Saw this last night. My first ever Broadway show!
(Not as big a deal as that may sound. I moved to NYC a few months ago, my wife was out of town, I work in midtown, and on a whim yesterday I decided to buy the cheapest ticket I could find for a show after work, knowing nothing about this. I've been to plenty of touring productions in other cities, and plan to see more Broadway now that I'm here.)
Anyway, it sucked. The music was uninspired an unfunny. There were some jokes that landed, but even most of those were cheap. There were a few gimmicks to engage the audience that just felt cheap. The lead was boring, but he grew on me.
I did enjoy the second act more than the first, but unfortunately I can't really give an explanation as to why. It's possible I went into it with a bad mindset. I did read the NYT review as I was waiting for the curtain, and then the opening talk by (I think?) the director really put me off.
I found the crowd reaction to be odd. People were definitely into it, at least at the start (the enthusiasm petered out a bit throughout the show, I think). What felt odd was that audience had instantaneous reactions to things like Marilu Henner first coming on stage, and some of the early jokes. It felt like the audience reactions on a long-running sitcom like when Kelly Bundy would first enter the episode on Married with Children or just the immediate/automatic response to established jokes. Perhaps it was a Jersey crowd that was reacting to references I didn't really get?
Upper balcony of the Belasco is something I won't do again, and the show seemed poorly staged given the constraints. (I know nothing about theater production, so this is just my 2 cents form the audience). Basically, the safety rails on the first row obstruct the view of the front of the stage; even if you sit in the first row (I eventually moved there after the usher offered it) you have to lean out to see the whole stage. And most of this show used only the front of the stage -- they made it really shallow by using curtain backdrops for most of the scenes. Only a few scenes removed the curtain and used the full depth of the stage, and only those gave me a decent view.
Also, there was some technical issue toward the end of the first act, where the sound went to static. The actress called out the suggestion that they cut the mics, which they did in order to finish the scene (just a few more words of dialogue). Then there was a 5 - 10 minute break while they fixed it.
I probably need to come up with a different approach than "cheapest ticket available" for my spur-of-the-moment show decisions.
