Word: adaptors
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...Tommy. There's not much emotional depth or adolescent rebellion left in the granddaddy of rock operas as reworked by California's La Jolla Playhouse. But this Broadway hit has an arresting light show, superb storytelling by director-adaptor Des McAnuff and that great Pete Townshend score. Maybe it will finally win a place on Broadway for the propulsive sound of rock...
Some of the artists do, however, have mild success in adapting the music. matchbox20 delivers a version of "Never Going Back Again" that produces a tension Fleetwood Mac never explored. Sister Hazel lives up to its reputation as a good adaptor of acoustic music in "Gold Dust Woman." One of pop's newest female sensations, Shawn Colvin, sings "The Chain" without Nicks' vulnerability, but with a level of sultriness that almost compensates. The sound comes across as mysterious and creative. But once again, hard to listen...
...FAIR, Spielberg faced an almost impossible task in dealing with this movie. Adaptations of novels are harder to perfect than are original screenplays. The Color Purple poses an especially difficult problem for the potential adaptor, both because the book was widely read and because it adheres to the problematic first-person narrative format. Spielberg seems to realize the latter difficulty and attempts to avoid that puzzle simply by abandoning Celie's first-person narration within the first half hour of the movie. Another difficulty is length. The movie clocks in at two and a half hours, approximately the same time...
Another problem is that some of the clever word plays in the book become thudding puns in Looking Glass because they are taken out of their original context. The funniest parts of the show are those in which the adaptor's hand is least conspicuous, as in the Tweedledum-Tweedledee episode...
...Adaptor MacDonald directed the world-premiere of Figaro in Glasgow; this is the American premiere. Is Havergal at all dissatisfied with the relative inexperience of college actors? "I don't really see much of a difference," he says, adding "Actors are actors, and these people are absolutely committed. At no point have I ever had to think: They're only students." Is he completely satisfied, then? "You're never completely satisfied, and that's nothing against these actors," Havergal says...