De Niro’s unbelievably disrespectful comment overshadowed all else and is probably the only thing anyone will remember.
Perhaps for those who aren’t lovers of theatre. Certainly, the thousands in the audience at Radio City, and millions more at home, gave him a thunderous standing ovation.
I’m curious, TranquilMind, what else will you remember from the show? Did you watch it?
I know. It was an appalling statement on how far into the gutter American culture has fallen. Disagreement is fine and encouraged. Using an international platform to literally curse out the President of the United States (no matter who he is) is appalling.
How people responded to that is really telling.
No, believe me, nothing else stood out like that.
I would be shocked if millions more at home gave De Niro a standing ovation. It was ridiculous of him to be so vulgar during such a wonderful evening of awards. Here are 2 of the most wonderful quotes of the night that should be remembered: "I want any kid who’s watching to know that your biggest obstacle may turn into your purpose.”
~Ari’el Stachel, winner/featured actor in The Band’s Visit
“Although the characters are strangers to each other, with great political divides, our show offers a message of unity in a world that, more and more, seems bent on amplifying our differences…. In the end, we are all far more alike than different. And I’m so proud to be a part of a community that chooses to support that message.”
~Orin Wolf, winner/Producer, The Band’s Visit
Be shocked then. You know full well that millions of people agree with the sentiment, if not the venue for expressing it.
Let’s not risk getting this thread shut down by debating the worthiness/worthlessness of Mr. De Niro’s comments or engage in pointless speculation whether the viewing audience stood, sat, or kneeled.
I, for one audience member, barely registered De Niro. Generally, I wasn’t paying much attention to anyone who wasn’t singing or dancing onstage, or who hadn’t just won a major award. I think I heard the blip-out sound and realized that he must have used a naughty word, but since De Niro doesn’t have a history of being especially funny or profound, and he wasn’t wearing a pretty dress, I wasn’t focusing on him anyway. I got the sense that he was there to introduce Bruce Springsteen, and I was interested in Springsteen, so I was mainly waiting for De Niro to get out of the way.
I had to read the next morning how shocked I should have been.
On the other hand, I did pay attention to Rachel Brosnahan when she was introducing The Band’s Visit, (a) because I really like Rachel Brosnahan, (b) because she was wearing a pretty dress (and was very nice looking in general), and © I wondered whether she was going to say anything about her aunt’s death (no). However, her resemblance to Kate (Brosnahan) Spade is really striking.
@JHS excellent sentiments! Rachel Brosnahan was stunning and is amazing in general.
Returning to the content, I loved the number from Carousel. The choreographer, Justin Peck, is a ballet dancer who is the resident choreographer for New York City Ballet, and several of the dancers are from different New York ballet companies, so no surprise the boisterous, inventive, balletic dance was executed with such brio and precision. I liked seeing an entire number through, rather than snippets of several numbers.
I haven’t seen Band’s Visit, but apparently it’s not really a musical, more of a play with music? I’ll try to see it this summer during a NYC visit. But also, as much as I love Tony Shaloub, he won best actor in a musical and he doesn’t even sing a single song in it. Seems strange, but, oh well!
OK, I really have to watch Blow High, Blow Low again and figure out why I had such a negative reaction to the choreography in the moment.
JenJen - I’ve seen The Band’s Visit. I would say that it is a real musical, in that it does the typical musical thing where characters inexplicably express themselves in song, and that’s just accepted as part of the genre. The difference is scale. There’s only one song that I recall that comes close to being a traditional ensemble number; the rest are mostly solos and duets. Rather than having an ensemble made up of a chorus of singers, the ensemble consists of members of the band who sometimes play instrumental pieces. The story takes place over a single day, and it is more of a slice-of-life than a plot-driven narrative. It is shorter than the typical musical, and even for its length, probably has proportionally fewer original songs per minute than Carousel or My Fair Lady.
So, not a play with music, but it may have more of the FEEL of a play with music than a traditional musical.
In any case, I really loved it, even as someone who loves traditional musicals and went in unprepared that this was going to be a different kind of show. Unfortunately, Tony Shaloub had already left by the time I went, but Katrina Lenk is fantastic. If you’re a musical theater junkie, even if you’re not that enthused with the concept of a more restrained musical, I’d say it is worth it just for her performance. And if you normally don’t like musicals, you might like this one anyway.
For the record, Tony Shaloub’s character does sing a little bit, but much as I loved the play (and love Tony Shaloub from his Monk days), I agree that it is maybe a role that shouldn’t have yielded a best actor in a musical win! Although I suppose technically, if you put in a very strong acting performance in a musical, you should be eligible even if you yourself are’t doing much singing.
OMG Amar Ramasar is INCREDIBLE!!
Knowing nothing about the production, I said to myself that he HAD to be Jigger Craigin. How is his singing?
I love musicals, and never have the opportunity to see them these days. Sigh.