Flying Over Sunset - Previews Thread — Page 18

While this show isn't for everyone, I found myself being quite intrigued by the artistry and originality of it. From the opening rhythmic choreography I was taken in. As the sets came out of nowhere like a trip was wonderous and the music hypnotic. The choreography is rhythmically artful and her praises need to be sung. While not perfect, it's one of the most original shows I've seen in a long time.

It is a show that hypnotizes more than entertains but if you are willing to allow that, it's a fascinating evening.

There are problems yes (the show is too long) and the songs for Carmen Cusack are unfortunately the least interesting songs in the show. Unfortunately, the Claire Booth Luce scenes are also the least interesting parts of the piece and I found my mind wandering there. Luce has an interesting story to tell and I do wish they would rewrite her section. Tony Yazbeck is charming and does a great tap number but doesn't quite bring Cary Grant to life. He could be any famous handsome actor. Sometimes the show feels like a long commercial for the benefits of LSD -- but these are quibbles as the overall piece is so well done.

But a musical singing the benefits of LSD for the individual? The show is a hypnotic personal journey in itself very much like an LSD trip. Three middle age famous people- Aldous Huxley, Clare Booth Luce and Cary Grant drawn together for the benefits of LSD in their lives-- fascinating.

It is an experimental. theatre piece with music more than a musical. If you are looking to be entertained a la Broadway Extravaganza, this isn't your musical. If you are looking for an artful intelligent experience with some mind blowing spectacle than this is your musical.

This is a musical to be respected.

i respect the audacity.

but oh man. the show has each of the three characters trip individually. The Aldous sequence takes forever, the Cary Grant sequence is the most interesting and has that fantastic tap number, and then the Luce sequence kinda goes nowhere but reminds us that Carmen Cusack is a vocal queen. OK. Then out of nowhere the three of them + the underdeveloped "guide" character suddenly meet up and decide to do LSD together. The play doesn't bother to do anything more than have Cusack say out loud what the writers must have said at some point: "Wouldn't it be grand if we three unique characters experienced this together?"

At this point I was restless but thought that Act 2 would take me somewhere wild, funny, moving, anything. But when they all get together to trip again.... we once again experience three individual Trips, with some commentary from the others peppered in. I am simply gobsmacked at the lack of any depth or insight with respect these trips. Act 1 sets up some backstory for these characters, but then when they trip they just sorta reinforce what we already knew? They love their loved ones? They have trauma from their youth? And? And?

Aside from the title number sung beautifully by Cusack, I can't remember a single tune, lyric- i don't even remember songs starting/stopping really, just a sea of pleasant background music. I found myself predicting the lyrics/rhymes/dialogue as they developed. ("If she says 'hold me' right now, I will scream," my partner whispered- and she did!) What I find most frustrating about this production is how expensive and beautiful is it: the sets are gorgeous, the sweeping grand commitment to spectacle is admirable. It made me want to see a big show on that stage- but one that moved me, or made me laugh, or made me hum, or anything.

I thought Cusack made the most realistic Character, and her voice (though not as strong as I remember it) is stunning. Paton is witty and charming, but his Aldous is just a smart British guy whose views are lectured to us. Of course Yazbeck's dancing (and barely dressed physique) is impressive, but as someone said above, there is little to his Cary Grant. I thought Sella sounded great but his character is a plot vehicle at best, and the show's lack of attention to him is almost uncomfortable as he sits on stage for the entire second act.

The Lehman Trilogy was three hours and if I didnt really think it made much of A Point, I enjoyed watchin it so much I would have stayed another hour. This ran only ten minutes shorter but felt hours longer- and its not hard to figure out what to cut: the asinine opening, the ocean sequence, could each be three to five minutes shorter. But without any message beyond Life is Precious and Be True To Who You Are and Confront Your Past, I'm still not sure what the point would be.

Theater was about 2/3 full; TDF seats were dead center Row L. I thought audience response was polite but unenthusiastic.

i walked out at 10:47 tonight.

hard to imagine they made cuts but decided to leave in that long opening sequence.

JDonaghy4 said: "i walked out at 10:47 tonight.

hard to imagine they made cuts but decided to leave in that long opening sequence."

If you left during the opening it had to be before 10:47. What am I missing?

Kind of rude of the Macy's Day Parade to not have this show do the penis rocket number this year, if you ask me :/

I saw this last night and have to say, it’s an awfully long show to feel so thin. And it’s such an intriguing concept to end up so dull.


Lapine never really gives us a reason why we need to care about these people and their specific trips. Why them, aside from their notoriety? The show actively prevents them from contrasting or comparing their views and lives, and often silos them off into solos or pairs.


Lapine also never solves how to really depict the heightened reality of LSD. Musical theatre is already at a much heightened level, so how do you depict the next level of being heightened within it? Lapine basically doesn’t- he just uses well-worn musical tropes, so everything just seems sort of mundane.


The trips themselves are all so neat- everyone has one issue that they sort of address, in the most explicit way possible. There’s an old trope in theater of characters monologing about a dream they had, in which there is such obvious symbolism about their current issues that no dream actually is like. It’s the epitome of telling, not showing. And that’s basically all this show is for nearly 3 hours: characters baldly telling us what’s happening to them. (And I thought the Heard character was basically useless in the second act- a character literally defined by only two traits: being gay and doing LSD). LSD is somehow made mundane here.

Yazbek’s big tap number is incredible. Cusack’s voice is glorious. But that’s really all to recommend here. If you want to get an idea of what kind of fun psychedelics can be, just go see Diana. It’s a lot closer than this.

"Flying Over Sunset" is an interesting idea for a musical...and that's what it remains. Despite the great performances (particularly that of Carmen Cusack), and eye-popping design, there's simply no there there. The score is instantly forgettable and the cerebral approach to the storytelling guarantees that we have no emotional investment in what's happening onstage. The perfect example of a "why" musical, it's maddeningly DOA.

Sales also appear to be terrible. Still, I’m trying to go in with an open mind because I really want to love this.

So, what changes have been made since the 1st preview? They still have 1 1/2 weeks for changes until they freeze the show and officially open on Dec 13.Everyone claims the show is too long (almost 3 hours) but have they cut it down at all-cut scenes, songs etc? This was one of the shows we were the most excited to see and we still are on Friday Dec 10 and unfortuntately this show is not ''selling'' well at all!

I left this show forgetting it even WAS a musical. Other than the title number, it felt as if there was barely any music in this show. I really didn't hate the show either. It bothers me though because it could be so much better if they made cuts and tightened everything.

I'm going this Wednesday, and have read all of the reports here. It seems as if most of the positives -- Jordan's prominent -- were all relatively early. Has anyone been recently who saw the glass half full? I'm startled by how the show is now widely considered a misfire by gifted collaborators. But also more curious than ever, as I always am about shows created from the ground up, sans adaptation. When there's no well known source material, the evaluation of musicals has a different prism. Rather than judge solely on whether dramatized moments "sing," (as in the Tootsie, Pretty Woman, Groundhog Day evaluations) we are left to grapple with whether the story told is even, well, a satisfying story about people worth spending time with. (OT but not unrelated: Most of the discussions of the film of Evan Hansen centered on the story holes, many not observed on stage; its book was critiqued like a play with problems, not usually the case with adaptations). I appreciate how constructive some of the posts here are, noting places where this show needs clarity, pruning, or simply to be re-thought.

Auggie27 said: "I'm going this Wednesday, and have read all of the reports here. It seems as if most of the positives -- Jordan's prominent -- were all relatively early. Has anyone been recently who saw the glass half full? "

I saw the show last Sunday 11/21, and I really liked it a great deal. The show has great performances and a stunning scenic design. The score has some beautiful gems in it. I was never bored while watching it, and was engaged in the story and the character's lives.