La Boheme Review

            While I was a fan of many of the productions in London, this was one performance that fell short of winning my admiration. La Boheme was our last show to see and instead of going out with a bang, I feel we instead went out with a bit of a whimper. The version of La Boheme we saw was not the original Italian opera, rather it was a modern version with some rather “modern” translations that at times left me wishing they had never touched the original.

            The play started out all right. The first act took place in a messy apartment shared by two starving artists, a painter and a writer. They struggled to pay rent despite having a seemingly large apartment and high tech devices such as a macbook and fashionable clothing with hairgel. I could let those details go but when the actors started singing in belting tenors about that “damn computer” they lost me. I understand that the translation was meant to be humorous but it times it passed the fine line of clever and tasteless. The whole joke just got old far too fast. The understandability of each character varied greatly which only frustrated me as time went on. I know we had a program with the lyrics but I wasn’t interested in having to read along and missing all the visuals, not that there was much to miss.

            After a lackluster first act intermission came and I was relieved for a nice sit down. Instead I was forcibly ushered out of my seat and down to the already pack bar below. Then a great marketing ploy was put into place because, surprise! Act two was to commence in the bar! Oh boy, oh wait, oh no! I wasn’t exactly please to find out that I would have to stand shoulder to shoulder for the next act when I thought I had been promised a seat with my ticket purchase. Needless to say if I had know the scene was to take place in the bar I just might have pushed forward to the front so that I might actually see but instead I stood in the back straining to see let alone hear what the actors were singing. Needless to say the entire act was completely lost on me and felt ripped off.

            I wasn’t even in the mood for the third act, by that point I was just waiting for the play to be over, wondering just how long these songs could last, and could Mimi just die already? Just the small details were aggravating such as the fact that while painting the sign, he does not in fact ever actually put the brush to the sign. It was just plain awful pantomiming. I had completely lost interest and despite the beautiful songs and wonderful piano playing I just didn’t care anymore. While I think the adaptation was a clever in theory, in practice failed.