Fish story
A helpful reader has pointed La Cieca to an interview in the current Opera News, a publication she picks up all too infrequently, alas. But the chitchat between Brian Kellow and Francesca Zambello is just too delicious to ignore. Ms. Zambello is the director of Disney's The Little Mermaid, a show that just last week postponed its Broadway opening for a month. The official reason given was the stagehands' strike, but maybe, just maybe, the musical needed a little more work. Out of town critics hated the show, particularly the direction:
"Critical standards are dubious at best," sighs Zambello, whose life partner, Manuela Hoelterhoff won a Pulitzer Prize for cultural criticism at the Wall Street Journal. But, hey, fuck critics anway, because (says Zambello) "Ultimately, the public speaks. What matters is that you make money and that the public is with you."
Zambello, you will recall, directed Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met back in 1992, a staging that lasted exactly two seasons and then was shelved forever. But the important thing to remember here was the reaction of the public on the opening night:
While La Cieca is thinking about it, she should mention she's just finished Kellow's Ethel Merman: A Life
and heartily commends it to the Mermaniacs in the audience. Not a whole lot of new ground covered here (for the super-scholarly approach, you'll have to go to Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman) but the style is lively and witty. Brian's tome is based on over 100 new interviews with representatives of The Merm's army of friends and foes, with lots of characteristic details about the diva's foibles. (See, for example, Kaye Ballard's pithy critique of Merman's less-than-stellar nightclub act.)
And for those of you who are wondering: Jacqueline Susann? Never happened, except in Jackie's fevered imagination. And Benay Venuta was a big old liar.
Zambello has allowed emotion, charm and enchantment to be drowned in a sea of bewilderingly over-stylized designs .... visual incoherence, plus some not always useful elaboration of a simple, disarming storyline, make what should have been a slam-dunk for stage presentation a waterlogged misstep .... if Disney Theatrical chief Thomas Schumacher's aim in enlisting Zambello and team was to develop another eye-popping theatrical event to transcend the kid-fare label, he needs to keep fishing. (Variety)Zambello takes pains to explain "in a remarkably un-defensive tone" that even without a massive marketing effort, a show with the obscure and forbidding title "Disney's The Little Mermaid" still managed to sell a lot of tickets in Denver. The damning review in Variety she dismisses as (literal) nepotism, since, as she points out, the editor-in-chief of the showbiz rag is the uncle of Roger Bart, who is the star of Young Frankenstein: The New Mel Brooks Musical. (Having both shows on Broadway simultaneously obviously would split the the "bazoom and fart joke" demographic so key to the success of a Disney musical.)
"Critical standards are dubious at best," sighs Zambello, whose life partner, Manuela Hoelterhoff won a Pulitzer Prize for cultural criticism at the Wall Street Journal. But, hey, fuck critics anway, because (says Zambello) "Ultimately, the public speaks. What matters is that you make money and that the public is with you."
Zambello, you will recall, directed Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met back in 1992, a staging that lasted exactly two seasons and then was shelved forever. But the important thing to remember here was the reaction of the public on the opening night:
While La Cieca is thinking about it, she should mention she's just finished Kellow's Ethel Merman: A Life
and heartily commends it to the Mermaniacs in the audience. Not a whole lot of new ground covered here (for the super-scholarly approach, you'll have to go to Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman) but the style is lively and witty. Brian's tome is based on over 100 new interviews with representatives of The Merm's army of friends and foes, with lots of characteristic details about the diva's foibles. (See, for example, Kaye Ballard's pithy critique of Merman's less-than-stellar nightclub act.)And for those of you who are wondering: Jacqueline Susann? Never happened, except in Jackie's fevered imagination. And Benay Venuta was a big old liar.
POSTED at
10:36 AM
22 Comments:
I've seen four Zambello Productions. Two were brilliant (Porgy and Bess and The Little Prince), One was Mediocure (Rheingold), and the fourth was not so good (Tosca)
She also did Les Troyens, which I thought was beautiful. But yes, Zambello normally equates with crap.
Back in the days when I was singing, I auditioned for and worked with Ms. Zambello a number of times. She is one of the most intelligent directors I ever worked with, takes enormous risks that sometimes don't pay off, and loves, loves, loves, loves singers and actors. She was always open to suggestions;in fact her best work was often when singers brought their own ideas about character that she could shape and integrate into the production. She's also genuinely passionate about opera and theater and does an amazing amount of prep work. You can love her or hate her professionally or personally, but she works very hard and takes enormous risks.
OK - feel free to throw tomatos at me - but, unimaginative as Zambello´s Lucia was, I still prefer it to the new production.
It seems like Broadway has become a place where people go to see the same level of visual stimulation as they get from movies, but in a live version. I don't particularly like most musicals myself, but it would be nice to see one that was more about the singing, acting, and dancing than simply recreating animation live. It would be nice to see people who COULD actually sing and act also (most of them can really dance pretty well).
Oh screw it, I'll just stick with opera, and hope the Met can also someday find people who can actually sing and act.
sugarmezzo,
You said: "I hope the Met can also some day find people who can actually sing and act." Abstract and generalized statements like this are not valid for you discard some great artists. On the other hand, I'm all for individual criticism pointing strengths and weaknesses of various singers.
To change the subject, Netrebko sang "O mio babbino caro" at the Kennedy Center awards for honoree Scorsese who's an opera buff. She was introduced by De Niro who also loves opera. Has any tape of this sneaked on the Web? Netrebko is every where these days, especially with the forthcoming international live telecast of Met's Romeo et Juliette. Set aside personal opinions about Netrebko's singing, this is good for opera. The Kennedy Center awards will be shown on TV Dec. 26, so we all can see how good or bad Anna did.
I have only seen one Zambello production that was not completely embarassing, and that was the "Billy Budd" production that made the rounds of several houses here. It was not particularly good, but at least it was not embarrassing.
With reference to current Broadway musicals, is "The Drowsy Chaperone" worth catching? I know the show is two years old, but I have still not seen it.
I would be curious what people have to say about the show.
in re the post: how very obnoxious. no information, just hearsay and innuendo. maybe try seeing the show before trashing it? (i'm new to this blog, so perhaps this is just the usual M.O.?)
in re drowsy chaperone: not deep, but a lot of fun. worth seeing, imo.
in re little mermaid: i'm no disney fan, and have never seen the movie, but i saw the show in denver and was quite charmed by it. the audience in general was *loving* it.
I loved Drowsy Chaperone- a massive great love letter to musical theatre with a nice line in sharp humour.
It only lasted a couple of months over here, though, as they got the casting and the publicity all wrong. A very great shame.
Anonymous: Clearly, yes, you are new here. After you've read La Cieca a while, you'll begin to get the gist of what she's writing about. For example, in this posting, the point is not whether "Little Mermaid" is any good or not, but rather Zambello's disingenuousness and (in the case of the stuff about Roger Bart) what appears to be incipient paranoia.
Or, to put it a different way, if she really believed in this show, I honestly don't think she would have expressed herself as she did in this interview. Here Zambello comes off as someone resigned to an artistic disaster, only hoping that she will make a shitload of money by way of recompense.
Zambello seems to be a hit-and-miss director. The only production of hers I've seen is the Met's Troyens which was quite wonderful.
la c: point taken. however, aside from what one reads into that interview, i very much disagree that she's resigned to what you call 'an artistic disaster'. i've met her on several occasions and have never gotten the impression that she's after anything but a show that's artistically excellent in every way.
and, as i said before, i really enjoyed the show in denver; i'm told it's only gotten better since it's been in new york.
Dear La Cieca,
If I were you, I wouldn't list any anonymous blog, no matter pertinent and wise. If someone does not want to use his real name that's fine, but at least should use a pseudonym.
Again people - it's called showBUSINESS for a reason. Disney had a triumph both artiscally and finacially with the Lion King and probably thought Ms. Zambello could elevate their trite,cliche, syrupy,dreck to that level again. The show will make money no matter what. There are only 3 shows on Broadway that you can safely take a child under 12 to and know that you are going to have a G to PG evening and they are all Disney shows. As a person who markets Broadway shows to my clients I do see the need for that sort of drivel.
Drew80 - I would definitely see the Drowsy Chaperone it's a big, fun, frothy, valentine to Broadway shows from the 20's & 30s. Definitely worth seeing. I know you don't trust me after I suggested to you that see what turned out to be a hideous La Donna del Lago at NYCO last season. But if you want to see some a really charming and funny show, go see it. Plus Bob Saget is in it now (that really is a not a reason to see it).
NYCOQ:
Do not apologize! You are confusing me with someone else. You must have recommended "La Donna Del Lago" to another person.
However, NYCOQ, can you believe that I actually DID see that particular production of "La Donna Del Lago"? I saw the physical production, presented at Minnesota Opera, before it was transferred to NYCO. The Minnesota cast was different from the NYCO cast, but at least it included Ewa Podles. She is practically all I remember from that long afternoon.
So no apologies! Please!
And thank you for your thoughts about "The Drowsy Chaperone".
I've seen several Zambello productions - Queen of Spades, Don Giovanni, Cyrano, Billy Budd, and Carmen. The common theme for me has been intense boredom. None of these productions have touched the core of the piece and instead kept at a superficial 'big sets nice costumes' level. How does she manage to get so much work?
Drew80: The Drowsy Chaperone is, if I may just trot out some cliches, an island of delight in a sea of, well, jukebox musical crap. It is at the same time sly and very sweet, and lines of it are so devastatingly funny I think they'll be remembered for a long time. It's a musical clearly written by people who love musicals, and that's also the target audience. The songs are charming and memorable, and I don't know about the current cast, but when I caught it (twice) it was also delivered with irresistable affection. I really, really like that show.
not to be anonymous (but hey, in the devil wears prada world), i was a temporary assistant at her new big hollywood agency when she was telling her new agents that she was over opera, and broadway was her new calling... I think broadway is gonna hang up on her...
Oh, how I hated that Met Lucia. I concur, the current one isn't the production of my dreams, but it beats piles of coffins. Of course, both of them far surpass the production I saw in Zurich, which seemed to take place inside a file cabinet that had been tipped over. Lucia's crazy, so let's tilt the stage! Can you feel the profundity? No? No? How about now? :(
Oh! I know what I wanted to say. I really liked Zambello's NYCO Iphigenie 10 years ago or whenever that was.
Thank you, Maury D'Annato.
I didn't realise Netrebko's "Romeo & Juliette" was going to be a live performance, Constantine- thanks so much for enlightening me. "Downunder" we are getting it in a movie theatre on the 29th of December and I have been surprised not to have seen more commentary in Parterre about this performance- now I know why. I guess we are getting a broadcast version of it a day or so later.
"resigned to an artistic disaster, only hoping that she will make a shitload of money by way of recompense."
what a load of horse....
On Broadway - as in almost every other aspect of life - the two are (artistic success and making shit-loads of money) are equivalent. Oh my God -- how dare she makes something that the 'great unwashed' like!?
Maybe she's tired of pretension (at least when on Broadway) and just wants to please the low-brow crowd and make a fist full of dollars? Nothing wrong with that.
And finally: To believe that the entertainment rag and broadway industry are free of nepotism is as naive as would be saying that opera singers can have a career without doling out sexual favors.
That said, Zambello has a penchant for overwrought, confused, and incoherent productions (before they are trimmed down, later)... and her explanations are sometimes downright pathetic:
Q: "Why are you using contradicting symbols to represent Valkyres in your 'American Ring Cycle'?"
Z: "Oh, that was a mixed metaphor!"
[Q: [think to himself - 'no shit']
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