Go-Gos musical HEAD OVER HEELS will open at Broadway’s Hudson this summer — Page 3

bear88 said: "I have serious doubts about this musical. But I live in the SF Bay Area, my wife and daughter want to see it, I've got the week off, so I'll probably see one of the first performances at the Curran later in the week. I'm planning to go in as cold as possible.

That said, I'm much more intrigued by Vietgone, the play I'm seeing Tuesday at the ACT's Strand Theater. It's been a huge hit on tour here, admittedly at a small venue (283 seats).,"

I saw Vietgone about a month ago. It's really quite good. The final scene is touching and very poignant. As a side note, A.C.T. let a couple bring in their baby into the theater. Not a young child, an actual baby And he did what babies do, forcing the parents to hustle him out of the theater both during Act 1 and Act 2. If it wasn't for the idiot whose phone went off 3 times, that would have been the biggest distraction.

going to the first preview tomorrow with an open mind....

will report in

New writer and adapter is James Magruder according to https://sfcurran.com/the-currant/interviews/james-magruder/

Updated On: 4/10/18 at 04:17 AM

I find it ... odd, to say the least, that Magruder never once mentions that he's adapting Jeff Whitty's original creation. At least Whitty is officially credited elsewhere as the original creator of the piece, but it seems that the present creative team is trying to expunge him from the record. It's always sad when show folk behave as sleazily as corporate folk.

Whitty is also making it very clear he has no involvement in the Broadway production. His Twitter bio: "Let it be known: I have nothing creatively to do with the musical property called “Head Over Heels” that is mounting a Broadway stage."

More barbed is his bio on PlayOnSF.org:

"Jeff Whitty is the author of The Old Head Over Heels, the legal production of which occurred in Ashland, Oregon in 2015. He has since been adapted."

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Updated On: 4/10/18 at 09:54 AM

The article has been edited to acknowledge Whitty’s contribution. I wonder if there were complaints.

If anyone at tonight's first preview can let me know if front row is too close/too high, looking to book seats to this soon...

It's a witty book!

Nervously excited to read the reports of this one, it has a pretty interesting concept and a solid cast. If the early word of mouth is good enough I might grab a ticket for the first preview on Broadway.

i left at intermission for only the second time in over 200 shows

The main reason i left was i just wasnt enjoying it very much and wasnt entertained-the story itself was not interesting or clever, the show is set in a mythical land where everyone speaks in quasi old english (very annoying), I didnt get to know like or care about any of the characters (felt like wooden stereotypes), most of the gogos songs in the first act were album cuts i didnt recognize or enjoy ( and im a gogos fan), and the shoehorning of songs to fit the story was painful. trying to find pluses there was some good dancing and a few funny lines/site gags, and one support character playing the shepard/amazon was funny and getting most of what few laughs there were. the audience seemed to enjoy it more than i did, although I did see several others walk out in the first act and in the bathroom line during intermission people were trashing the show pretty hard.

I saw lestat pre broadway and this reminded me of that- it had good actors, it had good people involved and it just wasnt interesting or satisfying.

Maybe my filters are skewed because I just came back from nyc last month after seeing the bands visit, and seeing hamilton and dear evan hansen,both again (the very very best of musical theatre) and this show is soooo far below what i feel good musical theatre is and can be.

spend money on this at your own peril. I know some people on this board like to see bad shows....if thats you then you are in for a treat.

antonijan, I think you caught broadwaysfguy. I'm not supposed to say this, but I am pretty sure he's got a financial interest in Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and The Band's Visit - and he's coming on this board to criticize the opening night tryout of a bound-for-Broadway musical that might prompt all of those shows to close prematurely. Sure, that's pretty implausible. Someone should have found out by now. But he's got a golden touch when it comes to picking successful Broadway musicals, and the ability to keep his vested interest a secret even from the tight-knit Broadway community. How else to explain his oft-stated affection for the doomed and critically panned SF tryout of Roman Holiday, or the Berkeley Rep tryout of Ain't Too Proud, also on its way to Broadway? It's all a clever ruse, but you saw through it.

The other possibility, admittedly more mundane, is that he's a regular musical theater enthusiast in the SF Bay Area who really didn't like Head Over Heels.

But that's boring. Go with the conspiracy theory. It's more fun.

Updated On: 4/11/18 at 09:57 PM

hi bear88 and antonijan
you are both musical theatre lovers in the bay area just like me. im not financially involved in any musicals because its a terrible investment with 1 out of five chance of recouping and thats once its made it to broadway.
i do feel like an investor given that i spend thousands a year to see shows

its always fascinating to me that you antonijan and i can see the same show and the same night and have profoundly different experiences.
i dont think its good or bad its the magic of artistic endeaver and how it affects each of us very personally viscerally and sometimes profoundly.

rainman wong loves to jab me for seeing roman holiday six times. hes very intellectually dishonest when he continually brings it up as a way to attempt to discredit my opinion on other shows.

i said openly i was rooting for roman holidays success, mainly because i absolutely love and admire cole porter and what a brilliant and clever songwriter he was. rainman always omits that i had huge issues with the show itself and recommended major changes b4 it would be ready for broadway if ever. i was not an investor or employee or contractor with the production(i know many posters are).

if i ever do have a vested interest in a show(not likely because its a bad investment) ill happily share it with the board because i have integrity something rainman and some other posters sadly lack.

thanks bear88 for your response it made me laugh.
you and i dont always see eye to eye on shows but i always reaspect your opinion and your thoughtful assessment of shows.

i truly wish for all musicals to be successful because it results in more investors willing to support the art form and more chances for a new truly great musical.

if i had creative suggestions which i thought could help make head over heels not have an early closing i would share them.

i am also a genuine huge go gos fan (another false equivalency rainman wong posed that i couldnt be a true go gos fan if i didnt stay for the second act) i still have their first album on vinyl. ive seen them live half a dozen times going back to their first headline tour off the first album when they played berkeley community and i have a ranked playlist of their top 40 songs. their music is pure early 80s LA and if anyone asked me about doing a musical using go gos music
my first question would be why? and my second response would be “so its a biopic of the rise and fall of a girl group?”

i fall in with many on this board that jukebox biopics can be great but jukebox shoehorns into an original story are mostly a really really really bad idea and bway is strewn with the corpses of these types of shoes.

When are the local official reviews coming in? I would guess after the Opening Night next Wed? I'll try to make my own