"Surabaya-Santa" from Songs For A New World

Ashley Strumwasser
Shaun Fleming

Songs For A New World by Jason Robert Brown
May 6, 2006
Directed By A.J. Holmes
Filmed by Ethan Kuperberg

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Songs
• New
• World
• Agoura
• Jason
• Robert
• Brown
• AJ
• Holmes
• Ashley
• Strumwasser
• Shaun
• Fleming
• Melissa
• Womack
• Harum
• Scarum

[onethousandsteps]

what's with the lack of an accent?

[pianoman1114]

um..theres not really much of a point to having one.

[devon214]

um.. yeah there is, it's kinda the one of he major points of the song. One of the lines says, "I mean come on, i'm not even german!" so if there is no accent then that loses it's effectiveness. anyway, even without the accent, Awesome job!

[pianoman1114]

I'll pass along the compliment to her! Kristine Zbornik, not JRB, wrote the whole monologue. And the German line isn't even in the script; it was just an adlib by the performer. The song wasn't written that way in the first place. So, yeah, it can make it funny, but it's definitely not one of the main points of the song- it's never alluded to again. But hey, that's the great thing about the show- while it requires a strong respect of the original material, it's very open to interpretation.

[zjoke]

I'm not sure how you could assert that a performer or a director has done something WRONG. Every piece of music ever written is up to individual interpretation. Yes, there is a "correct" way to perform a Mozart concerto and there areways to shit all over it but modern music, especially theater, is up to the actors and the direction. Do you think the modern vision of the last production of Sweeney Todd (w/ LuPone and her tuba) in NYC was "wrong?" It was definitely different..but was it incorrect?

[wickedude]

Hmm... There's always the possibility that THIS IS NOT THE BLOODY ORIGINAL PRODUCTION! The idea of adding the Santa is genius.

[aehrnie]

I personally love her voice. She sounds a little like Regina Spektor, so unique and strong. And due to the fact that I hear german accents every single day I don't think it's missing here, if I didn't read the comments, I wouldn't even know about it ;)

[crackersareyellow]

Terrible

[lard92]

love this interpretation. fantastic.

[jujustar56]

its not that bad but i dont really like her voice but thats just me

[showtunes2809]

oh man, I so want to be in this show now...lol

[darkrose1870]

this kind of is not the best she is forcing humor on it and its by herself not with a guy just my opion

[emptyXwords]

this is fantastic hahaha

i love the santa! though i don't believe that her voice is that mindblowing, the acting certainly is!

[sparkster2]

Actually, I'm guessing it's a parody of Marlene Dietrich...hence, the fact that it's usually done with a German accent.

[celinelowe]

you know i thought "santa" was an audience member at first.... i think i prefered thinking of it that way ... coz then it makes her look WAY more insane... but then i dunno if you can do all that stuff to an audience member :P