Wow. I was very impressed with the show. I have never been to a first preview before, but to me it seemed very strong for a first shot. For me, it was up there with Mary Stuart, The Norman Conquests, and Our Town in my favorite plays of the year (of course I guess technically it will count as a play from next year, not this year) but your mileage may vary.
OK, first of all, to answer some questions:
The show started at 8:07. Intermission was exactly one hour later at 9:07. Intermission was exactly 15 minutes, and the show ended at precisely 10:00.
No, it is not a feel-good show. It's a straight-up Arthur Miller tragedy. Think Death of a Salesman, or All My Sons. However, it still made me feel good because the acting was so strong.
Santino's hair is blonde...but it looks like a bad dye job, not a wig. I couldn't tell if they were trying to make it look like a bad dye job or what, but it definitely did not look natural.
It was a full house and it got a well-deserved standing ovation (of course who knows if that means anything nowadays).
The set was awesome. The opening scene happens outside the Carbone apartment on the street. The buildings are on an angled forced perspective that make it look like they are getting bigger as they get closer and move stage left. I kind of took this as metaphor of Eddie's jealousy getting more and more uncontrollable. I dunno, call me crazy. The buildings are brick and are very impressive. You can also see all of the lighting instruments on the grid above the buildings. I don't know why I loved that so much...
Any way, a large section of the buildings is on a turn-table that revolves throughout the show to reveal the inside of the Carbone apartment and a couple of other locations. Very very nice. I really loved the set design. Not only was it impressive, but it brought me right into the situation and feelings of the story like a good set should. And the turntable never malfunctioned.
I'll comment on the actors in my next post...
