Happiness First Preview- Did anyone go?

[jv92]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 11:31pm

How was it? Please share! :)

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 11:40pm

I just got back and have to sift through my thoughts. It definitely was not what I was expecting. A bit bizzare, but the more that I think about the plot, the more I like it. The score is no Grey Gardens, but has some nice moments.

The acting and vocal performances are by far the highlight of the evening. I'll write a long description of my thoughts, but it's pretty hard to do without revealing MAJOR spoilers. If you are going to see it and want to stay surprised then don't read my next post.

Updated On: 2/27/09 at 11:40 PM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/27/09 at 11:57pm

Would you say it's worth full price? I can afford one full price ticket and I can't decide between this and West Side Story - only because I know Story will be around for the next year.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:01am

If you pay full price, don't sit in the front row on the right side...it is partial view. Sit a few rows back...

[ashley0139]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:13am

I tried to go, but there wasn't a ticket to be had. Well, at least I asked if they had any student rush and they said they were completely sold out. I thought I might have better luck on the first preview but no such luck.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:16am

MAJOR SPOILERS*************************


The first 15 minutes of Happiness were not very enjoyable and should be trimmed severely. The 9 major characters are seen going about their daily, hectic lives until they all end up on a subway train helmed by Hunter Foster, their 'Train Master.'

The passengers are a motley crew, but unite in complaining about the crappy MTA service when the train is delayed in a tunnel. It is soon revealed that they are all dead, and they're basically on the train to the afterlife. They are each allowed to choose a perfect happy moment and remain in that moment for eternity.

This is where the show gets better as each character gets their flashback moment and is allowed to leave the train. Some of the numbers really work, and some sadly don't. Unfortunately the worst number may have been Joanna Gleason's. Her song was very unmelodic, and perfect moment (giving Mick Jagger a blow job!) was a tad campy.

The other atrocious perfect moment was Miguel Cervantes' tooth fairy song. This was as bad as "Red" from Prince of Central Park. True horrific camp. His whole number should be rewritten. Plus he sang another awful song early on about being a sex god and receiving blow jobs. He also asked in another number if (now that he was dead) he would ever receive another blow job!! (I guess we knew what was on the creative team's mind.)

There was quite a bit of good though too. Jenny Powers is AWESOME as the woman who is having trouble finding her perfect moment. She belts two numbers to the rafters and has wonderful stage presence. This will be a nice rebound from her last career outing.

Fred Applegate is the second one to go, and has a touching moment about his dad taking him to a world series baseball game. Fred sounded great, and his flashback was sweet without sounding like it came straight from "Chicken Soup For the Soul."

Ken Page plays a gay architect that thinks back on visiting his lover in the hospital as he dies of AIDS. It could have been a tear-jerker, but something wasn't quite clicking. Maybe this will get ironed out in the preview period.

One of my favorite sequences of the night was a couple that had died together. They were young med students; one Jewish, one Chinese. Their moment was remembering using flashcards to memorize words to impress each others parents. It was genuine and believable as a moment you might want to spend eternity in.

Hunter's role was a little weird. He was also dead, and had a number about his horrible life he lead. Because he was not able to think up a happy moment when he died, he was doomed to ride the subway helping others figure out their happy moments.

Sebastian Arcelus got on the train by mistake and was trying desperately to get back the living. He was in top vocal form, and really sold the title number. Stephanie J. Block was in attendance and looked beautiful at the stagedoor. It was adorable how she announced, "And now the magnificent Sebastian Arcelus!"

Stroman's direction was elaborate, and for the most part worked. It did create a few bad sightlines for the people on the sides, so if you have the choice view this one from the center sections. Jenny Power's dance during her flashback was especially well choreographed/staged.

Overall I would recommend the show, and will definitely have to see it myself again to pick up more the details.

Updated On: 2/28/09 at 12:16 AM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:16am

Good to know, Trace. What did you think? Yay or nay?

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:18am

I'm really not sure what to think of it. Parts of it were great. Other parts were cringeworthy. It definitely deserves multiple viewings...

[jv92]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:22am

Sounds...strange.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:22am

I would suggest going, if for no other reason but to see the wonderful cast perform a new work. If you're one of those people saying you're fed up with Disney and mainstream Broadway then this show is for you. It doesn't play it safe, even if it derails occasionally.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:28am

Ugh, I so want to read your review Whizz, but I don't want to spoil it, if it's that much of a surprise.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:31am

"It doesn't play it safe, even if it derails occasionally."

brilliantly put.

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:47am

this is the same plot as the play "100," produced in london several years back. is the musical crediting 100, billing itself as an adaptation of the play, or is this a common plot like romeo and juliet that anyone can adapt from...?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 12:51am

I believe there is no rush at all. You're going to have to pay full price if you want to see this one.

Rentboy: I'll PM you with a less spoiler laden review

Updated On: 2/28/09 at 12:51 AM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 1:03am

Thanks!

How are the technical aspects? I'm big on sets and whatnot.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 1:09am

For an off-Broadway show the set is elaborate. The subway car moves around frequently, and other set pieces are brought in and out with ease. Stroman really did a nice job with the direction.

This is being billed as an original work.

Updated On: 2/28/09 at 01:09 AM

[ozbwayfan]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 1:13am

"this is the same plot as the play "100," produced in london several years back..."

guettboy, I was going to say the same thing. It sounds strikingly similar to the plot of 100. Maybe it is based on a classic text or something? Though I remember the that the "moments of happiness" in "100" were more profound than blowjobs and flashcards...

[burntplains]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 1:45am

Don't sit in front row all the way to the right. The sight lines were pretty bad but got better as the show progressed.

I really liked the show and can only hope it will improve in the coming weeks.

Now, I love me some Joanna Gleason but her song was worthless. I feel like they ran out of ideas.. It should have been something a little more complex. I mean I guess the whole thing could work but the song needs to be scrapped and re-written.

Jenny Powers... WOW.. did she tear it up. One of the best.. if not the best performance in the show.

Overall, the show was VERY REFRESHING. It's nice to see something good, new and clever that has so much potential.

you could for sure hear the GG influences in the score but it was no match to the brilliance of GG..

Overall a fun night:) GO SEE IT!!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 1:54am

Whizzer, can't you post your "less spoiler laden" comments here? I'm sure a lot of us would like to see them.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 2:01am

Sucks they probably won't have time to rewrite her a song.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 2:04am

Joanna Gleason's song and "happiness idea" both need to be scrapped. That was one of the low points in the show...very disappointing.

The other low point was the tooth fairy in drag...horrendous.

Jenny Powers was absolutely brilliant. I am looking forward to seeing this again (from a better angle) and seeing what changes they make.


EDIT: Also, any and all mention of blow jobs needs to be omitted.
Updated On: 2/28/09 at 02:04 AM

[mormonophobic]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 8:18am

I will warn you ahead of time that I got a bit carried away here. I warn for spoilers, but it is best to read this after you have seen the show or if you don’t care about knowing the plot, as I don’t give too much away otherwise.

Without going into too much detail (as it really would spoil the fun of the show) I have to say I have such mixed feelings about this show. While it was great seeing all of this talent together doing an original (and I can't stress that word enough) piece, it still doesn't really make it good. It's not even that Happiness is necessarily bad, because it isn't. But there are seriously moments in the show (most have been mentioned here, but *SLIGHT SPOILER RIGHT AHEAD* Gleason shedding her tough demeanor and business gear, being drowned out by the chorus, and insinuating what is explained as a “happy ending” to a Stone…I mean REALLY?!?) *END OF EVER-SO-SLIGHT SPOILAGE* that just make you scratch your head. More than once I wanted to turn to those next to me and just revel in the campy flopiness of it all. I have to give the show praise for (almost) never being boring. Though it took some time to get that train going it eventually did take off with some gusto. For instance, that opening number, while nice/understandable in retrospect just felt like a completely generic mismatch of songs from the 'townspeople singing'/ 'New York is oh so busy and vibrant'/ 'let's just put something big at the start of the show so we aren't stuck in a small space with small numbers for a while' camps. And while I really can't imagine the song that follows (“Blips”, Hunter Foster’s first song) opening the show, the current opener “Just Not Right Now” is, well, Just Not Right.
I also feel that the plot device surprisingly worked. Again, for those who don’t wish to know anything about the show beyond what you’ve already read here, do not stray any further or you will be disappointed.

Anyhoo…while I originally thought the very idea of strangers trapped on a subway recounting their favorite moments was perhaps the worst idea for a musical ever, what they do with it is actually quite magical. By instead having this be a train taking them to their final destination, back and forever to that favorite memory, it makes the material that much stronger and I feel they utilize it well. That being said, the lines leading up to the use of said plot device could not have fallen flatter. The few minutes where one character mentioned being stuck on a subway as one of the “worst moments ever” and then another asking what the best was, eventually leading to the obvious conclusion that they all were going to be sharing these moments, were just awkward and came off rather poorly. Once everyone realized where they actually were and just how important the choosing of these moments was, the notion and show itself started going.

The memories and accompanying songs are really what the show is about and this is why I feel the opening number and the atrocious “Sex on Wheels” need to go, the latter as soon as possible. They advance the plot about as much as the songs found in Spring Awakening. When the show works it is in these small moments, where each cast member gets to shine as individuals. The memories and songs of Helen, Kevin, Neil & Cindy, and (for me at least) especially Maurice really were done quite well. And since each song is based on these memories, the style of each piece is rather different, yet the overall tone and feeling of nostalgia is always looming. I absolutely loved the staging behind “Fibberty Jibbers and Wobbly Knees”. The way the older Helen and Young Helen danced with Tommy, at moments trading off so one was dancing with air while the other sang, was done well and the song itself is a fun, yet simple USO number. It also shows us that not all of the best moments really change you all that much, as this was not the man she married or started a life with. It was just a moment of love, a moment of romance, one single moment of happiness.

While the show did run a bit long (and at times felt like it was doing so), this can be fixed quite easily by losing or fixing some numbers. The aforementioned two are absolutely clunkers, especially “Wheels”, as Cervantes already gets his moment to shine later on in the show (more on that below). But it is more noticeable just how unnecessary (or at the very least unpolished) numbers like “Perfect Moments” and “Step up the Ladder” (Foster’s big number in the show) are when they are what surrounds perhaps the best song of the show. “Family Flashcards”, a song about a Chinese woman and Jewish man who chose to live together and just so happened not only to die together, but they also chose the same moment to live forever in. The ensuing song in which they cram for the following day, in which they will both be immersed in the other’s culture seemingly for the first time, is classical musical theater at its best. Though it is essentially about memorization, it’s an adorable song both because the two portraying Cindy and Neil (Pearl Sun and Robert Petkoff) have splendid chemistry and also because the song is just so fun and memorable.

Although I speak at great lengths about things needing to be trimmed, there is one area they could certainly add to and that is anything involving Jenny Powers. As already stated in this thread, she is phenomenal. The Mitzi E. Newhouse isn’t that big a theater, but Jenny Powers projected with such force that it is no wonder her surname is what it is. As Gina, she portrays (in my opinion) the deepest of the characters, something so ironic since she tries for most of the show to project utter shallowness. Not only did she hit her songs out of the park in terms of vocal prowess and emotional resonance, but she also was one of the few people on the stage I truly felt knew what they were doing with their character the entire time. From where I was sitting (front row, to the right side) some sight lines were problematic, but when Gina is turning away from the others, either trying to hide her lies, or reach deep within in a desperate attempt to find any memorable moment, she was facing our direction. At the stage door Powers said she was afraid that since she has so many of these moments where she’s just standing there, so many moments of silence, she wasn’t quite sure how the audience felt. Yet the entire time I could not take my eyes off of her, as she just had this hopeless look on her face of someone so totally in character. A Gina who talks of the Paris Metro being much more preferable to these pedestrian subways, who tries to fake her way into a final resting place of her own imagination, as opposed to actual memory. But really, just a sad little girl staring off into space realizing that in all her hiding behind that wonderfully-constructed persona, she instead built walls, separating her from people, from ever realizing her dreams, and from any true happiness.

In the end, the show really isn’t all that bad. There are some parts that are completely incongruent with others, but not just in style and tone. If it were simply this, it would be understandable, as each song is really supposed to be as different as the memory it represents. However, it is more a problem of the show being at times quite good and at times just laugh-out-loud terrible. At times touching with a certain sense of beauty, and at times nothing more than terribly campish fodder. On the plus side, even when it is “bad” it is still completely original and innovative. Alright, the use of a subway as setting is hardly original. The concept of a bunch of strangers being drawn together by their differences and forced to share something so intimate – not so original. Hell, even the deeper plot device/twist(?) of these people being dead and getting to spend eternity in this one moment they choose is not at all original, having being (better) explored in the 1998 Japanese film After Life. But never before have these ideas been explored in such a manner. Never before (or probably ever again) will you have such talent both in terms of cast and creative team in a show that is just too uneven for its own good. And absolutely never again will you see a show where scenes with a gay man having a final picnic at the side of his dying lover or an old man with cancer recounting a lovingly simple day from his youth at the ballpark with his father, are somehow accompanied by a man in a tutu dong the Tooth Fairy Dance or Joanna Gleason in all her glory and a (badly-placed but it’s the first preview so I won’t hold it against them) hippy wig dancing, jiving, and blowing Mick Jagger. If this is happiness, I can’t even begin to imagine what Sorrow might be.

[dg22894]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 8:49am

Thanks for the review!

[notabb]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 10:27am

I'll keep this brief. Show needs some work but nothing they can't handle I'm sure. For the most part , it's original and absorbing.It is episodic and 2 of the episodes aren't working ( out of 8 ) But they are are near the end of the show.With Miguel's segment ( The Tooth Fairy Song)I felt the situation was fine but the song didn't work. Worse was Arlene's segment ( Joanna Gleason ) they set up a fascinating character and then give you a resolution I found unbelievable. Replacing the song won't work they need to come up with a different answer for her because the one they have know doesn't feel right at all. But the ones that do work have such emotional resonance. I found myself very moved at times. One technical item I'm sure they'll get to , the music at times was a little loud and made some lyrics hard to hear and Michael Korie's lyrics are SO GOOD you don't want to miss one. This show is well worth checking out. Best thing Stroman has done for a while. I want the cd so I can hear STEP UP THE LADDER again.

[Fabala42]

Posted: 2/28/09 at 11:24am

I ended up going to the first preview as well... stood in cancellation. To answer the question about student rush, I doubt they will have any. It's based on ticket sales, and since those are WAY high, any given show over the next couple of weeks only has 1 or 2 tickets available. But the cancellation worked out well, got my ticket at 8 PM, had time to run down, grab my seat, and settle briefly before the show.

I agree with most of what was posted, but, with the exception of the *transition* of the tooth fairy scene, that was one of my personal favorites.

I have a ticket for a later performance, so I'm glad to be able to see it once the kinks have been ironed out.

Overall, I say that the full ticket price is VERY much worth it. There were some gorgeous, tender moments, as well as some pretty funny ones as well. I left the show thinking about it, and that, in my opinion, is the best thing about the show.