BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY Reviews- Page 7

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 5:36pm

"Soundtrack" release? I hope you meant Cast Recording, and the release of a Cast Recording doesn't boost ticket sales. The producers usually just end up losing more money because of it, although it eventually pays for itself in its licensing and subsidiary afterlife. Years and years later.

"I don't understand why people aren't seeing it."

I will gladly sound like a broken record and say it again: there are only so many middle aged housewives with money. It's a rather small demographic to cater to.

[WJR2]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 8:23pm

I seem to be one of the few that just didn't get this show... I loved the score. I just couldn't get on board with a woman who cheated on her husband.. no matter how they justified it. Can't wait for the cast album, though!

[nicnyc]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 1:09am

I'll be really sad if this show closes prematurely. Steven Pasquale has an amazing voice and his singing of that beautiful Jason Robert Brown score alone was worth the price of admission. I would think Pasquale & Brown are both very deserving Tony nominees. I think the marketing did it a disservice - and I truly think it appeals to a much wider base than middle aged housewives. I've seen all the new musicals (If/Then, Rocky, Bridges, etc) and this was my favorite because of the score and Pasquale's performance. If/Then's plot was more suited to my age demographic etc - but the score and the performance did not grab me the way Bridges did.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 1:22am

I love this show. I need to see Bullets, Rocky, If/Then, etc, but I just want to see this again and hear those songs and see those performances.

Sure, it's such a strange thing to want them together, but you do. You want them to be happy. It's such a heartbreaking story.

[avyrocks]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 2:11am

To try to stop the show from closing prematurely, I think what needs to be done is bringing friends to the show (2nd, 3rd, 4th time). I feel like this show is not one that will be successful through mass marketing. Word of mouth is more effective.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 2:57am

Wouldn't closing prematurely require it to be making money yet still close anyway?

Like, Rylance's Twelfe Night closed prematurely. Every show was sold out, people were paying top dollar... but that was the final extension and they went back to the UK.

As much as I liked Bridges, a show hemorrhaging money wouldn't qualify as closing prematurely.

[SomeOtherMe]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 10:02am

^

Yep.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 10:36am

Finally caught this yesterday and it's been given a raw deal. Yes it's flawed (along with every other new musical this season) but what is good about - principally the score and the performances is absolutely exquisite. I was swept up in it and was freely pushing away tears by the final curtain. And I guess I'm in the minority, but I totally got what Sher was going for in his staging concept and it worked for me. If anyone is on the fence about going I strongly encourage you to leave Brantley's assessment of the show at the door and go and experience it yourself.

Whatever the fate is for this Broadway incarnation, BRIDGES is a musical and a score that is going to endure and be around for a long long time...

Updated On: 3/28/14 at 10:36 AM

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 10:42am

I wouldn't say that Brantley was entirely negative. It was nearly a love letter to O'Hara: "But then Ms. O’Hara would sing. And the field of corn that is this production’s backdrop would seem to turn into a labyrinthine, richly hued forest where a woman, and an audience, can get lost in ecstasy."

He did have a point about the townspeople, though.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 10:46am

"I don't understand why people aren't seeing it."

Every flop has its devotees, but you still should easily be able to acknowledge why people "aren't seeing it."

For instance, I thought The Scottsboro Boys was a great piece of theatre, yet I understand it was too dark and demanded too much for the masses to take to it.

I was bored senseless by Bridges, thought it was mindless sentimental drivel with a merely pretty (but flaccid and bland) score, highly derivative of Adam Guettel's much better Piazza score.

Yet I can easily understand how some might disagree and find it to their liking.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 10:46am

Kelli is indeed wonderful and I think will win the Tony but In typical fashion Brantley was blindsided by his diva worship and I think couldn't focus on much else.

And I think that the townspeople being a little creepy is sort of the point. You aren't supposed to be rooting for Francesca to stay THERE...

I also want to mention Whitney Bashor who took my breathe away-- where did SHE come from?

I think if you are going to call this score derivative of PIAZZA- then you in turn have to call pieces of that score derivative of PARADE and SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD-

I understand why some feel Brown and Guettel are stylistically similar but no-musically they really aren't.

Updated On: 3/28/14 at 10:46 AM

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 10:52am

I didn't have a problem with the townspeople in any actual scenes, just the interstitial stuff, where when the set would roll in, someone would poke their head in above the sink (or was it the window?) and look around, or always pause at the door and look in, etc. It just seemed too on the nosy.

[Steve721]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 11:07am

"I will gladly sound like a broken record and say it again: there are only so many middle aged housewives with money. It's a rather small demographic to cater to."

The book came out in 1992, so the "middle aged housewives" who originally fell for the story would now be in their 60's. I think the real problem with the story is that its time has passed. If this had come out shortly after the film, I think it would have been a hit. But hyper-romantic melodramas have a short shelf life. It's like a film you see that produces this big emotional response, but on re-watching you realize what manipulative drek it really is.

I thought Kelli O'Hara might be a big enough star to keep this playing for a good while, but I was wrong. If they'd had a bigger star or a better show (that got rave reviews and loads of Tonys), this probably would have succeeded. But for the show to pull out of the box office trough it's in will be very difficult indeed.



Updated On: 3/28/14 at 11:07 AM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 11:13am

I do think the show will likely win Tonys for score and actress and could be in the hunt for several others-- perhaps that would help turn around the box office but it's the getting it to June that will be the challenge. This should have opened very late in the season.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 2:44pm

Opening in late April or right before the cutoff would have helped immensely.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:11pm

Anyone who thinks it's just middle aged housewives attending the show clearly hasn't seen the show, and is really ignorant. When I attended, there were tons of men and women in their 20's and 30's who clearly enjoyed the show. People with jobs too!

[avyrocks]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:12pm

^ True that.

[promisespromises2]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:19pm

People are making this out to be some ordinary chick-flick when the story has so much more substance than that. I haven't seen the movie (nor do I want to, the novel was perfect for me and the musical was beyond perfect for me), but it's so much more than a musical that some "middle-aged housewife" will enjoy. I don't know if it's because of the advertising or what and frankly I'm over it, but I hope people will stop making this out to be some shallow romantic show.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:21pm

Most people aren't I don't think, just the people who have no idea what they are talking about. Like, people who haven't seen the show and are just assuming things.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:36pm

"I hope people will stop making this out to be some shallow romantic show."

It's always good to remember that what may seem profound to you might really and truly seem shallow to someone else. And vice-versa.

[promisespromises2]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:41pm

^I know there are different perspectives. I think I'm talking about more in the way of people just assuming what it is rather than going to see it and understanding it.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:59pm

Isn't that the way people decide whether to see anything? Who has the time or the money to see every show, movie, art exhibit, dance piece in New York?

You see the marketing, you hear the word of mouth, maybe you know a few things already about the work or the artist(s) involved - then you decide if it's worth it or not.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 4:04pm

Many times it is a simple dollars and cents issue

As stated above, no one has the money to see everything. This being the case, people may have to choose between one show or another. Sometimes economics and not critics kill a good show.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 4:30pm

Just because you see young people at the performance you happen to attend doesn't disqualify the general and accurate belief that this musical targets and caters to a very specific, and limited, demographic.

[Steve721]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 4:36pm

I already love the score and am seeing the show next week. But we're talking about how the general public seems to be reacting (or, to be more correct, not reacting) to the show. To the extent people remember "The Bridges of Madison County", I think they associate it with the hyper-romantic novel, which can turn off some people (including many book critics, if memory serves). The show's marketing campaign has never overcome that association.

Of course people who know about Broadway musicals and who love Kelli O'Hara--count me about them--will be lining up to see it and to hear JRB's wonderful score. But so far that's unfortunately not enough people to sustain the run.