Saturday, February 17, 2007
110 IN THE SHADE
....at Steinhardt...the big Spring Musical on the large stage at Skirball Auditorium...had a date with James C. ( wonderful friend and pianist for my classes) for dinner and the show last night, and we both floated out of Skirball , it was so wonderful!
Isaac Q. amd Abby B. - the amazingly sexy and unexpected Starbuck and Lizzy - proved to all that they have deep gifts AND that the work we do at our school is solid, exciting ,provocative and solidly terrific: the voices are among the very best i have heard at NYU, and the acting technique unmatched anywhere I have seen on the NYU campus....Bill Wesbrooks directed this very difficult show (especially difficult to make real and human and believable)...and Michael Ricciardone conducted the 25-piece NYU show orchestra..one of the thrills of Steinhardt shows is the availability of superbly trained pit musicians, trained for opera orchestras and show pits, as well as solo work by the best teachers in NYC, and Michael R. is superb at shaping not only a company vocal sound, but an orchestral sound as well, and last night,it was better than most Broadway sounds I have heard, mainly due to the simple fact that the amplification was subtle and un-intrusive! It was just there (and recognizably so, unavoidably) but in a good way, not a bad one. Also, clearly, the players trusted their conductor and loved what they were playing. It sounded glorious.
But back to what's important: the work of the students on the stage, since that is what we concern ourselves with in our classrooms. The most wonderful thing to be able to report is that what we all teach in the rooms showed up unmistakably and powerfully on stage last night. This should be a point of pride for all who teach at Steinhardt, in our Musical Theatre track...Bill W. did cast it beautifully (Abby Baum proved an exciting and unpredictable and highly personal "Lizzie" - Isaac, a sexy, sweet,true "Starbuck", with a sadness all his own)...But most impressively, Bill directed it in a way that allowed for the young actors to really show up with what they had to offer as actors: clearly , Bill smoothed a pathway for their own discoveries, because what we saw was not the result of any sort of spoon-feeding or rigidity from the director: it was an allowance and space for the actors to grow in...the scenes in the tack room were enough evidence of that...they were astonishingly sexy and tender...totally believable as Lizzie's necessary journey...then when the sounds of Abby's voice lushly poured forth from her heart and throat (Brava! teacher Christine Reimer), well, our hearts melted. I wept, it was so beautiful when she sang Simple Little Things like it had never been sung before...a total rediscovery of an all too familiar song...Jay Johnson and Madeleine Fallier were an impeccably adorable and honestly human Jimmy and his Little Red Hat Girl.....not one moment of false musical comedy nonsense...just fun youngsters with sex and love on their fertile minds...so refreshing to see, again unexpectedly, truth in even those dangerous performances: most people over-act them horribly, over -"cute" them...not these two. So proud of them. I need to mention Abby's delicious Floozie number because it showed how personal and quirky her comedy can be, so believable. It served to deepen the relationship with her Father so simply....so easily...such good work.
The Skirball is difficult to realize shows well in, because of its sad accoustical oversights and oddly wide sight lines...but Bill W. solved whatever problems could have plagued this delicate sweet yet sturdy show. The set was simple simple simple...monochromatic in its prairie feel, the backdrop serving well with its long horizon feel....my kind of set....and the colors were kept simple. The thrilling splashes came from deep inside the actors and I could not have been more grateful for that fact.
Bravo to all concerned and thank you fro a wonderful night in the theater.
Isaac Q. amd Abby B. - the amazingly sexy and unexpected Starbuck and Lizzy - proved to all that they have deep gifts AND that the work we do at our school is solid, exciting ,provocative and solidly terrific: the voices are among the very best i have heard at NYU, and the acting technique unmatched anywhere I have seen on the NYU campus....Bill Wesbrooks directed this very difficult show (especially difficult to make real and human and believable)...and Michael Ricciardone conducted the 25-piece NYU show orchestra..one of the thrills of Steinhardt shows is the availability of superbly trained pit musicians, trained for opera orchestras and show pits, as well as solo work by the best teachers in NYC, and Michael R. is superb at shaping not only a company vocal sound, but an orchestral sound as well, and last night,it was better than most Broadway sounds I have heard, mainly due to the simple fact that the amplification was subtle and un-intrusive! It was just there (and recognizably so, unavoidably) but in a good way, not a bad one. Also, clearly, the players trusted their conductor and loved what they were playing. It sounded glorious.
But back to what's important: the work of the students on the stage, since that is what we concern ourselves with in our classrooms. The most wonderful thing to be able to report is that what we all teach in the rooms showed up unmistakably and powerfully on stage last night. This should be a point of pride for all who teach at Steinhardt, in our Musical Theatre track...Bill W. did cast it beautifully (Abby Baum proved an exciting and unpredictable and highly personal "Lizzie" - Isaac, a sexy, sweet,true "Starbuck", with a sadness all his own)...But most impressively, Bill directed it in a way that allowed for the young actors to really show up with what they had to offer as actors: clearly , Bill smoothed a pathway for their own discoveries, because what we saw was not the result of any sort of spoon-feeding or rigidity from the director: it was an allowance and space for the actors to grow in...the scenes in the tack room were enough evidence of that...they were astonishingly sexy and tender...totally believable as Lizzie's necessary journey...then when the sounds of Abby's voice lushly poured forth from her heart and throat (Brava! teacher Christine Reimer), well, our hearts melted. I wept, it was so beautiful when she sang Simple Little Things like it had never been sung before...a total rediscovery of an all too familiar song...Jay Johnson and Madeleine Fallier were an impeccably adorable and honestly human Jimmy and his Little Red Hat Girl.....not one moment of false musical comedy nonsense...just fun youngsters with sex and love on their fertile minds...so refreshing to see, again unexpectedly, truth in even those dangerous performances: most people over-act them horribly, over -"cute" them...not these two. So proud of them. I need to mention Abby's delicious Floozie number because it showed how personal and quirky her comedy can be, so believable. It served to deepen the relationship with her Father so simply....so easily...such good work.
The Skirball is difficult to realize shows well in, because of its sad accoustical oversights and oddly wide sight lines...but Bill W. solved whatever problems could have plagued this delicate sweet yet sturdy show. The set was simple simple simple...monochromatic in its prairie feel, the backdrop serving well with its long horizon feel....my kind of set....and the colors were kept simple. The thrilling splashes came from deep inside the actors and I could not have been more grateful for that fact.
Bravo to all concerned and thank you fro a wonderful night in the theater.
Post a Comment