Here tonight from the cheap ticket deal. I'm optimistic. No intermission, which seems like a change from what I had heard about the previous version...
Some pictures of the pre-show stage and Playbill are on Instagram, and the shows official Twitter page (@ShouldaBeenYou) posted a "one word review" video from attendees after the show and they are all glowing! I am excited about this.
Some quick thoughts for the children before I hit the hay... Overall, quite mediocre for me. Definitely "polished" for a first preview, but I found it to be pretty uneven - in terms of the energy, the score, and the characterizations.
This is definitely Jenny's (Lisa Howard's) show at this point, and she's off to a solid start. Tyne and Harriet are wonderful as always. Sierra and Montego sadly underused. Albert as a character could have been funnier, and I didn't care for how they were using the bellhops as a device, it just wasn't effective for me. I was spoiled on the biggest twist (which I think made me like the show from the beginning more than I would have), but I found the smaller ones that came with it to be pretty silly.
All that said, it was cute and fun, just nothing that changed my life or will change the canon. But I will say that my visiting mother and most of the audience tonight seemed to love it!
Running time ~1:45. Happy to respond to any questions in the morning :)
...and that's why you'll find very few around here who care about your opinions, Philly. They are so easily swayed, so easily expendable, as to have no weight or serious consideration about them at all. A few minutes after the first preview, a few soundbytes, and broad sweeping generalizations abound.
To the topic at hand, I hope the first preview went well and look forward to seeing how this show comes into focus over the spring, as it is the new show I know the least about.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
I am in a complete state of shock. I don't know what I just witnessed. As one of my friends said when the lights came up, Oy Vey. Oy double Vey! If ever a show would feel at home in the pages of Not Since Carrie this is it.
I don't even know where to start. I feel so loopy and drunk, although I haven't had a drop of alcohol.
Harriet Harris' big number is called "Where Did I Go Wrong" which sounded just like "I Did Something Wrong Once," except the latter was a little more tuneful. (In general, the score had little melody and even though there are SIX credited lyricists, the accompanying words managed to keep at a generic not even good enough for NYMF quality.)
Harris (and Hibbert in a wig for the ages) tried their best to camp it up, and I laughed, or rather groaned a few times, but the humor is dire. Most CBS multi-cam sitcoms would veto this dialogue.
Tyne Daly and Lisa Howard are left to do most of the heavy lifting (Howard is the lead and gets the only showstopper, which she manages to put over with sheer force of will).
The first half is generic, by the books wedding story. She's Jewish, he's Catholic. We've seen it all before and you can imagine every joke before it comes out. And then there is a huge twist and upending of the show halfway through that throws the rest of the night off balance. It's a lot to get through, and the final denouement, which is crammed with more reprises than an ALW megamix, feels like it lasted an extra 30 minutes. There's no intermission and we got out around 10, so cuts can and should be made.
There are lots of characters and songs, but most of them are paper thin, at least until the twist comes along.
Anne Nathan is on Baby, It's You cast doubling duty, changing wigs and costumes all the time. There really need to be a fleet of wedding helpers (or guests) under Hibbert's command. The show is done on the cheap, but they did their best to cover that up.
What is maybe most striking is how out of touch the musical is. In a season of Fun Home, The Visit and The Last Ship, this feels more like A Family Affair crossed with Tony n Tina's Wedding.
Yikes.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
This show has some apparent work to do. Also, Whizzer, it has taken me almost two years to figure out that your full name on here is just all the names of the characters in Falsettos. Lol.
ljay, you almost have to see this one to believe it. It's rare that you see something on the level on a Broadway stage these days. It makes a flop like Leap of Faith look like Death of a Salesman.
This wouldn't even run a month at New World Stages. I hope the producers have some very deep pockets.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
I don't live in New York so all I have to go on is your opinions. I watched the press videos and somewhat liked the duet between Lisa Howard and Sierra. I thought it was a nice song. The who aura though I'm getting from ads is cheesy cheese and more cheesy.