tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15527783.post7018103159201243560..comments2023-09-29T03:23:53.191-07:00Comments on Stage Thrust, with Bobo the Theater Ho: Drinking out of a firehoseJoelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16492478732621202655noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15527783.post-26196083830090537502008-02-08T00:10:00.000-08:002008-02-08T00:10:00.000-08:00the assignment was to write 325 words using a spec...the assignment was to write 325 words using a specific images from the show<BR/>i actually wrote 355 and used three such images, two in late grafs<BR/>our group mostly thought of this show as a sellout with a weak score<BR/>so of course it will tour well ...Bobo the Theater Hohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02543482882758983557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15527783.post-1158946684471436582008-02-08T00:08:00.000-08:002008-02-08T00:08:00.000-08:00review of The Color Purple2/6/08, for NEA AJI TMTR...review of The Color Purple<BR/>2/6/08, for NEA AJI TMT<BR/><BR/>Return to Sender<BR/><BR/>He has lifted the hem of her dress with his riding crop, leered and slobbered at her, appraised her like livestock. But when Mister seizes Nettie — the dastardly villain assaulting poor defenseless innocence — his grasping fingers appear from a doorway in scarlet light, like a jolt from a cheap horror movie.<BR/> The Color Purple (at the Ahmanson through March 9) offers vibrant settings, rambunctious choreography and some soaring ballads in the spirit of sisterhood and self-affirmation. But a surrender to the conventions of light musical comedy prevents this saga of sexism and abuse, estrangement and loss from being played for the life-and-death stakes it requires. Every poignant moment, it seems, must be followed by a frenetic dance break or a cackling three-woman chorus. Sisters pledge their fidelity and men declare their undying love — which would be fine and dandy if emotions were allowed to register before break-out-into-song moments rushed proceedings along <BR/> As Sofia — the “hell, no!” fat woman played in the movie by Oprah Winfrey, whose imprimatur this production carries — Felicia P. Fields balls up her fists and laughs at authority with such crowd-pleasing gusto that her example, meant to instruct Jeannette Bayardelle’s Celie, may instead overwhelm her appeal. Bayardelle, tasked with acting abused and robotic for much of the evening, belts out the power ballads by its end, leading to the evening’s predictably triumphant end.<BR/> <BR/> Other details are more successful. Broad green leaf fronds against gingham, for example: In a dream sequence that transports Celie to Africa and reunites her, if only in imagination, with her beloved sister, the contrast of sedate American frocks with regal African robes evokes the long journey toward self-affirmation that Celie travels in this trying-too-hard-to-be-inspiring show.<BR/> Director Gary Griffin nicely interweaves the two worlds of Celie’s hopeful visions and harsh reality, deploying white-clad African emigres trudging across the savannah in a tableau that’s broken by forlorn, slump-shouldered Celie pacing toward the audience, at cross-purposes with her ancestral people.<BR/> `It’s an effective sequence. Too bad that the musical verison of The Color Purple is at cross-purposes with its emotional tenor, presenting us with prefabricated emotions instead of embodying Celie’s triumphs.<BR/><BR/>&&&&<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Marsha Norman’s book hews close to Alice Walker’s novel, but with the burden of translating into melodramatic action what was quiet pathos in Celie’s letters to God.Bobo the Theater Hohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02543482882758983557noreply@blogger.com