I saw this last night. Oh good lord. where do I begin?
This has to be the most incredible thing I have ever seen on a Broadway stage, and by incredible, I mean that there is no possible way what I saw last night can possibly exist and be playing on Broadway, financed by no less than eight over the title producers, starring a cast of spectacular Broadway veterans, and with creative team that includes people like six time Tony winner William Ivey Long, Tony winner Jeff Crotier, and legendary wig master Paul Huntley, just to name a few. I am in total disbelief. Because make no mistake, this musical is perfectly named. This is one major disaster.
However......
Disaster is like that super-sized McDonalds meal that you ordered in a drunken stupor after a night of bar hopping - It is greasy, disgusting, cheesy, bloated, probably really bad for you, and in the morning, you're ashamed you scarfed it down. But while you are eating it, you are loving every single bite. Disaster is just like that.
It is truly mesmerizing - almost hypnotic - to see all these wonderful Broadway performers like Faith Prince, Roger Bart, Adam Pascal and Rachel York - and many more - all fully and totally committed to these insane characters and ridiculous plot. The one exception is Seth himself, who seems truly miserable to be up there, even in the curtain call.
I love camp comedy - one of my favorite genres. But this is camp comedy as seemingly written by a five year old child on a wall with a crayon. It's all broad strokes with truly painful and painfully obvious jokes. And just because it's camp, that doesn't mean the entire plot should be a complete muddle that makes not a lick of sense.
The song choices are equally insane. It is as if a group of kids were given an assignment to create a jukebox musical using songs of the 70's, and they came up with just absolute crazy-ness - punching in a random refrain here; half a song there; a full song over here.
Possible spoilers below:
They use "Feelings" just so Seth's character can sing "wo, wo wo Feelings" (Wo being the name of his deceased wife)
And "Once, twice, three times a lady" as one, two, three pieces of a deceased woman are being hurled overboard. Un-f***king believable.
End spoilers.
There are a few nifty sight gags, none of which I will spoil, but one of them is a forced perspective thing that starts the show off on a very cool note - and various other moments sprinkled here and there that are very funny. They would be funnier still at a Fringe Festival for $15.00 per ticket - because the budget of this musical looks like the budget of a Fringe Festival production - with the exception of Long's costumes - which are, as usual, flashy and fantastic.
All in all, my mouth was either hanging open in absolute amazement of what I was witnessing, or I was helplessly laughing at the kooky song choices and the sheer commitment of these actors to such atrocious material.
I would say that this is must-see, event theatre, just for the fact that there has never been anything like it, and likely never will be again. It is so over-the-top bad that it warps itself into something that is perversely enjoyable - must see, train wreck theatre.
2 final thoughts - I got a rush ticket in orchestra Row N, side yesterday for thirty bucks. I was worried about the sightlines, sound, cramped seats, but no worry was necessary. The view and sound from there was totally fine and seats were not too cramped at all.
Lastly, about the people who are advocating for this to be done 90 minutes - no intermission. I think that would be a terrible mistake. For all its many, many faults, this musical has one of the best Act One endings in quite some time. And the line for drinks at the two bars was endless. People like their booze with this kind of show. Believe me - there is not enough booze in the world for this show - and so why would the theatre want to lose all that intermission business?
Anyway, there is my review, and in case I didn't make it clear - run, don't walk, to get tickets. You might feel ashamed of yourself the next day, but while it's on, you will probably have a great time - even if you are laughing at it and not with it.
Updated On: 2/19/16 at 02:30 PM
