From the director of Hamilton, the screenwriter of Tick, Tick… Boom, and the songwriters of The Book of Mormon and WandaVision, this romantic comedy follows the story of one couple as they fall in love and navigate listening to their hearts or the voices in their head.
Saw this at La Jolla and even though it was VERY much a work in progress, I actually enjoyed it and could see that there was a great show there with a lot of tweaking. Curious to see the TV show, I guess this won’t be moving forward as a stage musical
I love this cast and I’m a big Bobby Lopez fan, but this was one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how they will make this good unless there was a significant overhaul to the source material. I’ve never heard so many bad reviews for a show from friends as this one in 2015. It was nearly impossible to sit through.
StageDoor3 said: "I’m very curious to see Up Here as a streaming series, because as many of you know, it was produced as a musical at La Jolla Playhouse in 2015."
Yeah, well, they're doing their best to make sure no one knows that.
Anyone been watching this? I'm up to episode 6 right now.
The best part of the show is the two leads. They have great chemistry, and both have great singing voices.
The music is kind of a mixed bag. Some songs are really catchy and fun, others are forgettable, one is a really bizarre quasi-rap number that is a huge waste of Brian Stokes Mitchell's talent.
The biggest thing holding the show back is the writing. The conceit of the leads' Greek chorus of inner voices isn't explored nearly as much as it should, and the journey the couple goes through in their relationship is just frustrating. It doesn't feel like they're going through a "will-they-won't they" arc because they're genuinely scared of connection, it feels like they have to do so to get the season to eight episodes.
I'm also not sure why the decision was made to set the show in 1999. Other than occasional references to The Real World or landline telephones, it doesn't really affect the story.
Still, the leads and the music are good enough to get me to watch to the end.
I will continue to support this series because musical tv shows don’t exist and when they do, they are usually short lived, but this isn’t great. The leads are good but I don’t see this catching on.
I wasn't too impressed with the first episode, but maybe I need to give it a second try.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.