A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: Boston tryout

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 6:55am

The Neil Diamond musical started previews yesterday in Boston. Anyone go?

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 10:43am

Found this post on Twitter:

"They could have just called "A Beautiful Noise" Beautiful 2: The Neil Diamond Musical. For an out-of-town preview this show is ready to run for years. Completely solid 3/4 stars. Will Swenson is a front runner for the Tony. Robyn Hurder steals the show."

[OhHiii]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 10:50am

Frontrunner for the Tony is thrown at any impersonation of a music star these days. Imitation never impresses me like creating or reimagining a unique character.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 11:55am

From a Public Facebook post:

Musical numbers & band list (13-piece band)

Title page

Playbill cover. Wonder who this show is about?

Neil Diamond was apparently at the show last night, seated in a box.

Updated On: 6/22/22 at 11:55 AM

[AllThatJazz2]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:03pm

Neil was in the audience for the first first preview.

I'll be seeing this on the 12th, so I'll be happy to report back. 

If anyone is in the area, they have a ton of discounts I've seen popping up on Goldstar, etc., and they also are doing a ticket lottery. 

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:03pm

Hogget makes me excited. Mayer is hit or miss. Excited to hear about the physical production. 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:05pm

Robyn Hurder would be worth seeing again in anything.

[nsguy45]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:07pm

Neil and Will were at Fenway Park the other evening, leading the crowd in a rousing rendition of "Sweet Caroline".

[RWPrincess]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:10pm

That's a great song list. Looks like a mixture of his more popular and some lesser known songs. 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:19pm

I think this will be really successful with an older crowd who want a classic, feel good show. 

[RW3]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:22pm

RWPrincess said: "That's a great song list. Looks like a mixture of his more popular and some lesser known songs."

Ugh. I hate when jukebox musicals list the songs they use in alphabetical order and not by act.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:28pm

RW3 said: "Ugh. I hate when jukebox musicals list the songs they use in alphabetical order and not by act."

Yup! I assume that's done so as not to spoil anything or give away any mashups, since some of these songs might just be fragments?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 12:52pm

Or because they are still experimenting with placement.

[DearTheodosia]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 1:16pm

I'm looking for a discount. Where else besides Goldstar?

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 2:14pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "From a Public Facebook post:

Musical numbers & band list(13-piece band)

Title page

Playbill cover. Wonder who this show is about?

Neil Diamond was apparently at the show last night, seated in a box."

 

Wait, is that American Idol winner Nick Fradiani in the ensemble?! How did I miss that!

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 2:16pm

everythingtaboo said:

"Wait, is that American Idol winner Nick Fradiani in the ensemble?! How did I miss that!"

Yes, and he's Will Swenson's standby, which I find very surprising.

Updated On: 6/22/22 at 02:16 PM

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 11:36pm

OhHiii said: "Frontrunner for the Tony is thrown at any impersonation of a music star these days. Imitation never impresses me like creating or reimagining a unique character."

Playing any real-life person (especially if it's a well known figure) tends to give performers a leg up at the Oscars as well. After all, voters who aren't as intimately familiar with the craft of acting are more easily able to recognize how a performer is nailing the real-life person they're playing. Going into next year's Tony Awards, Will Swenson could be helped by the fact that the book writer for this show is Anthony McCarten. He has previously written three biographical films (such as 2014's The Theory of Everything, 2017's Darkest Hour, and 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody) that won an Oscar for Best Actor. It should be interesting to see if that track record works its way into the Tonys.

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 11:40pm

Will be interested to hear about this one. Doesn’t seem like much buzz but it has a stacked team. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 12:40am

SouthernCakes said: "Doesn’t seem like much buzz but it has a stacked team."

Well it's had one performance so give it a little time I don't know that the Neil Diamond audience + Broadway audience is an ideal overlap, but the team gives me hope that this could be artful in the way that MJ is artful (tho imho MJ is a far superior songbook). And it appears Diamond will be game to promote the show.

[quizking101]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 8:58am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "SouthernCakes said: "Doesn’t seem like much buzz but it has a stacked team."

Well it's had one performance so give it a little time I don't know that the Neil Diamond audience + Broadway audience is an ideal overlap, but the team gives me hope that this could be artful in the way that MJ is artful (tho imho MJ is a far superior songbook). And it appears Diamond will be game to promote the show."

I think the Neil Diamond/Broadway crossover audience is likely rather…aged. And if this is dropping in the late fall, it may be a hard sell to that crowd if COVID cases decide to go back up.

I can’t imagine many people under the age of 40 who would be clamoring to a Neil Diamond musical - especially since most of us only know Sweet Caroline and maybe a few others. 

[JasonC3]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:12am

I don't know how many are Diamond or theater fans, but around 70 million Baby Boomers are alive today and millions more older GenXers, so that is a fairly large potential pool who are familiar with Diamond's work.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:19am

I mentioned this on Tonys thread, but my bigger question is whether or not Neil Diamond is going to be interesting as a character. Of course awards voters have a bias towards biographical performances, but Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, etc. have interesting lives and personalities outside of their music that help them become compelling characters. I don't know much of anything about Neil Diamond outside of the songs he has written and a couple of awful movies he was in. Is there anything noteworthy there?

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:28am

All the things people are saying about a Neil Diamond musical could have been said about a Carole King musical, and that did alright for itself, didn't it? 

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:29am

This is giving Margaritaville vibes tbh

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:43am

I don't see any similarity to Escape to Margaritaville, at all. That wasn't a bio-musical.