#101
Posted: 10/7/18 at 4:01pm
Reviews on Theatreboard have not universally praised Patti, and I have never seen a production of Company where The Ladies Who Lunch did not wow the audience on some level.
#102
Posted: 10/7/18 at 6:34pm
Every time Patti does a show, do we really need the same merry-go-round of love-her-hate-her? It's so boring.
#103
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
Posted: 10/7/18 at 7:08pm
Scripps2 said: "lotiloti said: "Every time a West End show transfers, you all immediately start recasting with a named star"
Exactly.
There are some here who are so fixated that they would have suggested LauraBenanti and/or Sutton Foster to play Christopher in Curious Incident."
THANK YOU.
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
#105
Posted: 10/8/18 at 4:14pm
At intermission.
Typical West End awful handling of cast absences. No one could tell me right up until the lights dimmed if Craig was off. I was simply told that ‘there would be an announcement’ if she wasn’t but that ‘Patti LuPone is on’.
The show starts with Patti saying to not take any pictures and turn our phones off, completely off “trust me”, she says. Hilarious!!
Finally the show stars and Craig is performing.
Good things so far
* Everything about this show is so aesthetically pleasing. The marketing, the show curtain. The sets. The costumes. The lighting. It’s like a work of art - for Sondheim revival standards this is on the incredibly lavish end. There are a number, number of set changes. It’s weird actually seeing a fully staged Sondheim production
* The female concept works SO WELL. The female lead has a greater range of emotions, and it just ‘makes sense’ to me that a woman approaching late 30s is more concerned with relationships and marriage etc. I never want to see a male production again because this is the perfect vehicle for gay diva worship - Craig is in beautiful variants of red in act one surrounded by supporting men and women. Total diva fan service I love it.
* Craig is incredibly warm, incredibly warm, love-able. She makes you want to be her character’s friend so much. It’s not cold and boring like I’ve seen males play the role, to be honest.
* There are so many minor changes to dialogue, lyrics, characters take on new meaning with gender swaps and a gay relationship etc. it’s like watching the show for the first time.
* LuPone is GREAT. She looks a bit like Morticia Adams but she sounds great and is hilarious. It feels like she has more stage time in this production - leading “have I got a guy for you” and showing up at various times. Maybe I don’t remember the role as much as I should but it feels more pronounced.
* As per diva worship, it is just great seeing the stage clear to a single woman delivering moving performances of “someone is waiting” and especially “marry me a little”
* “Getting married today” is an an absolute show stopper. Love love love the staging. In fact generally I love almost all the choices they make around staging and direction.
Bad things:
* I could go without the over baked choreography and direction of “another hundred people”. The character also has completely changed for the worse. What once was a interesting, liberal, slightly eccentric girl now feels like a drugged up sexual fiend guy. Not a fan.
* Craig started in very very weak voice during the title song, and there was weird head voice coming through. I suspect the song just doesn’t suit her range because she improved, but while still good her voice just doesn’t soar in the moments it needs to for “someone is waiting” and “marry me a little”. Maybe she is sick still but unless she was really known to Broadway audiences I don’t see why this is good enough to present in New York. It’s just not good enough vocally, sorry. As much as I absolutely feel a fondness for her performance and stage presence.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
Updated On: 10/8/18 at 04:14 PM
#106
Posted: 10/8/18 at 4:17pm
If I had any criticism of LuPone it’s that she isn’t chewing the scenery enough. She has a lot more room to ‘be Patti’ than she is and could go completely crazy over the top, but it seems like she is still at least trying to play a real person. Give the audience what they want in my opinion!!!!
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
#107
Posted: 10/8/18 at 5:37pm
Second act:
* Tick Tock has been replaced with a new kind of nightmare sequence that shows Bobbi forecasting various negative futures with people she is dating. Completely new scoring with a ‘tick tock’ sound. In general the production is very conceptual with occasional surreal moments and odd transitions with underscoring I hadn’t heard before. Might polarise some here.
* The transition into the bar with LuPone and Bobbi is preceded by loud techno music and dancing - i.e., modern. It feels incredibly camp in the best possible way to see LuPone sitting here and then reading her lines. Patti was SO FUNNY. Her comic timing was INCREDIBLE. The funniest I’ve ever seen her. The visual look and line readings of this scene are sure to become iconic if this production goes further. It cannot go anywhere without her. LuPone is irreplaceable in this production. Her Ladies Who Lunch sounded great, although I guess going back to the earlier point it really seems like she is very much trying to play the song in character. She isn’t just trying to belt her face off - occasionally I wish she would.
* Craig was once again so warm, funny, charismatic. The butterfly cacoon scene was a real highlight. And her Being Alive is well acted. As much as I’d love stronger vocals I’d take the sacrifice if it meant casting someone who belted their face off but had no stage presence, charisma, humour or acting ability.
The production to me feels like something that would have a high likelyhood of transferring. This is not a run of the mill Sondheim production but something that feels like so much care and effort went into it. Everyone involved must love their work and the only question is if they can get LuPone and the money.
* Tick Tock has been replaced with a new kind of nightmare sequence that shows Bobbi forecasting various negative futures with people she is dating. Completely new scoring with a ‘tick tock’ sound. In general the production is very conceptual with occasional surreal moments and odd transitions with underscoring I hadn’t heard before. Might polarise some here.
* The transition into the bar with LuPone and Bobbi is preceded by loud techno music and dancing - i.e., modern. It feels incredibly camp in the best possible way to see LuPone sitting here and then reading her lines. Patti was SO FUNNY. Her comic timing was INCREDIBLE. The funniest I’ve ever seen her. The visual look and line readings of this scene are sure to become iconic if this production goes further. It cannot go anywhere without her. LuPone is irreplaceable in this production. Her Ladies Who Lunch sounded great, although I guess going back to the earlier point it really seems like she is very much trying to play the song in character. She isn’t just trying to belt her face off - occasionally I wish she would.
* Craig was once again so warm, funny, charismatic. The butterfly cacoon scene was a real highlight. And her Being Alive is well acted. As much as I’d love stronger vocals I’d take the sacrifice if it meant casting someone who belted their face off but had no stage presence, charisma, humour or acting ability.
The production to me feels like something that would have a high likelyhood of transferring. This is not a run of the mill Sondheim production but something that feels like so much care and effort went into it. Everyone involved must love their work and the only question is if they can get LuPone and the money.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
#108
Posted: 10/8/18 at 5:57pm
qolbinau said: "The show starts with Patti saying to not take any pictures and turn our phones off, completely off “trust me”, she says. Hilarious!!
This just made my entire week. Amazing.
#109
Posted: 10/8/18 at 6:11pm
To describe how awful “another hundred people” is - there are two subway carriages* on either side of the stage and while singing the guy snaps his fingers to one carriage meanwhile people start dancing inside the carriage suggestively as if they’re meeting. Then after a bit he will snap his fingers and the other carriage will start. It’s so bizarre and cringeworthy. After his does the monologue about how gays and blacks are his best friends, and suggests Bobbi has a tight ass she says something like “it is right now” and literally runs away creeped out. It was such a weird scene. Needs major overhaul.
*(surely they will cut down the sets on Broadway. It’s madness. Maybe one reason it won’t transfer is cost. It seems too lavish for USA).
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
Updated On: 10/8/18 at 06:11 PM
#110
Posted: 10/8/18 at 6:45pm
I've always thought that Another Hundred People would be great if set on a subway train, but definitely not in the way that you describe they've done in this production.
#111
Posted: 10/8/18 at 11:34pm
Are the sets more lavish/expensive/complex than the Angels ones?
#112
Posted: 10/9/18 at 12:40am
I'm surprised to hear comments on Craig not sounding great. Her voice is so incredible on the LIGHT PRINCESS cast recording, and I also heard that understudies have gone on recently. Maybe she's still not fully recovered?
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
#113
Posted: 10/9/18 at 2:35am
This really does sound completely dreadful in every way.
#114
Posted: 10/9/18 at 9:10am
Didn't Sondheim say last week in St. Louis he expects it to transfer. Everything about it sounds like it will.
#115
Posted: 10/9/18 at 10:07am
bk said: "This really does sound completely dreadful in every way."
Hm. Does it? It sounds exceptional and unmissable to me, in every way.
Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.
#116
Posted: 10/9/18 at 4:00pm
"Anything you do, let it it come from you--then it will be new."
Sunday in the Park with George
Updated On: 10/9/18 at 04:00 PM
#117
Posted: 10/10/18 at 8:59am
Valentina3 said: "bk said: "This really does sound completely dreadful in every way."
Hm. Does it? It sounds exceptional and unmissable to me, in every way."
"completely dreadful"...sounds like that person is looking to hate COMPANY no matter what anyone else says...but it is "exceptional and unmissable"...and yes in every way...was i disappointed in ANOTHER HUNDRED PEOPLE?...no as i have such an attachment to that song as i moved to NYC in 1970, after I "just got off of the plane"...why be so nit-picky?
#118
Posted: 10/10/18 at 10:21am
Pasted from my post in the WEST END board:
***Spoiler Alerts***
I was also at the second preview last night - also from New York to see the show. Rosalie Craig is a star! She was really amazing! Patti LuPone singing "Ladies who lunch" directly at Bobbi was chilling. "here's to the girls who just watch" sent a chill to my bone. She also sang the whole song sitting down and not even facing the audience. It was spectacular.
The gender switches MOSTLY worked - except for when people were telling this woman she needed to get married - that felt so old fashion and disgusting to watch. It was VERY uncomfortable when the three suiters sing "Drive a person crazy" to Bobbi and it suddenly becomes a song about blue balls. It was a little bit "rape-y" which is definitely NOT a good thing - especially today.
BUT sooooo much was done to update the script, not only to fix gender, but also to update to current times and keep it from being a period piece. For instance "I'll call you in the morning or my service will explain" became "I'll call you in the morning or I'll text you and explain" ... Also several references to "swinging" (a very 70's thing) have all been cut. The piece feels more contemporary except for the fact that a single woman in her 30s in NYC would NOT have that many married friends. If all her girlfriends got married she would probably just get new girlfriends that were single. This, added with the fact that the "old amy / new jaime" scene written for a gay couple works SO WELL - makes me think that COMPANY has always been and probably always should be about a gay man. If the entire cast were gay men the show would suddenly make so much sense. The line "just because we can get married doesn't mean we should' got an audible gasp from the audience.
The new lyrics by Sondheim all work very well and the "boy" version of "Someone is waiting" will likely become a standard. I hope it is published.
THE PRODUCTION ITSELF was brilliant!!!!!! WOW! I have never seen a production of Company that tried to shard to explain to the audience what the show was about and what Bobbi was going through so thoroughly. It really succeed in so many ways. The set is an ever changing set of boxes and rooms that Bobbi is constantly trapped in as if she is Alice in wonderland. The staging of "side by side" was also brilliant.
****My personal take on the director's intention was that Bobbi gets home from work on her Birthday - pours herself a drink - finds out about the surprise party - imagines everything they'll say to her that she doesn't want to hear, remembers the past year of her life - imagines the wish she will make when she blows out the candle (being alive) - realizes that she won't get her wish - and decides not to go to the party. *****
#119
Posted: 10/11/18 at 8:29am
Patti: brash truth telling star or diva a bit too full of herself?
'Print that!' Broadway legend Patti LuPone sounds off
#120
Posted: 10/11/18 at 8:51am
Man I'm glad everyone seems to be loving this show but I'm so disappointed that I didn't! I guess I have to see it again with Rosalie; it seems she makes all the difference.
#122
Posted: 10/17/18 at 7:43am
I saw this a couple of nights ago. I’m very curious to see the reviews too. The show makes a big statement and I think it will be loved by UK critics but I was (unfortunately) not a fan of the director’s choices.
Updated On: 10/17/18 at 07:43 AM
#123
Posted: 10/17/18 at 7:49am
Anyone know if The NY Times plans to review this production?
#124
Posted: 10/17/18 at 8:56am
BeNice said: "I saw this a couple of nights ago. I’m very curious to see the reviews too. The show makes a big statement and I think it will be loved by UK critics but I was (unfortunately) not a fan of the director’s choices."
At least I'm not the only one :P Depending on reviews I think I'll have to give it another try.
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