I was also at this particular performance of Brooklyn and my fondest wish after about the first five minutes of the show was that somehow, someway they would toss me out the noose that one of the characters commits suicide with, so that I could follow suit. Is this why there isn't an intermission, so people won't leave in the middle of it?
I quite literally had to take Excedrin as soon as I walked out of the theater.
I know that seems harsh but I just couldn't get past how totally incomprehensible the book is (and how elementary school the dialogue is "sometimes tears can make roses bloom", oy vey), how something that purports itself to be a fairytale includes a heroin addict, flashbacks to Vietnam and killing people, suicide, preachy speeches about what's wrong with America, etc. If they had said from the outset it was a Grimm fairytale that'd be one thing, but when they set it up so that it's a Disney-esque "magical" type deal, then I expect something a wee bit different. I don't understand how a show that can use the words "cunnilingus" in a song can't say "mother****er" (as one of the punchlines to a "joke").
The cardboard boxes some of the set pieces are scrawled on seemed to have more dimension than any character on the stage. What is the character arc in this show? How does anyone change, grow, devolve? They all start off one way and that's exactly how they end without a blink in between. One is pure angelic goodness, one is "bad" (if having an attitude and being selfish is considered "bad", I suppose) and the rest are so inconsequential I'm not sure they count as total characters.
I found the audience to be rather subdued, considering how people have mentioned standing ovations in the middle of the show or applause so loud it stopped the show. I kept waiting for that to happen and it didn't.
It's a shame because the performers are obviously much, much better than this material (singing wise, at least, acting - some of them, not so much). If this had perhaps just been a concert of songs, it wouldn't have been very memorable music, but it wouldn't have had the added onus of the book to drag it down either.
I don't know that I've ever clapped harder at the end of a show, but that was because I was just grateful it was over.
"Too young to hold on and too old to just break free and run" - Jeff Buckley