Roman Holiday Previews- Page 3

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/28/17 at 11:36am

Updated On: 5/28/17 at 11:36 AM

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/30/17 at 5:12pm

anyone see Roman Holiday over the weekend?

how is the show shaping up?

[zkausf]

Posted: 5/30/17 at 10:46pm

As a season subscriber I was so curious to see this production.  My wife and I really enjoyed it. She is a big fan of the movie and was pleased with the way they tell this story.  We both love Cole Porter music and we felt it was a good fit.  The cast was outstanding.  Stephanie Styles and Drew Gehling had amazing chemistry and both have great voices.  We especially liked that comedic timing of Stephanie and thought she was perfect in the role.   Loved Jerrod Spector singing Night and Day.   Georgia Engel was outstanding. The audience our night was really enjoying it.  Lots of kids in the audience too and laughing.  The sets were great in some parts but seemed sparse in some scenes.  I know it's in previews and we enjoy seeing shows that are in development.  This one has great potential.

[zkausf]

Posted: 5/31/17 at 12:03am

Updated On: 5/31/17 at 12:03 AM

[therauljackson]

Posted: 5/31/17 at 12:54am

This is a show whose charm will only grow.

I generally only read on here (this is my first post) but felt compelled to write what was missed in much of this commentary.


Like many of you I saw the show in previews this weekend (in fact made a trip to SF around seeing it, knowing that it was Broadway-bound and I have an odd passion for seeing shows develop as they make the jump to the big stage.) 

 

What I saw was a production in progress. It's a preview and by its nature, it is going to have elements that need refining. This is the same reason that shows do out-of-town previews, to smooth the kinks that could prove catastrophic on a heartless Broadway stage.

But can we stop with the hyperbole and nitpicking on a show in its pre-infancy?

If you want Wicked, go see Wicked. If this show hits in 2018, it will come alongside shows like Harry Potter, Frozen, Godzilla (yikes) and Pretty Woman (double yikes) if you want punch-you-in-the-gut visuals, over-sung notes and self-insistent standing ovations. Roman Holiday is not that type of show. 

Cole Porter wrote music for crooners. Music for someone to stumble upon a piano, sit down and entertain an audience of 1 or 1,000.  His music is a perfect metaphor the movie (and now show) that is Roman Holiday.  

 

We all agree that Roman Holiday is the perfect romantic comedy. It practically invented the genre. (And it still works!) But as an original script, it wouldn't be made today because we expect every movie to be Titanic or Avatar.
It doesn't "wow" you, it does the same things that make you fall in love with a person--instead of big gestures and hollow places, it just endears itself with 8/10 after 8/10 after 8/10 until you're madly in love with it.  Give this show a couple of weeks to progress and a day or two to process and you'll look back and find it much more lovable than some of the big productions that wow you but fail to endear themselves.

 

I won't pretend that there aren't built-in disadvantages that Bruni and team will have to overcome. Among them:
1) As above, Porter's catalogue doesn't offer attention-grabbers. They need to find something to hook you on the bookends, or the walk-in novice will never have the chance to fall in love with the show.
2) The stage seemed small to me. They're recreating Rome and will need much more space. (Is Yankee Stadium available for a winter run?)
3) Let Stephanie Styles create her own Ann.  Is Styles Audrey Hepburn? No. But nobody is, that's why they gave her an Oscar for the role.  (Kristin Chenoweth wasn't Billie Burke, but we got over that!)  You can't ask her to be Audrey Hepburn and make it her own at the same time. I saw her in the Newsies tour and she owned a Katherine character that Kara Lindsay supposedly "owned". Find a way--even if in physical performance in the silences--to let this Ann have its own modern spin and let Styles leave Hepburn's Ann in the Hall of Fame where we found it.  

4) Serve Barbera at every show.  Not necessary in any way, except that it is always necessary.  

 

Now don't be too harsh! Again, I'm a first-timer!

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/31/17 at 2:09am

hi therauljackson

congrats and welcome for having the courage to share your observations and opinions....thats what the BW board is for.

This show was first tried out at the st louis muni in 2001, had  a run in minneapolis in 2012, and now on round 3 in SF, so its hardly in its infancy

I know a few producers, and they shared that they read BW and other popular posts to get additional feedback about the show from hardcore theatre fans.  Providing honest and critical feedback can actually help a show that's at this stage, and of course everyone on this board should be encouraged to give honest assessments and feedback anyway, thats what makes this board worth reading.  

I'm personally rooting for Roman Holiday to be as successful as possible, and so I think are 99% of the other posters. (there are a few folks on here that seem to trash everything) 

This show practically speaking has a very narrow window to be successful, based on what has worked on broadway over the last 5 years (see Nice Work and American in Paris). I thought "Nice Work" was a wonderful show, and it had two known stars in the leads, the best of the Gershwin catalog, fantastic choreography, strong direction, a decent book, and two supporting actors who both won tonys, and it still closed in a year and three months. American in Paris had massive promotion, incredible choreography, a similar to RH beloved story, stunning sets and lighting, and made it only 18 mos.

Regarding your 4 notes, the best one by far IMO is to serve italian wine to all adults attending as part of the admission price....that is a brilliant marketing idea (if its legal it may not be) if not legal serve 99 cent italian wines 

I liked Stephanie in Newsies, but this is a much bigger and more central role and I'm still hoping for a bigger name with Broadway lead experience before a broadway transfer.  (If Laura Osnes becomes available the producers would want that too) 

Of course, each actress (with directors inputs) makes the role their own, and hope you would agree she needs to pick an accent and stick with it throughout the show.  Also if she is playing a very sheltered pampered  European princess from the 1950s and this is a throwback to 1950s musicals, for viewer credibility she needs to act, move, talk, sing and carry herself as a princess from that era. I'm not looking for someone to play Audrey playing the princess, just someone that can make me believe for two hours that she's a European princess from the 1950's who is briefly considering walking away from it all for a simpler life.

Hope you caught Hamilton or Monsoon Wedding as well while you are in SF-its a rare good time for musicals here!

 

 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 5/31/17 at 1:54pm

Any musical based on a hit movie has advantages and disadvantages. It's appealing to your nostalgia and your fond memories of the original, so comparisons are inevitable. Anyone who's playing the roles of the Princess and Joe is going to be compared to Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. That's just a reality. Look at the recent ''Dirty Dancing'' movie remake that aired on ABC. What reviewer didn't compare Cole Prattes and Abigail Breslin with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey? It's a natural expectation.

From what I gather, broadwaysfguy's comments and those of others, like Dodge3, don't sound like ''nitpicking,'' but go to the substance and core of ''Roman Holiday.'' As broadwaysfguy says, he's not expecting a DNA carbon copy of Hepburn, but someone who can convince him that she's a member of European royalty (and shows some consistency about it, in her accent and bearing).

I wish Stephanie Styles all the best. But playing the leading role of a classic 1953 movie that won Hepburn an Oscar, really can't be compared to playing the supporting role of Katherine, a new character that only was created for the 2011 stage adaptation of ''Newsies'' (and who doesn't exist in the 1992 movie).

 

Updated On: 5/31/17 at 01:54 PM

[BroadwayBen]

Posted: 5/31/17 at 9:15pm

Does anyone know when this officially opens and we'll be able to read professional reviews.  I'm not sure what to think of SF reviewers, though.  They all went nuts for AMELIE and we know how that ended up...

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/31/17 at 10:36pm

Opening night for Roman Holiday is June 6th.

The bay area reviewers are not very good.

The one I agree with the most often is Karen D'Sousa at the San Jose Mercury News. She does, like almost all bay area reviewers, tend to be overly positive and hesitant to let a show have the cold hard truth when its needed. She was mixed in her review of Amelie (rough, had potential)

I also think most bay area musical theatre critics do not often visit Broadway or the West End, and have to cover many local and regional productions that are not very high quality. So when a pre-broadway show or top tour comes through town, they may be biasing their reviews relative to some of the low quality stuff they are seeing much of the time. We have a few groups, like ACT, SF Playhouse and others that put on some great regional musicals, but its few and far between...

I experienced this myself when I didnt go to New York for about a decade, and really was thinking many of the tours I was seeing were incredible, until I started back doing an annual 8 shows in six days trip and seeing all the OBCs of the best new shows about six years ago.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 6/1/17 at 2:26am

Broadwaysfguy, obviously you are welcome to your low opinion of Bay Area theater critics, but I don't think whether or not they have visited Broadway as recently as you might've, is necessarily a reflection of their tastes. For instance, Charles McNulty of the L.A. Times also raved about ''Amelie'' when it tried out in Southern California. He called it a ''perfect holiday bauble'' and believed it had its place beside ''Fun Home'' and ''Hamilton'' on Broadway. And McNulty makes it to back East and reviews a number of N.Y. shows.

You seem to assume that one cannot be a top-tier critic without having seen the most recent Broadway shows, by which all shows must be compared to. You appear to equate Bay Area theater (with some exceptions, like A.C.T., S.F. Playhouse) to ''low-quality stuff [the critics] are seeing much of the time.'' For the record, I've had the privilege to review at the S.F. Examiner (years ago), and cover Broadway for the N.Y. Daily News (the past 2 decades), and I can tell you there is high-quality AND low-quality theater in both cities.

Updated On: 6/1/17 at 02:26 AM

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 6/1/17 at 11:24am

hi wayman

sounds like youve had some wonderful experiences covering theatre professionally in two great markets

whenever i make a broad generation it sweeps great folks under the rug, so apologies to you and any other talented critics out there

i think my last comments reflect frustration with both the  current state of bay area critics and also the current state of much of bay area regional theatre

and even the decline in national tour quality and the increased number of non equity productions being presented to us the consumer at the same prices as the equity shows

of course with the newspapers in a death spiral budgets that used to be there arent any more

if you know of groups that are putting on great local and regional productions in the bay area would love to hear more about them

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/1/17 at 12:17pm

I like Karen D'Souza's writing, but I will never forget (in an amusing/annoyed way) when she was DMing me regarding a high-profile show coming to SF — tickets were hard to get and she was tweeting people about their experience. It wasn't until I point-blank asked her in DMs if she was planning on quoting me in the story that she said she would. Not a good practice.

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 6/1/17 at 12:43pm

hi lizzie

love hearing inside ball in the industry

why specifically was karens not sharing whether she would quote you until you asked her not a good industry practice?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/1/17 at 1:00pm

She didn't actually say she was writing a story about the ticketing snafus. It wasn't really all that transparent.

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 6/1/17 at 1:36pm

oh that makes sense and agree with you completely having been on both sides of interviews at various points in life...

[KatVer]

Posted: 6/2/17 at 6:48am

Can't wait to see all the costumes! 

https://spottedsf.com/2017/06/01/making-of-a-princess-in-sf-roman-holiday/

[zkausf]

Posted: 6/5/17 at 2:09pm

Great piece. Beautiful photography.

KatVer said: "Can't wait to see all the costumes! 

https://spottedsf.com/2017/06/01/making-of-a-princess-in-sf-roman-holiday/

 

"

 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 6/5/17 at 6:14pm

Anyone going to the June 6th opening of ''Roman Holiday''?

Updated On: 6/5/17 at 06:14 PM

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 6/6/17 at 1:26am

hey wayman

im going tomorrow for the opening june 6 and will

report back

would love to hear from anyone else who attends

crossing my fingers and hoping for continued improvment for the show

[annang]

Posted: 6/6/17 at 12:11pm

Anyone know where the Rush seats at the Golden Gate are usually located? Do they use unsold orchestra seats for Rush, or put everyone in the nosebleeds. Trying to decide how to get the best bang for my buck. Thanks!

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 6/6/17 at 10:49pm

broadwaysfguy: So tonight's opening will be your 3rd visit to ''Roman Holiday'' in 2 weeks, right? Or is it your 4th? Do you know someone in the show, or someone connected to it? You also originated this thread. It seems like you have more than a passing interest in it. Either way, I look forward your latest update!

annang: A friend of mine has done rush at the Golden Gate and the Orpheum, and she says she doesn't think there are regular rush seats set aside. She says she's been seated very close to the stage and about two-thirds of the way back in the orchestra, but never upstairs in the ''nosebleed'' seats. Hope that helps!

Updated On: 6/6/17 at 10:49 PM

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 6/7/17 at 3:53am

So, I saw Roman Holiday on opening night tonight in SF, and I am here to share that I liked what I saw in terms of improvements and overall. (full disclosure im biased toward wanting anything with Cole Porter to succeed)

"Beautiful" director Marc Bruni has made daily changes to the show since the first preview I saw May 23rd (I saw it may 24 and 26 as well, and each night was better), focusing mainly on some dialogue changes designed to get more laughs from the lines, situational and physical comedy, and also to add some plot  linkages or tighteners (Joe is now a pencil and school supplies salesman so imagine the comedy hijinks attempted here relative to Anya claiming to be a student) 

Marc also seems to have provided substantial positive direction to the female lead Stephanie Styles (national tour female lead in Newsies), who now holds her middle European accent (or assorted versions of it) through most of the show. Her movements and mannerisms have also become more elegant and graceful while shes on her getaway adventure.

(has someone in the show been reading this thread????)

She also has demonstrated some good comedic timing since earlier views,  and is milking a number of her lines and some physical comedy for a substantial increase in audience laughs. She looked great throughout the show and has a beautiful voice, best demonstrated near the end of the show in Goodbye, Little Dream Goodbye. Her stage presence was significantly "bigger" tonight than the previous times I saw the show, which was good- in the first view viewing I thought the supporting actors(who are great) may have outshined her. Her mom, who is Stephanie fan #1 and saw her perform in Newsies over 100 times on tour, was sitting dead center first row about five seats from me encouraging her girl.

Bruni also turned up the heat and chemistry between the Princess and Joe, extended some scenes slightly with dialogue and non verbal cues showing increased flirtations and their growing fondness for each other. Joe (played and sang very well by Drew Gehling, who was the doctor on OBC for Waitress) also gets some additional laugh lines and has learned to milk some existing lines and physical comedy situations for bigger laughs. One scene from the movie that sets up the future flirtation they didnt capture in the stage show is when the sleeping pill drugged princess asked Joe to undress her, he stops at untying her neck wear, then she goes on to describe the whole situation as "this is most unusual" a few times-it was hilarious in the movie, one of my favorite scenes,  and i think a missed opp not to be captured in the musical.

The songs have stayed the same, and are delightful to hear and see performed. I think they changed "Look What I Found" from a duet to a foursome, i cant remember. The best known songs in the show are Night and Day, Easy to Love, You do Something to Me, Begin the Beguine, and Just One of those Things, which are all Top 20 all time Cole Porter songs in my book. My favorite song performances in the show are these five, plus Goodbye Little Dream Goodbye, Take Me Back to Manhattan, and Ridin High. 

Sara Chase really does a wonderful turn as Francesca, has great comedic timing, and bears a very strong resemblance to Jessica Rabbit in her torch-lit, jazz hands dancer fueled version of Begin the Beguine (the dress is AMAZING).  I would still love a song that pops more to open the second act, but they are getting the most they can out of the lesser known "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" with emphasis and double drum tap on "kick it around". ( Jarrod Spector is great as Irving, and I liked his version of Night & Day which he has modified a bit in how he sings it.  The show still doesnt quite capture the slapstick brilliance between joe and irving that the movie did when joes trying to get irving to not mention how much anya looks like the princess. Also a bit more sizzle has been added to he and Franchesca's chemistry and their dialogue changes have also resulted in more laughs for both of them. Georgia Engel delivered great comic timing and one liners and the duchess with a shaky memory,  Her performance is memorable.

The pacing of the show is tighter with smooth transitions between scenes and i think the show runs an hour 50 minutes not including the intermission. Lighting and costumes were fine, the sets are the same and work overall relative to the story.

I spoke with one of the lead producers after the show, and he said they are planning full steam ahead on a  Fall 2017 Broadway opening (my guess sept-oct previews then opening a month later) and have first rights reserved and are waiting for a current show running to close (he of course would not disclose the theater). I got a strong sense without asking directly that the cast is set as well.

Was also lucky enough to visit with Marc Bruni the director for a few minutes after the show, and he was happy with the progress  over the last two weeks, and I got the sense he is still going to polish it hard for the next 12 days while he can. Another producer I spoke with thought the show was largely locked in at this point other than minor dialogue tweaks and testing laugh lines.

So where am I at regarding the show now overall?

I liked it enough that I would pay to see it on Broadway. Any recommendations to others to go see it would be conditional and pre-framed so expectations are not too high.  

Will it make my top 40 musicals-no and that's okay too...

I can see now first hand why producers beg people not to review previews, as there has been real progress in this show in the last two weeks.  

The shows that keep screaming for comparison with Roman Holiday are An American in Paris (AAP) and Nice Work if You Can Get It (NW) both of which I saw about a month after they opened in New York.  Even though this was created by the same team as Beautiful, i don't think its fair to compare these due to the era and impact of Carole King on popular music from 1960 to now, and the Jessie Mueller factor.
I saw Beautiful on opening night during its prebroadway sf run, and there is no comparison between the two shows on the caliber of the show and the audience reaction-Beautiful is simply a much better show.

Assuming continued progress here for two weeks and a typical month  long preview in NYC, I think Roman Holiday by then has a chance to compare somewhat favorably relative to AAP and NW and be an  enjoyable show and evening of entertainment.(less the superb dancing in AAP). If you liked AAP and Nice Work, or like Cole Porter and or Roman Holiday, there's a pretty good chance you will like Roman Holiday. If you revered Roman Holiday the movie and Audrey and hoping for something magic onstage, you could be disappointed, I did think AAP was overrated relative to the hype and reviews and NW underrated.

One of the challenges for me is how can they make the show significantly better, other than star casting. it is a jukebox show, and the songs fit somewhat well given its a jukebox. Its probably impossible to recreate the heat and magic of Audrey Hepburn as I mentioned earlier, so its big shoes for any actress to fill.

Several other season subscribers i spoke with on opening night who watch the tours but are not hard core annual Broadway visitors described it as "delightful", "charming" and "a lot of fun"

Can Roman Holiday be a Broadway hit? I'm still very skeptical. Both AAP and NW had high profile spring launches, massive hype for AAP and big stars for NW.  

It has been fun to watch the show and cast evolve, and I'll probably check it one more time before it heads east.

 

Updated On: 6/7/17 at 03:53 AM

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 6/7/17 at 1:44pm

Variety's review is out by film critic Dennis Harvey and he is brutal...

"very much a jukebox musical, complete with the usual sense of proceedings reduced to a flimsy excuse for familiar songs, shoehorned into the nominal context as best they can."

"Roman Holiday,” hoping for a Broadway bow in the fall, will likely get the kind of greeting once afforded Christians by lions if it braves the Great White Way in its current form, with no star power to distract from the general mediocrity of the enterprise."

"But alas, as cast and directed, none of the four leads demonstrate the personality to enliven (let alone transcend) their stock character types"

"Gehling makes an affable-enough lanky hero, while Styles has the crystalline soprano Hepburn wished she had. But while she also occasionally apes her predecessor’s distinctive speaking voice, this Anne doesn’t feel exotically sheltered, a rare bird spreading its wings for the first and possibly last time. Instead, she seems an ordinary girl—more like an average collegiate or twentysomething—who asks a bit much in claiming she’s a princess who’s never spent an unchaperoned moment."

PS  I think the show is better than this review, but he keys on my same biggest concerns previously voiced about stephanie and just whether or not the show has enough omph to compete on broadway.

full review here:

http://variety.com/2017/legit/reviews/roman-holiday-review-musical-san-francisco-1202456634/

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 6/7/17 at 2:32pm

Karen d'souza at SJ mercury news also not impressed...this is one of the least favorable reviews ive read by her....

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/07/review-does-roman-holiday-seduce-in-san-francisco-debut/

[KatVer]

Posted: 6/7/17 at 2:42pm

No good review so far 

http://m.sfgate.com/performance/article/Roman-is-no-holiday-11202923.php