Word: gospeleer
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Read "The Gospel of Glee: Is It Anti-Christian...
...song’s best for winter,” R&B queen Serena tells her young son in the American Repertory Theater’s “Best of Both Worlds,” the new gospel adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” playing at the Loeb Drama Center through Jan. 3. Unfortunately, such sad songs are just about the only agreeable aspect of the show; to deem anything the “best” in this disappointingly mediocre production would be to issue a gross...
...blocking distracts from the beauty of the restoration. The actors peer towards the audience at the “statue,” only to have Serena actually enter from behind the set’s giant garage door in a burst of fog, light, and gospel song. As the resurrection is the emotional climax of the show, this execution is both disappointing and baffling. The fourth wall is indeed broken, but perhaps not as Paulus intended; instead, the audience is taken out of the moment, wondering what the characters are staring...
This magical moment also leads to the abrupt religious awakening “Best of Both Worlds” seems to undergo. For an alleged gospel musical, the show hardly contains spiritual overtones until the very end—and by then, it is too late to force these ideas on the audience quite so intensely...
...Both Worlds” seems to inadvertently illustrate that there is a limit to active spectatorship in the theater. There is nothing wrong with the audience simply sitting in their seats and watching a show in front of them, especially when it best serves the material. Ultimately, the gospel music that cures the soul and Ezekiel’s family fails to cure this production’s many woes. Music’s healing power has reached its limit...