Romantic Poetry Reviews!

[barcelona20]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 11:00am

Can't wait to read these tonight!

I love the way Playbill.com describes the show in an article today. "A new and somewhat abstract musical comedy"

haha, nothing like a good old "abstract" musical comedy...

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 6:30pm

The Associated Press is Very Negative:

'With its parade of quarreling couples, "Romantic Poetry" is a direct descendant of these works. Fred and Connie are nervy, unabashedly emotional and physically volatile. Sounds perfect for a musical. But it's not. Shanley's story dawdles and then detours to include Connie's mentally quirky first husband (Jeb Brown) and her comic, impish number two (a delightful Mark Linn-Baker).

And we haven't even gotten to Frankie (Jerry Dixon), a caterer who, by the time Act 2 rolls around, morphs into a deli owner and Mary (Patina Renea Miller), who becomes a painter. Their matchup seems almost like a throwaway subplot despite the strong voices and appealing personalities of both performers...'

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/28/entertainment/e140229D68.DTL

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 8:32pm

AM New York gives the show 1/2 a Star out of 4:

'There must be some mistake. John Patrick Shanley, the author of “Doubt,” and Henry Krieger, the composer of “Dreamgirls,” could not have written this train wreck of a new musical. Was this a cruel joke? Did we walk into the wrong theater?

Whatever the case, “Romantic Poetry,” a farcical musical comedy about crazed lovers, though seemingly well meant, is a total misfire in every way.'

http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/stage/blog/2008/10/review_of_romantic_poetry.html

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 8:35pm

Variety is Very Negative:

'Krieger, the celebrated composer of "Dreamgirls" and "Side Show," provides music by the mile. There are a few hints of interesting melody here and there, but lyricist Shanley doesn't know what to do with them.

The bride (Emily Swallow) complains, upon her first entrance, that she is "just like a troubadour, behind a prison door, singing to his amour." And she later has a drunken aria that goes "There's a nightclub in my shoe, and I go there when I'm blue." One of her ex-husbands (Mark-Linn Baker) sings, "I am a serf, I've never seen-a, girl of high birth, you're a czarina." For the record, Shanley also sees fit to offer the quadruple rhyme "between us," "Venus," "heinous" and -- well, you can guess.'

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117938852.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 10:04pm

Talkin' Broadway is a Pan:

'What happens to love after doubt creeps into it? An excellent question, and one of the more notable ones addressed in Romantic Poetry at Manhattan Theatre Club. But a better one is: What happened to John Patrick Shanley after Doubt crept out of him?

First Defiance savagely mocked the previous work's success by recasting it in hollower, more pedestrian terms. Now this largely hopeless musical has sputtered open to further encourage us to reevaluate whether the taut Doubt was really as good as it seemed at the time, or whether it was an engrossing late-career fluke. Romantic Poetry - which Shanley also directed - is really that bad.'

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/10_28_08.html

[WickedMuzzy422]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 10:29pm

hahaha. i love it!
i've been waiting for these reviews since the show started. i usher at mtc, so you can imagine how painful it is to have to watch this show at least once a week.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 10:38pm

Looks like this is one show which will not be around for long.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 10:39pm

Ouch.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 10:41pm

Let the papering...well I was going to say begin but the real word is continue, isn't it? I haven't had time to catch this one yet.

I must say I'm a big fan of really bad musicals. I don't to like laugh at other people's misfortune/failure, I just find it comforting to think that if (insert horrible show title here) made it to Broadway/Off-Broadway, then something I write/act in definitely has a chance.

[WickedMuzzy422]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 10:51pm

Updated On: 10/31/08 at 10:51 PM

[ZiggyCringe]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 10:52pm

Ooh, Wickedmuzzy, I totally feel for you. Sitting through the first act of this was like getting teeth pulled.

These reviews are totally on point. Especially the "Variety" one.

What were they thinking?

[ZiggyCringe]

Posted: 10/28/08 at 11:28pm

Theatremania.com a pan:

"Romantic Poetry sounds like it should be a winner. And yet, this new musical at Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I is a definite disappointment."

Theatremania Review Updated On: 10/28/08 at 11:28 PM

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 10/29/08 at 1:34am

The Newark Star-Ledger is Very Negative:

'A cheerfully disorderly musical, "Romantic Poetry" is a sketchy affair regarding passion, both artistic and amorous.

"Doubt" author John Patrick Shanley and "Dreamgirls" composer Henry Krieger are the notable collaborators for this new tuner that opened Tuesday, but regardless whether one's taste is for conventional or bizarre musical theater, their unorthodox romp doesn't satisfy.'

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2008/10/romantic_poetry_has_heart_in_t.html

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/29/08 at 11:27am

Yeah, I don't think I could handle this.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 10/29/08 at 11:38am

The New York Times (Ben Brantley) is Very Negative:

'...There’s a lot of tedious plot hung on these six wayward souls. But really all you need to know is that none of them can resist a rim-shot joke, and that they share a penchant for spouting silly metaphors at length and in song. ( “I am a sailor. You are the sail./I am the Pequod. You are the whale.”)

The very talented Mr. Krieger has whipped up a confectionary batch of melodies that evoke an entire catalog of romantic standards, summoning Victor Herbert, Hoagy Carmichael and Rodgers and Hart, among others. The able cast sings these numbers with the mixture of goofiness and sincerity that is asked of them.

The same sensibility — of kitsch delivered with both a wink and a hug — is embodied in David Korins’s glittery nightclub-in-purgatory set.

You certainly can’t say that the show isn’t of a piece. But that piece is made of ingredients that were meant to be consumed in small amounts. Only people who can make a meal out of marshmallows and marzipan are likely to find “Romantic Poetry” digestible.'

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/theater/reviews/29roma.html

[Insider2]

Posted: 10/29/08 at 11:53am

First, To Be Or Not to Be and now this? When are heads going to start to roll over in the MTC artistic office? Seems like someone has fallen asleep at the wheel over there. A third grade child could program better theatre than this drivel.

[barcelona20]

Posted: 10/29/08 at 12:10pm

These might be the worst reviews for a show I've ever read. Not one positive, or even moderate review.

However, I think MTC will come back strong. Everyone's entitled to a few mistakes. They just happened to occur at the same time. This production was only made because of Shanley.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/29/08 at 12:16pm

Ouch, ouch, and YEEE-OWWCH!!
The first Zero star review in TIME OUT NY's history

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/29/08 at 5:59pm

This could be the Moose Murders of musicals. It could make Lestat look like South Pacific.

Updated On: 10/29/08 at 05:59 PM

[sineparade]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 1:46am

i was just informed that wickedmuzzy was fired from her job at MTC because she posted her review of this universally panned musical here. i think that this is an outrage, and i think that we should let MTC know that we reject their bizarre and pathetic act of censorship. the person responsible for firing muzzy needs to know that the theatre community (artists and devotees) support the free flow of information without restrictions. muzzy today lost her job because she posted her opinion on this thread! think about that, and please do something about it, so that it does not happen to someone else. i am encouraging muzzy to come foward to tell her story.

Updated On: 10/30/08 at 01:46 AM

[sineparade]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 1:55am

barcelona: MTC just fired Muzzy for posting on this thread. what do you think about MTC now?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 6:59am

I think an usher delighting in the bad reviews for the theatre she works at deserves to be fired.

[Insider2]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:54am

I think MTC needs to worry less about firing ushers and do some house cleaning in their artistic department. Why not start with the geniuses who felt that To Be Or Not To Be and Romanitic Poetry were brilliant ways to begin their season?

[Morgaine885]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 1:12pm

She's probably quite young, and I definitely feel sorry for her, but consider it a very hard lesson to learn.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 5:21pm

I think if you're dumb enough to post that you work there and then that "people take bets" as to how many people will leave at intermission, you deserve to be fired.