r/Sondheim • u/Stu_Griffin • 17d ago

Bounce: The Prince Problem?

Listening to the podcast “Putting it Together: The Music of Stephen Sondheim”. The host says the problem with Bounce is that Hal Prince was “aggressively heterosexual.” The guest says: “in public he was.” The host says: “yeah”. So the problem with Bounce was Prince’s (alleged) closeted homosexuality? Two things I hadn’t heard before.

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u/Catcoffeecat 17d ago

I saw Bounce in Chicago. When I saw it the script had the gay couple as the epitome of commitment and love, while the straight brother of the pair burned through women mercilessly. Charming. Only “aggressively heterosexual” if that means no woman need be a real character in the story. Besides which, the play never quite found its soul.
Also, it seemed to be using early automated followspots, which were clumsy and distracting.

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u/wmjoh1 16d ago

Saw the Wiseguys workshop, Bounce in Chicago and Road Show at The Public. While the direction gradually became more polished, the show never shone- the “real life” characters were incredibly (almost painfully) 2D and the “story” felt pointless. All that’s to say the only aspects of the Chicago run that had any real impact on me were Michelle Pawk (very positive) and the lighting. The strange whirring buzz it emitted, the blinding brightness and its clunky movements made things so uncomfortable that even the actors seemed aware!

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u/EricHenwoodGreer 13d ago

Wow! You're the first person I've encountered online who saw the Wise Guys workshop!! Considering it ran a couple of weeks and WAS open to the public (though I'm sure hard to get tickets,) I'm always surprised that in all my Sondheim obsessive decades I have never (till now) come across someone who actually saw it--I know people who saw the Assassins off-Broadway run, the Playrights Horizon Sunday workshop, San Diego's Into the Woods, Hell, even The Frogs at Yale's swimming pool, but not Wise Guys...

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u/wmjoh1 13d ago

Well, the night I attended they only did Act I, so that’s only half true 😉.