The Flick returns to New York- Page 2
The Flick returns to New York
nyla123
Chorus Member Joined: 11/7/11
#25The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/10/15 at 5:02pm
I highly doubt going in a few weeks is going to change anything with regards to length... It's the same cast and creative team from the Playwrights run. This production was pretty much "locked" before the first preview aside from adapting it to a different space.
Mr Smith
Featured Actor Joined: 3/16/15
#26The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/10/15 at 7:42pm
"Did anybody go to the first performance last night or is planning on going during the run?
Even though I trashed the show earlier, I tried reading it again and for some reason it seriously moved me the second time I read it. Sorry for bashing it before, but it just shows you that you have to actually finish a play in order to make an assessment of it.
I'm going back to New York in the fall and I'd love to see this, though I can't imagine it would have that long of a run considering the negative audience response for the show when it played at Playwrights Horizons."
Negative response ?
followspot
Broadway Star Joined: 12/27/11
#28The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/13/15 at 1:00am
Out of curiosity, I meant to check my watch on Saturday night as the performance was beginning, and again just as it ended, but forgot to do either. My rough recollections are that the show started at least five minutes after the scheduled curtain time (as most do); that intermission seemed to lasted closer to twenty minutes than the scheduled fifteen (again, not uncommon); and that the show ended around 11:25. (My watch said 11:30 when I finally remembered to check it, on the street a minute or two after leaving the theatre). Meaning that the actual playing time was probably a hair over three hours NOT including intermission, for a total running time of 3:15 - 3:20ish including intermission.
I hadn't seen or read the play before, though I did remember reading about the controversy it sparked at PH. (Full disclosure: I worked on The Flick's set for a few days in 2013, without knowing anything about the play itself, except that it would apparently have to be staged within the parameters of a hyperrealistic set that was going to be filled with movie-theatre seats all the way to the apron edge, which struck me at the time as an unusual challenge. But I wouldn't say that that brief and exceedingly-minor connection to the show -- which I'd nearly forgotten about, two years later -- inspired any particular loyalty to, nor prejudice against it).
I suspect that trimming fifteen minutes off the playing time might be a good thing overall, but I didn't begrudge those 15min, nor did they sink the show by any means. (Trimming off as much as 45min would sink it, I'm virtually certain; there's just not that much air to squeeze out, as far as I could tell from a single viewing).
It's neither altogether flawless nor wildly revolutionary, but it's certainly not deserving of the hostility it has elicited from some quarters. Purely as a matter of personal taste, I'd rather have seen the Pulitzer go to Fun Home. But The Flick is an interesting and worthy and quietly effective piece of writing (and staging/performance), and it does push gently at certain boundaries in commercial playwriting which could probably use the nudge. The physical production is pretty much ideal (though I'd like to have seen it at Playwrights too, just for comparison between the two spaces), and the cast is quite good. I'm curious to read the script now, just to see whether it reads much differently than it plays.
Updated On: 5/15/15 at 01:00 AM
#29The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/13/15 at 4:20am
Would someone be so kind as to post a pic of the Playbill for this run?
#30The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/13/15 at 8:56am
http://f**kyeahgreatplays.tumblr.com/post/118694712921
(replace the asterisks)
Updated On: 5/13/15 at 08:56 AM
LightsOut90
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/2/14
#31The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/13/15 at 11:33am
oh weird they are using the retro playbill like skylight is!
followspot
Broadway Star Joined: 12/27/11
#32The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/16/15 at 8:58am
For the record, run time last night (May 15): 3 hours, 15 minutes.
(Started 8:05pm, ended 11:20pm)
Critics in attendance.
Opening night: May 18
Not sure why this production is 15 minutes longer than when it was at Playwrights (and contrary to all "3 hours including intermission" run time listings and signage at the theater).
"Tracy... Hold Mama's waffles."
Wallace4
Swing Joined: 5/17/15
#34The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/17/15 at 10:56am
Would anyone who has seen this at The Barrow Street Theatre please comment on ideal seating for this staging? Is the first row too close for the raked cinema seating on stage? Is the audience seating at Barrow Street raked or flat?
“It is suicide to be abroad. But what it is to be at home, ... what it is to be at home? A lingering dissolution.”
- Samuel Beckett, ALL THAT FALL
followspot
Broadway Star Joined: 12/27/11
#35The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/17/15 at 10:56am
Will this ever come to BROADWAY
Of course not, Mr Smith. (Oops — I mean "Wallace4")
"Tracy... Hold Mama's waffles."
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#36The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 5/18/15 at 9:12am
Would anyone who has seen this at The Barrow Street Theatre please comment on ideal seating for this staging?
It couldn't hurt to sit a few rows back. I was sitting I believe in the fourth row center and had a fine view.
Interesting the games they seem to be playing about the play's running time. The website says three hours, one intermission, rather than three hours plus one 15 minute intermission. The night I saw it, running times for both acts were posted, and the first act went at least 15 minutes over.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#37The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/6/15 at 3:19pm
Saw this on Saturday, every time I think about it I think I liked it a little more.
Is it long? Yes.
Could they shorten it? Definitely
Should they? Not sure. We were prepared for the length . . . and the pauses . . . but we weren't prepared for such a great study in characters. Really glad we saw it.
Had about a 10% walk out rate at our matinee. 3-4 folks left during the first act, about 15-20 more didn't come back from intermission, and 2 more left late in the 2nd act (babysitter issue?). But I guess if it sells out the producers don't care if folks come and/or stay for the whole show.
#38The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/6/15 at 9:13pm
"Would anyone who has seen this at The Barrow Street Theatre please comment on ideal seating for this staging? Is the first row too close for the raked cinema seating on stage? Is the audience seating at Barrow Street raked or flat?"
Audience seating is raked. I was 4th row center and had good sight of everything, even the projectionist's window. I don't think you'll miss anything wherever you sit in BST--though I can imagine having a sore neck after sitting in the front row for three hours as the stage is fairly high and close to the audience. Minor complaint: Louisa Krause was sometimes difficult to hear and understand when she was upstage. A number of people left at intermission. Too bad. Their loss. This is a great production and Matthew Maher's Sam was worth every single minute of the 3-hour and 10-minute evening.
#39The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:26pm
First row upstairs people were complaining about the bar in front of the little balcony blocking views, so that row should be avoided. Was the same issue at Buyer and Celler, IIRC
GilmoreGirlO2
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/13/05
#40The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:37pm
I saw the show a couple of weeks ago and thought every bit of it was fantastic.
Every single moment on that stage felt needed and full. Having heard so much about the long moments of silence, I was shocked by how short they actually were/felt. The actors filled every moment on that stage, even if, physically, all they were doing was sweeping the floor. The show didn’t feel long to me at all – it felt like less time had passed than in other shows I saw that week which were shorter.
If I hadn’t heard so much about the length of the piece and the silent moments, I honestly don’t know if I would have even noticed or thought much about either.
If the full, natural silences (like, the time it would take to get up to the booth and come back down or to go out to a waiting car and back) weren’t taken to their full extent, it would have felt false in a play like this.
I sat front row and there are, occasionally, moments when one person’s face is blocked (when they are sitting in the seats, but I could always at least see one person’s face). It didn’t bother me at all and I didn’t miss anything. Surprisingly, my neck didn’t hurt – I didn’t feel like it was straining at all. I would suggest a couple of rows back, but if front row is your only option, it was perfectly fine for me.
No one walked out in the middle of the show (as far as I could tell), but I’d say we lost about 10% of the audience at intermission. I can’t fathom leaving the show at that time – I was much too moved and invested to leave these characters.
#41The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:49pm
I saw it on June 28 .... or at least half of it. I really enjoyed it, and the slow pace is so integral to the play, I don't think it could be sped up without losing something. Unfortunately, the person I was with did not feel the same way and forced me at emotional gun point to leave at intermission. I did not want to.
Perhaps less than the 10-20% who leave at intermission really want to leave. We spoke to another couple leaving at intermission - the wife wanted to leave but the husband wanted to stay. I jokingly suggested I could stay and watch the second half with her husband, but the wife appreciated that comment even less than the play.
#42The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:58pm
Almost 3 1/2 hours? Wow. I too think that this play has a great concept, but that does seem like a bit much. Then again, as a writer I sometimes have trouble with making things long ENOUGH, so it may just seem daunting to me...
http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com
neonlightsxo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/08
#43The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 1:12pmAdo Annie D'Ysquith, before you go making gross generalizations about things you haven't seen, keep in mind that this play won the Pulitzer prize. It is absolutely worth your time.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#44The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 1:18pm
I found it a challenging play to read. In print, it has a first draft long-winded quality, and seems to meander off on self-indulgent digressions that don't immediately coalesce. The writing itself is certainly solidly authentic (specificity of voice, appropriateness of naturalistic diction in the demographic), the characters developed. The milieu is absolutely compelling. As is the premise and personal stakes that accompany it. It's just so dense and discursive, so unrelentingly static, the tangents about film lore among aficianados begin to feel repetitive. I still plan to try and see it, because I'm too fascinated by its impact in performance. I wish it were cheaper.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 7/7/15 at 01:18 PM
#45The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 1:23pm
I wasn't making a generalization...I said it seemed long, not that it was in fact too long...just my perspective as an outsider. I also knew that it won the Pulitzer Prize, but I did not know the approx. length. That's why I came to this thread, to see what others thought of it. It was not my intent to judge the work at all.
http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com
neonlightsxo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/08
#46The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 1:26pmSince you say you're a writer, you should read up on Annie Baker. Her new play at the Signature this summer is also three hours.
#47The Flick returns to New York
Posted: 7/7/15 at 1:33pm
I have been meaning to find out what she's all about. I still have more to learn about playwriting in general. Thanks very much for the suggestion.
http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com
Updated On: 7/7/15 at 01:33 PM
