The Highest Yellow
The Highest Yellow
#0The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 1:02am
Marc Kudisch, Judy Kuhn, and Jason Danielly are currently starring in the world premiere of LaChiusa's latest work The Highest Yellow. The show is being presented by Signature Theatre in Washington DC, who also commissioned the work.
I saw it tonight and was curious if anyone else on the board had and what they're thoughts were.
I enjoyed myself, however I had issue with some of the design and staging including a scene where a nude (yes completely nude, and he is one hairy fellow) Kudisch as Vincent Van Gogh delivers an Aria while bathing himself in a hospital bathtub.
Hope to hear other thoughts!
Yes that's me. No, it's not a Rent homage.
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#1re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 1:03am
YES WE ALL KNOW HE'S NUDE! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO RUB IT IN WHEN YOU KNOW I WAS SICK AND COULDN'T GO SEE IT?!
GOD, you are one cruel sick and twisted SOB!
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
B.B. Wolf
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/26/04
#2re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 1:03am
Why was that an issue? Superfluous? Too hairy? 
Word. Word, indeed.
B.B. Wolf
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/26/04
#3re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 1:04am
You invoked the name of Kudisch and included the word "nude". Matt was quick to spring.
Word. Word, indeed.
#4re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 1:05amIt was an issue because it was truly bizarre, unnecessary, and extremely distracting.
Yes that's me. No, it's not a Rent homage.
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#5re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 1:05am
UNNECESSARY? You've GOT to be joking. If there was ever something needed in a show, it's THAT.
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
Updated On: 11/12/04 at 01:05 AM
#6re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 1:06am
WAIT WAIT WAIT! Back up the Bus Rosa Parks!
NUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!??????
ARIA???
NUDE ARIA!
MY HUSBAND IS SINGING A NUDE ARIA AND I DIDN"T KNOW>>>>>>OMG MY EYES ARE TEARING!
I think I need to make a pilgramage to Washington this weekend...anyone coming??? Besides me :)
HAHAHAHAHAH! OMG NUDE KUDISCH! It's better than PIZZA!
#7re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 12:41pmBUMP!
Yes that's me. No, it's not a Rent homage.
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#8re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/12/04 at 12:47pmI would love to see this show, nudity or no. (OOH! A rhyme!) I love love love LaChiusa--the man never plays it safe, God bless 'im.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#9re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 1:30pm
Worth seeing then?
Just wondering, because The Washington Post didn't give it a very good review.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=entertainment/profile&id=1096261&typeId=16
B.B. Wolf
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/26/04
ShbrtAlley44
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/1/03
B.B. Wolf
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/26/04
#12re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 2:00pm
Yeah, the bandage is kind of off-putting.
Who wants to place bets that this will transfer to Off-Broadway? I think the material is a little too avant garde for Broadway.
Word. Word, indeed.
#13re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 2:15pmI'd love to see any new work by LaChiusa. A nude aria with Kudisch is whipped cream on top of the sundae...
#14re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:40pm
This thread needed a bump. I enjoy LaChiusa's work (Wild Party,
R shamon) I hope this one will find its way to NY as well!
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
#15re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:46pmSo, whats the music for Van Gogh like? is it rangey? Does Marc stay in his lower register or is there a lot of high stuff? I'm very curious.
"I don't really get the ending,all i can go with is when after several months,Judith saw Pat sang,and later she kissed him on the toilet,after that the story back to where Pat went down from the stage after he'd sung,and he went to the italian lady.I just don't get it,what Judith exatcly meant when he kissed Pat that she had seen,and did Pat end up together with The Italian Lady?Please help me,thank u very much!"
Quote from someone on IMDB in reference to a movie he/she didn't understand. Such grammar!
#16re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:51pm
From what I can remember it's very rangey. He stays in falsetto for much of the bathtub Aria.
Most of his songs use color as a motif, which i found to be irritating and gimmicky. (Yellow=happy, Blue=sad, etc)
Yes that's me. No, it's not a Rent homage.
#17re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:55pmThats very interesting. I'm asking because I get told all the time that I look like a few of the self portraits of Van Gogh and always wished there'd be a good version of the show written that I could audition for. I'm a bass/baritone though and the high stuff might be tough. (and I don't think I'd want to do the nude aria..LOL...)
"I don't really get the ending,all i can go with is when after several months,Judith saw Pat sang,and later she kissed him on the toilet,after that the story back to where Pat went down from the stage after he'd sung,and he went to the italian lady.I just don't get it,what Judith exatcly meant when he kissed Pat that she had seen,and did Pat end up together with The Italian Lady?Please help me,thank u very much!"
Quote from someone on IMDB in reference to a movie he/she didn't understand. Such grammar!
#18re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 5:06pm
PS....be very happy that that picture above doesnt show the saggy man boobs lol.
Yes that's me. No, it's not a Rent homage.
#19re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 11/16/04 at 5:22pmOK that one calls for "thank your lucky stars!"
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
#20re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 12/4/04 at 1:57am
Aside from nude Marc Kudisch... THE HIGHEST YELLOW is an extremely challenging piece. The music is VERY "rangy" and melodically, harmonically and rhythmically complex (as is all LaChiusa). I sat mesmorized by every note through the entire score. Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations are beautiful (10 piece). I love LaChiusa however, and I traveled from Michigan to DC just to see the show, so I may be biased in my review.
The story itself is interesting and strange, and I have to disagree with reviews that I have read comparing it to SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. I think LaChiusa and Strand have created something completely new and imaginative. This show is about madness, disease, and passion... not connection and obsession. The central focus of THY isn't even van Gogh, it's Dr. Rey. That's my first bone to pick with what I've read in a couple reviews.
The music itself is wonderfully suited to the show. At times chaotic and eclectic while at other times soaringly beautiful and deep. LaChiusa thrusts you into the show immediately with a piercing chord accented with a sharp bell tone as a beautiful rhythmic pattern plays underneath. As always with LaChiusa, you never expect what comes next, and he is always trying something new. However, this score is full of LaChiusa "trademarks" as I call them... beautiful chord 'blurs', dissonant harmonizations, complex rhythms (i.e. quintuples, septuples), and driving rhythmic passages. I think he has written some of his most "melodic" music for this show, however, that doesn't mean that it still isn't complex, and that you will definitly hear more in the music each time you listen to it. Although, I felt that MARIE CHRISTINE and THE WILD PARTY were incredibly melodic... I was humming tunes from TWP weeks after I saw it... I don't know why others don't hear what I do.
The performances are also wonderful. I felt that the two ensemble males were a little young, or at least seem young to be playing the roles they were playing. However, Donna Migliaccio commands the stage in her second act opener, playing a Madame of a brothel. This is an incredibly interesting song, characterizing love as a disease in search of a cure. Donna belts it out with bravado. Jason Danieley creates a moving performance with a wonderful journey from innocent to learned jealously and finally to madness himself (posing the question, is madness contagious in some form). His voice is strong and beautiful, and he has a firm grasp of his difficult songs. Judy Kuhn has the voice of an angel. It sounds wonderful singing LaChiusa's beautiful music that he has written for her character. I felt that she has a better command of her role than the reviews gave her credit for. This is not a whore with a heart of gold kind of character that I feel others wanted her to be. She is selfish, conniving, and willing to use people to get what she wants. This is wonderfully played subtextually by Ms. Kuhn. She sings some of the most entrancing lyrics too, "You need the dark to make the light lighter/You need the scream to make the quiet heard/The use of shadows makes the picture brighter/A thousand sounds without a single word." Marc Kudicsh, in his second LaChiusa show, is also perfect for this role. His van Gogh is wonderfully nuanced without being over-the-top during the "mad" scene(s). His aria "The Highest Yellow" is absolutely breathtaking. Using the full range of his voice with a strong command of falsetto singing that not a lot of men get to use, or can use well. Such a difficult song that he makes seem effortless.
My only wish is that the end of the show had been musicalized. There is a beautiful underscore, however, the end is Vincent reading a letter. I guess I was just hoping for one more gorgeous song and was disappointed I didn't get one. If you would like to hear a preview of a couple of songs, Signature theatre did a preview at the Kennedy Center of their season. There are a couple other shows singing as well, however there are 4 songs from THE HIGHEST YELLOW. I'll post the link below. Just type in The Highest Yellow in the search and ONE RED FLOWER with appear... click the link, and THY is about 13 minutes into the clip. Hope you enjoy!
If you are in the DC area and really want to see something special, different, and daring... go see this show. Beautiful score, intriguing story, wonderful UNMIC-ED broadway performers, and an evening of theatre you'll never forget.
The Highest Yellow Preview
From the evil she done Lord
Set her free, Set her free, Set me free
Don't let my sorrow
Make evil of me
Chrysanthemum62001
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/14/04
#21re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 12/4/04 at 2:06am
*smiles*
The thought of Marc Kudisch nude is a good thought indeed.
"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#22re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 12/4/04 at 2:09am
BACK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone here knows HE IS MINE.
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
Chrysanthemum62001
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/14/04
#23re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 12/4/04 at 2:16am
*Retracts prior statement.* My mistake Matt. I didn't realize I wasn't allowed to picture him naked! It won't happen again.
*smiles* ...
"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL
leomaxfrank
Broadway Star Joined: 3/19/04
#24re: The Highest Yellow
Posted: 12/4/04 at 2:21amwildparty20 - thanks for that wonderful review! i'll be replying to your PM at some point this weekend. the shows are plentiful on the weekends! off to bed
But I won't live alone in a house of regret.
Updated On: 12/4/04 at 02:21 AM
Videos