Holiday Inn Previews — Page 4

We bought our tickets for Christmas week and, judging from some of the comments, I sure hope it's not as bad as some of the posts. I started to watch the Corbin Bleu podcast/video diary that shows snippets from rehearsal and interviews. I think you have to be willing, as least partly, to appreciate how much Irving Berlin songs still resonate. His catalog has become a part of The Great American Songbook. Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald have both recorded his extensive library, not to mention everyone from Grace Jones to Doris Day to even Barbra Streisand.

I watched "Holiday Inn" for the first time last year. It's not Easter Parade but it has its' charm. I am still looking forward to seeing it, especially to see how they they've made the "needed" changes. I'm sure the blackface numbers are gone. They also had a "Mammy" type housekeeper. I don't remember a jump rope dance but CB sure has big shoes to fill. Fred Astaire does do the Firecracker song in the movie with his unbelievable choreography. I do very much like Bryce Pinkham and I'm hoping for the best.

Mr Roxy said: "The phrase " Blew me away" is,I believe, way past its shelf life.Sounds like something a starstruck teen might say. Just my opinion and feel free to use it if you feel it does it for you.

Have tried to resist for a while now--but sometimes you just can't with some contributors so without saying anything[me] I now feel free to read and resist again---until again when I just can't.

"

Updated On: 9/15/16 at 04:09 PM

Which of these musicals doesn't belong?

Cabaret
On The 20th Century
The Robber Bridegroom
She Loves Me
Holiday Inn

Maybe Roundabout just blew its budget last year and went with something not too expensive to stage and likely to please a lot of folks with its score and musical numbers.

What kind of an orchestra did the show have?

Updated On: 9/16/16 at 09:14 PM

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers starred in eight films together between 1935 and 1940. Opinions differ, of course, but to me if given the question if I only watch one Astaire/Rogers film in my life, it should be... the answer would be Swing Time. This one featured a sublime original score from Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. The Oscar award winning "Just the Way You Look Tonight" is the most popular song by number of iTunes downloads of all the songs recorded by Rod Stewart in his "Great American Songbook" albums. There is also the comic "Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off" and the sarcastic love song "A Fine Romance."

The instrumental and incidental music written by Kern is also superb.

Yet another feature of Swing Time is Fred Astaire donning blackface and performing a tribute to the famous African American tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who -- I'm not making this up -- became famous as a dance partner with Shirley Temple in early 30s films.

This number has never to my knowledge been deleted from the film, nor has their been much complaint against it. This is probably due to the great feeling that Astaire put into the number as not just a tribute to Robinson but as a tribute to all the great African American tap dancers, including the one who had taught Astaire, John Bubbles. The number itself is considered to be too distinctive to take out.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, although Robinson was well paid, his generosity and fondness for gambling left him with little money. When he died, he received tributes from royalty, the White House, and members of the U.S. president’s cabinet.

(It's about a minute before we get from the chorus girls to Astaire. Payoff probably worth it.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuAIJhB45wM

If you should be in a Fred and Ginger mood, here is the elegant climactic dance number (with Ginger).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82PazvWQqU0

Updated On: 9/18/16 at 10:16 PM

Caught this tonight....it was sweet, I'm a sucker for tap. Is it great theater? No, but enjoyable enough and many older theater goers will love it.

I recently caught this, and I was just about bored to tears a vast majority of the evening. This show is just SO bland. Why Roundabout put this in their lineup is beyond me, and it pales majorly in comparison to some of their recent musical offerings like She Loves Me and On the Twentieth Century.


The cast was alright. No one really has any standout moments, so there's not much to say. Shout out to the ensemble though for KILLING that choreography, though. The highlights of the evening could definitely be credited to the choreography.


The set and costumes were fine, but, like the rest of the show, absolutely nothing to write home about.


I have never seen the film, so I went in blind. The story was just not interesting. I don't mind sweet and fluffy shows, but this wasn't either of those things... it was just bland and the story just fell very flat.


After the resplendent revival of She Loves Me, this was pretty disappointing. While I didn't HATE it, I can't say that I liked it either. As others have mentioned, this show just doesn't really belong on Broadway. It belongs in community theatres.

Updated On: 9/27/16 at 07:23 AM

And to add another bit of trivia to OlBlueEyes' post about "Swing Time": For three years in the 1930s, a category existed at the Academy Awards for Best Dance Direction. It was a weird category, citing film choreographers for specific numbers within films rather than for their work in an entire film. In some instances, they were nominated for different numbers from different films, but it only counted as a single nomination, if that makes sense. Anyway, legendary choreographer Hermes Pan was nominated for the "Bojangles of Harlem" number from "Swing Time." He lost, but would win the award the next year for a number from the film "A Damsel in Distress." The category would be disbanded the year after that, I believe because of complaints from the directors guild.

There's your useless piece of film trivia on this stormy (in Chicago) Wednesday morning.

That's great for Denis Jones! Finally making a name for himself after following in Jerry Mitchell's shoes for so long. I may have to see it just for his work. ( on TDF of course)

CATSNYrevival said: "Does anyone know if the creative team has been using the preview period to fix up the book? Have there been any changes implemented at all or is it pretty much frozen?


I overheard the usher say that the running time has been changing throughout previews so it seems like they're doing something.

Show got out at 10:20pm on the dot the night I saw it.

Wow, they must have really tightened this thing up because it says 2h15m in the insert, but it was exactly 4:15 this afternoon when I looked at my phone a good 2-3 minutes after the curtain call was over.



The cast is great all around, but the book could've either used more depth or more jokes. Something. I know it's based on the movie, but act one kinda laid there for a good portion of act one. I've never seen the movie so I can't compare, but as a show, it was a snooze for long stretches. That said, act two moves a lot more and I felt like it was much more lively.

I was able to get Hiptix for this. Looking forward- and my first purchase as a Hiptix member. :)

I could get used to Broadway at $25 a pop.

Delightful is exactly the word I'd use to describe it. I expected much worse based on the reviews here but I found it to be wonderful. Didn't notice any book issues and loved the cast.