re: July 1st Saturday Matinee review | |
Posted by: |
Jacqueline 08:36 pm UTC 07/02/17 |
In reply to: | July 1st Saturday Matinee review - RemyH 02:39 pm UTC 07/02/17 |
Wow! Thank you for your review!!! > Hey up all, > > I'd guarded myself from most reviews before the show so > I'm certain many things have been stated many times > already, but here it goes! Jotting this down mainly to > help myself remember. This is obviously full of spoilers. > > > Just to put it out there first, I did have a great time! > (Unfortunatelly my train home hit "a large animal" and was > 1,5 hours late. Doncaster Station at Midnight shall be my > new single release, oh boy oh boy.) > > Sitting in the auditorium of the lovely Coliseum Theatre, > with the looping projection bats on the gauze and the > Obsidian "newspapers" with the backstory littered around > the seat rows, I did get a pleasant pang of anticipation. > Clearly the show wants to do a bit of extra for the > audience. The teaser-version synopsis which looped for the > last few minutes before show start was a tiny bit annoying > (yes, we get it) but hey ho, maybe it helps some people > understand this deep and complex show (snort). > > Like the 10 year old kid sitting behind me? Someone > apparently decided the show is suitable for kids, which it > ain't. Pleanty of f-works and talk about the muscle of > love, not to mention base to base action and more complex > teenage emotions. Or maybe I'm just showing my age, when I > was that young all I had was a sandbox, not £95 stalls > seats to a hit musical. > > Anyhow, show start. Ladies and gentlemen, set your > pacemakers! A bang, very handsomely made gauze > disappearance trick and the much beloved "Love, Death and > an American Guitar" monologue. Not the first Steinman > musical to start with a speech, The Dream Engine (which I > love to bits) was there first with the 15 minute long > "Ketchup or Blood" rant. Sadly for me, but probably for > the enjoyment of other audience members (not to mention > Box Office), BOOH The Musical does not follow the example > of the DE and dive into the Beckettian deep end. You don't > have to give a flying bat about politics to enjoy the > show, although the Falco Empire does remind me of a > current self-made statesman blowing stuff up. Spooky how > the show is politically relevant after all! > > To talk more about the Dream Engine influence in the show, > obviously we have the gang of The Lost (Boys and Girls) > led by a handsome lone wolf leader. From Baal to Strat, > the names are not getting any better. This all rises from > the Peter Pan deep in Steinman's soul, and while someone > might say he never made a musical about Peter Pan, I'd say > he's done at least three of them, including my much > beloved Tanz der Vampire (still waiting for the decent > English version). All sexy outcasts frozen in time and > eternal youth. There's also a good spicing of West Side > Story (read: Romeo and Juliet), the warring gangs being > The Lost and Falco Corp., Tony and Maria played out by > Strat and Raven. > > While the world of the Dream Engine is dark and violent, > BOOH is much more innocent and jubilant. Strat, played > very well by Mr. Benjamin Purkiss (pro tip to Coliseum > theatre - ditch the comic sans font from the > notifications, it's not selling the guy very well. > Snobbery, I know, but comic sans?!), is a mutant boy fixed > in the age of 18, both body and soul it seems, although he > is supposed to have been 18 "for a while now". He is > nothing like the manipulative sick kid Baal. Not > specifying the time frame was a good move, it gives your > brain something to do. 10 years? 50 years? How long does > it take that even the daughter of the most powerful man in > town has her bedroom wallpapers mouldy by age in a > semi-collapsed society? > > What happened? Why is Manhattan "Obsidian"? War? > Pollution? Was it heavy industry which started mutating > the kids which led to a revolution that never ended? Was > it all Falco's fault or was he just a man grasping his > opportunity? Later it becomes obvious that our baddie is > not really a villain at all, but early in the show I did > break out in light sweat imagining The Orange Leader > naming New Yourk "Onyx" and privatising the whole world. > The horror. > > To make one more show comparison before moving on to > detail, did anyone else have very strong flashbacks to > Repo! The Genetic Opera? Families Falco and Rotti? Falco > Industries and GeneCo? Genetic mutations? Isn's Raven just > like Shilo from Repo! With her notebook, not being able to > leave her room, playing her guitar, strangers outside her > window (also brings Tanz der Vampire Sarah to mind). I'm > not sure if this has been intentional or not, but I would > not be one bit surprised if Steinman would be a fan of > Terrance Zdunich, whom I consider to be the be the best > thing since... well, since Jim Steinman. > > Anyway, long story short, it's a short story made long. > It's the story Steinman has told all his life, and bless > him three times over for it. It's a good story. It's an > old story. It's a story we all know. To my endless > delight, the plotline wasn't as bluntly simple as it's > advertised as. The main side characters, while serving an > obvious purpose of making the plot move forward, proved to > be the best thing the show has to offer. Strat and Raven > play out the obvious part of (slightly) star-crossed > lovers and have plot-wise little interest (we all know how > it goes), but Raven's parents and the dynamics within The > Lost group beefed the story up very well. > > Take Raven's parents. Her dad Falco is a Big Family Man > who is only Protecting His Family by not letting them > outside or do anything. He does nasty things when he > manages to catch some of The Lost, but doesn't seem to > hurt anyone badly enough to stop them from singing > "Objects in the Rear View Mirror". He decapitates an ugly > baby doll and smacks the head offstage with a baseball > bat. Talk about cheesy villainy, but it went together with > the song (In the Land of the Pig the Butcher Is King). A > lot of hot air and pomp but no slaughter. Rob Fowler who > plays him is about perfect for the part, the casting is > very good all around anyway. > > Raven's mom Sloane, played by Sharon Sexton, stole the > show for me. She is a slightly aged party girl who just > wanna have fun, ends up teaming up with the rebels and > basically, in her way, saving the town and the family. > Brilliant. More realistic and strong female characters in > theatre, please. Her interaction with her husband is very > well directed and emphasises the more realistic aspects of > the otherwise over-the-top show. This is very wise, > considering the average age of the audience and the fact > that many of them have lived the songs with their own > teenage loves and later family troubles. > > Their first song together is the iconic song "Who Needs > the Young", which is making it's third trip to the > theatre, first featured in the Dream Engine, then in Tanz > der Vampire and now BOOH. Always a duet between a man and > a woman, the song serves its purpose beautifully in the > context of a married couple who have lost the oomph from > their union ("Is there anyone left who can screw? Fuck > them!). > > At times Falco and Sloane have a good old gut-chilling > family row and I feel myself shrinking in my seat with > empathy. These scenes are alterated with > laughing-with-tears-down-my-face reconciliation scenes of > rowdy and clumsy make-up sex or just plain real adult > talking "She's all we have ". "We have each other." "She > is all we have!") > > Dialogue in general is briliant when Steinman has his > tongue in cheek, and cringeworthy corny when he tries to > be seriously romantic. Take the "our bodies rhyme" thing > from Strat to Raven, which first appeared in the > unfortunate case of Dance of the Cheeseballs on Broadway, > "our hearts beat in the same rhythm". Shudder. Gag. Maybe > I'm an old cynic but it does not work for me. However bits > like "My dad told me a lot about sex." "That must have > been awful!" are pure side-splitting goodness. > > My favourite joke, which was not in dialogue but very much > in action, was when Raven surpised her half-naked parents > arguing, and as a revenge for the humiliation pushed their > car down to the "orchestra pit", which was followed by a > crushed trombone flying on the stage. The trombone was > followed by a smashed cello, the musicians and the MD > holding a bent baton, angrily walking across the stage > with an air of "I feckin quit". This is EXACTLY the > correct way of breaking the fourth wall. I almost died > laughing. The band is very good by the way, although front > row is not the best place for sound quality. A13 is a very > good seat though with no monitors in front of your face, > but sitting right behind the conductor. Michael Reed (what > a name!) does a very good job and he seems to enjoy the > music. > > The car in the pit was only one of the many, many amazing > tricks of the set. Whatever they've paid Jon Bauson for > the design, it ain't enough. If it wasn't the car, the end > of act 1 slow-motion exploding motorcycle would take the > prize. The. Parts. Of. The. Bike. Formed. A. Heart. > Flying. In. The. Air. It. Was. So. Cool. > > The large element back of stage left which started as a > monstrous guitar neck, turning into the Falco tower and > Raven's bedroom, The Losts bike garage/bar, doubling as a > projection screen and about 7 other things was by far the > most enjoyable stage element I have ever seen. I also let > out a grunt of delight when one square bit on the other > side of the stage, which had served only as a projection > screen for the best part of the show, suddenly turned into > a new room in the set. Throws you off with a very clever > surprise! I enjoyed the live video projection (designed by > Finn Ross), which gave the actors a chance to take down > the acting and do stuff with their faces. It created a > nice sense of intimacy on an otherwise large and deep > stage. > > I wasn't too keen on the costumes, which were a bit too > polished and glittery for my taste. I was expecting a more > raggedy gang, but it looks like you don't have to give up > sequins and hooker heels even if you live in the sewer > system. Eh. But I'm not one who understands fashion, maybe > mixing animal prints is in in their time, and black > feathers on a 70's porn star peach silk shirt is the very > cutting edge in the far Obsidian future. Maybe they have > raided an abandoned Gap. > > The only other thing which didn't work for me was the > choreography. I am not one who likes a lot of dancing in > musicals (I know, it's my problem really). One of the > reasons I love Tanz der Vampire is that there is always a > reason for the dancing, it has a function and a purpose in > the scene. In other musical theatre it's like with the > singing, it's not supposed to be "real" but a reflection > of the characters' inner feelings. That's where my > problems probably start, I'm not sure what they are > supposed to be feeling with that bobbing. Happy? The > movement is avant garde at best, plain silly at worst. But > again, maybe that's how they dance in the future, it's not > worse than twerking. The ensemble does give it a good go, > they are all fantastic dancers. > > As the songs go, it's the work of Frankensteinman, all the > good bits are there stitched neatly together. I couldn't > catch one bar of music which would qualify as new > material, but I knew it would be a jukebox musical. While > plots of some jukebox shows manage to be about as relevant > as a juice box, BOOH has the advantage of having the > original composer who dunnit yielding the scalpel. The > songs are considerably shorter, which is good, and they > represent a wide selection of songs originally not made > for Meat or the BOOH series, which is excellent. Original > Sin and Bad For Good were very much there to my joy. > > While there were slight changes to the lyrics, not all had > been changed. At times it made no sense to have two > familiar charactes sing "I don't know who you are" to one > another (Dead Ringer), and Raven has to travel a bit from > Obsidian (Manhattan) to experience that chilly California > sand (For Crying Out Loud), but I don't want to be the > person who bitches about minor inconsistencies. Especially > since there were toe-curling good moments when the already > existing lyrics fit the plot exactly, like Raven being "in > the room at the top" (Out of the Frying Pan) and Sloane > asking Falco if he "can build an emerald city with these > grains of sand". And by the way, if you STILL don't get > what THAT is in I'd Do Anything for Love after the > representation in this show, you must be thicker than a > yard or lard. Maybe think "lurve"? > > All and all the show could have gone much deeper with the > semi-post-apocalyptic backstory and analysis of the > characters, but I don't think that would work with the > existing songs, and good old Doctor Steinlove has made the > best possible musical he can for the selected material. > Hats off. > > | |
reply | | |
Previous: | July 1st Saturday Matinee review - RemyH 02:39 pm UTC 07/02/17 |
Next: | Body - daveake 01:04 pm UTC 07/02/17 |
Thread: |