Lauren Pritchard leaves behind the Spring, gets wasted in Jackson
Anyone who knows me knows that Duncan Sheik’s Spring Awakening absolutely knocked my theatrical socks off. I saw it more times than any other show and I remain limitlessly in love with it.
Lauren Pritchard was hand-picked by the author to portray a small but pitvotal part as the play’s bohemian free-spirit, Ilse. Her voice is smoky and rich, a more tender Fiona Apple without the smirk in her tone. Her debut album Wasted in Jackson has been a slow burner for me (I first mentioned the album back in September of 2010). Eg White (Adele, Duffy) was an excellent choice to craft the album as it plays right to her strenghts. ?uestolove gives “Painkillers” a bluesy shuffle (not one of my favorites). And Marcus Mumford (of insta-hot Brit band, Mumford & Sons) handles production work on the moody, dense, and VERY Spring Awakening-esque closing track, “When The Night Kills The Day.” I think the second half of the album is much stronger…if you want to get a true sense of her as an artist ‘d start with track 6 and continue on. Here’s her stab at some Duffy-esque sass (from earlier in the record): “I Hope It’s You” And here’s the aforementioned “When The Night Kills The Day” Most of the album lives closer to this “Bad Time To Fall”The Magic Flute
Apologies for the hiatus! Holidays/travel/ya’ll know the drill…..
So after returning from Christmas in Arizona with only the slightest of travel inconveniences (my apologies to the people sleeping in the Continental service line), my first order of business was seeing The Magic Flute at The Metropolitan Opera. This was the shortened, holiday production and was being presented in just the way I like my operas: abridged and directed by Julie Taymor.
I’m pretty much an opera novice, and the only operas I’ve seen are all by Mozart and all happen to be featured in Amadeus. I was obsessed with Amadeus in 4th grade and played the soundtrack constantly. There’s nothing like hitting the outdoors for Field Day and blasting Mozart’s Death Requiem on your walkman headphones to endear you to the elementary masses. This ‘music by way of film’ obsession would blossom further the following year when my new infatuations became the Stand By Me soundtrack and, especially, The Color Purple. Anyway, I digress. The production was fantastic. The English translation is a little hokey but the show zipped along and, even after all these years, I still remembered the snippets featured in the movie, including the Queen of the Night’s big aria, and the Papageno/Papagena duet. From Amadeus: Here’s a clip of the Taymor version we saw. Hungarian Erika Miklosa is on vocal duties: A YouTube rabbit hole led me to all sorts of clips of vocalists tackling The Queen of the Night along with all sorts of productions (on a giant aerobed, on harnasses, etc.). And people take their favorites very seriously. Do you prefer Miklosa or Diana Damrau or Natalie Dessay? Let’s hope I don’t suddenly get into opera – that’s a recipe for disaster for a music obsessive.The Magic Flute
Apologies for the hiatus! Holidays/travel/ya’ll know the drill…..
So after returning from Christmas in Arizona with only the slightest of travel inconveniences (my apologies to the people sleeping in the Continental service line), my first order of business was seeing The Magic Flute at The Metropolitan Opera. This was the shortened, holiday production and was being presented in just the way I like my operas: abridged and directed by Julie Taymor.
I’m pretty much an opera novice, and the only operas I’ve seen are all by Mozart and all happen to be featured in Amadeus. I was obsessed with Amadeus in 4th grade and played the soundtrack constantly. There’s nothing like hitting the outdoors for Field Day and blasting Mozart’s Death Requiem on your walkman headphones to endear you to the elementary masses. This ‘music by way of film’ obsession would blossom further the following year when my new infatuations became the Stand By Me soundtrack and, especially, The Color Purple. Anyway, I digress. The production was fantastic. The English translation is a little hokey but the show zipped along and, even after all these years, I still remembered the snippets featured in the movie, including the Queen of the Night’s big aria, and the Papageno/Papagena duet. From Amadeus: Here’s a clip of the Taymor version we saw. Hungarian Erika Miklosa is on vocal duties: A YouTube rabbit hole led me to all sorts of clips of vocalists tackling The Queen of the Night along with all sorts of productions (on a giant aerobed, on harnasses, etc.). And people take their favorites very seriously. Do you prefer Miklosa or Diana Damrau or Natalie Dessay? Let’s hope I don’t suddenly get into opera – that’s a recipe for disaster for a music obsessive.Spring Awakening’s Lauren Pritchard to release new album
Lauren Pritchard, who played a pivotal role as a free spirit in the Broadway production of Spring Awakening, will release her new album Wasted in Jackson at the end of October in the US.
An earthy singer with a throaty voice, she recorded the album with Duffy/Adele songwriter-producer Eg White – its already out and well-received in hte UK. Inspired by her Southern roots, it’s a bluesy affair that has already garnered comparisons to Amy Winehouse. Reminds me more of Fiona Apple. Lauren Pritchard – “Painkillers”Groff Deathtrap
I didn’t know Jonathan Groff was doing Deathtrap in London!
I was temporarily obsessed with doing this play at our High School so many moons ago. It surely would’ve given everyone a heart attack. You silly, Grant!
Let’s hope this production makes a move to these shores…
http://www.theatermania.com/london/reviews/09-2010/deathtrap_30197.html
La Cage
Really enjoyed seeing La Cage Aux Folles on Broadway last night.
The show is a little creaky and it’s definitely a period piece at this point. But this version has some lovely moments and is saved by a truly heartful central performance.
There was a very expensive, splashy, somewhat heartless revival on the Great White Way a few years ago. It had a lot of zip. A big orchestra. Lots of laughs. But nothing at it’s center.
This current version is pretty much its opposite. It’s a more spare production that aims for ratty realism instead of razzle dazzle. The orchestra is anemic and the leads aren’t ‘true’ singers – so the songs fall a bit flat. And the farcical elements aren’t always as tight as they should be. But Kelsey Grammer makes a solid and charming Georges (that’s Robin Williams to you The Birdcage viewers) and Douglas Hodge is absolutely amazing as Zaza. He wrings moments out of the wobbly text that are complete surprises. The first Act closer – the *sigh* I’ve heard this gay anthem before – “I Am What I Am”, is positively heartbreaking. A British actor best known for his Pinter collaborations, Hodge is in much different territory here but he truly does elevate the material. When his “son” asks that he not meet the hyper-conservative parents of his wife to be, he doesn’t play the moment for sitcom laughs or shreiking slamming doors – you can see him absorb the hurt, and his immediate reaction is quiet and vulnerable and pretty much the exact opposite of how you expect the moment to be played.
If you’re a fan of the show, get your tailfeather over to the theater. Though if you have a musical aversion or a fear of bell-bottoms- despite the talented leads – you’ll be fine to skip this one.
La Cage Aux Folles
So the reviews are giddy for the revival of La Cage Aux Folles (starring Kelsey Grammer) which opened on Broadway last night. Suppose this isn’t surprising as the production (which moved mostly intact from London) got raves in the West End. Having seen the overly pretty and overly produced version which played on Broadway a few years ago, I opted out of this take. Looks like it was a mistake. Suppose there’s still time to correct it.
Variety loved it. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117942582.html?categoryId=33&cs=1&ref=ssp
So did the New York Times. http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/theater/reviews/19cage.html
The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell
I can’t stop thinking about The Pride. This new play opened a couple weeks ago Off-Broadway to great reviews and praise for the central performances of Hugh Dancy and Ben Whishaw.
The play bounces between two time periods (1958 and 2008) and focuses on the relationship of Phillip and Oliver. In repressed 1958, they are two men whose brewing feelings for one other sputter into a hidden affair, tethered in shame and guilt. And in the more liberated 2008, they are a couple facing down the problems of one partner’s infidelity and promiscuity.
The chasm of 50 years and the way the play toggles back and forth highlights a nagging sense that if the gay ‘movement’ has made such strides in the last 50 years, why has so little changed at the same time? Or, after liberation? What is there?
Has anything really altered how we as gay people (men, specifically) feel about ourselves? Do we hurt each because we still look at ourselves through the same cultural lens of disgust? These are big questions – and for the entirety of Act I, The Pride is relentless, drawing us into the funhouse mirror of these two alternate time periods until it concludes with such heartbreaking cruelty that most of the audience has lost their composure by intermission (the fact that it feels familiar, from Brokeback Mountain, to any number of gay-themed texts somehow makes it all the more upsetting in its familiarity).
This subject of how gay people treat each other and how we feel about ourselves has come up in numerous conversations for me in the past few weeks….As gay kids we are not socialized in the same way, we don’t date like our high school counterparts, and we are taught that our sexuality is a shameful secret. Our sense of selves ends up completely polluted. And this cycle is part of what’s being examined in The Pride. Judgment is internalized, and then externalized on our friends and lovers and ourselves, over and over again. The Pride illustrates how even in our relatively liberal present – visibility doesn’t necessarily breed acceptance (from society as a whole, or from gay people about themselves).
As for the performances, Dancy and Whishaw traverse their two separate yet inexplicably linked characters with expert skill, managing to reference and inform their time-shifted alter-egos with practically every turn of phrase. And they capture a yearning and loathing that curdles perfectly. Not an easy feat. And if it’s a bit frustrating that the central female character doesn’t have an arc as clearly compelling as her male counterparts, The Pride is still a profound work that people should seek out.
And it’s not all dreary. There’s an obvious hopefulness about The Pride, especially since Philip and Oliver’s relationship, as they try to sort things out through all prisms of time, is the play’s primary focus. The Pride is about failures but it’s also about longing – a longing to understand. And if it falls apart a bit in the second act — the play seems to end with more of a shrug than a statement (a “We’re here – so now what”) – perhaps the inconclusiveness of it all is entirely the point. How can the play resolve when we are so obviously struggling with how to shed a destructive history (far beyond just a simple span of 50 years) that has been the basis for our entire upbringing and identity. The Pride certainly shouldn’t be faulted for trying to bite off more than it can chew.
It’s no accident that the play ends with the repeated phrase, “It’s okay, it’s okay.” In a play about how acceptance remains elusive to a community that mostly needs to accept itself – that’s a powerful conclusion. Go see it.
SWIZZLSTICK 