Spent the morning ...

... at WETA, where the yakking in the green room before today's Around Town taping was largely centered around the new Bond film and the new movie version of Dreamgirls. Yes, the one with (shudder) Eddie Murphy.  Tim Gordon and Joe Barber say it's great, that a screening full of critics applauded it.

Me, I'm reserving judgment.  I've heard other people say Jennifer Hudson aces the part of Effie White. I've even heard people say she makes the role her own.

But have those people watched this?

I'm no knee-jerk, revival-hatin', adaptation-loathing it-was-better-the-first-time queen, I swear, no matter what the Rorschach folk say.

But I do think Hudson's got some serious livin' up to do.  And no matter how good she is, she's not doing it live on stage night after night.  I never saw the original Dreamgirls, as it happens.  But man, if I'd been in that theater, I'd have been throwing chairs from the sheer f*ckin' thrill of being in the same room with all that noise.

Damn, that's a well-built song. And a hell of a performance.

Comments

[dcepticon]

Tboy,

So what you are reviewing my review of your review? Which would make this comment a review of a review of a review of a review.

I promise not to get all Metropoitan Guinee Pig Rescue service on you.

Sincerely,
The Rorschach Folk

[theaterboy]

Mean to me...
Why must you be mean to me?

All I'm sayin, is two of those three Olney references were neutral ... exculpatory even.

[grin]

In any case, they're not meant to suggest that you guys should worry about what Olney did. They're for the benefit of readers who might have seen that production, and need a reminder of what it was like and why yours might feel a little unlike it. Sorry if that didn't come across clearly.

[dcepticon]

TB,
As your job is to review a show my job at Rorschach is to put the best light possible on a review. As with any review you wish the reviewer had said x, y and z. When they don't say x, y and z you need to view it as a repudiation of your work and try and explain why the reviewer was wrong. I don't think you have been anything but fair to Rorschach and I don't think that would ever change.
That being said I will continue to refute you in the only forum available to me when I disagree with your review. I have to put butts in seats.
Sincerely,
'Zilla

[Steve]

Drove overnight to Atlanta to see Jennifer H. Number 1 do the role in the original Michael Bennett staging at the Fox Theatre a few years back. Still astounding after twenty years. Still commanding a standing ovation at the end of Act One. Still a performance that had the audience bawling all through the intermission. I missed Jennifer H. Number 2 on "AI" but hope she's as good as they say.

[Steve]

Also digging your second reference to big black diva-dom in your follow-up comment. Nell Carter--gone too soon.

[Jim]

Just had to weigh in on the conversation, which I am late in reading. Certainly, it isn't of interest to enter into any kind of dueling productions scenario, critical comments pro and con or exculpatory (sounds like a theatrical CSI in here!) aside. I'm delighted that Neal Bell's MONSTER got a second production in the region. It's no secret that I'm a huge believer in his writing, having introduced his THERESE RAQUIN, MONSTER and SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC to the area. Critics have been fickle with Neal,(tho Mondello's TR review was actually, gulp, revelatory) saving some consistently inspired and supportive words from Michael Feingold. But, such is life. I hope more and more people get to experience Neal's play in its current version at Rorschach! And kudos to you guys for doing the play because you believed in it! Anyone wanna do SPATTER PATTERN?? The published version is now available thru Broadway Publishing. It's his best non-adapted play...NY Times dismissed it, but that doesn't alter its excellence, just puts its light under a bit of a bushel.

[Blactor]

Holy shit, my head nearly burst watching that.

I'm DEFINITELY holding out on the film, though...I just can't fathom them doing the source material any type of justice. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

[ComposeYourself]

Am I the only one who feels hysterics like the one shown in the video have less to do about theater and the show, and more to do with an over the top, out of control, completely out of context scene-steal? That isn't musical theater, that's vocal and epilectic masturbation.

[Blactor]

1) Michael Bennet certainly didn't seem to feel that way. But then again, what did HE know?

2) There's only one "C" in EPILEPTIC.

[ComposeYourself]

Did I spell the other 50 words correctly?