iTunes Exclusive Episode The Bridges Of Madison County The Musical

The following is a sooner orgator production.
Good Morning.
John, stop.
I got ready for the jam.
I said I already for the jam benefit.
John G.
Kick it, drums please.
John.
John.
John.
John.
John.
John.
John.
John.
John.
John.
Greetings Empire member and or members.
If you are hearing my voice, it means the following conditions have been met.
First and foremost, you've at least once in your life listen to the Clubhouse podcast.
Live every Sunday night, 70's turn for Pacific Year, one stop shop for all things, sports
and entertainment, but it also means you subscribe on iTunes.
Because that means it is time for another iTunes exclusive greetings iTunes exclusive
181. It's a palindrome numerically speaking. My name is Rob, I'm the executive producer
of the Clubhouse podcast.com and I was born in the state of Iowa and I've driven through
Madison County. Although by the time I drove through it all, the bridges were gone.
But it's true story. But I'm not alone for this particular episode.
Joining me across the desk as he tends to do is my co-host and a man that I'm not sure is ever
driven through a covered bridge. We're about to ask him. He is Chad. Welcome, sir.
Indeed, I have you really. Okay. In Virginia. Oh, well, that's right. That section of
country. Mm-hmm. There are covered bridges are cool. They really need about it.
It's a dying heart. Also joining us for this particular episode is the official
fact checker of this show. And a man who will do an accent on you if you ask him to.
But we're not asking him to. You may know him as fun, don, go. But his mom and even
don Ford. I'm going to call him Don Ford. Welcome, sir. I had the Montenac said that.
That's true. Sorry. They have covered bridges up there in the Montenac.
I went through a tunnel once. Not really the same. Just what? A couple of times.
Whatever we do one of these, it is to review something in this particular episode is no
different. For this particular episode, we are reviewing a stage production of a movie
taken from a book. A lot of leaps there, Kevin Bacon. It is the musical adaptation of the
bridges of Madison County. The book is been around for a while. The film came out in 1995. The musical
in 2014 originally, uh, the male lead. Chad, we're talking in pre-show before Don got here.
A member of rescue me, Steve really has cow who played a guarantee was the male lead in the
original in the Broadway version. So it is touring the country. It is currently here in the
in our fair bird of Dallas Fort Worth at Music Hall at Fair Park through Valentine's Day.
Before we start this whole thing, we have to thank Francesco, everybody at DS and some of the
people that we know. Yeah, thank you so much, Francesco, for everything. So for those of you
unfamiliar with the story, here is what you need to know. Francesca is from Italy. She is brought to
this country by her husband, bud when he's in the in the service during the war. They live on a farm
in Iowa with their two children, Michael and Carolyn. Carolyn is taking her price tier to the
Indiana State Fair to be judged. And Michael and bud, of course, go with her. Francesca
decides she's going to stay behind and have some some Francesca time at the house for a few days.
This takes place in 1965. And they take off in Galavant and in the meantime, a young man
by the name of Robert comes into her life. He is a photographer for National Geographic magazine,
and he is taking shots of the six major covered bridges in Madison County, hence the name of
the production. Clever. But he can't find the sixth one. So she tells him she's going to give him
directions, but she decides she's going to go with him instead. And what starts to blossom there,
little some some, you know, I'm talking about, you know, you're welcoming in that. You get,
I have a feeling somebody's going to put that on a loop. I will. No, you won't. Only because
you said it. You will not see the sunrise. And then, you know, when her family comes back to town,
there's questions that they have to ask themselves and each other and things of that nature.
All right. So you got the gist of this thing. Yes. Donna, I'm going to start with you. Okay.
This is a very beloved book. And a very beloved movie specifically, my mother-in-law loves this
film. And she could not be here to go with us, because she had a minor surgical procedure,
and she's doing very well. So we're happy about that. How do you think it translated to the stage?
I never saw the book or the movie. Well, you wouldn't have seen it read the book. Yeah, I never
but you're not alone in this room. None of us have read the book. None of us have seen the film.
But for you from a stage presence, how did it feel? I felt fine. I'd really like the plot.
It's kind of simplistically what the story is, but there's a lot of twist turns emotions put into this thing.
My big thing, which I put in my written review at www.covastplacas.com, that is our website. Okay.
I got to put on there that I like this
production so much because it was a good balance of dialogue in singing. There have been a lot of
productions we've seen in a past where they have song song, then two minutes of dialogue, then two more songs,
and two minutes, and two minutes. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, but I really like that there wasn't so much
of us as on the song, but there's a good mix of the singing with the dialogue in the plot in
this story. So I thought overall, I thought I'd not seen the movie. I thought transition well from
from what I saw last night. Chat. This one was kind of rough for me. I felt kind of in the dark
throughout the majority of at least the first act and through, I guess, part of the second act as well.
Well, the lights were off and not at the end. That's your boy. Yeah, I cut it. We apologize in
that. Thank you for shutting the show down. This one was a tough call for me. I never have an
agenda going into these things and I really did my best to just go into this thing, just like
you guys, it's cold as possible. I briefly told you that I did have full disclosure. I did
read the Wikipedia page before we went. Oh, you did? That's as far as I have to. You were more informed
than I was. I avoided the film because I didn't want it to color by review of the musical. Okay,
fair enough. So I want to go in as naive as I possibly could and I'm kind of wishing I hadn't.
Why so? Because there were elements about this production that worked against the storytelling.
I don't know how specific you want us to get with the... Yeah, without the scrolling and saying,
the free to get. I am interested in wait, seriously. It wasn't so much. This was a big discussion
in the car on the way. It wasn't so much a story per se either being of the fault of the author or
the people who did the book for the production itself. Correct. It was some of the casting choices
and the way that particular cast members portrayed themselves on stage. In particular, our female lead.
Played by Elizabeth Stanley, playing in Francesca, who has a phenomenal stage presence.
I totally agree. And sing, dancing. And has a range that would make opera diva's
invious. I was glad that I wasn't carrying any glassware. Yes. And not in a bad way. Like she
has power behind her voice. She has depth behind her voice. And it's there's no there's no there it
felt very very easy for her to sing that entire register. But they're in to me lies the rub.
But see, I don't know that that's where it lies. Was it the acronym for me?
It that's where it is. That's what I'm talking about. Yes. You're like the Matilda thing. Yes,
it was a lot like our experience at Matilda where when you're singing with an accent,
it's very easy to fall into that trap of I have to stay in character, but the words get
muddled. Right. A friend of the show, Missy Varsalone was my plus one. And in the opening number
that she sings by herself called to build a home. Missy leaned over to me and she's like,
is this an English? Yeah, exactly how I felt. I'm like, and what I'm missing something. And once
I once she said that it occlude me into kind of listen closer and focus closer, but I could still
only pick up every fourth or fifth word. Exactly. Especially with an accent that I didn't
see to be Italian. No, it sounded almost Russian. Yes, right there on the European Asian border.
Yeah, and there is a dialect coach on this crew. So I could be horribly mistaken, but you've been
it. I have. As we talked about in the intermission, it was almost like her performance was wonderful.
I thought she was great. I totally bought into her as Francesca, but I couldn't empathize with her
because I couldn't quite get everything she was singing. You couldn't connect. Correct that
that was a barrier that got put up there by that dialect that prevented you from really being able
to connect her emotionally. You're absolutely right. But for me, that didn't happen to me. Right,
no, it's amazing. And it didn't bug me. I knew that the accent was fake. It wasn't a real
talk. Yeah, but for me, I didn't really have a problem versus Matilda, because she didn't talk as
fast in stuff like that. Her full of the words and not talking too fast. I didn't have a problem with it.
I was able to get it. What we're talking about. What we're talking about. We're talking different
to dialogue. Yeah, but dialogue wasn't a problem. Yeah. It was the singing in the accent that was
the problem for the tune. But there's one song where I thought maybe she was singing in Italian,
but the rest I was good with just in my personal opinion. And to me, it was because she had a couple
of very long extended numbers. It was just her. Agreed. And she's basically telling the story of
her of her past when she was talking about her sister. I believe that's before and after you.
And I couldn't get anything out of that. I'm like, I feel like if I could understand her better,
I would have an easier time digesting this musical. I was able to piece it together, but it
definitely took me longer than it should have and speaking of longer than it should have.
Be prepared if you see this. This is two hours and 45 minutes, plus a 15 minute
in remission. Your total time spent in the building is three hours. You're flirting with dances
with wolves territory at this point. Well, if it started about 10 minutes late, and I remember
leaving about 10, 20, but still it's going to be about here. You're committing three hours to the building.
Which for me was way too long. There were parts of this that I wish they would have spent more time
giving me backstory on ancillary characters than you spend, which was what you were doing.
Right. For me, I thought it flow well. I knew it was long, but it didn't see
long compared to some other ones that I've seen. And fair enough, I think probably because I like
because there was more dialect to more into the story than just the singing, singing, singing, singing,
singing, singing. I thought personally. Like for instance, I would say less time at the county fair,
less time on the phone with bud. And a little bit more time telling us how she got to where she
and I'm glad you mentioned him played by Colin R. Tittness. He, this was weird for me.
I call him Billy Bob because it was like in the character of bud. It was like he was trying to
hard to bring across that redneck, hillbilly type thing. However, when we get to the number
known as when I'm gone in Act 2, he pulled it. He pushed it. He pulled it back. He dialed it back.
He just sang and he crushed it. And I was like, where has this guy been for the last three hours?
Yeah, he, now keep my, I'm from, you know, redneck country in my team.
Well, man, remember, I was bored. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You remind me of my uncle.
I swear to God, but did. And that's, I just thought that his portrayal,
I thought the kids, though, the kids were amazing. Uh, Michael played by John Campion and
Carolyn played by Caitlyn Hula Han. Caitlyn Hula Han was amazing. You are a real big fan of her.
She, she almost outshined the other three in the opening number when, actually, we're not the
opening number, but in the second number when they're in the house, get ready to leave for the state fair.
Uh, known as home before you know it. She was absolutely amazing. He was good.
He kind of flirted with a little bit over the top and a couple of points, but I thought that
the both of the kids did very, very well. Mike Mike too, shining stars at our non-leading roles.
Go to, uh, March played by Mary Calen and Charlie played by David S. She reminded me of that lady
from Hia. Oh, yeah. She was part of, she, the comedy she added, the character build on that.
Now, there's one character which I put again in my written via the clubhouse podcast.com.
So our website, that I had to just bring in there because I just thought it hit through the whole thing
was the tree. I, I know that you're review, you're review. Yeah. And the, the tree is never moves.
Never moves. It's always the time. And how with the lighting in that, I want to bring the
backdrop, the lighting, it was beautiful. Those night scenes and how they could turn that wall.
Oh, yeah. Tonight, the morning tonight, but the stars out and then even changes the, the
seasons with winter. You see the backdrop, where it's all snowed out at one scene by the end.
I, I, that blew me away. The lighting was beautiful. The backdrop, the set was beautiful.
It's a, it was very, very minimalistic. The tree is there the whole time. The backdrop is
there with the lighting and everything. It just, but the lighting really gives a lot of character
to what's going on. And like you said, especially the night scenes when the stars come through,
I thought from a technical standpoint, this thing was absolute, but gorgeous. It's simple sets,
but they, they, they, you still felt you were going from looking. But the only thing that got to
me in that, what's that? The movement from seeing to seeing,
there was a little too much of it. You thought, okay. Especially with the, with the ensemble coming
on and off the stage. And here's my one question is why a lot of them just sat on the side of the stage.
And that was, that was a point of contention for us driving home for a show last night. It almost
destroyed. It doesn't completely pull you out of it, but it does distract you a little, right?
It's just sitting there. It definitely distracted me at a couple of points. Again, because you're kind
of like, because when we went and saw once, it was like that, but those people were involved in the
scene where they were playing instruments. In these cases, the ensemble at most sitting in the
chairs were basically background singers. And a lot of it, like, a lot of the choreography of the
movement, especially towards the end when you're moving from scene to scene very quickly, I thought
that worked really well, but some of it did kind of distract me a bit. It's not for me too much,
because they, they have to move the stuff. There's no way around it. And there were a couple of
more of the people sitting on the stage. Yeah, that was really, that's what I'm looking for. Kind of
it was like, why? Yeah. And the way that they would enter the scene in some cases, like when
they were there talking about his ex, how she just comes walking through the kitchen to double back
to sit there. That was that was weird, but I think for me what that was, was her, like, he was
imagining her there. So that was, and that was an odd choice to make, but it was kind of a bold choice
at the same time. I think at that point, I leaned over to Jules and said, your wife was a British
descent, a boy, the security in her house sucks. If anybody comes walking in. And this is just such
a weird thing for me, because, I mean, we've covered all the bases. Yeah. So we can get
to, there was just missing something for you in there. There's, there's, and I can't put my finger
on it. It's, we can, we can burn this into the final analysis. And the way we do the final analysis
on this show, we don't give you thumbs-up thumbs down, we don't give you stars, we don't give you
letter rankings, number rankings, anything like that, because our audience whom we affectionately
refer to as the Empire, they like us to go a little deeper. So we're going to do that for you.
We're going to ask two questions. Question number one, is would you see this again if the
answer is no, then we're done here. But if the answer is yes, then it becomes, in this case,
into the stage production, where do you want to sit? Because, of course, the closer you sit in
the better seats, you have the more expensive they are. So channel, I'm going to start with you.
Would you see this again? I can't say that I would. Fair enough, then we'll move to dawn.
Dom, do you see this again? Oh, definite. How far are you willing to go? I mean, I know because I've
read your review, which is at www.theclubhouse.com, which is our website. Almost right on the
breath there. Yeah, but I know I really loved it because I thought everything worked at full
row. I thought that even though it was long, you knew it was long, but it didn't seem long to me too long.
I love the mix of the singing and the dialogue. I love the charactership. I love this set,
the backdrop, the lighting. There wasn't one thing that really disturbed me or bugged me. So I'm going
to say the center of the four, you know, you are an enigma wrapped in a mystery. Yeah, I know.
I never claimed to me normal. It's amazing how sometimes we can see things the right way at
other times, we're just, we couldn't be farther apart. Yeah, which is the beauty of this show.
I'm, I'm kind of splitting the difference here. Okay. Because I'm just barely on this side of I would.
Okay. So you said not by much. I'm kind of tearing. See, saying like, if you'd asked me this last
night, I might not have the same answer. But I've had a, I've had a data kind of digested it,
which is a mid or back balcony probably. Okay. You know, don't don't break the bank to see this
for me, but I mean, it's gorgeous to look at. And some of the musical numbers are really well done,
but it just, you know, love the instruments they used. I thought it was a good mix. No,
just all the stuff. Yeah, I think it's all right. Right. And now for me, the, the mix was a little,
there could have been more vocal in the mix. The orchestra was a little louder than I wanted to be,
but I like the, I like the, the, the, the, the instruments that they used. Yeah, that was good.
But I want to see her do something else. You know what, I, I think I would agree with you like that.
Something that's a little bit maybe more in her wheelhouse, like Maria, as in the sound of music.
You did say that as we were driving home last night. Yeah. I honestly, I think that her voice was too big for this production.
You know what, I would agree with you on that. That's a good way to put it. She was, she was so powerful that she kind of
made everybody else look kind of tame by comparison. And nobody up there was a slouch. Oh, not at all.
But she was, and this is nothing against her. No, not at all. It was an odd fit. Yeah, it just,
it sounded like she was singing opera. Everybody else is doing Broadway. And a, and a great cast,
everybody was great. Like, I can't, I couldn't point anybody and go,
you know, everybody was rock solid. I mean, check it out. I'm not saying I did not check it out.
I, I just, I wouldn't break the bank to do so. Yeah. All right. All right.
Again, we have to thank Francesco. Everybody dolled some of musicals in musical for a park for
inviting us to this thing again. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Francesco. That being said,
let's do the plugs. Visit our website www dot the clubhouse podcast.com. Find out everything you
need to know and some stuff you don't. Please like our Facebook page, if you don't mind,
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a clubhouse show. You could follow me on Twitter if you'd like. I'm a guest at Robber,
that is called ERV. I am a chat in PG69. I'm at fondango and you can email me at Don at the
clubhouse podcast.com. Email Don for details on how we can come to a live show at your
particular establishment. And if you're listening to this episode, maybe one coming in its vein
very soon, you don't know. You can email me if you'd like questions, comments, concerns,
so many go out and stand. I am Rob at the clubhouse podcast.com. I am chat at the clubhouse
Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say that.
And Jules Womick, was she kind of in the same vein as you were? Very much. Our normal show,
every Sunday night, seven Eastern for Pacific is your one-stop shop for all things, sports,
and entertainment. So until next time, for Don, for Chad, for the Empire, I'm Rob. Clubhouse is
closed. Now Britney Palmer, she could have just thrown a monkey wrench in the whole thing,
because that's how she rolls.
The preceding was a sooner or later production.