I'm scared to see Lennon...- Page 2

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 7/4/05 at 5:17pm

I think I am still going to be very cautious about seeing it. I should be in New York after it opens, but I am going to wait until I hear more people weigh in on it.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 7/4/05 at 8:39pm

Just don't go in expecting "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", is all. I think many people are going to be surprised (perhaps, disappointed) that the show is about John - the man, and not the band. The show's called "Lennon" and not "Beatles", after all. (I've still got to tell myself of this, to be honest.)

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/4/05 at 9:49pm

No one should be scared to see this show. Apprehensive, maybe. But not scared.

Hell, I'd be apprehensive even though I saw it twice in SF and loved it each time -- if only because of the changes they've made to the show. IMO, most of which were unneccessary, but I guess I'm not on the creative team.

The show I saw in San Francisco was beautiful and it was evident that the people involved really cared about what they were doing. That's the bottom line.

[hrh_annette]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 12:09am

Please, give Lennon a chance. I know you always get the same SF people on these Lennon threads begging you to give it a chance. Go watch it for the incredible performers. Go to enjoy John Lennon's music. Just go.

[EVIE]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 12:51am

I wish I would have seen it while it was in SF but I put off buying tickets for so long, that when I finally did try, they were out...oh well.

[Racetrack]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 1:01am

I'd go see it for Julia and Chad Kimball. If someone does goe see it say a recent Roosevelt graduate says hey and that VK still brags about him being on Broadway everytime our spring musical roles around. Just semi-kidding.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 1:06am

I'm ridiculously excited to see this...especially for Julia. Mandy Gonzalez is a nice plus as well. The show does seem interesting to me though.

[feinstein9]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 2:11am

i thought i could go either way until i went to the website and read the interview with the creator. the whole website was a huge turn-off. instead of actually being about john's life, it seems to adhere to the "mythic" idea of who john was rather than who is actually was. i've read probably a dozen lennon biographies plus beatle books and of course bootlegs of the recording sessions, and john isn't someone to be idealized. not... you know, this really peaceful guy. he was tripping nearly all the time anyway (making many of his quotes kind of erroneous), and the song "cold turkey" is about his drug addictions. if you listen to the "let it be" sessions, you really get an idea of how aloof and indifferent he could be, and how egotistical- his insistance on george only having two songs an album caused george to quit (and john acted like he didn't even care). he dissed he bandmates and brian epstein all the time. there's no question john is genius, and this doesn't make me enjoy his music any less. but putting out an idealized image of the "working class hero" just sounds like something i'd do... when i was ten and thought john was the greatest thing of all time. just seems inappropriate.

[ken8631]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 10:55am

Going this Friday - basically because Terrence Mann is in it (wife's favorite actor)..... Will see if it rates getting a second set of tix!

[justme2]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 1:48pm

Saw the show in SF, enjoyed it, and can't say much more, as the creative team has apparently changed about 40% of what I saw for the NY audiences.

Here's some info regarding the changes made since SF from a Will Chase interview on Playbill.com:

Q: In Lennon, various actors play Lennon. How’s that work?
Chase: I’m now the narrator of the evening. Chad [Kimball] is the young John’s consciousness. Terry [Mann] is the mature John’s consciousness, and Michael [Potts] is more of John’s political consciousness. All of them kind of morph into me. I’m John Lennon if he were to show up on a given night and tell his story. This show isn’t a jukebox musical. It’s about John’s life using his songs, which he wrote about his life. Don Scardino’s vision for the show is really story theatre from the sixties and seventies. It’s so cool, and I think John would’ve totally dug it.

Q: How has the show changed since San Francisco?
Chase: It’s been tweaked and rewritten. It’s gotten a lot more in depth and emotional. Some songs have been moved or cut, and we’ve added others, like "Watching the Wheels" and "Mind Games." There’s much more about Paul McCartney and the Beatles in it now. And the ensemble has more of a voice."


Less "original concept" and more Beatles. Too bad.

[Thenardier]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 2:00pm

If I do see it, Terrence Mann will be signing my Les Mis OBC...F that, I'll just bring the cd and twp cd with me to the stage door and see a better show.

[eslgr8]

Posted: 7/5/05 at 5:49pm

As Shira said, the SF production was apparently a mixed bag, but remember, they've done a lot of fiddling with it since then. I doubt it's the same show anymore, hopefully for the better. And it's a Lennon bio, focusing mostly on post Beatles, isn't it? So it shouldn't harm your memory of the Fab Four.

[feinstein9]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:01am

bump, b/c it's too early for this convo to be over. where are the other beatle/lennon fans who disagree with how he is being portrayed?

[Shawk]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:54am

I saw it several times in SF, and while that may not be all that relevant seeing as the show has apparently changed quite a bit, I have to say that whatever you think of John Lennon or Don Scardino's obviously starry-eyed vision of him, the cast is amazingly talented and committed. I enjoyed the show and really hope they've made changes that will only make the show better.

[feinstein9]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:58am

i'm sure the cast is fantastic, and that really seems to have been most peoples motivation for going (at least on this board). i guess it's my job as a fangirl to nitpick... i'll probably see it anyway, for the reasons you just listed

[haypeppa87]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 12:59pm

I live in San Fran. and i felt the SAME way before I saw Lennon. I was honestly blown away by the vocals of the show. It takes time to get used to how the show is set up but its really cool to watch. All the info about him is really cool too. They worked with Yoko to make sure everything was correct. The only bad thing was Julia only sings one song(its my fave song though so I was happy) DONT BE SCARED! Its a really great show.

[NativeNewYorker]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 1:13pm

Very excited Mandy's back in something.

[justme2]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 1:31pm

The show was fun while it was in SF, and I hope it's as fun or even better by the time it opens in NY.

...and feinstein9, just go see the show. It's a MUSICAL about Lennon, not an A&E biography of the man! :)

What I want to know is, why did they change the poster? All I see now is the "John Head" with the Rainbow glasses...and in SF we had the white poster with the Lennon profile made out of guitar string.

Posted: 7/7/05 at 1:35pm

The only thing that you should be afriad of is that talented cast!

[justme2]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 2:01pm

You ain't kiddin!

They were fantastic in SF...Terrence and Mandy and Julia and Will and so on and so on.

They all were in top voice and I enjoyed all the singing, but Mandy and Terrence stood out in my mind!

[Shawk]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 4:00pm

If you're scared of it being a jukebox musical, it's not really. It's John Lennon's songs and words telling his life story (well, at least, parts of it).

I think a lot of the problem it suffered with critics was that it was too high-concept for the jukebox crowd and too jukebox for the high-brow crowd. That's not to say that it was perfect, because it wasn't, but if 40% or so is changed, we can hope they learned from the reviews in SF and made appropriate adjustments.

And the cast, as we all keep saying, is fantastic.

[ken8631]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 4:14pm

How many songs does Terry sing?

[Shawk]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 4:18pm

I don't know in the new incarnation as there are new songs, but he sang parts of various songs in SF (I seem to recall him doing a fair amount of "Give Peace a Chance"), as well as the Act 2 solo ballad, "I Don't Want to Lose You."

[justme2]

Posted: 7/7/05 at 4:19pm

Hard to say...I can't recall if in the SF program they matched up the songs with the singers (program is at home). The action was so fast and the songs and scenes handed off so quickly in the SF version, that it's hard to say. I rem ember Terry playing the Queen in one scene, and a hilarious Mike Douglas in another...

Apparently in the NY version, he will be playing the "mature voice" of Lennon only, so I will take a guess that he may be singing some of the late seventies songs?