A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: Boston tryout — Page 3

At this point, the cancellation of a week or two's worth of performances seems like its the part of the preview period of any new show. They should just start scheduling this in and invite the cast to cough all over each other early in rehearsals or something. I'm obviously kidding, but it's bananas.

RippedMan said: "Is it a big show? What makes the show so expensive? Inflation?"

I don't know anything about the specifics of the financials beyond a capitalization of up to $20M, but it has A-class people in every key production position, probably a hefty upfront payment to Neil Diamond (in addition to royalties), and people like David Rockwell don't design on tight budgets for a big jukebox show.

$15M is pretty normal for a Broadway musical these days, and it wouldn't be crazy for $5M to go towards a commercially-produced out of town tryout. It's a high budget if they ever want to recoup, but not insane.

Updated On: 6/28/22 at 04:55 PM

https://ew.com/theater/neil-diamond-musical-a-beautiful-noise-will-swenson-first-look/

EDSOSLO858 said: "The first picture really reminds me ofBeautiful."

Yep. And I bet the team is very aware of that in trying to promote to that demographic. That yellow is working hard!

Hard to get a good sense of the scale and design of the show from these tho.

A friend of mine loved it, every moment of it.

everythingtaboo said: "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!"

Didn't Nick do the tour of Bronx Tale?

Saw this tonight. In full disclosure, I do like a lot of Neil Diamond songs but I strongly dislike Sweet Caroline.

The show received an instant standing ovation. I think I was in the minority as I thought the show was merely "fine". The biggest problem for me is that Neil's life story is kinda blah. He had two wives who loved him and he was not a good husband. There really wasn't much more drama than that. He finally found happiness with his 3rd wife who just happens to be 30 years younger lol.

I thought Robyn Hurder was the standout. Will was great as Neil but didn't get a lot of opportunity to really "act". He was mostly the song man whereas old Neil did the acting. Since everyone is comparing this to Beautiful, I thought Beautiful was far better and moving (although I do prefer Carole King's music).

Positives:

1) Will Swenson captures then-Neil Diamond very well. His singing voice, in particular, is close to Neil's voice from back in the day. (I wasn't alive then, so I'm going by what I hear on recordings.)

2) Agree that Robyn Hurder is terrific, if not a little underused.

3) Clearly they know how to hit their key demographic - Baby Boomers/early GenXers loved this show.

4) The show is entertaining at parts, with the energy of Moulin Rouge but absolutely none of the sparkle.

Negatives:

-1) The book is atrociously bad. "Neil Diamond goes to therapy," as some have described it. The overarching arc is supposed to be Neil's depression, but nothing moved the conflict along. Then-Neil and now-Neil announced that the clouds were coming and going. Great. You don't really see the darkness and the emptiness that comes with the depression. I saw more darkness in Will Swenson playing Earl in Waitress than I did him playing a troubled Neil Diamond. I blame the writing.

-1a) I've never been at a show where people sitting near me in the audience were commenting on how bad the book is during intermission. Until this show.

-1b) So much could've been done with the songs and the driving theme of this show, Neil Diamond's depression. What a waste of, for example, Solitary Man. I never saw the stage adaptation of Death of a Superhero, but I am not sure Anthony McCarten knows how to write a book for a musical. (Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour, and the Two Popes I enjoyed just fine. We'll leave Bohemian Rhapsody alone.)

-1d) The therapy structure had so much potential. Instead, it comes off as a cheap way to have Neil narrate his own life. It's like I'm watching a very boring narrated biopic.

-3) This musical is going to get a rude awakening when it's not in a place where the audience can be pandered to by playing Sweet Caroline.

Opening night was on Sunday at the Emerson Colonial.

The Boston Globe: "Will Swenson is a sparkling Diamond"

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/07/11/arts/beautiful-noise-will-swenson-is-sparkling-diamond/

Finally caught this and was not impressed. The book needs so much help. Will Swenson works well with what he's given but he's limited so much by the book. In theory, the therapy framing device should work (and at times, it does), but it leaves nothing for poor Mr. Audra McDonald to actually act. Instead of showing us his struggles, the older Neil just dictates what's happening. It's weird and Swenson deserves better. Robyn Hurder was out, but Jessie Austrian did a great job. Not sure if it's the fault of the book, but some of the supporting actors were....not great. The ensemble is used super weirdly throughout to make up for the lack of an interesting book, but they had lots of energy and lovely singing. There's a dance break in act two that is electrifying!

Michael Mayer's direction is not great and I worry that between this and Funny Girl, he's lost his touch. It's just so uninspiring. Most of the set is ugly and when it does eventually open to the nicer, cooler set with the band, it immediately goes away. Weird choices all around.

Sweet Caroline obviously plays super well and it does feel special being in Boston. Interested to hear how this will play out in NYC because I suspect the response will be different. I really hope they continue to work on this because it will (and should) be eaten alive by NYC critics.

^That's fair. When I think of Michael Mayer, I think Spring Awakening and Millie. You're definitely right though, not a consistent director by any means.

HenryTDobson said: "^That's fair. When I think of Michael Mayer, I think Spring Awakening and Millie. You're definitely right though, not a consistent director by any means."

And Side Man, Hedwig, and American Idiot. And I think his work on Head Over Heels shined that **** best anyone could.