First Preview of If/Then (def spoilers)

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/7/14 at 10:36pm

Caught the first preview of Tom kitt and Brian Yorkeys if /then on wed night. After hearing a few of the numbers online I was intrigued, but what I saw on the stage made me feel a range of emotions from laughing at some genuinely funny moments, feeling goosebumps from some gorgeous melodies, and other times scratching my head trying to follow the confusing storyline, and even being bored by the lack of drama coming from the situations in the show. Some of it is really cliche I must say. other parts however, really modern and noble even.

Idina Menzel starts the show high in the air on a signature piece of director michael grief's and his set designers scaffolding like set. This time it moves up down left right even spinning on a turn table...think rents and next to normals set smashed into one...simple elegant and modern. There is even a roof that caps the scaffolding that tilts upward with a Mirror on the other side reflecting every happening from below. Sometimes NYC subway map routes are projected on the floor reflecting on the mirror, other times stars, or even to just reflect the dancers movements. It's affect is striking sometimes, others it looks really cheap. Simple chairs and tables make up the rest of the set.

Idinas Elizabeth is on her sell phone leaving a message to someone important to her saying..."I was just remembering the day we met, in fact we almost didn't..." The scene below is Central Park where a street Performer is strumming his guitar which starts the opening number about life starting today. Elizabeth had jus moved to NYC from Arizona, after a very dark ten years Of her life, to start over. You never learn what really happened to her which becomes a problem.
Lucas a bisexual activist played by Anthony Rapp is waiting for his friend Beth at a cafe table. LaChanze enters as THE LESBIAN WOMAN WHO TALKS TO EVERYBODY and sits down beside Rapp and starts blabbing away saying she is waiting for her friend Liz...Liz is starting over looking for the love of her life. Lucas says Beth is here to get her career in urban planing back on track. As Idina enters both call to her...LIZ! BETH! Of course she is the same friend to both of them.
Given the opportunity to either hit a protest for a new development or listen to the sexy performer in the park she chooses the first and ends up meeting a handsome Iraqis Vet, a like able James Snyder as Josh, just back from duty who swears he's known her all her life. She declines his phone number and laChance's character tells her how crazy she is. She has a song on the A train where Elizabeth meets the Bet a second time that brings the house down. It's all about giving him a chance.
All the sudden she changes her mind and decides to go with Anthony Rapps character to the protest instead. It leads to them getting arrested for attempting to shut down a construction site on an unpopular new water front project which interferes with the NYC subway. As Beth is getting released she meets an old friend who had been trying to coo her to NYC for years to work in urban planning...she gets a job.
What follows is the two life paths that clear because of her decision that day.
In one she finally makes a life with the soldier, marries him and has children. Josh sings a song about not being afraid of making mistakes as a parent that is charming but very cliche. He becomes a doctor. Why he loves her is never apparent because the lines she is given boarder making her a shrew. It doesn't fit her likable nature even though she does milk laughs out if some of the one liners. The character as awhile is very cold and even mean I. Spots...interesting choice for someone you are supposed to have sympathy for.
In the other she makes it To the top of the NYC urban development department. Partly it seems because her married boss is in love with her. Her talent for urban planning is never shown and reduced to her saying how passionate she is about it. These scenes are tedious, most feel like they would be cut for lack of anything but exposition to show her moving ahead. She never urban plans or even sings about it. In this senerio, Rapps Lucas is still infatuated with her and they date even though she is not in love with him. Rapp has the nights most touching song about how she doesn't have to love him, just be with him. She finally breaks it off after it is revealed she is pregnant with his baby and had an abortion because her job is more important to her. He gets terribly angry with her.
In the other senerio, Rapp gives in to his gay tendencies and has a long relationship with Liz' husbands best friend Jason tam, a fellow doctor. He only meets him because Liz went out with Josh the Vet. Liz gives up her career for love here and is not necessarily happy. When her husband has to go back to Iraq and is killed she realizes what she had. There is a plot element that tries to make it her fault he is killed, but it just flat out doesn't work.
Beth makes it to the top of her career and it takes a plane almost crashing for her to realize love is important. She even tries to get Lachanze's character and her wife back together when she hears they are splitting. At this point you don't know if she is Liz/Beth but she sings her powerhouse 11 o'clock number about choosing to start over again after Jason Tams character asks her if she would do it all over again if she knew the outcome. The next day in the park Beth meets the same Vet that Liz marries and chooses to go through it all again.

The problems:
1) Miss Menzel is miscast as the cold Elizabeth and she is written so unlikable. And she just does not have the acting chops to make anything feel real or subtextual.
2) so much exposition! The story is exposition to make the two paths idea work. Most clip by so fast the show feels more like a review than a a book musical. The song that follows gets no proper set up so you almost never share in what the character feels while singing some of these admittedly gorgeous melodies.
3) the urban planning idea while Nobel and modern(kudos to the writers) never plays into the storyline. We learn nothing about what's so bad about what the city is doing, how It affects real people, how idinas character could fix it, and how that idea helps someone's life. it's a real missed opportunity to tell this important story. ITS HAPPENING TO NEW YORKERS IN EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD. They are being forced out of apts they've spent years in so the mayor can p create another tourist location.
4) the songs are PACKED TO THE BRIM with lyrics. Sometimes the actors can barely get them out....kudos for the music director for his great work with phrasing!!!! But with some really great hooks these songs need a Sondheim infused edit. You can't get to the intention of the songs as an audience member.
5) the cliche nature of the Iraqis vet and his death, the almost airplane crash that causes someone to be aware of what they are missing I their life....it doesn't allow you to care about these people.
6) the chorus are glorified mannequins. They don't need to be in any of these scenes. All they do is ohhh and Ahhhh as backup singers. This musical should feel smaller but the need to add people everywhere by whoever clashes with that at every turn. The choreography never helps tell the story and is repetitive and tedious. It feels as random as does in a lady Gaga music video.

I think this could be a flop, but who knows. The singing by true pros in the musical theater business are reason enough to see the show.

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/7/14 at 10:57pm

Finally someone writes on this show! What took you so long?

[followspot]

Posted: 3/7/14 at 10:58pm

SPOILER