This show started at NYTW on Tuesday. Seems like a hard sell (a musical about Edgar Allan Poe's last days) but could potentially be good. Anyone seen it yet?
We are members, seeing it in the next week or 2. Not sure how I will like this one, especially after Love and Info and the Civil War Christmas thing (last season).
Saw this tonight. If nothing else, it is worth seeing for its impeccable stagecraft and lighting.
I don't think it really illuminates much about Poe or his mysterious final days- and not much truly happens. It's a depiction of a descent into psychosis, really, set (largely) to Poe's work and writing. Even at 90 minutes, it feels a little long.
The score is evocative- but I wouldn't call this a musical, even with the amount of music. It's more a play with music.
But the things they do with what little is on that stage! And some of the best and most effective use of lighting I have ever seen in theatre.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
As to the pronunciation: my hometown is about 20 minutes from Havre de Grace. It's pronounced "HAVE-er duh Grace" - pretty straight-forward and American-ized. Somehow this thread started out with the right spelling and then it got messed up.
I got a flier in the mail at my apartment in the Bronx, glanced at it, and did a double-take because it was so odd to see the name "Havre de Grace" here in NY.
I saw this and I'm pretty much middle of the road on it.
I agree with Kad that the highlight of the piece is the lighting because they've really done so much with so little. The second best part to me was the orchestration of the music. There are really only 2 (sometimes 3) people playing instruments yet they've achieved a very full sound. My favorite was was when they played the inside of the piano with strings. I'm sure there is some technical term for that which I am unaware.
Other than that it really is kind of ho-hum. There isn't so much a story as recitations of Poe's poems set to music. The staging works well for the most part. Just as an FYI there are subtitles projected above the stage which I don't think you'd be able to see sitting too close.
My main issue is with the tonal shifts which someone else mentioned. The "narrator" of the piece does not work at all for me. I'm sure they thought it was a very clever device but I found him to be annoying and kind of nonsensical. You're pretty much over his shtick 5 mins in to the show.
Also I've been having very good luck with bigoted theatre-goers. During a scene where a man tells Poe that he's "good-looking under that mustache" a guy behind me starts repeating "he gay." Clearly there were no gay connotations in the script but I'm glad to find "straight" men who are so insecure with themselves that they must project those feelings where there are none.
"Pardon my prior Mcfee slip. I know how to spell her name. I just don't know how to type it." -Talulah
I saw this tonight and have complicated feelings tonight.
The biggest mistake is the addition of the character of Ranger Steve. This character is grating, annoying, and worst of all takes you out of the precedings. a play about Edgar Allen Poe should be atmospheric, and the talking to the audience, weird jokes and gesturs were just awful. The final nail in the coffin was (spoiler) the Neil Diamond Song that stopped the play completely.
That said, there is something admire in the staging of this play. The use of a door, table, bed, and piano are all brilliant. The final scene with the mirror and the strings in the piano is brilliant.
The problem is that the whole thing felt like a wikipedia article on Poe. The audience gets more of a history lesson than a night of engaging theater, and the 90 minutes feel rather long. I can't quite recommend it, but there were a few moments I truly loved.