If you've seen 'Leap' how would you improve it?

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW.




Rather than having a pat ending that endorses faith in miracles and smacks down the cynics, I'd want a more balanced show. When that kid got up from the wheelchair, it felt like a huge cop-out to me. Wouldn't it be so much more fulfilling for him to find real happiness with a new stepdad and a newly rejuvenated mom? (I had never seen the movie, which I imagine has a similar plot.)

I read somewhere that the writers wanted to create a dialogue about faith, which to me implies an even approach, but what I saw was more like a lecture. A handicapped child challenges audience members as to their belief in god. The main character asks for inspiration from above, and he gets it. I'm not sure how to create more balance, but perhaps Jessica Phillips' character could be the standard-bearer for a different point of view. As it stands, there was a lot I enjoyed about the show, but the facile and one-sided ending left me cold.

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I'd mount 2 excellent productions of 110 in the Shade and Music Man instead. Because if you combined them, the story would be exactly the same as LOF.

So what you're saying is, the only way to improve the show is to drive it out entirely...

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Only way to improve this show is to close it.

Yero is right. The story, including its ending, is what it is. And perhaps it shouldn't be a musical. But it is.

I wouldn't make it into a musical. Instead of offering real heart this story is 100% manipulation. And as SondheimFan said, it pales next to the two musicals to which it bears striking similarities, 110 and Music Man, both of which, imperfect as they are, have a great deal of heart.

As for improving the show as it is, the cast is very good, the lyrics above average, the production elements satisfactory.

The one thing that could use great improvement is Menken's music which I found repetitive and for all its screaming at the audience to find it rousing (which works - another manipulation, with the help of a good cast), actually a bore.

Updated On: 4/20/12 at 08:17 AM

Honestly, I've always felt The Music Man is about as close to perfect a musical can get.

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This just feels like CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, only possibly more sloppy.
Great performers, though.

Cut some songs, character and story development suffers when the show is glutted with songs that appear every five minutes.

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Yes, I, like Mister Matt, wasn't aware that The Music Man was imperfect. I think it is a textbook example of just how perfect a musical can be. And while The Music Man did take several years to birth, all the birthing work was done with nary a workshop in sight. Mr. Willson just kept plugging away at it, would do backer's auditions, producers would come and go, but when it was right, its producer knew it and immediately put it into production. It, too, would undergo changes out of town, all done without audience surveys or focus groups. Songs were changed, re-written, cut, and added. And when it came in it was ready, played, what, two previews and opened.