Secco Recit

I made a  post  last month with some of my thoughts about the new Broadway musical  Natasha, Pierre, And The Great Comet Of 1812 , based on the cast recordings and my research into the show. Now, having seen it live, I have a few more thoughts. There's been a lot written about this musical already, so I'm going to keep the review part of this short. We already know that this is a well-written music with great music. The cast album is out. It's not up to me to tell you whether you'll like the music. Josh Groban left the show on Sunday, and the Pierre I saw was Dave Malloy, the librettist and composer, who originated the role off-Broadway. I am generally opposed to writers and composers originating roles in their own works (cameos excepted) as a matter of principle, just as it's generally considered bad form for directors to cast themselves. That said, despite being in the title of the musical, Pierre is actually a fairly minor role, hardly featuring in the plot a...

Maybe it's a bit late in the run to do a review of Broadway's limited run revival of Sunset Boulevard , but I saw it yesterday, and wanted to write one. (Honestly, mostly because I wanted to document the lighting and the orchestrations, as well as a few individual elements I thought were interesting. Not so much a review as a list of things that struck me.) I'll go through the various production elements increasing order of amount of things I have to say about it. First, let's get the cast out of the way. Glenn Close was, of course, the star as Norma Desmond, but if you're at all interested in Sunset Boulevard , you've already heard all about her. What surprised me was how restrained the audience was. There was no applause on Close's first entrance, at the top of the stairs. Instead, the audience waited until she had placed her foot on the stage proper. (It was pointed out to me that this was because it was only when she finished descending the staircase...