BY ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com
SOMETHING DIFFERENT BUT NOT SOMETHING NEW !
A play about Elivs's music....done by Signature Productions at the Las Vegas Summerlin Library & Performing Arts Center...it runs for a month thru April 24...www.signatureproductions.net....702 878 play.
I didn't like it.....I didn't dislike it...I just tolerated it.
Lots of negatives on opening preview night...first of all LATE....also too dark and too loud....covering the big three negatives...when you add "I didn't like the script", you got a bad start. This a step down for Signature which has produced world class stuff here...Will Rogers Follies and Millie to wit.
In this theatre on this night the air seemed full of dirt and fog and smoke...not from the motorcycle but just from the air itself or lack of circulation...I think this is a major venue issue...it is for me. Distracting and uncomfortable.
Weird matchs in love pairing here...interracial...inter age...inter sex or whatever...sort of bad casting. I liked a lot of the actors...there is just not much to do with this awful script. Some good dancing but tough on a small stage and for 30 bodies this was a load. 60 pairs of blue suede shoes was sort of cute but not exaclty a revelation to the affect that the cirque Elvis show at city center produced giant blue suede shoes.
I sort of like Elvis and his music and his persona and not being sexist I was still not crazy about females singing his music any more than I would be about males singing Crazy ! I visited Tupelo and Graceland this last year...sort of in reverance and that visit gave me a better feeling than whatever it was I saw on Monday.
Sorry it didn't take here...5 minutes late 80 minutes for the first half...16 minute intermission and 65 minutes more...I get an award for endurance.
They may be able to clean up the mike cues and the air but I don't what could be done about the script.
Signature doing Damn Yankees at the Spring Mountain Ranch Super Summer Theatre in August...a chance for them to return to world class theatre which they have proven they can do...looking forward to it.
C-72
1 comment:
Bruce,
I'm not sure we have met. I certainly didn't know we had a critic in the audience at our first preview. The critics usually respect that our first 3 performances are previews, giving us a chance to work out the final bugs. They wait until after opening night. I wish you had respected that also. In fact, I would've given you a complimentary ticket for any performance on or after opening night.
I'm sorry you didn't like the script. I guess that's not really our fault. But, I'm sure, had you waited, you would've enjoyed the show a bit more. Or maybe not...
Next time contact me and I'll hook you up with tickets. I'll even give you an extra one so you may bring a guest. (Except at Super Summer Theatre, they handle the tickets for their venue).
By the way, we've never done WILL RODGERS FOLLIES. :)
Regards,
Leslie Fotheringham
Artistic Director
Signature Productions
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