IF/THEN Musical WITH SPOILERS- Page 2

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 11/6/13 at 11:18pm

I hesitate to comment on any show I haven't seen, but this one sounds God-awful to me. IMHO.

[indytallguy]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 4:08am

It's definitely not God-awful. In the present moment it has some good songs, some interesting story lines, and a talented group of leads. I'm hoping this creative team (given its talents) effectively use the preview time to hone in and clarify the stories, strengthen the choreography, and edit out or tone down some of the heavy-handed messaging in the book. Time will tell.

Updated On: 11/7/13 at 04:08 AM

[Claudia Draper]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 11:58am

Is there a plane crash in the 2nd act, like a literal plane crash? .. is this their CATS tire, Phantom's Chandelier, Saigon's helicopters



Updated On: 11/7/13 at 11:58 AM

[devonian.t]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 12:26pm

I know it's blasphemy but I find Next to Normal to be a tedious soap opera. This sounds even more banal. I realize it's early days, but as a concept it sounds uninspired.

[mcsquared]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 5:36pm

No, the plane crash was more with lighting, bracing of people in their lined up chairs, and sound--nothing like the chandelier or helicopter equivalent. It was kind of extraneous to the plot actually.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 6:27pm

How do they deal with the abortion part?

[mcsquared]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 6:40pm

They don't really deal with it directly--unless I missed something I think it's just mentioned in passing in a conversation between Idina and Lucas. So in both realities she gets pregnant by accident--just in that one with Lucas and the other with Josh??

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 6:47pm

^^Oh.

And this actually sounds very intersting. I, for one, really like the idea of "Choose Your Own Path". And wait, what plane crash?

[Joviedamian]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 6:56pm

This does sound interesting actually. It shows how ones' life can change in an instant and what hopes and dreams may be lost by one good and or bad decision. It sounds like a story of hope and and learning from your mistakes, all while trying to do the best that you can in life. There are always two stories in one's life. To quote a Stephen Sondheim song "The Road You Didn't Take".

[Kad]

Posted: 11/7/13 at 7:27pm

But, from orangeskittles synopsis, it seems like "Liz" and "Beth" end up at the same place, ultimately.

[Claudia Draper]

Posted: 11/8/13 at 8:46am

I saw it last night. In the end it works. Having a dead war hero pulls out the emotion in you. Knowing the spoilers actually help in understanding the transition between beth/liz. They still happen so fast, that you are concentrating on is it LIZ or BETH, then the story. They use red and blue lighting to help define it. since she seems to always have a handbag, it makes sense to have a RED bag in one story and a BLUE bag in another. that would help. the 1st act is 90 minutes and needs tweeking. the "I'm pregnant" closing # worked.

The 2nd act; The plain crash is totally out of left field. I think they should make it a taxi crash. Since she is a city planner, it makes more sense. plus she has a moment in the BETH story where a kids get killed by a car, so it could tie in.

I relaize she had an abortion in the beth story, but the people around me thought she lost the baby because in the accident.

They need to spell out the 2nd act time line clearer. In Beth - she gets offered what 3 jobs ? In LIZ, she is pregnant, then he goes to war, then he dies, then she has 2 babies. When did that happen?

It comes full circle in the end. It has an emotional wallop. Idina 11:00 # is wonderful. I think the art work on the poster is a great representation of the park and the different paths..

IF they continue using Anthony Rapp.. in his gay story, he should be more sterotypical gay - IMO. But, I think he is miscast. the character is so fimilar to the rent character and his interaction w/ idina just make my mind think rent. my fault, but the role should have be a lesser know person.

Lachanze is great. a burst on energy. She needs her own power ballad.

I liked the show. I think it has promise. It is very NOW, of the time. It is ambitious. I encourage everyone to see it.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 11/8/13 at 9:06am

So, is it the LaChanze character who dies?

[Claudia Draper]

Posted: 11/8/13 at 9:11am

No. Idina husband in LIZ- Josh-gets killed in iraq. Lachanze plays a lesbian that lives happily every after in one story and gets divorced in the other. she is her next door negihbor when ELIZABETH move to NYC in the opening #.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 11/8/13 at 11:38am

Wait, doesn't Idina/Liz have a hubby in Liz? So, she cheats on the husbsnd who dies with whoever that guy?

[Claudia Draper]

Posted: 11/8/13 at 11:48am

She doesn't cheat with anyone in either life. She sleeps with Josh in LIZ, gets pregnant and they get married, have 2 babies. he dies. She sleeps with Lucas in BETH, gets pregnant and has an abortion, becomes very successful but has regrets, then meets Josh in the park. She makes a pass at the boss, steven, in BETH but, he turns her down and his character regrets it in act 2.

[PattyO'Furniture]

Posted: 11/8/13 at 11:09pm

Just ripped my face off trying to understand these plots. Oh, well.

[morosco]

Posted: 11/8/13 at 11:17pm

Jeez... sounds like this show needs a flow chart in the playbill.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/9/13 at 12:39am

Rapp doesn't seem like a needed character. Does she really need two gay bestfriends?

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/9/13 at 1:10am

The more you read about this, the worse it sounds.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 11/9/13 at 7:10am

Sorry for the grammar, I just woke up.

I saw it, last night. I actually really liked it. It defientely needs work though. At the half of the first act, Elizabeth said nothing but math and statistics and that annoyed me. And the homosexuals were a little stereotypical. Esepecially LaChanze's gf: She was a little hippie. My poor mom and a guy behind me were confused as heck. You really need to read a summary here to make it MUCH clearer. But even with the lights, some things were still confusing. Like at the end of Act 2, it is mentioned that Idina and Anthiny had a kid, but then she's like, "Oh, I have no kids."

I LOVED the Scenic Design. The set was simple, but all of these movements that come from the stage and people, moving these things make up for it. I was confused by the mirrors, but the NYC map was cool. Hopefully, they will do changes with that.

The music is mostly great. The WTF song was hilarious and the opening was so pretty. That map of NYC song and other songs that I can't think of either need serious cutting or removing. And sometimes, they made songs about Idinaa's job with Anthony and I was like, "I don't care!" If they make great chances, they could get Best Score.

So, the bottom line is: Yeah, it's off to a great start, but it needs work. Can definitely see Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Leading Actress, Best Featured Actress (LaChanze),and Best Scenic.

And everyone came out: Anthony, LaChanze, and Idina. But, Idina didn't came out until 11:30, since she was with people or something. But, nevertheless, she did apologized for that and i did get her autograph. All of them were nice. But, is it always this long for Idina to come out?

[indytallguy]

Posted: 11/9/13 at 8:32am

"Can definitely see Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Leading Actress, Best Featured Actress (LaChanze),and Best Scenic. "

If you can foresee all those awards for this show, you truly are more visionary than me. Kudos to you.

I think with refinement it can be a much stronger and enjoyable show, but I didn't see much that would suggest it would sweep awards. Some of the plotlines and dialogue are so trite and stereotypical.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 11/9/13 at 9:29am

Awww thank you :)

I think with refinement it can be a much stronger and enjoyable show, but I didn't see much that would suggest it would sweep awards. Some of the plotlines and dialogue are so trite and stereotypical.

Yeah, like I said, they definitely need to make the lesbians less hippie and more realistic. And give the blonde lesbian long hair because it's very stereotypical that her hair is very short :/ And they need to cut the statistics cut because that got old very quickily. And I don't think that the "kissing the boss" part wasn't...idk explored enough. Actually, the audience was like, "OMG" at that part. And it was weird because the boss wanted her and when shew kissed him, he did nothing. So, I was very confused: He delibertantly wanted her before she kissed him and he is married to that worker, but when she kissed him, he just left. Like what? I honestly wish that it was them on the bed, so it could serve more of a reason.

Good thing that (I think) Anthony said they're constantly cutting things out.


EDIT: And I don't think that the plane crash was necessary at all. It did nothing, so they might as well cut it. And I don't remember the Anthony/Idina wedding, so they must have cut it. Updated On: 11/9/13 at 09:29 AM

[rgdave]

Posted: 11/10/13 at 9:36am

Saw this Sat. night (11/9). Great seat, 5th row center orch. House was full. I was REALLY glad that I read this thread before seeing the show. I agree with most posters that the first act is very, very confusing. Even knowing the basic structure, and the red/blue light scheme for Liz/Beth, it's hard to sort out. There are quite a few "WTF" moments.

I ended up in a discussion at intermission with about 9 or 10 other audience members. A lot of back and forth about what was going on. One comment stuck out, "This show takes way too much work to keep up with." In N2N, there's that great 'aha' moment in the first act when you realize that the son is dead, and is only in his mother's head. If/Then needs something similar so the audience 'gets it' before the end of the first act.

The second act is so, so much clearer. The two story lines are more defined with fewer 'quick twitch' transitions between them. The ending is great, a wonderful tie up of the two lines. But it took 2:40 to get there (that was the run time Saturday, with intermission but without the curtain calls, so they must be pretty fiercely cutting, since an earlier poster said it ran 3:00.)

I'd agree with the earlier poster that a taxi accident rather than a plane crash at the beginning of Act 2 would make more sense. A taxi accident seems more survivable than a plane crash, so it would be less jarring when Beth reappears alive two years later. It's another one of those WTF moments.

Overall, I liked it, but didn't love it. But it was only the 6th performance, and it's still a work in progress --- that's what out of town previews are for, to work on the work. I'm glad I went, and am very interested to see how this evolves over time.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 11/10/13 at 9:49am

I get where the creators are going with the plot line, but boy it's going to be interesting to see how this is staged. I have a feeling the concept will go over the heads of those who don't know about the plot beforehand and that could be a big minus to the production.

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 11/10/13 at 1:09pm

Agree that it is too confusing with the fast transitions. Possibly they were going for some "surprise" moments in the form of the quick transitions (e.g. the audience gasped when they switched between bed partners in both directions (from Lucas to Josh and back again). But they don't make it obvious enough that they are switching between two scenarios to let the audience follow along on a first viewing without spoilers (except apparently orangeskittles, who is more on top of it than most). They could make the switches between storylines more apparent by using a flash of light over the whole stage (either white or purple to suggest switching between the red and blue storylines). It would also help if they would stick with the blue/red color scheme more consistently. During intermission people already were saying that they hadn't noticed that color scheme. Then they mess with it in act 2 and use blue during two of the "Liz" scenes - that is way too much artistic license for a show where people are still trying to figure out which reality is which. And they should stick with the red/blue lighting in the hospital scene in act one rather than using pale green - that just adds to the confusion for those who have noticed the red/blue scene colors by then.