Lucky Guy Previews Begin Tonight!!- Page 2

[Kad]

Posted: 3/5/13 at 2:55pm

No. Because it's Tom freakin' Hanks.

[Toria63]

Posted: 3/5/13 at 11:17pm

Ok I have spent the last week looking for a review of Lucky Guy and not much found online. I'm in NYC visiting from LA. Bought tickets a week or 2 ago cuz everything out there seemed so old and tired.

Anyway I must say I , unlike the other person on this thread who felt it was just ok, loved it. Tom hanks was great but supporting actors were excellent. Story was interesting having to do with a famous and infamous journalist. It worked. Went to Le Bernardin for dinner before the play and I'm not so impressed by this place. But again, Lucky Guy is worth seeing. I think I hate musicals. This play offered wit, drama, comedy and timing. I think there was a problem tonight with some old news footage that was running without sound and Mr Hanks kind of ad libbed pretty well, garnering applause.

So go see it. Ya'll are funny in NY, standing outside to get a glimpse of Tom Hanks coming out. Too cold for that.

I didn't know the whole story about McAlary, but it was interesting, poignant, sad. Not a New Yorker, but was easy enough to follow.

Anyway my final comment is that on average, pizza is way better here than in L A. I will give you that.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/5/13 at 11:30pm

1. ADHD much?
2. No reviews yet, because the show is in PREVIEWS and the reviews come out on Opening Night.
3. How did you happen to find US just to sing the praises of this show?
4. New York in the Spring is FULL of brand new shows -- can't even understand how everything else seemd "old".
5. New York Pizza is likely the best pizza in the country.

Updated On: 3/5/13 at 11:30 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/5/13 at 11:32pm

So.....Tom Hanks stage door?

[Toria63]

Posted: 3/6/13 at 9:37am

No not ADHD, just get insomnia and have an iPhone...and maybe Im excited to be in ur city...anyway I realize Lucky Guy is in previews, but thought someone would have an opinion. I kind of agree with the thoughts of the supporting cast being a Greek chorus. I don't think McAlary was an affable character. I think it's hard not to feel that way about Tom Hanks, who of course played some pretty affable characters and has done nothing in public to tarnish his image. I'm in my hotel room now and Forrest Gump happens to be on HBO...

My comments about theatre being tired and old are directed at productions like Mama Mia , Wicked, Spider-Man. I don't get to the theatre all that much and am often disappointed. A couple weeks ago, I saw Jekyll and Hyde at the Pantages in LA. It was AWFUL and the same cast is coming to NY soon. Some guy from American Idol. He could sing but the production was a joke. At least it was only$50. steer clear of that one.

Anyway my feelings about this production of Lucky Guy remain the same. Excellent cast with depth to most performances and a story that kept me interested.

As it is my last full day in NYC, I will be in search of more pizza. Did the fine dining thing but its the pizza I love best.

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/6/13 at 9:45am

Toria63,

Enjoy your last day in NY.

I would recommend John's pizza in Greenwich Village.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/6/13 at 10:48am

Ack, even reading the words Magic/Bird in comparison just made me shudder...

I actually met Hanks a few weeks ago near his theater and had a nice chat. It was 7:50p, and he didn't have the address where The Heiress was playing, so I looked it up on my phone for him.

[broadfan327]

Posted: 3/6/13 at 11:11am

Has anyone tried to do SRO yet? What is a guess the latest you can go to get a ticket? Would 2:30 PM on Saturday be too late for Saturday evening?

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/6/13 at 11:31am

Toria, thanks for going back to LA where your vapid opinions might count. I would bet that most people waiting in the cold to see Hanks are not from NY so I wouldn't put that on us.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 3/6/13 at 1:05pm

It has often been said that Hanks is one of the nicer guys in Hollywood. Friends who worked on SNL also said he was lovely anytime he was on. He seems to be assimilating into the NY theatre community nicely - he's been to multiple b-way shows since starting rehearsals. Maybe theatre will be his new "thing".

Hanks said in the NY Times article that he chose a smaller dressing room to be closer to his cast-mates. I'm glad to hear that he stage doors.

I imagine (hope) he will be doing a lot of fundraising this season. (ala Hugh Jackman)

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/6/13 at 11:25pm

Maybe it was the fact that I saw this the day after I saw Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I feel like I've been serving a sentence in narration hell. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that 70% of script is spoken directly to the audience; it's all told and not shown.

I don't know if the play makes much a case for McAlary being that interesting of a character, but the stories he worked on were definitely interesting. The play focuses on several of these stories and they play out like episodes of Blue Bloods and SVU. But because of the narration it's not like watching a L&O marathon on TNT, but rather listening to someone relate their experience of watching a L&O marathon.

Both of the cases he covered in act two had the potential to be dramatized. The first was about a black woman who said she was raped in Prospect Park, but McAlary had a source in the police department who led him to believe that the rape didn't occur. The second was about a black man who was sodomized by two white cops while in lock up. Benson and Stabler would have a field day with these cases, but they lose all of the power when a Greek chorus of reporters simply relay the facts to the audience. Why didn't they choose one of these crimes and fashion a play around it?

The strongest performance came from Courtney B. Vance. I wish Maura Tierney had more to do, but she looks fantastic. Tom Hanks was Tom Hanks. He goes all out for it- there's just not too much to hold on to as written.

It was ultimately harmless and didn't leave much of an impression.

[broadfan327]

Posted: 3/9/13 at 10:47pm

I saw the show tonight. If Tom Hanks was not appearing in this play, this would never have been produced for Broadway. This piece reminded me of CQ/CX, a play I saw last year. I thought CQ/CX was a better play than this. CQ/CX had a more dramatic arc than this and a point of view it was trying to get across. This was more of a direct bioplay, where it isn't clear to me why we should care or root for the main character. Tom Hanks does the most with what he is given, which isn't much. It was much better than Magic/Bird, if one wants to compare bioplays.

The reason we aren't shown the crimes that the main character reports on is the play is meant to be about his reporting of the crimes, not the crimes themselves. Perhaps there is a better play to be written about police corruption that shows it from the point of view of victims or the police, I don't know. I just didn't think the main character's life justified a play.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/9/13 at 11:25pm

broadfan,

A friend and I were discussing Lucky Guy and when I told him I thought they should have just dramatized one case he said the same thing you did: the play would become about the crime and the cops, not about McAlary.

I agree that it could easily become about that, but one could write a play about the case, but tell it through the eyes of the reporter. The first scene could be the woman walking into the police station claiming she had been raped. Then it would be up to the reporter to sort out the facts and we would follow the case through his eyes. Discover the police corruption as he did, etc.

The man won a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative journalism. Write a play about the how he followed a story, gathered facts, protected sources, etc. The case would be important, but it wouldn't be about the case. It would be about how a journalist, and by extension the "tabloid media," produces a narrative for the public to follow.

Sure it's not the most original idea ever, but I think it's better than what they gave us.

I think Lucky Guy is both better and worse than Lombardi and Magic/Bird. It's better in the sense that it's more polished, has slicker direction, perhaps a stronger ensemble, but it's also weaker in that the two sports plays didn't try to present themselves as the "highbrow" bio-play that I felt Lucky Guy wanted to be. The latter two plays knew what they were and didn't try to present themselves as anything more- I think!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/9/13 at 11:38pm

For what it's worth, I thought Lombardi was actually kind of great.

And reading reports about this, it just sounds like a bad play. And nothing interesting or new, but because of Hanks and Ephron, it got produced on Broadway. Seems rather bland.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/9/13 at 11:50pm

Well maybe it is a bit unfair to lump Lombardi and Magic/Bird together. Lombardi certainly had more of a dramatic arc, and plus it focused on one week in Lombardi's life seen through the eyes of the reporter. There was some focus.

Magic/Bird was all over the place and tried to cover the entirety of both players' careers. The supporting cast each had to play multiple roles and the end result was a hodgepodge of trivia press conference sound bites.

Peter Scolari was in Magic/Bird and is now playing similar characters in Lucky Guy; some actors have all the luck.

[broadfan327]

Posted: 3/10/13 at 1:02am

Whizzer,

I just thought of "Murder in the First" which played at 59E59 last year, which is an example of a very good play IMO about police brutality in Alcatraz and a lawyer's attempt to seek justice, of a type of work I think you are referring to. It had good character development, suspense, themes about humanity, etc. that made it thrilling to watch.

For me, I need a play to transcend what I can watch weekly on a CBS procedural, which is watching investigators figure out whodunit.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/10/13 at 1:08am

I saw Murder in the First too, and yes I was thinking of something more along those lines.

I agree it needs to be more than an episode of Criminal Minds or Blue Bloods.

[meyerd584]

Posted: 3/15/13 at 8:41am

Have to disagree with the majority. I was enthralled from start to finish. Hanks, who I find average on screen, was terrific as was the rest of the cast.

It was a good blend of humor and drama and I took to the "tell rather than show" storyline as it was written well with a good amount of humor.

Going to try to see it again but I can see why it would not be for everyone.

[GoshGeeGolly]

Posted: 3/15/13 at 10:26am

What is this show about anyway.
I can't be bothered with the hysteria of the tickets/prices/Hanks.
I'll watch him on cable in Forest Gump again or You've Got Mail.