A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: Boston tryout

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

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.

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. 

Robyn Hurder would be worth seeing again in anything.

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

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.

Or because they are still experimenting with placement.

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!

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 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 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.

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? 

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