On Apr 16, 9:45=A0am, "Harlett O'Dowd" <chris.conne...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> Some shows like the farciful DOLLY! and NIGHT MUSIC and the
> melodramatic SWEENEY TODD also play better (although Mr. New****t will
> disagree) in their second acts because you have to endure a WHOLE lot
> of exposition and set-up in the first act in order to get the pay-off
> in the second.
I obsess about this stuff, so forgive me if my posts run a little
long.
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, I feel, has very little of interest in the
second act. In the first act, we get introduced to a bunch of
characters who have hit bottlenecks on the road to love. By
intermission, we're primed and ready for farcical fireworks.
Disappointingly, Wheeler and Sondheim provide far too few and the show
fizzles, wistfully.
I'm reminded of my favorite three-act musical, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA.
The introductions to each character - Ooh, My Feet, Somebody
Somewhere, the title song, Joey Joey Joey and Standing on the Corner -
are so delightful, they're the main highlights of the show. But boy,
the rest of it is cherce.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a farce where the set-ups DO come home to
roost in hysterical ways. The second act is more satisfying, although
Act One's songs are stronger. it's interesting to compare it to My
Fair Lady, the show it resembles so much, I think it quotes it at one
point. Once the student has learned from the master, in Dirty..., all
hell breaks loose.
Two Gentlemen of Verona has a lot more on the ball in the second act.
The show it bested at the Tonys, Follies, has an annoyingly stagnant
book. Oddly -- but lucky for the audience -- all semblance of plot is
suddenly abandoned during the second act. We then get a string of
entertaining songs that distract us from the realization that we never
much cared about these characters and who ends up with whom.
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a wildly uneven musical: Each act has a
different protagonist. I somewhat prefer the second, partly because
we've seen tales of a shy girl falling for a good-hearted rounder so
many times before, but turn-of-the-century Eighth Graders, not so
much.
The current revival botches the comedy in the second act of Sunday in
the Park With George, and, unlike the original, one gets no inkling
that there's something more to the friend****p of George and his
technical assistant.
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