I don't think that really worked

[orangerful]

So, after seeing 'Loves Labors Lost' at the Shakespeare Theater a little less than a week ago, I decided I'd watch Kenneth Branagh's 'Loves Labours [it's british, you see, get's the "ou" treatment] Lost' while eating my dinner tonight.

It sort of made me sad that the one from Saturday wasnt' recorded because I think it worked better.



So, this play obviously lends itself to musical numbers. Which is fine. and Irving Berlin music? Classic songs that, even if you don't know they are Irving Berlin, you probably know at least one verse of the songs. (apparently I learned ALL of my Irving Berlin music from the Muppet Show, but that's another story).

But this movie was weird.

It's set in the 1930s, so that the Berlin music works. It's super-campy, like a 1930s musical, which kinda works. It has little news flashes between some moments to sort of explain whats going on, which sorta kinda works. It has huge chunks of story chopped out which makes it work less. And Nathan Lane is in this movie yet he only gets to sing one song, and just the intro to the song, which was just plain dumb.

It was a cute idea though, but I think the execution was off. The cute little numbers, having them sing 'I've Got a Crush On You' instead of reading sonnets was perfect. But the odd 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' number was just out of place and didn't do what is supposed to happen in the play. That's a chance for the princess and her friends to show off their quick tongues and sharp wit. Instead, it's a dance number that consists of them all feeling each other up. Hm?? Kenneth, are you turning into a dirty old man? hehe.

And Nathan. I adore Nathan Lane. I really do, I won't deny it! He's like the Jeff Goldblum of theater - it doesn't matter what part he's playing, he's always Nathan Lane. This was no exception. He played Costard, the jester for the play. I kept hoping he'd burst into song, but they only gave him the opening to 'There's No Business Like Show Business' at the very end.

and since this play is considered one of Shakespeare's wordiest and the most to do with language, to chop out lots of scenes is a huge mistake. And it appears that they might have filmed them because they had clips in the deleted scenes and outtakes of these missing bits.

Hm. Yes. I sort of wish I'd watched this before seeing the play last week, maybe I'm jaded by that fabulous performance. Maybe if I hadn't known how the story was supposed to go, I wouldn't be quite so perturbed by this production (okay, the Nathan Lane thing would have still bugged me though! Someone needs to do a movie of 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' with him playing Pseudolus again. Or find a bootleg of him on Broadway...hm...I wonder if that's possible...)

This movie gets a solid "meh" from me - I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. Though I'm pretty sure it didn't quite work.

Comments

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I've never seen 'Birdcage', mostly because my dislike of Robin Williams cancels out my need to see Nathan Lane hahah. hehe. I think I'll just dig out my 'Forum' soundtrack and give it a listen.