A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL - Reviews & News Thread — Page 3

After that performance at today's parade I am simply not willing to spend my hard-earned money to see Will Swenson play Neil Diamond in an ill-fitting wig wearing Liza Minnelli's wardrobe.

I. REFUSE!!!!

I'm taking my mom in a few weeks. She is the target audience for this musical and has been looking forward to it forever. And she HATED the parade performance. Said that Will looked/sounded/acted nothing like Neil. Frankly, I thought so too - also it looked like his bad wig would come off at any moment and the dancers just looked cold and over caffeinated. Wow, wish these tickets were refundable.

I just received the opening night guest list - WOW! This is going to be a party.



WHO: Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum music icon Neil Diamond, along with a star-studded crowd that will include (in alphabetical order) Denee Benton, Danny Burstein, Warren Carlyle, Max Clayton, Gavin Creel, Alan Cumming, Clive Davis, Claybourne Elder, Peter Friedman, John Gallagher Jr., Bob Gaudio, Nambi Kelley, Kenny Leon, Martyna Majok, Joy Mangano, Camryn Manheim, Audra McDonald, Lea Michele, Donna Murphy, Manu Narayan, Lynn Nottage, Diane Paulus, Bernadette Peters, John Rando, David Rossmer, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Keenan Scott II, Danny Strong, Bruce Sussman, Frankie Valli and more will join the complete cast and creative team of A Beautiful Noise.

That list doesn’t seem that thrilling

quizking101 said: "BETTY22 said: "I just received the opening night guest list - WOW! This is going to be a party.



WHO: Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum music iconNeil Diamond, along with a star-studded crowd that will include (in alphabetical order)Denee Benton,Danny Burstein,Warren Carlyle,Max Clayton,Gavin Creel,Alan Cumming,Clive Davis,Claybourne Elder,Peter Friedman,John Gallagher Jr.,Bob Gaudio,Nambi Kelley,Kenny Leon,Martyna Majok,Joy Mangano,Camryn Manheim,Audra McDonald,Lea Michele,Donna Murphy,Manu Narayan,Lynn Nottage,Diane Paulus,Bernadette Peters,John Rando,David Rossmer,Ruben Santiago-Hudson,Keenan Scott II,Danny Strong,Bruce Sussman, Frankie Valliand more will join the complete cast and creative team ofA Beautiful Noise."

...How do you have these lists and why do they matter? It seems a little creepy to me."

Not as creepy as the autograph hounds who will show up at those opening nights. It's like a step before stalking. Ridiculous.

It is very rare for Neil to do press anymore for obvious reasons.

Because he's going to be at the opening, coverage will be huge.

Remember when he showed up in Boston and it made NBC's Nightly News. I think all this national coverage is very good for all of Broadway.

theaterdude2 said: "ADVICE PLEASE: I bought very expensive tickets over a month ago to the show this coming Wed night, never thinking that Will would be out. I've got a jam-packed week of shows already planned but I won't see the show without Will. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to exchange for another day or night, possibly needing to move another show's date to do so?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Please don't @me about how great understudies and standbys are - I know and I respect them. Seeing Will was a big reason for us to see this, and we're coming in from out of town."



Will is not good and even if he were it wouldn't matter. The show is poorly conceived, the music is wrecked by the goofy vocal arrangements and the stiff orchestrations. The show is built around the pretense of analyzing Neil Diamond lyrics but seems like it was written by someone who never bothered to analyze them. As far as Will goes, he brings no depth to the role and sings the songs like someone at a karaoke night who is far more impressed with his Neil Diamond impersonation than anyone else in the bar.

Well, this was...not good. I never go in with high hopes for a jukebox show of this nature, but I didn't expect this level. The book is just absolutely atrocious. Like the entire book should just be tossed out and then start over from scratch. There is cringe worthy dialogue all over the place, and it encourages a very broad style, surface-level line reading which holds most of the performers back.

The best part of the show is actually Mark Jacoby as the elder Neil Diamond. He is the beating heart of the show and has some genuinely touching moments as he looks back on his life. The big moment towards the finale (which I wont spoil for those interested in the show) might be the best part of the night and genuinely affecting. He sort of feels like more of a lead than Will Swenson, even though Will has all songs. The downside of this structure is that Will's Neil feels a little empty since the character arc is felt more with the older version of the character. Jacoby does all of the emotional heavy lifting, as dictated by the book, while Will gets the major production numbers.

And I was baffled with the first half of the blue jeans number. Clearly they said "hey, we hired Robyn Hurder for this role, let's give her a ferocious dance number!" So the choreo that Hoggett gives her for the first half is...walking on the beat. Over and over. She stomps with purpose, arcing to the top of the stage, then continues to strut on the beat downstage, then AGAIN he has her walk to the beat back upstage. REALLY?! When Hurder is FINALLY allowed to really let loose and dance at the end of the number, she turns it into something thrilling and earns some well deserved raucous applause. But the whole first half of the song, I was like: Hoggett LETS. GO.

I admit, I am not the demo for this. I don't know all of Diamonds catalog and there are clearly folks there older than I who were absolutely eating it up. There are a few cool moments, but any chance of turning those moments into a truly great piece of theater is absolutely scuttled by the embarrassment that is the book. I genuinely cant believe that was the final version of the script AND that its from a 4 time Oscar nominee no less, who has truly great scripts under his belt.

Elisabeth Vincentelli from New York Times is reviewing the show.

I got to admit, I think she is the best critic they have.

Smart and fair - plus, it's great to have a woman commenting considering the audience is dominated by women.

The opening moments go over like a lead balloon, which is a harbinger of the show to come. The ensemble sure works hard, to distraction, but there are no stakes in this piece. Diamond’s story is just not interesting, and this book does the project zero favors.

I would've expected more discussion about Will Swenson in this role on these boards. I feel like in the past with any Bio-Musical at least there is an Actor/Actress that makes it worth buying a ticket....Jesse Mueller (Beautiful), Adrienne Warren (Tina), Stephanie J Block (Cher)...I was thinking maybe it's because it's a male role but then again we have Myles Frost (MJ)...Is the material just that bad?

Neil has such a distinct sound and "accent". You'd have to master that in order to do him justice. I love Neil Diamond but don't have a really strong pull to see this show. The reviews tonight will be very telling.