Minsky's review 2/15/09

[camncal]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 4:45am

I bought tickets to the show after hearing that it was going to Broadway, so i thought i better catch it here before it goes away. It was a waste of money and three hours of my life that i'd never get back. It was painful,uninteresting, boring, dull, and full of cliches. For a show that claims to be "a musical comedy", i don't think I laughed a single time. The "gags" are so overdone to a point that it gets very annoying. It's like beating a dead horse over and over and over. What made it worse is that you can see them half a mile away and you know exactly they are going to be. Most of the gags are physical comedies, but they kept repeating them to a point that it felt like an insult to the audience's intelligence. Watching someone gets a pie thrown at his face as a gag 7 times is not funny to me, maybe at a circus, but not when i paid $90. Not to mention some of the other boring running gags throughout the show.

All the supporting characters tend to have one gag that they do everytime they appear on stage. With the talented cast that they have, they must know the writing is bad and painfully unfunny. The music, i don't remember a single tune from the show and nor do I ever want to hear them ever again for the rest of my life. The sets are mediocre at best, a few interesting pieces, but nothing exciting. The costumes are boring. the most interesting one was the banana costume. you'd think a show like this would have outrageous costumes throughout the show, but no, everything was pretty tame and normal. What bothered me the most is knowing that the cast is brilliant, and yet they are stuck with this terrible writing that they are not able to show their talents to full capacity.

My friend who saw it with me said the best part was the intermission and the end. For me, the best part was the bottled water i got during intermission. I don't see this doing well on Broadway, I wouldn't be surprised if they cancel that plan after its run in LA. I'm sure there are people out there that enjoyed the show and loved every sec of it. It just didn't do it for me, so take my review with a grain of salt. I would never recommend this to anyone, unless they are my worst enemy.
Updated On: 2/18/09 at 04:45 AM

[phantomCA26]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 10:08am

Reminds me of my experience watching Curtains in LA.

[DAME]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 10:43am

The exact same experience.

[willrogers2008]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:55pm

Why ? CURTAINS is a very good musical !

[poochie4]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:11pm

I didn't have quite this reaction to the show, but it definitely was not my favorite. It does have A LOT of work to do before it transfers. I certainly hope they do a lot of focus groups and audience research with their LA audience to make the show better. It is not a complete disaster. In it's defense, I think it was exactly what it was trying to be, i.e. a classic musical comedy in the vein of shows from the 1930's and 1940's. How relevant that is now is debatable.

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/18/09 at 10:41am

There's a review up from Mark Evanier, who writes for television, which includes a short video clip of the dancing girls in a bathtub number. Short review: great performances - nothing memorable about book, music or lyrics. And it appears there is no connection to the movie.
Minsky's Ain't So Hot

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 2/18/09 at 10:42am

I doubt this is getting to Broadway. DEFINITELY not by the Tony cutoff.