Monday, August 01, 2005
Another rave review from the Palo Alto Weekly
So far Brigadoon is batting 1.000, as evidenced by yet another rave review.
Some key excerpts:
"Jay Manley is truly a genius at staging huge lavish musicals, as evidenced by the bonny production of "Brigadoon" that Foothill Music Theatre has mounted this summer."
"FMT's reputation is such that it attracts excellent talent from all over the Bay Area. Reynolds as Tommy and Johnston as Fiona seem made for their roles, with gorgeous voices and attractive looks. Their duet on the well-known standard "Almost Like Being In Love" is one of the show's highlights. One of their other duets, "From This Day On," has me humming its haunting melody days afterward."
And I love that reviewer Jeannie Forte brings up what people so often miss about musicals: they are really always about heightened, but real, human emotions. I had a teacher once who used to say that in musicals one bursts into song when so full of emotion that mere spoken words can't convey it. Forte calls out the real, human aspects here:
"Interwoven are a couple of subplots, dealing with very human emotions such as jealousy, revenge, and desire -- Brigadoon may be immune from outside taints, but its denizens are still prey to human faults and foibles. There's even tragedy mixed in with the joy of a wedding, leading to a sequence involving a bagpipe that is moving and beautifully staged."
So, two weekends left. Have you seen Brigadoon yet? Get on it!
Some key excerpts:
"Jay Manley is truly a genius at staging huge lavish musicals, as evidenced by the bonny production of "Brigadoon" that Foothill Music Theatre has mounted this summer."
"FMT's reputation is such that it attracts excellent talent from all over the Bay Area. Reynolds as Tommy and Johnston as Fiona seem made for their roles, with gorgeous voices and attractive looks. Their duet on the well-known standard "Almost Like Being In Love" is one of the show's highlights. One of their other duets, "From This Day On," has me humming its haunting melody days afterward."
And I love that reviewer Jeannie Forte brings up what people so often miss about musicals: they are really always about heightened, but real, human emotions. I had a teacher once who used to say that in musicals one bursts into song when so full of emotion that mere spoken words can't convey it. Forte calls out the real, human aspects here:
"Interwoven are a couple of subplots, dealing with very human emotions such as jealousy, revenge, and desire -- Brigadoon may be immune from outside taints, but its denizens are still prey to human faults and foibles. There's even tragedy mixed in with the joy of a wedding, leading to a sequence involving a bagpipe that is moving and beautifully staged."
So, two weekends left. Have you seen Brigadoon yet? Get on it!