Broadway Watch - Lennon
Fri, 2 Sept 2005, 11:17 amWalter Plinge1 post in thread
Broadway Watch - Lennon
Fri, 2 Sept 2005, 11:17 amLennon
Music & Lyrics by John Lennon
Book by Don Scadino
With Special Thanks to Yoko Ono Lennon
Directed/Conceived by Don Scadino
Opened 14th August 2005
Extracts from various reviewers:
“Lennon is the most criminally boring jukebox "musical" to open to date, utterly sanitizing and whitewashing its subject's life so as to remove from him any and all controversy and rebellious fire. (This is likely due, in no small part, to the close involvement of Lennon's fiercely protective widow, Yoko Ono.) 27 songs that Lennon wrote or famously performed have been shoehorned into a show-biz saga so bland and non-specific, but for a few specific names it could be about anyone.”
“…an uncomfortable reminder that the real man had charisma unmatched by anyone onstage here. And the show's concept ("Lennon is a part of all of us," or some such drivel) only makes you realize, as each of the nine performers attempts to adopt different aspects of Lennon's life and personality, none is capable of getting the whole man right.”
“…this show exists only to further sell a pre-sold product: Lennon's music. If you aren't already an aficionado about Lennon's life, you'll learn nothing; if you aren't already a devotee, you'll feel nothing.”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“As Scardino reads it, Lennon was a social and artistic activist waiting to happen until he encountered Ono at a gallery in one of history's great romantic moments… According to the musical, once Lennon put the Beatles years and his first wife Cynthia behind him, he could do his lasting work: a blend of self-discovery and public crusading.”
“The advance skinny on Lennon has it that keeper-of-the-flame Ono is the muscle behind this production, but that's hearsay. Failing her or anyone else claiming responsibility for the hectic but thin script, it's Scardino who must accept blame for what's presented with great bravado as an account of Lennon's life.”
“In Lennon, saints John and Yoko go about their peace crusades while more problematic chapters of their lives as a couple, and his life on his own, are omitted. The show offers no meaningful scrutiny of the complex Beatles collaboration, no mention of producer George Martin or even of John's son Julian. Ignored are the formation of Apple Records and the galvanizing effects of "Rubber Soul" and "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Of course, some facts must be dropped from a bio-musical, but mightn't we have expected an honest depiction of Lennon's drugging? Perhaps needless to say, there is also no consideration here of Lennon's psychological attraction to Ono as a possible surrogate for his mother, Julia, who was killed by a wayward bus when John was a youth.
What can be said in favor of Lennon is that Scardino does a slick job as director, moving the show right along… Scardino directs an accomplished, nine-person ensemble, all of whom sooner or later impersonate Lennon (often in granny glasses) but only one of whom appears as Yoko; that's the pretty Julie Danao-Salkin, who smiles more often than the woman she's playing habitually does. [The cast] toil like yoked oxen and sing with amazing gusto; but their unflagging energy isn't enough to convince anyone of this musical's enduring worth or to make its attempts at turning Lennon's anti-war statements into outcries over the Iraq conflict seem like anything more than cheap gestures.”
Theater Mania – David Finkle
“According to director/conceiver Scardino's hopelessly muddled script, Lennon spent several years in a band that started small and eventually attracted mobs of screaming fans. This band underutilized his songwriting gifts, and he was really only able to blossom as an artist after he took leave of his bandmates.
That's fine if you're making Timberlake, a musical about Justin's courageous split from 'N Sync. However, we're talking about the Beatles.”
“…there's a reason the Beatles are the most loved band in rock history-they wrote phenomenal songs. And it should be mentioned that the Lennon producers aren't exactly trumpeting the absence of these songs.
In their place, we get one post-Beatles ballad after another, nearly a dozen of which feature the nine performers wailing away to Harold Wheeler's overstuffed orchestrations in either a straight line or a staggered line, usually in boy-girl-boy-girl formation… This static staging is actually preferable to the up-tempo songs, which spotlight choreography by Joseph Malone that is as inept as any seen on a Broadway stage in years.”
“Ono has been blamed, often unfairly, for everything from the Beatles breakup to Lennon's sometimes ill-considered politics; she will likely be blamed for much of the sorry spectacle that is Lennon, which may not be entirely fair. [The show] is a reductive, repetitive mess, a show without a glimmer of the mischievous, gentle wit that made Lennon's countercultural message so appealing to such a wide cross-section of listeners. The collaborators' love for John Lennon's words, music and aura is palpable throughout Lennon. Love is not all you need.”
Broadway.Com – Eric Grode
Next Broadway Musical opening – In My Life – 20th October
Music & Lyrics by John Lennon
Book by Don Scadino
With Special Thanks to Yoko Ono Lennon
Directed/Conceived by Don Scadino
Opened 14th August 2005
Extracts from various reviewers:
“Lennon is the most criminally boring jukebox "musical" to open to date, utterly sanitizing and whitewashing its subject's life so as to remove from him any and all controversy and rebellious fire. (This is likely due, in no small part, to the close involvement of Lennon's fiercely protective widow, Yoko Ono.) 27 songs that Lennon wrote or famously performed have been shoehorned into a show-biz saga so bland and non-specific, but for a few specific names it could be about anyone.”
“…an uncomfortable reminder that the real man had charisma unmatched by anyone onstage here. And the show's concept ("Lennon is a part of all of us," or some such drivel) only makes you realize, as each of the nine performers attempts to adopt different aspects of Lennon's life and personality, none is capable of getting the whole man right.”
“…this show exists only to further sell a pre-sold product: Lennon's music. If you aren't already an aficionado about Lennon's life, you'll learn nothing; if you aren't already a devotee, you'll feel nothing.”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“As Scardino reads it, Lennon was a social and artistic activist waiting to happen until he encountered Ono at a gallery in one of history's great romantic moments… According to the musical, once Lennon put the Beatles years and his first wife Cynthia behind him, he could do his lasting work: a blend of self-discovery and public crusading.”
“The advance skinny on Lennon has it that keeper-of-the-flame Ono is the muscle behind this production, but that's hearsay. Failing her or anyone else claiming responsibility for the hectic but thin script, it's Scardino who must accept blame for what's presented with great bravado as an account of Lennon's life.”
“In Lennon, saints John and Yoko go about their peace crusades while more problematic chapters of their lives as a couple, and his life on his own, are omitted. The show offers no meaningful scrutiny of the complex Beatles collaboration, no mention of producer George Martin or even of John's son Julian. Ignored are the formation of Apple Records and the galvanizing effects of "Rubber Soul" and "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Of course, some facts must be dropped from a bio-musical, but mightn't we have expected an honest depiction of Lennon's drugging? Perhaps needless to say, there is also no consideration here of Lennon's psychological attraction to Ono as a possible surrogate for his mother, Julia, who was killed by a wayward bus when John was a youth.
What can be said in favor of Lennon is that Scardino does a slick job as director, moving the show right along… Scardino directs an accomplished, nine-person ensemble, all of whom sooner or later impersonate Lennon (often in granny glasses) but only one of whom appears as Yoko; that's the pretty Julie Danao-Salkin, who smiles more often than the woman she's playing habitually does. [The cast] toil like yoked oxen and sing with amazing gusto; but their unflagging energy isn't enough to convince anyone of this musical's enduring worth or to make its attempts at turning Lennon's anti-war statements into outcries over the Iraq conflict seem like anything more than cheap gestures.”
Theater Mania – David Finkle
“According to director/conceiver Scardino's hopelessly muddled script, Lennon spent several years in a band that started small and eventually attracted mobs of screaming fans. This band underutilized his songwriting gifts, and he was really only able to blossom as an artist after he took leave of his bandmates.
That's fine if you're making Timberlake, a musical about Justin's courageous split from 'N Sync. However, we're talking about the Beatles.”
“…there's a reason the Beatles are the most loved band in rock history-they wrote phenomenal songs. And it should be mentioned that the Lennon producers aren't exactly trumpeting the absence of these songs.
In their place, we get one post-Beatles ballad after another, nearly a dozen of which feature the nine performers wailing away to Harold Wheeler's overstuffed orchestrations in either a straight line or a staggered line, usually in boy-girl-boy-girl formation… This static staging is actually preferable to the up-tempo songs, which spotlight choreography by Joseph Malone that is as inept as any seen on a Broadway stage in years.”
“Ono has been blamed, often unfairly, for everything from the Beatles breakup to Lennon's sometimes ill-considered politics; she will likely be blamed for much of the sorry spectacle that is Lennon, which may not be entirely fair. [The show] is a reductive, repetitive mess, a show without a glimmer of the mischievous, gentle wit that made Lennon's countercultural message so appealing to such a wide cross-section of listeners. The collaborators' love for John Lennon's words, music and aura is palpable throughout Lennon. Love is not all you need.”
Broadway.Com – Eric Grode
Next Broadway Musical opening – In My Life – 20th October