Word: brel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
That's why so many musical revues inhabit the House dining halls and common rooms every fall and every spring, and that also seems to be the only reason for this production of Brel. A modestly talented group of performers has taken on the challenge of resurrecting Brel's seedy, French-night-club spirit, and both cast and audiences seem mildly intrigued by the subject. But the production has no pretense of saying something new and provocative about Brel, or in fact saying anything about him at all; and the sparse attendance at last Saturday night's performance ought...
...deserves credit for putting together a show without any embarrassingly bad moments and with some rivetingly good ones as well. A workman-like air prevails in the Leverett Old Library, as though the performers want to tell the audience. "We promised you nothing more than a collection of Jacques Brel songs, and here they are." There's a feebly executed but well-meaning attempt to create coffee-house atmosphere--the audience trades its ticket stubs during intermission for a cup of coffee and a croissant--but the floodlit cavernous Leverett dining hall offers little in the way of bohemian squalor...
Nonetheless, the simple genius of Brel's music carries the show. With deftness and economy this balladeer of the down-and-out mixed the tender and the funereal into a weltschmertz as heady as any German musician has ever brewed. These are songs that use familiar sounds--the sagging languor of a torch-song, the steady intensity of an army march--to put the listener off-guard and then knock him flat with cynical or black-humorous lyrics. "Marathon" goes on a careless, accelerating dance through the 20th century, nostalgically stopping at favorite decades, until the abrupt, eschatological ending puts...
...French pronunciation in the untranslated opening number--but only one singer stands out. David McIntosh's leering, contorted expressions and jerky, stage presence give no hint of the size, strength and confidence of his baritone voice. His solos, "Mathilde" and "Amsterdam," demand the most stamina and brashness of the Brel songs in this show, and McIntosh has plenty of both. In "Amsterdam," a lurid ballad of drunken sailors, he bellows the lines with as much force and volume as anyone would want in the small confines of the Leverett theater, yet manages to make almost every word intelligible...
...songs themselves are not as good as the singing. Perhaps personal allegiance explains his reliance on mediocre music--many of the songwriters Masiell uses struggled along with him during his early years. Or maybe musical standards were sacrificed for thematic ones. Whatever the reason, we don't get Jacques Brel--well . . . only twice, and these are the two best numbers--but rather Leslie Bricusse, and Kander and Ebb. It's fine that we're not at The Palace, but a few more palatial songs would have improved the quality of the performance...