Elephant Shoes at Two River

Anyone catch this yet? Have always loved Deaf West's work and curious about their first original musical.

Voter said: "Voter said: "Anyone catch this yet? Have always loved Deaf West's work and curious about their first original musical."




Seeing this tomorrow night!!"





Saw this last night. Overall, I highly recommend seeing this if you are in the area because I do not think this is the last time we are seeing this musical. CODA and West Side Story were picks that year for the Best Picture winner. I could see this in an off-broadway house at first to see the reception. Multiple regional theaters will be doing this type of show no doubt.



The score is very strong. Book is in pretty great shape. Pacing is great but could be tighter. Cast was fantastic and felt they loved this (strong) material/show.



A little spoiler here: I would however change the ending because sitting through 2.45 hours just to completely do a 180 from the product they are making in the story. It just bothered me because then what is the point if you change your mind of not selling your product after 10 years of trying to find investors. I hope the creative looks at that aspect of the ending.

A little spoiler about why the title is relevant: If you say "Elephant Shoes" and "I Love You" in the mirror silently, it looks the same. A little teaser there.



Also, shoutout to James Olivas for doing this after Evita (London production). I give him lots of respect for him doing something monumental like Evita then do something like this (in a good way). Hopefully, we see him on that Winter Garden stage 2027.

I saw this too, and found it to be well put together and sweet, if not doing anything new from a storytelling perspective.

The score is solid, the book is funny, and it's really really great to see this kind of representation onstage. For those reasons alone, it's worth visiting -- all of the actors are giving very good performances, and we should be supporting this kind of theater. I almost wished, though, that there was a little less Cyrano -- the story ends up feeling derivative because we know where it's going, while the most interesting parts of the show are the wholly original ones. It does feel a little like Deaf West wanted to make a new musical but didn't want to start from scratch so they threw Cyrano in where they didn't need to; I'd have rather they made an entirely new story because the original material is the best material. That said, it's well worth a visit, and I'm excited to see where Deaf West goes from here because they've proven themselves as capable of creating a good new musical.