DOCTOR ZHIVAGO Reviews — Page 6

I think Dr. Z would have benefited from being more of a sung through musical- some of the long book scenes were interminable, especially in the final 45 minutes. The stuff in the ice palace between Nolan and Mutu, which should so obviously have been sung, was dryly stated in dialogue.

The show just stunk though in nearly every single way. The reviewers were harsh, and rightly so. This arrived on our shores not merely as garbage, but as a putrid corpse.

It's not like the critics are alone in their assessments, and they're not being anti-populist. Word of mouth for this show is absolutely abysmal. The best thing I've heard from my friends is that it can be used a teaching tool for what not to do in a musical.

The BWW review really said that this musical should work but it doesnt because of the music, lyrics, and book. Maybe the les mis team should take a crack at this show.

"The BWW review really said that this musical should work but it doesnt because of the music, lyrics, and book. Maybe the les mis team should take a crack at this show. "

I actually am wondering how it would've been had Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boublil done it.

Out of town reviews, often to be considered "hometown reviews" are notoriously unreliable be they coming from Los Angeles, Chicago, Scranton or Australia. As an example compare a 100 percent score given by "Bitter Lemons" in L.A. to any given show with the NY reviews of the same show should it be transferred. Often like night and day. Or rather day and night.

"I also sense the lack of buzz. Their advertising and social media presence has been fairly minimal. Whoever runs their Twitter page keeps telling those who ask to stay tuned for any updates about a cast album but that's probably just the standard line. "

The Finding Neverland FB does the same thing.

""The best thing I've heard from my friends is that it can be used a teaching tool for what not to do in a musical."

Eerily, I heard the exact same thing."

I've seen a musical that wasn't even on Broadway that falls into the exact same category.

Kad, I'm not sure how well-received WONDERLAND was reviewed in Tampa. Variety praised the score, but called it confusing. Even the main Tampa Bay critic seemed like he was holding back (he also acted as a kinder Michael Riedel documenting the show over the years) because he wanted the show to be produced.

When the rewrites happened, he pretty much trashed the show in an "unauthorized" review (this wasn't an "official" try-out in 2011) and said the show couldn't proceed to Broadway as-is.

TBPAC (or Straz Center now) is actually a great facility for out of town try-outs. They have towns of rehearsal space, a theatre that has similar capacity and stage space as Broadway houses, is far enough away from NYC, and its subscriber base is mostly older, ie they won't be spreading negative reviews around. It's the largest PAC south of the Kennedy Center (both subscriber and facilities).

I'm always curious about that too.. Do we only have a handful of places where try-outs are ultimately judged pretty spot on? Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, La Jolla (for the most part), A.R.T. in Boston now?

Obviously this tried out in Austrailia (also An Officer and a Gentleman) (and La Jolla), Wildhorn has since taken his works to Europe (Monte Cristo) and Asia (Cyrano), main-land Europe hasn't had much success (Rebecca, Dance of the Vampires) getting here either. An American in Paris seems to be successful.

As reported on Theater Talk, Patrick Pacheco saw the production at La Jolla Playhouse and he liked what he saw.

"Of course I recognize trends, but the assertion that there is an intentional agreement to "keep the pop-opera down" is ridiculous."

Well, the NY Times review does sneer at the show in just those terms:

"No, the dismay here has to do with the musical itself, a turgid throwback to the British invasion of Broadway in the 1980s, and more specifically to the epic-romantic style of the Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil shows “Les Misérables” and “Miss Saigon.”