MCC's 'SH!T. MEET. FAN.' Cast Announced- Page 4

[Age_of_Mendacity]

Posted: 10/22/24 at 7:32pm

Tonight's 7 p.m. show and the talk back was cancelled before going on due to an illness. Lots of very annoyed patrons outside afterwards

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/22/24 at 7:37pm

At about 7:20 tonight, Bernie Telsey came onstage and said someone in the cast is sick so the show is canceled. :(

[aislestorm2]

Posted: 10/23/24 at 11:09am

Why would they wait until after showtime to cancel the performance on Tuesday, when they cancelled Sunday night's performance two hours before curtain? 

Another huge beef with MCC-they won't reschedule subscribers after Dec. 1st, during the extension to 12/15, even though there are plenty of seats available up to the 15th. The seats left during the regular run are pretty awful. I'll think twice before re-subscribing next year.

Updated On: 10/24/24 at 11:09 AM

[ACL2006]

Posted: 10/23/24 at 7:02pm

Billy Magnuson has left the show due to health reasons.

[willep]

Posted: 10/23/24 at 7:33pm

I hope he is alright!

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 10/23/24 at 8:09pm

I'm sure he's ever better now.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 10/23/24 at 8:43pm

Wouldn’t doubt if this was a quit/fired moment. He honestly seemed too young to be with the rest of the cast.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 10/24/24 at 3:50am

DramaTeach said: "Wouldn’t doubt if this was a quit/fired moment. He honestly seemed too young to be with the rest of the cast."

I'm about 100% sure the producers knew what Billy Magnussen looked like when they cast him. 

It appears that Michael Oberholtzer from Take Me Out is taking over the role next week.

[macnyc]

Posted: 11/1/24 at 12:37pm

"SH!T. MEET. FAN." is the type of show you enjoy while you're seeing it. But when it's over, you think, "What the heck was that?"

 

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I didn't know what to make of the twist at the end. Does it mean they didn't really play the game, and all their relationships are intact? What about the revelations? I came away thinking that all of them are lousy individuals, except maybe for Constance Wu's character. What does an audience member do with those feelings?

I enjoyed all the performances, and I think the direction was good. Jokes landed. Newcomer Michael Oberholtzer was up to speed and fine in the role, but he looked about a decade younger than his frat brothers. I enjoyed my seat in the second row of the balcony, which is the last row. It's such a nice theater, very comfortable. 

Updated On: 11/1/24 at 12:37 PM

[Yessica Haircut]

Posted: 11/2/24 at 11:45am

The ending is definitely something to chew on; I've never seen the original film or any of its remakes, but from what I understand, the original film (and, by extension, I imagine the remakes) ends the same way. After mulling it over a bit (saw the matinee on Thursday, found it enjoyable enough), my interpretation is

 

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They all silently agree to pretend nothing happened. Instead of dealing with the ramifications of being honest, revealing their secrets, and airing their grievances, they decide to go on as before rather than face the uncertainty of life without their friendships/relationships/normal lives.

 

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 11/2/24 at 6:55pm

I didn’t enjoy it while seeing it and left no impression on me afterward.  The ending added nothing and seemed shoehorned in an effort to give it meaning: didn't work  

The play is just broadly written play that it leaves nothing to mine. The characters are essentially archetypes or stereotypes lacking definition and the jokes often fall flat. There is tremendous talent on stage, but they have little to work with.  

In the realm of alcohol infused plays (Woolf being the measure), this was just sloppy and lazy. It’s not a horrible play by any means, it’s just not very good.

Happy I only paid 90 bucks to see it, so there’s that!

[sppunk]

Posted: 11/2/24 at 8:50pm

Caught this today and had an enjoyable time with this cast. 

That said it’s a poor man’s God of Carnage. The “arguments” are one or two notes only with little depth. 

I really disliked the ending as well but to be fair I love dark stories so even though the very, very end was a dark twist it made me think of early 2000s tropes  

 

Updated On: 11/2/24 at 08:50 PM

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 4:51pm

Health Concern? So glad he’s feeling better.

[WldKingdomHM]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 6:23pm

DramaTeach said: "Health Concern?So glad he’s feeling better."

Hm  mmmmm

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 6:36pm

DramaTeach said: "Health Concern?So glad he’s feeling better."

Wow.  I bet that's going into production some time tomorrow?  Next week?

[Melissa25]

Posted: 11/8/24 at 7:38pm

I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it. I am quite surprised this caliber cast is playing off Broadway. I think this will be a hit once it transfers. I laughed often and loved the set, Dillahunt, Krakowski and Wu.  That BD/SM scene confused me too and needs some tweaking. 

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 11/8/24 at 7:51pm

Saw this yesterday and totally forgot to drop a review.

I agree with Boys in the Band as a comparison, and I thought it was solid but this was a crazy caliber of cast to have on such simple material.

I enjoyed it in the moment right up until the last 25 minutes. It was trying to comment on too many things and then the ending just didn't work. Cut the entire "All 3 on their phones, also they talk about having a no phone hangout" thing because it's beyond confusing. I'd rather the show not have all been a dream.

I got so many great laughs, especially at the Mike bit. The BDSM scene definitely should be addressed and that could fit into the last 15 mins 

 

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Are all 4 of them repressed bisexuals? Why didn't he just communicate that the Mike texting wasn't the same one he thought, or that was genuinely abnormal, unless they're both dating Mike too? As for the BDSM thing, why does NPH's character seem fine and then a few scenes later the very man involved in all of that is suddenly homophobic? Doesn't he know? It was so out of place, and frustrating to a degree.

I think this would be a cool transfer, but it definitely needs work. Also the huge Next to Normal style set would be amazing if we didn't have so much time walking, I liked the Roommate's set because it mitigated that but this one doesn't even try to. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 11/8/24 at 10:56pm

 

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Roger (Neal Patrick Harris) also seemed terrified of Eve (Jane Krakowski). At the end even after he realizes who she got the earrings from, he seemed to cower in the hallway when Eve walked by him. Eve definitely “wore the pants” in the family even though she sported those terrific red shorts for the whole play. 

 

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 11/9/24 at 10:38pm

shocked by how incredibly bad i thought this was. it has NO IDEA what it wants to be, with that left turn towards Serious Pointmaking at the end, but I could forgive all that if the lines werent so stunted and unfunny. Even the name of this play it irritating- an attempt to be shocking for no real reason. 

maybe it was an off night? The show started a full 20 minutes late due to "technical difficulties" which is confounding since there seems to be little that is technically difficult about the show. NPH was out today, and his understudy was impossible to understand half the time, and maybe that threw everything off kilter? I am guessing here because with such an incredible cast, surely something must have drawn them to this mess?

The S&M scene is nonsensical both in terms of tone/plot, and also given the characters involved. I didnt mind the "alternative" ending at all, though I'm not sure what is accomplished by bookending the show with a totally ancillary and irritating character. 

The show takes off here and there, coming close to the best kind of stage farce, and its hard to resist these performances. Tillman is wildly talented, and I hope this launches him to bigger and better things, but he's in a different play than everyone else even before hes asked to deliver some Serious Drama- which he does expertly. Oberholzer continues to deliver Jackass beautifully. 

Messing got the most laughs, her double takes and reaction-shtick was perfect, and Wu also acquits herself quite nicely. Krakowski is sort of the straight-woman lead, in a way, and I wish she was given more interesting stuff to do, but its a joy to just be in the same room with her and she seems to be aging in reverse. Speaking of age: we are meant to believe these four men were all in a fraternity together, even though they read *decades* apart? 

Empty seats tonight, and a muted audience response (some outright snoring near me), makes me wonder if this will transfer. 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 8:39am

Didn't realize reviews dropped last night

Maya Phillips in NYT is mixed (and doesn't seem to say much?)

Review: Everyone at the Party Sees Your Texts. A New Play Revels in the Chaos.

Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing and Constance Wu star in the vulgar and entertaining new work from Robert O’Hara.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/theater/****-meets-fan-review.html

"Blistering? Yeah. Vulgar? Certainly. And viciously entertaining. But when it comes to the show’s loftier ambitions — the “satire” part of “blistering vulgar satire” — its execution is edgy but not necessarily sharp."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 8:41am

Deadline mostly praises the cast

‘SH*T. Meet. Fan.’ Off Broadway Review: A Dangerous Game Played By All-Star Cast

https://deadline.com/2024/11/****-meet-fan-off-broadway-review-1236176901/

"O’Hara’s rather rote direction does his play no favors, though he gets terrific performances from his talented cast. Messing, in particular, scores in a go-for-broke comedic performance, and Oberholtzer – a late replacement for Billy Magnussen, who dropped out for health reasons – will remind anyone who saw his Tony-nominated performance in Take Me Out just how powerful an actor he is. Wu subtly demonstrates how her Asian character likely has more in common with Logan than the white majority gathered here, and Harris and Krakowski effectively tap into their sitcom roots while adding some sinister undercurrents – a description that, come to think of it, pretty much applies to the play itself."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 8:44am

Holdren in Vulture is negative

SH*T. Meet. Fan. Tells Us Lots That We Already Know

https://www.vulture.com/article/****-meet-fan-play-mcc-harris-krakowski-ohara.html

"SH*T. Meet. Fan. is a thin, nasty affair, a smug exhibition of human selfishness, vapidity, and cruelty — especially, and unshockingly, the straight-white-male variety. (White women next, by a hair.) “This play is a blistering vulgar satire on Male Toxicity and White Privilege,” writes O’Hara in a script note labeled “Trigger Warning.” “Allow the laughter to indict the audience and lure them into a sense of comfort. Then let the SH*T. Meet. Fan.” Vulgar it certainly is — if you don’t want to hear a bunch of aging bros throwing around slurs and crowing about banging triplets, maybe consider a different use of your evening. But blistering? The play’s aims are too obvious, its satire (though I have my doubts about that word, too) too flat and contemptuous to merit such an adjective."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 8:45am

The Wrap is negative

‘Sh-t. Meet. Fan.’ Off Broadway Review: Phone Games Upend a Night With Debra Messing, Jane Krakowski and Neil Patrick Harris

Robert O’Hara’s new comedy lets fly a lot of crap about horny white people

https://www.thewrap.com/****-meet-fan-off-broadway-review-debra-messing-neil-patrick-harris/

"“S.M.F.” lives up to that title. The play delivers far fewer laughs than a decent production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” But what it lacks in genuine wit – many of O’Hara’s zingers land flat — this s–t show compensates with sheer outrageousness as the phone calls quickly turn X-rated. O’Hara skewers white privilege and the pathetic sex fantasies it unleashes. In the process, he creates a super-stud character that borrows a lot from Mandingo."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 8:47am

NY Stage Review

SH*T. Meet. Fan.: Play. Meet. Speed Bumps.

By Frank Scheck

★★★☆☆ Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing, Constance Wu and Garrett Dillahunt appear in Robert O'Hara's new dark comedy

https://nystagereview.com/2024/11/18/****-meet-fan-play-meet-speed-bumps/

 

SH*T. Meet. Fan.: Satire and Secrets on the Rocks

By Melissa Rose Bernardo

★★★☆☆ Seven disagreeable friends offend and overshare in Robert O’Hara’s New York–set satire

https://nystagereview.com/2024/11/18/****-meet-fan-satire-and-secrets-on-the-rocks/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 8:48am

Theatrely is mixed

Drugs, Alcohol & Miserable Marriages: SH*T. MEET. FAN. — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/drugs-alcohol-miserable-marriages-****-meet-fan----review

"As a predictable, foul-mouthed comedy, SH*T. Meet. Fan. could work, especially with this top-tier cast, but it’s clear O’Hara has set his sights higher as both playwright and director. As his body of work will indicate, he is one of our best creative minds working in the theater today. SH*T. Meet. Fan. doesn’t rise to the level we’ve come to expect."