Musicals turn on a dime - In My Life Review

Well, the night after In My Life opened, I went to see the show. Needless to say, there were plenty of empty seats.

First off, I understand why they don't have an intermission. If they had one, the audience wouldn't return for Act 2. I also understand how the lemon motif mirrors the quality of the show.

Jessica Boevers - just what Broadway needs, another shrieky soprano

Christopher Hanke - nice voice, will fill fresh off the farm innocent leads for a few years, but probably will have more success on tv

David Turner - does the best he can with insipid material

Roberta Gumbel - beautiful soprano voice, hopefully we'll see more of her

Laura Jordan - could pull off Cher in a tv movie

Chiara Navarra - decent belt voice, horrible actress (Every line sounds like she's reading it)

In tonight's performance, there was a snafu. Laura Jordan entered, but Jessica Boevers wasn't following. A good 20 second pause before the scene started.

The music - way too many power ballads. The music doesn't really go anywhere. Doesn't tell us much about the characters or push the plot forward.

The story - There's no plot too push forward. The story sort of steals from "A New Brain" "Carousel" "Taboo" and "It's A Wonderful Life". What is the purpose of the Tourette's Syndrome? There is really very little conflict in the show which makes it dull. The campy sequences seem too disjointed and make it schitzophrenic.

The set was cool. I liked the second level kitchen for the mother. Most of the graphics were cool. They gave an interesting, flowing look to the city. But the dancing skeletons, while funny, were out of place.

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Gothampc: You were at the "day-after-opening" performace, too! I wondered what it would be like to have to go on after those bad reviews. I was sitting near that sea of empty prime orchestra seats you were probably alluding to. I bought my seat the night before on discount, only to discover that it was one of those "Premium Seats" that usually sell for $200. I really couldn't believe that this show actually sets aside high price seats. But, I have to say, the theatre was more full than I thought it would be. I had a woman sitting next to me who was in town (from Pakistan!) for a few days, who chose this over "Light in the Piazza." I tried to console her with the idea that, whatever it was like, "In My Life" wouldn't be boring. And, though filled with a high cheese content, it was never totally boring--but neither was it the audacious (or audaciously messed-up) show that many of the posts on the board seem to indicate. It is a rather conventional musical, replete with many power-ballads, as Gothampc points out, that is intercut with a straining-to-be-campy musical. All the characters irritated me to some extent--do you think this was intentional,like a Brechtian device? I found a few flashes of inspiration (the mother singing opera over her son below, the skeleton-in-the-closet dance), but not enough, really. P.S. The woman sitting next to me said she was glad to have seen it, if only for the set designs and the Winston character.

Updated On: 10/22/05 at 01:50 PM

Is it sad that i want a recording?

The show is bad, the songs are bad, but i want a recording. What does that mean?

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It means you have too many OBC recordings and feel that you need completeness.