AMAZING GRACE Previews- Page 2

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:10am

"Holler was far better than this. It never had a chance, but it was more ambitious than Amazing Grace and the performances were involving enough, or at the very least enthusiastic.
I don't think Amazing Grace stands much of a chance either. More than likely it will join its fellow brethren of Scandalous, Leap of Faith and Into the Light on the heap. "

 

But at least Scandalous had Carolee Carmello giving a winning performance in a terrible role. And the camp sequences with the scantily clad bible figures.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:15am

I know many theatre people who love to regularly sing snatches of songs from Scandalous for their sheer terribleness. It doesn't sound like this even has so-bad-it's-memorable going for it.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:20am

Well, all three of those shows were more entertaining that Amazing Grace.

Scandalous did have Carolee and they let her show off her vocal range, as forgettable as the songs may have been.

Leap of Faith I actually loved in a way. Raul was delightfully over the top and Jessica Phillips played the sheriff like she stepped out of a Bresson film, creating a bizarre dynamic between the two of them and weird shifts in tone during the musical. Krystal Joy Brown was campy and Kecia Lewis-Evans had an hilarious number that was all about off-ramps and street signs being metaphors for life. Some of the music was good...some not so much, but the catchy stuff is still fun to listen to on the OBCR.

I watched Into the Light at the Lincoln Center video library and it was HYSTERICAL. I thought my friend and I were going to get kicked out because we were laughing so hard. I don't think a camp disaster like that has been seen on Broadway since In My Life. A real gem, and 100% worth going to the library to see.

 

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:23am

Whizzer - I NEED to see (or hear) that.

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:30am

They also made a lot of changes from their out of town tryout so we will see if it gets any better. 

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:35am

One of the main characters of Into the Light was a Mime(!) who "sang" via different instruments in the pit along with a LASER LIGHT SHOW on stage!! He performed a song and dance duet with a little boy called "Trading Solos" that is priceless and pretty damn tuneful. 

The lyrics began: trading solos, throwing the notes around, trading solos, our friendship is sound!

This was the infamous shroud of Turin musical that tried to prove whether it was authentic or not. Dean Jones played the lead, a scientist who lacked faith, but found it over the course of the evening. 

There is a song where the scientists argue about the pronunciation of the word data. Sample lyric: science without any day-tah is like gazpacho without the to-may-tah. 

There was a song at the Vatican where nuns and priests did a kickline. 

It only ran for 6 performances at the Neil Simon in 1986. It's a miracle that Lincoln Center even was able to tape it. 

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:35am

Sounds like not much has changed from Chicago. I truly can't remember a single song, aside from the title song at the epilogue. I found the show to be visually attractive (good set design, lovely costumes) and not much else.

[Owen22]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:45am

I have seen far worse.  I thought the book was fairly strong. I didn't know the story so I was engrossed throughout.  They musical does not shy away from the horrors of slavery, to it's credit.

The score is mainly made up of ballads and anthems. I can take a mediocre score if it at least gives me one or two breakout songs like "Side Show".  But the best I can say is the songs weren't awful.

And Chuck Cooper was terrific.  As was, to a slightly lesser degree, Erin Mackey.

Though it was a heavily papered audience (I as well) there was some legitimate weeping and sobs throughout.

I sorta love that this writer worked as a cop in a small PA town and wrote this show on nights and weekends and, having never written anything professional before, gets his show to Broadway.  That's kinda wonderful.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:48am

What was the design like?

[Golenboybway]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:52am

how much of the theatre was filled?

[LightsOut90]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 2:21am

my friend said they sold 750 tickets and saw at least 5 people walk out during act one, not a good foot to start on

[Marlothom]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 10:14am

Does not sounds like they have made many significant changes since Chicago.  Giving Chuck Cooper a monologue in the beginning - does not make his part (which is one of the few highlights in the show) much bigger.  I had hoped they would have brought in a "music consultant" to add some flourish to this forgettable score - yes, it's great that a cop wrote this, but it doesn't make it good.   I can't remember any of Erin Mackey's songs.  I also hoped they were going to get the "camp" level right since Chicago.  The slave princess and Chris Hoch seem to be doing a different show.  And finally, the end where the title song comes out of nowhere is just silly.  

Whizzer, did they repeat the song at curtain call?  They started doing that in Chicago to steal a standing O.  

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 10:37am

Yes, they repeated the first verse and coda at the curtain call and it did ensure a standing ovation, but you're right about the song coming out of nowhere at the end of the show.

I know they are trying to posit that the events of this musical are what inspired the hymn, but was written like 20, 25(?) years after the events of the play, so while they may have influenced the writing of Amazing Grace many other things could have as well.

This is no Sunday in the Park where we get to see a creator at work. We never see Newton write a single note of any hymn. It's just tacked on at the end because this guy happened to compose a famous song years later.

On another note, they need to comb through the book and take out some of the anachronistic jokes. For example: after an attack on during a slave auction one of Newton's men looked out at the audience and sarcastically deadpanned, "Well, that went well." Not only did it fail to get a laugh, but it felt horribly out of place with the milieu and tone they were trying to establish.

RippedMan, I wasn't impressed with the design elements, although some of the women's costumes were pretty. There were these massive wood panels that slid around the stage, sort of like the panels used in Bonnie & Clyde. Chairs, a table and/or piano and crates would be tracked out from time to time. There were very few actual set pieces.

Along the two sides of the proscenium there are two crow's nests that were used when they were on the slave ships. Unlike the more impressionistic ship at the end of The Last Ship, the tried to design a more literal ship, but with perhaps a limited budget maybe the former approach would have been a wiser idea.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 12:47pm

Yeah the production shots from Chicago didn't look all that great. So, basically, we have a super basic musical.

[dave1606]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 4:09pm

I hate to say it, but it was one of my LEAST favorite musicals in the past 5 years. I don't think I have disliked something so much since the last Broadway revival of Jekyll and Hyde (and at least THAT had Deborah Cox!).

 What is really frustrating about the show is how inept it is as both a musical and a play.  There are deathy scenes of book that go on and on (overstuffed with exposition and narration), and then a song will happen, and stop the show. Most of the songs seem to have no proper ending and fizzle out.  None of the music is worth remembering and none of it propels anything further or builds character. What's worse is that everyone on stage has a different accent. Sometimes I thought we were in southern Alabama, then England, then…I GIVE UP.

 The set is UGLY and claustrophobic. Couldn't they have just borrowed The Last Ship's set? That show at least was able to differentiate locations. The entire thing seems to take place on the ship, including balls, scenes at characters, homes? Why is Erin Mackey's living room on the ship??

 There is one piece of the show I did like, the sequence that ends the first act. It is pretty, though it is not new. Anyone who saw Coram Boy will remember a similar sequence which I thought was better executed in that play. 

Overall I can't see this lasting. There were some that liked it, but the mezz was quite empty as Whizzer mentioned, and I think it will be a tough sell. 

 

[Marlothom]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 4:27pm

When I saw the end of Act 1 in Chicago, I thought to myself, "oh they did that in Tarzan, the musical - a decade ago." 

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 5:44pm

There is no mention of the song "Amazing Grace" until the epilogue when Cooper comes back out and is like, Oh yeah, and by the way, this guy also wrote a bunch of hymns and this is one of them.

Which was the one piece of criticism that was pretty much universal among critics during the Chicago tryout. 

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 6/26/15 at 8:44pm

Yikes! sorry to hear this.  I had hoped it would be given at least good to mixed reviews.  The preview ads look impressive and some of the music that I've heard sounds compelling. While a show does not necessarily hinge on the vocal talents of its leads, Josh Young is one heck of a talented singer and actor.  

I know Josh and how thrilled he is to be part of this and how hard he works to make every role his best.  It's so refreshing to hear that a "new" production opens on Broadway.   Here's hoping reviews pick up a bit for the opening.  

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/27/15 at 12:01am

Josh Young is a gorgeous singer. An actor he is not.

[lynn2]

Posted: 6/27/15 at 1:22pm

PS....STANDING OVATIONS EVERY NIGHT IN CHICAGO WERE BEFORE BOWS.  THE SECOND SINGING OF AMAZING GRACE IS AFTER BOWS.  THE AUDIENCE WAS ON THEIR FEET SO FAST IT AS THE SHOW ENDED IT WAS "AMAZING."

hi. i just wanted to ask you why you seem to enjoy obliterating interest in shows you don't like. i don't know if you are an actor or not but the hearts and souls of people who create theater are deeply involved with the shows they produce.Amazing Grace may be flawed but your reviews were scathing. i saw it 9 times in chicago and i enjoyed it immensely. i did leave humming some of the tunes and i did care about the characters. i have read many biographies on John Newton and for the most part the show is true to his journety. one complaint i have heard from a number of self appointed "broadway critics" is how late in the show the big number Amazing Grace is placed. In truth the musical focuses on the first 30 years of john newtons life but he wrote the hymn in his fifties or sixties when he was reflecting on his complicity with the slave injustices. The musical would need to be 10 hours long to get through the later years of his life. He had so much happen spirtually when he stopped being a slave captain.
For those who say they could not invest in the character of John Newton (played by tony nominee Josh Young) I do wish the creative team could have focused a little more on his redemption because it was real. At the age of 7 he lost his mother. He was very close to his mother and she died in another town and when she was taken there he didn't even get to say good-bye. He was told she would return well but instead he was told she was dead. I had a sister die at 37 and her children then 11 and 14 basically went into ways to cope with their father escaping through alcoholism and a mother who vanished. One got into a cult and the other got into all the drugs sex and alcohol he wanted. Same with Mr. Newton. Having a father that was very unkind and hated John's being creates the truth of his believed loveless existenc and the beginning of his atheism.. Captain married right away. The woman hated John and John was so angry about his loss as well as his new family that he began acting out. sent to a boarding school so he would be out of the way he really felt orphaned. Then his father and new wife have a child and he sees his father totally enjoy the child. The only person who knew his pain and spiritual journey was Mary. She knew his heart and knew there was a man suffering inside that she loved. If you could watch the show with Mary's point of view perhaps you would care about the character of John Newton, in his forties and fifties he spoke at a church in Olney England where thousands and thousand of people from all over would come to hear this man and his story of redemption.

Try to remember that as much joy you receive trying to sound so brilliant in your reviews or slams of shows that there are actors and others who might read your words and really be discouraged, disappointed and hurt. i know this is a tough business but there is no need to be so beyond critical. The internet is a safe place to spew venom, unhappiness, criticism and everything else behind closed doors and in the dark. no one (except maybe a few) whizzer will know who you are so you can opinion a way as your leisure...but remember all those you hurt along the way. you can critique a show negatively without obliterating it.

[lynn2]

Posted: 6/27/15 at 1:31pm

THIS IS THE MESSAGE I SENT TO WHIZZER AND IT APPLIES TO YOU TOO DAVE.
hi. i just wanted to ask you why you seem to enjoy obliterating interest in shows you don't like. i don't know if you are an actor or not but the hearts and souls of people who create theater are deeply involved with the shows they produce.Amazing Grace may be flawed but your reviews were scathing. i saw it 9 times in chicago and i enjoyed it immensely. i did leave humming some of the tunes and i did care about the characters. i have read many biographies on John Newton and for the most part the show is true to his journety. one complaint i have heard from a number of self appointed "broadway critics" is how late in the show the big number Amazing Grace is placed. In truth the musical focuses on the first 30 years of john newtons life but he wrote the hymn in his fifties or sixties when he was reflecting on his complicity with the slave injustices. The musical would need to be 10 hours long to get through the later years of his life. He had so much happen spirtually when he stopped being a slave captain.
For those who say they could not invest in the character of John Newton (played by tony nominee Josh Young) I do wish the creative team could have focused a little more on his redemption because it was real. At the age of 7 he lost his mother. He was very close to his mother and she died in another town and when she was taken there he didn't even get to say good-bye. He was told she would return well but instead he was told she was dead. I had a sister die at 37 and her children then 11 and 14 basically went into ways to cope with their father escaping through alcoholism and a mother who vanished. One got into a cult and the other got into all the drugs sex and alcohol he wanted. Same with Mr. Newton. Having a father that was very unkind and hated John's being creates the truth of his believed loveless existenc and the beginning of his atheism.. Captain married right away. The woman hated John and John was so angry about his loss as well as his new family that he began acting out. sent to a boarding school so he would be out of the way he really felt orphaned. Then his father and new wife have a child and he sees his father totally enjoy the child. The only person who knew his pain and spiritual journey was Mary. She knew his heart and knew there was a man suffering inside that she loved. If you could watch the show with Mary's point of view perhaps you would care about the character of John Newton, in his forties and fifties he spoke at a church in Olney England where thousands and thousand of people from all over would come to hear this man and his story of redemption.

Try to remember that as much joy you receive trying to sound so brilliant in your reviews or slams of shows that there are actors and others who might read your words and really be discouraged, disappointed and hurt. i know this is a tough business but there is no need to be so beyond critical. The internet is a safe place to spew venom, unhappiness, criticism and everything else behind closed doors and in the dark. no one (except maybe a few) whizzer will know who you are so you can opinion away as your leisure...but remember all those you hurt along the way. you can critique a show negatively without obliterating it.

[perfectliar]

Posted: 6/27/15 at 2:34pm

"hi. i just wanted to ask you why you seem to enjoy obliterating interest in shows you don't like. i don't know if you are an actor or not but the hearts and souls of people who create theater are deeply involved with the shows they produce.Amazing Grace may be flawed but your reviews were scathing. i saw it 9 times in chicago and i enjoyed it immensely. i did leave humming some of the tunes and i did care about the characters..... you can critique a show negatively without obliterating it."

I wish I could insert the emoji of a face laughing until it cries.

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/27/15 at 3:07pm

I had to reply to lynn's posts.

l really don't think Whizzer needs defending but his/her opinions on shows are the first ones I look for here. They are usually honest. If one does not like a show, they are going to say so. It is an opinion. I have read many comments here over the years that ripped shows apart that I loved. I am assuming that you loved the show having seen it 9 times and I take your views into account also. But I feel that if anyone has an interest in any show, they should see it and form their own opinions. I will form mine on the 9th when I see it but I do like to read others' opinions also.  JMO

[tazber]

Posted: 6/27/15 at 4:04pm

Obliterate? Lol.

Wait until you read what the NYT has to say. Then you can copy and past that same rambling message in an email to them.

 

 

 

[ethan231h]

Posted: 6/27/15 at 4:19pm

Honeymoon in Vegas 2.0