Coraline

[rm]

We've just come from the Coraline musical, which was absolutely fascinating and enjoyable, although I think it has problems (very fixable ones). I should note, before I go on, that I've not read the book or seen the film and have no particular affinity for Gaiman's work -- I find it clever and amusing, but it doesn't (with te exception of a particular poem) resonate with me.

The real stand-out o the show is the integration of the set and music. Real and toy pianos litter the set and actors add sound -- plinky, eerie and oddly timed -- to moments musical and not. This does wonders for conjuring the world of the show, while making it both relentlessly charming and relentlesly creepy.

The set however, is also part of the problem, in that it is indicative of the way in which the piece has not yet decided if it's a musical or a play with music. The scenes in our world feel like musical theater; the scenes in the other world don't -- part of that is the atonal qualities to the music in this setting (a necessary trope, but one that becomes hard on the ear and is problematic for a musical because such melodies aren't hook-y and the ear craves that); part of that is timing issues. Yes, it is in the other world, the fantastical world, that the show sometimes threatens to drag.

What it really needs is one more song, one that explains to us what the Other Mother is in more than passing (Patty had to explain it to me; and if I didn't get it from a quick mention of the "Belle Dame" lord knows, most of the rest of the audience won't either) while being melodic and punchy enough to stay with the viewer.

All the performances were brilliant, but I was particularly taken with the fellow who played Coraline's real father and one of the theater ladies. HIs prescence was wonderful, his characterizations sharp, and he utterly, utterly broke my heart in the "We Trod the Boards" song, which was probably the most spectacular give-this-show-an-award moment of the piece.

Other exceptional moments include the puppetry of the Ghost Children, anything about the rats (funny, creepy, lovely), the hilarity of the actresses' dogs, and the tendency of the cat not to do obvious cat things (although there's plenty of that too), but do really weird, oddly timed cat things, that ring very true.

Overall the show is clever, very funny, utterly worth seeing, and kid appropriate, assuming you're raising a child who is both urbane and kind -- to appreciate the show they'll need to be more sophisticated than Coraline, but they'll also need to be on her side.

I'd love to see the piece developed further, made bigger, and take on noisy modern tourist-attraction Broadway with its shabby heart (often reminiscent of The Fantasticks, but, you know, with rats) and love for so many worlds of performance past from the oral tradition of fairytales, through the specialities of circus folk, to its memories of the stage's glamorous, scrapbooked past.

Comments

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Warning! Here be spoilers...

It’s billed as a musical, but it’s certainly not in the Rodgers and Hammerstein or Sondheim wall-to-wall melody mode. Currently, I’d say it’s a play with songs in.

The set reminded me of a Cornell box — an odd assemblage of objects that made up a world in miniature. I liked the use of a small prop to represent The Door, and I was really surprised when the Other Mother made her entrance from one of the full-sized doors at the rear of the stage.

My favorite cat moment was when he spent a few seconds staring at the musician seated on the stage, who is otherwise ignored by the characters.

I found some of the blocking weird — scenes when characters who should have been facing each other were instead oriented toward the audience. I’m thinking particularly of Coraline pulling the second soul from the Other Actresses’ cocoon, and when the Black Cat tears at the Other Mother’s face.

What it really needs is one more song, one that explains to us what the Other Mother is in more than passing...

What do you think the Other Mother is? From Gaiman’s use of the word “beldam” and her actions, I see her as a Bab Yaga-like character: a magic user, human-like but not actually human, who, as the Cat says, wants something to love or to eat, (the two being more or less the same thing as far as she’s concerned).

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I'm incredibly fond of Stephin Merritt, the songwriter, so I'm jealous that you got to go. It sounds like it needs a little tweaking...

[sykii.livejournal.com]

The cat's yawning particularly killed me. Ever since seeing it, I keep being tempted to do that to people who are annoying me.
I wasn't sure I could recommend the musical to anyone who isn't a fan of both a) Neil Gaiman and b) Stephin Merritt (the couple next to us both fell asleep, despite having bought front row tickets). So it's good to hear a perspective from a non-fan of both who found something of value in it.
The actor you mention specifically is named Francis Jue, and yeah, he was phenomenal. I found the Other Father pretty amazing and moving, too, particularly in the later part. The Other Mother was problematic for me on a number of levels (You know she was played by the playwright, no? One can tell, no?)

[askeladden.livejournal.com]

I kind of wish they would release the soundtrack, but on regular piano rather than toy and prepared piano, because while the timbres were appropriate to the performance, they're not really something I could stand to listen to when not completely absorbed in the show; and while that may well have been part of the point, some of the songs were really good and I'd like to be able to listen to them again in a slightly different context. My favorite one was the one about the bees. I agree that the otherworldly sections had a tendency to drag and I think this could have been improved by altering the pacing. You keep the rule of threes -- without it, it would hardly be a fairy tale -- but after you set up the original instance (like finding the marble by looking througha stone) you go through it the other two times in an increasingly energetic and sketched-in manner. That way you deliver the punch of the threefold action without losing momentum. I thought it was interesting that the relationship between the two actresses was made explicitly romantic in the show, since it was only hinted at in the book. I agree that it had a flavor of The Fantasticks, and that that's a good thing. By trimming or changing a few of the songs (particularly the last two, which were too long and not very good), doing more show-not-tell as your other commenter noted (you don't have to say "cat claws in my face!" You just have the cat go meoooowwrr and the Other Mother go aiiieeee), and possibly making the show just a bit less clangingly atonal, it could have a long and much-loved run. I don't see that happening, though, so I'm glad I got a chance to see it while it was open.

[saomigray.livejournal.com]

My husband Patrick is a huge Gaiman fan.

I'm not a fan of Gaiman and don't generally like the Nightmare Before Christmas feel of that sort of movie.

When my daughter Olivia (aged 11) wanted to see the movie, I was surprised and wasn't sure she would like it. (It did look a bit creepy, but apparently she likes that sort of thing.)

We all went, and we all loved Coraline.

If we ever have the chance to see the musical, we will definitely do so.