Major spoilers.
This adaptation has to gloss over quite a bit of the massive novel but it's a very faithful adaptation. Therefore, I found it to be just as silly, maudlin, and hilariously grotesque as the book. :) I think the story is incredibly over the top, its torture so unceasingly decadent, so violently indulgent that it makes any chance of a TV or film adaptation absolutely impossible. To see a fraction of these atrocities on screen would call forth the spirit of Mommie Dearest herself. This is high camp. It makes sense that the first attempt at an adaptation is for the stage, where the melodrama and passing of decades (and constant child rape) is slightly more digestible, if you're willing to sacrifice close to five hours of your little life for it.
The production itself is quite good, and the run time only started to drag for me in the last half hour or so. It was a very similar experience to reading the book for me. I turned each page and couldn't believe five hundred had already passed. I find the story engaging and entertaining, like a trashy soap opera. I found myself laughing at the theatre just as I had when I read the book. The abusive boyfriend and Willam's death are particularly hilarious and their truncated parts in the stage version make them even more glaringly silly. Jude starts dating a guy and is almost instantly beaten, raped, and thrown out the window. Willam and Jude start dating only for Willam to be smashed to smithereens by a drunken truck driver. Why not!
For whatever reason, people are drawn to the story. A woman behind me could barely contain her huffing and puffing. She made sure everyone around her knew that this was REALLY AFFECTING HER.
Glad I went!
