Re: A CATERED AFFAIR -- NY Times review

Thanks for clarifying, Sweevil.  Full disclosure: Esbjornsen appeared
in one of my musicals 25 years ago in a non-singing role.  I actually
can't remember if he even spoke.  I'm sorry you live in a place where
you're subjected to dour, dreary theatre-as-castor oil.  I'd suggest
moving to New York, although I bet a lot of people envy your living in
the Seattle area.

You say what you say

> applies mainly to the non-profit theatre around the country.

and I'm hoping others around the country will pipe up and tell us
whether this is truly happening elsewhere.  (I know you've also
mentioned your experiences in Los Angeles in the 90s.)

>
> BTW, even THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA shows the influence of theatrical
> Puritanism. =A0The romanticism of the show was disguised by presenting
> the more lyrical ****tions in an untranslated foreign language and
> Guettel's Richard Straussian harmonies protected him from the
> unspeakable charge of sentimentality.
>

The most lyrical ****tions are not in an untranslated foreign
language.  When the lovers sing "ah" to each other in "Say It
Somewhere", they're explicitly talking about their language barrier
and how they must communicate feelings through other means: "Why don't
you trace it on my skin?/Or make a sound/Do anything/ Say it somehow I
will understand"  I found it gorgeous and ***y.  If no one dared to
call it sentimental, I assume it was because no one found it
sentimental.  Straussian harmonies are hardly a ****eld!