Post by santtu on Sept 8, 2011 11:06:19 GMT -5
This new musical is based on the film of the same name which starred Demi Moore, the late Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg in her Oscar winning role as Oda Mae Brown.
The music is by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard.
The book is very faithful to the film, no big changes to the story. Some minor changes has been made, mainly to keep the pace flowing smoothly, like the scene after Sam has just met Oda Mae for the first time and tries to persuade her to go and meet Molly and finally gets his way by singing all night, the scene doesn't take place in Oda Mae's home, it happens in her Psychic 'shop'. And the story is taking place in present day, so instead of moving to a trendy neighborhood in Manhattan, Molly and Sam move to Brooklyn. And as one of 'the bad guys' die we don't see any demonic creatures appearing from the shadows to drag the evil soul into he**. We don't see Sam sliding a penny up Molly's door either, they found a different solution for that.
The actors were fine, Richard Fleeshman did good job as Sam. His voice was excellent! Caissie Levy has a marvellous voice but unfortunately her songs are mostly just about singing out her grief. Of course, that's the main thing with Molly, her loss, but after a while it just gets old. Instead of her just singing about her sorrow or sadness, they could have given her a song for example about her disappointment after her visit to the police station or something.
Sharon D. Clarke plays Oda Mae Brown, the fake-psychic turned into a real one. On paper (and film!) the role is just so juicy that when I saw Clarke's performance on stage, it was a bit of a disappointment. She could have done more with it! She's not bad, don't get me wrong, but she could have been so much better! She gets to sing two solos, which is nice because Clarke has a great voice.
Andrew Langtree gets to play the greedy Carl, Sam's best friend. Langtree plays the role well. I just didn't like his voice. Luckily he doesn't have many songs, but both of his songs happen to be some of the best songs in the score.
The choreography is by Ashley Wallen and sadly the choreography was unimaginative and very repetitive! With only one or two exeptions the choreography was based on "stop-go" and "slow-motion". BORING!!! Ok, maybe the ensemble isn't full of professional dancers but still you can (and should!!) create something more than just stop-go-stop-go and slo-mo.
The score of GHOST was disappointing. Dave Stewart is best known as the other half of the 80s pop band Eurythmics ("There must be an angel", "Thorn in my side", "Would I lie to you" and many more) - Annie Lennox was the other half. Brilliant songs, great melodies. The other composer for GHOST is Glen Ballard who has worked with many stars over the years, his probably the most recent great success was with Alanis Morissette's debut albun Jagged Little Pill for which Ballard co-wrote a lot of songs and also produced the album. So the guys have a lot of experience and really can write memorable tunes. So why there isn't a single one in GHOST?! A couple songs ("More", "Life turns on a dime" and "I'm outta here") are ok at best, but mostly it is just forgettable. And obviously the guys as well as the whole production team don't want to edit their songs since some of them are just way too long. Oda Mae's Act II showstopper "I'm outta here" for example, though it is probably the best song in the score, an upbeat nice romp, it just drags on way too long. Most of the songs seem to have a lot of promise but none of them really 'lights up'. And yes, they do use "Unchained melody", the classic Righteous Brothers song featured in the film, in the stage show too but it's sung as sort of an Elvis imitation as Sam tries to make sulking Molly smile.
Visually the show is impressive! There are these video screen-ish walls on each 3 sides of the stage. Each of the screen walls can be moved, the side walls are hinged from the front edge so they can be opened to the center of the stage and the back wall screen moves back and forth. Each of these walls are also kind of half see-through, so if there's someone behind the screen wall with lights on the audience can see them. This effect is brilliantly used for example in the scenes in the subway: the audience sees the subway train speeding on it's track on the screen while behind the screen is the interior of the train where the action takes place - so you see simultaneously the image on the screen and the live action behind the screen. The video screens are used very well in this show. There's also two 'treadmills' on the stage floor which are used for example to bring set pieces like desks, chairs etc. on and off the stage and also to allow the characters to give impression they're walking longer distances.
The illusions and "tricks" are excellent. And there's a quite a few of them in the show; Sam's death, Sam walking through a door, him trying to move objects, Sam finally appearing to Molly etc! Some of them are easy to figure out how they're done but some are not. Personally I loved the way they pulled off the hospital scene where Sam and the Hospital Ghost see one patient die and her spirit leave the body - done with smoke and projection, I thought the image was beautiful. The only trick I thought could have been paid more attention to was the moment when Sam dies, his body double had a completely different hairstyle as the actor actually playing Sam! That sort of left the feeling "Ok, that's supposed to bee Sam but the hair is different".
Visually great show with a beautiful story but unfortunately the score is a big let-down. It's not awful but sadly it's not great either.
The music is by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard.
The book is very faithful to the film, no big changes to the story. Some minor changes has been made, mainly to keep the pace flowing smoothly, like the scene after Sam has just met Oda Mae for the first time and tries to persuade her to go and meet Molly and finally gets his way by singing all night, the scene doesn't take place in Oda Mae's home, it happens in her Psychic 'shop'. And the story is taking place in present day, so instead of moving to a trendy neighborhood in Manhattan, Molly and Sam move to Brooklyn. And as one of 'the bad guys' die we don't see any demonic creatures appearing from the shadows to drag the evil soul into he**. We don't see Sam sliding a penny up Molly's door either, they found a different solution for that.
The actors were fine, Richard Fleeshman did good job as Sam. His voice was excellent! Caissie Levy has a marvellous voice but unfortunately her songs are mostly just about singing out her grief. Of course, that's the main thing with Molly, her loss, but after a while it just gets old. Instead of her just singing about her sorrow or sadness, they could have given her a song for example about her disappointment after her visit to the police station or something.
Sharon D. Clarke plays Oda Mae Brown, the fake-psychic turned into a real one. On paper (and film!) the role is just so juicy that when I saw Clarke's performance on stage, it was a bit of a disappointment. She could have done more with it! She's not bad, don't get me wrong, but she could have been so much better! She gets to sing two solos, which is nice because Clarke has a great voice.
Andrew Langtree gets to play the greedy Carl, Sam's best friend. Langtree plays the role well. I just didn't like his voice. Luckily he doesn't have many songs, but both of his songs happen to be some of the best songs in the score.
The choreography is by Ashley Wallen and sadly the choreography was unimaginative and very repetitive! With only one or two exeptions the choreography was based on "stop-go" and "slow-motion". BORING!!! Ok, maybe the ensemble isn't full of professional dancers but still you can (and should!!) create something more than just stop-go-stop-go and slo-mo.
The score of GHOST was disappointing. Dave Stewart is best known as the other half of the 80s pop band Eurythmics ("There must be an angel", "Thorn in my side", "Would I lie to you" and many more) - Annie Lennox was the other half. Brilliant songs, great melodies. The other composer for GHOST is Glen Ballard who has worked with many stars over the years, his probably the most recent great success was with Alanis Morissette's debut albun Jagged Little Pill for which Ballard co-wrote a lot of songs and also produced the album. So the guys have a lot of experience and really can write memorable tunes. So why there isn't a single one in GHOST?! A couple songs ("More", "Life turns on a dime" and "I'm outta here") are ok at best, but mostly it is just forgettable. And obviously the guys as well as the whole production team don't want to edit their songs since some of them are just way too long. Oda Mae's Act II showstopper "I'm outta here" for example, though it is probably the best song in the score, an upbeat nice romp, it just drags on way too long. Most of the songs seem to have a lot of promise but none of them really 'lights up'. And yes, they do use "Unchained melody", the classic Righteous Brothers song featured in the film, in the stage show too but it's sung as sort of an Elvis imitation as Sam tries to make sulking Molly smile.
Visually the show is impressive! There are these video screen-ish walls on each 3 sides of the stage. Each of the screen walls can be moved, the side walls are hinged from the front edge so they can be opened to the center of the stage and the back wall screen moves back and forth. Each of these walls are also kind of half see-through, so if there's someone behind the screen wall with lights on the audience can see them. This effect is brilliantly used for example in the scenes in the subway: the audience sees the subway train speeding on it's track on the screen while behind the screen is the interior of the train where the action takes place - so you see simultaneously the image on the screen and the live action behind the screen. The video screens are used very well in this show. There's also two 'treadmills' on the stage floor which are used for example to bring set pieces like desks, chairs etc. on and off the stage and also to allow the characters to give impression they're walking longer distances.
The illusions and "tricks" are excellent. And there's a quite a few of them in the show; Sam's death, Sam walking through a door, him trying to move objects, Sam finally appearing to Molly etc! Some of them are easy to figure out how they're done but some are not. Personally I loved the way they pulled off the hospital scene where Sam and the Hospital Ghost see one patient die and her spirit leave the body - done with smoke and projection, I thought the image was beautiful. The only trick I thought could have been paid more attention to was the moment when Sam dies, his body double had a completely different hairstyle as the actor actually playing Sam! That sort of left the feeling "Ok, that's supposed to bee Sam but the hair is different".
Visually great show with a beautiful story but unfortunately the score is a big let-down. It's not awful but sadly it's not great either.
