LEAP OF FAITH Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 4:30am

Post 'em here!

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 4:33am

This is going to get messy real early. Bloodbath comes to mind.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 5:59am

Sadly I think you're right.

[choitoy]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:00am

I'm kinda afraid of what's going to happen with this show. My sister, who is a big Raoul fan, has never seen him live (us living in Washington State). Originally I was going to take her to NY for her 30th birthday in November, and if "Leap" opened in the fall as originally planned, it would have all worked out.

Unfortunately, it got bumped to spring, so we adjusted our plans to come earlier, but the week of July 9th was the soonest we could come (with my work vacation schedule and her going back to school). We booked everything already, and I know she'll be disappointed if "Leap" doesn't post semi-decent notices/gets nominated for enough Tony awards to keep it going through the Summer.

I won't be too heart-broken, as I really wanted to see "Once" and "Evita" myself (and got tickets to those already). But I know she'll be devastated.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:54am

Break her heart now!

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:56am

lupone76 is negative.

This was one of the overall worst musicals I've ever seen. I kept asking myself why??? Why would producers and creatives have the audacity to open a show like this on Broadway?? Do they actually think that such a poorly constructed, banal musical like this will succeed?? Well, if it does succeed than Broadway has truly gone to the dogs.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1043999&dt=92&boardid=1


After Eight is an enormous d-bag.

I thought David Hyde Pierce was great in Curtains, and deserved the Tony Award.

There. You've just heard it.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?page=3&thread=1043656&boardid=1

Updated On: 4/26/12 at 07:56 AM

Posted: 4/26/12 at 8:00am

I'm gonna make some popcorn, sit back and read along for this one!
It's gonna be an exciting night...

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 8:41am

Saw it last week, horrendous!
This is gonna be some bloodbath, the critics will have a field day with this!
Watch the producers leap into the fire!

[Sauja]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 9:14am

I'm so confused by the strength of the negative reaction to this show. We've had some horrifying musicals this year: Lysistrata Jones, Spider-Man, and Ghost leap to mind first. Leap of Faith is thin, but it's so much more pleasant and enjoyable than a lot of other shows out there, at least to me. Hell, I'd rather sit through it three more times than have to watch Nice Work again.

[swoboda]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 9:25am

I took the "Leap" last week and sadly got my feet wet. No doubt that this show is tepid at best. But in it's defense I did not leave at intermission like at Wonderland. I thought it was corny, cheesy, and utterly predictable but somehow it was appealing. Hard to explain a reaction sometimes.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 11:48am

I'm with Sauja here, it isn't a wonderful piece (or wasn't yet when I saw it last week) but it was far from bad, in fact this season alone I have seen a lot that was worse. Hoping for a few bright spots in the reviews, especially for the ensemble that actually looks like real people and not just juiced up chorus boys, the choreography (the most major improvement from CA) and for Raul's give-it-all performance.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:58pm

What Sauja said. It's really not that bad of a show. Hopefully the reviews are respectful at least...

[BroadwayBen]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 4:41pm

Wall Street Journal is mixed to neg...Appreciates the style, not much on the substance.

"Leap of Faith," the musical version of the 1992 film in which Steve Martin played a crooked evangelist who has a crisis of faithlessness, is as slick as ice on Teflon. To be sure, Raúl Esparza, the hardworking star, is smooth in the wrong way—he comes across like a talk-show host, not a sequin-spangled faith healer—and none of the other members of the immensely likable cast give the impression of having traveled much farther west than Chelsea. But if you're looking for pure Broadway razzmatazz, "Leap of Faith" delivers the goods. Robin Wagner's set turns the interior of the St. James Theatre into a revival tent, and Christopher Ashley and Sergio Trujillo, the director and choreographer, put every square inch of it to effective use. The chorus rocks and rolls. The gospel-style songs, by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, are rousingly lively (though the ballads, as usual with Mr. Menken, sound like '70s sitcom themes).

What "Leap of Faith" lacks are sweat and heart, the absence of which will be bothersome only if you permit yourself to imagine how this well-oiled applause machine might have run had its creators taken the plot seriously. Real emotions, raw and hurtful, are at stake in "Leap of Faith," and on occasion they bob to the surface, as in the scene in which a frumpy, desperately unhappy woman (well played by Dierdre Friel) drops her wedding ring in the collection basket. Adam Guettel or Michael John LaChiusa would have made the whole show as gripping as that one short scene. Not so the makers of "Leap of Faith," who are, like Mr. Esparza, content to skate glamorously atop the surface of their characters' feelings. If that's good enough for you, then you won't be sorry you came.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 4:44pm

Someone didn't like the Raul!!!!
Heaven forbid!

[tazber]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 4:55pm

Was that Journal review by Treachout?

I'm delighted and very surprised it wasn't an out and out pan.

[egghumor]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 5:10pm

Yes, Tazber, that review of LEAP was written by Terry Teachout, who in the same review served up a far more scathing notice on DON'T DRESS FOR DINNER.

[srg129]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:21pm

Backstage is negative:

http://www.backstage.com/bso/reviews-ny-theatre-broadway/ny-review-leap-of-faith-1006895152.story

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:24pm

And so it begins!

[mc1227]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:26pm

Does Backstage really like anything? Best wishes to the company for some kindness. It's getting very ugly out there.

[srg129]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:28pm

Yeah actually they do like most openings...lately not so much though...

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:28pm

I agree with Haagensen 100% with everything he said.

B
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[egghumor]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:30pm

Does anyone know who is reviewing LEAP for NYT, Brantley or Isherwood?

[BroadwayBen]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:32pm

My guess is Brantley -- he usually loves Raul.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:32pm

"(though the ballads, as usual with Mr. Menken, sound like '70s sitcom themes)."

LOL Is that fair though? he's had some dull ballads lately, but I mean... Santa Fe? Beauty and the Beast? A Whole New World? Colours of the Wind? Suddenly Seymour? Part of Your frickin World? Those are some classy sitcom themes.

I loved the reviews Growl posted.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 7:33pm

choitoy, if she is a Raoul fan, take her to Phantom. That'll still be running in November.