{"id":90405,"date":"2022-05-22T23:25:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T06:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=90405"},"modified":"2022-05-22T23:25:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T06:25:54","slug":"pam-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2022\/05\/22\/pam-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Pam in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The most basic acting job on TV is soap operas \u2013 and, heaven knows, there are precious few of those left.&nbsp; Time was, actors could get their start, their training, and, in some cases, a lifetime job on a soap.&nbsp; The stage equivalent of that is <em>Chicago<\/em>.&nbsp; The musical is celebrating 25 years on <em>Broadway <\/em>in a still-effective, stripped-down version.&nbsp; But the age shows.&nbsp; There is something to be said for occasionally firing everyone and starting from scratch because the performance I saw last week was a shadow of even 10 years ago.&nbsp; The wild card was <strong>Pamela Anderson <\/strong>\u2013 who, it must be noted, in her fifth week did not fill the theatre.&nbsp; To say that Pam was making her <em>Broadway <\/em>debut should be a given.&nbsp; What will surprise is that she is completely and (forgive me for the pun) utterly adequate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I love Pam and was rooting for her.&nbsp; And, truly, there is nothing wrong with Anderson\u2019s performance \u2013 except that it\u2019s not really a performance.&nbsp; Patti LuPone once explained the difference between a choreographer and a director.&nbsp; A choreographer will tell a performer to walk across the stage; a director will help the actor discover why and how to walk across the stage.&nbsp; Pam has been choreographed.&nbsp; She strikes striking poses, and walks with panache.&nbsp; But not a single movement or gesture comes out of any authentic place.&nbsp; It would appear that every word and inflection has been dutifully drilled into her head.&nbsp; The result is that her Roxie lacks heart.&nbsp; On the positive side, she looks splendid and dances cleanly \u2013 if self-consciously.&nbsp; She starts speaking while the audience is laughing or applauding \u2013 which ultimately doesn\u2019t matter because she cannot be heard.&nbsp; Her singing is in tune and has some musicality, but she doesn\u2019t project.&nbsp; If someone told her to use her diaphragm, she\u2019d likely go back to her dressing room to get it!&nbsp; The only genuine moment of emotion crossed her face when she finished the last number \u2013 as if to say, \u201cPhew!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most basic acting job on TV is soap operas \u2013 and, heaven knows, there are precious few of those left.&nbsp; Time was, actors could get their start, their training, and, in some cases, a lifetime job on a soap.&nbsp; The stage equivalent of that is Chicago.&nbsp; The musical is celebrating 25 years on Broadway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90406,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90405\/revisions\/90406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}