jbird5 said: "I guess an obvious cut is the opening of Act 2. I feel bad for the actress if that happens."
That won't happen.
From The Hollywood Reporter: "Perhaps the most Minchin-esque touch is "Playing Nancy," in which ditzy small-town beauty Nancy archly deconstructs her assigned dramatic function as "the perky-breasted, giggly one-night stand," a minor player in the lives of more important characters. A refreshingly bold opener for the second act, this witty ballad is a smartly self-referential commentary on sexual politics both on and offstage, like a built-in Bechdel Test. A few more similarly inspired touches might elevate Groundhog Day from good to great, but respect is due for these gently subversive twists on the cinematic source material."
From the Evening Standard review ("Why this Hollywood blockbuster is just what London's theatre needs" – "a throwaway thought in the film about being one of life’s also-rans is amplified in song rather touchingly by Nancy."
From the Guardian: "Rita is one of the beneficiaries of the musical format, which gives her room to reveal in song emotions that would have no other place in the story. That goes double for Nancy, a minor character who gets a solo at the start of Act Two – “Playing Nancy"– in which she challenges her own slender role in the narrative."
Let's also remember the cast album has already been recorded and is being released in 3 weeks. At this point the score is the score, love it or hate it. And with that, here's Ben Brantley on the musicalization, from his rave in London (one of several US critics to love it over there), one of many to note how the musical improves upon its source material:
"As he demonstrated in his score for “Matilda,” Mr. Minchin is an inspired mixmaster of darkness and brightness. Even this show’s early numbers, extolling the homespun virtues of small-town life with harmonic “aahs” and folksy bluegrass chords, have a depressive undertow. And when Mr. Minchin feels like signaling angst, he brings on the electric guitars and vocals for Mr. Karl that bring to mind Michael Stipe losing his religion.
It is cool (as in hip) and warm (as in cuddly); it is spiky and sentimental. It transforms its perceived weaknesses into strengths in ways that should disarm even veteran musical-haters. You know that whole trapped-in-time element of the plot, wherein everything is repeated ad infinitum? Isn’t that what often drives you crazy about musicals, having to listen to the same damn melodies and watch the same dance steps over and over? Well, Mr. Warchus and company know all about those fears and make cunningly sadistic use of them."
Updated On: 3/18/17 at 03:41 PM
