If/Then Previews — Page 5

It will be interesting to see the weekly grosses when Idina decides to go on vacation for any length of time.

The biggest problem I had when seeing it in DC was relating to the characters. I feel like as soon as they get too personal, the words become generic. Unlike Next to Normal where you get the brutal honesty that makes you sympathize with the characters as humans. I also got bored both times seeing it. Not the "let's leave right now" bored but the struggling to really engage yourself into it kind of bored.

"The lights dimmed in the Richard Rodgers and suddenly a spotlight hits Idina on a second tier runway. She's holding a phone and begins to leave a message. She speaks: Hi, it's me. The audience goes crazy, and just like Liz Taylor conquered all those hearts decades ago, Idina has us with three words.

I don't find that surprising, as at least 85% of the audience for this show's first preview would have been Menzel fans (or worse, fanatics).

I look forward to hearing reports from later performances, in front of more... diverse audiences.

For those who saw the first preview--is LaChanze's first-act song "The Story of Jane", sung to her kindergarten class, still in the show? To me that was the song that most needed to go or be replaced.

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carolinaguy, LaChanze did sing a song to her Kindergarten class, that eventually morphed into a city planning thing and then eventually into a quartet for the four women. (It was a long sequence and perhaps the one song was actually two, but it felt like a cohesive unit to me). Even without a song list, I don't think it was "The Story of Jane." She sang to them about Beth's story, and referred to her as such in the song.

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I liked the show very much, but I am a huge fan of Kitt/Yorkey and Next to Normal. I was very moved.

I was speaking to someone at intermission who said LOTS of changes from DC have been made, especially in the very beginning. I think they have made the storytelling clearer. But again, I didn't see it before so I can't be sure.

LaChanze does have a scene with her kindergarten class but it's very short and not really a song. I think the problematic song people are talking about was cut.

I was able to follow the two stories save for about 10-15 minutes in the middle of act one, when she was on a date with James Snyder and I couldn't figure out whether it was Liz or Beth. But shortly after that, I picked it up again.

I do worry that this show is not very commercial. It's very smart and intimate and I don't know how they well market it for a Broadway audience. But maybe that's why we have Idina and her fans will flock to see it. Lots of young teenage girls who love "eye-dina" were sitting around me.

Updated On: 3/6/14 at 09:33 AM

Kitt and Yorkey don't do song lists. Next to Normal didn't have one either. It spoils the show.

I really would like to see this and see the changes made, but like with LES MIS, it's the audience that's going to keep me away, at least for a long while.

I just can't stand the screaming that's become acceptable in certain shows.

Jordan, Other than the extended entrance applause for Idina the audience was very respectful and attentive.

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"I also hated Rapp."

I thought he was the best one in it.

"Exactly; many previews have become unpleasant experiences because of excessively vocal audiences. We get it, you're a fan, musical theatre is your raison d'être; now let the rest of us hear the end of the song before you start whooping and stomping."

And these kids actually think the actors on stage appreciate it, instead of what they really want to do which is jump off the stage and punch them in the jaw to shut them up.

Different audiences probably.

Great first thoughts people thank you very much!!!

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I've slept on it and have some different thoughts on it this morning.

I am the only person in my family from a small southern town to have attended college. I've lived in NYC now for a number of years. When I brought my family up to see N2N, they were deeply moved by seeing characters on the stage that they could relate to. A mother with an abyss of un-dealt with remorse. A father struggling for at least the appearance of normalcy. A daughter searching for her own voice and a way out of the madness created by her parent's issues with Gabe. They were seemingly from an upper middle class milieu, but still had relatable problems.

In IF/THEN, characters can't go 10 minutes without bringing up their Vassar or Brown education. The characters smack of elitism and trade in elitist problems. Phoenix is a punchline more than once, as if any dolt who doesn't live in the city on NY is wasting their life. Characters are laden with the 'bother' of children, or they just kill them off (the unborn children that is). The world of IF/THEN is one of Latte's and Brunches. Jogging Strollers and 'City Park Planning'. Jokes made at cardboard cutout 'Interns' (Although Ryan Redman lands some of the best jokes of the show.)

The world that I come from is one where people take joy in simple things. Phoenix or Oregon are perfectly acceptable places to live. Having a casual chat with a stranger is not a once in a lifetime altering or jarring event, it's a pleasant everyday occurrence. The assumption of IF/THEN is that the audience identifies with it's Northeast upperclass Ivy-league elitist characters. The only character in the piece that I cared for one lick was James Snyder's character of Josh. A man content with talking straight and keeping his word. Idina's 'Elizabeth' is someone I would never befriend… Leaving friends at the drop of a hat, using friends for sex and then abandoning them, making ultimatums that couples should stay together for HER happiness. What a selfish self obsessed woman.

As for the score, it's fine enough, but the only songs that stayed with me after last night were Snyder's address to his unborn child and Anthony Rapp's pleading for connection from an intractable Elizabeth. Snyder infused his lyric with a true sense of love. Not Romantic, but paternal. A real and universal impulse. Rapp was reaching for a real connection while trying to appeal the the selfish needful lust of Elizabeth, also a relatable impulse.

The biggest struggles that the principal character's have is their own transient happiness. Nothing to do with hard won battles for average American Audiences like paying the light bill and getting the aging parents into a suitable living arrangement in their later years. Or simply the struggle of staying in a marriage that doesn't fulfill all your dreams, but staying and working it out, because you vowed a vow. A world where a promise means something. Where a neighbor's concerns are your own and community is valued.

Perhaps more to come later, but after watching last night's preview, my first thought was: Get me out of this cloyingly politically correct insular self obsessed city to a place where people care for each other instead of dwelling on how they can make the happiest life for themselves and themselves alone. Take me to Bridges of Madison County's Iowa, or 110 in the Shade, or even Into The Wood's fairytale world, but away from the swirling ME centered universe of IF/THEN.

Updated On: 3/6/14 at 11:40 AM