#126
Posted: 8/17/13 at 12:54am
I saw the show tonight and while my problems are varied and numerous, I didn't hate it at all. It was a beautiful night, and a beautifully performed, handsomely mounted production. My issues are basically the same as everyone else's...it's very hit or miss. Very inconsistent. And a lot of the music sounds very similar. "Love's A Gun" was far and away the highlight of the night, musically and just in general. Rebecca Naomi Jones is so incredibly, sickeningly talented. Everything (and I mean everything) but the kitchen sink is thrown at the wall here, and the writers should have just kept the stuff that stuck. Instead, they kept the segway, the golf cart, the marching band, the jacuzzi, the confetti, etc etc. It all is a bit overwhelming and unnecessary, and almost cries out as a "look how zany we can be!!!" statement. The show is also wildly unfocused. Where Shakespeare was a master at orchestrating countless plot lines and relationships in his plays, all of which you understand and care about, the writers here are...not so adept. I didn't really care about any of the relationships any of these characters had, let alone the characters themselves. Just as we are introduced to one character and their desires, the show jumps to a completely different plot line and doesn't revist the one before it until the last twenty minutes of the show.
But, look, it's ambitious in its way and it's never really dull. the moments that land land well, and the cast is exceptional. The orchestra sounded fantastic too. And the physical production is great. It's a frothy, sweet, and endearing late summer treat of a show, but its also very flawed. So was I entertained? Yeah. Was I knocked out by the piece as a whole? Hardly.
But, look, it's ambitious in its way and it's never really dull. the moments that land land well, and the cast is exceptional. The orchestra sounded fantastic too. And the physical production is great. It's a frothy, sweet, and endearing late summer treat of a show, but its also very flawed. So was I entertained? Yeah. Was I knocked out by the piece as a whole? Hardly.
Updated On: 8/17/13 at 12:54 AM