A TIME TO KILL previews
A TIME TO KILL previews
A TIME TO KILL previews#1
Posted: 9/27/13 at 10:26am
Tomorrow night. I'll be there. Report to follow.
I think John Grisham will be there. He's been spotted in the Broadway area very recently.
A TIME TO KILL previews#2
Posted: 9/28/13 at 2:54pmInterested to hear what people think of this one...
A TIME TO KILL previews#3
Posted: 9/28/13 at 11:17pmWell??
--Aristotle
A TIME TO KILL previews#4
Posted: 9/29/13 at 1:43am
I found out before the show that the performance would be the first time they ran the show without stopping. So it was a little rough and a little long, but good overall. A few trims and a little bit more time to practice the set changes on the revolve and it should be really good.
I do want to see it again toward the end of previews or after it opens to see what changes get made.
I could say more but it would only be nit picks and guesses as to changes that have been made or may need to be made before opening.
A TIME TO KILL previews#6
Posted: 9/29/13 at 10:37am
I loved it and everything about it. The set was wonderful. The acting terrific. It needs very little trim with it running 2:45.
Very compelling. This is theater the way it should be.
A TIME TO KILL previews#7
Posted: 9/29/13 at 11:58amI'm seeing it in a couple of weeks, and since they've announced it I've purposely stayed away from reruns of the movie. I don't want to be one of those "that scene wasn't in the play" people.
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
A TIME TO KILL previews#8
Posted: 9/29/13 at 12:30pm
Of course they have to cut scenes from the book. Points were made without the entire scene being played out.
One criticism I have is about some of the projections used in between scenes and what their intention was. Most were obvious. Also the set is very distracting during scene changes but I doubt they can fix this. Set design must have cost major $$$. You'll see why.
A TIME TO KILL previews#9
Posted: 9/29/13 at 12:51pm
I saw the show last night.
Considering it was the first preview and run through, I felt the show ran pretty smoothly. I didn't see any glaring mistakes. There was a scene or two I felt was unnecessary. Set changes could be tightened up a bit. I liked the use of projections during the show. I felt it helped add context to the scenes and occupied one's eye while the set changes were going on.
The cast did a great job, and the found myself not losing interest. I enjoyed the show more than I thought I was going to. It's not one of my favorite shows, but it's a pretty solid show.
A TIME TO KILL previews#11
Posted: 9/30/13 at 3:06pm
Student Rush: $37.00 - Available at the Box Office only on the day of the performance - Limit 2 tickets per valid ID - Subject to availability
http://www2.telecharge.com/BehindTheCurtain.aspx?prodid=9862&mode=gettingTickets
A TIME TO KILL previews#12
Posted: 9/30/13 at 5:10pmDoes anyone else $37 for a student rush sorta high? I mean at least for a play with no major stars that's in previews?
A TIME TO KILL previews#13
Posted: 9/30/13 at 5:17pm^Yep. Remember when $37 used to be the TDF price...for a musical!
A TIME TO KILL previews#14
Posted: 9/30/13 at 6:01pm
Yes Whizzer! I think TDF, Student Rush, and even regular "discounts", have all gotten to high.
I mean whatever works I guess, but personally, I find it frustrating & bad for the long term that tickets have been priced to discount.
A hit can charge whatever it likes. I believe in supply and demand. If a show is in demand charge as much and as high as you like. But I find it ridiculous that new shows or struggling shows have the same top ticket price as a hit so they can peddle "discounts" of 39% off. I think it would be better to just have a regular lower price until your demand merits raising them. It would help the theatre seem more attainable. Most people don't care enough about seeing theatre to troll for a discount code.
Anyway just a rant and nothing to do with A TIME TO KILL. This isn't something they started and I've high jacked their thread. Sorry.
A TIME TO KILL previews#15
Posted: 9/30/13 at 11:52pmThough, in a way, Fred Thompson is a bigger star than most celebrities on Broadway. In '08, he came in second place in the Wyoming Republican primaries.
A TIME TO KILL previews#16
Posted: 9/30/13 at 11:57pm
I was at the second preview tonight and I have to say that I thought the whole thing was pretty awful. It's hard to believe that the man who wrote Drood also penned such a mediocrity as this. There is absolutely zero tension and suspense, which makes for a dire night with a court case. Sometimes really fine performances can make up for material like this, but most of the actors (save Patrick Page and Tonya Pinkins) gave uneven to uninspired performances.
It has been a long while since I read the novel or watched the movie, but even if you are completely unfamiliar with the source material it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out how things are going to pan out.
The play begins with two white men are accused (and confess) to brutally raping a 10 year old black girl. Before the men are able to stand trial the black father of the girl kills them on the steps of the courthouse and turns himself in. A young, white lawyer makes it his crusade to defend the father and get him acquitted.
The script is incredibly heavy-handed, almost to the point of being insulting. I also think the Klan was more menacing in Scandalous than they are here; a scene where a man brings a bomb to Sebastian Arcelus' house (the young lawyer) should be cut immediately.
The structure of act one is problematic. I'm grateful that we don't have to witness the rape on stage, but on the other hand it isn't very dramatic listening to people in court talk about things that happened elsewhere. After Arcelus takes the case the rest of the act hinges on a faux problem where unseen NAACP leaders have raised enough money to hire a fancy defense team. The NAACP will only put the team in place if the father fires Arcelus. Who ever will he choose? The character we have spent the entire play with, or the off-stage mystery men?
Act two is the trial, and a friendly L&O marathon on TNT before the show would make plain the blueprint for how it will proceed. Surprises on cross-examinations and impassioned closing arguments are bound to be in store.
Arcelus, whom I have enjoyed in Elf and other shows, seems a little lost here. He doesn't imbue the necessary ambition and spunk that this lawyer needs. I believe he was with this production when it tried out in DC, so I was surprised to find him giving a rather flat and bland performance.
I was excited to see Tom Skerritt on stage, but his performance in act one was almost unintelligible. Granted he plays a sloppy drunk, but I could barely make out a word he said as he stumbled, bumbled, fumbled and plumbled along. When the character sobered up in act two he was better, but the character always felt out of place.
Patrick Page really was the bright spot in the cast. He was perfect as the suave prosecutor. Pinkins has a small role, but she plays it nicely.
I LOVE John Douglas Thompson and have seen him give some of the best performances in New York over the past five years. He's fine here, but his character is annoyingly stupid. Arcelus will tell him, "Now whatever you do, sit still and don't say anything." I sure hope that pesky prosecutor doesn't try to say anything provocative now!
SLIGHT SPOILER**********
Ashley Williams plays Arcelus' assistant, and they simply don't have any romantic chemistry together. When it becomes painfully clear that a kiss is inevitable, I just kept hoping the moment would pass quickly.
END SLIGHT SPOILER*******************
Perhaps the worst offense is that the play takes itself so seriously and really thinks it's saying something important and new about justice and race in America. Unfortunately it's just a shallow retread of many better works that have come before it.
A TIME TO KILL previews#17
Posted: 9/30/13 at 11:59pm
I saw the second preview this evening. I really LOVED LOVED IT.
The nitpicking - It seemed that the rotating set rotated a bit too much at times but we were told it was a glitch and is being fixed.
The cast for the most part is AMAZING! The two male leads - Sebastian Arcelus and Patrick Page are fabulous and work so well together. If they don't get nominated for Tony's, I will be very surprised. I love how when they talk to the jury, they talk directly to the audience. It was very effective.
You could hear a pin drop in the audience - everyone seemed to be really caught up in the storyline and performances. IMO, it's must see theater.
Chorus Member Joined: 1/18/11
A TIME TO KILL previews#18
Posted: 10/2/13 at 2:41am
Just got back from tonight's show (third preview). Apologies if it's a bit long-winded, but here's my review:
THE GOOD:
-The audience-jury device: really effective staging, and allows the performers to connect with the audience on a whole different level. The attorneys stand at the foot of the stage and address the audience as if they were the actual jury. Gives you the feeling that you're an arbiter of justice.
-Patrick Page: absolutely outstanding performance. Brimming with charisma and power, and really embodies the character. He plays the slick, carreer-driven, political opportunist Buckley to perfection. He's giving a dynamic performance, and often seems like he's blasting Sebastian Arcelus into oblivion.
-Tonya Pinkins: only in about 3 scenes, but gives a stellar performance in the short time she is on stage. Plays her character with a tremendous amount of heart.
-The house burning scene: one of those moments in the theater where the juxtaposition of a special effect, lighting, and sound works perfectly. Gave me chills as I watched Sebastian Arcelus stand on the rotating deck, staring at the burning cross. (Side note: there are two burning crosses in the show. The first is a projection, and relatively boring. The second, which is used in the house burning scene, is an actual flaming cross, and it's an absolutely thrilling effect. You could feel the heat from the flames in the audience.)
THE BAD:
-Ashley Williams: It pains me to say this (especially since she seems like a really nice gal in real life) but her performance tonight fell completely flat. She needs to refine/naturalize her performance big time. There are a number of lines that were clearly written to be funny (ex - when she holds up the remaining beers and says "just doubled my salary") where her timing and execution are way off, and elicited zero response from the audience. Didn't really have chemistry with Arcelus. I love her TV work (especially How I Met your Mother) and know she has the ability to give a fantastic performance - she's just got to buckle down and do a bit of work on her character!
-Sebastian Arcelus: bland. When the cast was doing the press/interview junket a few weeks back, he talked about how excited he was to play a character that wasn't just an altruistic crusader doing the right thing. Jake is supposed to be a complicated character. A conservative attorney who isn't necessarily your white knight good-guy, and conflicted about taking the case in the first place. Well, Arcelus played the character with none of the heft and depth to translate that to the audience. Another performer who I know has it in him, just needs approach the character in a different way!
-The sound design: Good grief, they need to do some serious work on the sound design. Lindsay Jones, the designer, is a Broadway newcomer and I'm guessing he's still getting his legs in a theater of this size. Some of the mic mixing is just stupid. Ozzie the guard (who's definitely a minor character) was far more audible than the majority of the LEADS. They DEFINITELY need to boost the volume on Tom Skerrit and Fred Dalton Thompson's mics, since some of their dialogue was inaudible (especially Skerrit's). Also, when performers are situated at the back of the stage, the sound seems dead.
Ultimately, I wasn't crazy about the play. I agree with Whizzer in that it made itself out to have much more gravitas than it actually did. After watching some of the press junket interviews, I came in expecting a substantive discussion on race, and ultimately, it's treatment of the issue was completely shallow. Rupert Holmes' adaptation deserves far more of the blame for this than Mr. Grisham's original source material. Still a fun court drama, though - just don't come in expecting Pulitzer worthy material.
(Side note: The Golden Theater looks stunning since the Shuberts renovated it! It was looking dilapidated and shabby (paint was peeling off the walls and the theater seemed stark) for the longest time, but no more! The detail and artistry of the restored architecture is simply gorgeous, and the new color they painted it with makes the space seem much warmer. The new seat cushions are far more comfortable, even though leg room is still a bit tight.)
Updated On: 10/2/13 at 02:41 AM
A TIME TO KILL previews#19
Posted: 10/7/13 at 11:56am
I saw the show on Saturday evening. KathyNYC and I have similar tastes in shows and I, too, was very impressed.
Of course I had read the book and seen the movie years ago, so I was very familiar with the story and its quite predictable progression. Nevertheless, I found A Time To Kill to be a very enjoyable and entertaining show, and there haven’t been many plays on Broadway in recent memory that I can say that about. Yes, there are problems (the second act drags on too long with a frequently clichéd courtroom scene, for example) but unlike so many of those other plays, it tells a story—one that follows the book and the movie very closely. I found the cast to be mostly excellent and like others have said, Page and Pinkins stand out. I’m a huge Tom Skerritt fan and enjoyed his brief—albeit drunken--appearances as well. I sat in the second row and thought the sound was even and clear, and my partner--a central Georgia native--said the cast was speaking his native language with their spot on accents. Lighting, set design, and other technical components were equally good.
Perhaps this show was especially poignant to me because I live in the South where racism is still alive and well, and where the horrifying act of a cross being burned on a front lawn still happens every now and then. Where else do KKK leaders get interviewed on the local evening news about race issues just as easily as community leaders voicing their opposition to some routine measure being taken up by City Council?
A Time To Kill made me feel. It made me sad. It made me angry. It made me care about the characters and what happened to them and most of all, it gave me a very satisfying evening on Broadway.
Which is more than I can say about the numbingly dull Betrayal I saw earlier that day.
Swing Joined: 12/29/12
A TIME TO KILL previews#20
Posted: 10/7/13 at 5:47pmI agree with jax's opinion. I saw the Saturday matinee and had a very enjoyable time. I am not sure why one should expect a substantive debate on race in this play. It's a courtroom drama, not an August Wilson play, and delivered a moving and exciting afternoon for me. Patrick Page is up for a Tony (from me) already!
A TIME TO KILL previews#21
Posted: 10/7/13 at 9:11pmI'm seeing it tomorrow, do we have a running time yet?
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
A TIME TO KILL previews#22
Posted: 10/19/13 at 5:44pm
I was there this afternoon and I'm with Whizzer on this one. The show runs nearly exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes, by the way. And I felt a lot of those minutes tick by.
It's unnecessarily repetitive in its themes of race relations (there are a bunch of racist people in the deep South! Who knew?!) and having never read the book nor seen the movie, I have to say I thought it shied away from being everything it could and should have been. The play seems to take the obvious and easy route out of almost every dicey situation its thrown into. Giving us some provocative moments here and there is completely inconsequential when they don't add up to anything, and when they truly seem to be entirely inauthentic and poorly-resolved. It's like watching one of the more uninspired and bland law procedurals on TV...except it's 2 1/2 hours long. The humor is almost embarrassingly broad at times, and the characters are paper-thin. Also, the courtroom scenes are pretty ridiculous, with each lawyer standing up and basically interrupting the other to have these banal tete-a-tetes. No judge would ever allow that B.S. to go down, let alone one presiding over a case this "explosive." The first two hours and twenty minutes build to the verdict, obviously, and when it's finally read, it's alarmingly anticlimactic.
The cast is bland as bland could be. When not even the usually towering Tonya Pinkins can make an impression, you know there's a problem. Patrick Page certainly fares the best, although he's giving a performance we've all seen from him before. The supposed lead, Sebastian Arcelus, who I have nothing against in general as a performer, is criminally vanilla. He practically blends in with the scenery.
It's respectably staged, I suppose, although the heavy-handed projections are way too much and the turntable serves no real purpose. I imagine the critics will not be too fond of this one, and it's too bad. I'd love to see a really juicy, exciting new courtroom drama onstage sometime soon. This isn't it.
Broadway Star Joined: 5/27/04
A TIME TO KILL previews#23
Posted: 10/20/13 at 5:19pmCaught the show Friday night and it played like a dull episode of Law & Order. Arcelus is not leading man material, very one note. It was as if he were a narrator rather than a character in the plot. For such a simple set scene changes were agonizingly long. Don't see a market for this, perhaps if it were cast with high end Hollywood names it could survive as a vehicle to see someone live. As it is everything up there on stage was pretty dead.
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