DEATH BECOMES HER Previews — Page 6

hayden6 said: "quizking101 said: "The fact that I can’t tell if it’s intentional or not means they either need to fix the flaw or fully commit to the bit"

They do this gag 3 times throughout the show (during For the Gaze, the stairs, & the fight), and each instance elicited laughter from the audience when I saw it -- I think it's plenty clear that it's intentional."

This is how I interpret it as well... each time they use the gag it gets more and more absurd until that third time it's CLEARLY not the same actresses and they are not by any means trying to sell it otherwise. It works for me.

They updated the bit where Helen interrupts the wedding, and I really wished they'd do something different for the visual gag of Helen getting shot. Other than that, I love that all of the bits seem intentional and everyone goes all in.

I had a really fun time seeing this the other night.

The good: Megan Hilty is absolutely hysterical and a joy to see back on Broadway. She gets the best material, by far, and seems to be having a blast. Jennifer Simard is reliably funny and at her deadpan best. Act one, in particular, works like gangbusters: the score is better and the laughs come fast and furious. Seriously, I was laughing nearly the entire time; to the point I missed several in-between jokes I’ll need to return to catch. The energy is a hybrid of Death Becomes Her and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, both campy and utterly absurd. Also, Michelle Williams’s voice is A++ and I thought the few moments she’s allowed to be comical, she nailed.

The less good: Jennifer Simard may be on stage nearly the same amount as Megan Hilty, but she also gets weaker material. That brings me to the score, which is never bad, but is frequently forgettable and often feels shoehorned into otherwise short scenes (do we really need the feature ensemble assistant character to have a 1-minute song that isn’t even very funny?). The most memorable song is Viola’s opener “If You Want Perfection”. Seriously, this could have been a straight-up farce a la Clue and it would have worked much better.

It’s a fun evening at the theater, but it’s also a divided one: the book scenes and performances are wonderful, but the musical numbers often slow it down rather than heighten it. This sounds like a more negative statement than it is, and if the score was worse, it would have been. As it is, the score is serviceable and unoffensive.

ColorTheHours048 said: "I had a really fun time seeing this the other night.

The good: Megan Hilty is absolutely hysterical and a joy to see back on Broadway. She gets the best material, by far, and seems to be having a blast. Jennifer Simard is reliably funny and at her deadpan best. Act one, in particular, works like gangbusters: the score is better and the laughs come fast and furious. Seriously,I was laughing nearly the entire time; to the point I missed several in-between jokes I’ll need to return to catch. The energy is a hybrid of Death Becomes Her and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, both campy and utterly absurd. Also, Michelle Williams’s voice is A++ and I thought the few moments she’s allowed to be comical, she nailed.

The less good: Jennifer Simard may be on stage nearly the same amount as Megan Hilty,but she also gets weaker material. That brings me to the score, which is never bad, but is frequently forgettable and often feels shoehorned into otherwise short scenes (do we really need the feature ensemble assistant character to have a 1-minute song that isn’t even very funny?). The most memorable song is Viola’s opener “If You Want Perfection”. Seriously, this could have been a straight-up farce a la Clueand it would have worked much better.

It’s a fun evening at the theater, but it’s also a divided one: the book scenes and performances are wonderful, but the musical numbers often slow it down rather than heighten it. This sounds like a more negative statement than it is, and if the score was worse, it would have been. As it is, the score is serviceable and unoffensive."


Giving the assistant a 1 minute song in the second act is better than how it was in Chicago where he didn’t appear at all in Act 2. And the audience reaction on Saturday made it seem like they appreciated that bit as he was a likable character.

While I agree that the material for Megan is stronger overall, Jennifer’s character really has much more of an arc to work with. And Jennifer also got the loudest reactions of the entire show for the following, so I think what she’s got is pretty strong:

The sponsor for the Saturday afternoon show was Applebees - eatin good in the neighborhood.

ColorTheHours048 said: "I had a really fun time seeing this the other night.

The good: Megan Hilty is absolutely hysterical and a joy to see back on Broadway. She gets the best material, by far, and seems to be having a blast. Jennifer Simard is reliably funny and at her deadpan best. Act one, in particular, works like gangbusters: the score is better and the laughs come fast and furious. Seriously,I was laughing nearly the entire time; to the point I missed several in-between jokes I’ll need to return to catch. The energy is a hybrid of Death Becomes Her and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, both campy and utterly absurd. Also, Michelle Williams’s voice is A++ and I thought the few moments she’s allowed to be comical, she nailed.

The less good: Jennifer Simard may be on stage nearly the same amount as Megan Hilty,but she also gets weaker material. That brings me to the score, which is never bad, but is frequently forgettable and often feels shoehorned into otherwise short scenes (do we really need the feature ensemble assistant character to have a 1-minute song that isn’t even very funny?). The most memorable song is Viola’s opener “If You Want Perfection”. Seriously, this could have been a straight-up farce a la Clueand it would have worked much better.

It’s a fun evening at the theater, but it’s also a divided one: the book scenes and performances are wonderful, but the musical numbers often slow it down rather than heighten it. This sounds like a more negative statement than it is, and if the score was worse, it would have been. As it is, the score is serviceable and unoffensive."

Thank you for this succinct and specific review. I WILL WAIT.

I absolutely loved this last night! I had no expectations going in based on the banter on the music here, and I totally agree. But the book and stunts and performances make it worth the ticket. The trio, including Sieber, was fantastic. Why is Josh Lamon considered ensemble when his character is named?

I wonder if the gag in the red dress could have been done through a projection instead of the way they do it with the costume. The rest of the stunts were really well done and the jacket covers it up so fast, I feel like there was a better way.

My only real nit and probably because I was sitting in the 7th row.

Would probably rather see Michelle's understudy.

Has anyone tried rush lately? If so, where were your seats?

Who have the wedding sponsors been lately?

It was Advance Auto Parts Saturday night.

Friday night was Pringles - once you pop, you can’t stop!