Saw the show last night and I have mixed feelings. It clearly needs some work, which I hope they will use the preview process to do, but the bones are there and well defined for a good piece of theater.
Its hard to describe Almost Famous as a musical because it goes against most of the rules of what a musical is supposed to be. There is no true plot conflict and most of the score does not advance the plot let alone give the audience a view into the mind of any of its characters. There are some songs that do the later, but most of Tom Kitt's score is there to set the mood as action happens around it. It honestly feels like if Hair attempted to have a narrative plot, but not in a bad way. Kitt's score truly transports the audience back to the world of 1973.
I really liked how only songs that take place either in the Miller's home or sung by Elaine Miller were written like traditional musical theater songs, with the rest of the score being more vibe and rock focused to delineate the two worlds. I do wish that there was one more song for either Elaine Miller or even William's sister Anita in the middle first act to truly define these boundaries in the score. This is so it isn't so jarring in the second act when Elaine Miller all of a sudden sings a traditional comedic ballad that feels so out of left field compared to the rest of the score as the audience hasn't heard a traditional musical theater number since the beginning of the first act.
Regarding the first act that is where all of my real issues like which is setting up and defining the characters. The opening number, "1973" feels like bad mash up of Kitt's "Just Another Day" and Be More Chill's "More than Survive". I understand Kitt is trying to set up William's world view, but it doesn't work especially as the show starts with a book scene between Lester and William that sets up the world pretty well, we more just need to understand more about why William is so sheltered and make the song focus more on interactions at home rather then at school.
My Second problem is Penny Lane needs more development in the first act to actually make the audience understand why she is who she is, as instead we simply get she "allegedly" wants to leave the rock world and retire to Morocco. We don't get any real development of Penny until the middle of the second act, and if we got even an ouce of her backstory in the first act instead of her arc in the 2nd act would work so much better. I understand she is purposely meant to be a mystery hence why we don't find out her name until the second act, and the fact that she always talks about not living in the real world, but I just want 1 verse of Morocco, the shows "I want song" to include some tidbit of her backstory. I want to know she's a Bandaid because she came from a broken home where she wasn't loved and instead found "love" on the road. Especially as Penny is given the show's I want song, the audience doesn't know why Penny is wanting what she sings about. I know that sounds like a massive flaw, but its should be a simple fix and really doesn't impact the overall show much as its so atypically written/structured.
Its hard to criticize other aspects of the show because its clear that any other negatives I may have will likely be worked out by the time it opens as performers settle into their roles. Casey Likes gives a Ben Platt in Dear Evan Hansen level performance as William that makes me wish he played Evan in the movie. Solea Pfieffer does wonders with what's she's given to work with and I hope that they are able to make Penny more then just "VIBES" and an actual person, by the time the show opens. Once you get about a third of the way into the 1st act its just a good and fun night at the theater. The show clearly needs some fine tuning, but I think they should be able to fix most of the problems by its opening night.
Lastly I did not realize this show was nearly 3 hours long, you do feel it a bit in the first act, once again that first 1/3 of the act needs to be cleaned up but after that you really don't feel it drag in terms of runtime.
Updated On: 10/5/22 at 12:35 PM
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