BARE THE MUSICAL Previews — Page 3

Yes - there are rush tickets. Here is the scoop:

General rush: $26.50 available at the box office on the day of performance only. Limit two per person. Cash only. Limited to the 18 front row tickets

I arrived at 11:00 for the 1:00 box office opening on the first day of previews - several others arrived soon after. By noon the line was pretty long - not sure all those folks got in.

What happened to Bare?

I loved the OCR of this show, but there is little left. I agree with most everyone on this thread, there was a really good show here once, but too many chefs in the kitchen ruined a
good dish.

That new opening number is dreadful, with Travis Wall's incredibly inappropriate choreography. High school students doing Martha Graham? Makes absolutely no sense. I really like his choreograpy for modern dancers, but this is show choreography, which should be dictated by character. I don't understand why the director didn't understand this, and make Travis go outside his comfort zone. There was a huge disconnect here, to the detriment of the show. The original opening number did everything an opening number should do: Set the tone for what is to follow. The new opening number makes you feel like you're in for a terrible evening in the theatre.

And the staging. Stafford had all the kids in the show staring at their cell phones everytime they made an appearance. We all get the point, teenagers are disconnected. But as a stage device? Tedious.

I do feel for Missy Pyle, who is doing an incredible job given her mediocre material. She was working her butt off during the "Hail Mary" number, and none of it played. Not her fault at all.

The religious aspect of the new Bare was lost on me. I'm an athiest, but I loved the original Bare because it brought the religion to the gay. This new version is like Mitt Romney trying to win an election: Pander to all sides and win nothing.

I feel like there was a really great show here, once. I was really excited about seeing it tonight, and was let down.

Updated On: 11/29/12 at 12:27 AM

I saw the show last night, and liked it. "Liked" not loved. I probably would have liked it more had I not seen the video of the original and listened to the original EP CD (several years ago, so I've forgotten a lot of it). This version isn't bad, but they cut things that worked better than the new material they stuck in. And I was not impressed with Taylor Trensch as Peter. His acting was mostly good, but his singing was not. I did very much like Jason Hite as Jason; really nice singing voice and solid acting.

I'm going to guess that if you are a big fan of the original, you are going to find a lot of disappointment in this version. If you are totally new to the material, you may like it.

Easy Girls wasn't in the show last night. There is also no song list in the playbill now.

I did TDF and sat in row K on the right- great seats. Went to the box office around 1 yesterday to get a rush ticket for a friend, no problem. However it was all the way on the right in the front row (completely obstructed) so she asked to move and all was fine.

Rochisny, I suggest you get there when the box office opens. They have been going fast.

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I got there at about 7:30 this morning and I'd say anyone who got there by about 8:30-8:45 was probably good for tickets (the box office opened at 10.)

As for the show, it's really pretty difficult to compare the productions. There were things I really enjoyed about this production. I thought that the duet between Natalie and Ivy in the first act was gorgeous and could probably hold its own as a single. Easy Girls was indeed not in the show. There wasn't a song list in my program so I can't refer to all of the songs by name. I did think that Are You There worked quite well in the second act as opposed to the first, however there still was that desire to have some crossover between Matt and Peter toward the end of the song. They're just in their own worlds singing.

Part of the problem with this show is that it's hard to tell where it's going and what makes you care. So much of the material has been cut, reworked, or moved to a different part of the show that you're left wondering what about the characters you're supposed to carry with you throughout the show. Hite's performance to me was a bit dull at times even though he was giving plenty of energy trying to sell his character. Again, he leaves the audience with a sour impression from nearly the beginning of the show and it's hard to feel much for his pain as you may have in prior productions.

Trensch (sp? I don't have my Playbill in front of me) did an excellent job. I didn't observe any pitch issues at all, though his tone is a bit bizarre for the traditional take on this role. Overall, he does a great job getting you to care for this quirky, awkward young man. The only thing I didn't get much from with him was his discomfort with the situation. With Role of a Lifetime being taken away from him, he just keeps hitting you over and over again with his desire to have both him and Jason come out.

This review is very casual and messy, I know. All in all, I think that if you took 15-20% of this new production and worked/reworked it with 80% of the original, it'd be a very beautiful piece.

And kudos to the actress playing Diane. A bit predictable, but hilarious.

EDIT: I'd also like to note that one of the most annoying parts of this production is the changing of lyrics for what appears to be no reason. Unless there are certain agreements they had with Intrabartolo (sp?), they've revised almost every lyric in the show but kept the music relatively the same. Going into it knowing the original, it gets on your nerves.

Updated On: 12/1/12 at 07:51 PM

Here's my $0.02, taboo: We saw it Friday, not knowing much more than what's in this thread. Really liked it. And then I watched the YouTube videos today (thanks LYLS3637!) and reread this thread, so now some of the in-depth comments make more sense.

I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. I think the new story is slimmed down and changed in both good and bad ways. Good in that they ditched the mother, bad in that they cut the rave and "Rolling." Good in that they revised it for mobile phones and social networks. Bad in that they took out a lot of the religious theme of guilt/confession/absolution.

I wish both this and the original more fully developed the Romeo and Mercutio angle (triangle?). And I wish both versions more fully explained why the repressed boarding school kids like their "love drugs" so much.

But it still packs quite a punch. And while it's not RENT or SPRING AWAKENING, neither is it GLORY DAYS or THE STORY OF MY LIFE. It's still thought-provoking and controversial. And it really does need to be onstage in New York in some form. I wish it a long life and hundreds more impassioned BWW postings.

I tried to keep an open mind, really I did. Sadly, there was little about this rendition of BARE to fill it with.

1st the things I didn't mind so much: the choreography, I rather liked -- it wasn't traditional "b'way" and I thought MOST of it was interesting. I didn't mind Are You There in Act II, And Gerard Canonico (Matt) sounded amazing, but I've long been a fan of his voice. Lastly, I rather liked Jason singing Role of a Lifetime. Yes, its different, but it was the first time Jason didn't seem like an ass.

The things I didn't like: the priest/nun conflict, the lyrics that were changed, but almost never brought anything other than the original intent, Nadia being a drug dealer, the absence of backstory for all the kids, the fact that through most of the play it wasn't clear if Jason was just using Peter, and because of THAT, Peter came off like such a patsy, Trensch's singing at times was painful, the lack of relationship development of all characters, Jason's death (was that a rejected moment from GHOST?), the ridiculous amount of comedy, I missed the presence of the parents -- particularly Clair; the "cockroach" (oh, good god) and the bullying in general. Oh...and the set drove me nuts -- particularly the swinging "door" which seemed to serve no purpose.

And of course, that's all a shame as the cast is (for the large part) talented and obviously dedicated. The real issues here, IMHO, are both the re-writes and the direction. No, the original was not perfect, but this was more like TELLING us how we should be thinking -- it really doesn't trust as an audience.

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I'd agree with many of the comments since my last post. If you were going into this show without any prior knowledge of the previous versions, you'd probably enjoy it the most. It's too difficult to not continuously draw comparisons, especially when all of the music remained the same but none of the lyrics are there anymore.

Personally, I'm not going to forgive them for changing the opening lyrics to "You and I," deleting "Hey little boy, would you like a ride, a lollipop, a puppy..." (fans know the rest).

Also not happy with what they did to "911 Emergency" either. Old version: Fun! New version: Whaaa??