Posted: 3/30/24 at 3:57pm
Listener said: "When is opening night?"
It opens on the 14th
Posted: 3/30/24 at 5:10pm
Listener said: "When is opening night?"
April 14 so two weeks ish out.
Saw the composer on the way out talking to someone so it seems like they're still working on it.
Updated On: 3/30/24 at 05:10 PM
Posted: 3/30/24 at 11:14pm
Caught it tonight and I was pretty blown away to be honest. The 2nd act gets a bit wonky for 10 or so minutes but it finds it feet with a strong finish.
It’s night and day compared to The Notebook which I saw last when it comes to actual music and vocal performances - the Moore I think about Notebook more I loathe it. Eden slays as expected but Amber Iman, Beth Leavel and George Abud rise above too.
Posted: 3/30/24 at 11:29pm
so yes, there are some very creaky book moments. particularly in act 2, glaring problems emerge: Tamara is in love with two people, we are told immediately, but then seems to only love one of them (or we are shown very little of the love for the other). and i found myself eyerolling at the somewhat insane demands of Rafaela: she wanted to live in an open lesbian relationship in 1930s Europe and was mad at Tamara for.... reading the violent, hateful room? so yes, there are problems the show cant get around. and yes, the score never takes off entirely- serviceable, moving/pleasant in the moment but nothing to write home about. so i get the complaints about the core of this, which is good but not at at all great.
but everything else is great. i dont say that lightly. im shocked how much i enjoyed the spectacle/accoutrement that they managed here. i thought the set was simple but sexy, smart. the story is undeniably compelling and never loses us. europe in 1933? we know whats coming but i never felt myself thinking "ok lets get on with it" the way i did with harmony.
but mostly i thought this cast was so perfect that i could forgive most everything else. its not just that they are all giving great performances, they seem to be embodying these characters and making them their own, and i see rachel chavkin hands all over this cast.. andrew samonsky (that voice! wow) and amber iman (double wow) are each fantastic- Iman sizzles whenever she steps center stage, and sings those songs like very few others can. (hard to imagine carmen cusack in this role, as great as she is, with the way iman has developed it). George Abud is outstanding- hilarious and terrifying and demands award notice. did they write that role *for* Natalie Joy Johnson? its tailor made for her. and beth leavel is giving a master class in line delivery-- and the entire left orchestra was sniffling audibly during her touching song at the end.
but the show would fall apart without true stage presence at the center of it, and espinosa's performance tonight surprised me: i was expecting vocal pyrotechnics (and didnt get as many as i thought we would, shes struggling with some of those unforgiving notes), but i was not expecting such a rich committed portrayal. i know she is given some creaky, sloppy dialogue (to rafaella, to herself) but she rises above it. the girl can act, and as fine as she was as Maureen 15 years ago and as powerful as she sounds on a thousand youtube elphaba videos, i was not expecting this at all. its a beast of a role and she sold me, hook/line/sinker.
so count me pleasantly surprised. i cant see this lasting very long without rave reviews and awards, and even then, its a hard sell (being marketed kinda strangely). the orchestra was mostly full but not entirely. id recommend sitting house right over house left-- video projections were sometimes hard to see and much less is going on across the stage.
Posted: 3/30/24 at 11:37pm
Wonder if this could be like PARADISE SQUARE...middling reviews but gets a ton of Tony nominations because of nominateable elements.
Posted: 3/30/24 at 11:42pm
“How did I wind up here?” asks an elderly Tamara de Lempicka at the start of her namesake musical, looking back on her life in mid-‘70s Los Angeles.
I’m not entirely sure how, but this miracle of a show has (finally!) arrived in New York, and contemporary musical theatre fans can cheer. No longer is the second act the unfocused, jumbled mess it was in prior iterations - and that now makes Lempicka a great show.
Okay, so I might miss “Stillness” and the second act might still veer off course a little bit, but I nearly shed a tear towards the end - and I am not normally a cryer at Broadway shows.
Eden, Amber, and George are perfection. Natalie Joy Johnson is delicious and her sultry “Women” will be a staple at cabarets and late-night drag shows in the very near future.
The score is incredible. “Woman Is” is every bit the religious experience live as advertised, but don’t sleep on “I Will Paint Her.” Matt’s a genius and he could not be more kind.
A+ direction and design. Chavkin strikes solid gold yet again.
This likely won’t last long in New York, so RUN if you can to the Longacre. I hope people discover it somehow and it becomes a cult hit years from now, much like Lempicka’s artwork itself.
Updated On: 3/30/24 at 11:42 PM
Posted: 3/31/24 at 12:05am
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Wonder if this could be like PARADISE SQUARE...middling reviews but gets a ton of Tony nominations because of nominateable elements."
I think this is exactly right. And, like Paradise Square, it only has a shot at Best Lead Actress in a Musical.
Posted: 3/31/24 at 12:24am
predicting awards is silly given how political/random the small group of Deciders actually is.
and yes, my opinion is that this was light years better than Paradise Square but thats subjective.
however, i dont remember anyone else standing out all that much in Paradise Square that season the way Iman and Abud, at the very least, do this season. And Lempicka has a hefty historical and original story at its center (like PSquare) but in a season of movie adaptations. stands out a bit more. who knows
Updated On: 3/31/24 at 12:24 AM
Posted: 3/31/24 at 12:02pm
I saw Lempicka last night. I went into the show knowing nothing about it, and I feel as if I still know nothing, even though I sat through the two-and-a-half-hour production. Yes, it's a show about Tamara de Lempicka, whose works I've seen, but about whom I knew very little. But is it a musical about her artistry? Her sexuality? Anti-Semitism? The show is so ambitious, it achieves nothing in its ambition, book-wise.
The entire company is doing their best with the material they have. Eden is performing a punishing score reasonably well. George is gobbling up every moment he has on stage. Amber delivers with killer vocals, although I don't really understand her interpretation of Rafaela. At times, I felt as if the three were in completely different shows, which occasionally shared touchpoints.
I hadn't seen the show at either Williamstown or La Jolla, so I don't know what else the story could have been. But the show I saw last night felt like an incredibly missed opportunity because it refused to pick a lane. The most compelling story, for me, would've been a story of Lempicka's discovery of her artistry, her fusion of old and new (and the tension of her wanting to obey conventions while defying them, both artistically and socially), the doldrums of her artistry as the "painting Baroness," and the rebirth of her art. *That* would have given meaning to the framing of the show from beginning to end. There were glimmers of that story last night, but as in Water for Elephants, the story here is lost to the spectacle.
Updated On: 3/31/24 at 12:02 PM
Posted: 4/1/24 at 12:18am
Lempicka Is Repainting Broadway The Rachel Chavkin-directed musical is making room for a new kind of character.
https://www.elle.com/culture/theater/a46673260/lempicka-broadway-interview/
Posted: 4/1/24 at 11:28am
Madonna and Barbra Are Fans. Broadway, Meet Lempicka.
A new musical aims to restore the reputation, in life and art, of the ambitious yet undervalued painter Tamara de Lempicka.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/01/theater/lempicka-musical-broadway.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hE0.MiH6.EIpD-VUSUzCp&smid=url-share
Posted: 4/1/24 at 12:20pm
The real Tamara Lempicka was a much more complicated person than what is depicted in the musical. She was driven, and (through the lens of history) a trailblazer, but she was also ruthlessly ambitious and morally unscrupulous, far beyond simply her unorthodox bisexuality. The musical seems to have partly been influenced by works like Evita, and I wonder if the show might be more dramatically interesting if the writing weren't so interested in making Lempicka sympathetic. Others have suggested the theme of the show is Lempicka's quest (obsession?) with beauty, but then the writing should question what beauty authentically is, and if the ruthless behavior one exhibits in order to find it is ultimately worth it.
As someone else already pointed out, Evita works because there is a strong central storyteller who challenges the protagonist and offers a strong point of view on the story being told. Life stories presented without strong opinion don't generally make for exciting drama.
Posted: 4/1/24 at 1:36pm
Cast album being recorded “so soon,” per my intermish convo with Gould a couple nights ago.
Posted: 4/2/24 at 10:04am
Saw this last night and I enjoyed it! I think I need to see a second time to get all my thoughts together, but I really enjoyed the score and the staging. Amber Iman walks away with the show giving one of the best vocal performances I've ever seen. Natalie Joy Johnson, George Abud, and Beth Leavel also give great performances. Eden was okay. Her acting was fine but she was often flat.
I didn't mind Beth getting the 11'o clock number. As much as the show was about Lempicka, it was more to me about that time period and culture surrounding it, so Beth getting the 11 o clock number seemed kinda fitting to me tbh.
Will definitely be returning soon as I don't see this running long.
Posted: 4/2/24 at 11:37am
A handful of performances in the build-up to opening are on TDF, for those seeking affordable access.
Posted: 4/3/24 at 10:33am
I suppose this is another one of those “in name only” things. I wonder if they actually receive a fee for their name being used. The producers must be desperate right now.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Video-Eric-Cervini-Joins-Producing-Team-of-LEMPICKA-on-Broadway-20240403
Posted: 4/3/24 at 10:39am
BorisTomashevsky said: "I suppose this is another one of those “in name only” things. I wonder if they actually receive a fee for their name being used. The producersmust be desperate right now.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Video-Eric-Cervini-Joins-Producing-Team-of-LEMPICKA-on-Broadway-20240403"
They’re doing everything they can to attract the gays and theys, it seems. This man’s promo video is transparently biased - “best musical I’ve ever seen” puh-lease - and I can’t imagine he’s contributing any kind of significant financial investment, so this feels more like they snagged an influencer and allowed him to have a producing credit in the vain hope it wins Best Musical. In short, it reeks of desperation.
Posted: 4/3/24 at 11:32am
Hoo boy, this is going to be up on the wall at Joe Allen real soon. A huge bomb.
Updated On: 4/3/24 at 11:32 AM
Posted: 4/3/24 at 3:16pm
ColorTheHours048 said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "I suppose this is another one of those “in name only” things. I wonder if they actually receive a fee for their name being used. The producersmust be desperate right now.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Video-Eric-Cervini-Joins-Producing-Team-of-LEMPICKA-on-Broadway-20240403"
They’re doing everything they can to attract the gays and theys, it seems. This man’s promo video is transparently biased - “best musical I’ve ever seen” puh-lease - and I can’t imagine he’s contributing any kind of significant financial investment, so this feels more like they snagged an influencer and allowed him to have a producing credit in the vain hope it wins Best Musical. In short, it reeks of desperation."
I think it's the only show this season that is not a revival, based on IP and/or has a famous celeb producer attached (Clinton, Angelina Jolie etc). They have an uphill battle. There are differing opinions about the production itself but most seem to agree the music is quite good (as do I).
Posted: 4/3/24 at 4:11pm
These are all fine takes but it’s an oversimplification to call Cervini an influencer. He’s an author and gay historian. It’s not as if his interest in the musical would be out of left field.
Posted: 4/3/24 at 6:02pm
orlikethecolorpurple said: "These are all fine takes but it’s an oversimplification to call Cervinian influencer. He’s an author and gay historian. It’s not as if his interest in the musical would be out of left field."
Influencers can be authors and historians; just as much as they can be makeup artists, fashionistas, and charismatic nobodies. It’s not just a pejorative term. His announcement of his joining the producing team is presented in the style of his many Instagram/TikTok reels, as a sort of history lesson on Lempicka herself. It makes sense the team working on the show would want someone with his pedigree as a queer historian/influencer to give his stamp of approval. It’s no different than the last-minute addition of celebrity producers to shows like Ain’t No Mo and How to Dance in Ohio, but I can’t imagine Barbra or Madonna are champing at the bit to put their money into this.
Updated On: 4/3/24 at 06:02 PM
Posted: 4/3/24 at 6:58pm
Productions have enlisted bonafide A-list celebrities as “producers” and none have made an impact, so it’s hard to imagine somebody like Cervini will be able to do anything here.
Posted: 4/3/24 at 7:44pm
ColorTheHours048 said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "I suppose this is another one of those “in name only” things. I wonder if they actually receive a fee for their name being used. The producersmust be desperate right now.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Video-Eric-Cervini-Joins-Producing-Team-of-LEMPICKA-on-Broadway-20240403"
They’re doing everything they can to attract the gays and theys, it seems. This man’s promo video is transparently biased - “best musical I’ve ever seen” puh-lease - and I can’t imagine he’s contributing any kind of significant financial investment, so this feels more like they snagged an influencer and allowed him to have a producing credit in the vain hope it wins Best Musical. In short, it reeks of desperation."
Bringing this dude on as a producer will do nothing. I wonder if Madonna was approached to invest as she's a collector-fan of Lempicka. Her name brings more influence as for marketing then Eric Cervini. All our gay friends plan on seeing this already! They have a week left to make changes as critics start coming next week Thursday.
Updated On: 4/3/24 at 07:44 PM
Posted: 4/3/24 at 9:42pm
ColorTheHours048 said: "
They’re doing everything they can to attract the gays and theys, it seems. This man’s promo video is transparently biased - “best musical I’ve ever seen” puh-lease - and I can’t imagine he’s contributing any kind of significant financial investment, so this feels more like they snagged an influencer and allowed him to have a producing credit in the vain hope it wins Best Musical. In short, it reeks of desperation."
This show is not gay enough or campy enough to take this angle. I enjoyed it for what it is, but like... it ain't gonna last. Admirable they got people to finance it to Broadway, but... alas
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