Michael R. Jackson's new musical 'White Girl in Danger' to premiere Off-Broadway in March 2023 — Page 5

JasonC3 said: "I'm asking this out of curiosity and without judgment, to what degree is what people saw last night less developed/polished than what we normally see at a first preview?"

That's difficult to answer. It was everything he had in mind so it was like a long fully staged workshop presentation. Again, I only say that because it was all of the ideas, which was also exciting. I am going back tonight and would assume there will already be a good chunk of cutting because it was very clear which scenes fell flat. It also needs to be shaped and focus which could be easily done from what I saw. Also, there are so many good songs that I was already wishing to watch again as soon as they ended.

This was light years ahead of Bad Cinderalla, which is the only other 1st preview of a "new" musical. That was just bad and it already had a fully staged run to start as a base.

Go if you can see it during this run, or even previews.

TheOnlyOne2 said: "*eats popcorn while watching non black women battle it in the comments about a show centered on black women*

Yall are too much, I'd love to see your thoughts on shows written AND about black women cuz THAT would be a disaster I'd love to watch. ??"

I'm sorry, the only people allowed to have opinions about this show are black women?

I went again tonight for 2nd preview. Most of the issues stated before remained, but I was upset to see they cut Liz Lark Brown's wonderful number as all 3 moms, and left in Michael's extremely long self serving monologue. That scene is really just unnecessary and belongs in another show completely.

Updated On: 3/16/23 at 10:18 PM

Sutton Ross said: "It was the very first preview of a brand new work with a warning from Micheal beforehand. You saw everything in his brain last night regarding this show. It will be a lot different when it opens. Perhaps people assuming this is a failure or won't make it to Broadway should keep that in mind?"

Never said it’s a failure - again not going to Broadway isn’t always the goal - but given A Strange Loop didn’t do well, and the subject matter/name - im not sure this has broad appeal. But again, I don’t think that’s their intent.

PipingHotPiccolo said: "TheOnlyOne2 said: "*eats popcorn while watching non black women battle it in the comments about a show centered on black women*

Yall are too much, I'd love to see your thoughts on shows written AND about black women cuz THAT would be a disaster I'd love to watch. ??"

By all means, White folks should recognize the different perspectives they are encountering when seeing a show like this, but surely they... get to buy tickets? And see it? And so, have opinions? Are you suggesting a person of color can't have an opinion about Leopolsdadt? Make it make sense."

No, you're projecting. I'm just having fun watching yall 👀. Teehee

TheOnlyOne2 said: "PipingHotPiccolo said: "TheOnlyOne2 said: "*eats popcorn while watching non black women battle it in the comments about a show centered on black women*

Yall are too much, I'd love to see your thoughts on shows written AND about black women cuz THAT would be a disaster I'd love to watch. ??"

By all means, White folks should recognize the different perspectives they are encountering when seeing a show like this, but surely they... get to buy tickets? And see it? And so, have opinions? Are you suggesting a person of color can't have an opinion about Leopolsdadt? Make it make sense."

No, you're projecting. I'm just having fun watching yall ?. Teehee"

I have absolutely no idea what you could possibly think the word "projecting" means here, but if there's something funny to you about White people discussing this show, by all means, laugh away. They're gonna keep on doing it, as they should.

TheOnlyOne2 said: "I went again tonight for 2nd preview. Most of the issues stated before remained, but I was upset to see they cut Liz Lark Brown's wonderful number as all 3 moms, and left in Michael's extremely long self serving monologue. That scene is really just unnecessary and belongs in another show completely."

It could be possible that it might be restored at some point, but damn! That was one of the highlights of the evening

I saw this last night and - WOW - what a ride! There's a lot of brilliance in this show. But at the moment it's six different shows blended into one. I described it to a friend as Ain't No Mo' meets Saved by the Bell meets a Jordache commercial.

I'm looking forward to seeing this again in about a month when they've figured out which story they're actually telling.

This is a fascinating show! I definitely think it could benefit from quite a bit of paring, but there are some fun and funny moments sprinkled throughout the show. Michael is great at pastiche, and the first act is a really clever study of representation in traditionally ‘white’ media.

Act 2 is where things kind of go off the rails for me. The plot swerves in a different direction, the style changes, it feels like a different (but related) show to me. Needlessly sexual (the first act has quite a bit of this too, but act 2 is really where it takes off), and the existence of the ‘Michael’ monologue is a bit contradictory to what it’s trying to say, I feel. I could literally hear the music becoming more “Strange Loop”-y when Clarence starts to sing. A few moments that felt like they were from a fever dream, and a few moments (Nell’s song) that knocked my socks off in act 2. (Side note, this is Tarra Conner Jones’ Off Broadway debut, and is spectacular!) The ending song gives a wonderful topic sentence to the show, but it was a completely different message than what I got from everything else.

I remain convinced that there is a good show here. The non-essential stuff needs to be chiseled away, and there is quite a bit of that, but there is something interesting being said here.


This show is at its best when it taps into the camp inherent in the soap opera genre. Getting to meet these characters is so fun, but their existence is sort of relegated to act 1. I think that’s kind of the point, but at the same time the tonal shift we get as a result was jarring to me. Quite the conundrum.

I'm looking forward to seeing the journey this show takes, hopefully they take it back to the rehearsal room after this run and listen to the audience.

TheOnlyOne2 said: "*eats popcorn while watching non black women battle it in the comments about a show centered on black women*

Yall are too much, I'd love to see your thoughts on shows written AND about black women cuz THAT would be a disaster I'd love to watch. ??"

Here are a few. Knock yourself out:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1096760

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1126731

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1154839

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "boy what a phenomenal mess this is

aimless, self-serving and phenomenally confused about what it is actually trying to say, additionally the design or what is being called a design is ugly, shapeless and under-budgeted.

I can not believe this is from the same person that wrote Strange Loop except for the very long rant at the end from the character that from the second you see them is clearly Michael's Id. Who goes on a rant about Beyonce and anti-wokeness and slams Obama and Kamala Harris which ok you are welcome to those stances but when you don't really offer up anything as a substantive counter suggestion it is just very off-putting

I would go as far to say it might be the worst thing I have seen in almost 15 years of theater-going, had I not attended as a guest of a friend I would have bolted at intermission.

Also Saved By The Bell is not nor has it ever been classified as a soap opera and the fact the entire first act was built on this misunderstanding drove me crazy, also just taking real names and adding white to the end is both lazy and makes no sense considering the reveal at the end of the show

I highly doubt this gets fixed in 3 weeks and boy is it going to set some careers back, the only person who comes out looking decent is Tarra Conner Jones who has some solid songs (even if one is a very weird Dreamgirls rip off) and an actual story arc that somewhat makes sense

Also, considering how many workshops and readings this has had (according to the program insert) why is this as long as it is and as messy, and with TWO major off-broadway theaters involved?

TLDR: 3 hours. 3 different dildos."

Yes. Saw it Friday, and it’s a train wreck

The moment the opening started, I knew we were in trouble. It is choreographed, and staged like a tiny off-Broadway parody show. No two members of the company are ever doing, any given step the same. Everyone is playing up the hokey aspect of the style, rather than ever playing anything for real and it comes across as student production, written by a sophomore who grew up on bootlegs of Debbie Does Dallas and Batboy, and pulled together a group of their cohorts to do a show together, because they didn’t want the official drama department’s production of Bloomer Girl.

There are brilliant ideas, buried in this production but it’s truly the worst thing I’ve ever seen.