I have very different feelings from Tony2600.
The choreography was definitely great (that death dance was STUNNING), but the direction was very misguided and only...halfway there? It didn’t know whether it wanted to be Brechtian or melodrama. This allowed the real drabness/grim nature of the story to really take center stage which made it a bit of a slog. We’ll take a glass together was a very welcome respite from that. While I didn’t see the original, I’ve tried to find as many videos and recordings of it and became fascinated by the piece. I think the original cast had a certain charisma and gravitas that this current one doesn’t quite have yet. It also lacked Tommy Tune’s ingenious staging, pacing and vision. There are some very nice performances, though. I definitely liked James Snyder, John Dossett, Natascha Diaz, and the woman who played the ballerina (whose name escapes me right now).
I suppose take this all with a grain of salt since they’ve only had 2 weeks or something to put this together, but I’ve been spoiled by previous Encores productions that feel like fully realized productions that are ready to win TONY awards (hello Brigadoon, Most Happy Fella).
The Set is really beautiful - especially for Encores - and the orchestra, of course, sounds great as always.
Also, I’m not sure if it’s because they wanted to shorten the run time, but they cut out a big chunk of Love Can’t Happen - one of my favorite songs in musical theatre - and one of the most famous songs from the show. It was definitely disappointing and lessened the impact of the song for me.
-There's the muddle in the middle. There's the puddle where the poodle did the piddle."