Theater review: Fela!
Dec. 31st, 2009 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuYesterday, H and I saw the matinee of Fela! on Broadway.
This is not a traditional Broadway musical narrative by any means. It's a multimedia interpretive "be". It cannot be compared to any other theater experience I've ever had or read about.
The performers were uniformly amazing. The singing was powerful; the dancing was astonishingly athletic. The use of projections was quite good overall, and the set embraced the audience. This show does not break the fourth wall for the very simple reason that the fourth wall is behind the last row of seats.
As a lover of theater, I found this production to be exhilaratingly instructive. It made great use of many different techniques and each was beautifully executed. If you're a theater geek, you must see this show.
As I said to H after the show, this show can only succeed with a Broadway cast. National touring casts are very, very good, but they're usually a cent or two short of what a B'way cast can deliver. And this show really demands the full skills of a B'way cast.
I was painfully aware for most of the show of my status as an outsider. This is a good thing, I think. This show is a heartfelt cry about many things, but one of its messages is how important it is to understand the "other". Although at many points I knew I was missing things because I'm a white Jewish American, I think on balance that's a good thing. Good for me because it was thought-provoking; good for Black-American and African audience members (and the show clearly distinguishes the two) because it (presumably) speaks to them in a clear voice.
Now for the negatives.
Our tickets (bought at the TDF booth) were "partial view". Fair enough; I expect that with "partial view" seats I'll miss some of the dancing, perhaps miss seeing a performer delivering a few lines of dialog. But because some of the critical uses of the projections were only projected on the audience-right side of the rear of the stage, and did not use any of the other projection surfaces in the theatre, and were silent, we missed certain critical plot points near the end. That's inexcusable.
The time of the action as listed in the program is in the 1970's. This made certain anachronistic references -- most notably to Enron and AIG, and to Sean Bell -- jarring. If this is supposed to be a metaphysical fable of what a Fela performance would be if he were delivering it in Times Square in 2009 (and I think such a conceit would work without much change from the way it's presented) then those references would feel organic. But given the context as given, I found those moments threw me out of my suspended disbelief. And given how strong the performances are, and how effective they are at suspending disbelief, I think it's a damn shame that the web of theatrical magic should be so cruelly rent.
And when a dashing, charismatic, sexy actor is shirtless for the first half of Act II, the makeup people should find some way to hide the body mic wire running down his back. They're already taping in on; instead of using clear tape perhaps they could find or fabricate some that matches his skin color?
So, in sum: I'm really glad I saw this show. It made me think: about theater, about music, and about geopolitics. I can't say I enjoyed it thoroughly, much as I wish I could, but I did enjoy it mostly and I was certainly entertained by it. I just wasn't transported by it, and after reading Ben Brantley's review in the Times I expected to be.
This is not a traditional Broadway musical narrative by any means. It's a multimedia interpretive "be". It cannot be compared to any other theater experience I've ever had or read about.
The performers were uniformly amazing. The singing was powerful; the dancing was astonishingly athletic. The use of projections was quite good overall, and the set embraced the audience. This show does not break the fourth wall for the very simple reason that the fourth wall is behind the last row of seats.
As a lover of theater, I found this production to be exhilaratingly instructive. It made great use of many different techniques and each was beautifully executed. If you're a theater geek, you must see this show.
As I said to H after the show, this show can only succeed with a Broadway cast. National touring casts are very, very good, but they're usually a cent or two short of what a B'way cast can deliver. And this show really demands the full skills of a B'way cast.
I was painfully aware for most of the show of my status as an outsider. This is a good thing, I think. This show is a heartfelt cry about many things, but one of its messages is how important it is to understand the "other". Although at many points I knew I was missing things because I'm a white Jewish American, I think on balance that's a good thing. Good for me because it was thought-provoking; good for Black-American and African audience members (and the show clearly distinguishes the two) because it (presumably) speaks to them in a clear voice.
Now for the negatives.
Our tickets (bought at the TDF booth) were "partial view". Fair enough; I expect that with "partial view" seats I'll miss some of the dancing, perhaps miss seeing a performer delivering a few lines of dialog. But because some of the critical uses of the projections were only projected on the audience-right side of the rear of the stage, and did not use any of the other projection surfaces in the theatre, and were silent, we missed certain critical plot points near the end. That's inexcusable.
The time of the action as listed in the program is in the 1970's. This made certain anachronistic references -- most notably to Enron and AIG, and to Sean Bell -- jarring. If this is supposed to be a metaphysical fable of what a Fela performance would be if he were delivering it in Times Square in 2009 (and I think such a conceit would work without much change from the way it's presented) then those references would feel organic. But given the context as given, I found those moments threw me out of my suspended disbelief. And given how strong the performances are, and how effective they are at suspending disbelief, I think it's a damn shame that the web of theatrical magic should be so cruelly rent.
And when a dashing, charismatic, sexy actor is shirtless for the first half of Act II, the makeup people should find some way to hide the body mic wire running down his back. They're already taping in on; instead of using clear tape perhaps they could find or fabricate some that matches his skin color?
So, in sum: I'm really glad I saw this show. It made me think: about theater, about music, and about geopolitics. I can't say I enjoyed it thoroughly, much as I wish I could, but I did enjoy it mostly and I was certainly entertained by it. I just wasn't transported by it, and after reading Ben Brantley's review in the Times I expected to be.