Opening Night
It has arrived. Tonight the show officially opens, and as I skipped out on preview, I feel slightly obligated to attend tonight. Please there is snaking a schmoozing do to afterwards. And always thanks to pass around (especially to my fabulous wardrobe crew).
Last night I did skip out, due to the fear of an inappropriate crowd. Many of the actors were nervous as well, some to the point of wanting to cancel a preview performance. But you need a first audience, regardless of how immature the previewers may be (all of the Mason Gross Theatre Students, both graduate and undergrad--shocking to think of a college crowd as immature). By all accounts, the show went off wonderfully. They laughed when they needed to and reacted less to the actors and more to the characters--a first, especially given that these are their peers on stage, not to mention one gentleman is in a dress and another does a strip dance. I was told Rico carried himself with such dignity that it would have been challenging to laugh at him.
Instead, I viewed Parson's dance company again, although only 3 of the 6 pieces were ones we had already viewed. It was an interesting experiment: seeing how well some dance worked from the front row verses the balcony. David's Wolfgang piece was much more successful from afar. Granted, his costumes were beautiful, but at a distance they were not as distracting (never, ever put shiny burgandy velvet panties on your dancers unless you want to call attention to their butts and midriffs when they twirl--they should have been in matte leotards underneath the bodices and skirts). Caught was just as effective from the balcony, though it took a second longer for my eyes to adjust to the strobe light this time. Hands was better up close, but the dancers also felt slightly off during that piece. William Ivey Long's costumes for Scrutiny were the most boring out of the bunch. Effective, yes, but with that name you expect a little more glitzy and showy than black tank tops and black pants. David's piece to the Dave Matthew's Band was run of the mill for dance and costumes. Ellen's right--the clothes (modern) were a 50 year old gay man's interpretation of what is young and hip. They all looked fabulous in their jeans though. I was glad I went though.
Last night I did skip out, due to the fear of an inappropriate crowd. Many of the actors were nervous as well, some to the point of wanting to cancel a preview performance. But you need a first audience, regardless of how immature the previewers may be (all of the Mason Gross Theatre Students, both graduate and undergrad--shocking to think of a college crowd as immature). By all accounts, the show went off wonderfully. They laughed when they needed to and reacted less to the actors and more to the characters--a first, especially given that these are their peers on stage, not to mention one gentleman is in a dress and another does a strip dance. I was told Rico carried himself with such dignity that it would have been challenging to laugh at him.
Instead, I viewed Parson's dance company again, although only 3 of the 6 pieces were ones we had already viewed. It was an interesting experiment: seeing how well some dance worked from the front row verses the balcony. David's Wolfgang piece was much more successful from afar. Granted, his costumes were beautiful, but at a distance they were not as distracting (never, ever put shiny burgandy velvet panties on your dancers unless you want to call attention to their butts and midriffs when they twirl--they should have been in matte leotards underneath the bodices and skirts). Caught was just as effective from the balcony, though it took a second longer for my eyes to adjust to the strobe light this time. Hands was better up close, but the dancers also felt slightly off during that piece. William Ivey Long's costumes for Scrutiny were the most boring out of the bunch. Effective, yes, but with that name you expect a little more glitzy and showy than black tank tops and black pants. David's piece to the Dave Matthew's Band was run of the mill for dance and costumes. Ellen's right--the clothes (modern) were a 50 year old gay man's interpretation of what is young and hip. They all looked fabulous in their jeans though. I was glad I went though.
Labels: Audrey, Performances, Rutgers
posted by Unknown at
5:07 PM
4 Comments:
Glad to hear your show opened successfully! Sorry I haven't returned your call yet. It was kind of a crazy weekend. RENT isn't nearly that bad. And since there were at one time talks of a made-for-TV-version-staring-Justin-Timberlake-as-Mark it could have been much much worse! The horror!
As it turns out...it wasn't RENT David hated--it is the Producers movie.
Which Producers movie? my mom said they're making a movie of the Producers (the musical) and I'm like the Producers already is a movie! That's like making a movie of the Full Monty which is another musical based on a movie. When will they learn?
It is a movie of Producers the Musical, starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, scheduled to be released on December 16th.
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