A STRANGE LOOP On Broadway - Reviews & News Thread — Page 18

OffOnBwayHi said: "I'm thinking the creatives/cast are so used to the lyrics that to them it probably sounds fine... I think someone from outside the production should say something..."

Do you seriously think they’re all just… clueless? If it’s being discussed here and in reviews, it’s been discussed amongst the production.


Sound design isn’t just making sure the sliders on the board are all in the right place. It takes a lot of time to make these adjustments, and it has to be done when there’s nothing else going on.

ThisGuyLovesTheatre said: "I totally agree with this.

I am also a gay man around 60 years old. I saw the show at Playwrights Horizon. It was awful. I wanted to run out of the theatre.

It is vulgar. It's so woke it is dizzying. The reasons it doesnt work theatrically is that it has a main character who has many serious mental health issues and for the great portion of the show, the audience is laughing at his illness. Laughing at his awful, destructive life choices. I found it sick. I don't care if the show was about black people of white people. He acts out in very self destructive ways, including the awful anal sex scene, where again, the audience is laughing (at least they were when I saw it at PH.

The character also has no perspective on his youth, which is also a problem. There is no self awareness.

And the score sucks. The music is dreadful. The lyrics a mess. There are ten musicals that have won the Pulitzer, To put this awful show in the same category as the other nine is a disgrace.

and it doesn't make me a racist because I didn't like it. I've disliked plenty of shows with all white casts as well. This is self indulgent tripe, which theatre goers are SUPPOSED to love. I can't see how what audience is going to sustain this awful show.

and yes, it is vulgar. To argue that is absurd."



The point of this musical is to show what it *feels like* to be a young Black gay man dealing with anxiety/depression/self doubt, etc. You might not be interested in stepping into that experience, which is fine. But the criticisms you point out (the musical being self indulgent, the narrator having no concept of his youth) come from the fact that the goal is to immerse you in Usher’s lived experience. No twenty-something has self awareness of their own youth…I’m in my twenties now and I would say very few of my peers do. Did you understand your own youth when YOU were 26? I think the very lack of self awareness is what makes this musical so immersive and one of the mechanisms by which it succeeds at the story it’s trying to tell

ThisGuyLovesTheatre said: ""Well, all you've managed to offer is that you think the show is woke and vulgar and sick and awful but that you're not racist."

I'm sorry but that is not true. I gave specific details about why I thought it didn't work, I don't appreciate the use of your word "but", The guy at The Post didn't like it much, and he was attacked here as being a racist. So anyone that doesn't like it is apparently a racist. I didn't like the revival of Flower Drum Song either. It doesn't mean I am racist against Asians. This is why I called the reviews so "WOKE", Stop insinuating things, like racism"

You should’ve just sat there and ate your food.

Saw the matinee for this today and it's definitely a show I'm gonna have to take a moment to sit on. I was telling my friend that I liked a lot of the content/individual components of the show but the actual execution and structure of it was a little more difficult for me to appreciate. Our tickets were from TDF, center orchestra row N and while there were moments that the sound was fuzzy, I don't think it was necessarily worse than other things I've seen (Caroline or Change from the mezzanine just sounded like everything was actually vaguely underwater, and Mean Girls is still the worst sound design I've experienced). The score itself is dense though, so I'll probably have to take a moment to listen through it before I can fully form an opinion.

Jaquel Spivey really is doing fantastic work on that stage--his voice seemed a little squeaky? in Intermission song but after that it was pretty smooth sailing, and so much of his songs are in a higher register. The Thoughts are also all quite good and it once again begs for an ensemble award, especially with the number of character changes they do. The production value is there, and they make great use of the space. I was quite impressed by how dynamic the set was, especially since I didn't think much of it at first. It seems like a show that will be heavily nominated, but I'm a bit on the fence about how many of the actual awards it'll pick up.

The show itself seems a bit scattered in how it picks up and puts down different ideas seemingly at random (though I'm sure there was a purpose to the order), and I think the argument could be made that it's also indicative of Usher's own mental state as well. Part of that also brings up the question of how much should a piece be tailored to an audience's experience, not in terms of content, but more in the sense that the scattered thoughts and diversions may be more accurate to someone's actual thought process, but isn't necessarily something that's easy to follow or as enjoyable for the audience. And that's not to say there's no progression at all in the show, because there is, but it seems like a longer show than it is because there are so many different jumps that later circle back to the original topic (it's all a strange loop etc).

In a way it reminds me of Company, but also a bit of Skin of Our Teeth (which is top of mind for me since I saw a few days ago), though it feels more raw than both of them, which I'd say for the more frequent theatergoers is probably more exciting to experience. There were at least 4 times when I thought the show was about to end and it didn't (though I think they do reference that a bit), and I think a for lot of this show you either have to already know it fairly well or just let it play out in front of you and be willing to go along for the ride without trying to pick up and piece together the threads yourself.

Side note, where is the sound booth located in the Lyceum? Usually it's at the back of the orchestra so I assumed I'd be sitting fairly close to it and I generally assume next to the sound booth is one of the best places to sit for sound balance, but I don't think I saw it there.

For some reason this show is so divisive. Are we only allowed to like shows that we have the same experiences as? I'm not saying that as a bad thing. And I think it's great you get to see yourself represented and how that makes you feel. That's amazing.

But that said, I'm a white gay man who adores August Wilson. And his shows have basically nothing to do with my experience. Personally, I don't think disliking something is because you didn't experience it / can't relate. Maybe it just didn't work fro you personally and that's okay.

But I do find the "being too woke" thing a bit troubling. The definition of woke is "alert to injustices in society, especially racism." I don't think being too much on that issue is ever going to be a bad thing?

BJR said: "Kad said: "How is it "woke"? What do you even mean by "woke"?"

It seems "woke" is used now whenever anything acknowledges racism and white supremacy."

And homophobia/transphobia, if you're the governor of Florida.

Great article in NY Mag.

Michael R. Jackson Doesn’t Really Care How You React to His Musical

Might be a weird question but a friend runs a high school-age theatre program and they're trying to decide which show to bring their students to this year. They're all fine with more mature content (and the parents want them to see "real theatre" as opposed to Disney/film adaptations), but wondering if anyone can DM and let me know specifically how much physical sexual content and drug use is in the show? Want to make sure I have a full scope before deciding, just in case.

Thanks!

Jesus.