As hinted at last month, The Last Goodbye is an adaption of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet featuring the music of Jeff Buckley. When I first read about this unlikely collaboration, I must admit that I was equally intrigued as I was skeptical. A bevy of tracks from Grace & Sketches For: My Sweetheart The Drunk will always hold a special place in my heart and I was fearful that these tunes would be butchered and/or interpreted incorrectly. By last night’s second performance, I could tell that all of my worries were entirely irrational! The fourteen person cast not only did the Jeff Buckley tracks immense justice (each & every one of their vocals were spot on and sent shivers down my spine), but the actor-singers were undoubtedly successful in paralleling the sentiment in the aforementioned classics with the most well-known tragedy of all time. The ninety minute show was stunning from start to finish. In fact, I’m still reeling from it, twelve hours later. The Last Goodbye will have two more NYC runs over the course of the next few weeks. Whether or not you’re a Buckley fanatic, I strongly suggest your attendance!
More photos, selected composition listing & a JB MP3 AFTER THE JUMP…
([Out Of Order] Setlist) Forget Her. Grace. Hallelujah. Lover You Should’ve Come Over. Corpus Christi Carol. Eternal Life. Dream Brother. I Woke Up In A Strange Place. What Will You Say. Everybody Here Wants You. Opened Once. Nightmares By The Sea. Morning Theft. You & I. I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby.
[...] ended up seeing our reading and wanted to program us on their stage. So we also ended up doing three concert readings at Joe’s Pub last May, and that was our first true public presentation of the show. I describe those readings as [...]