CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Previews — Page 19

I was looking at the recent history of the Lunt-Fontanne, and since Beauty and the Beast closed in Summer 2007, they've had one critical dud after another. The Little Mermaid, The Addams Family, Ghost, Motown, and Finding Neverland. (A Christmas Story and the Valli/Chenoweth concerts were both well recieved and pretty successful, but weren't really full fledged engagements as glorified tour stops.) Motown, Addams, The Little Mermaid, and to a lesser extent, Finding Neverland were all pretty successful for a year or two, so Charlie looks to be continuing the theater's trend.

I will say "Waitress" and even "The Light in the Piazza" are based on prior things, but neither of them were "household names" the way that say Bring It On is/was. I just mean that, if we look at past seasons, the successful shows have all been original material. I mean, I don't understand why producers assume we want to pay $150 to see a story we already know with songs that are probably terrible?

And I know Hamilton isn't wholly "original," but c'mon, it's pretty much an original musical.

I apologize to all the hardworking people behind this dreck.

We've just seen this - for $139 - and I can't help but feel I was cheated out of my money. What a truly terrible, dreadful, boring production. I feel for the cast. I spent most of the second act thinking how this could have gone so wrong in the rehearsal process, and why didn't anyone say a word. I'm sure a mockup set, a demo CD, and a script were created way ahead in advance and approved by (at least) the director, producers, and more.. so HOW did THIS happen?!

Unlike other major flops (my favorite IN MY LIFE comes to mind), the source here was actually GOOD. The previous production wasn't the masterpiece everyone was hoping for, but WHAT were they thinking shrinking that production to this terrible mess? What's frustrating is that we paid good money to be seated in a dark set-less Lunt-Fontanne and just be disappointed over and over again for 3 hours.

As other reviews mentioned, avoid this. I'd hate to see people sinking more good money into this, even for the purpose of witnessing a major flop. Again - i'm sorry for the terrible attitude here, but this has been my biggest heartbreak on Broadway in years.

Updated On: 4/3/17 at 03:12 PM

Nycat63 said: "I'm so depressed reading these reports. I have tickets for my June NY trip because I am a huge fan of both Borle and Jackie Hoffman (way back to her Second City days in the early '90s) and figured even if the London production was so-so and they didn't change much, I'd enjoy it for no other reason than nostalgia and casting. And I never would have dreamed the sets would be anything other than lavish.

My 15 year old daughter (who is fairly theater savvy for a teenager) wants to see it nonetheless so I'm keeping the tickets, but it just breaks my heart to hear this. And I'm not naive enough to think they can do a major overhaul without shutting down for awhile. Anyone think that could still happen? I just need some hope in exchange for my $300+ ...





"I know when Spiderman was on Broadway, they closed for about a month to retool the show. And this was after multiple opening night push backs. So it is somewhat possible. They do still have another 2-3 weeks to make changes, and hopefully they can make some very good changes. In terms of Set Design, I'm not sure what else they could do there. I think the only thing they could do is add some more set pieces possibly, but not much else could change, as far as I could see.

Crossing fingers - It's one thing to have lukewarm/mixed reviews in previews (a la Amelie, for example) but this just sounds horrific and not something that a few tweaks can salvage even assuming they are listening. I cant imagine they want a flop on their hands though they may have enough of an advance and/or think they'll have the child/family market locked down especially come summer. Though it sounds like it's pretty dark for the little kids so who knows what they are thinking. Anyway thank you to all giving me hope

The show needs to do a Spider-Man style close and retool. It's that misguided.

Does anyone mind posting the song list for the show?

I know this is harsh, but anyone want to guess the closing date?

Updated On: 4/3/17 at 07:01 PM

I think it will make it through the summer at least because of the name recognition alone, especially since Matilda is gone. After that is when things will get bumpy.

Today I listened to the London recording all the way through. I can't stand the Violet stuff, but other than the lack of movie songs, it's not terrible. The grandparents are funny.

I'm seeing the show a week from tonight and I'm excited to see it for myself - for better or worse.

I guess they really wanted to strike home the feeling of Pure Imagination when people were seeing the show

i also saw the matinee on Saturday. I read these reviews, but as I like Messrs. Whitman, Shaiman and Borle, I didn't think the show could be THAT bad.

I thought Act 1 was better than Act 2. Everything about Act 2 was either disturbing or underwhelming. The Oompah Loompahs were unsettling. And the whole squirrel thing was disturbing.

The sets reminded me of Stonehenge in "This Is Spinal Tap." Maybe someone forgot to specify feet rather than inches? At least the Oompah Loompahs looked more prominent.

And I was happy to see John Rubinstein as Grandpa Joe. And Kathy Fitzgerald is always fun to watch.

We've got to stop accepting these nothingness musicals and we've got to stop letting them get to broadway. With the crazy prices of tickets now, audience members will soon catch on to all of these blah shows and the bubble will burst. You can't keep increasing ticket prices each season while decreasing the quality of the new musicals. Something's gotta give. This foolishness has to stop.

Updated On: 4/3/17 at 10:20 PM

The argument was if the shows had ANY source material, not "commercial" source material.

Hamilton and Fun Home were indeed adaptations if we're going there.