Theater babbling
We went to see The Color Purple (the musical) yesterday. It was an impressive show, and I found myself crying several times during it. The acting was great. The vocal work was stunning. (Sometimes a bit too literally, I think they could have turned the speakers down a bit, especially when the full cast got going.) It was impressive - beautiful and heart wrenching (even with the new, 'improved' happier ending.) It did suffer somewhat from trying to condense the book into the time frame available for the stage. (Heck, it suffered a bit from trying to compress the movie to make room for the musical numbers and dance numbers. Though the African dance numbers may have been worth it.) Even so, most of the music was either in scene or driving the plot forward. There was some which expanded on emotion, but most of it was driving forward. Maybe that's why instead of singing anything from it, I've been wandering around singing the openning and closing music to various seasons of Slings and Arrows today.
It was good. It made me cry. It made me feel. I was impressed by the singing and the acting. But somehow... I don't want to run out and tell everyone else to see it. I don't have the urge to see it again. I'm not even sure if I want the cast album. It was good, but I'd still much rather see Curtains or Thirteen again. Or maybe go read the book. It's been a long time since I read the book.
Or I could watch Slings and Arrows again, since there is no more. I understand that the three-series arc was planned. I understand that it reached the end. I don't care. I want more. There's lots of Shakespeare left. I want to see The Tempest or A Winter's Tale or even Othello (and I really dislike Othello). Or the Histories. They didn't do any of the Histories. The show sums up everything I love and everything I hate about theater. All the insanity. All the beauty and wonder. All the people you want to kick and the people you want to hug... and the people for whom you kind of want to do both. It's a show that I want to grab and show to everyone I know, if only to say 'This... /this/ is why I majored in theater. This is why theater will always have my heart. This is also why I really can't work in it.' It's like someone wrote TV just for me.
Oooh, or maybe they could do another series. Bring back some of the same characters. Do the Greeks or Miller or something. But I don't want to let these characters go. It almost makes me want to try to get a job with some theater company doing who-knows-what. But for the moment, I'm just going to go watch the extended scenes of King Lear and glory in the magic of the stage for a little while longer.
ETA: Warning, spoilers for The Color Purple in the comments.
It was good. It made me cry. It made me feel. I was impressed by the singing and the acting. But somehow... I don't want to run out and tell everyone else to see it. I don't have the urge to see it again. I'm not even sure if I want the cast album. It was good, but I'd still much rather see Curtains or Thirteen again. Or maybe go read the book. It's been a long time since I read the book.
Or I could watch Slings and Arrows again, since there is no more. I understand that the three-series arc was planned. I understand that it reached the end. I don't care. I want more. There's lots of Shakespeare left. I want to see The Tempest or A Winter's Tale or even Othello (and I really dislike Othello). Or the Histories. They didn't do any of the Histories. The show sums up everything I love and everything I hate about theater. All the insanity. All the beauty and wonder. All the people you want to kick and the people you want to hug... and the people for whom you kind of want to do both. It's a show that I want to grab and show to everyone I know, if only to say 'This... /this/ is why I majored in theater. This is why theater will always have my heart. This is also why I really can't work in it.' It's like someone wrote TV just for me.
Oooh, or maybe they could do another series. Bring back some of the same characters. Do the Greeks or Miller or something. But I don't want to let these characters go. It almost makes me want to try to get a job with some theater company doing who-knows-what. But for the moment, I'm just going to go watch the extended scenes of King Lear and glory in the magic of the stage for a little while longer.
ETA: Warning, spoilers for The Color Purple in the comments.