Ghost the Musical

I'm sitting here listening to the music prepping to see it's regional premiere in SLC... and I'm still stunned it didn't last longer on Broadway.

I have no idea if the staging left people cold, or if it was a combination of things that just didn't work in the end (were the tonal shifts between tragic/emotional and comic too much?)- but there are truly some great songs in this score (in my opinion...) With You, Suspend my Disbelief, Rain/Hold On and Nothing Stops Another Day to name a few. The contemporary score is very propulsive when it needs to be, and more subdued and introspective at other times. Some of the melodies are gorgeous..

It sounds like they had great leads in Levy and Fleishmann and an entertaining supporting performance by Randolph...

So what happened?

GHOST the musical reviews (BWW Board)

"Ghost Appreciation" thread

Ugh, why can't there be more than one link per post??

Here is the last one I'm posting:
Another Ghost thread...

I'm probably in one of those threads above. I think the at times charming (if power ballad heavy) score was smothered in the "state-of-the-art" production. I believe a semi-un-plugged production, more chamber-styled, could make a persuasive case. The story is a good one, the plot filled with emotional suspense. It was so overcooked (and over-amplified; ear-splitting in the Lunt-Fontanne, and I'm one older fart boomer who loves his shows loud.)

The top of the second act, in particular, has a successful series of connected numbers. The "Rain" sequence. One of the challenges in the material is keeping the heroine from drowning in her grief. It's only partially solved, as problems go, but that opening to act two is a good example of how it cooks when it works. When she takes off on a mission, activated, the composers give her some rock-infused drive. When she holes up and keens, well, we know the result. There's probably one tear-stained navel-gazer too many, but a lot of it works.

And it has that infectious opening number, "Here Right Now," almost done-in on Broadway by projections. They created an intimate opening number for three voices (go back and watch the workshop recording, to see how well it started) and then buried it, quite literally, in projections. Imagine introducing your main characters through a scrim and then keeping them there. I swear, it still stuns me how wrong-headed it was.

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Updated On: 3/3/15 at 02:39 PM

I saw the first Broadway preview and I know a few songs were deleted/added, so I didn't see the final production but I walked away enjoying it but I doubt it's something I would go out of my way to see again. The biggest issue was that the two leads had zero chemistry and were pretty terrible in the show (and I've a fan of Levy but her acting here was so bad). The projections also got incredibly annoying. The woman who played Oda Mae (Mya Day Rudolph? I can't remember her name, sorry lol) was excellent and had the audience in the palm of her hand. The score is mostly excellent, with a few clunkers.

I'd recommend it for the most part, definitely. I'm still kind of surprised it did as bad as it did. It's definitely a crowd pleaser.

^ thanks for that link, Anthony... interesting to be sure.

Although I haven't seen it, I am definitely intrigued in stripping down the theatrics to get to the core of the story. I'd be interested to see which songs they eliminated in the reading.

Curious what Hale Center in SLC will do with it. I will be seeing it in a couple of weeks.

This was one of the first shows I ever saw on Broadway, and I walked out having loved every minute of it. Ever since then I've been baffled by the bad reviews.

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I can barely stomach the cast recording because of all the unnecessary dialogue on it.

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^ thanks for that link to your review, Tyler... appreciate your thoughts.

I am going to be seeing the M-W-F cast. Have you heard if the leads are stronger than the T-Th-S cast you saw (based on your review...)

Also - I'm interested in which songs they included/left out from the London Cast Recording - do you have a song listing?

Thanks!

The American Tour version was a vast improvement in material while maintaining the epic size and scale. I wonder if they will license the large and intimate version together, or use the intimate as the only available version now?

I loved the show. Maybe because I was in the fourth row, it was easy for me to be pulled into the story (which I loved i n the movie) but I was engrossed with what was going on on the stage. Loved Cassie Levy's voice. I remember that there was some pretty spectacular effects with lighting and video too.

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Are people in England big Patrick swayed fans? Also it seems to me that lead characters are only good when there are good people in them such as Richard and Cassie. Also what's richard doing nowadays? That guy was/is smoking hot! Also Alison Luff's "With You" is just heartbreakingly phenomenal!

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Updated On: 3/3/15 at 11:34 PM