AC126748 said: "Interesting that they decided to cast a non-Asian actor as the new Claire standby given the controversy surrounding Andrew Barth Feldman."
maybe because they went with the best casting choice instead of bowing down to the woke mob
the so-called controversy ended up being a nothingburger
based on the preposterous outrage one would think someone died
abf gave delightful performances and the shows finances did not take the pathetically predicted hit
the writers themselves put out a statement defending their casting decision
it takes quite the level of arrogance to respond with
no u writers dont really mean what u say
get a life and move into this space we call reality
Zachary Noah Piser and Hannah Kevitt are both doing excellent work at the Belasco. Went tonight and the show really brought me to tears. Happy to see it’s still in great shape.
Savy Jackson is stepping in as Claire from Aug. 4th through 20th while Hannah is on vacation. Caught her performance tonight and she plays Claire very differently from Hannah, Claire, or Helen, and it absolutely worked for me.
Zach, Dez, and Marcus are all great as usual. The show is in excellent shape for sure. It also looks like there are now some non-English translation options available for audience members.
Nettik said: "Savy Jackson is stepping in as Claire from Aug. 4th through 20th while Hannah is on vacation. Caught her performance tonight and she plays Claire very differently from Hannah, Claire, or Helen, and it absolutely worked for me.
Zach, Dez, and Marcus are all great as usual. The show is in excellent shape for sure. It also looks like there are now some non-Englishtranslation options available for audience members."
EDSOSLO858 said: "Nettik said: "Savy Jackson is stepping in as Claire from Aug. 4th through 20th while Hannah is on vacation. Caught her performance tonight and she plays Claire very differently from Hannah, Claire, or Helen, and it absolutely worked for me.
Zach, Dez, and Marcus are all great as usual. The show is in excellent shape for sure. It also looks like there are now some non-Englishtranslation options available for audience members."
Interesting bit of casting: while the actor playing Gil Brentley will be male, both the covers for the role are women. A fun choice considering the prevalence of female jazz singers of that era.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Maybe Happy Ending has launched it's tour in Baltimore. The last dress rehearsal was to a packed house of local Baltimore school students, most of them getting their first taste of live theater. Really nice touch and a good experience for the cast & the kids.
The Hippodrome has had to enact Lucky Seat to fill seats, and sales are still not great for the mid-week shows with some full rows still sitting unsold and unclaimed via Lucky Seat. Just not a lot of buzz for this one. The Sunday debut show last night was filled, but even the Saturday night show for next weekend still has plenty of unsold tickets.
Some expected hiccups with the first day of showing ... the show started late by over 10 minutes, and one of the bedroom moves didn't work mid-show causing the production to halt for 15 min or so as they reset. So, the show that has no set intermission had an impromptu intermission with the house lights up as the crew tried to get things in order and working.
They seemed have kept the hallmarks of the Broadway show, with lots of well-done projections, LED, firefly scene, etc. Visually still a pretty unique and stunning show, in an minimalistic/futuristic sort of way.
Good chemistry with Steven Huynh and Claire Kwon, who play Oliver and Claire. These two come from the Broadway cast of the same show, standbys in these roles. Crooner Gil is played by Franciso Javier Gonzalez, who made a lot of fans as one of the more popular Raoul's in the walk-thru Masquerade production in NYC. He really steals several scenes with his commanding voice and on-point acting.
Yes, the band still raised up onto the stage for the firefly scene. Mail still delivered down the chute. Gil is on the roof of the bedroom. As I mentioned, seems like they stuck true to the Broadway version overall.
Good show. Hope it picks up sales and gets traction as is moves along its 2026-2027 tour. Small cast, so seems like a cheaper show to move thru the country than many.
Nice to hear that they stuck to the Broadway version, overall. I was wondering if the set would be altered in some ways for the tour. It is not in Denver until August of next year and thought I would just wait to see it then instead of trying to see it on Broadway on a trip back east.
I took the trip down to Baltimore yesterday for the matinee and the tour is really wonderful. The only major set change was they don't have the revovle so instead of Oliver and James walking through his house they put them in a picture frame and have a picture behind that that changes to reflect the changing of the room.
Steven and Claire have fantastic chemistry and play off each other so well. I'm so happy the tour leads went to standbys from the Broadway production. I love Claire's sassy nature in the role and how it played off Steven's neurotic nature. Francisco was a fantastic Gil - a beautiful voice, incredibly charming, and very good looking.
I spotted Michael Arden and a few of the creatives in the lobby prior to the performance. I wanted to tell Michael what a fan I am of his work on this as well as some other projects but didn't want to interrupt.
We have the tour coming to Philly this spring and I can't wait to see this cast again. I might pop down to DC in October if I have the time. If the tour is coming your way - go! The cast is top notch and the show is just as beautiful and magical as it is on Broadway.
"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.
