Bells Are Ringing review
Bells Are Ringing Review - Broadway musical
The first pair of musical performances were really worthy – because they were made by people of their time in the current realities. Who knows now what the telephone company with manual commutation is? Now everything is made automatically, completely displacing this manual labor. Therefore, all subsequent resurrections of this musical have been unsuccessful due to lack of re-thinking of the plot. If it is to adapt to the new – modern – world that so much has changed since 1960, it would have to change just about anything. The place where the main character works and how she meets a new husband, and what police is doing with it all-around weak shown second storyline – where the telephone company is used as a kind of unsecured channel for some fraud of a gang.To be honest, this musical is a completely outdated both in the shell in which it is presented, and in the entourage that is tried to be created. After all, if to think about it, the main character is a poor woman. She is past 40, she works as a gray telephone operator, she has neither children, nor husband and her job is rubbish. She isn’t shiny with her beauty, and if to wash her makeup – the expression "isn’t shiny" will receive an entirely different color and will sound more like "beauty is gone, along with her make-up". In such circumstances, it is unclear why to fall in love with someone like her but she still keeps up to do the love intrigues with unabashed ease as the younger generation, to whom she does not belong anymore. For what to love her is not disclosed in the musical. Despite this, the rich and wealthy man – writer and, no doubts, the owner of a rich inner world – somewhat falls in love with her. This is very far from real life, and if we extrapolate it at the reality, their marriage is doomed to collapse after a maximum of a couple of years – they are simply physically different people, from various circles & even worlds. Yes, her singing is certainly good, but it is the only plus. This is a very weak competitive plus in today's world of mega temptations.
The first revival of the musical was unsuccessful – the weak reviews and hostility between the actors and creators. The second possessed very mediocre success – only the leading actress shined with the stage talent. Everything else is necessary to erase and to develop from scratch. To add bright colors, to remove plaque of naphthalene from everything that is presented on the stage and to completely rewrite the characters, the story and circumstances. Will it be considered as the creation of a completely new musical? Maybe yes. But in other conditions its existence is simply impossible – nobody understands and accepts the bygone days and, therefore, everything that happens seems to be some strange surreal farce. You don’t believe it anymore and understand that something must be changed seriously.
Last Update:April, 06th 2016