BEETLEJUICE - Pre-Broadway Tryout in DC — Page 6

I didnt see the first night, but last night was great. Hoping to go again tonite or tomorrow, will post any notices of changes.

Caught this last night and I absolutely adored it. Of course it'll need some re-writes and trimming but for a second preview I was blown away. Some of the best set and special effects work I've ever seen.

Understudies:

• For Beetlejuice: Abe Goldfarb, George Merrick
• For Lydia: Presley Ryan, Dana Steingold
• For Barbara: Jill Abramovitz, Kim Sava
• For Charles: Abe Goldfarb, George Merrick
• For Adam: Abe Goldfarb, George Merrick

hec078 said: "If I had to choose what song I would cut, I couldn't answer that because I liked them. However, one song I didn't care for was "The Box" I just thought it's the song I would skip once the Cast Recording comes out."

If I had to guess, the boyband song should probably be the first to go. And Lydia’s ballad that interrupts and brings the opening number to a screeching halt.

Went and saw this last night, had really high hopes based on this board, so I left feeling a bit disappointed. This will do just fine on Broadway, but it isn't a revelation, and outside of Tech it won't be winning (maybe even competing) for any Tony Awards.

I hate comparing the two because of the massively different tone, but it feels alot like Spongebob from last season. Amazing tech, a few endearing moments, and you leave feeling okay about the experience. If you hate kitsch you will DEFINITELY hate this. And it was easily the most vulgar thing I have seen since BOM, so the ads are true. And in 2018, I was a bit sad to see so many jokes about groping unwilling participants.

PROS:

The Set steals the show here. Everything about it is gold, and the lighting design is a perfect compliment. The way they do just about everything is magnificent, if anything Timbers' staging doesn't use the set as well as it could have.

Rob McClure is wonderful, and Kerry Butler is rock solid. The writers leave them with the worst arc (where the heck is the resolution?!), and they still manage to do a lot of nice things. They are genuine and quirky.

Sofia Anne Caruso is every bit as good as advertised. I was thrilled that a show finally cast a teenager as a teenager. It was believable and engaging. She does miss a few moments of nuance, but 95% of it is high quality stuff. The 30 year olds as teenagers trend on bway is getting a bit tired, so I applaud this choice and her work. I could easily see a Tony Nom for her.

Leslie Kritzer is hysterical: Especially in her early (and only) number. I wish they had given her more. She kind of gets left behind in the plot.

Jill Abramovitz and Danny Rutigliano are also very funny and add a great deal to the ensemble: I loved every bit role these two played. They were very funny, especially in the "Day-Oh" scene.

CONS:

The neverending Music. People have commented before, but I don't think you can prepare for it. Act 1 is constant songs...and not in a good way. They make a joke about an early ballad, and then proceed to have Alex Brightman scream at us non-stop for an hour. At more than one point I looked at my date and rolled our eyes that a NEW song was starting. The book's entire function in Act 1 was to drive to the next song. And, unfortunately, the songs weren't that great. They had some fine numbers, but...nothing really awesome.

Alex Brightman is exhausting. I will admit that I hated him in SOR. I felt like he just ran around and screamed, and had hoped to never see him on stage again, so I was disappointed that he was doing this role. I had hopes, though, from folks who told me that Dewey was directed to be that way, and this role would be different and nuanced. It wasn't. He is incredibly annoying. He landed some jokes, but the whole role felt like a talented high schooler who flies through the nuance so that he can get to the sex jokes and say the f word. To his credit, most of the crude jokes land.

The opening number is a train wreck. It just makes no sense, it is done at Hyper speed and gives you NO insight into what the show is going to be about. "Its a show about death." No crap, but the exposition is glossed over at a nauseatingly spastic rate. It took me a few minutes to just settle in to the show after that number. It is a bit deceptive, but I think they should start with Caruso's ballad and move into a truncated version of a show about death.

IT IS TOO LONG. - My lord, when are people going to come around on the 100 min, no intermission train. This should could be twice as nice at about two hours. Add in the fact that we took a 23 minute intermission (I could watch a sitcom on Hulu during the break!), it came in around 2:45. OOOF.

UNNECESSARY REPRISES - This is the show of hearing songs we didnt like the first time over and over again. Poor Sofia gets reprise after reprise of stuff (which she mostly kills), but it isn't good stuff, so it gets boring after a bit. Alex gets reprises of many songs (his and Sofia's), and I just don't get why...

Overall - I'd give this show a solid B-. It feels like many of last season's mediocre shows(Mean Girls, Spongebob), so it'll fit right in on Bway.

If Alex keeps singing the way he does, hes gonna have major voice issues

I still think starting with Beetlejuice is a bad choice. I know he's a title character, but he should be much more featured.

BroadwayBear2 said: "Anyone with the audio? Can you PM me or email em the link/file. I saw the show and cant get "Dead Mom" out of my head. Please and thank you."

Hey, you and others who are either promoting your possession of or requesting a link to the audio of this show are complicit in stealing -- do you think those signs at shows banning recording devices are not meant for you. What is the sense of entitlement that you think you deserve this for free? You give the middle finger to all artists when you steal intellectual property and it is especially disrespectful when a show is in an out of town tryout and finding its legs.

Why don't you wait for the Original Broadway Cast Recording like most adults and pay the artists who worked long and hard to bring you a song you clearly enjoy, rather than ripping artists off. Get out of your mother's basement or whatever dreary space you occupy physically or mentally and create something of your own rather than steal and disseminate the work of others.

The fact that you announce you are looking for stolen goods, so gangster of you. I know this is so tiresome but that chat boards dedicated to the love of theater could so frequently s**t on theater people like this boggles my mind.

Maybe think about someone stealing something you labored over --or have you made nothing of value so you don't know what that might be like? Hats off to all of you who have previously peddled the audio on this thread and made yourself feel all so inside-y. YOU ARE SIMPLY THIEVES.

Hey, moderators, after some vigilance why are letting this thread again be a conduit to this theft?

theaterdarling said: "BroadwayBear2 said: "Anyone with the audio? Can you PM me or email em the link/file. I saw the show and cant get "Dead Mom" out of my head. Please and thank you."

Hey, you and others who are either promoting your possession of or requesting a link to the audio of this show are complicit in stealing -- do you think those signs at shows banning recording devices are not meant for you. What is the sense of entitlement that you think you deserve this for free? You give the middle finger to all artists when you steal intellectual property and it is especially disrespectful when a show is in an out of town tryout and finding its legs.

Why don't you wait for the Original Broadway Cast Recording like most adults and pay the artists who worked long and hard to bring you a song you clearly enjoy, rather than ripping artists off. Get out of your mother's basement or whatever dreary space you occupy physically or mentally and create something of your own rather than steal and disseminate the work of others.

The fact that you announce you are looking for stolen goods, so gangster of you. I know this is so tiresome but that chat boards dedicated to the love of theater could so frequently s**t on theater people like this boggles my mind.

Maybe think about someone stealing something you labored over --or have you made nothing of value so you don't know what that might be like? Hats off to all of you who have previously peddled the audio on this thread and made yourself feel all so inside-y. YOU ARE SIMPLY THIEVES.

Hey, moderators, after some vigilance why are letting this thread again be a conduit to this theft?"

Uhhhhhhhhhh okay.

---

Theater Darling is spot on. Those of you giving them him/her a hard time are REALLY on the wrong side of this discussion. Theft is theft-- what could be more immoral than stealing from the very actors you claimed to enjoy the night before? Stand back and look at yourselves for a minute.

Saw the show this afternoon and enjoyed it. Let me pause and say that The National Theater needs some repairs as the paint is peeling off the ceiling.

The show I liked. It was fun, the set design is really good.

Act 1 needs to cut some songs and the ending needs to be sped up a bit. It felt like it took forever to reach the end.

The cast was solid, the songs I thought mostly for the tone, the boy band number has a point to it as it’s were we see the characters we know from the netherworld, and the audience was eating it up.

There was a line toward the end where the audience groaned and Alex reacted to it like he didn’t expect it.

Thought I’d post my general opinion. Contrary to what some are saying, I actually thought the second act was more flawed than the first. I don’t mind all the differences from the film. I actually thought it was great that instead of copying the movie they took the general concept and added and changed as they thought would work. Mostly it did. The only thing was just that some of the dialogue was a little confusing.

I agree the first act definitely had too many songs. A lot of reprises that felt a little unnecessary. Overall the actual songs were pretty good. Some of the lyrics could be changed and nothing too memorable, but I liked most of what I heard.

A lot of the characters were different than in the film. I kinda wish Otho had been in it more though. This is a stupid complaint but I also think that Lydia should have had black hair. I know they were ogianally going to do a black wig, but then took it away. I got used to it and it’s nothing huge, but I think it would work well. Lydia overall was awesome. In the first act I felt like her lines or dialogue was a bit over dramatic but mostly she was great, and Sophia was incredible. Her music was very emo pop which I honestly loved. I thought it was awesome how Sophia sounded very poppy and very much like a teenager in her situation would. Specifically the way she added rasp to the end of some notes.

The tech aspects are all perfect.

Everyone is pretty perfectly cast. I loved Alex Brightman. So many people would be great in this role and he was an excellent choice. Some of his jokes were a little missed but that’s mainly the book because his comedic timing is perfect. Also Beetlejuice was bisexual and that’s awesome. Nobody in this cast wasn’t amazing. Props to the casting director.

As for the kids thing. My little sister who is 11 was with me and she was definitely okay to see this. There was a lot of cursing and a lot of raunchy jokes. But nothing more than that.

One thing that sparked my curiosity is that Sophia is a very perfect age to play Lydia. But oddly one of her understudies is only 14 and the other is an adult in her 20s. It was also unclear to me which one of those two women played the Girl Scout (which should either be shortened or cut altogether). The playbill lists Dana Steingold who is the older of the two, but on stage it didn’t look even a bit like an adult. Plus I had thought Presley Ryan (the younger one) had mentioned playing the part in a live stream.

Okay. Two major things though.
1.) At the end of the show Beetlejuice suddenly got very sentimental and that was a little strange. It’s kind of unnecessary.
2.) This is the big thing. I don’t remember if this was part of the film or not but the Maitlands sort of become friends with the Deetzs. What I don’t get is that unless I missed something the Deetzs aren’t supposed to be able to see the Maitlands. And they interact a LOT in this show. So that’s just confusing.

Overall this is an incredible show. It does need work but it’s the kind of show I’d see again. I want so badly for this show to run for a long time so many people can put their own spins on these characters.