Me- Recently, we saw Hoi Polloi at Musicals Tonight. It was a show by Noel Coward. I never saw anything by Noel Coward before. I had never even heard of him before either. The show was interesting. It was about a sailor and this girl named Pinkie. They met and fell in love at first site. Unlike in most shows, there wasn't much conflict in the show, and the conflict that there was got resolved really easily. The acting was good though. I loved all the English accents. I love accents. Even though the show was a musical, none of the songs were really memorable. There wasn't as much dancing as there usually is in Musicals Tonight's shows either. It was very different than any other show I have seen at Musicals Tonight. It was not my favorite, but it was okay. I always enjoy seeing shows at Musicals Tonight.
Mom - Although Musicals Tonight usually presents revivals of old shows, their most recent show, Hoi Polloi was actually a show that had never been produced on stage before. The show was greatly anticipated because it was written by Noel Coward. However, it definitely wasn't his best work. The characters were interesting. They including Pinkie, a free spirited young girl, and Charlie, an upstanding young sailor as well as Pinkie's quirky family and neighbors. All were well acted by the talented cast. However, the characters were not really put in interesting situations, and the plot was too simply resolved. The basic plot was about Pinkie and Charlie meeting and instantly falling in love. Of course, that is the basic plot for many great plays, movies, books etc. However, this wasn't one of them. There was not enough interesting storyline in this play. Nothing much really happened. The only real conflict in the play occurred when Pinkie and Charlie had a fight when she wanted to go to a society party they were invited to, and he didn't want to go. However, that conflict was quickly resolved in the next scene when he agreed to go the party. Even in the party scene itself there was no conflict even though it would seem that there would be since the lower class, Pinkie and Charlie, would be completely out of their element among the high society people. However, everything at the party just went along fine with no conflict at all. The show was a musical although the songs were both unnecessary and unmemorable. They were, however, well sung even by the voice substitute who stood in for one of the actor's who had laryngitis at the performance which we attended. Over all, though despite the tremendous efforts of the cast, this just wasn't a very well written show. While I applaud Musical Tonight's efforts to put on a previously unproduced show by a great playwright, this just wasn't a great play, and I see why it was never previously produced.
And that's our view. Tune in tomorrow for Tips for Tuesday.
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