Manipulative bitch!
I don't get this story. Are we supposed to side with someone? Feel sorry for someone? Can someone please tell me why Passion is admired by so many? Even the commentary track doesn't really help me.
The music never reaches the same fever pitch of the characters' situations. In fact, a lot of the music sounds to me as if it is recycled from Into the Woods or Sunday in the Park With George. The characters' situations never speak to me. The staging by James Lapine is beautiful to look at, but a bit cold. The story-telling feature of letters is also rather cold. And I don't get why the chorus repeats lines from other characters. Actually, I don't get why there is a chorus at all. Wouldn't this be a better "chamber musical", with just 5 or 6 actors rather than 14?
Marin Mazzie seems to go through a ridiculous number of dresses with hoop skirts. The mole on Donna Murphy's face seems to have a life of its own. Jere Shea's character seems to have the emotional depth of his chest hair. Sorry, I know lots of people love Sondheim, and I'm often with them. But I can't get a hold on this one.
Passion
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book and Direction by James Lapine
Original Broadway cast taped for television in 1994
Cast: Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie, Jere Shea, Tom Aldredge
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book and Direction by James Lapine
Original Broadway cast taped for television in 1994
Cast: Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie, Jere Shea, Tom Aldredge
1 comment:
I saw this on BW and listened to the CD. Though I love Sondheim, this is simply a bad musical. Fosca is a pathological obsessive rather than a heroine, which makes the intent of the story preposterous. And the recitation of letters throughout the show repeatedly stops it cold. Sondheim said he was writing about "love" in this show but I find his lyrics to be an intellectual consideration of love, which is very different. It's also why the songs just don't sing as they should. There's little to recoomend this musical.
Post a Comment