LEGALLY BLONDE*CURTAINS and ,thank god, MEET JOHN DOE

I won't go into much detail on the first 2.They both have wonderful casts doing the best they can with average material.Debra Monk , Christan Borle were my favorites in their respective shows. The scores to both never rise above a certain level of competency. Thataway in CURTAINS and There,Right There in BLONDE were my favorite numbers.BUT if you can get to D.C. to Fords Theater a wonderful new musical is playing. The score to MEET JOHN DOE far surpasses both CURTAINS or BLONDE.A beautiful adaption of the Frank Capra movie with a much better ending then the movie had. I had seen a staged reading of it with Donna Lynn Champlin BUT any producer would would be crazy not to bring Heidi Blickenstaff to Broadway as the star. What a talent. She blew me away.And what a voice. There's a song in the 2nd act called THANK YOU that made me cry. Best score since GREY GARDENS and SPRING AWAKENING. It's been extended til May 20 ...if you can...go see it!

yay meet john doe! heidi really is great.

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the costuming is great too! very authentic looking.

well hopefully it will move past dc

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John Doe was/is a good show that could easily be fantastic, but is hampered by some TRULY awful musical numbers. For starters, cut the biggest piece of sh*t ever: Lighthouses. talk about a truly awful moment. It cancelled out the entire first act which had been really good. Another problem, too much exposition in the second act- it should've been spread out over the two acts.

Ihave other critiques, but I won't post them so as not to bore you all-

a very good start with some really solid numbers!

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Woohoo Heidi! I'm glad to hear about her usual fabulousity.

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I LOVED Curtains despite it's flaws!

The Lighthouses demo is available at: http://www.johndoemusical.com/downloads.html

And yes, I agree, it was not the best song in the show. I also agree that Blickenstaff was a standout and the ensemble was strong. It is also true that some of the musical numbers needed to be cut and that the show suffered from too much exposition. However, it has gotten better every time I have seen it and despite its faults, has potential.

It was not my favorite show this season in DC by far, but was better than a lot of others.

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Updated On: 4/30/07 at 07:46 PM

I LOVED Meet John Doe. I saw it last weekend as it has entered it's extended run. There are some parts and songs to it that could use a bit more work, but I think it is one of the best stories I have seen on stage in a little while. There is a lot going on but it isn't confusing. There are surprises and I think it is just a great show. I'd love to see it make the transition to Broadway, obviously with some changes, but I think it is better than many shows that have or are on Broadway right now.