BEACHES Previews- Page 7

[MimiChika]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 2:35pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "Yeowza. This does not look good. So upsetting looking out from the stage to a sea of empty seats in the front orchestra. 🥺

"

I guess the rumor about closing right after opening is becoming true. Poor cast 

 

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 7:45pm

Two of my girlfriends went. One had a shirt that said I’m The CeeCee and the other one said Im The Hillary. They were unaware it was Bertie in the book. They felt stupid. And they didn’t like the musical. Seems like the writing is on the wall for this one. 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 10:37pm

Kad said: "The first iteration of the musical back in 2014 didn’t even have “Wind,” so clearly its inclusion now was an acknowledgment of reality.."

Out of curiousity, how many other examples can we think of, of shows based on movies with songs that become attached to them, that do NOT originally have that song in the musical, and then add them in later (and it feels almost inevitable.)  Shrek and Zhivago come to mind immediately.  

 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 10:43pm

EricMontreal22 said: "Kad said: "The first iteration of the musical back in 2014 didn’t even have “Wind,” so clearly its inclusion now was an acknowledgment of reality.."

Out of curiousity, how many other examples can we think of, of shows based on movies with songs that become attached to them, that do NOT originally have that song in the musical, and then add them in later (and it feels almost inevitable.) Shrek and Zhivago come to mind immediately."

PRETTY WOMAN inserted Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" into its curtain call during its final weeks on Broadway, and it's been a part of the musical ever since. 

Updated On: 4/7/26 at 10:43 PM

[Leapinlizards]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 10:59pm

Vosk put up a story on IG today that they are changing Wind Beneath My Wings. I’m curious to see what they do with it. 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 11:35pm

Leapinlizards said: "Vosk put up a story on IG today that they are changing Wind Beneath My Wings. I’m curious to see what they do with it."

Here it is and it’s quite obvious she’s fully aware the show won’t be around much longer - she’s encouraging people to film it.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/jessicavosk/3870181008532923104?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Updated On: 4/7/26 at 11:35 PM

[hayden6]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 12:04am

Leapinlizards said: "Vosk put up a story on IG today that they are changing Wind Beneath My Wings. I’m curious to see what they do with it."

I was at the show tonight — Wind Beneath My Wings was just Jessica onstage, I guess it was supposed to be at one of Cee Cee’s concerts based on the gown she was wearing. The piece of stage she was standing on moved her forward a little towards the audience. Near the end, Young & Teen Cee Cee joined her onstage, but it was only Jessica singing. I found the staging underwhelming and without much of a “finale” feel, but Jessica was in great voice and definitely delivered tonight overall.

What was it before?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 12:10am

It was all 3 Cee Cee’s singing it and it was awful. Vosk posting that though, is a real FU to the show. 

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 12:30am

Maybe Boys On The Side would have made a better musical. Jane was a singer after all. 

[pablitonizer]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 6:20am

BrodyFosse123 said: "Leapinlizards said: "Vosk put up a story on IG today that they are changing Wind Beneath My Wings. I’m curious to see what they do with it."

Here it is and it’s quite obvious she’s fully aware the show won’t be around much longer - she’s encouraging people to film it.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/jessicavosk/3870181008532923104?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

"

I assume they want it to go viral like DBH "that was rude" moment did (?). Anyway, it's a pretty desperate move that feels so forced

 

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 9:04am

Jordan Catalano said: "It was all 3 Cee Cee’s singing it and it was awful. Vosk posting that though, is a real FU to the show."

Honestly, the fact that she’s got enough of a pair to do that is commendable to me. If I wasn’t on 44th St multiple times a week seeing literally everything else, I wouldn’t even know BEACHES existed, let alone that it was up and running.

She’s marketing to her fanbase (however niche) and you gotta respect the hustle. I watch enough daytime TV and have yet to see even a commercial for the show.

[jazzicat]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 9:11am

Thousands of people have viewed this thread, I think she has told them exactly what needed to change and they ignored her. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 9:24am

She's posted videos that have gone viral before so I commend her for being a forward thinker and thinking this might help the visibility of the show. At least someone's marketing it! 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 9:32am

We know by now that the people who can make changes and should make changes in so many of these shows, are aware that message boards exist and people who actually know what they're talking about provide instantaneous feedback on the products they put out but - and someone please give me specific instances because I'm still working on my first cup of coffee - I can't think of a time they've actually used the feedback to their advantage. Of course there's financial logistics to take into account but if you make, let's just say, a new brand of cookie and give it out and people say "Oh, I don't like this there's glass in it" and you have millions of dollars invested to make sure that cookie is profitable, you'd do what you needed to remove the glass and make people enjoy your cookie. Not double down and pretend that your cookie is glass-free and just go "Oh, well. Nothing we can do about it now." and then goes on like a lot of productions have done, to blame the public for not wanting to spend money on glass shard cookies. 

This message board has been around for longer than a lot of users have been alive. It has it's good and it has it's bad but the GOOD has always been there to provide the feedback and it amazes me that after DECADES, it (and now countless other social media outlets) is still not viewed by most to be a productive tool for them. It's a free, real time focus group for  every single performance, people. 

Again, I'm not talking about "Beaches" specifically for some of this stuff because (I guess?) there have been changes made since the early preview I went to and I will go back to see the final result but folks I know who were there just last night had the same reaction or worse, than I did. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 9:44am

Is Vosk perhaps saying “film the old version now because it’s going away?” Changes don’t go into effect immediately even when they are teched. Hayden’s description of the song sounds like how it was before. (And the beginning of the song isn’t the issue, it’s the awkward ending which is also the end of the show.)

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 9:50am

quizking101 said: "Honestly, the fact that she’s got enough of a pair to do that is commendable to me. If I wasn’t on 44th St multiple times a week seeing literally everythingelse, I wouldn’t even know BEACHES existed, let alone that it was up and running.

She’s marketing to her fanbase (however niche) and you gotta respect the hustle. I watch enough daytime TV and have yet to see even a commercial for the show."

RippedMan said: "She's posted videos that have gone viral before so I commend her for being a forward thinker and thinking this might help the visibility of the show. At least someone's marketing it!"

I was tempted to, but didn't, respond to BrodyFosse's unkind comment yesterday about how Vosk doesn't sell tickets, but this is the crux of what I was going to say. She may not sell enough to sell out a barn like the Majestic, but I'd hate to see what their ticket sales would be without her, her fanbase (however limited it may be), and her attempts to market it. Because she seems to be the only draw. They have dated, mostly irrelevant material that the audience shows no interest in, lackluster (at best) word of mouth, and poor (the artwork and branding) to nonexistent marketing. It's difficult to imagine what bigger star in the role (who these producers would be willing to pay) would do better (said as someone who hasn't been compelled to buy a ticket myself yet). The sales aren't good, but that's with her and her efforts, not in spite of them.

Updated On: 4/8/26 at 09:50 AM

[Leapinlizards]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 9:57am

hayden6 said: "Leapinlizards said: "Vosk put up a story on IG today that they are changing Wind Beneath My Wings. I’m curious to see what they do with it."

I was at the show tonight — Wind Beneath My Wings was just Jessica onstage, I guess it was supposed to be at one of Cee Cee’s concerts based on the gown she was wearing. The piece of stage she was standing onmoved her forward a little towards the audience.Near the end, Young & Teen Cee Cee joined her onstage, but it was only Jessica singing. I found the staging underwhelming and without much of a “finale” feel, but Jessica was in great voice and definitely delivered tonight overall.

What was it before?"


That piece of the stage moving forward is so strange. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 10:04am

Jordan Catalano said: "I can't think of a time they've actually used the feedback to their advantage."

Sally’s red dress vs pink dress. The list might end there.

With the time BEACHES has, there’s no meaningful enough change that could be made in previews to salvage the show. 

I’m sure the team left Canada with a work list, and maybe they changed 25% and patted themselves on the back (I’ve only seen the NYC version), but it’s astonishing that the show is STILL THIS BAD. And most of these problems were probably identified earlier and ignored.

It is so difficult to implement changes on a show that is already in previews. They have to write them, budget them, stage, re-tech all the light/set cues, if it’s a new song it has to be orchestrated, they have to run it enough so people don’t get hurt…etc. And when there’s no money in the bank, justifying change becomes doubly hard.

The best thing a show ever did to implement changes in New York was SHUFFLE ALONG taking 4 days off during the middle of previews. And I believe they had 6+ weeks of previews, too, unlike most shows nowadays. More shows should budget this, but most have the hubris that “oh our show will be good enough that we won’t need that!”

(Jordan I know you probably know all this, my comment is not addressed to you!)

[SeanD2]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 10:21am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Jordan Catalano said: "I can't think of a time they've actually used the feedback to their advantage."

Sally’s red dress vs pink dress. The list might end there.)

I don’t know if the message boards are why Sally’s dress changed. I happened to be standing next to Bob Avian when he saw the show at the Kennedy Center and that’s one of the things I heard him complain about. I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of the tweaks that took place before opening on Broadway were a result of him inserting himself (in a good way)

[George in DC]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 11:14am

EricMontreal22 said: "Kad said: "The first iteration of the musical back in 2014 didn’t even have “Wind,” so clearly its inclusion now was an acknowledgment of reality.."

Out of curiousity, how many other examples can we think of, of shows based on movies with songs that become attached to them, that do NOT originally have that song in the musical, and then add them in later (and it feels almost inevitable.) Shrek and Zhivago come to mind immediately.

 

Kad is wrong, I saw "Beaches" at Signature Theatre in Feb of 2014 and "Wind .... "  was in  the show.

"

 

Updated On: 4/8/26 at 11:14 AM

[MaxineElliott]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 12:05pm

I think the show should play more like the former tenant in the Majestic, Gypsy. The story starts out that way and that’s why people love Little Cee Cee, but the stage mother/daughter dynamic gets dropped pretty fast. The mother characters should be given more to do. 
 

..

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 12:25pm

EricMontreal22 said: "Kad said: "The first iteration of the musical back in 2014 didn’t even have “Wind,” so clearly its inclusion now was an acknowledgment of reality.."

Out of curiousity, how many other examples can we think of, of shows based on movies with songs that become attached to them, that do NOT originally have that song in the musical, and then add them in later (and it feels almost inevitable.) Shrek and Zhivago come to mind immediately.

"

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had Pure Imagination from the start, but the The Candy Man and the Bricusse/Newley Oompa Loompa songs were absent in London and added for the Broadway transfer, which I thought was interesting. Pure Imagination was also notably moved back to the chocolate room.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 1:09pm

THE ADDAMS FAMILY musical during its Chicago tryout, they sampled the famous TV show finger-snap theme midway in Act 1. It obviously was received as expected. For its Broadway production, they used it to open the show so audiences didn’t have to wait for it and it set the mood immediately. Like BEACHES, they were adamant about staying away from its most famous incarnation of the source which for THE ADDAMS FAMILY was its iconic early 60s TV series. They knew better than to not include that famous theme music in some form. 

[Kad]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 2:27pm

George in DC said: "

Kad is wrong, I saw "Beaches" at Signature Theatre in Feb of 2014 and "Wind .... " was in the show.
"

Yes, I was indeed wrong- I misread an article about Iris Rainer Dart from before the debut. My apologies. 

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 4/8/26 at 3:04pm

This show was lame in Chicago but it wasn't terrible. The issue was clearly the book and a lack of memorable songs. There was a song and a half that were sort of embarrassing but everything else was bland but nice. The songs didn't really propel the story and many of them did not feel like they were in the right place. 

It's astonishing folks can work for so long on something, spend so much money, and make so many changes and still end up in the same place they started.