From Here musical about Pulse Nightclub survivors will premiere Off-Broadway

[bigbelterbaby]

Posted: 3/19/24 at 7:30pm

From Here, a new musical about the 2016 Pulse Night Club massacre, will premiere Off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Center Alice Griffin Theatre June 29 - August 11, 2024. The show was developed at the Orlando Fringe Theatre Festival and previously staged at Orlando’s Renaissance Theatre Company. A one-night concert reading was also held at 54 Below in January 2023. The show will feature an all-Orlando based cast.  

https://fromhere.com/
https://www.instagram.com/fromheremusical?igsh=cjN4bmV4ZmE1ZmM1
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Updated On: 3/20/24 at 07:30 PM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 3/19/24 at 7:45pm

You couldn’t pay me to sit through that.

 

Updated On: 6/30/24 at 07:45 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/19/24 at 7:46pm

After reading the description, I’ll probably check it out. 

Updated On: 3/19/24 at 07:46 PM

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 3/19/24 at 7:53pm

If you read what it’s about, it sounds fascinating and life affirming. Pity I won’t get the chance. 

[theatretenor2]

Posted: 3/20/24 at 8:53am

This headline is misleading. I don't think it's about the shooting at all, but rather about the humanity and bringing different people together in the aftermath.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/29/24 at 5:11pm

Gonna be spoilers in this.............

 

I saw this today and all in all thought it was pretty damn terrible. Some very good voices but that's where the praise from me ends for this one. Running at about an hour and fifty minutes, the first 85 mins or so is basically a queer indie film from 1993 with a script, jokes and characters to match it. The kind of film that took place at gay bars (but not Pulse here, I don't think they ever even went there in the show and maybe mentioned it in passing, once) and had storylines about the gay breakups and hooking up with everyone and the main gay's F*g Hag (I think she's straight in this...?) obsessed with the gays and has a big cabaret number about "the homos" and then the main storyline about the main gay who has a bad relationship with his Mother. But then after about an hour and a half here, they decided - Hey! Let's make it a tragedy now!

But the kicker here is none of the characters in this musical were at Pulse the night of the shooting and in the story only loosely had connections with one or two people there, we're told briefly. I thought this might work because "Come From Away" worked so well but the difference there is we have an entire show about an event that happened at the very beginning and the fallout due to it where these people had to process the tragedy in different ways and how it changed them. Here, we have an entire musical we know is based on a massacre and because of that, assuming some of the people we're watching will undoubtedly be lost by end. But no. They're all safe and it's just a "luckily we were all safe". Don't get me wrong, if this is based on true events of those specific people who weren't there that night THAT'S GOOD. But dramatically it's almost an emotional bait and switch. So this show wasn't about Pulse at all it was about this one guys breakup with his boyfriend, the new boyfriend he got the next day and his bad relationship with his Mom. And strangely about 2/3 of the way through he switches from a normal narrator of the story into Tom f'n Wingfield speaking in prose sounding like (smartly) discarded Tennessee Williams lines from "Glass Menagerie".

And when we DO have the ending we have another one. And another. And another. It just never seemed to end. And then the kicker comes after the curtain call it's STILL not over. The house was maybe less than half filled and curtain call people just got up and walked out during it.

Someone tell me I'm judging this thing too harshly please because Jeebus, it was rough.

[inception]

Posted: 6/29/24 at 5:30pm

Thank-you for sitting through it so the rest of us don't have to.

Sounds very bait & switch by advertising it as about the shooting.

I'm finding more & more shows "developed at fringe festivals" pretty weak.  Long ago there seemed more to them.

[FloridaBoy124]

Posted: 6/29/24 at 7:00pm

As an Orlando theater goer that has seen this production be presented again and again and again down here, there’s many of us “from here” who cannot stand this show. Many in the community who were actively effected by the Pulse tragedy have called the piece “exploitative”, and the continual presentation of this show across multiple anemically sold runs feels more of an ego boost to the show’s creator than feeding an active desire for the material.

Add into the fact that a show about a tragedy that specifically targeted the LatinX queer community is focused, instead, around a white protagonist and written by a white creator... 

And the shame is, there’s so much talent in Orlando. Many of them are even in the show, forgoing a busy summer season to go up to New York for their “off-Broadway debuts”. And because of the “high profile” nature of this show, many of us are terrified that its poor reception will only reflect on an arts community that’s still actively struggling. 
 

There’s much of value from here... but not “From Here”.

Updated On: 6/29/24 at 07:00 PM

[zachvandyke]

Posted: 6/29/24 at 9:59pm

Happy Opening! Break legs!

Updated On: 6/30/24 at 09:59 PM

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 6/29/24 at 10:04pm

Thanks for your insight, Jordan and FloridaBoy. It seems just as gross as I thought it was when I first read about it. I'll be happy to miss this one.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/30/24 at 1:05pm

Have any reviews come out? FASCINATED to know what critics think of this but don’t see any from opening night last night. 

[FloridaBoy124]

Posted: 7/2/24 at 9:08am

The only review I’ve found… woof.

https://culturesauce.com/2024/07/01/from-here-musical-orlando-pulse-off-broadway-review/

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 7/2/24 at 1:34pm

Theatremania is negative

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/2/24 at 6:22pm

Those reviews are too kind 

[Wick3]

Posted: 7/2/24 at 6:50pm

I watched this on Saturday evening and one of the things my friends and I all wondered was how the main protagonist pronounced the word “Pulse” ….. since to us it sounded like he said “Paul’s”. 
Do folks from Orlando pronounce the word “Pulse” like “Paul’s”?

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 7/2/24 at 11:00pm

Updated On: 7/14/24 at 11:00 PM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 7/3/24 at 12:53am

Jordan Catalano said: "Those reviews are too kind"

"a weepy pitstop on a road trip to nowhere." - Zachary Stewart, Theatremania

now THERE'S a pull-quote for ya!

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 7/3/24 at 3:50am

Updated On: 7/14/24 at 03:50 AM

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 7/3/24 at 4:01pm

How does this compare to the Queer as Folk reboot from 2022? That series began with a shooting at a gay club. Then mostly forgot it to focus on a series of love triangles. Occasionally the show would remind us that the shooter's trial was happening in the background. Eventually a social media star got called out for capitalizing on the event when they weren't present. 

[AlmostFamous3]

Posted: 7/13/24 at 11:06pm

Saw this tonight. GREAT voices in the cast, especially Becca Southworth and Michelle Coben. The cast was very hardworking and clearly gave it their all. I'd love to see most of them continue in other shows in the city—they're very talented and made the show worth my time.

The show itself is rough to sit through, especially the first hour. Not because of its subject matter (which is not the Pulse nightclub massacre at all), but mostly because of all the gay jokes that didn’t land at best and were straight-up offensive at worst. I just felt really bad for the cast because I can imagine what they have to go through when they're saying this text (or when they're mimicking blow jobs) in front of a very uncomfortable audience. On top of this, the lead couldn't stop whining/crying the whole show, to a point where it was getting very uncomfortable to watch. Anyway, there might be a good show in there, but there's so much to rework that it's probably not worth it.