Posted: 7/20/18 at 2:23pm
Posted: 7/20/18 at 3:04pm
I originally had 0 interest in seeing this but it sounds like it might be okay.
For those of you who have seen it (or anyone else with insight), do you think it might play for a while? Or do you foresee it closing in a couple months?
Posted: 7/20/18 at 3:22pm
Posted: 7/20/18 at 3:26pm
I was at the show last night. Always a pleasure to be at the theater with Whizzer and the others from the Boards.
There may be some light spoiler here.
Let me start by saying that I am the prime target audience for this show. I live in Central Jersey, work three blocks from George Street Playhouse, and understand the significance of the sequence set at the PeterPank Diner (It is a real restaurant in Sayreville, and was torn down last week to build a new convenience store). In addition, I am a big fan of Saturday Night Live-style sketch comedy, which I think is key to understanding the full intent of a piece like this.
If you try to look at this show as a fully formed musical, you will come up short. Neither the book or score are notable, but passalble. However, when you look at each scene as a stand-alone 5-minute musical improv sketch, it works better.
Sure, the jokes are cringe-worthy, but their intent is not to produce the next Shakesperean comedy. It's not the next Hamilton or Les Mis, but I had a good time last night.
Show runs about 2:35, Act 2 could definitely use to be shortened. Merchandise is limited to the cast album you can download for free from the website, 2 shirts, a mug and a magnet. And there is a t-shirt cannon used during act 2 (literally) so you might get a shirt from the stage.
And as a warning, there is no fourth wall; significant entrances and exits through the house, and audience interaction, with one moment toward the end that I don't know how they are going to manage unless Ken comes every night of the show's run to give the curtain speech.
Updated On: 7/20/18 at 03:26 PM
Posted: 7/20/18 at 3:40pm
VintageSnarker said: "I was wondering when we'd get to it. How bad is it? Casually sexist and racist? Or truly despicable and offensive?"
I would say more casually. The women exist solely to be matches for the men. Each male character gets his own love interest, making it abundantly clear that they are just props to help the men on their journey, and to make each character gets their "prize" in the end. There is even a gag at one point that indirectly pokes fun at that fact, but it doesn't excuse them. Kelli Barrett's character is a slight exception, but even so, not much.
As for the racism, again it's more casual. I might amend that actually and say it's less racist, and more culturally insensitive, regarding the Indian characters and their marrying practices...
Basically, the Indian character is preparing for an arranged marriage - which of course his father expects of him. But he falls in love with a 2-dimensional white blonde girl. In one of the final scenes, he confronts his father and tells him he chooses the white girl, and his father immediately concedes without any resistance - and the poor Indian girl has already traveled to America, and is waiting at the pier to be picked up for their marriage, but we never hear what happens to her. Because according to this show: who cares?
I know there have been plenty of stories about the Indian practice of arranged marriage, and how first generation Indian-Americans sometimes clash ideologies with their parents ("The Big Sick" comes to mind). And sure, it's nice that the father accepts his son's wishes. But in this context, it kind of feels like white writers spitting on Indian traditions and culture. And I'm not saying I personally agree with the practice of arranged marriage, but in this show it's used as a flimsy subplot, which is immediately resolved without any conflict, and the mostly-white audience is supposed to say "yay! Thank god that character gets to break free from his oppressive Indian cultural expectations! Hooray for western standards of marriage!"
Updated On: 7/20/18 at 03:40 PM
Posted: 7/20/18 at 3:55pm
Well, this just sounds worse and worse. SNL sketches? Sure, I love SNL - but I don't pay money to see them- so yes, I expect more.
Posted: 7/20/18 at 4:03pm
dramamama611 said: "Well, this just sounds worse and worse. SNL sketches? Sure, I love SNL - but I don't pay money to see them- so yes, I expect more."
It's high-quality SNL content, and I'll also mention that it seemed like no one in the room last night, myself included, paid very much to be there. Would I pay $150 a ticket for this, probably not, but for $40 for a decent Mezz seat, worth it.
Posted: 7/20/18 at 4:15pm
And the show definitely has it's place for the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, especially with Bronx Tale closing in 2 weeks.
Ken is advertising the heck out of it here in Jersey-ads at nearly every train station, and on most of the trains, among quite a few direct mail pushes.
Regardless of the quality of the content, it's nice to have a musical with both an original story and original score open on Broadway. It's been 15 months since Bandstand opened, the last original musical
Updated On: 7/20/18 at 04:15 PM
Posted: 7/20/18 at 4:19pm
Lol. I had the opportunity to go see this for free about 2 weeks ago (Davenport was looking to bring in people to see the show early.) and could't muster the desire to go....or convince anyone else to give it a shot.
I
Posted: 7/20/18 at 4:48pm
Jakeevan942 said: "Regardless of the quality of the content, it's nice to have a musical with both an original story and original score open on Broadway."
...why? Why are people so fixated on whether a musical is "original"? Most classic and successful musicals would fail by that metric.
Posted: 7/20/18 at 4:52pm
It's a wholly artificial metric, and Broadway-specific. Since no one cares if a movie or TV show was based on a novel. I'll take anything good, no matter where it came from...
Posted: 7/20/18 at 5:09pm
Will someone write the Song of Gettin the Band Back Together? I really want to hear the inside scoop from the “Grundleshotz”....
Posted: 7/20/18 at 5:35pm
I saw this at George Street. So, unless it's a completely different show, this won't last long. It still has no buzz, ticket sales are pathetic, and as soon as all of New Jersey has seen it, it will die.
"I can see this one being here for quite a long time."
Hilarious.
Posted: 7/20/18 at 5:44pm
From a selfish perspective, I hope the show stays open for the next couple of moths, but still has a rush policy in place. Either the current one or a general. I can't see this having a student rush or lottery. This would be the perfect show for me on a Sunday night.
Updated On: 7/20/18 at 05:44 PM
Posted: 7/20/18 at 7:56pm
Posted: 7/20/18 at 9:44pm
So I also was at the first preview last night and I LOVED it! It was much better than I had anticipated it being, especially after watching the workshop videos from a few months ago. I like cheesy comedy, so this was pretty good. Some of the bigger musical/dance numbers were a nice blend of comedy and musical entertainment. It's certainly not going to be a Wicked, but I could see it being open for a year or so.
Posted: 7/20/18 at 10:11pm
EllieRose2 said: "It still has no buzz, ticket sales are pathetic, and as soon as all of New Jersey has seen it, it will die."
New Jersey has 9 million people. If "all of New Jersey" sees it, I think they would be happy, no?
Posted: 7/20/18 at 11:47pm
Posted: 7/21/18 at 12:18am
Woof...the barbs being thrown at Kenny D in this thread are just...
Posted: 7/21/18 at 12:19am
Paul Rodgers said: "So I also was at the first preview last night and I LOVED it! It was much better than I had anticipated it being, especially after watching the workshop videos from a few months ago. I like cheesy comedy, so this was pretty good. Some of the bigger musical/dance numbers were a nice blend of comedy and musical entertainment. It's certainly not going to be a Wicked, but I could see it being open for a year or so."
You joined just to post this?
Are you one of Ken's interns because I have some HORROR stories to tell you, get out while you can.
Posted: 7/21/18 at 9:16am
ArtMan said: "From a selfish perspective, I hope the show stays open for the next couple of moths, but still has a rush policy in place. Either the current one or a general. I can't see this having a student rush or lottery. This would be the perfect show for me on a Sunday night."
It actually does have a lottery, I was looking at tickets on Telecharge just for s&gs and clicked on "offers" and was kind of surprised to see "digital lottery" and the link and it is already active. Seeing it this afternoon since I won (surprising no one, since the lottery isn't listed anywhere else that I've seen so far, Playbill.com hasn't even included it in their massive list yet). I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I also won for the evening show, but I prefer matinees on Saturdays so I'm not going to wait and find out.
Though I did check after buying my ticket, they do list the digital lottery on their website, as well.
Posted: 7/22/18 at 1:16am
A Bronx Tale is just awful, so if that's your barometer....
Posted: 7/22/18 at 8:35am
Jakeevan942 wrote:
"It's high-quality SNL content"
If this show represents high-quality SNL content, then I hate to think how bad the low-quality SNL content must be. Actually, I watched SNL a few times when it first began, and found it sophomoric and unfunny even then.
Posted: 7/22/18 at 9:20am
Posted: 7/22/18 at 9:36am
