Madoff: The Musical (staged reading)

I didn't really have any high expectations especially after last week. However, this turned out not too bad for someone's first full-length musical, the someone being Kate Ingber, who wrote both the book and the music. That's commendable.

Having learnt some "tips" on structure and style of musicals from J, I tried to assess the musical as such. But firstly, I need to say that The Chamber, though a nice place didn't serve as well in this instance. It could well be the sound system, but I had a bit of difficulty catching what was said and sung as the mics or maybe the hard walls or high ceilings caused the speech to sound muffled (echo?). And maybe also I was affected by the singing, which was a bit diverse in mix and quality, but keeping in mind that this is just a staged reading, I think it's not a big problem.

Even though the musical was called "Madoff", the protagonist here isn't Madoff, but Henry, whose a corporate spy; the story of Madoff told from Henry's point of view.
Generally, there was a sound flow and structure of the story, that gave it a sense of completeness. Well, the story was predictable as it went along (even cliche at some points), but hey, nothing's new in theatre. The songs also followed a more or less consistent theme/style, which helped in keeping the audience focused. I believe the reprise of songs/tunes are quite crucial in making a musical more memorable and in reminding the audience of certain aspects of the show. Well, there was one, at least, which was the repeated chorus of "Waking Up in Wall Street" by the readers. I think I'm beginning to understand how the style of music in a musical affect the audience's engagement level. Used to take it for granted. Besides that, as J said, a change of settings/locations within the story is important in a musical, which there was (as contrary to a play which can work in a confined setting). To add on, I think that a musical should also transcend time, i.e. events should occur over a period of time. These were 2 things Casino didn't have. There was also an attempt to introduce each main character, which is important, but I think a little more character development would be nice. But then again, there seems to be quite a few characters involved, so it might be difficult as it will cause the musical to overrun.

As opposed to J, I preferred the 2nd half of the musical. I think it's because they managed to sustain a "high" since this was supposed to be the "action" part of the musical, and I kinda preferred the songs in the 2nd Act, like when the 2 couples Henry and Jane, Bernie and Ruth, sang their love song. The readers/singers also seemed to be more "warmed up". I felt there was more continuity in this act than Act 1, which I felt seemed a bit "choppy" in the sense that I kept feeling each sequence was a little short before I could get myself into it. Maybe I'm slow lah. But I remind myself that it's just a reading, so maybe that's why.

Well, I guess I can conclude this was better than Casino. Will this be suitable to be fully staged? I don't know, but who knows what this might lead to?