'The Opposite of Sex': Get In and Shut Up -- This Girl is Taking You on a White-Knuckle Ride Past Love -

[Craig]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 9:32am

https://www.broadwayworld.com/l.cfm?id=45279

[ckeaton]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 9:53am

That's more like it. This show sounds like it's really quite entertaining. I enjoy Karen Ziemba and John Bolton both very much, and I am very glad to see them getting great notices. The ever fabulous Miss Butler, looks wonderful, and surely is growing in the role by the minute. Lets support new musicals!!

[Craig]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 11:44am

Another great review..

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/9831795.htm?1c

[FOCI]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 2:15pm

Yep, I have officially eaten my words on not liking the show. I had to go see it again(long story) and I ended up liking it.....what can I say I guess everyone was right and you can't judge a show from it's previews, no matter how much you think you dislike the show in general. Oh well, congratulations to everyone involved with the project.

[ponine24601]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 2:46pm

awesome!! i can't wait to see this! yay kerry!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 3:08pm

I just have to say -- I LOVE David Burtka in every way, Kerry Butler is a Goddess and Karen Ziemba deserves SO much more crdit than she is given.

[tkts]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 3:50pm

Discount tickets available here:

Sex discount tickets!

[sarbear]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 3:55pm

I've been a lurker here for awhile.I saw 'sex' over the weekend, and I was overall disappointed. I agreed with a lot of Foci's first review, A talented cast, but, it still needs A LOT of work before Broadway. The audience recation was slow, at best. And I do think it would be better suited off-Broadway.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 4:05pm

This show is going to be GREAT

[JoizeyActor]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 5:31pm

Hooray for SEX!

[tkts]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 3:37pm

I better bump this to the top so we can start shilling!

[FOCI]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 6:33pm

BTW for those interested besides Fran and Barry; Neil Patrick Harris, Lisa Kudrow,and I think someone said Don Roos(although I have no idea who that is) were in the audience....Wow within the course of a week I have been 3 feet from both Lisa Kudrow and Kerry Butler's faces, not a bad week I suppose.

[Craig]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 6:55pm

Don Roos was there and wrote the screenplay on which the film and musical are based

[FOCI]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 7:03pm

Ah, ok thank you Craig. You weren't there by any chance were you?

Posted: 10/11/04 at 3:49pm

Well, I just saw it this past Saturday night and I too was greatly disappointed. First off, I do agree...most of the cast is exceedingly talented...how can you not love JMcC, KZ and KB who were top-rate. I was however not impressed with David B. Sure he's easy on the eyes, but he was so under almost every note that came out of his mouth. I was a little shocked, actually, having heard all the raves about him in other things.

The show as a whole: I am not quite sure that this particular movie is the right source material for a musical, unless the authors of the play just missed the mark. The book was practically verbatim from the script. There were a few times that the characters just didn't need to break out into song. A few missed moments where there should have been a song, especially the moment when Bill confronts the twink Jason about blackmail and gives the "you have no idea what gays have gone through so you can mince around and be out...." speech, which wasn't delivered in the play with enough punch. To me that's such a strong statement and cries out for a musical number to make it really resonate.

It was lyrically weak and some of the music trite. It was enjoyable, but as a musical it is passible, and as a musical-based-on-a-movie, maybe it shouldnt have been. And what an interesting place for a theater...in a funky out of the way section called Fort Wayne. Glad they can survive way out there.

Let the pelting begin (runs for cover).

[Craig]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 3:53pm

FOCI0

No, I wasn't there. I'll be going this coming weekend...

[FOCI]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 7:24pm

Craig, I will be interested to hear your opinion...this coming weekend-would that be the weekend of the 15th?

[MusicMan]

Posted: 10/11/04 at 9:43pm

Excerpts from the VARIETY review:

"...One quality this particular story of a havoc-wreaking latter-day Lolita does not flaunt...is sincerity. Composer Douglas J. Cohen and book collaborator Robert Jess Roth evidently thought otherwise. Which is why their chamber-musical version premiering at the Magic ends up conceptually so...the opposite of good...
...Cohen and Roth's adaptation only makes the faux anti-p.c.-dom of Roos' original seem ersatz, while their attempts to shoehorn real caring, sharing, healing and love into a cartoonish lurid scenario get more deadening and false as the brisk evening careens on.
Softening the film's witty viciousness, providing no memorable tunes in a score that sounds like clutter-inclined William Finn without his distinctive neurotic sensibility, this "Sex" strands itself in ways beyond the rescue of cast or director...In fact, their contributions barely register...
Act Two opener "Dead Ex-Lover" briefly indicates the amusingly crass direction this musical as a whole ought to have taken...
It's hard to tell if Brad Haak's arrangements for an invisible live combo of four exacerbate the facelessness of Cohen's music or only respect it...
Where Christina Ricci's sullenly sensuous, odd, amoral Dedee gave the film's arch narrator some charismatic credibility, (Kerry) Butler comes off as an ordinary suburban mall brat, complete with "Ewww" response to every foreign situation...It's not the thesp's fault that she comes off as nothing more dangerous than a Britney wannabe, complete with pop pipes.
The most distinctive singer here, (Karen) Ziemba somehow misses entirely the comic potential in a spinster role made memorably eccentric by Lisa Kudrow onscreen. Other cast members are not flattered by the material."
Updated On: 10/12/04 at 09:43 PM

[PennyLou]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 12:34am

"(Kelly) Butler "

it's great when writes know what they are talking about isn't it? oy

Updated On: 10/12/04 at 12:34 AM

[MusicMan]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 12:41am

Actually, the mistake is mine, Pennylou, and I've rectified it.
The review is correct in its information.
Updated On: 10/12/04 at 12:41 AM

[Craig]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 1:09am

So far there seems to be opinions in both camps about this show. Some have praised it tremendously, and others have not. What I do know is, the creators will continue to work on before it hits opening night on Broadway

[PennyLou]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 1:11am

Craig, is there date set for opening night here?

[Craig]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 1:25am

Not as of yet.

I'll be there the 17th and 18th..

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 9:10am

Yes, as Craig mentioned, this is hardly the only review. It's definitely the most negative. There are 3 or 4 others out there that are much more positive.

[ckeaton]

Posted: 10/12/04 at 1:37pm

The video clip is the first I've heard of the show's music, and I have to say I like it very much. The cast sounds great. Oy, how super is this?