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Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 16, 2018 10:09:55 GMT
Love or hate them?
With the exception of the King and I really do love them. Im also a bit sad that new musicals don’t seem to include them
On the town, Oklahoma!, One touch of Venus and Allegro are some of my faves.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2018 10:14:20 GMT
I loved the ballet sections in the likes of Cats and An American in Paris (especially that final performance and the one by the river in An American in Paris!). I couldn't stand the one in The King and I, I felt like it just drew the piece to a halt and it went on for so, so long and there was audible yawning and phone checking around me so it clearly wasn't just me who felt that.
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Post by viserys on Dec 16, 2018 10:24:41 GMT
I generally love them and would love to see more of them in new musicals. Far too few new musicals have proper choreography anyway and when they do, they don't really work for me, i.e. in Hamilton where the company always looks like they forgot half their clothes backstage before running on stage.
It just seems the one in the recent King and I revival was a misfire, due to it being way too long, the rather botched attempt to recreate classic Thai choreography and the fact that the ballet story doesn't really add to the actual story. Yes, we're meant to see the (preachy) parallels between Uncle Tom's Cabin and the court in Siam, but it doesn't work. Most of the other Rodgers/Hammerstein ballets actually forward the plot, i.e. the dream ballet in Oklahoma! reveals insights into what's going on in Laurey's head and the ballet in Carousel gives Billy a look into his daughter's life. On the Town in Regent's Park and American in Paris were great, too.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 16, 2018 10:56:11 GMT
On Your Toes has a gloriously scored ballet. fantastic music.
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Post by dippy on Dec 16, 2018 11:02:10 GMT
In general I love them but add me to the group of people who was thoroughly bored in the one in "The King and I".
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2018 11:11:07 GMT
I am generally bored by them but actually love The King and I one. One of my favourite bits of the show and film
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Post by steve10086 on Dec 16, 2018 12:36:41 GMT
Was a unknown concept to me until I saw The King & I - and that was one of the most boring sequences I’ve ever seen. Dull, never ending, and superflorous.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2018 13:02:58 GMT
I really really love what Daniel Fish did to the dream ballet in the Oklahoma! revival that's heading towards Broadway next spring, and I can't wait to hear the outrage and uproar as more and more people see the show and realise the direction he's taken it in.
I don't mind a ballet section; it's not necessarily my favourite part of a show but if I'm seeing a musical, I'm already in for the singing and the dancing, so why not have an extended period of the latter?
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Post by distantcousin on Dec 16, 2018 13:25:51 GMT
...should be done away with in the 21st century.
They are dreadfully dated/of their time and are just baffling to most contemporary audience members.
(The Tulsa one, though not strictly a ballet, in Gypsy is equally superfluous and like most of them hold up the pace)
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Post by ctas on Dec 16, 2018 13:31:09 GMT
On Your Toes has a gloriously scored ballet. fantastic music. Excellent shout! I have very fond memories of the Adam Cooper-starring and choreographed revival in 2003 that had Irek Mukhamedov (a Russian ballet dancer) playing a marvellous parody of a Russian ballet dancer. |
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Post by mallardo on Dec 16, 2018 14:55:12 GMT
The thing about On Your Toes is that the ballet is justified by the plot - it's about ballet. And Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is one of Richard Rodgers'greatest compositions.
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Post by sf on Dec 16, 2018 15:28:26 GMT
One I loved - a long time ago now - was the choreographed chess game that formed the opening sequence of the original London production of 'Chess'. Visually stunning, and I'd never seen anything quite like it.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 16, 2018 16:37:50 GMT
How have we got this far without mentioning Swan Lake in Billy Elliot which blew me away.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 16, 2018 16:55:52 GMT
Ballets in such shows as Oklahoma! have a purpose - Laurie has the decision to make. Which of the two men should she go to the dance with? So she dances a dream ballet and plays out the alternative situations.....and makes up her mind. Art is full of these plays with plays that have a dramatic function. The Mousetrap in Hamlet for example. Something artificial speaking the truth, or seeing things clearly. They really should not be cut.
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Post by SamB (was badoerfan) on Dec 16, 2018 17:01:23 GMT
I always found them boring when watching them in the films or recorded performances, but was absolutely entranced watching the ballet when I saw Carousel last year.
I also love the ballet in The King and I, mainly because it's absolutely bonkers. I'm also quite happy to just sit and listen to that track on the CD too.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 16, 2018 19:26:30 GMT
Like most things, if they are just there for decoration, as many of the operas used to decorate the scores with ballets to use the corps in the opera house, but if the ballet serves a purpose, as they usually do then they should be interesting.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Dec 16, 2018 20:51:21 GMT
I liked the one in King And I.
I always remember as a child the one in the film of Okloahoma, and being very aware that it wasn’t being danced by the actual people involved. I found that very confusing and it went in for yonks. Hated it.
I suppose a moderrn one is that contemporary dance sequence in Jamie which is, in my opinion, hideous.
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4,955 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 17, 2018 7:11:37 GMT
I’m glad to see I am not alone with my ballet thoughts
I love the original music to Tick Tock but it is very dated and clearly sets the show in the early 70’s. Not necessarily a bad bad thing but thankfully we now have a more modern version as well.
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