A brief note on "A Gentleman's Guide..."

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 7:06pm

So, I have resisted making many comments about A Gentleman's Guide.. after I saw the show a few weeks because I really wanted to allow it to sit and not unjustly gush over the show. Nevertheless, it's hard to resist. Hands down, my favorite new show of the season... and the last few at that. Will it ever be a blockbuster? No. A sleeper hit? It truly deserves to be.
The entire show and almost every element of the production is spot on perfect and harmonious. An absolute spot-perfect cast providing spot on ensemble work... how so refreshing to see a musical written entirely or character actors (even the "pretty" people have to be adept character actors...), legit voices and soaring sopranos. There isn't a weak link in the bunch and they are all an embarrassment of riches. It's a treat to see an ensemble including Joanna Glushak, Eddie Korbich and Jennifer Smith, Jane Carr is always a hoot, Lauren Worsham is perfection (How nice to finally see her on a Broadway stage!) and Jefferson Mays is giving a maser class. the unsung hero is definitely Bryce Pinkham.. wow his task is hard.. on stage for the full show and having to be screamingly funny while playing straight man to Mays and to make his character likable...
The design and direction are a marvel.. wonderful, witty, surprising, elaborate yet restrained and incredibly detail oriented. some of the smaller details and touches were truly wonderful. Great work all around.
The writing itself is a joy. I will have to get the CD and I imagine it plays well, but there is no way it can convey the piece as everything works in such tight harmony here...
Run.. don't walk.. then run back again. If there is any justice, the show will have a few shelves lines with awards very soon...

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 7:07pm

I thought you said brief...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 7:36pm

KEEP GOING!

(I love this show as much as you do.)

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 7:47pm

Although I can't say I loved the show unequivocally the night I saw it, it was a treat (and a RELIEF!) to hear such a literate new score on Broadway. Not many shows in recent seasons can claim that, and I really have to give props where they're due. I think I would have liked it more if it hadn't been marketed as if it were the next One Man, Two Guvnors. It set up an expectation for big belly laughs, and that simply isn't the style of humor at work here. Maybe I'll give it another spin...I'd certainly like ito help it stay open.



Updated On: 3/8/14 at 07:47 PM

[wexy]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 7:53pm

I enjoyed it a great deal as well.

[Zoot]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 9:06pm

I'll be seeing the show on my April trip and all the good comments I read make me more and more excited!

[WJR2]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 9:10pm

I too thoroughly enjoyed the show. It was so refreshing! Loved hearing both leads being sopranos. So different than much of what's on Broadway right now! Great great show

[BrerBear]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 11:26pm

Seeing it tomorrow, and excited. But expecting clever chuckles and not laugh-out-loud hilarity. Maybe expectations will make the difference.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/8/14 at 11:31pm

Personally, I found the show screamingly funny. The humor in the show is quick, it's smart and it's all too easy to miss some of the jokes, but if the show lines up with your sense of humor, it is a scream. I found "One Man" to be tedious after a while, but never with this show.

The score is incredibly literate. The songs are tuneful, and some show stopping, without ever begging for it or being desperate, which is a great change. The lyrics are SO smart. While you know where the show HAS to go, you are so anxious to see HOW it gets there and then they toss in a few surprises. Wonderful!

Yes, it is so very different than anything else currently running and it manages to be classic, yet fresh and new... the physical production perfectly mirrors that.

[Steve721]

Posted: 3/9/14 at 3:21pm

I loved it as well, and I also thought it was very funny. I haven't laughed that much at a musical in a while. In addition to what others have singled out, I thought that Tresnjak's direction was inspired--the show is so well conceived and put together that it's a joy to watch.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/9/14 at 3:36pm

Enjoyed it as well. Between this and Bridges best score so far . Rocky is an entertaining show but the score is only OK.

Trying to compare Guide and Bridges is like comparing apples and oranges. Both are superb musicals but in a different way.

[forgetmenotnyc]

Posted: 3/9/14 at 4:26pm

Didn't like this show & found the audience around me to be just as uninspired - so I find it odd - these glorified comments. I must have attended a really OFF performance but I wouldn't even want to go back, even if given a free ticket, to give this one a second chance.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/9/14 at 8:16pm

FORGETMENOT, I share your puzzlement at the rapturous response this show has received from critics and the community--though I do wonder why this hasn't translated into better sales.

I went into Gentleman's Guide thinking it would be the highlight of my NY trip--not because I thought it would be, quote, "hilarious", but because I thought it would be witty and charming-- but with the exception of Bryce Pinkham's wonderful lead performance, I found it none of those things. But, you started your I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Better-With-Olive-Oil tread already. You've said your piece, I've said mine. Now, it's basically just you, me, and the NY Post's Elizabeth Vincentelli who seem to share this low estimation of the show. We're hardly in the best company. It's time to face the music, we're in the minority and we should allow those who enjoy this show to continue doing so without harassment or insult.

We've all had those frustrating experiences in which, seemingly everyone in the world seems to adore a film, tv show, play or album that we find uninspired and mercilessly dull. Eventually you have to shrug your shoulders and say, oh well, "I don't connect with this work, but other do," and simply move onto something you DO connect with. Otherwise, you're that crazy guy at the beach standing at the edge of the shore arguing with the tide.

[VotePeron]

Posted: 3/9/14 at 8:20pm

I will agree with the most recent posters in the thought that I didn't care for this show. I have also seen Rocky, Bridges, and If/Then, and personally believe the 2 latter have better scores by far. While the show was enjoyable, it was ultimately forgettable to me.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/9/14 at 11:13pm

Look, I certainly don't expect everyone to share the same taste in there - or in anything for that matter. If they did, what use would we have for choices, option and message boards. I also am certain that Gentleman's Guide caters best to certain types of humor that, obviously, not everyone will posses, and a person's opinion of the direction and design for this show would certainly be affected by the detail that they or do not absorb during the performance.
Perhaps the ones around that you noted did not enjoy it.. I myself noticed a few patrons who were not invested and did not get it. Those same patrons seemed oblivious to certain things in the show that other audiences members were enthusiastically discussing at intermission and after the final curtain. Perhaps this is a show where once you check out, it is hard to check back in. I can not speak to you.
I, however, had a joyous night at the theatre and have been enthusiastic in my recommendation to friends. It's a clever, witty, charming little jewel box of a show with a top-notch cast and a first rate production with a keen and specific eye for detail and I greatly appreciated it.

[BrerBear]

Posted: 3/11/14 at 12:15am

Finally got to see it, and it was almost exactly what I expected. Which is very good.
I can see why the show wouldn't be a lot of folks' cup of tea, but I enjoyed it immensely. The humor reminded me so much of BBC shows I grew up on like Black Adder or Fawlty Towers. A few gags were hilarious -- the curtain call interaction between Pinkham and Mays was so funny I almost fell off the mezzanine -- but most of the humor was a steady stream of chuckles. I could tell that not everyone around was getting it, though.
It was also the best singing I've heard on stage in memory, especially Pinkham and the female leads. While Jefferson Mays was very entertaining to watch, Pinkham was just mesmerizing.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/11/14 at 3:22am

BrerBear,
Pinkham REALLY is the unsung hero of the production.. And the "I've Decided To Marry You" trio was not only wonderfully funny but gloriously sung by all three.. Again again, I know.. LAUREN WORSHAM.. Holy cow.
In regard to the curtain call, I loved that as well, but again, it relies on a quixk audience retaining what they have seen and you need to recall a few lines of lyric and a brief bit of business in the first act for the humor to click. Several around me didnt remember at all.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/11/14 at 4:16am

I loved Bryce Pinkham--definitely the unsung hero of this cast. Any dreamcasting for Pinkham in the future? I would love to see what he could do with some really great material.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/11/14 at 7:38am

This show succeeds or fails on his shoulders... While no heavy baritone, I'd love to see him take on some Rodgers and Hammerstein.. I think he could make a convincing Billy Bigelow. Much like Monty, Billy is a thoroughly unlikable character on the surface, but an actor has to dig deeper and make the audience root for him.. Pinkham does so in spades in Genrleman's Guide.. Not to mention his voice would be creamy smooth, commanding and yet fresh on that score.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 3/11/14 at 9:05am

And the "I've Decided To Marry You" trio was not only wonderfully funny but gloriously sung by all three.. Again again, I know.. LAUREN WORSHAM.. Holy cow.

Lauren Worsham has one of the most glorious voices in musical theater at the moment, and is also a delightful comic actress. But hearing two gorgeous sopranos in a new musical is such a treat.

"I've Decided to Marry You" is by far my favorite song in the score, and I was just thinking yesterday that I would love for that to be their Tony performance number. I just don't know if I think they would choose a number that Jefferson Mays isn't in, since I imagine he'll be the frontrunner for Best Actor in a Musical.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/11/14 at 9:23am

I haven't played a cast album this much since GIANT.

It's just on repeat on my iPod.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/11/14 at 9:50am

I'm happy to see the great comments about this show; I, too, found it to be the freshest, wittiest new show in a long time. Great fun, terrific score, beautifully designed, directed , and performed.

But I think it has to be admitted that wit is not for the masses; they prefer their comedy more obvious, blunt, and juvenile; so I fear that Gentleman's Guide will have a small (but very appreciative) following.

[homeimp]

Posted: 3/11/14 at 12:29pm

Well, I laughed twice, and generally found the score uninspired. To each his/her own.