FAR FROM HEAVEN first preview?

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 5/8/13 at 10:26pm

Anyone go?? Dying to hear about it.

[matineeidol2591]

Posted: 5/8/13 at 11:00pm

Someone just posted a rave on All That Chat. So excited for this :)

[notabb]

Posted: 5/8/13 at 11:15pm

That was me with the rave on All That Chat. I won't repeat everything here again BUT if you loved GREY GARDENS I think you'll love this score too. So many wonderful songs but Miro and especially The Only One are subtle , adult and just plain lovely. Try to get tickets if you can. With Kelli O'Hara being very pregnant ( though you'd never know from the brilliant costuming ) I doubt they could extend it much. BUT I would be very surprised if it doesn't extend at least another week. Though it'll probably be like it was for GREY GARDENS , they announce the extension and a day or two later the tickets are gone.

[HBBrock]

Posted: 5/8/13 at 11:48pm

Had no idea she was pregnant. How pregnant is she right now?

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/8/13 at 11:57pm

I'm sorry to have to offer a differing opinion. Kelli O'Hara was wonderful. The rest was lacklustre.

In the film upon which this was based, the meticulous recreation of time and milieu created an ambiance which was as much a character in the tale as the actors themselves. The musical not only does not recapture this all-essential component of the piece, it bungles it by using projections on a screen at the back of the stage. Sometimes, images appear on only part of the screen, with the remainder left black. The look, I'm afraid, is quite ugly. So too, the interiors of the houses are dark, skeletal, minimalist, and all wrong.

Aginst this backgound, the tale seem enervated and flat. It fails to move us as it should. All in all, the vital poetic element is lacking, except in Kelli O'Hara's performance.

The film was also helped immeasurably by a gorgeous score. Here, the songs are undistinguished.

I would say go for Kelli O'Hara. She's well worth seeing.



Updated On: 5/10/13 at 11:57 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 12:00am

"Had no idea she was pregnant. How pregnant is she right now?"

Fully pregnant, I think.

[Mrs. Bumbrake]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 12:29am

Just got back home from the show. I thought it was outstanding, particularly Kelli OHara and Isaiah Johnson. Their scenes together were heartbreaking. The set was a bit lackluster but the gorgeous costumes made up for it. I highly recommend it and will probably try to go see it again.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 12:50am

Didn't see the play yet, but I understand After Eight's concerns.
I was wondering how they would capture the homage feeling of the movie. If the movie script is taken seriously you loose the whole point of the piece.
As the wonderful Henry Stramm commented after seein the film:
"It was like a bad Charles Busch play".

I happen to like the movie.

[WestwardHoHo]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 1:25am

Perhaps the most impressive score of the past 20 years; very special.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 6:42am

Absolutely cannot wait to see this in a few weeks!

[tazber]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 7:11am

I am an unabashed lover of Grey Gardens so of course I'm beyond excited for this.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 7:44am

I am seeing this tonight and could not be more excited.

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 8:59am

Saw this at WTF and seeing it in NY later in the run. Can anyone comment on the changes since Williamstown?

[Owen22]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 10:22am

I'm seeing this on Friday.

My hope was for the creators to find a theatrical equivalent of what Todd Haynes did in the film, i.e. create an old fashioned, technicolor film in the style of Douglas Sirk, very melodramatic, but using themes Sirk would only dance around because of production codes. Someone once described the film as the "best and bravest movie of 1957".

I was hoping to see a Rogers and Hammerstein, or better, an Adler and Ross take on the story. But, again, with themes these writers never would have touched.

Without the gimmick, it would just be another melodrama with explicit themes we've been viewing since the 70's. Which, admittedly, we haven't seen much on the musical stage. But if they are just musicalizing the story, not the conceit, there are far better and less obvious stories to adapt (its blatant obviousness was part of the point of the film). If its just a base adaptation it now becomes "WHAT'S the point?"...

[Owen22]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 10:24am

"Had no idea she was pregnant. How pregnant is she right now?"

Fully pregnant, I think."

I sometimes really do love Jordan.

[REM4]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 2:54pm

Saw the first preview last night. I watched the film a long time ago and hadn't seen the previous production at WTF, so I really went in with no expectations. I agree with previous posters in that if you liked GREY GARDENS, you will love this show. The score is beautiful and fascinating; its much more like an opera than the standard musical theater fare. With the exception of one or two moments, I can't recall or hum any songs from the piece, but that's not necessarily bad- it's just very complex, intricate music. The set is essentially the same gorgeous lighting from the film with 50's style scaffolding; it works well, but based on pictures from the WTF production, I'd love to see it in a larger space. Act One is pretty long, but I think if they took the last 20 mins from Act One and put it in the second act it would work fine.

Kelli O'Hara was in top form- the music compliments her soaring voice wonderfully, and last night's performance proved that she is one of the few musical theater stars who is a top notch actress as well. If the show goes to Broadway, she could very well win her much deserved Tony. She had great chemistry with Isaiah Johnson, who was perfect and has a stunning voice. Steven Pasquale was good, though his role is not as well drawn as some of the others. Nancy Anderson( who played Cathy's best friend Eleanor) was also stand-out for me.

I'd be interested to see what the next step is for this show. It's somewhat problematic in that it's a smaller, more intimate musical( there are little to no "group numbers" and the action essentially focuses on four people), but the music and thematic material are so encompassing that it needs a much larger house( like at Lincoln Center). I'm also not sure what audience it would find on Broadway, though it should be seen by many people.

All in all, a great night. I'm looking forward to seeing "The Call" at Playwrights Horizons in a couple of weeks!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 5:10pm

A theme Rogers and Hammerstein wouldn't touch?
Have you seen South Pacific?

If those dudes were writing today this show would be right up their alley.
There was no topic Oscar wouldn't write about. He was one of the greats equal rights advocates of his time.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 5:28pm

Well unless even a contemporary Richard Rodgers was as homophobic as he reportedly remained for all his life...

While I certainly don't see the film as a comedy (I assume Curtain means the same way many film scholars view Sirk's films as being subversive and comic--a view I don't subscribe to, but that seems to be the only way some can take the melodramatic excess seriously--though I do grant that in the case of Magnificent Obsession which is so outlandish in plot, it is hard to see it another way.)

After8's views echo my fears--as Owen said. The true brilliance of the film was that it was filmed as Sirk would have--the cinematography, Bernstein's gorgeous score, the use of shadow and colour. It's too bad that visually this doesn't seem to try to capture that (at least set wise) from what's been said. I understand the desire to sorta do that in musical theatre terms as Owens mentions--take a R&H style musical drama approach to subject matter that back in 1949 they couldn't or wouldn't do.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 5:55pm

Is it merely a coincidence that Julianne Moore was also very pregnant (really a lot pregnant) during the filming of the movie?

Or does this character make the women who play her suddenly conceive?

I wonder.

I also understand the concerns here about the Douglas Sirk style missing from the stage adaptation. Without it, you just have a soapy story that doesn't play on multiple levels the way the film did.

I had hoped that at least they would have tried to capture the "'50s Broadway" equivalent of the Douglas Sirk style. Painted, flat, colorful, stylized sets (think "Most Happy Fella!" or "Music Man" or anything by Jo Mielziner), low-tech lighting, ushers dressed in period clothes, programs printed in a period style ... then add the controversial "taboo" story to that.

But no.

Updated On: 5/9/13 at 05:55 PM

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 7:28pm

I'm not commenting on the entire show yet as they are so early in previews, but I just have to say that the set is a complete eyesore. It is honestly one of the ugliest sets that I have seen on any stage, anywhere, ever. It looks like they yanked some old RENTset out of storage and jammed it onto the Playwrights Horizons stage, added some cheesy projections, and called it a day. Really awful.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 8:06pm

So sad to hear about the reports on the set design. Allen Moyer has done some amazing work in the past, particularly his opera design, as anyone could see by visiting his site, allenmoyerdesign.com. Maybe the constraints at Playwrights Horizons defeated him this time.

Updated On: 5/9/13 at 08:06 PM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 8:42pm

Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but I woud like to believe Richard Rogers would have evoloved and become more gay-friendly. He was certainly surrounded by gayness his whole life in the theatre and after Oscar died he wrote with Steve and Arthur.

Does the gay story in this musical stay in the context of the times or is it played more modern?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 8:57pm

Right and eportedly teased Steve for being a "Fa*" repeatedly. But, fair enough point, that may have been different if he was from a later generation. I have no idea if he ever bothered Hart about it.

In the film, I'd say it plays in the context of the time.

[DMC_Patinkin]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 10:43pm

Very excited to see this show sometime this summer

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 5/9/13 at 11:17pm

I was there tonight and found a lot to love, but agree with everyone who mentioned the awful set.

The good far outweighs the bad though, and Kelli O'Hara is perfect. I think this is her best role (and potential shot at a Tony) since Piazza. Her 11 o'clock number, "Tuesdays, Thursdays" (Aprils, Augusts, Autumns, Winters) is a stunner. She was in such resplendent voice, and her characterization is already so rich that they could have taped a live cast recording this very evening.

I enjoyed everyone else in the cast, but Nancy Anderson was a standout amongst the women. Steven Pasquale gets a great ballad in act two called, "I Never Knew," and Isaiah Johnson gets to sing two tuneful duets with O'Hara at the end of act one called "Miro" and "The Only One."

The show isn't sung-through, but it almost feels that way because the score is like one long piece of taffy pulled through these people's lives. Many of the characters are given leitmotifs that occasionally blossom into full arias and duets.

Catherine Zuber's costumes are great and really evoke the movie, as well as the Sirk films it pays homage to.

Unfortunately the set sucks. It looks very similar to the one for Hit List, and there is a back wall with lots of projections that don't create the proper ambiance. My friend and I wrote the set off as being part of the workshop nature of PH, and I would hope that when a transfer takes place an actual realistic set will be built. It becomes difficult to be completely immersed in the milieu when it looks like O'Hara is running up and down the same stairs Alice Ripley used in Next to Normal.

Because of the extremely limited run I doubt I'll get to see this again off-Broadway, but I certainly hope it finds life after O'Hara's pregnancy, and I'll be purchasing the cast recording the second it goes up for pre-order.

Updated On: 5/9/13 at 11:17 PM