Showing posts with label Playwrights Horizons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Playwrights Horizons. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2011
"The girls are the thing that's gonna save you"
Still thinking about The Shaggs, which officially opened this past Tuesday at Playwrights Horizons. And while reviews have been mixed, there have been a lot of great write-ups that hit the nail on the head of why I love this dark, quirky, and surprising show. Two of the biggest criticisms seem to be that it's depressing and the music isn't memorable, but I dare you to watch this trailer and not be intrigued:
Thursday, May 19, 2011
You Can Never Please Anybody -- "The Shaggs" at Playwrights Horizons
I didn't know anything about The Shaggs, a band of three sisters from Fremont, New Hampshire in the late 60s, when I went to see The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World (by Joy Gregory, Gunnar Madsen and John Langs) now playing at Playwrights Horizons. But since seeing it Wednesday night, I haven't been able to get the experience out of my head.
The musical tells the story of Austin Wiggin, a stubborn working class father in the late 60s, who is determined to fulfill his mother's prophecy that his daughters Betty, Dot, and Helen would become a famous band. Risking everything, from his marriage to his life savings, Austin pulls the girls out of school, isolating them from much of the outside world, so that they can practice. Trapped playing music that seemingly no one wants to hear, the group, now named The Shaggs (after the hairstyle and Shaggy dogs), must come to terms with their futures under Austin's thumb and the dreams of fame that may never come true (though in a strange twist of fate, they do... just many years down the road).
I gotta say -- I thought this show was electric beyond imagination. The performances were on fire; they were compelling, sharp, and undeniably heartfelt. The sets were transformative and the choreography really kept the whole show in dream-like motion. There is an aura around this piece that uniquely captures the wonder, innocence, strangeness, and darker undertones of the eclectic music of The Shaggs themselves.
With music biopic shows on Broadway like Jersey Boys or Baby It's You, I expected The Shaggs to follow a similar arc of hard-earned success, but this musical never plays into that tradition. Instead of being a story about dreams coming true, it's a story of dreams deferred, a tale of characters aspiring to voices and abilities beyond their capabilities. Every song is a song unsung. Every triumph is a fantasy just out of reach. Every romantic notion -- from Austin's intense desire to hear his girls on the radio to Betty's attempts to escape the prison of her home -- soars in song, only to be immediately grounded by reality. There's something fascinating about the fact that the girls can't express themselves through their own music, and all the new, original music for the show gives voice to Betty, Dot, and Helen in ways they could never find for themselves. The piece is constantly haunted by things that will never be, and it is never afraid to expose the dark underside of their disciplined smiles and forced showmanship.
This musical is unlike anything I've really seen before, weaving together several genres: elements of magical realism, biopic, cautionary tale, comedy, satire, drama, tragedy. I can't recommend this enough and hope everyone gets a chance to see it.
In fact, Playwrights Horizon is offering the following discount:
Order by June 1 with code SHAGGLOG and tickets are only:
HOW TO ORDER:
*A limited number of $40 discounted tickets will be available for purchase. Subject to availability. Valid only in select rows.
The musical tells the story of Austin Wiggin, a stubborn working class father in the late 60s, who is determined to fulfill his mother's prophecy that his daughters Betty, Dot, and Helen would become a famous band. Risking everything, from his marriage to his life savings, Austin pulls the girls out of school, isolating them from much of the outside world, so that they can practice. Trapped playing music that seemingly no one wants to hear, the group, now named The Shaggs (after the hairstyle and Shaggy dogs), must come to terms with their futures under Austin's thumb and the dreams of fame that may never come true (though in a strange twist of fate, they do... just many years down the road).
I gotta say -- I thought this show was electric beyond imagination. The performances were on fire; they were compelling, sharp, and undeniably heartfelt. The sets were transformative and the choreography really kept the whole show in dream-like motion. There is an aura around this piece that uniquely captures the wonder, innocence, strangeness, and darker undertones of the eclectic music of The Shaggs themselves.
With music biopic shows on Broadway like Jersey Boys or Baby It's You, I expected The Shaggs to follow a similar arc of hard-earned success, but this musical never plays into that tradition. Instead of being a story about dreams coming true, it's a story of dreams deferred, a tale of characters aspiring to voices and abilities beyond their capabilities. Every song is a song unsung. Every triumph is a fantasy just out of reach. Every romantic notion -- from Austin's intense desire to hear his girls on the radio to Betty's attempts to escape the prison of her home -- soars in song, only to be immediately grounded by reality. There's something fascinating about the fact that the girls can't express themselves through their own music, and all the new, original music for the show gives voice to Betty, Dot, and Helen in ways they could never find for themselves. The piece is constantly haunted by things that will never be, and it is never afraid to expose the dark underside of their disciplined smiles and forced showmanship.
(The real Shaggs singing their album's namesake, "Philosophy of the World")
This musical is unlike anything I've really seen before, weaving together several genres: elements of magical realism, biopic, cautionary tale, comedy, satire, drama, tragedy. I can't recommend this enough and hope everyone gets a chance to see it.
In fact, Playwrights Horizon is offering the following discount:
Order by June 1 with code SHAGGLOG and tickets are only:
- $40* (reg. $75) for the first week of perfs (May 12-19)
- $60 (reg. $75) for all remaining performances (May 20-July 3)
HOW TO ORDER:
- Order online at www.ticketcentral.com. Use code SHAGGLOG.
- Call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 (Noon-8pm daily)
- Present a printout of this blog post to the Ticket Central box office at 416 West 42nd Street (Noon-8pm daily).
*A limited number of $40 discounted tickets will be available for purchase. Subject to availability. Valid only in select rows.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Getting to the Burnt Part
Even though I found myself running to Playwrights Horizons to make curtain on time, I very ungracefully climbed over a few seats just in time to see The Burnt Part Boys, a haunting new musical from Mariana Elder, Chris Miller, and Nathan Tysen. Telling the story of a coal mining community scarred by the memory of a tragedy that has left many local children fatherless, the musical details two brothers’ journey to the site of the cave-in which has been deemed “the burnt part,” the younger brother hoping to blow up the area so that they can’t reopen that part of the mine and the older brother trying to stop him. It’s a rather dark tale, especially light of recent current events, but it’s also an ambitious piece of theatre—the idea of creating such a fantastical journey on stage seems quite daunting from afar.
The production requires a bit of imagination, but it’s not hard. Though just a few ladders serve as many of the obstacles the boys (and one girl) encounter along the way, it’s not hard to picture them making their way through barbed wire fences or railroad tracks. In fact, the sparseness of the set only gives way to greater emotional space, places where grief finds pockets between connecting ladders or on the other end of a hanging rope. The fact that a chorus of fallen miners move the set pieces around ensures that there is always a prevailing memory of what this town was built on. The last twenty minutes are also incredibly gripping, with even just the visual aspects enough to make me tear up a little.
In the same vein, the music is evocative with the twangs and rousing harmonies of a familiar landscape. The lyrics are also incredibly tight, revealing the complexity of the characters’ emotions through a tumble of rhymes and verbage. Check out some songs at Miller & Tysen’s official website here (along with songs from some of their other works), and here is a little video someone put together for an audio clip of Skylar Astin and Andrew Durand singing “Disappear”:
Also, on a side note, if you see the production, you will have the privilege of seeing Noah Galvin in one of the starring roles. Not only is he a complete delight throughout, but I also remembered how he delivered this performance a couple years ago at “Don’t Quit Your Night Job”:
The production requires a bit of imagination, but it’s not hard. Though just a few ladders serve as many of the obstacles the boys (and one girl) encounter along the way, it’s not hard to picture them making their way through barbed wire fences or railroad tracks. In fact, the sparseness of the set only gives way to greater emotional space, places where grief finds pockets between connecting ladders or on the other end of a hanging rope. The fact that a chorus of fallen miners move the set pieces around ensures that there is always a prevailing memory of what this town was built on. The last twenty minutes are also incredibly gripping, with even just the visual aspects enough to make me tear up a little.
In the same vein, the music is evocative with the twangs and rousing harmonies of a familiar landscape. The lyrics are also incredibly tight, revealing the complexity of the characters’ emotions through a tumble of rhymes and verbage. Check out some songs at Miller & Tysen’s official website here (along with songs from some of their other works), and here is a little video someone put together for an audio clip of Skylar Astin and Andrew Durand singing “Disappear”:
Also, on a side note, if you see the production, you will have the privilege of seeing Noah Galvin in one of the starring roles. Not only is he a complete delight throughout, but I also remembered how he delivered this performance a couple years ago at “Don’t Quit Your Night Job”:
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