Sad when good people do bad things
Two events that I was truly looking forward to seem to be sinking fast.
The worse of the two is Twyla Tharp’s interpretation of the songs of Bob Dylan, The Times They are a’Changin’. Aside from what I consider to be far too many apostrophes in the title, this should have been a great work. I’ve loved Twyla since I first was exposed to her choreography set on Mikhail Baryshnikov in White Nights. Her last effort, a performative interpretation of Billy Joel’s body of work entitled Movin’ Out (eek, another apostrophe!) got rave reviews and was generally credited with reviving the "Jukebox Musical."
But not so Changin’. In fact, I’ve held off talking about it in the hopes I could find something, somewhere, good to say about it. But no; review after review pans it, talks about what a disastrous confusing mess it is, and bemoans the fact that she seems to not really care that she’s created, well, a disservice to the great musician St. Bob.
Admittedly, reviewers are probably getting a little bit of schadenfreude in being able to write a bad review:
"If an unknown artist had stumbled so badly creating a new musical, I wouldn’t in fairness review it at all. But there’s an arrogance at work here, a cynicism that gives offense. Ms. Tharp is more than a respected artist: Some hail her as an innovatory genius of modern American dance. She conceived, directed and choreographed The Times They Are A-Changin’—and so she must take the knocks for her mind-boggling fiasco."– John Heilpern
Harsh words. But at the same time, I doubt they’re going to phase her much. In reality, this is a win-win situation for everyone (except the show producers, that is); Twyla knows she can do better, this is just a blip. The reviewers stand secure in the fact that they can, in fact, be as harsh as Simon Cowell even with someone of her stature. And people like me, the schmucks who produce the little things, we can say of our work "Well, yeah, it sucks…but at least it’s not as bad as Changin’".
Tags: bob dylan, twyla tharp, dance, review
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