Jamboree - What A Mess

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:08pm

Just returned from Jamboree. We bolted at the intermission.We caught our neighbor (Big Baloney) and a friend who had the same idea as we did. Totally disjointed piece. Seemed like a cross between vaudeville and a high school talent show. The performers were talented but the show was totally incoherent. There was a film clip of a party I guarantee was totally unknown to most of those in the auditorium.The audience seemed to be willing to applaud if the performers just sat there and read a newspaper.The songs were all over the map. What they were trying to do I do not know but Mrs R looked at me and we both made the decision to leave. We saw others doing the same. Big disappoinment

Updated On: 7/16/16 at 11:08 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:10pm

with a name like "Jamboree" I think they were going for a revue-type of show (maybe a cross between Vaudeville and a talent show).

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:15pm

People on either side of us or in front either gave polite applause or none at all. They were more than made up for by those who applauded wildly for the slightest thing the performers did whether they deserved it or not. Others followed us out the door at intermission.

Updated On: 7/16/16 at 11:15 PM

[RogerMoore]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:20pm

I stayed. Highlights: the choreographed A Chorus Line opening number/One with Groff and Sutton

an amazing tap number with no music 

Groff/Sutton singing and tap duet to Beyonce's Love on Top

INTERMISSION

Groff in Millie wig doing Forget About the Boy while Sutton plays the older lady (not familiar with TMM)

A great Fred/Ginger dance number with Groff and Sutton in front of the movie clip

Groff and Sutton doing Move On (mashed with Joni Mitchell by Jeanine, wish it was just Move On)

Sutton doing Ring of Keys.

i liked it and loved seeing Tesori at the piano! She played piano for the Disney movie 'Beauty and the Beast' after all!

thats just me though!

[swanjewel]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:22pm

Groff fan here and I thought it was great. He sounded fantastic!! If anything, I finally got to see Groff as Millie perform Forget About the Boy. Worth my $55.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:23pm

Glad you liked it but it did nothing for us .

[RogerMoore]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:25pm

Fair enough Mr. R! Hope you still had a good evening with the Mrs.!

[Soozie]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:26pm

Mr. Roxy, What do you mean about the songs being "all over the map?" This was a revue type of show, no? Not a musical with a theme or plot. 

[swanjewel]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:28pm

RogerMoore said: "I stayed. Highlights: the choreographed A Chorus Line opening number/One with Groff and Sutton

an amazing tap number with no music 

Groff/Sutton singing and tap duet to Beyonce's Love on Top

INTERMISSION

Groff in Millie wig doing Forget About the Boy while Sutton plays the older lady (not familiar with TMM)

A great Fred/Ginger dance number with Groff and Sutton in front of the movie clip

Groff and Sutton doing Move On (mashed with Joni Mitchell by Jeanine, wish it was just Move On)

Sutton doing Ring of Keys.

i liked it and loved seeing Tesori at the piano! She played piano for the Disney movie 'Beauty and the Beast' after all!

thats just me though!"

Thank you for this!  It's still a blur.  Glad you had a good time.  And that solo tap number was superb.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:34pm

I was there tonight too and it was indeed a bizarre evening. I can't remember the last night in the theater that oscillated between such inspired brilliance and such head scratching what-the-****ery. 

 

Screens on the sides of the stage announced song titles and composer credits; there were no credits in the program (or explanations either!). The first screens informed us that for the past Fridays between 4-6pm the City Center employees have all been rehearsing ONE number. Curtain up on the opening sequence of ACL being taught by Zach (Groff) and the City Center employees doing a damn good job keeping up with the choreography. Sutton bursts out from the ranks belting "I really need this job!" I was giddy with delight. The One rehearsal sequence begins and Groff and Sutton perform the Cassie/Zach argument before returning to finish off One. If this was how the night would go, let this baby play till dawn!

 

Then a screen dropped down and video of Danny Troob played for what felt like 30 min about how he developed a love for orchestrating. Ok. 

 

The Sutton came out and sang a dreary song called Room and Groff sang a dull song by Craig Carnelia and the show basically ground to a halt. Why would they ever choose these bad songs that don't show off the performers and have no meaning out of context? Why weren't the two of them introducing the songs with narration and some patter?

 

Then two brothers came out to perform an original song that I frankly caught every third word of. Once again, no introduction. No setting the scene. Nothing. 

 

 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:36pm

To Soo

 

It opens with a number from A Chorus Line. Than they jump to something else. Felt since it was Sutton Foster and Groff it should have concentrated on show tunes. I know what a revue is but it just seemed incredibly disjointed. Our 2 friends felt the same way. They felt it was painful. They could not wait to leave. To each his own I guess.

To Whizzer. You perfectly encapsulated what went on. Did you stay for the entire thing? If so, you are a better man than me Charlie Brown.Did it get better as it sure could not have gotten worse. This is coming from someone who saw Rachel Lilly Rosenbloom.

Updated On: 7/16/16 at 11:36 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:39pm

Sorry don't see the appeal of either. Hard pass. 

[RogerMoore]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:40pm

I felt like the 'New Work' songs (which were spelled out on signage) could've benefitted from some explanation/context. Especially since many in the audience probably weren't looking forward to those bits.

I was also surprised that there was no Ashman/Menken given how Off Center loves them

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:46pm

Sorry- couldn't type any more in that post! 

Then Ayodele Casel came out to perform a tap dance that stopped the show cold. It was thrilling, but only added to the odd randomness of the whole evening. It felt like they were just pulling ideas out of a hat without any thought to continuity or theme. 

 

Groff sang two pop songs, one by Elton John and the other by Simon and Garfunkel. The latter was not very good. 

 

Sutton got Miss Bryd, which worked because it's, you know, from an actual revue! There were possibly some other original songs from emerging composers, but they didn't register; only the last new song was effective. 

 

The act one finale swung back to inspired with a Groff/Sutton duet of Love on Top that had me boppin' in my seat. 

Act two was the best yet, with the aforementioned gender-swapped Forget About the Boy. When the screen flashed Forget About the Boy the audience went mad thinking we'd get to see Sutton recreate her performance, but when the curtain went up on Groff in the wig the response was even more rapturous. I LOVED this. 

Sutton sang Stars and the Moon and Ring of Keys which both landed well. Groff was stuck with a badly arranged Stevie Wonder song, that he nonetheless sang well. 

Another video played- this one more engaging, but still kind of out of place. What was this thing???

Groff and Sutton sang and exquisite "mash up" of a Joni Mitchell song and Move On. Breathtaking. Much better than a dull country song they tackled earlier in act two. The Fred and Ginger dancing was embarrassing and should have been cut. They were off with the screen, and wonderful a performance as Groff is, he doesn't exactly move like Fred Astaire.  

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:47pm

Seems like song titles were put in a hat and pulled out at random.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:49pm

So when is this transferring to Broadway?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:56pm

I thought it was disjointed but incredibly enjoyable for the most part—at least when the two people I shelled out money to see were on stage. The opening was fabulous, as was "Love on Top," the act two "Millie" opener (I died!), the sumptuous "Move On" mashup, and the Fred and Ginger tribute, even if Groff's bowtie was flying off (or whatever happened there).

I hate to say it but I could not have cared less about the new artists—and they didn't make me want to care about them at all. The only one I was impressed enough by was the tap dancer; she was truly something else.

I thought the gun control song toward the end was wildly out of place and borderline inappropriate. 

It was a pleasure to see Tesori get lots of love, as well as to simply see her at the piano. Both Foster and Groff were in great voice, though I wish it kept more of the mood of the fantastic opener, as Whizzer pointed out. 

Overall, an enjoyable night, albeit a bit confusing one. I didn't think it was as terrible as Roxy made it seem (I'm also a diehard Groff and Foster lover, though, so...).

Updated On: 7/16/16 at 11:56 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:56pm

I think technology is against me tonight. Got frozen out of that post too, ha. 

The best new song was about all the violence going on with Black Lives Matter, school shootings, etc. It was extremely moving and the song had a strong hook, something the other new songs were severely lacking. 

It all ended with George Michael's Freedom. 

Forget About the Boy and the Joni Mitchell/Sondheim mash up were worth the price of admission. The good outweighed the bad in the end, but the bad was really bad. 

Look, I love Sutton. Think she's one of our greatest performers and am thrilled beyond belief to see her in Charity this season. She performed well tonight, but she had to do all the work against the song selection. Of course her songs felt like tailored suits compared to Groff's hodgepodge he was handed. Why didn't he sing more musical theater? How about And They're Off? Or anything fun and charming, which he is. Groff isn't a mopey guy so why give him songs that so often fought against his natural charisma? 

Joe Iconis used to put on excellent jamborees at Joe's Pub that had a drunken sing-a-long quality to them that this was lacking. 

A strange night indeed. 

[smidge]

Posted: 7/16/16 at 11:59pm

I was kind of expecting numbers from the various off Center productions that were presented at City Center, sort of a greatest hits. While some songs were cute or moving, the whole experience was bewildering. I did make it until the end but was thinking about cutting out early. Groff and Foster's Love on Top was the single whitest thing I have ever seen

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 7/17/16 at 12:12am

smidge said: "I was kind of expecting numbers from the various off Center productions that were presented at City Center, sort of a greatest hits. While some songs were cute or moving, the whole experience was bewildering. I did make it until the end but was thinking about cutting out early. Groff and Foster's Love on Top was the single whitest thing I have ever seen"

I was absolutely expecting an off-center greatest hits too, especially since Sutton starred in Wild Party and Violet and Groff in A New Brain. 

And LOL to your Love on Top comment. That is exactly the reason it was so brilliant. It had a camp quality that you might find on a Raquel Welch or Mitzi Gaynor variety show special. You see it too often these days, but there it was tonight. 

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/17/16 at 12:12am

You had to have been there. You truly had to have been there; because no words can adequately convey the absolute, unfathomable awfulness of this miserable mishmash of an evening. 

 

A succession of undistinguished, unpalatable, ugly songs drone on and on on a dark stage. Two giant chandeliers that seem to have been salvaged from some garish, tacky '60s nightclub hang over the stage to "illuminate" the proceedings. Many of the songs are those dreary, ruminative, brooding narrations of tales not worth either telling or hearing. One particularly ghastly song dealt with someone who wrote a song that cracked eggs. Believe me, I kid you not. 

The only good music heard all evening came from the pen of Jerome Kern. They showed a film clip from Roberta in which Fred and Ginger danced gracefully, while the show's two stars danced simultaneously on stage. Suffice to say, that wasn't the wisest decision.

Off Center? Off-putting is more like it. For those who were not there this evening: consider yourselves lucky.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/17/16 at 12:13am

Grofff = boring

[IslandBoy27]

Posted: 7/17/16 at 12:13am

What a total mess it was! I was so confused. The tap number was definitely the price of admission for me. All I kept thinking after that was how in the world could Sutton and Groff even stomach the idea of tapping at all after that number. Which they did. To Love On Top. By Beyoncé.(I just wanted to make sure everyone was clear that that did in fact happen.)

My main thought however, after the escape, was how absolutely mediocre Groff was. I guess he was so great in Hamilton because he wasn't given enough time on stage for his weaknesses to be exposed. With out structure, that guy is a mess. I was totally caught off guard by that. 

And though it was sweet, I didn't think the house manager needed to sing an ENTIRE 5 minute song. 

Updated On: 7/17/16 at 12:13 AM

[smidge]

Posted: 7/17/16 at 12:22am

I kept thinking that they were Broadway's Donny and Marie. And, like Whizzer, I'm a sucker for 60's and 70's variety shows. And, please forgive me, if Groff is up there awkwardly shaking his ass, I'm in it for the duration.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/17/16 at 12:36am

Question: did anyone get the "I wrote a song and every egg shattered" or whatever piece at all? Was I missing out on something massively? I was beyond confused.