Dear Mr Weinstein here are 3 suggestions for Finding Neverland

Ok guys and gals here's your chance to elevator pitch three ideas each to Harvey Weinstein to act upon in fixing Finding Neverland. Number them #1 #2 #3 keep each suggestion to one short succinct sentence .

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Updated On: 8/15/14 at 07:33 PM

1. Hire a new composer and lyricist.
2. Hire a new book writer.
3. Hire a set designer with a vision.

Restore the old book, score and director.

1. Have another out of town run-yes, you'll lose the theater for THIS season, but wouldn't it be worse to be a disaster on Broadway? (there are a lot of 'family' shows, sir and you know that quality does matter...)
2. Focus less on money and more on quality
3. Go back to the original team-popsy ballads only go so far.

1. Go back to the source material and re-examine the true story, as pointed out in the ART previews thread here on BWW. There's a darker side to Neverland that is not being explored here, and pretending it doesn't exist for the purposes of the show's plot is foolhardy when it could add so much more. Even if you take the tack that there wasn't something creepy going on with Barrie and the kids, acknowledging it may win you points with people who see the show as an otherwise cutesy, saccharine take on the writing of a children's story.

2. Go back to both versions of the score and cherry-pick. Add other songs by different writers if you want. The only thing that will make a difference is the orchestration. If it holds together as a score, and sounds all of a piece, then that'll do. I'm not coming down on the side of either Barlow or Korie & Frankel. You want the best score you can get, and if you don't get it from the writers you chose (and clearly there are problems with both versions, or you wouldn't have called in a new songwriter and the fans wouldn't have a problem with said new songwriter in the first place), put together a score that works by any means necessary. I'm tired of the attitude that only one songwriter or team of songwriters is necessary for a show. Jukebox musicals, for all their flaws, have proven that as long as the songs tell a cogent story and hang together as a score, it doesn't matter who wrote them, 'cause Lord knows Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons didn't write all of their own material.

3. Hire a dramaturge who can take the advice from #1, the old book, and the new book, and produce something that resembles a musical. Currently you've got nothing substantial. A new (or old) director, a new designer, that crap is cosmetic at best once you have the material. (There are only so many ways to stage this story.) And be it Brantley or Isherwood, I doubt the Times critic is gonna like what you have right now.

**This advice is offered casually as a producer of Broadway-bound musical projects, and should not be considered binding or mandatory. After all, I am otherwise an anonymous Internet poster.**

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Updated On: 8/16/14 at 12:03 PM

I, along with the entire audience LOVED the show.

It's super cute when people post that the entire audience loved a show.

It tends to happen more with flops too, wonder why no one cared about the show after every single person was having a theatrical orgasm? The world will never know.

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I won't say everyone loved or hated the show the night I saw it. I will say that myself and the person I was with both thought there were huge portions of the show that were
1. Irrelevant (had little or nothing to do with the primary story)
2. Laughable (unintentionally)
3. Dull

I can say that during both intermission and after the show, the people sitting around me and walking near me were mostly voicing "meh" type of reactions. Again, that is not the ENTIRE AUDIENCE's reaction, just those in my proximity who were talking about the show. (Many people parked in the same garage I did so I was listening to at least 4 or 5 conversation about the show as I walked to my car.)

I can say this, IMHO the show that I saw would be MASSACRED by the NY critics. I have seen a couple of shows that closed to bad reviews in recent years (Big Fish and Leap of Faith), and both of those shows were MILES above FN in terms of quality.

I really hope the show can be fixed, but I believe another MAJOR overhaul would be required.

Only one suggestion is necessary - find a producer who knows what they are doing.

This was a half-decent show with much promise and some problems in Leicester. Every decision taken since then reads as though it was a wrong one.

1 suggestion

Pray Pray Pray

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1) Get rid of Gary Barlow
2) No seriously, get rid of him
3) See above

Dear Mr. Weinstein,

Sorry we couldn't have given you more of a practical assist. Sounds like most who responded haven't seen the show but enjoy an opportunity to snark. Happy to hear you are throwing out the first 20 minutes of the current show which suggests there will be other changes throughout the rest of the show. While one more out of town tryout would be preferential it will be interesting to watch you and your team try to finesse things in New York where the noise will be deafening.

Hope you prove the naysayers wrong and turn Finding Neverland in to great musical.

It's happened before.

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