"Honeymoon in Vegas" Preview Thread — Page 5

Saw it the other evening. It was a great deal of fun at Paper Mill. A lot of that fun is still there, but the pressure of Broadway seems to be looming over them. I hope they settle into it during previews and wish them only the best.

In other news, I was seated behind Constantine Marquis. He has some of the worst theatre etiquette I've ever seen. (As do the group he was with.) Texting, tweeting, talking, climbing over seats -- all while the performance was going on. Pretty sad.

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"Because Lord knows they haven't had any time to do that already, despite a full-scale production a few minutes from Broadway that happened more than a year ago and a full workshop three years ago."

Who gives a ****. Its a whole different story when they are finally in front of audiences. They just need to find their groove, and listen to what gets the laughs. They just started previews and have over a month of rehearsals and previews before opening. It was awesomeeee at paper mill and I'm sure they're gonna get the energy again

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Well whatever the problem is! I bet its gonna be great on opening night. They have flying elvis's :)

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LOL wtf was that newintown? Did i do something to offend you? Clearly, YOURE the cranky one. No they were in front of audiences at Paper Mill, and it was great! People enjoyed it including Brantley. The point is that they are not at Paper Mill anymore, they are on Broadway (even if paper mill is only 30 minutes away). And you can't tell me that every broadway show is perfect when they start previews. Thats why they have this period, to fix everything before opening. And things do change drastically during previews so idk wtf you're talking about

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Updated On: 11/21/14 at 11:21 AM

^ Very true. I highly doubt they are actually going to use this preview period to make changes. It's probably pretty frozen as is.

Personally, I've never seen a Broadway show in the last 20 years undergo a truly substantive change in previews - as an example, I'm thinking of the case of replacing "Penny In My Pocket" with "Before The Parade Passes By" in Hello, Dolly, or (on a slightly less extreme level) replacing "Love Is In The Air" with "Comedy Tonight" in Forum (admittedly these changes happened before Broadway, but only briefly so, in the period out of town that now happens in town). Something that requires a major rethinking of structure, set, costumes, and meaning of the show. Today, it's mostly moving songs around or replacing a song with something that's only superficially different.

Jason stood next to my aisle at the end of the show, and I saw he had a pad of paper and notes written on a page in his hands.

13 recorded the OBCR before the show started previews and they still cut two numbers and altered lyrics and sections of others.

I get what you're saying, newintown. Most of the changes made nowadays a completely cosmetic, if changes are made at all. I saw The Last Ship again last night and I only noticed a handful of minor changes from the first preview.

Still, songs are still still cut and replaced. Scenes are rewritten and supporting characters are altered and/or dropped. Maybe the changes don't have the same magic results that "Before The Parade Passes By" had on Dolly, but there were plenty of shows back then too that made (large) changes and the final effect remained the same.

Cry-Baby, A Tale of Two Cities, 13, Bridges, Rocky and First Date all cut and/or replaced songs during previews. Maybe most of these shows were doomed from the start and it was just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic, but some creators do attempt to make meaningful changes- and I count the cutting of a song as a meaningful change.

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"...there were plenty of shows back then too that made (large) changes and the final effect remained the same."

Very true - I was thinking of the firing of Jean Fenn from Sail Away and combining her role with Stritch's, which still didn't make the show a hit (Leap of Faith performed a similar thing between its CA production and Broadway, didn't it? Also to no avail).

I'm afraid that I don't agree that merely cutting or changing a song is necessarily meaningful - I think of the replacement of 2 songs in Grey Gardens as merely moving a vase of flowers a few inches ("Marry Well" for "Being Bouvier," and "Goin' Places" for "Better Fall Out of Love" - I didn't find either change to have any meaning other than a desperate wish to "fix" - and I'd add that I didn't see that the score needed "fixing" at Playwrights; the new songs were just as good as what they replaced, but not better, and I still enjoyed the show enormously). A meaningful change (to me) significantly alters the meaning or tone of a character, a moment, an act, a show.

Updated On: 11/21/14 at 01:16 PM

Question for those familiar with this theatre:

We have tickets dead center Orchestra Row K. I know the mezzanine overhang is very low and starts close. Has anyone sat in these seats? Will we miss anything from the overhang?

PLEASE BRING BACK THE FUN!!!!!!!

I loved Honeymoon when I saw it at Papermill and feel that it still has the potential to be THE FUN, toe tapping show of the Season - but after seeing it this week I feel that they can bring back some of the fun & charm that it had, especially in the Act One.

I love the score, the band is great and you can tell the actors are doing their best with what they have been given to work with, but the book and choreography needs work.

Speaking with several friends that saw it at Papermill & again in previews, we all felt that they have taken out the supporting character/ensemble vignettes that helped to move along the story in Act One. Instead they have the ensemble as "filler" in awkward choreography or sitting on stage, both to fill space.

I miss the charm of the couples in the park in the opening number in Act One and the scene with the pregnant "frenemy" running into Betsy. Although brief exchanges, these things helped to move the story along and gives a bit of variety and depth, which is desperately needed in Act One.

Act Two was in much better shape, except again for some of the choreo. The story moved along nicely and the fun was there!

I hope they can fix these things by taking a step back and remembering what worked in the earlier version and putting them back into the show! It really was much more fun and you will have a hit on your hands b/c I do love the show!!

Technology really has become the biggest enemy to improving a show in previews. Once that set is built and all the cues are in place the show might as well be frozen. All you can basically do is make cuts. Adding anything new becomes a near impossibility. I remember at the first preview of Ghost thinking, well with this set even if they wanted to make changes this thing is staying put.

One of the best significant changes I can think of in recent memory was the cutting of the opening number of Gentleman's Guide and major overhaul of the first 15 minutes of dialogue. It was a wonder what fixing the opening sequence did for that show.

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I found it surprising that discount codes go all the way to mid February! I just booked tickets -- side section on the aisle row J at discount for MLK weekend mid January.