This one time, at band camp (a review of Blast! the Broadway musical?)
Written: Aug 31 '01 (Updated Mar 30 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Incredible energy. Eye-popping visuals. Gymnastic feats. Technical mastery. Toe-tapping music. Audience enrapture.
Cons: For once, try as I might, nothing. Not a musical, but that’s not the point.
The Bottom Line: blast! is music embodied. Music you can see, touch, feel and taste. Marching Band has come of age!
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| benho's Full Review: Blast! |
The recent film American Pie has permanently inscribed the phrase "This one time, at band camp" into our national vocabulary. The high school marching band members, the so-called "band f__s" were never given much respect. At least the "drama geeks" could grow up with aspirations to Broadway, and thus acceptance if not embrace by the "civilized" world. The best marching band devotees could hope for would be to join the exalted likes of the Cadets of Bergen County or the Blue Devils (of Concord not Duke) on the DCI (Drum Corp International) circuit. Until now (actually last year, but I'm a bit late).
Dance has been in resurgence on Broadway, led by dance queen Susan Stroman. Between her modern "ballet," Contact, that won the Tony last year, and her revival of the tap extravaganza, 42nd St., slipped another innovative new show from a completely orthogonal angle: Blast! The traditional answer to the question, What does music look like? has always been answered by one word in many forms, dance (except for Walt Disney who tried to answer that question using something called Fantasia but that never caught on). Whether this was the Bolshoi ballet or J-Lo on MTV, dance held suzerainty over this region of art's demesne.
This has changed.
blast! bombards the audience with sound incarnate. In the opening number, well scrubbed young people march out smartly in black uniform, belting out the sensuous strains of Ravel's Bolero, their bright bronze phallic horns swaying in unison, projecting the sound out into the audience. The direction of their instruments physically manipulates the location of the sound in the room; Ravel's dance tune is recreated in brass and made tangible.
The stage is a jet black box, a portal into an alternate dimension, with a faint glowing grid demarcating the floor (a clear recollection of the hash marks on a football field possibly more important to the band members than the football players).
In succeeding numbers, the instrumentalists are soon joined by what's traditionally called the color guard: gymnastic flag throwers and spinners extraordinaire. Men and women (boys and girls practically) who fill the stage (floor to roof) with waving flags, flailing streamers, and whizzing "rifles."
The drums are particularly memorable in their technical prowess, and the "drum break" where the drummers get to solo is frankly breathtaking. Two drummers face off in a "Battle of the Banjos" laying down beats faster than comprehension. But it is when the drum ensemble appears together, demonstrating extraordinary coordination and inhuman precision through exquisite choreography that the roof comes down.
Color schemes tend to be monotone in bright uniform rainbow hues. Frenetic lights and non-stop pacing lend a MTV production value.
Repertoire is mostly crowd-pleasing pop orchestral typical of the genre and played with excellent musicianship. During one performance of Copland's Appalacian Spring, the performers put their instruments down for an a capella Simple Gifts and display a level uniformity in their balletic gestures that will send those Riverdancers packing for the Emerald Isles in shame.
The second half begins with a demonstration of their humor with a wacky instrumental rendition of Office Krupke, and continues with pieces highlighting various global cultures. The penultimate piece betrays the genre's origin as a "spirit activity" (a term I learned from the film Bring it On). The purpose of the marching band is after all to support the football team by working the crowd, and at this blast! excels. This quality makes their Caribbean number perhaps most effective. Starting with simple strains from a big smiling guy with a big shiny tuba and a charmingly gentle countenance, the ensemble weaves together a tale of friendship, celebration, and invitation. As the simple melody wafts and the players dissolve into the audience to offer greetings, you cannot help but feel involved, befriended, and welcomed into their tribe.
While blast! offers a broad range of music, it is by no means universal in its representation. It is a very young crew (DCI tour competitors age out at 23, no longer allowed to compete). Also, in addition to betraying their "spirit" origins, their militaristic precision and occasional battle inspired choreography makes their martial origins very evident. (Music and the military have always had a deep connection. To this day, the U.S. Armed Forces is the biggest employer of professional orchestral musicians in the United States. The multitude of service orchestras at the bases that dot the nation encompass one quarter of all such professionals in the country. Just a factoid I thought I'd like to share.)
However, the blasting, dynamic music of Blast! still has universal appeal, and you cannot help but walk away embraced by their charm, regardless of who you are. Even though the show has been out for nearly two years now, the audience jumped to their feet in an instant standing ovation. Blast! won the Tony for Best Special Theatrical Event last year finally granting drum corp validation as an art form.
However, while this is a great taste of what drum corp and marching band is all about, it is by no means fully representative of the medium. Only in the closing number, when the entire ensemble is arrayed out on stage, in the walls, throughout the audience, creating complex formations and weaving in and out between each other that you get an idea of the frantic energy that comes from the concurrence of frenetic activity designed to fill a football field. The full effect looked positively suffocating cooped up in the Broadway theatre, which is why it was saved for use once in the end. However, it was enough to gives a taste of the true magic of this art, and enough to leave the blasted audience looking for more.
Band F__s of the world unite!
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Technical Info:
1681 Broadway
at 53rd Street (next to Rubert G's Hello Deli!)
Running Time 2:30
Evening Performances
Tues through Sat at 8pm
Matinee Performances
Wed and Sat at 2pm & Sun at 3pm
Prices: $43, $71, or $120
But fairly easy to get for half price at tkts.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
benho
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Member: Ben Ho
Location: New York, NY, USA
Reviews written: 65
Trusted by: 52 members
About Me:
The end (of grad school) is near... off now to teach in cold Ithaca.
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