Does ANYONE Like "Bounce?" — Page 2

This is the only Sondheim show that I didn'tlove. It is only slightly better than "Rex", Richard Rodgers' 1976 Turkey. The book is lousy, the score is middling and Harold prince's direction was embarassingly bad. Don't even start me on Richard Kind's 3rd rate Mandy Patinkin imitation or June Powell's off-key singing.

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I saw the Chicago tryout and there was little to like. The score was one of Sondheim's least interesting. A couple of good songs, but mostly forgettable. The characters were completely unlikeable as well as mostly miscast, the book was meandering and lacked focus and at times was completely baffling (such as the end of Boca Raton), the staging was the signature Prince vaudeville but lacking in wit and cohesion. The show was sort of all over the place in terms of style and direction. The Boca Raton number was a prime example of what was wrong with the show. The staging was far too involved and big given the actual music being preformed and the whole number culminated into an ending in which everything fell apart, though without explanation. I realized their dreams somehow collapsed, but I didn't actually know how or why. And by the end of the show, that was basically how I felt about the entire show. I didn't have any idea why I was supposed to care about these pathetic and awful people. And there wasn't even enough good music for me to feel like there was a reason for me to be there.

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I think the main mistake of the audience was to expect that all the failures had to have a meaning. But they don't. It's not a matter of WHY they failed, it's THAT they failed.

Well, in the case of the Boca Raton sequence, it only creates confusion, since it is such a big production number. It builds and builds and then suddenly just sort of falls about and disappears and everyone laments the failure of such a promising venture, but without knowing why it failed, it just creates a huge gaping plot hole. We don't know if the failure was on the part of the brothers or extenuating circumstances. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them because it wasn't their fault? Are we supposed to feel nothing because they should have seen it coming? Are we supposed to feel derision because they brought it on themselves? What happened? In a character-driven show such as this, which relies so heavily on the relaltionship of the brothers, the WHY is key to understanding their reactions and motives. The audience knows pretty early on that they will fail at practically everything, so without the WHY, the story is lean and unsubstantiated, making for a rather dull evening.

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"but the score is tuneful"

What does that mean?

I saw it in Chicago before it was supposed to go to Broadway. I thought it was decent but not great. Richard Kind was hilarious, and the music was good. I think a lot of people disliked it because it was the NEXT SONDHEIM SHOW, but then turned out to just be 'average'. Maybe expectations were too high.

tgrabbon's response seemed to be the consensus of most audiences and reviewers. Sondheim even commented on it in a TV interview. I was surprised that so many of the show's detractors rushed to get tickets for the very first preview in Chicago and then flooded the message boards with stories of how terrible the show was.

Within a few days, however, these comments were countered by more thoughtful reflections by those who went with open minds. By the time I saw it (a week before the end of the Chicago run) the cast was performing with confidence (apparently not the case as of the opening week due to limited rehearsal time) and the audience I saw it with seemed to be enjoying it, without ever becoming truly roused by it. The first act was too long and unfocussed but the 2nd act was tighter and played better.

I was surprised how little it was changed for Washington, as I assumed much more work would be done on Act One. Maybe Hal Prince lost his enthusiasm for it. Who knows? I can say the cast album has been in constant rotation on my MP3 player, and there are very few tracks I ever skip. That's not something I can say about many (Most) shows that have made it to Broadway since the summer of 2003!

I still have a stack of playbills from the Chicago run, the BOUNCE T-Shirt, and The BOUNCE poster. I did draw the line at getting the BOUNCE beach ball.

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