1.2.07

So Confused

Okay, I am completely weirded out by something. So, I went to a concert last night, of a sort, since one of my friends' kids were performing in it. (Is that the right punctuation? She is one of many friends, and she had two kids performing last night.) Anyway, this is the second similar sort of concert that I've been to, and I am completely perplexed.

In both of them, the main event was the songs. I mean, they had a full chorus, on stage, for the entire show. So the point, right, is the chorus. They keep breaking into song. It's really all about them. But in both shows, the producers or directors or writers or whomever felt the need for a sort of story. Like, in between every song, there would be 2 (or 3 or 5 or whatever) people, saying a few lines of dialogue, and which would lead into another song.

And they weren't introducing
the songs -- music by this person -- or anything, they were tying the songs together into this totally bizarre story.

Now, obviously, my French isn't that great, so I don't know how good or appropriate the stories are, since I get about 30% of whatever's going on in a situation like that. But it seems like a really odd way to tell a story -- a really silly way, actually -- and it makes my director sensibilities itch and burn. Why don't you just have a concert? Grade five through senior year of college, that was good enough for everyone I knew, at least in the States. Okay, I was only in an actual chorus myself once or twice, before everyone in the whole world wised up that that is a horrible idea, but I went to several concerts and recitals and whatnots of this type, and usually it would be, chorus sings one or three or four songs that they know pretty well, you maybe have some soloists, you maybe have a band or some piano players doing solos, etc., etc. You don't have dialogue.

And it's not like a real play, even a musical play, either, with which I do have a fair amount of experience; if you're really trying to tell a theatrical story, you don't get a fricking chorus in there to muck things up. Okay, I'm being a director snob. But you just don't. You don't want superfluous people on stage, because everyone on stage needs to be in character and have a purpose, and even in a regular play, having ten or twelve people on stage -- even if they're all speaking, all involved, all professional -- is a fucking headache. Even if you're doing a musical, with plenty of people who are only there to sing, you generally make them dance, you generally put them in costume, you make them essential to creating the mood of the story.

So I am so confused about what these people are trying to do. Do they feel like they need the story to justify the songs? Why don't you have "A Night of Songs About Animals, Sung by Chorus Bladdyblah"? Or just a regular recital or concert? Do they feel like they need the songs to justify the story? If that's the case, don't write the story yourself, do one that's already justified. Come on, you live in the land of Racine, Moliere, Anouilh. Do they want to do a musical and don't know how or don't have time to put one together? Because this just isn't the way to go about it.

Now, is this a French thing? Do people in the States do this and I've just never seen it? Is it because I live in a really small town? I know I'm being a total theater snob about this, but really, I am so confused. It seems like such a backward way to do something.

With all that said, the kids were completely adorable and did an absolutely fantastic job.

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