Posted: 4/20/23 at 3:51pm
I couldn’t buy tickets fast enough. So excited to finally get to see this performed!
Link
Updated On: 5/4/23 at 03:51 PM
Posted: 4/20/23 at 4:16pm
Thanks! Just got a ticket for myself! With this cast, it's going to be sold out as soon as the words get out. So happy for Rob Schneider! J2 is really taking off.
Posted: 4/20/23 at 4:30pm
Great cast but I don't think I could sit through this again. I am looking forward to seeing Fontana in Transport Group concert on Nine in June.
https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/nine-in-concert/
Updated On: 4/20/23 at 04:30 PM
Posted: 4/20/23 at 4:51pm
Did they do any work on it, I wonder...?
Posted: 4/20/23 at 4:52pm
Is this the first time a Tony winner’s done an Equity Showcase? I guess the work really is drying up everywhere.
Posted: 4/20/23 at 4:57pm
I love the cast, but I really don’t know this show at all. Is it a forgotten gem or more of a curiosity piece?
Posted: 4/20/23 at 5:15pm
When even Martin Short and Bernadette Peters struggle to lift your material it isn't much of a gem.
Frank Rich's NYT review of the Broadway production. (gift link)
Posted: 4/20/23 at 5:20pm
Tony winners have done NAMT shows. Santino is someone who works a lot, so doing this for a few weeks isn't shocking.
David Zippel is also directing it, and Santino (and others) might be doing it as favor to Zippel or someone else at this fledgling company.
Whether it's a forgotten gem or a morbid curiosity is to be determined.
Posted: 4/20/23 at 5:30pm
Sauja said: "I love the cast, but I really don’t know this show at all. Is it a forgotten gem or more of a curiosity piece?"
It's not just a dumpster fire, it's a fu*king BORING dumpster fire.
Posted: 4/20/23 at 5:46pm
Huss417 said: "Great cast but I don't think I could sit through this again. I am looking forward to seeing Fontana in Transport Group concert on Nine in June.
https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/nine-in-concert/"
That'll be great, I'm sure. And "Goodbye Girl" has always fascinated me for a lot of reasons, so to see a very rarely performed show like this done live in a small space with an Encores-level cast is exciting to someone like me who's fascinated by flops.
Posted: 4/20/23 at 5:52pm
I’m rooting for this to be great, just for the sake of David Zippel who’s directing. After his lousy run of HERCULES followed by the BAD CINDERELLA debacle, he really, really deserves something great out of 2023.
Posted: 4/20/23 at 6:09pm
Sutton Ross said: "Sauja said: "I love the cast, but I really don’t know this show at all. Is it a forgotten gem or more of a curiosity piece?"
It's not just a dumpster fire, it's a fu*king BORING dumpster fire."
I co-sign. A great example of how musical theater took one of my all time favorite films and took a massive dump on it.
Posted: 4/20/23 at 6:55pm
I saw it with Donna McKechnie in the late 90s. It was boring. So boring.
Posted: 4/21/23 at 12:38am
The opening number was cut after the first week of the Chicago tryout. It was a scene in a burger restaurant with the housekeeper and the 3 young girls.
Posted: 4/21/23 at 4:42am
I’ve never seen it, I don’t even know if it’s at the archive is it? But of course I’ve listened to the cast recording. I’d say there are parts of the score that are very high quality and the lyrics in particularly are so witty and clever (which is why I was quite excited that the writer was also doing Cinderella - finally a chance for ALW to have a good lyricist. For whatever reason, I don’t know if it’s also ALW’s music that makes it challenging - it didn’t really work out as well as I’d hoped).
Posted: 4/21/23 at 8:47am
Jordan Catalano said: "Huss417 said: "Great cast but I don't think I could sit through this again. I am looking forward to seeing Fontana in Transport Group concert on Nine in June.
https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/nine-in-concert/"
That'll be great, I'm sure. And "Goodbye Girl" has always fascinated me for a lot of reasons, so to see a very rarely performed show like this done live in a small space with an Encores-level cast is exciting to someone like me who's fascinated by flops.
"
I don't have to tell you that there are memorable flops and some that are just flops. This for me fell into the latter. The Goodbye Girl at the time was probably the show I was most looking forward to that season but it was just flat. Next to no laughs, music far from memorable, a waste of the talent of Peters and Short.
I do hope that have made some changes and as always look forward to what you will have to say after seeing it. :)
Posted: 4/21/23 at 9:40am
binau said: "it didn’t really work out as well as I’d hoped)."
That's an understatement...
Posted: 4/21/23 at 9:43am
But this is what I love about productions like this. It’s a show that obviously flopped hard and people truly dislike but for me, having never seen it, to finally get a chance to with a great cast like this - it’s exciting and something I’m really looking forward to finally being able to have an opinion on for myself.
Posted: 4/21/23 at 12:46pm
One of my all time favorite awful lyrics…”we’ll split a pizza, hit the sheetzah…” FANTASTIC.
Next they should do “Nick and Nora” followed by “Legs Diamond”.
Posted: 4/21/23 at 2:16pm
Wow, those tickets really moved quick, though I can't say I'm surprised. I was so used to seeing J2 productions on TDF that I figured I'd wait on buying tickets but then of course they announced the cast. I wonder if there will be a chance at a last minute cancellation.
Posted: 4/21/23 at 4:31pm
I saw this in 1993 and adored it. Loved the cast and the songs. It was so funny and sweet. Pretty sure I cried happy tears. I have listened to the cast recording often and think it is clever and hilarious.
I probably read the actual Broadway reviews a few years ago because I was wondering why it had never been revived. I don't think I read reviews back then since I wasn't subscribing to the NYT home delivery in California. I was surprised to read what the critics thought.
A friend texted me yesterday when I was flying to JFK to tell me about the Theatre Row production and cast, so I had her buy me a seat right away in case it sold out. It will be really fun to see it again and see what I think of it after 30 years. Looking forward to it!
Posted: 4/21/23 at 4:46pm
Excerpts from the original. It kind of looks like the proto-First Wives Club:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI0sXGWc-xM
Posted: 4/22/23 at 10:07am
The original Broadway production had two bona fide stars, both, arguably, ideally cast*, and it simply refused to ignite. I'll never forget the waves of disappointment in the house, the mid-act recognition of a new musical that has been crafted by experts, achieved balance between near farce and some semblance of reality, and yet could not engage as intended. It happens. The songs were professionally wrought, yet just not nearly as enjoyable as they needed to be for the whole enterprise to catch faire. Maybe in a chamber-sized production the combo of reduced expectations and greater intimacy will allow a new prism.
*though possessing no authentic romantic spark, through no fault of the actors
Updated On: 4/22/23 at 10:07 AM
Posted: 4/22/23 at 12:11pm
Sounds like a perfect platform for really talented folks to take a crack at what was a failure in version 1.0.
It's honestly a better formula for a fund/profile raiser than most non-profits are doing. With ENCORES barely holding on to their original mission statement, these pieces should get re-investigations wherever possible.
Posted: 4/22/23 at 12:21pm
Knowing the material but having not seen the original, I believe the greatest head-scratch element was that artists of this pedigree could create a show that didn't work on this level: Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch, David Zippel, Manny Azenberg, Gene Saks (fired and replaced by Michael Kidd), Graciela Daniele, Peters, Short, etc.
There's some decent material in the score. For a company like this, this is a great show for them to revive as opposed to the umpteenth production of, say, Little Me or Last 5 Years.
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