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Re: What's up with Roger?
>I believe the reason Roger was so involved in the '96-'97 Quad was an
attempt to stop Pete from turning Quad into an onstage musical as he had
with Tommy, which Roger despised.
I thought Roger only despised the way it was produced. Didn't he say it
should have been a rock and roll show, and that Broadway should have adapted
to TOMMY and not the other way around? I took that to mean he wanted to
keep the Broadway style thing from happening to QUAD, and that he wanted to
be involved to make sure it remained a rock and roll show.
Roger and Pete, at least, have been out to look at different shows and
commented on them from time to time, so I think they're better prepared this
time around. TOMMY always catches hell, it seems, because it's always the
first opera produced as this or that. Same for the movies. TED know better
how to deal with the system the second time around.
>However, after reading some things about this new playwright, I have very
>high hopes for this version of Quad. At last Pete will be doing something
>dramatic with someone who can really write dialogue. I thought the awful
>dialogue was the thing that made the '99 Lifehouse fail.
I gather he means that Trevor Nunn will direct, which also looks like a
great choice.
http://www.onlineclassics.net/plays/biogs/index.html?trevor_nunn.html&2
I dunno that anyone (except Brian Cady, of course) actually pronounced the
Lifehouse 2000 radio play a failure. ;) Still, I think we can assume it
wasn't exactly a popular favorite because there wasn't any immediate
stampede to produce it as a movie or stage play. I agree that it seemed
somewhat pompous and over blown, and the script was dense and deadly, but
also I thought the symbolic set up was excellent and the brilliant ideas
quite clear--which means it still has excellent potential to be translated
into other forms.
It definitely caught my imagination. Scary thing. The guy calls and no one
answers? The grand Lifehouse conjugation blows up and leaves a wasteland?
I thought the dialog needed to be cut in half and new music (scarier and
more violent) composed to fill out the rest. The ideas cut really deep, and
it needs emotion more than reflection. I hope Pete still has it on his
agenda somewhere. I'd love to see it developed as a Who opera and toured in
the style of QUAD.
keets
P.S. Did I mention I saw a Queen ballet on Bravo? Very well done. What
ever happened to the Tommy ballet?
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