FINDING NEVERLAND Previews — Page 8

There are many producers who are not especially well liked but in most cases it doesn't influence the noms or the voting. For every voter who says, "I don't like Harvey so I won't vote for his show." there's someone saying, "I don't like such-and-such an actor so I won't vote for his show." or "I just love so-and-so and will vote for her show." But those folks are by far in the minority. Most take pride in their ability to be objective.

The OBR should be out in June.

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Got around to seeing this tonight and save for Kelsey Grammer's very good performance I liked this even less than I did in Boston.

Grammer's role has been beefed up and the jokes tailored to his dry delivery style. He went up on some lyrics in Play and rather humorously had the conductor begin the song again to thunderous applause. That Cheers joke sure is a groaner though. He's such a charismatic presence that all the other bland characters (and in some cases actors too) seem to melt away whenever he's around.

Speaking of bland, Matthew Morrison is giving one of the more underwhelming performances by a capable actor I've seen in a while. Whatever he's trying to do is far too internalized and isn't making it across the footlights. Although I find Jeremy Jordan to be a somewhat off-putting and arrogant performer, I much preferred his livelier take on the role, not to mention the bright peals of his ringing notes.

The woman are all severely underwritten, Carolee criminally so. You basically forget she's even in the show she has so little stage time. Now that Teal Wicks' number has been cut you might as well write the part out completely and have Barrie's marital problems play out off stage.

Laura Michelle Kelly comes off as bland too (did someone forget to season this show because it's like munching on a head of raw cauliflower!), but I blame the writing more than the actress. She has some real Hallmark movie of the week lines to spit out, poor thing.

The score verges on dreck, but I can't tell if that's because of the inappropriate pop/Wildhorn reject melodies or the horrendous Wonderland-esque orchestrations. If we had theater Razzie awards these orchestrations would win hands down. The lyrics alternate between making you want to cringe and puke. After a while I mostly just felt numb.

The sets are basically the same as in Boston. A shame they didn't amp up the physical production in any meaningful way.

The four children acquitted themselves nicely.

There was a joke Carolee had to crack when Laura Michelle Kelly said to her, "But mother, you were once happy and sang and danced with father." To which she replied, "Yes my dear, but that was the sixties!" It's a groaner for sure, but it also snaps you right out of the action and milieu (what little has been created given the anachronistic sounding score). In contrast, there was a joke last night in Something Rotten! where Heidi Blickenstaff wants to get a job and she says, "A woman can get a job now. Come on! It's the Nineties!" The joke completely works in Rotten! because the joke fits the tone of the piece and enhances rather than detracts.

It's not that Finding Neverland is the worst show ever- but sadly it sits at a notch or two below mediocre.

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Of only those four?

I would rank them:

Something Rotten!
Honeymoon in Vegas
Finding Neverland
It Shoulda Been You

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^I think Laura Michelle Kelly will likely be considered as Leading Actress.

I thibk it's too soon to say if this is a commercial success. Lots of shows start out strong, have big advances etc but if word of mouth isn't strong and it doesn't draw an audience all this will be eaten up quick enough. All the glee die hards will be going to see this to start with, was certainly the case the performance I was at, it depends if it's appeal goes beyond that and it draws a wider audience

"Two things I noticed with the NY audience that I didn't have with the Boston audience. When the various "ideas" surface for the plot of "Peter Pan", tinkerbell, Hook, etc...the crowd audibly gasped, "Ahhhh!" It was like watching "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". He was found by the Kringles. "Ooooh! That's where he got the name!" Also, after the magical scene at the end with the nightgown, the audience clapped. Seemed inappropriate and there was silence in Boston."

I don't react audibly to much during a performance so it's always a surprise to me when the audience suddenly transforms into a panto crowd. The one that stands out is the collective audience gasp after the slap in Constellations.

And what is so *not* shocking about that? I genuinely was hoping it would improve. I found that it sadly had taken a few steps back rather than a few forward.

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Oh puh-leez, I remember your Boston review, you said it was "near terrible."

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Yes Matt, so it should have had no where to go but up...

Mikey, much of that campy stuff that made it truly unbelievable is gone. The servants don't move around the furniture anymore (song has been cut) so they don't perform any of that camp choreography either. What has replaced the camp is blandness, which depending on your mood can be a worse crime.

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I first saw the show on Aug 5 and the bumblebees were already gone.

This is an odd question, but is the lyric about a rocket heading to Mars still in "Believe"? As a slight history nerd, it annoys me because rockets were invented in the early 1900s.