GHETTO KLOWN (First Preview) Thoughts

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 2/21/11 at 6:21pm

Hey All -

To anyone attending the first preview of John Leguizamo's new show GHETTO KLOWN tonight (2/21) at the Lyceum, please do us a favor and give us your thoughts!

Best,
- M
Updated On: 2/22/11 at 06:21 PM

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 2/21/11 at 10:46pm

BUMP.

Anybody go?

[willep]

Posted: 2/22/11 at 1:51am

I just got home from it.

Wow. What an incredible night at the theatre. By far the best thing I have seen in a while. John had the audience in the palm of his hand from before he even set foot on the stage, it was incredible. I admit that while I love John, this is the first one of his shows that I have seen, but it was fantastic. At the beginning, he says that it is basically a therapy session for him, and that is really how I felt. It is so raw and real. It's hilarious, but has some intensely dramatic moments where the entire theatre was right with him and dead silent, you could have heard a pin drop. His stories are entertaining, and his characters are great fun to watch. The only times my friend and I didn't connect with what he was saying was when he spoke in Spanish and we didn't know what he was saying. Most of the time we were able to catch the gist of it, but we were often like "man, i wish we spoke spanish." We had lotto seats and were sitting in the front row of the balcony. All in all, a fantastic evening. And yes, he did come out the stage door after and signed for lots of people. Feel free to ask any specific questions.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/22/11 at 1:55am

They have a lotto?

[willep]

Posted: 2/22/11 at 2:01am

Apparently. I hadn't heard anything about it, but my friend just texted me around 12:30 and said he had happened to walk past the theatre just as they were doing a lotto and had gotten two tickets and invited me to go. All I know for sure is that the tickets were 26.50...

[sundayclothes2]

Posted: 2/22/11 at 2:16pm

I also was there last night and was blown away.
The theater was almost completley sold-out and the energy was amazing. Not only in the audience, but onstage. You could tell John was giving everything he had and enjoying his time up there. The play is probably his best yet. The first act is hilarious and the second act is much much much darker, more a drama with a lot of funny moments. It is mostly about his career and his struggle as an artist. He shows such range and is able to flawlessly transition from a dramatic low to a comeidic high with the turn of his head. His perofrmance in this play are on a whole other level. He not only plays his familliar characters (moms, pops, gramps) but also Al Pacino, Steven Segal, Kurt Russell, and Sean Penn. Probably one of the best performances I have ever seen onstage. I would put it up there with Geoffery Rush in Exit the King and Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens. He is really something else.

He did come out the stagedoor (they are using the one on 45th street) and there were a ton of people there. He was accompanied by a security gaurd and a teenager (?) who were telling people that you could not take photos with him, only of him. But he ignored them and took a ton of photos with ppl. Also, he signs everything. Really nice guy.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/22/11 at 10:28pm

Getting home from tonight's performance, and am in total disagreement with the previous posters. I thought the evening for the most part was a total bore, and at two and half hours it ran WAY too long. By the last half hour or so I just kept hoping for it to end.

I'll give John that he has boundless energy, but it was never focused. He basically goes through his theater credits and highlights of his movie career, but it felt tedious and in the same turns self-congratulatory and complaint-riddled about how hard it's all been.

I don't know if he would consider it, but I think it would work so much better as a 90 or 100 minute one act. It just seemed like so much could be trimmed...

I will concede that there were those who were having a great time tonight, and if there's an audience for this show fine. I guess it's just not for me.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 2/22/11 at 10:51pm

The commercial/ad campaign looks sooo cheap!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/22/11 at 11:43pm

It's really 2 1/2 hours? That does seem a bit tedious to me. I'm assuming this will be taped for HBO since all his others were as well, right?

[mikem]

Posted: 2/22/11 at 11:56pm

I saw this show in one of the out-of-town tryouts and, at least in that incarnation, my feelings were more similar to those of WhizzerMarvin than those of the more enthusiastic posters. If you are a huge fan of Leguizamo, you will probably love this show. But, aside from Moulin Rouge, this is the first thing I had ever seen him in. He spends a large portion of the show telling stories about the shows and movies he's been in, and if you're unfamiliar with the material he's talking about, it all starts to blur together. There's a lot of "And then I was in THIS movie...And then I was in THAT movie..." and it doesn't seem to be building to anything specific. If I knew the movies, I would probably feel differently, but I didn't.

[willep]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 12:04am

I felt like every movie that he talked about had a specific reason for being in the show and all lead to where he is now. And if you think about how many he has actually been in (60+), he could have very easily gone into a rut of "And then I was in THIS movie..." etc. Just my thoughts.

[sundayclothes2]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 12:10am

I don't think there was one movie in it that was "and then I was in this one..."
I also did not know the movies except for Moulin Rogue but judging my the applause some of the titles got, I was in the minority.

The show ran 2 hours 10 minutes with a 15 minute intermission.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 12:17am

I was really hoping he would mention both "Super Mario Bros," which I own and adore and AMERICAN BUFFALO, which was a disaster two seasons ago.

I liked his story on "Executive Decision," another movie I love, but overall, I couldn't really relate to the material and was bored for some of it.

His true fans, however, will probably love it.

Edit: I also loved that he mentioned his flop TV series "House of Buggin'," which truly was horrendous...they even showed a clip from it!!
Updated On: 2/23/11 at 12:17 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 12:26am

He did talk about TO WONG FOO, didn't he?

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 12:56am

Yes he did talk about "Too Wong Foo" and showed some clips as well.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 1:44am

So what's the point of this?

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 5:49am

...What was the point of WISHFUL DRINKING?

It's just a good night out at the theatre, a retrospect of his career (and) what got Mr. Leguizamo back onstage. People have been asking and asking for another one of his shows (myself included), and now, we (his fans) have it.

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 10:50am

I actually liked House of Buggin'. :)

"The Pest"? Not so much.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 2/23/11 at 11:11am

Oh, I loved "The Pest!" Awful. But awfully entertaining!

[thismyshow]

Posted: 2/25/11 at 11:54pm

saw the show tonight.

thoughts on Ghetto Klown, while john is a talented performer did we really need another solo show from him? his 5th in 20 years btw, especially when in this new 1 he does not broach anything after 2001 which is when his last show sexaholic was produced (unless i missed a more recent timeline reference) also at 2.5 hours its very long, as colin quinn showed us earlier this season u can do a killer solo show in 75 minutes. and also it was the must annoying crowd ever people were yelling things at him the whole time and being ****ing annoying, had to ask to move seats because the women next to me (who told me she was from the bronx) would not shut up or stop texting on her phone, overall if you got nothing better to do they got 29 dollar balcony seats. if you spend 300 to sit front row i question your sanity/ money management

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/25/11 at 11:58pm

At least you had a good time.

[thismyshow]

Posted: 2/26/11 at 12:05am

im sorry what part of that post shows i had a good time lol

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/26/11 at 12:09am

Oh sorry. I thought you said you enjoyed the show but thought it was a little long and John was texting during it.

[eileen6]

Posted: 2/26/11 at 9:14am

I really enjoyed his first couple of times out and am so hoping that he will once again draw on what he knows best to carry this off. I loved everything until Sexaholic which I thought totally blew and it was my opinion that he plain lost his edge but maybe not. I will see it on April 3 and given the mixed opinions here, I will see.

[sundayclothes2]

Posted: 3/15/11 at 10:23pm

Updated On: 12/2/11 at 10:23 PM