But in art, the first two lines hold true. The problem with most popular art, be it music or print of visual is that it tries to do just that .. please everyone. Or sell something to everyone. Can we say Grammy awards? No, let's not
Thanks
Collette and I are into our season of plays presented by the Mirvish Company at several theatres around the city. Buying a season of shows is an interesting experience; you see a couple plays you want to see but you also have the opportunity to see shows you may know nothing about. The Mirvish shows are always professionally produced and we have discovered many many shows of which we are now quite fond.
It's a great way to see new things. Last year they did a production of Mary Poppins. I never would have bought tickets to see this show on its own but I ended up enjoying it very much
The first show we saw this year was Les Miserables, you may have heard of it. There was this movie so some guy named Hugo wrote a book based on it then they did a musical ...
This would be our fourth time seeing this show. It was a new staging, which mostly worked and featured an entirely new cast, most of whom .. vast majority of whom .. were outstanding. Ramin Karimloo as Jean Valjean was absolutely riveting with a voice and stage presence that almost made me forget Micheael Burgess and that's saying something. Another standout was Melissa O'Neal as Eponine, the best I've seen in that part; she has almost ... almost .. made me change my mind about TV singing competitions, apparently she won Canadian idol. Seeing this show again with beautiful new staging and a powerful cast made me realize how much better it is than the movie .. and I rather liked the movie
In the category of shows with which I was not familiar you can list another musical, one that was based on a movie with which I was equally unfamiliar, Once
Once is a musical about music, and musicians, in contemporary Dublin. The cast play all their own instruments and when not at front of stage as their character, sit to the side, as part of the band. The music is lovely, a kind of modern folk music, all piano and guitar and violin. The cast was strong (they almost always are in a Mirvish production) and the story, that seems at first blush quite simple, was moving and in terms of the resolution, quite brave
The next play I was unable to attend but Collette assured me that Aladdin was well produced and quite funny .. and yes, Mary Poppins aside, my Disney bucket was overflowing
Now, all of these shows were plays, well musicals actually, and from the epic decades-spanning Les Miz, to the intimate personal Once, to the magic inspired "family" fare of Aladdin, they were shows that knew what they were and didn't try to be anything else. And were therefor successful.
Heartbeat of Home, currently playing at the Ed Mirvish theatre (previously the Pantages) is not a musical, it not even a play. It is a show, a concert, a performance. The kind of thing I would never have seen if it had not been included in our season
Heartbeat of Home is prominently sold as coming from the "creators of Riverdance" OK right then I knew I may be drinking during this show .. heavily. Like through an IV ... a couple of IVs. This may just be a tad insincere .. I like Irish music. I particularly like the traditional instruments; fiddle and guitar and pipes and bodhran (skin drum). Some of the music is a tad oversentimental for me but I do enjoy the emotion and the humour of a lot of it
I am not a huge fan of traditional Irish dancing. I don't mind tap (Gregory Hines. Ben Vereen etc) but I can't quite get this Irish dance where they stand rigid, arms held by their side and clog away. Skillful? Certainly. But what's with the rigid arms? Are the shirts too tight? Are they holding up their pants/skirts? Have they had too much Irish whiskey and this is the best way to keep their balance?
But we were going, I'd never seen one of these shows, Mirvish always puts on professional productions and I thought .. what the hell I'll enjoy the music. See, I was all set to watch an evening or Irish dance and music ... and what I got was .. well .. everything else.
See, this is a fusion show. We had Irish dancing, we had flamenco dancing, we had African dancing, modern dance, traditional tap, Broadway style dancing, hip hop and B boy ... when they pulled out the Kodo drums I pretty much had had enough.
There was no theme to this show, no thread, I think they tried to morph from one musical form to another but it never really succeeded. It was like watching a variety show or more properly, a TV talent show. And like one of those talent shows the performances were far from stellar
A big problem with this show is that they kept trying to fuse everything, we never got a full on example of whatever dance form they were showing. The flamenco couple had talent but they felt restrained; a hot Latin number would start then here would come the Irish jig girls with their rigid arms .. SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK IS IT WITH THOSE ARMS???
Sorry, had to be said
Anyways
Art works when it's committed ... and yes, many artists should be committed. But art is all about a vision, a purpose, a desire to express a point of view. I've seen many examples of art that failed to move me on any emotional level but I admired and appreciated it for it's committment ... I didn't like it but damn it was good. That sort of thing
There were some highlights in the show. The band was excellent, particularly a pair of fiddlers, a girl who played a haunting Irish bagpipe and a bodhran drummer who led a couple of dance numbers. I want to mention in particular Lucia Evans, the show's main vocalist, a woman with a lovely fluid voice and a quiet, powerful stage presence that doesn't require flash and special effects to move you.
There was a fun number with the male dancers emulating being on a girder high up on a sky scraper, it was casual, relaxed, stomp-inspired tap where the dancers were able to showcase their personality, something largely bereft in the rest of the show. We needed more moments like this
In the search for a musical Home this show gets lost, lost quickly and lost to the point you forgot you were on a journey in the first place. It was very much like a buffet .. a Vegas buffet .. an old school Vegas buffet. Gosh, there's an awful lot of food, but no matter what they call it, it all tastes like chicken
No comments:
Post a Comment