Author Topic: "Almost Famous" - the musical (San Diego peeps)  (Read 1080 times)

Offline perc2100

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"Almost Famous" - the musical (San Diego peeps)
« on: September 18, 2019, 10:00:45 AM »
I had the extraordinary opportunity last night to catch a Preview performance of "Almost Famous," the new musical of Cameron Crowe's pseudo-autobiographical Academy Award-winning film.  The musical is set in the early 1970's and is about a young HS writer getting the chance to cover an up-and-coming rock band on tour for 'Rolling Stone' magazine.  The film is a GOAT, IMO, and the musical is every bit as good as the film.  The book is written by Cameron Crowe (who wrote & directed the film based on his own teenage experience covering bands such as Led Zepplin, Allman Brothers Band, and The Eagles; the screenplay won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for a few other Oscars).  The music is written by two-time Tony winner and Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Kitt, and is directed by Tony-nominated Director Jeremy Herrin.

As both a music teacher and former touring musician, the musical hits on so many levels.  The original music feels both of-the-era (1973) while still feeling fresh and not dated.  There are a ton of songs, but this is a 'traditional' musical with plenty of dialogue (i.e, not like 'Les Mis' or 'Hamilton' where nearly all of the dialogue is sung).  To make the music feel even cooler/era appropriate, Tom Kitt brilliantly mixes in guitar riffs and vocal melodies of late 1960's/early 1970's songs.  The stage design is really cool as well, recreating the feel of various well-known arenas throughout the US and capturing the feel and tone from the movie of the house party, various hotels and back stage areas, the tour bus, and a really inventive way of capturing an airplane in heavy turbulence.  There is some nice, inventive lighting that recreates the look of a live rock concert stage lighting, the funky look of industrial backstage lighting, paparazzi (for example, when David Bowie walks through a Hotel lobby), airplane lighting, etc. 
I also really dug the choreography and staging: especially in the 1st Act (the 1st act ends after the 'Tiny Dancer' sequence) that is all about the energy of the rock star scene/life on the road.  For example, the way the staging is to recreate a cramped house party is awesome, and lots of really cool kinetic movement so visualize the hustle and bustle of backstage life & party scene is REALLY cool!

And of course, a great musical isn't much w/out tremendous performances.  For me, the key roles from the movie were going to be hard to "replace" with different actors: lead guitarist Russell Hammond (played by Billy Crudup in the film, in maybe his best performance ever), and the Academy Award-nominated performance by Kate Hudson as infamous "Band Aid-not-a-groupie" Penny Lane, and the iconic Philip Seymour Hoffman as legendary rock music critic Lester Bangs.  Needless to say, the actors of the musical RULED.  Penny Lane practically dominates scenes with her charisma: even walking across the stage on her first entrance she has the confident aura of Penny Lane down!  Lester Bangs has an expanded role in the musical, not just appearing via phone calls or the one in-person meeting: he also appears as a pseudo-narrator at times, either just observing from a balcony at the side of a the stage, or flat-out interacting with high school writer William Miller while on-the-road to give advice or his commentary on situations (for example, he "helps William get out of a jam" in a late Act 2 scene in a NYC hotel room).  It's hard to explain maybe, but it works well.
The musical is anchored by Russell Hammond, lead guitarist for the rock band Stillwater that William follows and writes about.  William is constantly trying to get Russell to sit for an elusive one-on-one interview, and their relationship is at the heart of both the film and the musical.  It appeared the actor actually played a guitar live on stage during some scenes, and his acting both channels Billy Crudup's film performance while also making it his own.

If you're familiar with the film that Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert called the best film of 2000 and one of the best films of that decade, you'll be happy to know that everything you love about the film is represented in the musical: sometimes exactly recreated, sometimes in a slightly different variation: but always done in an inventive way.  I've seen this movie dozens of times (dating back to a very early screening Cameron Crowe did for music teachers months before the film opened in theaters, under Crowe's intended/preferred title of UNTITLED), and I was almost worried by familiarity would somehow taint my enjoyment of the musical: like, I was worried my adoration of the film would mean the musical wouldn't have a chance to live up to my expectations.  But even minor changes to iconic scenes (for example, the version of 'Tiny Dancer' in the musical DOES include the pre-chorus section that the film cuts - this makes the scene last a bit longer, have a slightly longer development with a bigger payoff) work well, and often enhance the scenes.

Since they're still in Previews (Previews began Friday the 13th so I saw only the 4th live performance ever) they're still working on some of the details and I have no doubt there will be changes as the run continues.  There were some very minor timing issues with line deliveries that may or may not be noticed by most, as well as an occasional too-long pause where either a joke didn't land or the pause was a little too long.  But for only the 4th Preview it feels incredibly polished already!  I mean, when "Hamilton" was in Previews before opening on Broadway there were roughly half a dozen songs eventually dropped and about a week was spent with a freaking pond of WATER on stage symbolizing the reflecting pool in front of monuments of Founding Fathers!  While I'm sure there will be changes, nothing felt like it didn't work well: I wouldn't be surprised if maybe a song or two were cut to shorten the length (about 2:45 w/a 15 min. intermission in between Acts) but this doesn't feel like other Previews I've seen of musicals that were still obviously a work-in-progress.

I can't recommend this musical enough, especially for fans of the original film.  Cameron Crowe is a San Diego native which is partially why he developed it for San Diego; but we also have one of THE best local theater scenes in the country.  San Diego has TWO theater production companies that have won Tony Awards for local theater: the only city in USA to have TWO theaters win the Tony!  The musical is playing at the Old Globe in Balboa Park, and I can't imagine there is a bad seat in the house. 

You can find information about the musical here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Offline FBS

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Re: "Almost Famous" - the musical (San Diego peeps)
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2019, 11:16:23 PM »
So who plays the main characters in the stage show? Are they "names"?
Also, do they have the infamous plane scene?

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Re: "Almost Famous" - the musical (San Diego peeps)
« Reply #2 on: Today at 07:06:59 AM »

Offline perc2100

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Re: "Almost Famous" - the musical (San Diego peeps)
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2019, 09:32:02 AM »
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So who plays the main characters in the stage show? Are they "names"?
Also, do they have the infamous plane scene?

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Here's the pdf of the Program w/cast bios: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
the song listing isn't included, and when I saw it Tuesday it was a xeroxed and stuck in the middle of the program

Yes, they do have the infamous plane scene, and it's staged in a really cool way (I'll just say it sucks if anyone in the main cast has motion sickness  :P).  There's a slight change from the movie, but without giving too much I'll just say the drummer's punchline wouldn't play as a joke in 2019 the way it might've in 2000.