songanddanceman2 said: "I watched this here in Manchester when it first premiered just before Covid shut it and the world down.
Its thrilling to look at, the technology is great, but the music is pretty shocking. I could not remember any of the new songs. Its more like an event than a musical, it's pretty much the film just planted on stage.
I will be intrigued to see what American critics think of it, I can't help thinking it will be another Ghost. Does well in the UK but tanks in America."
I too saw it in Manchester. I was over in the UK and we made the drive up from London
The above is correct. It’s a fantastic production of a thoroughly mediocre musical. The songs don’t even advance the plot (or at least didn’t then) you could just remove them and make it a play
It’s the first musical I’ve seen when I longed for the songs to be over so we could get back to the scenes, as they were all thoroughly entertaining.
I found the chap playing Marty odd as he has the deadest eyes I’ve ever seen on a professional actor but he had the voice and mannerisms down.
The father is exceptionally good, albeit the two comments above are regarding ‘good’ as an impersonation of the movie actors. If you can’t get on board with that, it’s very much not the show for you because it wears that on its sleeve.
The choreography was also surprisingly good. Like proper old school musical comedy work. It ever went for cheap and show off, it was actually quirky and nuanced.
