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INDECENT Previews

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BroadwayConcierge
#1INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/2/17 at 10:05am

Previews for the Broadway premiere of Paula Vogel's Indecent begin in two days (Tuesday, April 4, 2017) at the Cort Theatre! Moving to Broadway after a well-received run off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre last spring, Indecent is set to officially open on April 18, 2017 for an open run.

Who's going?!

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abbagirl
#2INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/2/17 at 10:26am

I'll be there on Tues! :) 

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JBroadway
#3INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/2/17 at 11:19am

Loved this play at the Vineyard. I have my doubt about its commercial success, but I wish them nothing but the best. Here's hoping for a nice Broadway run! 

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James2
#4INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:15am

There's no press release, but Telecharge says rush is $30, up to two tickets, and subject to availability.

 

EDIT: I asked at the box office, and they are offering front row center as rush.


My avatar = A screencap from Avatar, arguably the greatest animated show of all
Updated On: 4/4/17 at 10:15 AM

BroadwayConcierge Profile Photo
BroadwayConcierge
#5INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:07pm

As I've been doing for other preview threads, some Instagram geopages:

Indecenthttps://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/1696340270683253/indecent-on-broadway/

Cort Theatre: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/212927418/cort-theatre/

bwayphreak234 Profile Photo
bwayphreak234
#6INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:29pm

I am going tonight, and I am very much looking forward to it.


"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "

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Ado Annie D'Ysquith
#7INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:31pm

I have friends involved in this show, so I'd like to see it do well. Plus it's kind of uplifting to hear Paula Vogel's attesting to finally making it to Broadway after years of hard work.


http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com

JustAnotherNewYorker
#8INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 4:03pm

Seeing it Saturday.

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Dancingthrulife2
#9INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 4:06pm

Should I read The God of Vengeance before seeing the play?

macnyc Profile Photo
macnyc
#10INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 4:13pm

I don't think there's any need to do that. Of course, if you want to, go ahead!

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BroadwayRox3588
#11INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 4:54pm

Seeing it next Wednesday! 

LimelightMike Profile Photo
LimelightMike
#12INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 6:55pm

I do wonder if the stage is high for this production? Hard to tell by the Instagram posts.

Jeffrey Karasarides Profile Photo
Jeffrey Karasarides
#13INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 9:05pm

Is there anyone at the first preview who'd like to give some reports?

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RippedMan
#14INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:29pm

Might try and rush this tomorrow. I love Vogel and I think I'm going to enjoy this. 

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WhizzerMarvin
#15INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:31pm

What a completely frustrating and ultimately miserable experience I had this evening. I had seats through TDF in the last row of the orchestra. I warn anyone NOT to sit in or purchase tickets for these seats unless you are prepared for partial view that will great impede your enjoyment of Indecent. The play, which (I think) was very good is partly in English, Yiddish and German. There are supertitles projected on the back wall set; announcements of time, place and various other fact are also shown when necessary. The overhang from the mezz cut them off, so I had so slink down and contort my body in an attempt to get between the two people in front of me to read the supertitles. (The woman in front of me happened to be tall- which obviously she couldn't help!- and also had somewhat big hair. This happens sometimes, so what are you going to do, but it only exacerbated the fact that my view of the stage was cut off from both the bottom and top.

The final straw was that three rows from the back sat, I assume, the director and an assistant with a legal pad taking notes. The director whispered constantly throughout. At first I didn't realize the assistant writing and I thought it was just two bored patrons whispering. After about 15 minutes I was ready to yell, "be quiet!" but then noticed they pad and put together that they must have been part of the creative team. I know some creative teams block off the last couple rows so they can be on iPads taking notes without disturbing patrons, but to actually sit in front of two rows of people and distract throughout was unacceptable. The funny thing is, if that was indeed Rebecca Taichman talking away, I thought she did really excellent work! I would easily nominate her direction of a play, but I still want my money back.  


Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco. Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!

macnyc Profile Photo
macnyc
#16INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:46pm

Wow, so sorry to read this! Try contacting TDF to complain. They will probably say that seating  is done by the box office, but you have a genuine beef, especially considering the other distractions. You couldn't move at intermission?

i have TDF tickets for Saturday, so I'm not looking forward to that. 

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WhizzerMarvin
#17INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:53pm

Sadly there is no intermission or I would have. Two women next to me moved within five minutes, but the orchestra was pretty full and there was no where else to go without causing a commotion. I know there's standing room up in the mezz, and if I thought I could quickly get up there without a problem I would have gone to stand. I hoped the supertitles wouldn't play as large a role as they did (there's a song in German and another sung in Yiddish that you will completely miss without the titles). 


Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco. Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!

bwayphreak234 Profile Photo
bwayphreak234
#18INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/4/17 at 11:03pm

Sadly, I can not say I was too taken with this one. The entire evening felt pretty long. i was very intrigued to see this after reading the reviews from Off Broadway, but this just fell kind of flat for me. 


"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "

RippedMan Profile Photo
RippedMan
#19INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 12:13am

I suppose the "partial view" aspect isn't a huge deal as the majority of people could probably see them, but it does seem rather weird. I mean the orchestra is where the main $$ are. 

macnyc Profile Photo
macnyc
#20INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 6:30am

Partial view is a huge deal for this show because parts of it are performed in Yiddish, as Whizzer noted, and the projections provide the translation. Also, the story jumps around in time and place, and the projections supply that information too. Otherwise, you'd be lost.

No audience member should have to see this show without the projections, even if you're paying TDF prices. 

Doesn't the production test out the view and the sound from different spots in the theater? 

I thought i remembered an intermission at the VIneyard, but I was wrong. No intermission there either. I just looked at my program. 

Updated On: 4/5/17 at 06:30 AM

Melissa25 Profile Photo
Melissa25
#21INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 6:58am

Whizzer - so sorry to hear about your seating bad luck and all the other distractions.

Mac- would you mind reporting back on where your TDF seats are on Saturday? I have TDF seats for Sunday.  Fingers are crossed for Mezzanine.

WhizzerMarvin Profile Photo
WhizzerMarvin
#22INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 7:43am

Yeah, I'm very bummed out about it still this morning. The thing is I actually really liked the play- it would have been much easier if I thought it was crummy so I wouldn't have been trying so hard to take it in. 

The play itself made me think of three recent of musicals: Shuffle Along, Passing Strange and The People in the Picture. 

Like Shuffle Along, Indecent is a play (with music) about the creation and subsequent productions of the play "The God of Vengeance." Snippets of the play are performed throughout; no prior knowledge of Vengeance is needed to understand and appreciate the proceedings. Unlike Shuffle Along, which was forced to focus on four creator, plus a leading lady, Indecent only had to worry about one playwright. I believe only one actor, Richard Topol, who played Lemml, only played one character throughout the evening. All of the other actors played countless roles. 

Passing Strange is maybe the most interesting comparison because Vogel uses her troupe of Jewish actors much in the same way Stew used his ensemble of black actors. Remember, in Passing Strange the black ensemble spent a good deal of the musical playing white characters in Amsterdam in Berlin. Here our Jewish acting troupe members, introduced at the top of the play by name, take on characters of multiple nationalities, religions, languages, etc. Vogel employs a neat trick too: sometimes the actors are speaking in English (though a projection denotes that it's in Yiddish) and when this happens the actors speak without any trace of an accent, much like the cast of Les Miserables have no need to use French accents during a production. But, when the characters begin to actually speak in English an accent suddenly appears to let us know it's not their mother tongue. Same thing when they are given German scenes (in English). Of course there are also scenes/songs completely in German and Yiddish too! It's a very cool system they have worked out. 

The People in the Picture comparison is perhaps the most obvious one, heightened even more by the fact that Riccardo Hernandez designed both sets and they are both giant picture frames encapsulating the action on stage! (This one doesn't break apart the way Donna Murphy's did.) Of course, The People in the Picture also dealt with Yiddish theater groups performing during the 1920's and 30's, but Indecent has much better music. 

The acting is all very good, but Katrina Lenk is outstanding and should be nominated for her work. This is her first Broadway credit not as an understudy or replacement and it won't be her last.

As long as you're not sitting in the last row of the orchestra, I recommend it! Ha 


Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco. Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!

Jeffrey Karasarides Profile Photo
Jeffrey Karasarides
#23INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/5/17 at 10:47pm

Does anyone have any reports from tonight's preview?

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somechrysanthemumtea
#24INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/8/17 at 9:34am

Bump - has anyone else seen this and have any thoughts?? 

BroadwayBeebe
#25INDECENT Previews
Posted: 4/8/17 at 9:52am

Going this afternoon through TDF. I will try to report back. 


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