GAME: Broadway Previews

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/17/20 at 5:34pm

BWW is known for members rushing to the earliest previews of new shows and posting their observations here. Of course, with the theaters closed right now we can't do that. Or can we?

Let's use our fertile imaginations and post our impressions of a fictitious musical that we will call BREAK A LEG! which will star the dynamic duo of Loretta Swit and John Stamos among others Very simply, the plot concerns an incredibly popular television actress who is preparing to make her Broadway musical debut and Stamos plays her manager.

You know that shows undergo numerous changes during previews, so work that into your reviews.

Have fun. I'm looking forward to reading your "reviews"

Updated On: 3/17/20 at 05:34 PM

[greensgreens]

Posted: 3/17/20 at 6:09pm

This show can’t decide whether it wants to be The Act or Misery! The Musical.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/17/20 at 8:20pm

Dollypop said: "among others"

Look, I bought tickets because I never miss a chance to see Lewis Stadlen on the New York stage. His big number, "Shtupping In The Shtetl," stopped the show cold. But the real thrill was Murphy Guyer's 5-minute role as a plummer. I haven't been this enamored by a performance since the time I saw Lainie Kazan at Fairway.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/17/20 at 9:22pm

First off, my seat was great! I got it for $9.00 through TDF. Great deal!

As far as the show: I LOVED the show curtain! It really stood out and flashed in time to the music when the overture started....and never seemed to end.

I think the show is "meh". The music is uninspired and the 11 o'clock number sounded like Ravel's Bolero--only it was longer. Swit still doesn't know her lines but Stamos is quite good--especiallybwhen he sings "Always the Understudy But Never The Star"

I agree, Stadlen is terrific.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/17/20 at 9:23pm

Updated On: 3/17/20 at 09:23 PM

[copskid949]

Posted: 3/17/20 at 10:49pm

I found it very progressive to allow audience members to record the whole show in an attempt to be “hip” with the kids. Really brought Broadway into the 21st century, just screens EVERYWHERE!

I loved it, just wish they would shorten that entr’acte. Forty-two minutes is **just** a bit too much for me, although everyone else around me loved it so what do I know? But as said before, the curtain was beautiful!

Posted: 3/17/20 at 10:50pm

I did the student rush line at 10am. It’s good right now - I was the only one there! But not bad for $20 and my seats were obstructed by the set pieces, which were absolutely stunning. Everyone was taking pictures.

Fave part of the show.
Spoiler :
When Raquel Welch & Lorna Luft made their cameo at the end of Act 1 (with the ‘Mister Fister’ song)- a la Kerry Butler in Catch Me if you can.

Not a dry eye in the house.

Not one.

They got two Standing O’s.
I’m going back tomorrow.
I think I heard the ushers mention the student rush tickets will be FREE!
 

Updated On: 3/17/20 at 10:50 PM

[BeNice]

Posted: 3/18/20 at 12:01am

Can anyone report on the merch?
Thanks!

[chewy5000]

Posted: 3/18/20 at 1:11am

Does anyone have a song list?

[Fan123]

Posted: 3/18/20 at 5:33am

For those who've seen the show...

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

...does John Stamos's character actually die at the end of ATUBNTS? From what I've gleaned online, his part seems to be fairly prominent throughout, but that scream and splash at the end of the sample track has me confused. Or is that a flash-forward? Seems like a weird dramatic choice if so, judging from my understanding without having seen the show.

BTW, this is a little bit off-topic but for those interested, somebody uploaded the cast recording of an 1983 show based on a book by somebody who knew the author who wrote the book on which BREAK A LEG! is based. It's in Bengali so I can't understand it, but I'm still intrigued. Did anyone happen to have seen this in Dhaka? Cast recording link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/18/20 at 9:58am

How true is the rumor that they're bringing Micah Stock in to replace Stamos?

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/18/20 at 12:18pm

Dollypop said: "How true is the rumor that they're bringing Micah Stock in to replace Stamos?"

I heard Christian Dante White.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/18/20 at 6:55pm

White is a much better singer but he's very tall and Swit would look awkward next to him, especially when she sings "My Heart's in the Middle of July".

[jagman1062]

Posted: 3/18/20 at 9:23pm

Swit is a bit out of her element here as she is required to carry the show in her first role as a lead in a musical.  She is better suited for a supporting role as one of the aging show girls in Follies (I'm Still Here anybody?), Madame Amfeldt, or "Big" (read "Elder" ) Edie. Swit is still settling into her role and can benefit from choreography that doesn't require her to distinguish stage right from stage left.  At last night's performance she stumbled into Stamos who fell and literally broke his leg.  The audience thought the action was written into the show given the show's title (yes, the book needs further development as the audience has no clue of what's going on).  The rumors about Stamos being replaced are now true as the show scrambles to rehearse someone to perform the role of the manager.  On a sweet nostalgic note, it was pleasant to see Alan Alda, Gary Burghoff, and Mike Farrell in their Act Two cameo in Swit's number, "The Days of Love and War."

Updated On: 3/18/20 at 09:23 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/18/20 at 10:29pm

Come Tony season, I think "BREAK A LEG" stands a chance at best musical, but it's got stiff competition from three shows that also opened this week:

"Girl Anachronism," a biomusical about journalist, adventurer and social crusader Nellie Bly, featuring the first mainstream musical score by Amanda F*cking Palmer, with a book co-written by her and husband Neil Gaiman.

"The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari," an ambitious but nearly incomprehensible Fosse/Kander and Ebb pastiche, which is hemorrhaging money nightly due to its insistence on using a full Golden Age orchestra, dancing and singing choruses, and no microphones, synthesizers or amplification. Written by a complete nobody with zero credentials, rumors fly wildly about who is funding this money pit and why. 

And most controversial: "Cats, the Musical, The Movie, The Musical." Part Rocky Horror audience experience and part "Shuffle Along," the show recontextualizes both the stage musical, the movie and the behind-the-scenes story of both as a beautiful series of bad ideas. Conceived by, and written by, Theresa Rebeck (Smash) and Glen Berger (Song of Spider-Man). The Tony committee has not yet announced if this counts as a new show or a revival.

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 3/19/20 at 12:37am

But don't you think this should be in the Best Musical Revival category?

[jagman1062]

Posted: 3/19/20 at 1:00pm

darquegk said: 
And most controversial: "Cats, the Musical, The Movie, The Musical." Part Rocky Horror audience experience and part "Shuffle Along," the show recontextualizes both the stage musical, the movie and the behind-the-scenes story of both as a beautiful series of bad ideas. Conceived by, and written by, Theresa Rebeck (Smash) and Glen Berger (Song of Spider-Man). The Tony committee has not yet announced if this counts as a new show or a revival."

Maybe the Tony Committee will create a new category: Best Revisal of a Revival.

 

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/19/20 at 10:33pm

Got a phone call today from a friend who is really "in the know" about all things Broadway. He tells me the producers are after Martin Short to replace the injured Stamos. Meanwhile the stage manager is filling in because the u/s isn't ready.

Updated On: 3/20/20 at 10:33 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/19/20 at 11:56pm

Well if Short steps in, this becomes a must-see; I once almost knocked Audra McDonald into traffic trying to get his autograph. (SNL was the defining show of my childhood.)

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/20/20 at 12:27am

One way or the other, BREAK A LEG! ia a must-see show because it's the only one running during the pandemic. You know it's playing at the new Sterility Theatre, don't you?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/20/20 at 12:31pm

The Sterility Theater just got a huge supply of merch: toy crutches, glow-in-the-dark leg casts, T-shirts, window cards and motorized wheelchairs.

[xoffender45]

Posted: 3/20/20 at 4:56pm

The show was ok (even though Loretta’s nude scene seemed gratuitous and out of place) but I spent almost 3 hours at the stage door, and nobody at all came out. If they don’t support their fans why should we support them?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/20/20 at 5:08pm

That's an excellent point. Don't actors have a clause in their contracts stipulating that they MUST stage door and pose for pictures with fans? If not, then why not?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/21/20 at 4:57pm

Dirt Alert:

.Martin Short was seen going thru the stage door of the Stetility Theater!