Hello Again
- Director: Tom Gustafson
- Writer: Cory Krueckeberg; Michael John LaChiusa
- Producer: Hunter Arnold; Ash Christian
CGiii Comment
What do you call a musical without one good [or, even memorable] song? A dud.
Considering this is all about copulation, it's stirringly sexless...although there are - at least - 10 sex scenes...from homo to hetero to trans to sapphic...once you've seen one, you've seen them all!That's how interesting they are!
Yes, this is [yet again, yawn] a tired and weary re-hash of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1897 La Ronde re-hashed via Michael John LaChiusa [seemingly acclaimed] off-Broadway re-enhashment [so acclaimed it never made it to Broadway!] - how many times does this bawdy tale need to be re-trashed!?!
And...to make matters worse, here, there's a 're-make' of the Titantic involving two men of different social status...with the same thing on their minds...not the sinking ship and survival...but, each [naked] other!
Tom Gustafson does a decent job with some truly dreadful material as do [most of] the cast...but, did no-one realise that none of these [mostly tuneless] songs will ever be performed by talent-show-wannabes or karaoke aficionados thereby ensuring musical immortality?!?
Apart from one rather inspired transition...once seen, Hello Again will neither be seen nor heard again. Ouch!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Where does sex end and love begin? When do fantasy and reality diverge? Bringing together stars of stage and screen, Tom Gustafson (Were the World Mine, Getting Go) returns to Inside Out with the highly anticipated gender-bending film adaptation of Michael LaChiusa's 1994 musical, Hello Again, inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's landmark play Der Reigen and Max Ophüls's subsequent Oscar-nominated film, La Ronde.
From 1901 to the present, Hello Again presents a series of ten vignettes in which ten characters pair up in various configurations and time periods, with a panoply of sexual proclivities. Jack (Tyler Blackburn) has sex with Robert (Cheyenne Jackson) who has sex with Sally (Audra McDonald) who has sex with Ruth (Martha Plimpton). And while they experience the immediate pleasures of sex, their hearts are left wanting.
From operetta to swing to pop, the music of Hello Again strikes an emotional chord in this bittersweet exploration of sex and love.
Cast & Characters
Sam Underwood as Leocadia;
Nolan Gerard Funk as Les;
Jenna Ushkowitz as Marie;
Al Calderon as Alfred;
Rumer Willis as Emily;
T.R. Knight as Carl;
Tyler Blackburn as Jack;
Cheyenne Jackson as Robert;
Audra McDonald as Sally;
Martha Plimpton as Ruth;
Amy Halldin as The Redhead;
Adam Perry as Brawny Sailor;
Tom Patrick Stephens as Steward;
Ramon O. Torres as Hip Engineer;
Adrian Enscoe as Pop Crooner