Flying Over Sunset - Previews Thread- Page 18

[Synecdoche2]

Posted: 11/23/21 at 11:56am

Borderline sacrilege to compare this to the Band's Visit. That was a stunning masterpiece - this is just a boring mess.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 11/23/21 at 12:21pm

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.

[jv92]

Posted: 11/23/21 at 7:47pm

goldenboy said: "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. 

I agree with everything you've said up until the Cusack/Luce comments. I actually was most moved by her story, thought her songs (particularly "How?" and that whole "garden" sequence were among the strongest in the show. 

I think it's going to polarize people. It obviously has. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I saw it a few days ago. It think it will be cathartic for some after a more than a year of grief and loss. I think you just have to accept it as a languid piece on its own plane. I certainly did. I really loved it. It makes me proud of the American musical theatre. 

And as for respect-- If you don't come away respecting the audacity... I mean, c'mon! 

 

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 11/24/21 at 12:27am

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.

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 11/24/21 at 1:00am

I hear they have cut about 10 minutes where the show is now ending 15 minutes before the hour.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 11/24/21 at 3:44am

i walked out at 10:47 tonight. 

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

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 11/24/21 at 6:41am

I wonder if anyone calling this show “experimental” has actually ever seen experimental theatre. Because this ain’t it. This is a standard musical for adults that happens to have some slightly non-traditional subject matter, but experimental could not be farther from what this is.

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 11/25/21 at 5:49am

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?

 

[suicidalmickeymouse]

Posted: 11/25/21 at 5:58am

They are saying they stayed for the full show, which ended at 10:47. They are saying they are surprised that if they did make cuts, that the opening sequence wasn’t pared down. 
 

it IS pretty early :)

[laurensambrose]

Posted: 11/25/21 at 11:40am

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 :/

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 11/25/21 at 6:15pm

suicidalmickeymouse said: "They are saying they stayed for the full show, which ended at 10:47. They are saying they are surprised that if they did make cuts, that the opening sequence wasn’t pared down.


it IS pretty early :)"

ha yes thank you. i didnt walk out, and dutifully waited the 2 hours and 47 mins before leaving. i meant i was surprised the powers that be are trying to cut down the running time and left that opening sequence in the show.

[Kad]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:43pm

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. 

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 3:11pm

What a great review Kad!

I think when we all heard about the concept many months ago, we had higher expectations for something more creative and whimsical. 

[LucyEth2]

Posted: 11/28/21 at 11:09am

"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.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/28/21 at 11:54am

These reviews are like.... Dag, man. 

[binau]

Posted: 11/28/21 at 12:40pm

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

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 11/28/21 at 1:48pm

Kad said: "
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. "

Beautifully put, Kad. The best example of this is I think towards end of Act 2, when they report a sunset. Given how gorgeous the sets and projections are, it felt so emblematic of the show's problems to have someone tell us about what they were seeing instead of just showing us, which they had to do because otherwise there'd be nothing for anyone to say. 

 

[Robbie2]

Posted: 11/28/21 at 2:07pm

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!

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 11/28/21 at 5:37pm

Robbie2 said: "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!"

From what I hear the best unkept secret on Broadway is that most shows are not selling well except for the gold standards like Wicked and Hamilton. Many shows are padded and discount offers are easy to come by. Ain’t Too Proud for example has had houses under 20%. Flying Over Sunset is playing around 40 to 50% with many discounts. If the reviews are good the houses will probably build.

[teatime2]

Posted: 11/28/21 at 6:45pm

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. 

[Robbie2]

Posted: 11/28/21 at 7:14pm

Jordan Catalano said: "So, wow. That was really something special, I thought. The first preview of a world premiere of a brand new ORIGINAL musical - you don't get that too often anymore.

As I said before, it is an adult show meant for adults. And just like LSD, everyone's experience with the show is going to be different based on their own life's experiences. For me, someone who has experienced a lot of loss, it hit me more than someone who maybe has never experienced that before. But once you get to a certain age it's bound something most people can relate to. But yes, this is a story about a group of (mostly new) friends who bond through this new drug they've heard about. Up until today, "The LSD musical" as everyone I know has been referring to it as, has been kind of funny - a musical about LSD - that's hilarious. But I had this thought tonight that (and stay with me here) it's almost like The Breakfast Club. This group of people who bonds over, in their case detention, and it lets them explore all the feelings and pain that's inside them. Kind of the same here. The LSD is just what lets all the grief and hidden pain from the past rise to the surface for their stories to be told. And I thought it was a fascinating way to do it.

The cast, as I said, is perfect. Harry Hadden-Patton is better here than I've ever seen him. Tony Yazbeck is perfect, I can't imagine anyone else in that role. His Cary Grant gets the shows liveliest numbers and the tapping is just as good as you know it'll be with him. Cusack is the star here and she'll break your heart. Her numbers were my favorite of the evening and both had me crying. And then there's Robert Sella. I've been a fan of Sella's since 1998 (Side Man is my favorite play) and he is what I've been most excited about here. And he's every bit as brilliant as the other three and what DID bother me a bit is that even though he's an equal to the 3 "main" cast members - he's in every scene pretty much sharing the stage with them, he's one of the shows stars - he's not credited as such. He doesn't get that last bow with them at the end, and damnit, I just think that's wrong.

I was talking to my friend who liked Act Two much less than I did and he did agree with me that it definitely needs cutting but what to cut is the issue. I feel like it all adds to their individual stories and is pretty much all important to the show (at least right now in my brain that hasn't fully processed the show yet) but what to cut I think will be a challenge.

The score is stunning. It really is. Part of me thinks if you took me to this show completely blind knowing nothing about anyone involved and said "who wrote the music" I might say "Sondheim..."? But it's so lush and beautiful an the kind of score we don't get that much of anymore that it's such a treat for real musical theater lovers. Even if there's a song about Cary Grant being a penis rocket ship, with a makeshift condom on his head.

I can't wait to go back in a couple weeks and see what they've done to tighten it up. I hope this finds an audience and I'm really excited for that cast recording WHICH WE BETTER GET."

 

Jordan - so, when are you going back to see it again? Would love to hear your thoughts again!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/29/21 at 9:47am

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]

Posted: 11/29/21 at 9:48am

To your point: almost every performance of Flying Over Sunset before the opening is on TDF. In 2020, it was considered a potentially hot ticket. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 11/29/21 at 10:10am

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. 

 

[JGPR2]

Posted: 11/29/21 at 1:02pm

"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. "

Most of the reviews here have been negative so it is nice to read another positive review. Hopefully they can do a few changes to the show to help it get better.