"Honeymoon in Vegas" Preview Thread- Page 6

[JayG 2]

Posted: 11/23/14 at 8:55am

Patash can you get a refund?

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 11/23/14 at 7:55pm

"I don't agree that merely cutting or changing a song is necessarily meaningful."

But sometimes it is meaningful. Adding "Comedy Tonight" and "Send In the Clowns" in Boston didn't hurt either of those shows. It all depends on what a show needs and someone perceptive enough to see that.

[yfs]

Posted: 11/23/14 at 9:05pm

"Send in the Clowns" was written during rehearsal, I believe, but was in the first out-of-town preview of Night Music in Boston. I was there, all those years ago, and I'll never forget hearing it.

"It Would Have Been Wonderful" was added, either during the out of town run or during New York previews.

[Patash]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 8:22am

"Patash can you get a refund?"

Ummmm. Why would I want one? I often enjoy mediocrity. In fact I enjoyed reading your comments.


Updated On: 11/24/14 at 08:22 AM

[JayG 2]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 8:48am

Wellif you enjoy mediocrity, then you will certainly enjoy Honeymoon in Vegas. In fact, buy tickets for your entire family! Then, you can read them my comments after the show to end the night on a high note.

[wheelsofadream2]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 7:11pm

I saw the show over the weekend, and thought it was cute, but needs work.

Rob McClure was very charming, and I was so excited to see him on stage after hearing praise from his performance in Chaplin. Brynn O'Malley was good, and I feel like both Brynn and Rob did a nice job of making you still like and root for their characters despite the turns of events.

Tony Danza was.. Tony Danza, and it worked. He doesn't sing that well, but he makes the most of it. His tap dance was really great, and had the audience really into it. I do think as someone else mentioned in the thread the Skin Cancer song needs to go.

There's some good songs in the score, and then there's some really unnecessary songs. The book's pacing needs some work, because I felt like there were many times when it was like - Is this the Act 1 finale? Nope. Now? Nope. NOW? ..Oh, okay. I hope they use the preview period to their advantage, because there's some cute and fun stuff there.

[jennaisjamazing]

Posted: 11/27/14 at 12:13am

Any update on possible changes? How's the show selling?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 8:55am

I left feeling mixed-to-positive.
It reminded me of DIRTY ROTTEN, but with better music.

Firstly, thank God for Rob McClure. He takes Jack, who on paper is thin at best, and makes him the engine that drives the show. You can’t wait for him to come back onstage. Tony Danza, as others have said, doesn’t have a soaring voice, but he doesn’t need it. He’s handsome, charming, and just the right amount of sleazy. And he taps! Brynn O'Malley does yeoman’s work in a role that’s mostly a plot device; she manages to give Betsy personality and dimension, though she could do more with stronger writing.

The supporting players are adequate, but none of them are knockout enough to warrant all of the songs they’re given. This is a three-character story, but every third or fourth song is sung by some random side character introduced in the scene beforehand, so a lot of the score, even when it’s good, feels padded and extraneous.

JRB reprises endlessly, giving you a chance to re-examine a handful of his melodies throughout the show, and that’s a good thing. I have no memory for music, but a week later, I can still sing you a few of the songs. The last time that happened for me was G’s GUIDE with “Poison in My Pocket” and “I’ve Decided to Marry You.”

But sadly, the entire production needs, as the old show-biz phrase goes, to be punched up. The “showstoppers” all stop just short of stopping the show. Give Tony a dancing chorus towards the end of that tap number! The show is “lol” funny, but it should be “LMAO” funny. And lastly, it looks a little cheap. The material for BULLETS wasn’t this good, but I remember the sets and costumes. There’s a necessarily chintzy-glitz aesthetic to VEGAS, but even the opening scenes and the later scenes in Hawaii look like some great design ideas were scaled back for budgetary reasons.

And Tommy’s cancer song should go. The audience laughed hesitantly, uncomfortably, as though they were only laughing because they knew they were supposed to. A song like that says something nasty about this guy’s character, and we can’t be that turned off by him so early in the show. And the show wants it both ways – he sings the song but remains charming doing it. Which doesn’t work. Whizzer talks about the character’s melancholy, which is spot on. It’s his most human and affecting trait. He misses his late Donna desperately, but giving him a song where he’s jokey-jokey about her illness and death undermines that. The only thing good about the song right now is that it’s short and not musically memorable.

So, the show is decent. It’s got a good score – maybe a very good score – and one great and two winning lead performances. It could be “fixed.” Nothing can be done about the production values, but the score could be streamlined and the book funnied up. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. C’est la vie. I look forward to enjoying the cast recording.

[newintown]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 6:22pm

That's the kind of post/review I like to read.

[sephyr]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 1:23am

I left this show thinking "I really need the cast recording." I truly enjoyed the composition of the songs and the sound....big, brassy, fun. I had a great time and enjoyed the show for what it was. It wasn't too deep, it was entertaining.

I loved the Act I finale "Do Something," When You Say Vegas, Higher Love, Never Get Married (love Nancy Opel), and all of Tony Danza's songs (he can croon which surprised me and worked well for the jazzy material). I happened to like the dark comedy of "Out of The Sun," it kept him from being overly sentimental and provided a few other chuckles throughout the show.

I really thought the cast was strong!! Rob, Brynn, Nancy, and David Josefberg were all fantastic and the ensemble was really strong IMO. I liked the Airport Song too. I thought the quality of the material was a bit high and even though the ending kind of lost me, I liked the show as a whole. Talking about the show afterward I just admired how this sounds nothing like the JRB I'm used to and I really admired that.

[disney_princess]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 12:01pm

Saw this show yesterday matinee and actually had a really good time. However, I saw it last year at Paper Mill and definitely miss the more zany elements of the show. I'm not sure if they're going for a more "realistic" approach this time around but this show needs the same tone as The Producers and Book of Mormon and I missed it this time around on Broadway. There were a lot of scenes with just two people on stage and it seems unnecessarily empty.

But I had a fun time. The cast nails it. One of the better shows I've seen this season.

[little_sally]

Posted: 11/30/14 at 8:47pm

Saw the show this afternoon. After a slow start (there is way too much exposition), I found myself really enjoying it. It reminds me of a mix between "The Wedding Singer" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (two shows I really enjoyed) but not nearly as funny as TWS and with a score not as great as DRS. Honeymoon in Vegas is a lot of fun but it's not very funny. Like someone else said, there's a bunch of chuckles but no belly laughs. It's amusing, not hilarious.

I did love Rob McClure, and really, all of the cast was great but McClure is so damn talented, and I couldn't wait for him to come back on stage.

[djdan1079]

Posted: 11/30/14 at 11:44pm

I saw the Saturday matinee. A few observations:

It was obvious the cast was fatigued between Macy's Parade obligations and the condensed holiday 2 show a day schedule. Danza's voice kept failing him as the show went on (although prior posts lead me to believe maybe that might just be his singing voice). Even McClure was struggling to hit his top notes through the first half of act 1.

I got to intermission and felt the show could be the sleeper of the season. Even with the vocal issues, Rob McClure's energy was fantastic and he gives such a winning performance. The chemistry with the three leads was great and there are scene stealing moments with Nancy Opel and David Josefsberg (who almost walks away with the first act on his own).

The second act, which seemed more Tommy-centric, didn't work as well for me since I just didn't really feel invested in whether Tommy got together with Betsy or not. I don't really think this was a Danza issue, as he really has created a fleshed out character. I can't decide whether the disconnect for me was with the book, the score (where Tommy's songs all sound alike and slow the show down), or that McClure is so likable, that I just wanted to see more of Jack. I was also really annoyed with the staging of the Flying Elvis scenes. Did it bother anyone else that during the scene where Roy and Jack are in the plane, they actually stepped off the platform to play some bits downstage? It just felt like when they stepped off the platform that they had technically jumped out of the plane. It's a minor detail, and I'm generally willing to suspend my disbelief, but there had to be a better way to stage that. Also, the projection of the flying Elvis group going through the air looked really cheap. Do that at Paper mill, but step it up in New york please.

Overall, it was a cute show that was pretty forgettable. It's hard for me to imagine that this is JRB's first commercial success.

[newintown]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 9:05am

Are there any songs that are actually funny? I've always found Brown's greatest flaw to be that he can't write a funny song. (And this is billed as a "musical comedy.")

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 9:13am

Nancy Opel's intro song, "Never Get Married," I guess, is funny, but it's also dressed up with some stage trickery and her own choices that really help that funny along.

I would say, on the whole, no, the songs aren't funny. A lot of them are breezy and pleasant, so you smile through them and occasionally chuckle, but I don't think many of the numbers in and of themselves are especially funny.

"Friki-Friki," where a Hawaiian tour guide tries desperately to seduce Jack, is an outright comic character number. I wouldn't say it totally works, but I'm not sure if it's because the actress doesn't put it over or if it's the issue I talked about earlier where we just met this character and suddenly she gets a big centerpiece song. The character is also, frankly, more than a little annoying, and we're rooting for Jack at that point, so she seems to be in the way.

Updated On: 12/1/14 at 09:13 AM

[lxttech]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 9:24am

Can anybody who's been comment on the view from their seats? I know the mezzanine partially obstructs the view of the top of proscenium opening near the rear of the orchestra. Is that an issue for this one? I'm looking at seats in row M center or row K side.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 9:28am

I sat front mezz, but I'd imagine center M would be perfect, and the overhang shouldn't be a problem. That's just a guess, but M isn't very far back.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 9:57am

I'm honestly surprised to see some of you guys praising the score. I found it boring and unoriginal.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 10:07am

As a non-music person, I need several listens before I really decide, but after seeing the show, I think the score and Rob McClure are the two best thing the show has going for it. When I went back and looked at the song list to respond to newintown, I was surprised how many of the melodies floated back into my head -- not unpleasantly -- as I read the titles.

And for the record, I'm no JRB groupie.

[little_sally]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 10:21am

I found the score to be kind of generic, which is kind of surprising for JRB. There are some catchy numbers but I also think there can be cuts (i.e. the skin cancer song, which I think is called "Out of the Sun" and "Friki Friki). All of Danza's numbers sounded the same to me. I don't really think any song is funny on its own, but Nancy Opel, David Josefsberg, and Rob McClure in particular do a great job of selling their songs to make them funny.

This may be spoilery but was I the only one kind of let down by the end? Tommy just concedes the fact that Betsy won't marry him and that the weekend is over. For someone who has all of this power and is able to con/manipulate people, he sure did give Betsy up easily.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 10:27am

Yeah, it's totally unbelievable, but I was able to surrender to the conventions of musical comedy in that case.

[jv92]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 10:50am

I disagree that about the changes made to GREY GARDENS made between Playwrights Horizons and the Kerr on Broadway. Both of those songs clarified the characters and situations they were written for in smart, appropriate ways.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing HONEYMOON IN VEGAS sometime soon. I think it's very smart that they have released the cast album in the theater right away.

[love is always bette]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 9:09pm

Do you think the show has the potential for a long run through april?I really want to see it during my visit and would buy my tickets now but i'm a little worried it'll close by then.I kinda feel torn between seeing Honeymoon or The King and I. Updated On: 12/1/14 at 09:09 PM

[Robbie2]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 9:14pm

Well, with the way the box office is playing out it does not look good but I have not seen it yet. From what I hear, it should be a hit as it's a crowd pleaser-feel good show but everyone also says it should and could be funnier in the Book of Mormon-Producers mode.

Updated On: 12/1/14 at 09:14 PM

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Posted: 12/1/14 at 9:43pm

I saw the show this weekend and my thoughts echo much of what has already been said. It's a solidly okay show. It is not an amazing revelation in theater, but it's far from horrible. When it comes to light comic fair that doesn't require much thinking, this is a winner.

Rob McClure continues to put on a smile on my face. He sings, he dances, and does a lot with a character that isn't too developed. He was clearly tired (his voice was straining a bit and he just looked like someone who needed a day off), but he was doing everything he could at that moment. I'd love to see him when the show hasn't been in a marathon stretch.

Tony Danza's cancer song has to go. It was awkward and messy. It drops the mood and...no. It just didn't work for me. Everything about it felt forced, like you were laughing because you it was time to have a laugh with Tommy, not because it was funny.

Nancy Opel's song Never Get Married was my favorite. She performs it well and it stuck in my head. It's not her best performance, but it's also not the best role she's had.

The show is far and away JRB's most commercial and accessible score, but it's no guarantee for anything. I expected to see more people, but it's still fairly new. The PR machines need to get out and sell this.