BULLETS OVER BROADWAY Reviews- Page 7

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 12:18pm

UpInOne, i respectfully disagree. It goes without saying that every musical that opened this season got its share of raves and pans. But I just went to stagegrade.com, and I didn't see the love it or hate it reaction for any other show that we see with Bullets. There are many B-C reviews for Gentleman's Guide, If/Then, Beautiful, Aladdin, even Rocky. The show with the best reviews seemed to be After Midnight, which really didn't have full out pans though it did have a couple that were negative. What I'm saying is that the number of raves v. pans here, with very few in the middle, seems unusual.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 12:44pm

For what's worth, I compiled all the reviews in this thread based on what posters classified them as, and here is the breakdown... Really all over the place.
Positive 6
Mixed to Positive 2
Mixed 3
Mixed to Negative 3
Negative 4

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 12:54pm

Nice to know they all saw the same show

I do not know if this was mentioned before but Roma Torre gave it a mixed but leaning negative.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 1:22pm

I haven’t seen the show, but the lack of an original score is my biggest turn-off to the show. And, reading a bunch of these reviews, even in the positive ones, it seems many felt this way; even when some reviewers thought the songs worked well enough, many of them still mention that “Bullets” could have been heightened with a new score.

I’m not against jukebox musicals – I actually think some can work fairly well – but, this line from the Hollywood Reporter review really sums up why it’s my biggest turn-off for “Bullets Over Broadway”:

Given that the film's screenplay was presumably written with those tunes in mind, they more or less fit that story. That's often not the case here, where musical numbers have been dropped in according to "close enough" criteria, with help from additional new lyrics by Glen Kelly.

I think jukebox musicals can work well when it’s the songs themselves that lead the way – the songs inspire the story. Or, perhaps, if someone was struck by how well a song/collection of songs fits to an existing plot. But, knowing that Woody had already decided to make “Bullets” into a musical and then opted to use exiting songs because he doesn’t like the sound of modern music doesn’t seem, to me, to be enough of a reason to forgo an original score; and seems like a recipe for a score that may not do anything to add to the story or characters.

[macnyc]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 1:38pm

I personally felt that the chosen period songs worked very well. In fact, as I was watching Bullets, a couple of times I had to remind myself that the songs weren't written for the show, that's how seamless it seemed to me. (The rewritten lyrics helped with that, I would imagine.)

I had expected to see mixed reviews, but I'm surprised at how many pans there were. I enjoyed the show from beginning to end and thought it was very funny. I didn't find the hot dog number vulgar at all. It fit in really well with the character and the storytelling.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 2:09pm

Hasn't everyone seen a lot of Woody Allen films? He shoots them in the fall, to capture the beauty of New York City during that time of year. The scenery is timeless, and the marriage of the old classic songs is sublime. Of course I'm talking about the NY based films.

Bullets is the stereotype film of which I'm referencing. Why shouldn't the same music be used in the show?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 2:28pm

We enjoyed it but who knows how it would have played with an original score.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 3:28pm

More a think piece than a review, Brian Spitulnik in The Daily Beast has some interesting insights:


DAILY BEAST: Woody Allen’s ‘Bullets Over Broadway’ Musical and the Moral Responsibility of an Artist

[newintown]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 3:36pm

There are people who really don't care at all whether a new show uses a re-cycled score or creates a new one; just as there are people who don't care at all if they hear singers and instruments acoustically or only through amplifiers.

If you don't care, you won't care. But it's good to remember there are people who do care, and they've expressed their reasons why.

[Up In One]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 4:25pm

When calculating critics response we should have something like Rotten Tomatoes where they segregate top critics from the rest of the pack

[Kad]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 4:28pm

There simply aren't enough theatre critics for that to be helpful. Rotten Tomatoes aggregates something like nearly 200 reviews. Stagegrade has about 10% of that number to work with, and often fewer for shows off-Broadway or without high profiles.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 9:19am

Little new to add after seeing this: although everyone is working very very very hard (too hard), the show feels like used goods.

Everything fun and funny about the movie has been blown up and cut down to two-dimensional stupid vulgarity.

Some good costumes and excellent orchestrations.

[Up In One]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 11:04am

Yea but Kad they are including some review sources most of us have never heard of and not all shows have the same number of reviews graded, it should be apples to apples. Stagegrade considered The Times review of If/then a B- Come on! (makes Italian hand gesture for "What's up with 'dat?") They need to fine tune their grading system.

[Kad]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 12:32pm

The shows don't have the same number of reviews because the reviews don't exist. How many sources would you consider to be "top sources"? 4-5? How is a grade based on a very small handful of reviews fair?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 2:01pm

Saw this last night and left at intermission (a first for me). It wasn't a mess like say BABY IT'S YOU, but it was so insanely boring, at least I had fun watching the trainwreck unravel in BABY IT'S YOU, this was just utterly boring and pointless. I can't imagine why they decided to go with Stroman as a director if this was her vision for the show, utterly uninspired. The scenes just kind of sit there, the jokes don't land, the scenes are over before anything interesting happens, the musicals numbers come and go, none of them (in the first act anyway) actually do anything to flesh out the characters, advance the plot, or something. The cast tries, but they just end up (I assume per Stroman and Allen's request) playing the parts exactly like their film counterparts. I thought the score was terrible, obviously not the songs themselves, but the way in which they are "incorporated" (they aren't). It reminded me so much of Woody Allen's cringing EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU. I was so disappointed since I had been looking forward to this show for so long. A wasted opportunity. And yes, it's impossible to watch it and not feel like the show screams for an original score, and certainly a different director.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 2:36pm

TOTALLY disagree but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. A new score might have helped with some of the detractors but we will never know. Woody' narrow mindedness musically may have hurt him here.

[eglassman11]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 3:20pm

I really enjoyed the show. It was a comedy as much as it was a musical. The question should be whether it should get best score. Of course, the answer would be no. The score is not original, but neither is the music for Aladdin, The Lion King, After Midnight, Beautiful, etc.

You can still dislike Woody Allen, but admire his work. Think of Roman Polansky.

I was not bored, but there were some lulls. I try to go to a show and think about the actors playing in it, the writers, the directors, the choreographers. Just because it is a show based on his films does not mean that you should penalize all the others who have worked for years on this production, certainly before the accusations came out, however true they may be.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 5:15pm

" The question should be whether it should get best score."

That should not be the question the score will not be eligible.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 7:22pm

I'm usually bored in the theater and my mind starts wandering on things I need to do. Bullets flew by for me. It's all so subjective. For instance, I left Sweet Smell of Success during intermission.

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 7:42pm

"A new score might have helped with some of the detractors but we will never know."

I don't understand this reasoning, since the creators of the show made the show they wanted, and it doesn't have an original score (although they do change some lyrics to make it a better fit).

People who pine for an original score know they aren't going to get one when they see this, Mamma Mia, Rock of Ages, Beautiful, Jersey Boys, After Midnight, and any number of shows on Broadway.

So, any detractors focused on this issue should come up with something legitimate to talk about. I mean, you wouldn't go see the new Kevin Costner movie this weekend and say you might have liked it better if it starred Michael Douglas, because when the movie was still in pre-production, they were originally considering Douglas according to some websites.

Once the movie comes out, it's a Kevin Costner movie, so... it no longer matters what actors or choices were being considered before it was a finished product.

Of course, everyone who creates a parallel universe where things happen differently are always at an advantage. They can make their fantasy perfect, whereas those in reality have messy things like facts and actual details gumming up the works.

[binau]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 7:47pm

By that logic how can we criticise a show if it's what the creators 'wanted'? They made a decision and many people don't like that decision. I don't see why they should have to keep quiet about it.

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 7:55pm

Pretty easy. You can still dislike the lack of an original score without going one step further and saying it would have been better with an original score. Since, how can you assess the superiority of the non-existent original score versus what is actually on stage now at the St. James?

It's that extra step I can never understand.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 8:36pm

But we can disagree with the creator's "choice" to use existing songs. And I feel. in this case, most of the songs are fun but they really don't "move" the plot or "flesh out" the characters, in my opinion.

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 10:06pm

Sure, disagree away...

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 10:16pm

I don't care if a song doesn't move a plot or flesh out a character.