?

Everything made before 1970 (and everything made in b/w) seems hopelessly square and - because it's not ironic, not with-it - dumb to an ever larger chunk of our population... Yet they swallow endless commercials designed as entertainment without gagging. Not to mention really crass/gross/transparently pointless recycled excuses for art in nearly all fields.

I see this in my own teenage kids, even though I have worked overtime to school them in classic films (everything from Citizen Kane and Sunset Boulevard to Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen), etc... They have a tendency to fall into a snickering mode, and an ability to watch those godawful VH1 and MTV "documentaries" where alleged celebrities give you 20-second soundbites about their "insights" into pop ephemera of the 80s or 90s... (These shows regularly send me into a mixed mood of disbelief and outrage if I'm in the room, usually in under a minute.)

If I had known that the success of National Lampoon, SNL, and David Letterman was going to lead to this standard-mode irony POV pandemic, I wouldn't have been a fan back in the old days!

Oh, and as for The Threepenny Opera, now I feel even better that I saw that wonderful Lincoln Center production with Raul Julia twentysomething years ago instead of this new one!