A Chorus Line played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013.
“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
``oscar wilde``
I'm sorry but I can't get past the comment made about the show's supposed "update." And no, J&H isn't one of my dear, beloved old shows that I saw a hundred times and still yearn for more. In fact, I've never seen it, and I know exactly 2 songs from the show well enough to sing along to. One is "In His Eyes," and that's mostly because I was asked to do a backing track for it several years ago, and "Bring On the Men" is a recent one that I can't get out of my effing head! LOL.
I haven't seen the current production, but I don't have to see it to have an opinion on the current, tired trend of chucking a show's sets and replacing them with boring projections and cheesy video clips. It's fine if people actually like to watch flat, boring images on a giant screen where actual, physical sets used to do the job of suggesting locale in the unique way that only live theatre could and all, but I know many people who share my opinion that one feels cheated when subjected to lighted movie shows in a live, theatrical stage production.
And that's just ONE element of live theatre that is slowly being chucked in favor of cheap ways to stage a musical. In reality, a good set and lighting designer with some theatrical sense/vision could produce something far more evocative and satisfying to the eye with the bare minimal physical set AND even have it cost less than cheesy movie slide shows, probably made with Windows Slideshow Maker. It really disappoints me when people actually buy these "update" claims/hype when anyone who has seen good theatre even once in their whole life knows that projections are not only nothing new, they are a cop-out and shameless approach at boosting profits.
I remember when projections were used for purposes other than cheap, gimmicky CGI cartoons and distracting slideshows. In Evita ( 1978 ), they were used to infuse the very theatrical, visionary approach to the show's staging with a striking, contrasting sense of reality. This was back when all things theatrical were celebrated, even to the point of making the stage presentation look even more "staged" and theatrical by showing photos and film reels of the real Eva above the stage.
Kiss of the Spider Woman ( 1992 ), first staged at the Shaftsbury Theatre in London's West End, was considered innovative for its creative use of projections, which beautifully married with Molina's many escapist, dreamy, surreal Aurora reveries. The production didn't use projections as a cheap solution to scenery as in today's supposed "updated" use, they were used specifically to better denote a character's dream sequences involving the movies. It was brilliant, a dream within a dream.
There is nothing "modern" or "innovative," much less "updated" in most uses of projections in musical productions these days. In fact, they are very 70s nowadays. Hell, I recall the awesome Viewmaster shows my older bro and sis used to put on for my family during the early 80s.
And they were better and more 'advanced' than most projections seen in live shows these days...they were 3D!!!!
I haven't seen the current production, but I don't have to see it to have an opinion on the current, tired trend of chucking a show's sets and replacing them with boring projections and cheesy video clips. It's fine if people actually like to watch flat, boring images on a giant screen where actual, physical sets used to do the job of suggesting locale in the unique way that only live theatre could and all, but I know many people who share my opinion that one feels cheated when subjected to lighted movie shows in a live, theatrical stage production.
And that's just ONE element of live theatre that is slowly being chucked in favor of cheap ways to stage a musical. In reality, a good set and lighting designer with some theatrical sense/vision could produce something far more evocative and satisfying to the eye with the bare minimal physical set AND even have it cost less than cheesy movie slide shows, probably made with Windows Slideshow Maker. It really disappoints me when people actually buy these "update" claims/hype when anyone who has seen good theatre even once in their whole life knows that projections are not only nothing new, they are a cop-out and shameless approach at boosting profits.
I remember when projections were used for purposes other than cheap, gimmicky CGI cartoons and distracting slideshows. In Evita ( 1978 ), they were used to infuse the very theatrical, visionary approach to the show's staging with a striking, contrasting sense of reality. This was back when all things theatrical were celebrated, even to the point of making the stage presentation look even more "staged" and theatrical by showing photos and film reels of the real Eva above the stage.
Kiss of the Spider Woman ( 1992 ), first staged at the Shaftsbury Theatre in London's West End, was considered innovative for its creative use of projections, which beautifully married with Molina's many escapist, dreamy, surreal Aurora reveries. The production didn't use projections as a cheap solution to scenery as in today's supposed "updated" use, they were used specifically to better denote a character's dream sequences involving the movies. It was brilliant, a dream within a dream.
There is nothing "modern" or "innovative," much less "updated" in most uses of projections in musical productions these days. In fact, they are very 70s nowadays. Hell, I recall the awesome Viewmaster shows my older bro and sis used to put on for my family during the early 80s.
And they were better and more 'advanced' than most projections seen in live shows these days...they were 3D!!!!
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
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joined:10/21/06
Posted: 12/5/12 at 01:33pm