I finally got a chance to see this and thought it was a pretty fantastic time. I felt like I was back in the 2000s...not in a nostalgic way, but in feeling the show's actual newness, in seeing really dark, surreal, smart, and almost confrontational musical theater on Broadway again. It's been a while.
I don't know if it hung together allllll the way for me thematically, but every moment was theatrical and engaging and tonally complex, with a lot of excellent tunes in a bunch of connected idioms. (Will say I couldn't hear the lyrics to "Dead" as mixed in the theater, and was relieved when I realized the whole show wasn't going to be like that.) It was a show that trusted its audience to handle a lot of wildly conflicting creative and emotional impulses, which is worth it because they always add up to something so interesting, existential, and entertaining. I laughed a lot while feeling genuinely sad and anxious.
Great cast. I remember Jeb Brown from back in High Fidelity (which I loved) and Spider-Man, he has such a cool voice and it's great to see him shine in a role like this. This narrator character is almost like something out of Assassins, a delicious part.
I vastly preferred this to The Band's Visit. Respect as always to Yazbek for writing a score that is stylistically unlike any of his others, but always with his own clear sensibility. That's a sign of true talent, artistry, and craft.
What's the deal with the cast album being released in parts? (Out of sequence?) Bit bummed that I can't hear so many of the songs I liked.
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