woah!!! calm it down, people!
It was, after all, the First PREVIEW. let's not all get excited. I feel like everyone's expecting perfection as if It had been running for a year. Yes, It needs some tightening. Badly. I thought it had some really great moments, and then some moments that fell completely flat. Some of the jokes worked, some need to be taken out, or paced differently. I didn't see it at the Public, so I only had word of mouth to let me know what to expect. I generally liked it. Not LOVED, but enjoyed it. Yes, the humour is sophomoric (which, btw, I don't know why people complain about that. It is a valid genre of comedy.) However, sitting there watching some of the jokes, I couldn't help but thinking of other shows in the same style, like Batboy and Urinetown. The only problem is: They did it better than BBAJ. Still, some of the jokes and physical humour were quite funny and I enjoyed many of the actors' (mainly the males') performances.
The standout for me was Jeff Hiller, who played the most roles of the night, all hilariously, I might add. He was a breath of fresh air on a stage sometimes suffocated by the weight of some of the bad jokes and puns. He somehow found a way to make every line delivery hilarious, even when the lines themselves were not funny at all.
Ben Walker was great, I guess. I'm not overwhelmed, I'm not underwhelmed. He did exactly what the script calls for, so you can't really begrudge the guy. It's a lead, but a thankless role at the same time. He hardly leaves the stage, has a lot of numbers and blocking, and performs it all very well, but everyone's calling him a big breakout star, and I personally didn't see him as a star.
The music was enjoyable, particularly the second half of the show. I was surprised there wasn't more of it. The book scenes were quite long, but I wasn't checking my watch. I really enjoyed the songs PUBLIC LIFE and SECOND NATURE. Those were the only two standout musical moments of the night to me.
All in all, I praise it as being an original, fresh show that, yes, needs a little work. But they have a few weeks to tweak the little things that need tweaking. the running time is about 90 minutes which for this type of show is just long enough. I think it's also wise not to have an intermission.
I knew when there wasn't a standing O that there was gonna be a lot of whining on this board, but you need to give the show room to breath in it's new setting. These kids are working extremely hard up on stage, and the show is a lot to perform eight nights a week, I'm sure. I got exhausted just watching the first 45 minutes.
Give the show a break. It doesn't take itself seriously, and neither should you.
"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."
