A little life is my favorite book since it was published so I was more than excited to go to see the play but my disappointment is off the charts. Actors are casted poorly, they look nothing like it was described in the book(except Malcolm) which is very noticeable.
Example? Willems hair is blonde, JB is fat, Andy is ginger, Jude is racially unspecified but it was mentioned that he's not white yet played by a white man. Buying a wig for some of them wouldn't cost a fortune.
2 stars instead of 1 because actor playing JB absolutely BODIED the role. The rest of the cast? Not so much. They tried for sure but that's not enough. When I'm reading A little life I feel compassion for Jude and it makes you root for him until the very end. The play made me HATE his character. It didn't embody his essence at all. It's mentioned many times that Jude is a serious man and yet in the play he's the one who's smiling the most from the entire cast. When you're about to make a play about a book at least read the goddamn thing.
No Julie? Really? Her lack was definitely visible.
Also the poor choices of clothing for half of the cast are again a detail but details matter.
The brief mention of Hemming at the very end really pissed me off. Hemming deserved to be mentioned in more than 3 sentences and because of the fact that he wasn't mentioned at the beginning of the play (like it was in the book) he was mentioned at the very end and because of that his existence in Willems life lost it's huge meaning. Also no mentions of Henry young's, Flora, Malcolm's wife(they mentioned he got married but they didn't even say her name? Weird), Willems parents, Ezra, artists who had a shared space with JB, JBs family and probably much more but I'm just giving examples from the top of my head.
I understand that the time is limited but some things have great significance and they just NEED to be mentioned.
I'm disappointed beyond comprehension because this book means the world to me and this play ruined it for me.
Example? Willems hair is blonde, JB is fat, Andy is ginger, Jude is racially unspecified but it was mentioned that he's not white yet played by a white man. Buying a wig for some of them wouldn't cost a fortune.
2 stars instead of 1 because actor playing JB absolutely BODIED the role. The rest of the cast? Not so much. They tried for sure but that's not enough. When I'm reading A little life I feel compassion for Jude and it makes you root for him until the very end. The play made me HATE his character. It didn't embody his essence at all. It's mentioned many times that Jude is a serious man and yet in the play he's the one who's smiling the most from the entire cast. When you're about to make a play about a book at least read the goddamn thing.
No Julie? Really? Her lack was definitely visible.
Also the poor choices of clothing for half of the cast are again a detail but details matter.
The brief mention of Hemming at the very end really pissed me off. Hemming deserved to be mentioned in more than 3 sentences and because of the fact that he wasn't mentioned at the beginning of the play (like it was in the book) he was mentioned at the very end and because of that his existence in Willems life lost it's huge meaning. Also no mentions of Henry young's, Flora, Malcolm's wife(they mentioned he got married but they didn't even say her name? Weird), Willems parents, Ezra, artists who had a shared space with JB, JBs family and probably much more but I'm just giving examples from the top of my head.
I understand that the time is limited but some things have great significance and they just NEED to be mentioned.
I'm disappointed beyond comprehension because this book means the world to me and this play ruined it for me.