{"id":6550,"date":"2017-04-24T08:04:13","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T12:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6550"},"modified":"2017-05-04T07:18:12","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T11:18:12","slug":"when-stage-productions-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6550","title":{"rendered":"When Stage Productions Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rose,

photo: Vineetha Nair, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

Ouch. When a stage production doesn\u2019t really work for you, who\u2019s at fault? Are you having a bad day? Is it the play itself? Is it the production? We\u2019ve all found ourselves at stage events where we thought\u2014what??? This is Supposed To Be Good?? Remind me, how much did I pay for these tickets?<\/p>\n

The Tony-award-winning Book of Mormon<\/em>, was incessantly advertised as the best musical of the 21st century, after only one decade of that century had elapsed, but I didn\u2019t even bother to review it. I found it so offensively racist and, this is a technical theater term, moronic, why bother? The problem was not the fault of the hard-working cast, but the cupidity of the original writers and producers.<\/p>\n

This last weekend we saw a local community college production of Federico Garcia Lorca\u2019s 1932 classic tragedy, Blood Wedding,<\/em> immensely popular in Spain, I\u2019m told. The plot of the original is probably a bit simplistic and over-familiar for modern audiences. There\u2019s a deadly feud between two families and the daughter of a third family is involved with young men on both sides. Nothing good results.<\/p>\n

What drew me to it was the promise of dance\u2014tango, Argentine tango, and flamenco\u2014integrated into the production. Plus, I\u2019d never seen the play. A bad case of too-high expectations.<\/p>\n

My notes for the producers:<\/p>\n