Hilty & Simard to lead DEATH BECOMES HER in Chicago spring 2024; Broadway in the fall — Page 11

Thank you so much BalconyClub! I look forward to your posts.

Did they have an understudy list?

Oh, yay, I love BalconyClub updates. I'll be following this closely. Hearing about all the little changes is fascinating to me.

I saw the show again this evening after winning the lottery.


The crowd was not as enthusiastic as they were opening night, but there to be expected, I guess.


I noticed some changes but definitely cannot remember enough to give a detailed analysis like BalconyClub, but some of the scene transitions are clunky to me, some of the dialogue has changed just slightly enough that it appears they’re aware and working on it. I’m also not sure what I think about Madeline’s song in act one after seeing Helen’s book signing. She is having a breakdown on an empty set except for a stand that says “Valet” on it. The song also sounds like 4 different songs mashed into one. Megan does what she can with it, but I just didn't care for it.


I agree with others who are saying Michelle felt less nervous, but my conclusion is that she brings great vocals and looks beautiful, an actress, she ain’t. After the show I was discussing with a friend who was seeing it for the first time (I did not tell them a single thing about my opinions on seeing it Tuesday so they could walk in with a blind eye!) and someone mentioned it appears as if she doesn’t know what to do with her arms/hands when in the book scenes… and that explained a lot to me. She also had some dropped lyrics in “Siempre Viva” but recovered beautifully and moved on.


I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with this show, I’ve never really been a multiple viewer of anything, but I must admit, I’ve enjoyed watching the creative process evolve in just the most subtle ways.

Updated On: 5/4/24 at 01:33 AM

Received a post-show survey link and they also provided a discount code on a pair of tickets to any performance.

Any reports of people getting moved up like past Chicago out of town tryouts? I got $25 tix on the 25th for tomorrow night and our seats are really far back in the mezz, but there are many fully empty rows in front of us.

While it's true the film is going for a certain over the top humour, the film carries the tone largely because it understands itself as a genre piece. It was not trying to be for the gays it was trying to be a B-Movie sci-fi homage. And at the end of the day the poster a few pages back was correct. Intentional camp is incredibly hard to do. And frankly, musicals are the worst at trying to do it in my experience.

BrodyFosse123 said: "XANADU did it quite successfully in 2007."

Tone-wise, you are absolutely right. But business-wise, Death Becomes Her has such a steep hill to climb in order to succeed. Xanadu played a 600 seat theatre on Broadway with a small cast and band. Death Becomes Her is going to a 1500 seat theatre with a huge cast, orchestra, and set.

It will be very interesting to see how it all plays out.

Great point, Jordan. It’s right along the lines of letting the audience come to you and not the other way around. SUNSET BLVD has countless camp moments but never once plays them up. They are what they are and are played honestly. Hopefully they tone it down and focus on playing the comedy aspects instead of “camping” up the obvious for the gay’s whooping and shouting in their seats. This shouldn’t be a live-action Tex Avery cartoon.

Jordan Catalano said: "Seeing this in a few days and can’t wait. I am a bit worried with the “THIS IS FOR THE GAYS (GAZE)” mood of it. The original didn’t open in 1992 for gay men to enjoy or advertising to them. Hell, I’m sure it becoming a Queer classic wasn’t even in their radar when filming. But we pick up on these things and “claim them” and turn them into classics. Like “Mommie Dearest” and so many others before and after, and the thing is they’re never once trying to vie for our love. It just happens organically.

So taking something that a whole generation might not know now and turning it into an almost parody of itself as a “wink wink nudge nudge” to gays takes away from what made it so great and so camp. A wink here and there would be fine probably but turning the whole thing into that, I fear takes away from what made it work in the first place. I’m excited but also really worried because of all that."

Well put. It also misunderstand camp. Camp takes itself seriously. Yes, the original is a comedy, but Meryl and Goldie play it borderline melodrama, which makes it both fun and its over-the-top extremes, camp.

Jordan Catalano said: "Seeing this in a few days and can’t wait. I am a bit worried with the “THIS IS FOR THE GAYS (GAZE)” mood of it. The original didn’t open in 1992 for gay men to enjoy or advertising to them. Hell, I’m sure it becoming a Queer classic wasn’t even in their radar when filming. But we pick up on these things and “claim them” and turn them into classics. Like “Mommie Dearest” and so many others before and after, and the thing is they’re never once trying to vie for our love. It just happens organically.

So taking something that a whole generation might not know now and turning it into an almost parody of itself as a “wink wink nudge nudge” to gays takes away from what made it so great and so camp. A wink here and there would be fine probably but turning the whole thing into that, I fear takes away from what made it work in the first place. I’m excited but also really worried because of all that."

This. I’ll be curious what your thoughts are on the staircase fall based on the way you greatly described the parody/camp nature of what’s going on.

But we also need to consider, they’re trying to find a balance of staying true to the original story without playing it as if today was 1992 and this is high melodrama. There’s over 30 years of nostalgia and devotion to the source material and its camp status… and there can surely be some give and take that the team takes to their advantage on playing to that.

For many, it worked (at least based on over enthusiastic audience response at a first preview) and for many it won’t. I believe opening night is on or around May 19, so I’ll be curious to how this continues to develop, even as they look ahead to their Broadway transfer. I hope they take advantage of the time and try to open in the spring, but I’m sure it’ll be the fall. Then I’ll have to arrange a show weekend for this, Sunset, and Tammy Faye. I’m going “camping” that weekend. 😉

As a giant fan of the movie I'm sad I won't get to see this in Chicago, but the early reports about tone and content don't exactly bode well for a large-scale musical with a $20 million+ pricetag.

What's being described sounds incredibly niche.

XANADU limping to 500 performances at the Helen Hayes in 2007-08 is quite a different scale of show than something playing the Cadillac Palace or the Lunt.

Countless multi Tony Award winning performers and creatives have been attached to productions that heavily flopped so that doesn’t guarantee anything. Even LuPone has been involved with flops.