I was there tonight and I'm in agreement with a lot of AC's comments, though I didn't dislike it as strongly. I didn't find it a chore to sit through, though there are certainly stretches of it that are. The score is definitely...not Finn's best. It's surprisingly ballad-heavy and melody-free. I even thought the Frank-running-into-his-ex song was entirely forgettable and generic. The lyrics are pretty much on the same page as the music. Predictable and pretty routine. Why did I walk out of the show with the SPELLING BEE opening number stuck in my head and not a single one of the tunes in this score...? Not a good sign. The book fares worse. Many scenes from the film are slavishly adapted for the stage, at times seemingly word-for-word. Most of the joy, heart, and quirkiness of Arndt's fantastic screenplay are pretty much gone, and we're just left with the bare bones of the story.
Now, for the cast. Swenson is very miscast and turning in a pretty bland performance. He doesn't ever really seem overbearing, pushy, or as controlling as Greg Kinnear was in the film. And in turn, we don't really care about his characters' journey. I do think Will Chase would have been more ideal in the role. Too bad. Block is fine, as usual. She is one performer who grows on me more and more each time I see her...she has a pretty thankless part when all is said and done, but she's a warm and welcome presence. Logan Rowland and David Rasche are both not very strong, unfortunately. Particularly Rasche. I still believe Eddie Murphy was robbed of the Oscar in 2007, but I realized tonight why Arkin won (aside from his long film career), because none of the oddball crabbiness and underlying warmth are in Rasche's performance. He takes it another route and, again, is criminally bland. Hannah Nordberg is good as Olive, though I never really felt like she was the core of the show and the story, which was clear in the film, even when Olive wasn't saying much. Rory O'Malley is great, as usual. His take on the role is different from his film counterpart, but he is the only person in the show who manages to pull this off without sacrificing an interesting character altogether. It should also be noted that Jennifer Sanchez takes two extremely odd parts and makes them pretty damn funny.
I didn't have much of a problem with the staging. It has some extremely clever moments, with pretty smart choreography. The audience tonight was bizarre. Laughing and very unfunny moments, etc. But they did give a partial standing ovation, which I've noticed is a rarity nowadays off Broadway.
The show runs about an hour and 50 minutes, and around the 90 minute mark, I began to get a bit antsy. In the midst of the climax (the actual pageant), the attention keeps getting taken away from the pageant and redirected towards other, less interesting plotlines. I will admit, I genuinely laughed a bunch of times and was touched by a couple of moments, and it all goes down rather easily. But I can't help but think that almost every time I felt myself smiling or feeling for these characters, I had the scenes from the film at the forefront of my mind. Not the scenes that were happening right in front of me, in real time. It's nothing tragically horrendous, nor is it anything great. It just kinda...is. Too bad, considering how ideal of a pairing this creative team and material seemed to be from the get-go.
Updated On: 10/27/13 at 11:55 PM
