Word: jauchem
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...PRODUCTION, and the first stage performance ever, of The Point suffers from the misbegotten mission of its creator. Esquire Jauchem's idea of adapting Harry Nilsson's musical fantasy to live theater is frustrated by the simple problem that the original fantasy has little to gain from being fixed within the bounds of flesh and blood. Neither the story as a whole nor individual ideas have any desire to be enslaved by dramatization. The show unconsciously slips back towards its previous incarnation as a cartoon--a tendency that is illuminated by various visual aspects of the production such as costumes...
Originally a record released by Nilsson in 1971. The Point was televised twice as an animated cartoon based on the book of drawings that accompanied the album. The same year, director Jauchem got the idea of adapting it for the stage. That the basic plot structure--the adventures of a boy and his dog--isn't exactly new, might not matter if the details of this particular--version weren't equally old hat. Ostracized by a "lot of little pointy-headed people," for non-conformity (having a round, rather than a pointed, head), the boy Oblio (David Morse) is unjustly...
...Jauchem's idea for adapting The Point for the stage was conceived at a time when rock musicals were enjoying a heyday. But it has taken almost four years to materialize, and during that time characters like the saccharine, boyish Oblio have left the stage and gone the way of Godspell. And even if rock operas were not bygones. The Point offers little that's original in the way of either choreography or music--two areas where the story might have been able to benefit from live production. The mime is for the most part strictly traditional and basic; there...
...would be wrong to say that The Point is, or even should be, directed to pre-pubescent audiences only. Nilsson and Jauchem have obviously made a conscious effort to speak to a wider group, supplementing the simplistic, philosophical messages with a little soft-sell social and political commentary. The reasons for Oblio's banishment (caused ultimately by the whim of an affronted evil Count and the quirks of an unjust legal system) seem intended to bring up the issue of judicial injustice. Either the injustic should be made more real, or the issue should be left out altogether. Later...
...real problem is that the show isn't quite right for either old or young audiences, although Jauchem's invention of two sappy narrators (David Zuker and Susan Palmer-Persen) peeping around the props, winking earnestly at the audience and splitting up the dialogue between each other certainly lowers the level of entertainment...