Bright Star in LA- Page 3

[rebeccmam31]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 3:01pm

bear88 said: "NYfanfromCA said: "I'll be seeing this when it comes to San Francisco. I only got tickets because of Carmen Cusack. Sounds like it will be a great show."

This is one of the few showsI'm probably only interested in attendingbecause of an individual performer who I have never seen before. I know a lot of people like the musical, or at least the score, but reading so much praise for Cusack's performance during the Broadway run has swayed me - at least enough to snag rush tickets and talk my wife into seeing it."

I do not like this show. I find the writing lazy and the lyrics repetitive (though I really do adore the instrumentation and the staging). And I would still tell you to GO just to see Carmen Cusack. She lives up to the hype. I hope you love it (I didn't, as I said)--but even if you don't I doubt you'll regret it!

 

[mlsheehan]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 3:17pm

I agree with the comments about the show itself.  It's not perfect.  

Maybe I'm becoming a softy in my old age, but I had tears streaming down my cheeks at the end.  And, I saw the ending coming from before the intermission.  It didn't matter.

Carmen Cusack is a star, but as stated above the whole cast is terrific.  This is an extremely well cast show and the two male leads are giving great performance as well.

If you are adverse to heartfelt, home-spun sentiment, then perhaps you might want to stay away.  However, even with the book and show problems, I found the direction, staging, and the fluid movement of the cast quite beautiful and engaging.

Updated On: 10/22/17 at 03:17 PM

[Bwayfan292]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 7:36pm

I was gonna see Something Rotten but the i heard bad reviews about the theatre being to big to hear, since we would be sitting at the back of a balcony. Is bright star any good? I would be attending with my parents and my brother. There not really Musical Theatre people. 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 11:27pm

CB4Ever said: "Why wasn't this a bigger success on Broadway? Was it just unlucky to open in the same season as Hamilton? I would've thought Steve Martin's name would have sold more tickets."

Well, as we've seen in the past, celebrities writing Broadway shows is not the same thing as actually appearing in them. It's almost like how The Last Ship spent its first couple of months on Broadway struggling at the box office despite the fact that Sting wrote the score, so he ended up joining the cast for a few weeks where business improved. But the problem was that when the producers saw what their sales were looking like after Sting's scheduled departure, they pretty much had no choice but to close the show with him.

Updated On: 10/22/17 at 11:27 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/23/17 at 6:51pm

Bwayfan292 said: "I was gonna see Something Rotten but the i heard bad reviews about the theatre being to big to hear, since we would be sitting at the back of a balcony. Is bright star any good? I would be attending with my parents and my brother. There not really Musical Theatre people."

Yes. Go see it. It's an exciting score even if they're not into musicals.

[BalconyClub]

Posted: 11/3/17 at 1:57am

A solid run tonight in LA. After tonight 's performance, audience member Richard Kind shared a congratulatory hug with Jeff Blumenkrantz at the Temple Street stage door.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/3/17 at 9:17am

*** A BIG FAT SPOILER ALERT ***

I saw it on Tuesday night and Carmen Cusack is everything she has been advertised to be! She is a great singer, but perhaps an even better actress. There is a wonderful moment mid-song in Act I where her character transforms on stage from mid-40s to about 20-years-old. Yes, they change the set and her costume, but the real transformation is in Cusack herself. I could swear she literally removed lines from her face without ever leaving the stage! It took my breath away and was a piece of stage magic I will never forget. She has another such moment in Act II when she finally learns a piece of very bad news. No costume or age change, but she hardens visibly under the weight of the ultimate defeat, again without seeming to move a muscle.

The rest of the cast sings very, very well and A.J. Shively is a marvel! I'd never seen him before so that was a very pleasant surprise. Act/sing/dance--the guy does all three like a genuine star-on-the-rise, IMO.

The music is mostly catchy--if you can stand bluegrass, which I can, thank you very much. The lyrics, however, are pretty lazy. A nice line or couplet here and there, but a lot of the words seem random or cliché. All this I knew beforehand from the cast album.

But the book--WTF?! I sat with my mouth open for 2.5 hours. Suffice it to say there are two plot lines: one belongs in a Greek tragedy; the other is a rom-com about a young Southern writer finding himself as a man and as an artist. The two plots come together and are resolved in a final scene straight out of Restoration Comedy.

The mixture of the two styles is utterly tone-deaf (in the non-musical meaning of the word). I simply can't imagine WTF they were thinking! Every time they dropped the tragic mood to go comic, I was offended (aesthetically not politically) at how little respect and commitment the writers showed toward their own material.

And the thing is I LOVE Southern Gothic. My favorite fiction writers are people like Williams, Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, etc. I grew up in the South and, in the 1970s, even lived for three months in the mountains where the show is set. I don't mind dark and I know Southern fiction has an ironic sort of humor to it. But don't show me a brutal atrocity and then follow it with a hoedown and expect me to clap along.

That being said, the audience at the Ahmanson loved the show and began to holler and hoot even as the lights first began to dim. Bless their cotton-pickin' hearts!

Updated On: 11/3/17 at 09:17 AM

[theatreguy12]

Posted: 11/5/17 at 3:02pm

This show is, in a word, marvelous.  Such a pleasant surprise when I saw it on Broadway.   

When I was in NY I had a slot to fill and happened to be walking by the Cort.   Having heard about Carmen Cusack and how wonderful she was in the performance, I thought, what the hell....I'll give it a shot.

I came out of the theater, totally in love with Carmen Cusack, and a special kind of admiration for the show.

Was it predictable?  Maybe.  Was it a splashy musical?  No.   Did it move me?  Yes    Is it the best musical I have ever seen?  No.   But was I totally enamored with the production from top to bottom?  A definitive yes.  So much so I recommended it to a friend here in LA and she was equally taken by it.

I'm so glad I saw it again here in LA.  Having second row seats, I was even more impressed by Cusack than I already was.  If that was even possible.  The facial expressions, the details in her performance.  Just extraordinary.  

And so good to see a few of the original Broadway cast in the LA production.

As far as atrocities followed by hoedowns, I can understand the sentiment in this.  But unfortunately, life is full of atrocities and hoedowns that sometimes intertwine.  I've been to my share of hoedowns where there was a lot of pretending going on to get past the difficulties that existed behind the scenes.  Sadness and happiness don't always exist in a vacuum, apart from one another, remaining in parallel universes without ever finding each other.

 

 

[WestCoastActor/Director]

Posted: 11/5/17 at 4:30pm

I saw the show Friday night. I purposely went in knowing very little about it. I was most excited to see Carmen Cusack what previously saw there as Nelly in South Pacific. Carmen and the cast were all excellent with incredible voices. I loved the music a lot. It's very different I would have to echo the sentiments of several people and that I did not feel the book matched the music. I figured out the surprise ending early on in the show.

At the top of act two that was a commotion in the audience of somebody who took ill. It was on the other side of the audience from where I was in middle of the orchestra. people kept running through the audience screaming "is there a doctor in the house is there a doctor in the house." Several people got up and I'm assuming some of them were doctors. However the show did not stop and the person who was ill was escorted out of the theatre.

[reginula]

Posted: 11/5/17 at 8:54pm

Thanks for sharing your reviews!
 

Also, 
Is the Ahmanson stage door still on Temple and Grand? That's the most recent info I could find so I wanted to double check. Would love to meet Carmen!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/6/17 at 2:55am

theatreguy12 said: "...
As far as atrocities followed by hoedowns, I can understand the sentiment in this. But unfortunately, life is full of atrocities and hoedowns that sometimes intertwine. I've been to my share of hoedowns where there was a lot of pretending going on to get past the difficulties that existed behind the scenes. Sadness and happiness don't always exist in a vacuum, apart from one another, remaining in parallel universes without ever finding each other.



"

SPOILERS, CONT.

I do understand that life isn't all sorrow or all joy, I even know what comic relief is (though we'll agree that isn't what BRIGHT STAR is doing). And I'll admit that I'm specially sensitive to injuries visited on small mammals.

And I am perfectly capable of laughing while crying. But BRIGHT STAR doesn't hit you with horror once or twice, it deliberately does so again and again. In fact, it does so in every other scene until the revelation at the end causes the leading lady to blithely confess to what were unforgivable crimes in the 1940s. Just before she shakes it all off for her happily-ever-after.

I call "horsesh*t".

I don't believe April (My bad: her name is Alice) shrugs off the theft of her dreams and then, in the next scene we see her, sings "The Sun Is Gonna Shine Again."

I don't believe April (still Alice) and her intended, after a lifetime of suffering, just pick up where they left off and head for the altar.

But then again, why not? Jimmy-Bob (or whatever his name is (It's Jimmy Ray)) sings a gut-wrenching aria about never being able to face his beloved (a GOOD moment and plot turn, BTW) and then sheepishly takes his place in the killer's business.

Like I said I have a very dark sense of humor: I would happily attend a real SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER. (I thought Larry David's Holocaust joke on SNL last night was quite funny. But he didn't describe death by Zyclon B in gas chambers before riffing on trying to pick up girls at Auschwitz.) Comedy requires a certain distance from pain to be funny; tragedy requires nearness to pain (empathy) to be sorrowful. BRIGHT STAR jerks us back and forth for no good reason. It's as if somebody took SCHINDLER'S LIST and intercut it with scenes from a Mel Brooks' movie (TO BE OR NOT TO BE, for example).

I think audiences object more than they realize, but if they don't, I worry for them as much as I do for the book writers of BRIGHT STAR.

 

Updated On: 12/1/17 at 02:55 AM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 11/6/17 at 10:45am

April?

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 11/30/17 at 11:10am

saw bright star in sf last night. I was entertained.  Carman Cusack, who i'd seen on tour South Pacific, was extraordinary and her Tony nomination was much deserved.

the story itself was a little jarring and whipsawed between comedy and tragedy in a way that was uncomfortable at times, compared to how Dear Evan Hansen did that flawlessly.  The rest of the cast was all first rate. Really liked the moving bandstand in the shack, something ive never seen on stage.  The music was fun and entertaining but somewhat forgettable.

Its unique enough and Carmens performance fantastic enough that I would recommend it to most of my SHN subscriber friends to see the show, for occasional musical theatre viewers, Id send them to Aladdin down the street....

 

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/1/17 at 12:27am

LizzieCurry said: "April?"

Alice. Thanks. I said the show was upsetting!

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 12/3/17 at 6:31pm

I am going to see this in SF next week!  I am so so so excited.  I saw the show six times in NYC--even making a special trip out just for the final performance.  For some reason, never has a show filled me with such joy.  I think it is the simple charm of it, albeit I see the flaws everyone mentions.  I love the show partly in spite of its flaws and partly because of them.  But I don't know that I would have fallen in love with it were it not for Carmen Cusack.  I am beyond thrilled I get to see her in this role again.  And it looks like Gold Star has discounts for even premium seats.  Great for me.  Not great to see the show is not selling well.  (I checked the seating chart and it's pretty empty.)  My friend who lives in SF said she's barely seen any promotion.  Sad to see the producers are making the same mistake with this tour that was made on Broadway.  I still think the poor promotion has to be partly to blame for why the show did so poorly.  I just don't think anyone ever knew it as anything other than "the show written by Steve Martin."  I don't even know if people knew it was a musical.

 

Anyway, I digress.  How are the new Jimmy Ray and Margo?  I was sad Paul Alexander Nolan and Hannah Elless aren't reprising their roles since I love Nolan, and Ashville is one of my favorite songs from the score, with Elless singing it beautifully.  (But obviously thrilled for Paul Alexander Nolan that he's leading a new Broadway-bound show, which I saw in Chicago last week.  Clearly that's better for him than a tour.)

[LushyBear]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 2:44am

It's a very easy ticket to get for rush via today tix. I saw it last Thursday and didn't really like it. I felt it looked cheap, there were a few filler songs that could've been cut, and the twist was obvious a mile away.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 4:21am

ChiTheaterFan, I though the new Jimmy Ray was quite good
and the new Margo was GREAT! She doesn't carry the freight
that Cusack and Shively carry, of course, but she is very pretty,
sings beautifully, and I was totally rooting for her to get the man
she loved. I don't know you, but I think her appeal is wide enough
that you will like her.

The guy who plays Jimmy Ray is especially strong in the scene
where he learns what his father has done. (Which is what made
"The Sun Is Gonna Shine Again" a bitter pill.)

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 8:32am

I still find it odd that no other tour dates have been added. They still have that large gap from Jan. 29 - March 12 & also from May 1 - June 11.

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 12/4/17 at 12:40pm

Thanks Gaveston.  So glad to hear!  Heartbreaker was one of my favorite moments with Paul Alexander Nolan, so glad to hear he's strong.  I'll report back on what I think of them.

Maybe the gap in tour dates is a sign that Carmen is sticking with the tour and those result from her availability?  (No one has been announced for the rest of the tour, have they?  The website still just lists the cast as for LA, SF, and SLC.)  Might be wishful thinking...  I would probably be able to catch the Houston run.

[starcatchers]

Posted: 12/6/17 at 11:32am

ChiTheaterFan said: "Thanks Gaveston. So glad to hear! Heartbreaker was one of my favorite moments with Paul Alexander Nolan, so glad to hear he's strong. I'll report back on what I think of them.

Maybe the gap in tour dates is a sign that Carmen is sticking with the tour and those result from her availability? (No one has been announced for the rest of the tour, have they? The website still just lists the cast as for LA, SF, and SLC.) Might be wishful thinking... I would probably be able to catch the Houston run."

 

The guy who is playing Jimmy Ray on tour (his name is escaping me at the moment) covered the role on Broadway. I saw one of his first performances and thought he was quite good. 

 

[newintown]

Posted: 12/6/17 at 11:58am

The most plausible reason for the schedule gap is that most markets don't want to pay to present a flop with no names. (There are plenty already to saturate the tour market.)

[4getmenot]

Posted: 12/8/17 at 2:26pm

Saw the show with rush tickets Wednesday evening.  Seats were Orchestra left right on the aisle.  Fyi - rush seats are assigned randomly so there is no advantage to buying or picking up early.  Also, there were quite a few empty seats in the back row.

I agree with most of the sentiments posted here already.  Carmen Cusack and the two male leads were phenomenal.  The show definitely closed too early on Broadway.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/8/17 at 5:16pm

While I agree it closed too early, two main factors come into play 1.) It's a dark story 2.) It opened the same season as Hamilton.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/8/17 at 10:05pm

ACL2006 said: "While I agree it closed too early, two main factors come into play 1.) It's a dark story 2.) It opened the same season as Hamilton."

3.) The absolutely atrocious decision to have Cusack sing a solo
("If You Knew My Story" while surrounded by the entire cast playing
Statues on the Tony Awards telecast. Hey, I like the song, too, and
Cusack is a wonder, but the effect on TV--when all the other shows
were singing and dancing their hearts out--was to make BRIGHT STAR
look deadly dull. 

[bear88]

Posted: 12/10/17 at 3:57am

The comments below are a bit spoilery, so avoid this post you don't want any surprises.

I can pick at the flaws in the book of Bright Star with little trouble, but I had a great time at the Saturday night show in San Francisco anyway. It didn't hurt that our rush tickets were in the fifth row (on the far left) so we got a close-up view of Carmen Cusask's acting - which I agree is even better than her singing. The time twist is an acting showcase for her, but she delivers it in such a wonderful, subtle way. The rest of the cast is so engaging that I didn't mind some of the things GalvestonPS objected to until we got into the car. 

My wife compared the plot to a Danielle Steel novel, but in the South. And it's a romanticized, all-white South.

Patrick Cummings plays Jimmy Ray, and he was quite good. His performance of "Heartbreaker" is powerful, one of the best moments in the show, and I do agree that it's undermined by the conclusion.

But once I realized that the show was going to remove all darkness, I was happy to go with that and just enjoy the bluegrass music and winning performances.

Even on a Saturday night, there were plenty of empty seats. San Francisco is probably not the ideal market for this musical. But the people who attended certainly seemed to like it, especially by the second act. It was pretty funny to me that the extremely predictable plot twist actually shocked the woman sitting behind us.  I was glad she didn't overhear my wife and I briefly discussing how obvious it was at intermission. Good thing we kept our voices down.

You have to be in the right mood to truly enjoy the show, but I was and liked it more than I expected. My wife liked it too. I would recommend it, unless you hate bluegrass.

Updated On: 12/10/17 at 03:57 AM