Profile for bruzson

Saw this last night. This is Bandwagon without Fred Astaire, Vicente Minnelli and the rest of the crew. Wonderful songs at the service of …?  Not a terrible evening but pretty meh with an idiotic plot about an 11 time Tony winning director who suddenly can’t stand up to anyone or make a decision. Really? Boop was such a joyous experience and this is just a letdown

We are in town for 5 shows. Death Becomes Her was a real hoot. Maybe Happy Ending was lovely. But Boop tonight was pure musical theater heaven. Wonderful old fashioned score and 3 star making performances. Second act was perfect and while first act could use a bit of tightening, I don’t know when I’ve walked out of a theater lately with such a grin on my face. Go!

I like Stokes but his replacement is sensational and hit some notes that I’m not sure Stokes could hit anymore 

I couldn’t agree more. Without a new score/ composer, this will be a curiosity that will quickly fade. We came out whistling the set design but nothing else. 

Thick?? I just saw her perform at the Rady Shell here in San Diego and the voice was resplendent. She even tossed in a ‘Sing out Louise’ at an appropriate moment 

Bland and boring.  Not my thing but the audience gave it a standing O.  Friends we went with liked it.  It's pretty by-the-numbers bio but packed with music -- about 15 songs in each hour-long act.  Performances are all good and set is generic wooden slats with direction being nothing to write home about.  Can't see this having wide appeal but someone thought Lempicka would be worth transferring after La Jolla so you never know.

We saw last Wednesday night's preview.  Of the 4 of us, 2 gave it a B+ and 2 an A-.  Better than Lempicka (by far) and the Outsiders and Redwood.  Very tuneful and quite a tour de force by the two actresses who almost never leave the stage for the 90 minute run time.  It takes an unexpected turn near the end so the tonal shift is a bit jarring, but appropriate to the story.  Not a great musical but definitely worth catching if you're in town. 

For whatever it's worth, we bought some tix for yesterday's matinee for some friends.  The only reponse I got from them was 'great show', and they're in their 70s and have seen a lot.  So that is promising and if I get more details I'll pass them along.

Limited as you are on a university campus. The restaurant at the theater is fine but a little pricey.  There is a strip mall you could drive to in 5 minutes with a few choices or the UTC mall, 10 minutes away which is beautiful and has excellent restaurant choices

We are subcribers but won't see it til March.   THey sent us the digital program however and it talks about the aerial tree climbers in the show.  It's in their black box theater so that must allow for unusual staging.

Hard to tell from just these releases but if the show is still 75% power ballads, that did not work well in La Jolla so here’s hoping they have worked on that aspect as a completely original musical is always worth rooting for 

 

It was…ok. But it really suffers from poor lyric writing and hum drum music, which should be the elements that make a musical sing. Glad to embrace something new and always happy for a new musical but this just doesn’t rise above so-so 

For those of you who have seen the show, which title do you now think is better?  Here We Are or Square One?  We don't see it til Oct 6 but sight unseen I still like Square One better.

And this note: 

• This production uses simulated gunshots, herbal cigarettes, haze, and fire effects.

Fire effects?  Maybe that's how they get out at the end...

I agree with Broadway Star.  In La Jolla there was interesting set design, a rather interesting story that needed some help from a good dramaturge, but a score that felt like an endless succession of power ballads so that's hopefully where the most work has been over the past few years.  Always ready to applaud a new and original musical but my expectations based on what was displayed in CA are low.