My mind is all over the place, getting in from this. I feel like I should marinate in the show for the night and write about it tomorrow but I might forget a lot by then, so let's do this.
Overall, and I mean big picture here, this isn't the worst thing I've ever seen. I've seen shows where I left angry at what I had just paid to see and this wasn't that. For the first 2/3 of act one, I was actually having a blast. The book was pure camp and we were laughing our asses off and I mean legit belly laughs where my side cramped up. But on the other side of that, the music - and I mean every original song here - is some of the worst I've ever heard in a musical. I'd still judge it just as harshly if it were some college kids show being presented at Theatre Row because it is just horrendous. The "sets", if we want to call them that are as cheap and ugly as everyone said they were. The show relies on projections for far too much to fill up that enormous stage with the dozen or so people in the cast. And since it's mostly only ever 4 people max in a scene, the stage swallows them and the show up.
As far as performances go, they were all good with what they're given. Like I said, act one is (for me) hilarious and that's in large part Vosk who knows how to deliver some good comedy. Barrett is fine here but she really has nothing to do for the majority of the show. Bertie is such a boring character if they're going to change stuff up at least give her some personality for the stage. The young CeCe is magic and I'd rather see 2 hours of her just telling Henny Youngman jokes than some of the stuff she has to do, here. But there's three sets of the women, one kids, one teens and then the adults and at various scenes (and I'm guessing it's SOLELY to fill up the stage) all 6 are in the scene, kind of shadowing each other which is ridiculous.
Equally ridiculous is the pacing of this show which spends far too much time on certain things and having them sing songs with absolutely nothing moving the story or their characters along in any way, which means the ending is rushed and abrupt. I heard a few sniffles but me, who cries at everything, was just kind of looking around thinking "really? This is it?" But there is kind of my problem with the entirety of act two. They leave so much story left that it's all rushed and things are cut that it just all feels so rushed. There's a little bit of that humor I liked in act one there, but mainly it's a total slog. When "Wind Beneath My Wings" is finally sung, the audience started laughing with how ridiculously the number was staged. I think I leaned over and said "Oh my God" and just bit my lip hard so I wouldn't laugh.
So I have no idea where I stand on this show. Tons of fun with some of the book scenes and jokes in half the show but terrible score throughout and a second act that doesn't need a show doctor, it needs a show miracle worker. Like every show, I'm glad I got to see it but c'mon, Broadway. Get your act together.
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