 |
| Pineda Lyric's The Magic Flute |
Judging from the Magic Flute dress rehearsals on Thursday and Friday nights, it seemed we were doomed to a very long and painful day of Saturday performances. From the made-up blocking and dialogue, missed cues and general cluelessness displayed on stage, a few members of our teenage cast seemed to genuinely lack a sense of urgency or responsibility. Very disconcerting for the producing team considering that in a day or so a paying audience would be witness to this mess.
Of course, I'm only talking about a few duds sprinkled amongst a mainly conscientious cast of young people. But hey, it only takes a little spot of fuzzy green mold to ruin the whole wheel of cheese, right?
Fast forward less than 24 hours to the matinee performance and all of a sudden, voilà, we have a show! Not that the made-up blocking was magically fixed and the dialogue learned. That would have been a true miracle in the Biblical sense. But the kids were finally performing, and at the very least committing strongly to their (often wrong) choices.
I'm definitely not advocating this type of preparation - or rather lack of preparation - as a viable option for a performer. But it sure beats the agony of witnessing long stretches of uncomfortable silence between two dumbstruck actors on stage, an acting "technique" we witnessed dozens of times (not an exaggeration) during both dress rehearsals.
Sigh.
Is it awful to wish that just once, these ill prepared youngsters would crash and burn during a performance? If these same young people always succeed with a wonderful - if inaccurate and completely improvised - performance, doesn't it just refute everything we're trying to teach them about the work and preparation required for success? Isn't it better for them to fail now when the consequences are minimal rather than when it's their first big work/college project? If a train chugging at 40 mph leaves Sante Fe at 4:00 PM...oh, never mind.
I guess it just rubs me the wrong way to congratulate a young person who, from the audience's perspective, has given a wonderful performance even though that performance was pretty much based on luck and improvisation. Oh well, I guess that's what blogs are for - bitching and moaning about things you can't really change.
Speaking of bitches, did ya'll catch the Tony Awards? I guess that's rhetorical considering my audience. I have to say, I'm somewhat surprised that this year's Tony voters decided to base their decisions on merit rather than popularity. How else do you explain Billy Porter's win over Bertie Carvel, Tracy Letts' win over Tom Hanks, Vanya's win over Lucky Guy, Kinky's win over Matilda...Not complaining, but it's a nice change.
That opening number was pretty damn impressive as well. Just thinking about coordinating the rehearsals for that 7 minutes of lunacy gives me a slight case of diarrhea. And that "Kiss LA Good-bye" parody had just enough queeny schtick for the gays while supplying enough pushed-up cleavage to appease the eight straight dudes watching.
Of course, my favorite moment was Audra's so-wrong-it's-right rendition of Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" and then dropping her mic, gangsta' style. That bitch crazy. Can't wait to see how NPH tops this next year.
(More pictures of the 2013 Young Artist production of Mozart's The Magic Flute here.)
No comments:
Post a Comment