In 1980 I saw the commercial for the new musical EVITA on
Broadway. I was 20 and still living on Long Island.
I ended up seeing the show 18 times. It is my all time favorite show. I was
mesmerized by the commercial which made me want to see the show. I knew nothing
about the subject but there was something about the music that reeled me in.
I got to see the amazing Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin at
the beginning of their careers and later on I had the opportunity to meet Patti
LuPone who graciously signed the portrait of her as Evita that I had painted.
Something I have noticed in commercial advertisements is that we tend
to be moving away from focusing on talent to just showing technical aspects of
the medium in theater, television and movies. Why is it so hard for a play to
exist and keep going? Is it because they don’t have the thrills, special
effects and shockers as let’s say Spiderman or Phantom have.
I think many of the youth today require fast action,
technology, pyrotechnics and special effects to help them relate to the arts.
What does this actually say about technology and its importance or non
importance on the youth of today?
I know when I was student teaching many students wanted to
watch the movie version of classics instead of actually reading them. Is
technology creating lack of imagination because we can now have the visual
aspect of a story, video, show mapped out for us as opposed to imagining it in
our own mind?
Sometimes the scariest moments in piece are left to our own
imagination but my concern is where is that imagination going to?
Below is the Original Television Commercial for EVITA I used for this assignment
Below is the link
to the commercial
An
Extra Bonus.
The Tony
Performance of “A New Argentina” – So exciting…
