Monday, February 18, 2008

Anatomy of a Mess

I've been a little surprised at the lack of coverage of the Goodman's recent decision to pull the musical "The Boys Are Coming Home". In my book, a major regional theatre yanking one of its subscription shows is big news.

Shedding some light on the situation is Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune, who thoughtfully details the rise and fall of "The Boys Are Coming Home" in this article. I love that the Tribune even ran this - it's rare to find such a nuanced description of the sometimes-painful, sometimes-breathtaking process a play goes through on its way to maturity.

I highly recommend checking out Jones' account of the Goodman's decision to first produce, then trash "The Boys...". Lots of good lessons for artists, playwrights, administrators, designers... I could go on.

Notable from the article:
"We couldn't find enough tickets to give to people," says Dominic Missimi, who runs Northwestern's musical-theater program.... In a weird inversion of the usual state of business, critics and audiences seemed to have a lot more confidence in the show than the people who were charged with taking it to the next level."

"Still, the only collaborators on "Boys" whose work was ever fully formed were the original, mostly student cast members. Too young to be cynical and blissfully unaware of the fatal delicacy of new material and its creators, those undergraduates gave a suite of gorgeous songs everything they had. And if only for a few memorable summer nights in Evanston, that was all it took."

1 comment:

99 said...

Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't heard that story and it's a very, very interesting one...