I'll apologise first. Sorry, I'm biased.
I was thinking of writing this last night, after I'd come back from the show, but I thought I'd wait and see if I'd feel the same way after I'd slept on it. So I've slept on it, bought a new battery for the car (long story), done a bunch of work, and I still feel the same way. Which is ambivalent. I feel so ambivalent about the show that I'm even ambivalent about my ambivalence, which I know sounds dumb but I'm sure you've felt that way before about something.
The show was pretty good; after all, that's a strong cast they lined up. Music and script beefed up from the original. So why the ambivalence? Don't know, maybe my bias has something to do with it.
In all honesty though, I really don't think I'm biased. I really, really think that the show was decent, but not great. And I really, really, REALLY think that, if I had a choice between watching the original and this 2007 version, I'd rather watch the original (which was decent, but not great either, but for different reasons).
It didn't start too well. You wouldn't have known there was a Croaker's Concert on when all you saw was an incredibly hammy Horatio (who said he had to be a hunched up old guy anyway) gesticulating at a curtain of leaves(?) from behind which came an odd croak or two. Then what seemed to be an interminably long dialogue between father and son which left me fidgeting in the seat. It took a long while for it get moving.
The singing was a bit inconsistent, (unlike in the original where, with the notable exception of Indi Nadarajah, the singing was consistently so-so). "Frogway" and "Think It Over" came out pretty weak, which was surprising considering Vince's vocal ability, and this was a disappointment as the 2 numbers are absolutely critical. Ash Nair made a good fist of it, yet "Freddy's Lament" never really reached the heights. But the biggest letdown had to be "Good Promotion". For someone who had seen Ramani and Indi's raunchy, raucous, rock and roll version in 1980, watching Harith and Elaine's delivery was like watching terrapins mating - interesting subject, somehow doesn't hold my interest. Yes, Harith has the expressions that make him good to watch, and Elaine is, well, good to watch, errr...
somebody has to do some singing, right?
The storyline was never difficult and always fairly predictable (sorry Marcel, I know you know you weren't writing The Day of the Jackal) but the ending, when it came was like...HUH? That's it? Sorry, and the point was...?
I've always felt that with the rebellious son, misfit friend, tragic inter-species (?) romance and devious agents, Frogway just had to be a feel-good show. So why didn't I get the warm-and-fuzzies watching it? Was it just me who thought it was rather flat. that it needed a "big" number, it needed a chorus line (it's Frogway, for heaven's sake, you have to have a chorus line)? 3 Frogettes, no matter how talented, do not make a chorus line.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it was a bad show - far from it. It was still pretty good fun but I confess, there were times when my eyes weren't ribbetted (sorry, I had to get that in) to what was going on onstage. I think it says it all when, as another poster has said, Shirley the Frogette stole the show. With a combination of decent acting and a comical accent.
OK, rant over.
