BLACK NO MORE Musical premiering at the New Group in January 2022, with a buzzy creative team & cast- Page 4

[Owen22]

Posted: 1/28/22 at 2:14pm

There is the maxim that says "Sometimes it's a cliche because it's true." I have no doubt that has been your experience. But what I look for in storytelling, if there is a trope I've seen many times before, I would hope that it would be subverted in some way. Or made fresh. Or take me by surprise. Of course I did not find the racism quaint. I found the way that it was dealt with quaint. I don't know if the source material is considered a classic and the book writer did not want to change much but I would guess I was hoping for some originality, though as I've said before, I'm sure when written  that book was very original!

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/28/22 at 3:01pm

This may be a duplicate but my response didn't seem to post...

 

I can see what you are saying. Referring back to my original comments, I liked that the racism wasn't over done or cliched. 

I also, for the most part, liked that they changed the ending from the book. However I think they should have let Max win Helen's affection. As presented in the show, I think it would have made the ending more powerful. 

Since this was to premiere in the fall of 2021, the show was evidently written before we ended up in these Covid times. So I think that anti science/political thing was coincidental due to the delay of the production. 

I do hope they do a cast recording.

 

[Alex M]

Posted: 1/29/22 at 7:55pm

Saw the show last night, while I do feel like it needs work (especially at the end) it has the potential to be a hit if it were to transfer. I really enjoyed most the songs and thought that the story was very engaging. I would love if they cut one of the last three numbers in favor of more of a cohesive ending. Hoping to see again toward the end of their run to see what changes. Overall a very enjoyable night and am excited to see where this show goes. 

One last note though, while I personally didn't need one; I was rather shocked this show didn't have a trigger or content warning. 

[dangeresque49]

Posted: 1/29/22 at 8:15pm

I saw this today. I think the music was a big standout and definitely Broadway material. The cast was overall great. The idea of the main story is compelling but definitely not quite there yet. In the right hands some key tweaks and cuts could go a long way.

Also some shows do well keeping the same set design when transferring but I think this would benefit greatly from something more elaborate. 

I don't know if it's just the size and layout of the theater but I thought the mix had a nice punch that some shows or venues seem to lack that helped make the music more impactful. 

Edit: wanted to also mention the disclaimer was in the program but unannounced. 

Updated On: 1/30/22 at 08:15 PM

[akhoya87]

Posted: 1/30/22 at 12:16pm

I saw this last night.  Seems like they did a bit of trimming - the show ran for about 2 hours 45 minutes, give or take a few minutes.  A few thoughts on things that were done well, and not so-well:

The Good

• The actors are excellent, and they do well with the material they have.  Tamika Lawrence delivers a noteworthy performance.  I thought her rendition of Who's Gonna Take the Weight was terrific, and would've been better served by a tighter book.  Brandon Victor Dixon gets to show off his versatility and range.  
   
• Some of the songs/lyrics are very pretty and well-constructed.  Lots of musical styles represented.  
   
• Great choreography, although overdone in places.  

The Not-So-Good

• They need to blare a trigger warning before the show.  The TW they put on the piece of paper they give you as you walk in doesn't really convey the severity with which one might be triggered.  Not saying this for me, as I'm not the one who needs TWs, but someone else in my group did.  Also, the use of racial epithets was gratuitous at places and didn't really drive the plot.
   
• 36 songs is too many.  This isn't even a sung-through musical.  Why do we need "What's a ____ to do" songs?  I know this is in previews, but I'm surprised there's this much fat to be trimmed.  Some of the choreography is also distracting (and in places, not good).  Why does Agamemnon need to start doing turns every time he's in a scene?  (I'm exaggerating here, but not by much.)
   
• Conversely, the story needs expansion/development in other places.  The main love story isn't built out at all, and seems to appear out of nowhere.  
   
• I think the cartoonish caricatures that are the Knights of Nordica are the product of lazy writing.  Maybe the facileness is necessary for the characters to serve as effective foils, but they're hard to believe as effective antagonists when they have no substance.  At times, they just felt like vehicles for dropping offensive racial epithets out of white mouths.  The Harlem portions of the musical felt like good, well-crafted drama, and the Atlanta portions felt like poorly executed cartoonish satire.  
   
• Some of the cast members should not be rapping.
   
• I think the ending needs refinement.  It seems to come out of nowhere (maybe due in part to the failure to develop the connection that they emphasize at the end).  And while one of the broader points of tension and conflict gets resolved a couple of scenes before that... in a way, the bigger questions raised by that conflict don't get resolved... or even mentioned.  

I do think there's potential with this piece, and any new musical should be celebrated in this climate.  But there's a lot of tightening that needs to be done before this is ready for primetime.  

[dangeresque49]

Posted: 1/30/22 at 9:29pm

I will say the reply  and comment system in this board is embarrassingly bad. Why do the admins not fix this. I feel like I am in the mid 90s. 

I do feel as though the issues with actors that couldn't rap well enough is the easiest thing to fix on broadway. What excites me about the show is that even though it has flaws the core ingredients are there that I think the production group can sell this to investors who can bankroll a broadway quality show.

To me the show was a lot like listening to a great album for the first time musically. There was so much I liked that I can't remember enough about too many individual songs, but in this case there is no way to relisten. 

On a general note I think I only paid like $35 to see this. I could have moved up even but I found the theater so small that I think the rear center seats are actually better given the slope of the seating area. If you are on the fence about this and seats are still cheap I urge to to buy the last few rows just for the music and singing talent alone.I will be really interested to see the reviews once this is out of previews.  

[SFFrontRow]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 2:19am

SOOO excited to see this and booking tickets now for my February visit. The cast really is pretty mind blowing and this jumped to the top of my NEED to see list.

To Dangeresque49 - what seat were you in? And what did you mean by the slope of the seating section? Is it steep or gradual? I have 

Looking to book this and thought I would book the first row of the second section (row G) but fear the rail behind the last row in the front (row F) may be narrow but a bit of a view blocker or annoyance.

I was in this theater for Meet Vera Stark but was in the first row. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks...

[Lunalaaaaaaaa]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 7:43am

How are the first and second rows? I heard they have a slightly angled view. 

[Mark_E]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 8:32am

I sat row N (second off back row) and the view was great from there.

[Hamilfan2]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 9:47am

Lunalaaaaaaaa said: "How are the first and second rows? I heard they have a slightly angled view."

I sat first row and had no issues!  The stage is pretty low and you could even see the floor of the stage/actors feet.  So a really good view for a front row seat!  Didn’t have to crane my neck at all (and I am not tall)

[OffOnBwayHi]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 10:46am

This show is pretty terrible. So much incredible talent wasted. It thinks it’s more woke than it is. And the set is the cheapest thing I’ve seen in a while.

I couldn’t recommend this to my worst enemy.

It’s not nearly as smart as it desperately wants to be. Borderline offensive, actually.

With that said, I guess I respect the effort…

 

[dangeresque49]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 11:56am

The front part of the orchestra is more of a standard theater slope and the rear half is stadium seating. The theater is small enough that the back portion of the stadium seating probably gives about the clearest view in my opinion. 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 12:52pm

I saw this over the weekend. The talent is insane, the space was really nice, and the lighting was great. But, the story is weak and there are like 525,600 songs in this and as a poster already mentioned, this is not a sung through show. There's just too much going on and it's way too long. 

Wanted to love, barely liked 

Updated On: 1/31/22 at 12:52 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 2:24pm

The New Group has a crap track record with new musicals, huh.

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 2:30pm

dangeresque49 said: "The front part of the orchestra is more of a standard theater slope and the rear half is stadium seating. The theater is small enough that the back portion of the stadium seating probably gives about the clearest view in my opinion."

 

I sat in P-101. Perfect view.

 

[JeffDaEgg2]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 4:17pm

I'll join with those saying that this is a great cast and most definitely not a great show.  I saw it yesterday and was severely disappointed.  The score was forgettable and never ending, and in my opinion rarely moved the story along. 

My #1 complaint about the show is that there was little to no characterization.  Who are these people and why are we rooting for (some of) them?  I feel like I knew nothing about them except for how they knew each other (yet I didn't even know that, as I spent the majority of act one thinking Tamika was BVD's sister).

My #2 complaint is that there is no acceptable reason in 2022 to have a story about two people falling in love because they danced together for half of a song.  BVD's character moved to Atlanta because he danced with Jennifer Damiano for two minutes?  Ugh!  I understand Golden Age musicals where you are often stuck with that in the book, but new shows should know better.  Grumble.

[Synecdoche2]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 6:22pm

I guess this is what you'd call an "admirable failure". I can't imagine the cast is comfortable performing the material here. I thought the relationship to the source material felt a bit uncomfortable. Schuyler's book is an, um .. moderately right wing (?) satire on race and its perspective maybe hasn't aged as well as other black authors from the era. Because of that, it does not easily translate into the moderately liberal tone they're going for here.
 

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Also, do you really need to tell a New York theatre audience that the KKK were bad people full of hatred? I have to imagine the moment with the house lights is intended to somehow be revelatory or interesting, which seems painfully naive.

 

Updated On: 1/31/22 at 06:22 PM

[Pashacar]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 6:42pm

Synecdoche2 said: "Also, do you really need to tell a New York theatre audience that the KKK were bad people full of hatred? I have to imagine the moment with the house lights is intended to somehow be revelatory or interesting, which seems painfully naive."

Not a great move to drop spoilers unannounced, even when you didn't care for the show.

[Synecdoche2]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 6:53pm

Pashacar said: "Not a great move to drop spoilers unannounced, even when you didn't care for the show."

Spoiler tag added, sorry!

[Sauja]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 7:35pm

I adored this show. Listen, it’s the first production of a hugely ambitious piece. It’s not perfect, but it has exceptional elements throughout, and if they have the time to continue to work on it, I think it could be truly spectacular. And even if this is the most complete version we ever get, it’s a thrilling piece from an incredibly exciting new voice AND an incredibly interesting adaptation of a historical work of Afrofuturism. For me, it was an unbridled success even if it has room for improvement. 

[dangeresque49]

Posted: 1/31/22 at 11:26pm

Sauja said: "I adored this show. Listen, it’s the first production of a hugely ambitious piece. It’s not perfect, but it has exceptional elements throughout, and if they have the time tocontinue to work on it, I think it could be truly spectacular. And even if this is the most complete version we ever get, it’s a thrilling piece from an incredibly exciting new voice AND an incredibly interesting adaptation of a historical work of Afrofuturism. For me, it was an unbridled success even if it has room for improvement."

I think it important to judge an ambitious off broadway show with potential as unfinished especially still in preview for this production even. If the production team tried to transfer this in the current state it would be a big failure no doubt. But if they got key people who could work to complete this as a viable transfer this could be a big hit because the music is good and hey story elements can carry the weight in the right hands. I just think this needs possibly another production run before a transfer attempt to tighten up.

 

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/1/22 at 2:06am

JeffDaEgg2 said: "I'll join with those saying that this is a great cast and most definitely not a great show. I saw it yesterday and was severely disappointed. The score was forgettable and never ending, and in my opinion rarely moved the story along.

My #1 complaint about the show is that there was little to no characterization. Who are these people and why are we rooting for (some of) them? I feel like I knew nothing about them except for how they knew each other (yet I didn't even know that, as I spent the majority of act one thinking Tamika was BVD's sister).

My #2 complaint is that there is no acceptable reason in 2022 to have a story about two people falling in love because they danced together for half of a song. BVD's character moved to Atlanta because he danced with Jennifer Damiano for two minutes? Ugh! I understand Golden Age musicals where you are often stuck with that in the book, but new shows should know better. Grumble."

I think how they knew each other was enough. I never thought that the two were siblings.

The reason it is "acceptable" in 2022 to have a story about two people falling in love after one dance is because the musical is inspired by a book where the dance set this all in motion. And what isn't acceptable about falling for someone on a dance floor? I fell in love after one dance with my second partner at a club. We lasted five years. It does happen, even in 2022.

 

[JeffDaEgg2]

Posted: 2/1/22 at 9:49am

I don't mean that it can't literally happen on a dance floor; I mean that better storytelling is expected in modern times.  Why are they in love with one another?  Why is he willing to upend his life to try to find her in Atlanta?  I wasn't given any compelling evidence to make it feel believable, and I expect better storytelling from a new work.  I also understand it's based on an older book, but that doesn't mean they can't improve the storytelling (if the love at first sight trope is used there; I'm not sure as I haven't read it).

 

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/1/22 at 2:31pm

I do agree that they should have built the attraction up more. It happened fast. But knowing the story before seeing the show, I just knew what was happening. 

[Lunalaaaaaaaa]

Posted: 2/3/22 at 2:29pm

Hamilfan2 said: "Lunalaaaaaaaa said: "How are the first and second rows? I heard they have a slightly angled view."

I sat first row and had no issues! The stage is pretty low and you could even see the floor of the stage/actors feet. So a really good view for a front row seat! Didn’t have to crane my neck at all (and I am not tall)"

Thanks Hamilfan2! I also have front seats and am excited about the view!