BLOG POSTS WHERE MONTH IS 3, AND DAY IS 22, AND YEAR IS 2013

Friday 03/22/2013 by J_D_G

HUMAN DRAMA: A REVIEW OF "HANDS ON A HARDBODY"

Photo by Chad Batka

By Jeremy D. Goodwin for Phish.net

Hands on a Hardbody came to be despite several built-in challenges. The premise—Texans trying to win a pickup truck—could seem less than compelling to the New York theatregoer, and it has an episodic narrative involving about a dozen main characters more or less standing around.

But it also has core strengths: a book-writer, Doug Wright, who’s channeled his brilliance into straight plays like Quills and I Am My Own Wife (for which he won the Pulitzer), and successful musicals Grey Gardens and, yes, The Little Mermaid. (One-man shows about German transvestites can’t pay all the bills, no matter how many Tony’s they win.) It also has a newbie composer in Trey Anastasio, who has shown his own brilliance writing pop/rock songs in varying styles for various contexts, and was up for the challenge of writing to the very specific parameters of the stage. And it was fast-tracked for Broadway after an initial run as a La Jolla Playhouse commission last season.

So, does it transcend those built-in hurdles and make a virtue of its challenges?

Read more...



Phish.net

Phish.net is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.

This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.

Credits | Terms Of Use | Legal | DMCA

© 1990-2024  The Mockingbird Foundation, Inc. | Hosted by Linode