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Lucky Duck
Apr. 29th, 2012 10:12 pmKimberly and I had a pleasant day, with a picnic lunch out at The Mouse Park, following by the newest Berkeley Playhouse production, Lucky Duck. It's The Ugly Duckling at its core, but lots added on to talk not just about being what you are inside but also about different sorts of people getting along.
Sad to say, it wasn't as good as the other productions we've seen there. The main problem was that the score just wasn't that great. In fact, Kimberly & I were talking about it while we were at the theatre, and we assumed that the play was an amateur effort, put together locally. I was somewhat surprised to learn (when I got home) that it had originally been put on in New York. But, when I heard that it'd premiered as Everything's Ducky, had been recut again and again and finally cut down to the more kid friendly Lucky Duck, it made sense.
One of the problems was probably that kid-friendly bit. There was a lot of over-the-top squawking and dancing (with lots of wing waggling and such) that probably was more fun for the under 8 set. (All of the Berkeley Playhouse musicals are very kid-friendly, but I think this one aimed at a much lower age group as its default audience.)
The other problem was that many of the songs didn't have a lot of soul. They were too on the nose, blatantly saying what they wanted to say without being too clever about that. Contrariwise, some of the spoken lines were laugh-out-loud funny.
With that said, we still had fun, particularly in the second half when things really picked up. (The first half dragged on, and much of the musical felt like an editor going at the libretto could have improved it greatly.) There were lots of really enthusiastic actors, which is always a treat at the Playhouse. The actor playing The Wolf was extremely good. (He also was The Cat in the Hat in Seussical last year, which he similarly dominated the stage.) Kimberly says his name is William Hodgson. The "duckling" also had an amazing voice.
So, as I said, not the best musical there, but still definitely fun. And for folks with kids, I think it'd be even better.
Sad to say, it wasn't as good as the other productions we've seen there. The main problem was that the score just wasn't that great. In fact, Kimberly & I were talking about it while we were at the theatre, and we assumed that the play was an amateur effort, put together locally. I was somewhat surprised to learn (when I got home) that it had originally been put on in New York. But, when I heard that it'd premiered as Everything's Ducky, had been recut again and again and finally cut down to the more kid friendly Lucky Duck, it made sense.
One of the problems was probably that kid-friendly bit. There was a lot of over-the-top squawking and dancing (with lots of wing waggling and such) that probably was more fun for the under 8 set. (All of the Berkeley Playhouse musicals are very kid-friendly, but I think this one aimed at a much lower age group as its default audience.)
The other problem was that many of the songs didn't have a lot of soul. They were too on the nose, blatantly saying what they wanted to say without being too clever about that. Contrariwise, some of the spoken lines were laugh-out-loud funny.
With that said, we still had fun, particularly in the second half when things really picked up. (The first half dragged on, and much of the musical felt like an editor going at the libretto could have improved it greatly.) There were lots of really enthusiastic actors, which is always a treat at the Playhouse. The actor playing The Wolf was extremely good. (He also was The Cat in the Hat in Seussical last year, which he similarly dominated the stage.) Kimberly says his name is William Hodgson. The "duckling" also had an amazing voice.
So, as I said, not the best musical there, but still definitely fun. And for folks with kids, I think it'd be even better.