The Track Of A Storm

As evidenced by the theatre boards, A Tale of Two Cities is still stirring up debate a few days after its opening. "Debate," of course, I generally define as "futile attempts by smart people to pound some sense into sub-simian mouth-breathers." What the other side is tossing out there includes accusations of sexism (the Sarah Palin defense; every criticism is rendered moot by the author's ownership of a vagina), the "they're just jealous" straw man, and the usual "OMG WTF this show is so awsum!!!" tripe.

The second line of attack comes closes to being the truth, but the fans of this piece of crud don't quite get why. It's not envy but resentment. As a theatregoer, I want to know that every single one of my options has actually gone through multiple stages of development that include serious critical appraisal. Yeah, Jill Santoriello has spent decades writing this show. When exactly did she get precise feedback about where the lyrics didn't work, how she needed to develop her music into cohesive songs (and those songs into a cohesive score), or how the book needed to be more eloquent in its social commentary and less contemporarily vapid in its humor?

She never did, from the looks of her finished product. The process that led up to A Tale of Two Cities' Broadway bow does not appear to have incorporated any kind of evaluation--I'd prefer the gross "Is this good enough for Broadway," but "Can this lyric be more attuned to the character/situation" would have sufficed. It doesn't matter whether this should have happened during a long-term tryout, a series of workshops, an off-Broadway run, whatever. There are traditional routes for even talented neophytes to get their shows into shape for Broadway, because it's a safe bet that they aren't going to work right out of the box.

This crew picked a show that could not possibly have been ready (even after decades of work, Santoriello's own instincts are woefully insufficient without collaboration) and fast-tracked it, as though the benefits of careful revision were irrelevant. It's an insult to the very concept of quality, and I don't particularly feel like treating it gently. Theatre in America has become so marginal that Broadway has to be the showcase for the best, in packaging if not in content, and it's frightening that Santoriello et al. have demonstrated that some people are dumb enough to cheer whether or not your product is even finished.

Come to think of it, I could just change a few words in this post and the entirety would refer pretty cleanly to Sarah Palin.