I got back from NYC last night at 11pm. Meredith and company did a fantastic job of staging their very first Tex in the City caberet. All the singers had knock-your-socks-off voices, the theatre was nicely intimate, the staging was engaging, and a good time was had by all. Their musicians were great, but could have used a drummer...especially for the Rock'n'Roll songs...though it's completely understandable why they didn't have one (space and budget contraints). The cast did a decent job of filling that void with hand-held percussion instruments when appropriate. From listening to the producer's post mortum and my own experience with the show, a bigger contrast could have been drawn between the country and rock songs especially since it seemed like a number of the rock songs were ballads...again, a drummer would have helped distinguish the two genres. It's a distinction that's actually fairly hard to make (in my humble opinion) unless you go to the extremes of each. Thinking about it today, I would say that rock'n'roll has its roots in country music and there are so many cross-over hits these days, the line between the two isn't exactly static.
I like the idea of comparing musical genres in a caberet. I think it's an angle that TITC should continue to persue. I can envision a Music Timeline show (bluegrass to country to rock to rap/metal/alternative) or a show that highlights the different cultural influences on music (latin, afro-pop, european techno) which could end with the same song being sung over and over but arranged based on the different rhythms...you know, kinda like John Aiali sometimes plays the same song over and over but each time is arranged a little differently and sung by a different artist...
Posted by jfer at November 6, 2002 4:55 PM