HEY, LOOK ME OVER! - Encores

One of the most bizzare things I have ever seen in my life.

A parade of overtures, book scenes, solos, duets, dance numbers and group numbers from a group of mostly forgotten shows, with an all star cast including Bebe Neuwirth, Douglas Sills, Vanessa Williams, Judy Kuhn, Carolee Carmello, Nancy Opel, Bob Martin, and many, many others.

The Encores orchestra was, as always, amazing. The performers were wonderful.

The material was excruciatingly bad, with a few rare exceptions. There were a few extended book sequences where I came very close to asking the person sitting next to me to slit my throat to save me from the boredom. The songs are almost all terrible. Of course they have "Hey, Look Me Over", from WILDCAT which is at least hummable, and also "Once Upon a Time", which is gorgeous, but for the most part, there is a reason that these shows flopped, and aside from a Theatre 101 type educational look at this history, there is not much logic for this thing to exist.

Bob Martin's narration is the highlight of the evening. He is the perfect host.

I appreciate Encores for the ambition here, but it just doesn't click. I wish it did.

I feel most bad for the many school groups who were comped into tonight's performance. If HEY, LOOK ME OVER made them think that this is what theatre is, they will never return for the rest of their lives.

Interesting to hear. I just got TDF tickets for Sat night but spending $30~ dollars a tickets is better than 100+. I'm familiar with a number or the shows (and done a few) so it could be more interesting than not.

I was worried that the show would be bizarre and boring. I have not bought a ticket and probably won't.

IMHO, the shows that presented strongest were "All-American" "George M" & "Greenwillow" which had the highest musical values going - esp. one terrific # "Never Will I Marry" by Clifton Duncan. Some of the stronger players were Marc Kudisch (less than vocally present with a different sounding wireless mic), Vanessa Williams, Bebe Neuwirth (not sounding as wobbly as she has in the past but still not able to rise above Elaine Stritches take on "Why Do the Wrong People Travel" from Sail Away, Tam Mutu & Doug Sills. Not coming off as well was "Milk & Honey" & "Wildcat."

Updated On: 2/7/18 at 02:18 PM

What was the runtime for this?

WhizzerMarvin said: "This was indeed a strange evening, but let's not blame the shows presented, but rather the way they were presented. We didn't need any book scenes or even multiple songs from the different shows. I would much rather have gotten song, song, song and included more shows.

Milk & Honey may have a problematic book (I saw the recent Mufti production) but the score is wonderful and the OBCR a joy. Why have Nancy Opel out there as Clara if you're not going to have her sing any of her songs? The segments were all so padded and as delightful as Martin's narration was, it bogged down the evening and never let things catch fire.

Look, anyone in the audience at an Encores like this (or any other) already knows all the songs/cast recordings and we don't need all the connective tissue, especially when it wasn't very informative.

I would have thrown in more numbers like Not On Your Nellie from Darling of the Day, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer from The Rink (or more ideally, Angel's Rink and Social Center), The Thank You Song from Maggie Flynn, Here and Now and/or The Coconut Girl from Girl Who Came to Supper, Steady, Steady from Bravo Giovanni, Any dance number from Seesaw, Swing Your Bag from Cry For Us All, The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous from Mr President. You get the picture: a crowd pleaser from these flop scores that we so desperately want to hear again live.

Mack and Mabel is a fantastic score, but for these purposes I would have had Mack sing I Won't Send Rose and Mabel do Wherever He Ain't and move on.

The best parts were the overtures to Wildcat and Subways; I Was a Shoo-In would have killed in this setting!

I do hope we see full versions of these shows at Encores, or maybe like a live version of an OBCR. The Grass Harp act one and The Gay Life act two. No book. Just the songs and original orchestrations.

It wasn't like this was painful by any means, and any chance we get to hear these scores live makes me feel guilty about complaining, but to think what could have been..."

WhizzerMarvin you will forever be the voice of reason here. You are just so spot on!

A miserable old coot with taste, Carlosalberto ( and I won't reduce myself to name calling. I'll leave that for President Trump and his ilk.)

How does this compare to Prince of Broadway?

And the Times review is in:



https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/theater/review-hey-look-me-over-encores-city-center.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftheater&action=click&contentCollection=theater&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront