Profile for bwaybabe3

so glad you were able to get in and had such an awesome experience.  Happy anniversary!! 

Regarding these personal attacks, did anyone read aimeric's post to me?  Pasted it below.  It's pretty clearly a personal attack on my assessment of the show.   I never did that to anyone.  I just wrote about the show.  And I don't think I deserved the sarcasm and judgmental assessment of my comments that aimeric directed at me.   

I never told anyone their statements were "bizarre" or "silly."  And I didn't get sarcastic at you with phrases like 'what, pray, does a "musical score" sound like?'  And I wasn't mockingly claiming to "shudder to wonder" what you all would think of other sung-through shows (given your thoughts on this one).   

Then aimeric determined that my opinion was "a metaphor of how much  (I) actually "missed" in the show as a whole."  ----so, I guess not only are my opinions "bizarre" and "silly" now,  but they apparently came from a place of ignorance --since aimeric determined that I "missed so much in the show as a whole."    

Well, If I came off like other peoples' opinions didn't matter to me, I didn't mean to, and I hope you all continue to post them cause I appreciate different perspectives.   But I'm certain I didn't attack anyone's actual opinion the way mine was attacked.  And yeah.  that's IS kind of personal.   but mostly it's just mean.    

aimeric

Understudy
joined:8/7/15

NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 Previews#159
Posted: 10/25/16 at 12:19pm

And I disagree in the strongest terms possible.  You are entitled to your opinions, of course, but some of your points are not opinions, just blatantly false or bizarre statements.  For example.  "The music is NOT melodious, and frankly, didn't sound like a musical score in most parts" and "didn't even remotely sound like it was actually the written notes."  Huh?  Okay.  And what, pray, does a "musical score" sound like, then?  I shudder to wonder how you would describe recitative music in other Broadway shows--Les Miserables comes to mind.  Your description of the comet is untrue and silly: that it's "one lightbulb" and a "random" "contrived" "inconvenient afterthought" intended "just to make sense of the title of the show"...?  You...do know this was based on source material, right...?  Source material that also includes a comet?  A comet that has deeper meaning for both the characters and the overall narrative?  Hmmm.....It sounds like your impression of the comet is a metaphor for how much you missed in the show as a whole: you see only one measly lightbulb, while ignoring the whole tail of glittering bulbs backing it up and bringing out its full beauty.

true.  

what are the tickets for? 

 

sorry for the sunshine emoji's.  no clue how they got in there.  

They came out and told us that if we didn't get cancellation seats "there were SRO tickets available for  $40 each."  It seemed like if we wanted them, we could have made that decision right then --around 5 pm when they said it--for the 7pm show.  So we all thought "yay, great, we'll stay in this line and if we don't get cancellation seats, we'll be able to get the SRO seats."   When I realized I wasn't getting in, (I was #11 and they stopped at #, there didn't seem to be anyone talking about SRO seats anymore.  So we just assumed it must have been another line, and they were all gone. I know the last people to get in from our line (#7 and # on Thurs 10/20 got single seats separate from each other.  not standing.  

Ok, I'm not in the "I loved it" group.  In fact, I started laughing towards the end of the show when it just seemed to be one silly gimmick after another.  The little food boxes, shaky maraccas for audience participation, glow lights on sneakers, table lamps in the rows of seats that dimmed and glowed-- --they came off as a desperate plea of "please like me, I'll do anything you want" to me.  And they detracted from the value and gravitas of a broadway show.  I want my Broadway shows to be special and grand.  These kitchy things cheapened it.  I saw at least 10 people get in their cars and leave at intermission. I would have too, if I could have gotten my ticket money back.  

That's not to say the show doesn't have a lot of potential, but it seriously needs someone to pull it all together.  Like a whole class of students studying musical theatre.  That way they could break up into sections to address each trouble spot.. from story telling to casting to staging to musicality to props etc.   I realize that the show's been around for a while in this form, and so it's not likely to change much now that it is here, but it just isn't special enough for Broadway. Unpolished.  Un-grand.  It seems to want to remind us of that fact over and over.  It was such a hodge podge of schticks and disharmonic sounds, that it came off like a not-so-great high school production in parts. I left there thinking it was cheesy and disjointed.  

There were tiny pockets of awesomeness. The opening number, for example. I wish they'd carried that theme through the show.  (and Andre isn't here) --or at least build the intervening music around the framework of the notes in that chorus.  And JG and DB were awesome--and not just because they have voices you could listen to all day, but because they didn't over act and they were staged to be separate from the folksy hoe-down feel of actors running through the audience with guitars.  . Another strong voice was Natasha's cousin. Others in the cast weren't nearly as strong. And the differences were noticeable.   I realize that the part of Anatole has been played by the same actor for quite a while, but his voice couldn't compete, and his look should have been handsome dark, Russian and strong. Not blond/white, and lanky. And the part of the aunt (marya), could truly be a Tony-winning part, but it is played as angry, and actually IRATE at times (which got a little overboard and creepy), when it could be played as grand and robust and sage and authoritative. I think when a show has to list a character guide in the program (and the typing on this is so teeny you can't see it in the dim light of the theater--so it's essentially useless until intermission), you gotta wonder if maybe it's because the play is hard to follow. The music is NOT melodious, and frankly, didn't sound like a musical score in most parts. Rather, it sounded like the warm up in the extemporaneous jazz band I was in in HS.  And the singing of the narrations reminded me of the way the priests sing the offertory in Catholic church --rambling between 3 notes over and over with no real tune.  It was painful and boring and uninspired. And didn't even remotely sound like it was actually the written notes. It sounded like someone said "Ok you guys, I am going to play this ...(plays 5-6 beat run of notes) and you sing whatever you want that might go with it."  And I was expecting the sung-dialogue/and narrative to at least rhyme at--or have an endpoint-- but it didn't. In fact, some of the lyrics sounded so contrived or unnatural or trite that we got the giggles. ("my face is now displaying anxiety".   I think the show would do much better to actually have a narrator/narrators take some of the droning aimless summaries from the actors, so they could stick to the acting and dialogue between characters. In fact, a narrator was just about the only 'broadway play' concept that this play didn't have. It had the costume party, the older aunt/barmaid, the raucous drinking song, the let's-have-4-people-sing-at-4-different-parts-of-the-stage about the same issue for different reasons, the stare-at-someone-and-reflect-about-them song (daughter/king), the involve-an-unsuspecting-audience-member-into-the-show moment, the "meaningful" singular spoken line.... etc etc.    And then-- and then--after all these unnecessary extras and kitchy moments, the actual COMET is curiously ordinary and bland and uninspired.  It's a  lightbulb. Yup.  One lightbulb hanging from some 70s art-deco sunshine-shape suspended from the ceiling. That's it. And it arrives in the final moments of the show...like an inconvenient afterthought.  I don't think it was ever mentioned before this, even.  So random that it also seemed so contrived....just to make sense of the title of the show. 

Sigh.  

Somewhere, amidst all these over-trying concepts, the show loses its path and the audience loses the storyline.  Someone needs to trim it, hone it up, and rewrite the musical narration part.  It's got a lot of good stuff and "potential,"  but in its current form, it just isn't worth the money.   

Oh I hope not.  But I have a feeling you're right.  

Just a warning about Saturday waiting. Not sure if it was because it was a Saturday, or a glimpse of what's to come, or just THIS Saturday (10/22), but I got to the line around 6:30am (despite box office says it opens at 10a), and there were already 10 PEOPLE in line (not sure if they were 20 total tix if buying for 2). Person at #1 said she'd been there since show got out the night before, and #2 got there around 2 am.  I was totally bummed, and this was a completely different vibe than the preceding 2 days. 

I stumbled onto the line around 11 am on Thurs 10/20 when I went to the box office about SRO tickets. (yes, you can get SRO tix for $40 dollars (different line) and rumor has it that the ushers try to find you seats). But anyway, I got in the tix line at #11 and #12 around 11am.  Fun day, great weather, but only 8 people got in. 

Friday, I had tix to 9/11 memorial but before leaving, stopped by the line around 11 to see #9 and #10 from the previous night, and #13 and #14 (ie the people right in front and right behind me in line on Thursday),--at positions #1---4.  (yes, they got in on Friday).   They'd gotten in the line at about 7:30am. Vibe was good, and there were about 8 others in line at that time.

So I was determined to get Sat tix, and got up early to get in line by 6:45am.  This seemed like it should work to get me at #1 position or at worst, #2 I figured.  WRONG.   My heart sank as I turned the corner in the dark of the cold wet morning. I do hope this isn't an omen of what is to come.  But it was a totally different vibe from the fun of waiting on Thursday-- to the seemingly fierce competition of Saturday morning.   I think you might do better midweek.  Could be that since people don't have to get up for work on Saturday, they go for broke and sleep on the sidewalk.  I never expected this, based on the two previous days.   I hope it doesn't get cut-throat like that and that this was just a fluke.