It is the best of times for Two Cities Investment Fund . . .
We're on Broadway!
Let the Revolution Begin!!
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It was a wonderful time, a wonderful show, a tremendous evening and a powerful experience.
Thursday night was an incredible evening and event. Having seen the play twice before I was anxious to see what changes I could spot, what strengths had been tweaked. I remember at intermission wishing that I had a pen so I would remember all the wonderful elements of the play that were overwhelming me.
You will love the play. They have done a spectacular job with it in every respect. Once again I was struck by the way Jill Santoriello has captured the original book and woven it into a two hour (plus) production. What a story. If anything, that theme of weaving, or as Mme Defarge would have us think, “knitting” complex story elements into a unified whole, was the unifier of the play for me. Good characters and bad; virtuous characters and evil; solid political fixtures and revolutionary upheavals were woven into the evening with a rapidity that sometimes seemed to take my breath away. That movement of those needles, flying in the knitters hands was reinforced by the rapidly moving sets on wheels which took us back and forth from the streets of Paris, to the home in London, back to the Marquis St. Evremond’s estate in France, back and forth, back and forth with a building intensity until it all seemed it would unravel before Dickens (and Santoriello) pulled it back together with the strength of character that makes each of us feel we can become more than we are.
Changes? Yes I noticed many in the songs (alas, my favorite line “The Future’s Ours If We Can Free It” has been orphaned – which will make me research how I attribute it now in my email signature). I noticed several changes in the staging of different scenes as well. And it’s too bad, but for those of you at the Preview who laughed at the Resurrection scene in the graveyard – well it was cut to trim the time of the first half.
But the play that remains is fast paced, moves very faithfully through Dickens’ work, and seemed to delight the audience that was there.
Sure, it was disappointing that the critics didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm, but there’s no shortage of Broadway hits that opened to less than stellar reviews from the critics (Wicked and Jersey Boys to name two). So, we’ll just have to see. I like what the hotel concierge where Ray and Ellen were staying had to say: “ Finally a musical that brings Broadway back to Broadway – no more Shrek!”
So go see the show, tell your friends to see it as well. Dickens certainly reminds us in Tale that no one can see how the present will weave itself into the future. Let’s hope for the best of times!
