Little Fish review
“Little Fish” musical was created by American author of lyrics, music and libretto of Italian origin Michael John LaChiusa. The master is famous for works Hello, Again, Mary Christine and See What I Wanna See, Mr. LaChiusa, was nominated four times for Tony Awards and once received the prize for his libretto.
The play was made by the author on the ground of two interesting and deeply moral stories of Deborah Eisenberg, whose works have regularly appeared in The New Yorker. In 2003, it was firstly directed by Graciela Daniele and consisted of only one 90-minutes-act. She had ideas and understanding of a work in common with the author himself. That is why the play gained sharp-edged contours and accurate-performed feelings. The cast of the play was very small: 8 actors and 7 musicians. The brilliant scenes reflecting the rhythm of the contemporary city were made by Henandez. It`s also important to mention talented lightning designer Eisenhauer, whose work made an invaluable contribution in the outstanding musical.
The premiere was held at Off-Broadway theater and, according to a number of editions` reviews, failed into a funk. As Mr. LaChiusa lately said, NY didn`t want to understand hard, serious and challenging material as fun and cheerful musical. A lot of critics noticed that Little Fish is an actual answer on the Mr. Sondheim’s Company. Even the leading character, Charlotte is similar to Sondheim`s Bobby, who is also a thoughtful, disjoint soul with inner struggle and monotonous life full of emptiness.
The musical Little Fish is a faultless, well-considered and deeply moral work, which shows the real crisis, fears, feelings and final metamorphose of a person. Jennifer Laura Thompson perfectly performed Charlotte, a 30-years-old NY writer, who suffered from smoking obsession, her inner weakness and strict behavior of her creepy boyfriend. She runs away from real problems and tries to abstract herself from her lifeless being. The main idea of the play is that life can be enjoyed only together with the society or in big “schools of fish”. The play teaches everyone to enjoy yourself, to be self-esteemed and strong, to live an interesting, colorful life with people who really love you, to appreciate friendship and togetherness.
Also it`s necessary to point out the terrific play of Hugh Panaro (ex-boyfriend of Charlotte), amusing gay Marco was performed by Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Actors of double roles Ceilia Keenan Bolger and Ken Marks were harmonic with characters whey played.
After the premiere, there were a lot of comments on “Little Fish” in such great editions as “New York Times”, “Talkingbroadway” etc. both praised and criticized work of actors, the director and the author. Ben Brantley wrote that the author and the director both made a good work to reproduce a feeling of “lifeless" in such a big city as Manhattan”, but after the half of 90-minutes-musical, the play turns into an absolutely sentimental work. In the review of “Talkingbroadway” it was said that Daniele`s part of the work was fine but unexceptional and didn`t fit for genius LaChiusa`s music & lyrics.
Last Update:April, 21st 2016
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