 The Doublers BBoard
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Author: FrankM
Date: 2006-10-31 18:57
I'm a couple of days into Urinetown rehearsals and the show starts tomorrow. I find it sort of a strange show...musically and stage wise. I don't find it particularly funny, and for me anyway, the music isn’t all that memorable…..I doubt I’ll drive home with any of the Urinetown songs sticking in my head ! It’s orchestration is piano, bass and drums with one reed (clarinet, bass clarinet, alto and soprano sax) and one brass ( trombone and euphonium). The combination does make for some interesting sounds ! Maybe I just don’t “get it” yet ! We'll see !
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Author: EuGeneSee
Date: 2006-11-01 16:50
Ugh! What a name for a show! I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but on the other hand a moniker like that isn't what would attract me to the theater either. Eu
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-11-04 03:38
Well, the theatre (note the spelling) crowd often shoots for controversial. The shock value that a "dirty" word offers is a cheap way to generate some controversy, and that it obtained such a rise from you (and me, for what that's worth) indicates that their method was successful.
I've heard that the show has some merit, this from those whose opinions I value, but I have only the information that they've given me to go on. It does seem like an odd premise, however...something about charging for urinals if I understand it correctly.
Many find the Sondheim gem Assassins to fit the same definition. However, if you "get" the premise (and I do), then you can look past the odd topic (presidential assassins and attempted assassins (from Booth to Hinkley, with six others in between) bonding together over the ages) and into the meat of it all. (Besides, what's not to love in a show that includes an electrocution and a hanging?)
I've also found that many have trouble with Threepenny Opera, with both the music (early 20th Century harmonies) and the content (half of the characters in the show are prostitutes). Can't say that it bothers me, though.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: clarispark
Date: 2006-11-04 21:11
Urinetown is opening at my university theatre program in the next few days, but I don't know anyone who's in the pit for it. A friend of mine who auditioned for an acting role in our production mentioned that in her ten years of doing summer musicals in our hometown, she'd never performed anything so strange, song-wise, as the music for this.
Hope your performances have gone well!
"I look at my clarinet sometimes and I think, I wonder what's going to come out of there tonight? You never know." --Acker Bilk
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Author: FrankM
Date: 2006-11-06 12:42
I’m afraid I’m going to have to back pedal a bit on my original take on Urinetown. In my defense, for the first few runs of the show my attention was fully on the music. After I could relax a little, I was able to watch some of show…at least what I could see from the pit. First of all, there are funny things going on…lots of it is campy, exaggerated stuff you need to see. And the music is fun for the reed player. Most of it is straight forward, but there are some jazzy clarinet things up in the altissimo and even some chord changes for improvisation. What I really like most is the playing is almost continuous….there is never more than a few minutes between tunes. All things considered, I enjoyed the show and I think it’s fun to play. It definitely grew on me. And regarding the subject, much of the play makes fun of it’s own premise. For what it’s worth, the audience loved it. If you get the call for Urinetown…Do it !
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Author: Jaysne
Date: 2006-11-16 22:45
If I may digress from Urinetown to a sub-topic... I played Assassins, and originally had the same thought. How could someone in their right mind do a play about real-life murder and tragedy? Well, I did "get" it, and although I don't remember what was so good about it, I was able to respect and enjoy the show.
Now what about Cabaret? The only thing most people know about it is the theme song, so you go into there thinking it's going to be a fun show about dancing and drinking and the like. But it's about Nazis. I didn't play it, but I saw a performance. It's one of the darkest shows I've ever seen. Not much fun at all.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-11-17 05:39
Well, I have to go the other way on Cabaret. I've done four or five productions of the show, once as the on-stage cross-dressing tenor player and the rest playing the clarinet/bass clarinet/bassoon/baritone book. And, aside from the campy aspect of the on-stage part (I did receive several complements for how "leggy" I looked...I still don't know how I should have taken them), the regular parts had a lot of plusses.
The overall lay of the book was not the best in the world, but there were some very bright moments in same. The schottisch dance following A Pineapple For You turned out to fit my limited mobility on the bassoon to a "T", and gave me a chance to "sing" on an instrument that I'm not particularly fond of. The Kick Line number at the start of the second act always got the entire sax line's blood running (too bad it is so often cut since many groups can't muster the chorus line to handle the hoofing), and the "comic" numbers (usually involving EmCee and the chorus) were cute and snappy.
The on-stage stuff was a whole different story. My on-stage experience (a college production in Saint Louis MO back in the 1970's) involved a wig, full drag costume, makeup that was very irritating to have on while playing, and (most horrifying of all) playing a tenor saxophone.
(How women can stand that makeup stuff is beyond me. By the end of the opening scene, my skin was crawling as bad as if I was lying face down on an ant hill.)
The parts were not particularly demanding (sort of a cross between Kurt Weill and Boots Randolph), but doing them when you couldn't see (I wasn't allowed to wear glasses, and my eyes could not tolerate contacts) was unpleasant at best.
The story-line is dark as hell, no doubt about that, but compared to Floyd Collins or (shudder) Carousel it was entertaining. The trick was to play up the irony as much as possible, and to let the Nazi characters fall on their own merit rather than to down them in the production.
In short, not Hello, Dolly! but then again not 110° In The Shade, either. You could do a lot worse...
By the way, Cabaret was Dame Judith Dench's breakthrough role, she starring as the young and vivacious (yet stupid) Fraulein Sally Bowles. It shows you how old we have all become in the intervening years, and how hard it is to rmember that she was once a young chlorine, oh so many years ago...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: anonrob
Date: 2006-12-10 15:12
I am finishing a 4 week run of Urinetown for the Repertory Theater of St. Louis tonight and I could easily play it another month. The book is a lot of fun. I think the number of different sounds that the orchestrator gets from the reed, low brass, rhythm orchestra is amazing. In addition, the choral writing for the cast is spectacular.
In this production, the band is on an elevated platform at the rear of the set, above a sewer pipe that is a primary entrance and exit for the cast, and we are dressed in chain-gnag prison univorms. The conductor is led into the theater in schackles by Officers Lockstock and Barrel. A little odd, but a lot of fun. If you get a chance to play this show, "Sieze it!"
Rob
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-12-11 21:37
While you're at the Rep, look around and see if you can find my baritone sax/bass clarinet stand. I loaned it to my future son in law so that he could do a show there back in 1974, and haven't seen it since.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2006-12-14 04:12
Unless you left it at the Grandel Theater, Rob probably won't have much luck, Terry. The Rep has branched out in recent years. "Urinetown" is an Off-Ramp production -- something new since you left St. Louis. "The Musical of Musicals the Musical" is at the Loretto Hilton right now.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-12-14 21:04
Nothing ever stays the same...
The Grandel is out in midtown, right? I did a production of Threepenny Opera there once, if it is the place I remember.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: mikeW
Date: 2006-12-14 23:11
Sorry about hijacking the thread, but my e-mail to Jack Kissinger bounced. I wanted to ask if "Musical of Musicals" is available for rental, of if its a touring production. That's one I'd like to lobby my local community theater to do.
Mike
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Author: anonrob
Date: 2006-12-14 23:50
It is not touring, but it is a new show and I don't know if it is available for rental. I hear it is a good piece, but why not pick something that uses woodwinds?
Rob
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Author: mikeW
Date: 2006-12-15 04:00
Well, woodwinds or no, a friend says it's one of the funniest things he's seen in a long time, and I'd love to see it. Besides, if it uses full rhythm, I guess it would be a good reason to get around to practicing bass...
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