NEW YORK, NEW YORK On Broadway - Reviews Thread — Page 20

Sally Durant Plummer said: "People are going out of their way to be rude because someone dislikes this show, but that's to be expected from a bunch of theatre queens."

Theatre queens? Seriously still using this term?

This show has a plot, how can anyone miss it?!

Jordan Catalano said: "uncageg said: "Lola Getz2 said: "Sally Durant Plummer said: "People are going out of their way to be rude because someone dislikes this show, but that's to be expected from a bunch of theatre queens."

Theatre queens? Seriously still using this term?"



What term are we using now?

"

Theatre Royalty seems more all-inclusive."



I will stick with Theatre Queens.

See, now THATS an example of the sorta nasty, over the top and semi ad hominem vitriol that yall seem to be complaining about. Thx Sutton, for stepping up as usual.

EAPEAPMO said: "Just go back to page 1, it was the same people calling the show a flop before it even came out. They've wanted to hate the show as soon as this thread started and have been posting nasty things throughout ever since (especially hate for Stroman). It'd take a lot of motivation for me to spend that much time hating on a show and especially on elements that are objectively good like the set and choreography, and it seems like others are in the same camp with positive comments getting way more likes than negative, but more negative comments being regurgitated at each other back and forth until that's all there is on here. I guess if they've been rooting for the show to fail since Day 1, it makes sense that they're still on here trying to make it so on Day 100."

I don't think anyone goes into a show WANTING to hate it and have a lousy time (especially if they're buying a ticket). I, for one, was very excited for this show and have loved most of Stroman's previous work. However, after seeing the show, I was extremely disappointed in nearly every aspect on that stage. People are allowed to have a negative reaction to a show they paid money to see.

Not only did I not pay hundreds of dollars because I wanted to, or expected to hate it, I posted a lengthy discussion about pros/cons. I didnt celebrate its failure---and given the immense respect I have for those involved, don't want it to fail, by any stretch. I know there was a histrionic post or two but the majority of the criticism here has been fair minded, articulate, etc. etc. The push to paint those criticisms as mean-spirited or bitter has been absolutely ridiculous.

I went into the St. James Theatre wanting to love this and I can say I loved the performances by the two leads the most. The dancing was wonderful, the tap scene was great, the Cuban story was touching, …but the one thing that bothered me the most was the violinist. The guy looks like he took some lessons but unfortunately the producers missed a mark here. There’s an opportunity to lift up a real musician, (in a story about MUSIC), they chose to lipsynch and have the poor guy mime onstage … then at curtain call the actual violinist doesn’t even get recognized. The audience cheers for the mime and it left me with a sour feeling the rest of the night.


*hey producers* if you’re reading this- get a real musician on stage… in a city of millions, for a major Broadway production. That would have been a really cool moment to see a violinist rock , but instead they chose something safe and makes the entire show feel like a missed opportunity to me.

I'm afraid I was also not a big fan of this show. I hadn't seen a Stro show before, but I do like big song and dance numbers so I was pretty excited. And I didn't think the multiple storylines in Jagged Little Pill were as bad as everyone else thought so I figured I had a decent shot at liking the different storylines in this show. Alas, this was not the case.

I think what JLP did that worked for me was that all the stories tied back to the Healy family. And yes, the storylines in this show do eventually intersect, but the first transition to Mateo's apartment seemed pretty random (Alex Mann at least had the benefit of being associated with Madame Veltri, who is Jimmy and Francine's landlady). And as the show went on you could see how they would eventually become intertwined, but they also had small teases of other moments that were of the blink and you miss it variety, which didn't feel like it added anything substantial and were only included in the name of character development, but were so sudden it didn't actually feel like it added much.

I think the worldbuilding overall is what this show struggles with. There's a bit of a conflict of how much it wants to show New Yorkers as a whole and how much it wants to focus on individual people, and because of that, the characters get a little short shifted and certain lines are tossed in where they would've made much more sense if they came earlier to establish that character or in a show that wanted to focus on the individuals more.

Jimmy's character is slightly more interesting just because they give him a backstory. He's an alcoholic but there's a reason for that, not that they're willing to go into it beyond one line of dialogue. And he's rude to his employers because he has an elevated sense of self-worth that also has to do with his history. But the book seems to shy away from digging into the pathos of its characters (Francine's father gets an off-hand mention, never to be brought up again). I think that's part of where Bandstand succeeded where this one didn't. Then again, Bandstand was trying to be a different show than this, but that begs the question of why they'd bring up these character beats if they're not willing to use them.

That being said, I think there's a lot to like here as well. A lot of flashes of inspiration happen, but unfortunately don't stick around for long enough. I think the most interesting scenes actually had to do with the rest of the New Yorkers and some of the transitional scenes, like the steel beam tap number and the opening and the rain number. I think I actually would've preferred this more as a revue exploring the different walks of life in NYC, with maybe just the Jimmy/Francine number as a throughline.

I actually also found Emily Skinner to be off in some way. She just didn't seem to quite fit into the role for me, and I had a hard time believing her to be what the character was. I think it was something about her delivery of the lines, but it just didn't click for me (and I did think her storyline with Alex Mann was probably the most expendable). I feel like they probably trimmed Mateo's section as well, as I don't think his father spoke at all today? But some of the domestic violence seemed to come out of nowhere without a lot of setup so maybe that was to the detriment of the story overall.

I think the show does feel a bit like what it would be if someone was given a vague idea and told to write a jukebox musical with some lesser known Kander and Ebb songs. A lot of songs are here and gone, without the show really seeming to give them time to breathe. Marry Me was a big one that felt this way, though this might be because I was so certain that Happy Endings would be the act 1 finale and then there were two more songs after that. Quiet Thing also felt a bit dropped in, as well as both of Madame Veltri's songs.

Anyways, I think the show is still worth a watch, but I'd rank it near the bottom of this season's new musicals (along with Almost Famous, which I found inoffensive, but bland). TDF put me in the last row of mezz, which was a surprisingly good view, nothing blocked by the overhang and I could almost make out the details of facial expressions.

There are apparently some rush tickets in orchestra extreme left and right. If you miss those, it's the rafters, same deal.

This show....desperately needs editing and rewrites. I don't know how it was staged in this condition. There are way, way too many characters and all the plots get lost. It's pretty incredible to watch. Random things happen throughout. The show has ADD and things that could have been well-developed get shortchanged.

Emily Skinner is wasted entirely but wonderful in her 2.5 scenes.

The set is nice.

....can we please stop praising the dancing though? There is one legit dance number - the scaffolding sequence - and little else. People keep talking about it like its Sutton's Anything Goes...and it isn't at all.

And why did they stage the ending like that? So strange.

If they were smart they'd be making big changes during previews. But this is just supposed to pull in tourists. I think they're smarter than this however.

It's disappointing. Good leading lady though.

Updated On: 4/22/23 at 02:40 AM

jkcohen626 said: "I haven't seen it yet. But, from everything I've heard, this just sounds like a show that needed at out of town tryout pretty desperately, but went straight to Broadway because of the caliber of behind-the-scenes talent involved.

I can't think a modern show that cut or reshaped plots and characters the way this show supposedly needs to in previews. That's really only the type of thing that could happen between productions, especially for a show with so many big moving parts."



I saw it for the first time since the first preview last night, and I can just very now definitvely say that's a load of absolute nonsense. I cannot imagine the type of person - except for one who is explicitly interested to see the show fail - who comes out of that theater angry about this show. They didn't cut a character, but having seen it from first run to last night the changes made to shorten + integrate did work, it did reduce run-time, and the thing that hasn't changed is that the dancing and music is enjoyable. Some of these posts are explicitly lies too - the violinist is actually playing, Colton Ryan is actually playing, someone else asked why did they stage the show like that for the end... are you kidding me? People jump out of their seats for the ending! It's fantastic! Colton was night and day versus his first performance (the kermit thing I noticed was completely gone and his charisma on stage was up 10 fold, and it actually made me see Anna as less of a standout than I had previously thought. Emily Skinner's storyline change made her fit in a lot more than just some neighbor. Yes, there could have been some tighter areas and yes there are a couple lines that are cliched, but this is now definitively my favorite new show this year for the big music, big dancing, and nice vignete-based storyline. I had a blast.

Updated On: 4/22/23 at 07:55 AM

Theaterlover83 said: "Hey all, I want note that it’s very close to tony nomination season. A sad tactic a lot of these producers use is to infiltrate these sites and attack competitor shows. A big sign that that’s what’s happening here is that there was an attack and hate campaign before anyone really saw the show. Who would do that? Competitor producers. I saw this happen a lot in the past.


The show is good . there’s nothing about it that would equal the amount of hate on this board. it’s not a polarizing show. And the crowd is the most engaged I’ve seen in a show in a very long time

message to weird competitive producers: GET A LIFE!"

Jesus Christ. I think this post takes the cake.

Theaterlover83 said: "Hey all, I want note that it’s very close to tony nomination season. A sad tactic a lot of these producers use is to infiltrate these sites and attack competitor shows. A big sign that that’s what’s happening here is that there was an attack and hate campaign before anyone really saw the show. Who would do that? Competitor producers. I saw this happen a lot in the past.


The show is good . there’s nothing about it that would equal the amount of hate on this board. it’s not a polarizing show. And the crowd is the most engaged I’ve seen in a show in a very long time

message to weird competitive producers: GET A LIFE!
"

Yikes. Ok. People are allowed to have opinions and critique the show. Some loved it, some hated it, some are in the middle. Trust me, no one’s going to take time to purposefully bash a show. Plus, what is said on these boards does not influence Tony nominations. Highly doubt the committee goes “let’s nominate based on what BroadwayWorld message board users think..”