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Oct. 17th, 2012 10:48 pmI'm having a hard time convincing myself to tell the story of my (probably) final encounters with the MOR Troupe from last Wednesday and my amazing PDS adventure from Sunday, so instead I'll say I saw 1789 again and I enjoyed it MUCH more the second time. Almost all of my questions/confusions were cleared up once I was capable of concentrating on the stage and hearing the dialogue. There are still some ridiculously silly moments and the chase scene is still way too long and I *still* hate freaking projections (if I wanted to watch I movie I'd go see a movie!) but it got me to thinking. So I've invented a new ratings system for my opinion of musicals and I'm sure EVERYONE will be DELIGHTED by that.
On a scale of 1-10, the things that are important to me are:
-use of dance/dancers
-story
-acting talent
-singing talent
-songs
-sets
-use of projections
-costumes
So let me rethink my ratings of ALL the French shows I've seen live!
Mozart l'Opéra Rock
Story: 8 (it's a little disjointed/uneven and a lot of the dialogue is sloppy but it's still an interesting and almost entirely-true story)
Songs: 10 (I think that's pretty clear)
Acting talent: 9 (I would have said 10 but then there's Mikele in the lead role)
Singing talent: 10 (considered bumping this down slightly cause Mikele's less awesome live but decided to give it to him since he's so fun to watch)
Sets: 9 (taking off a point for the pink wedding cloud, but otherwise it's a great use of columns, backdrops, and props to show tons of different spaces, and also I love the giant backstage framework)
Use of projections: 9 (hate the floating wedding scene flowers, love J'accuse mon père)
Use of dance/dancers: 10 (they never distract, they advance the plot, they work as extras, the choreography is organic and natural doesn't make you feel like you're watching a dance recital)
Costumes: 10 (they certainly aren't period-appropriate but that's the point of the rock thing, and i think it's best illustrated in the costumes--plus the dancers and guys show up once or twice in great period-appropriate looks)
Overall Score: 9.4
Dracula
Story: 5 (VERY uneven, hate the use of voiceover letters to advance the plot, felt like I was going from song to song, can't tell where things are happening or how people are traveling so fast across Europe)
Acting talent: 6 (there are some heartbreakingly bad performances here, especially from Mina and Jonathan, our main characters)
Songs: 7 (took points off for terrible lyrics, but quite honestly I bloody love this soundtrack)
Singing talent: 8 (love the three stooges, don't love Jonathan/Marble Eyes/Julien AT ALL, cringed through most of his songs in fact, but man Lola is just a champion)
Sets: 8 (would have been t10 but I hate London as a white wall and I hated all the set pieces that looked like people-- also, minus one point for the "magic" wall alone)
Use of projections: 8 (projections as a backstory/setting change device? Totally down with that. Minus two points for the AWFUL 3D movie I had to sit through, though)
Use of dance/dancers: 2 (we know how I feel about acrobats in every scene and getting distracted by dancers instead of the plot, plus I HATE a tap-dancing man-beast as a scene change device so STOP IT OUALI! It's especially egregious since he used the EXACT SAME THING in Le Roi Soleil)
Costumes: 4 (I had to stop and think about this one cause some of the costumes are cool, but overall I just can't get behind slinky modern dresses in a Victorian piece, even if it is to make dancing easier. And Dracula's leggings were just NO. I don't even like Anais/Lucy's massive pink and red dress AT ALL. So no. I recognize the effort put into them, which is where the 5 comes from, but the only costumes I liked were Greggy D's and Lola's)
Overall Score: 6.0
Adam et Eve
Story: 2 (it was a good idea, but in the end the plot was worth fifteen minutes, not a 2+ hour musical)
Songs: 3 (I like Rien ne se finit, Le meilleur, Et dieu dans tout ça, and Ma bataille, but the whole rest of the show was just awful, and when the songs get stuck in your head they're there all day)
Acting talent: 8 (wooden, unlikeable lead)
Singing talent: 10 (yep, everyone was talented as can be)
Sets: 8 (that's right, I love one big stationary set that gets transformed into a million places, but I HATED the floating bubble prisons)
Use of projections: 1 (horrible. They get one point for the silly news broadcasts, but everything else was just abysmal, especially the screaming tattooed man during Game Over. Just bad)
Use of dance/dancers: 8 (this was a dance-heavy musical that I enjoyed, possibly because the plot was so thin, but I brought it down two points because a lot of the dance seemed same-y and silly, especially the Eden people having their elbows up over their faces and doing a Nazi walk)
Costumes: 4 (obviously the makeup WAS most of the costume in this show, so I'm mostly just giving them points for getting Nuno shirtless... the rest was basically a 70's yard sale)
Overall Score: 5.5
1789: Les Amants de la Bastille
Story: 6 (they tried to cover TOO much ground like with MOR, but here they took way too many liberties with history and then spent too much time on the lovers who, though in the title, are pretty boring)
Songs: 10 (love it)
Acting talent: 8 (it would be 9 but my issue is with Louis Delort from the Voice who is extremely forgettable onstage so I'm punishing them for taking that role away from Mathieu who is instantly fascinating and incredibly talented. -1 for Louis, -1 again for choosing Louis over Mathieu)
Singing talent: 8 (both Nathalia and my beloved Roxane have trouble not sounding flat/rough onstage, which could be attributed to the difficulty of their songs, but also Roddy J messed up his lyrics TWICE Sunday and he's one of the writers)
Sets: 4 (there basically ARE NONE, though there are a few good set pieces here and there like the printing press, but most of the illusion of a set is given by platforms, columns, and pieces of walls, which I dislike)
Use of projections: 4 (it works a few times, like in the dream sequences and when characters are walking somewhere, but it's especially egregious because the projections are visible ON THE ACTORS' COSTUMES)
Use of dance/dancers: 6 (they're a little too distracting part of the time. I don't need them to show off their backflips to me, just shut up and be onstage)
Costumes: 8 (there's no reason for the hot actress playing the hot Polignac to be so ugly in her wig and costume. Also, there are just TOO MANY costumes in too many scenes and I can't understand why a lot of choices were made. How come the men change costume every three minutes and the women have to wear the same Je veux le monde dresses all through act two?)
Overall Score: 6.8
There we have it! So I guess it's only fair for me to say that Adam et Eve is my LEAST favorite of the PDS shows I've seen. I support that strongly. Time is making me kinder and kinder to Dracula... haha.
On a scale of 1-10, the things that are important to me are:
-use of dance/dancers
-story
-acting talent
-singing talent
-songs
-sets
-use of projections
-costumes
So let me rethink my ratings of ALL the French shows I've seen live!
Mozart l'Opéra Rock
Story: 8 (it's a little disjointed/uneven and a lot of the dialogue is sloppy but it's still an interesting and almost entirely-true story)
Songs: 10 (I think that's pretty clear)
Acting talent: 9 (I would have said 10 but then there's Mikele in the lead role)
Singing talent: 10 (considered bumping this down slightly cause Mikele's less awesome live but decided to give it to him since he's so fun to watch)
Sets: 9 (taking off a point for the pink wedding cloud, but otherwise it's a great use of columns, backdrops, and props to show tons of different spaces, and also I love the giant backstage framework)
Use of projections: 9 (hate the floating wedding scene flowers, love J'accuse mon père)
Use of dance/dancers: 10 (they never distract, they advance the plot, they work as extras, the choreography is organic and natural doesn't make you feel like you're watching a dance recital)
Costumes: 10 (they certainly aren't period-appropriate but that's the point of the rock thing, and i think it's best illustrated in the costumes--plus the dancers and guys show up once or twice in great period-appropriate looks)
Overall Score: 9.4
Dracula
Story: 5 (VERY uneven, hate the use of voiceover letters to advance the plot, felt like I was going from song to song, can't tell where things are happening or how people are traveling so fast across Europe)
Acting talent: 6 (there are some heartbreakingly bad performances here, especially from Mina and Jonathan, our main characters)
Songs: 7 (took points off for terrible lyrics, but quite honestly I bloody love this soundtrack)
Singing talent: 8 (love the three stooges, don't love Jonathan/Marble Eyes/Julien AT ALL, cringed through most of his songs in fact, but man Lola is just a champion)
Sets: 8 (would have been t10 but I hate London as a white wall and I hated all the set pieces that looked like people-- also, minus one point for the "magic" wall alone)
Use of projections: 8 (projections as a backstory/setting change device? Totally down with that. Minus two points for the AWFUL 3D movie I had to sit through, though)
Use of dance/dancers: 2 (we know how I feel about acrobats in every scene and getting distracted by dancers instead of the plot, plus I HATE a tap-dancing man-beast as a scene change device so STOP IT OUALI! It's especially egregious since he used the EXACT SAME THING in Le Roi Soleil)
Costumes: 4 (I had to stop and think about this one cause some of the costumes are cool, but overall I just can't get behind slinky modern dresses in a Victorian piece, even if it is to make dancing easier. And Dracula's leggings were just NO. I don't even like Anais/Lucy's massive pink and red dress AT ALL. So no. I recognize the effort put into them, which is where the 5 comes from, but the only costumes I liked were Greggy D's and Lola's)
Overall Score: 6.0
Adam et Eve
Story: 2 (it was a good idea, but in the end the plot was worth fifteen minutes, not a 2+ hour musical)
Songs: 3 (I like Rien ne se finit, Le meilleur, Et dieu dans tout ça, and Ma bataille, but the whole rest of the show was just awful, and when the songs get stuck in your head they're there all day)
Acting talent: 8 (wooden, unlikeable lead)
Singing talent: 10 (yep, everyone was talented as can be)
Sets: 8 (that's right, I love one big stationary set that gets transformed into a million places, but I HATED the floating bubble prisons)
Use of projections: 1 (horrible. They get one point for the silly news broadcasts, but everything else was just abysmal, especially the screaming tattooed man during Game Over. Just bad)
Use of dance/dancers: 8 (this was a dance-heavy musical that I enjoyed, possibly because the plot was so thin, but I brought it down two points because a lot of the dance seemed same-y and silly, especially the Eden people having their elbows up over their faces and doing a Nazi walk)
Costumes: 4 (obviously the makeup WAS most of the costume in this show, so I'm mostly just giving them points for getting Nuno shirtless... the rest was basically a 70's yard sale)
Overall Score: 5.5
1789: Les Amants de la Bastille
Story: 6 (they tried to cover TOO much ground like with MOR, but here they took way too many liberties with history and then spent too much time on the lovers who, though in the title, are pretty boring)
Songs: 10 (love it)
Acting talent: 8 (it would be 9 but my issue is with Louis Delort from the Voice who is extremely forgettable onstage so I'm punishing them for taking that role away from Mathieu who is instantly fascinating and incredibly talented. -1 for Louis, -1 again for choosing Louis over Mathieu)
Singing talent: 8 (both Nathalia and my beloved Roxane have trouble not sounding flat/rough onstage, which could be attributed to the difficulty of their songs, but also Roddy J messed up his lyrics TWICE Sunday and he's one of the writers)
Sets: 4 (there basically ARE NONE, though there are a few good set pieces here and there like the printing press, but most of the illusion of a set is given by platforms, columns, and pieces of walls, which I dislike)
Use of projections: 4 (it works a few times, like in the dream sequences and when characters are walking somewhere, but it's especially egregious because the projections are visible ON THE ACTORS' COSTUMES)
Use of dance/dancers: 6 (they're a little too distracting part of the time. I don't need them to show off their backflips to me, just shut up and be onstage)
Costumes: 8 (there's no reason for the hot actress playing the hot Polignac to be so ugly in her wig and costume. Also, there are just TOO MANY costumes in too many scenes and I can't understand why a lot of choices were made. How come the men change costume every three minutes and the women have to wear the same Je veux le monde dresses all through act two?)
Overall Score: 6.8
There we have it! So I guess it's only fair for me to say that Adam et Eve is my LEAST favorite of the PDS shows I've seen. I support that strongly. Time is making me kinder and kinder to Dracula... haha.
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