Biggest differences between OOT tryouts and Broadway

the one i've seen with the biggest changes was Jekyll & Hyde, and everything they changed was worse

Updated On: 7/14/23 at 07:45 PM

I saw Mean Girls in DC with the original Act Two opener Bossed Up, which works better IMO

https://twitter.com/MeanGirlsBway/status/1248042401563893760

The 2002 Billy Joel dance musical MOVIN’ OUT, directed and choreographed by the legendary Twyla Tharp. The show was ripped apart by the critics in Chicago that they scrapped everything they had done and virtually started from zero again for its Broadway run, which ended up being enormously successful earning 10 Tony Award nominations and winning 2.

dramamama611 said: "Finding Neverland. It was magical at the ART, the transfer lost all of the charm."

If I may counter:

At the ART, it was a C+ musical with an A- leading actor.

On Broadway, it was a B- musical with a B- leading actor.

I guess I preferred it on Broadway? But it all just felt sort of like a pointless missed opportunity. And I'd love to hear/see the Frankel & Korie version sometime.

Went to the first preview in Chicago of the Spongebob Musical, it was like 3 hours long!

Yeah. If you listen to the original demos you hear the Africans singing about killing and eating the missionaries like it’s Communion.

If the recent west end production of Company counts as a Broadway out of town try out, they really went all out in improving the Broadway production in nearly every way. The orchestrations were enhanced, the set was enhanced adding more details, rain, a trap door etc., and things that didn’t work (Another Hundred People being in a literal subway car) were revamped. I think they carefully thought about how to transform the production for New York City given the higher standards, and in my opinion it worked. The marketing/brand changes were also so, so cool.

But the biggest change and enhancement was the cast. Katrina Lenk brought much more depth and complexity to the acting including and especially while singing, and her vocals in my opinion broke new ground for a Sondheim show with her smokey sultry timbre that is a very unusual sound for Broadway and Sondheim (particularly Someone is Waiting). She was sexy but also so, so vulnerable at times. It was the New York Bobby we needed, whereas Rosalie Craig sure had a pleasant voice and maybe was a little warmer but it’s not the kind of performance that in my opinion really moves you or breaks ground.

Basically all of the rest of the cast were vocally stronger and the comedy just really hit the mark - Jennifer Simard in particular was absolutely, absolutely outrageous. The entire ensemble of actors is one of the strongest I’ve ever seen, with every one of them basically shining in their parts no matter how small. Who knew that Terence Archie could add so much depth to the dynamic between his and Joanne’s character and also add more subtext to Joanne’s behaviour behind closed doors through the way he read the lines about leaving.

It was like going from HD to 4K resolution. Though in hindsight maybe some unwise economic decisions were made with the enhancements because it seems like the show was probably much more expensive to run than I would have thought given the relatively early closing despite ok grosses.

Ironically, because the cast around her was so much stronger Patti actually stood out more in London than in New York in my opinion. The only other cast member I thought should have transferred is Jonathan Bailey. He might not have Matt Doyle’s technique but it’s hard to resist his charisma. As fine as Doyle was and of course he has the Tony anyway.

A quintessential example of why I constantly find the standards of New York musical theatre to be much higher than the West End, and why I can’t stop wasting all of my money going to New York. I think it’s probably diminishing returns to most theatre goers so I wouldn’t say it’s good value for money as such, but when you’re obsessed, when you’re chasing perfection of that perfectly oiled machine where every detail is considered and perfectly executed to just take it to that ecstasy and really give you sounds you’ve never heard before, comedy you’ve never seen before (or obviously the writing too if it’s new material) usually New York City is the place to be.

It’s such a shame no cast recording or filmed version was made. But it makes it all the more special and happy I was able to catch the show, just once - and this is the last Broadway production of his work Sondheim ever gave notes to.

Sondheim seems to love bizarre and unusual voices that have a wide range of emotion expression - he seemed to love Bernadette’s for example. So I’m not surprised he was completely on board with Katrina. Whatever Sondheim seems to hear, I feel like I hear it too even if it’s not to everyone’s tastes. I think Broadway was expecting to hear Bobbie belt Being Alive, and when Katrina became so vulnerable and exposed during that song they didn’t know what to make of it. My jaw dropped. I think she might have even topped Patti’s ‘Ladies who lunch’.



Similarly, hearing Bernadette’s vulnerability and slow vibrato over ‘In Buddy’s Eyes’ destroyed me and still continues to destroy me to this day, and I’ve listened to the recording over 1,000 times (maybe I have a problem I admit). Many seem to just dismiss Bernadette and Katrina’s performances as vocally challenged. Whatever, to each their own. I can’t wait to see if I can find any of this in ‘Here We Are’.

BrodyFosse123 said: "Regarding the recent revival of COMPANY: It’s such a shame no cast recording or filmed version was made.

A good pal was a principal in the revival and he confirmed a non-TOFT full show video was indeed filmed (including one which the documentary used footage from). Will it ever surface? We hope so as it does indeed exist."

WOW!!!! So glad to hear this.

The dream would be that because of the strikes a streaming service or two will become desperate for new content so they actually do pay the producers for the filmed copy and we see it later this year. I’m hoping what has happened is that all the legalities re: contracts for filming were done properly and the main issue is that they are holding onto the material waiting for a buyer. In normal times Company gets the short straw because the streaming services don’t think it’ll get enough viewership for the price producers want. But times is hard, times is hardddddd. The viewership might be higher if audiences are looking for new content right now and with no competition suddenly Company becomes much more attractive.

Updated On: 7/15/23 at 11:02 PM

I didn't see the London version so I don't know if this is a change to make a "nicer"-sounding cast album. But, the Broadway production ends on a totally different mood than the West End recording. Rosalie Craig's Being Alive is a proclamation. It's confident and forceful and even joyful at times. I like Rosalie a lot and she sings it wonderfully. But, I think that's a complete misunderstanding of where Bobbie should be at the end of the show. Bobbie is someone at war with herself. She has all the puzzle pieces but refuses to put them together until Being Alive. Someone at war with themselves is always going to be in a win-win and lose-lose situation. Independent of whichever side "wins," they will both win and lose. The "side" of Bobbie interest in marriage wins in the end, but she's saying goodbye to much of the core of her life up until this point. It's a fundamentally painful thing to do and that's what comes across in Katrina Lenk's Being Alive. It was a tearjerker that she cried through. I thought she was just brilliant.

The footage of the original KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN is fascinating!


The try-out was specifically not supposed to be reviewed, and yet the press turned up and pretty much tore it to pieces. That absolutely could have tanked the show’s future but luckily they retooled the whole thing (boy did they ever)

I believe one reviewer actually wrote something along the lines of ‘This might work with a star like Chita Rivera’

They also then fired the choreography when Chita came on board, and the new production was in rehearsals. I can’t remember the full story but ‘styles not meshing’

binau said: "BrodyFosse123 said: "Regarding the recent revival of COMPANY: It’s such a shame no cast recording or filmed version was made.

A good pal was a principal in the revival and he confirmed a non-TOFT full show video was indeed filmed (including one which the documentary used footage from). Will it ever surface? We hope so as it does indeed exist."

WOW!!!! So glad to hear this."

Well that’s good to hear! Also, wasn’t the London production professionally filmed as well? I really wish Rosalie came over to New York to play Bobbie as she was the very first woman to do it.