Saw the matinee yesterday. Overall, I'm pretty unimpressed. Did I hate it? Definitely not. I thought the 2nd act was far superior to the 1st, though. The cast was great, though I think Rob McCure might be a bit under the weather? He seemed to struggle with some of the high notes, but he totally brought the energy. Danza was smooth and fun, Brynn O'Malley was great, and Nancy Opel was perfection. I really wanted her part to be bigger!
The score...what can I say? Maybe if it weren't JRB, I wouldn't have held it to such high standard, and I might have been more impressed. The man has written some really incredible, gorgeous music, and this just wasn't it. It wasn't a terrible score, and there were definitely some good moments, but this is easily his worst score to date, IMO.
Also, I didn't realize how long the preview period is! I knew yesterday that it had been in previews for almost a month, so I had guessed that I was seeing one of the late previews, and that it was close to opening. It was only just now that I checked and realized it isn't opening until mid-January. I guess it's good to know it's still being worked on.
I haven't read this whole thread, so perhaps someone has mentioned this already, but some of the behavior at the stage door was really irritating. The whole crown was a bunch of loud, pushy, handsy, Danza-obsessed, middle-aged women crowding around the stage door demanding pictures and autographs, and screaming "Tony!" and "hey big boss man, over here!" Maybe Mr. Danza is used to it and doesn't mind, but I was impressed by how patient and polite he was with this crowd.
Updated On: 12/14/14 at 09:45 PM