Nobody Loves You #First Preview Thoughts

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 10:29pm

Being perhaps a little too familiar with several reality TV programs I personally got a lot of laughs out of Nobody Loves You tonight. The satire was sometimes so dead on you couldn't help but crack up.

On the other hand the score was shockingly bad, save for one number that Rory O'Malley hit out of the park. One of O'Malley's roles was that of a rabid who live tweets during "Nobody Loves You" and his song was punctuated with funny hashtags.

The balance with the band was off making it often difficult to hear the melodies, but few were catchy. A show about the vacuous nature of reality TV should be full of pop hooks.

The plot involved Jeff, who was cynical about the veracity of reality dating show, even though his girlfriend was obsessed with the hit Bachelor-esque "Nobody Loves You." His girlfriend breaks up with him to go on the show in order to find love. Not wanting to lose her, he also sends in a video in an attempt to win her back, or at least sabotage her from falling in love with another guy.

This set-up had me very excited. Can't you see the rom com with Anna Faris or Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine as the ex-boyfriend desperate to win her back? Of course she will start to fall for some a$$hole on the show, but in the end realize Mr. Pine really is the man for her. I'm SO ready to see this movie!

Unfortunately the musical did not go down this path. Only Jeff makes it onto the show and he falls for one of the production assistants while refusing to participate in the silly challenges the other contestants are all too willing to put themselves through. (Yes there is a number for Lauren Molina involving the hot tub so ubiquitous on these shows.)

If you've ever watched a season of The Bachelor or Big Brother or god forbid you watched the online-only episodes of Ready For Love then you should check this out. Otherwise I'd skip it.

[BroadwayGuy12]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 10:42pm

Thanks for sharing, Whizzer. As someone who's actually writing his college thesis about reality dating competition shows (focusing mainly on The Bachelor/ette), I'm incredibly curious about this musical. Like you, I was very excited by the premise, but it sounds like it takes a different path than I was hoping. Not sure I'll rush to see this one--though I won't completely cross it off my list, being the big fan or reality "romance" that I am.

(Also, off-topic, but, for what it's worth, my friends and I were quite upset when Ready For Love was pulled from the air and were ecstatic when we discovered the remaining episodes were on Hulu. No shame.)

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 10:52pm

I want to read your thesis, BroadwayGuy! I think you'd get a kick out of the supporting characters on the show, especially the one played by Autumn Hurlbert.

You will also get a kick out of all the details, like the background music when someone is getting kicked off is PERFECT, and instead of handing contestants roses they are handed a mixed CD with their name on it.

My all-time favorite reality dating show was For Love Or Money. It was wonderfully trashy and remarkably compelling. Did you ever watch that one?

[BroadwayGuy12]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 11:03pm

Absolutely! And I think "wonderfully trashy and remarkably compelling" is actually the perfect way to describe it! I'm also partial to Dating in the Dark and Love in the Wild, both of which ran for a couple of summers a few years back.

Thanks for the reassurance that there are aspects of NOBODY LOVES YOU that would be enjoyable to a reality TV superfan--looks like I might have to check it out after all!

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 11:08pm

How have I never heard of either Dating in the Dark nor Love in the Wild?!

I think reality fans will be the only people who enjoy Nobody Loves You. If you don't know what they're spoofing it would make for a very long evening.

Updated On: 6/20/13 at 11:08 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 11:25pm

How does amateurish fare like this get regularly produced at prestige venues? Or perhaps more importantly, why do venues that produce amateurish fare like this have any prestige at all, especially when much smaller companies toiling in relative obscurity consistently perform works of far higher quality than theirs. Just one of the many conundrums of present-day NYC theatre.

As for this show, it's one of a long line of similar items which are trotted out before us year after year: woebegone, witless, and wearying. This one is further hampered by an uninteresting, unpleasant wet rag of a protagonist, and an assortment of other flat and/or irritating characters. Add to that a lot of generic music and you've got some unenchanted evening.

June is such a pretty month. Why do things like this have to spoil it?

[ClaraJohnson]

Posted: 6/20/13 at 11:56pm

Whizzer, check out the 3 seasons of the web series Burning Love. It's hilarious and it sounds like Nobody Loves You is pretty much doing a version of that.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 12:44am

Saw the dress rehearsal, it has some issues but really kicks in toward the end. The more you are familiar with The Real World/Big Brother/The Bachelor/American Idol the more you will enjoy it. Heath Calvert plays a great ryan seacreast like host, Rory O'Malley plays various characters including his NLY obsessed character who almost steals the whole show, and the rest of the cast is enjoyable.

I had a few problems with the set design though, and a few of the songs are clunky and it also seemed like they were still working on some sound design issues, but i feel by the end of the run this will really be a good time, I laughed a lot last night, definitely had a Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson feel to it.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 8:49am

PlayItAgain, Rory O'Malley doesn't almost steal the show- he does steal the show, and that's part of the problem. All of the supporting characters are more interesting and humorous than the leads who end up being dull as dishwater.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 9:11am

I have fallen off watching many reality dating shows, but when they first came out, I was an avid viewer of them all and “For Love or Money” still rates at the top of my list. I loved that show and I can’t believe others remember it as well!

But, on topic, thank you, as always, Whizzer, for your intelligent and detailed review. I have tickets to see this at the end of July – hope they, at least, are able to fix the sound issues by then! I will be prepared to not be blown away, but will hope to at least get some laughs and fun out of the show.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 9:45am

Can you believe For Love Or Money aired 10 years ago this summer!?

Wasn't the initial set-up that the guy didn't know about the million dollars and was just trying to find love. The women all knew about the million bucks and wanted to be the final contestant so they could choose between love or the money. At the finale there was a girl who actually loved him and one that was CLEARLY in it for the fame and money. He went for the hot blond and she took the cash!

Then wasn't season two that the snubbed girl got to come back and try her luck with 15 guys?

I just remember thinking the season one finale was so epic, haha.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 10:02am

I was really excited to see the show, but then I saw they raised prices and dropped the discount. At $94 (!) I'm not sure it's worth it, though I love that cast.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 10:18am

Then wasn't season two that the snubbed girl got to come back and try her luck with 15 guys?

Yes, but this time SHE knew about the money, but the guys didn’t know that she knew (and then they threw in that if she could get one of the guys to choose her instead of the money, she gets the money), right? I remember thinking season 2 was even better than the first season.

I can’t believe it’s been ten years!

[Kad]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 10:38am

Judging by the synopsis, this seems like something that would appear at NYMF or Fringe- about five years ago.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 10:47am

GilmoreGirl- You are totally right! It's all coming back to me now. The guys didn't know that she knew about the money!

But by the third and fourth seasons it had turned into a huge mess, no?

Kad, It did feel like a NYMF show on steroids.

[tazber]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 10:51am

All I know about this show is that Terry Treachout gave it a rave at the Old Globe.

So right off the bat I know I'm going to hate it.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 11:27am

Whizzer, I barely remember anything about the 3rd and 4th seasons, but after a summary refresher from Wikipedia, things started to come back to me. I remember it being so convoluted (now that “For Love or Money” had aired, they had to keep switching up the rules so that the contestants wouldn’t know the game plan already) that it lost the suspense from the first two seasons.

On topic, how was Molina? I have always enjoyed her performances.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 11:41am

Lauren Molina was pretty funny. She played a hard-edge rocker chick who drank too much. The producers were forcing her into a relationship with a Christian do-gooder named Christian who was a sober virgin.

She didn't have a ton to do, but her spoof on that "character" from reality shows was spot on.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 6/23/13 at 12:03am

For the record, the show also got a rave review from Ben Brantley out in San Diego.

[ClaraJohnson]

Posted: 6/23/13 at 2:40am

Actually, somethingwicked, it was Isherwood who reviewed it in San Diego.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/23/13 at 10:16am

Is it pretty much the same show as was in San Diego? I had two friends in that production who are not in the NYC production.

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 6/24/13 at 3:59pm

I saw Nobody Loves You yesterday. Fun and campy, with, as said above, a show-stealing number by Rory O'Malley. According to a cast member, the writers are making a lot of changes. Some of the jokes were ON, and some fell flat. I had fun, but I wouldn't run to see it again.

I agree with above posters that a big problem is the boring protagonist. I didn't care about him, and I was having more fun following the supporting characters (especially Rory O'Malley's Tweeting character).

[Pammylicious]

Posted: 7/1/13 at 11:06am

Going on Wednesday. I love the Bachelor, so I guess I would like this.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/1/13 at 10:16pm

I saw NOBODY LOVES YOU tonight and I enjoyed it overall. Sure, it's uneven (some of the jokes just don't land and some of the cast members are way more "game" than others...and the balance between the stories of the contestants and Jeff/Jenny is off. Too much of the side characters, too little of Jeff/Jenny for us to really care about them.)

But flaws and all, I thought this was a pretty witty, occasionally hilarious, tuneful evening. Bryan Fenkhart is a good actor, but his vocals are lacking. I actually was thinking how good Adam Kantor would be in his role, only to read on my iPhone afterwards that he played the part originally at The Old Globe. Leslie Kritzer (as usual) is very funny but (as usual) doesn't have enough to do. Rory O'Malley, Heath Calvert, and Lauren Molina each land some solid, genuine laughs, although I didn't think O'Malley "stole the show." I was wishing someone like Annaleigh Ashford would have played Autumn Hurlbert's part...she's fine, but doesn't take full advantage of the comedic moments her character could have. And finally, I absolutely loved Aleque Reid! Where did this chick come from?! She has a very charming and infectious stage presence and her voice is stunning!

Nearly every song in the score basically sounds the same, but that didn't bother me too much for some reason. It's bright and bubbly, even if it was hard to hear the lyrics over the band. The book, aforementioned issues and all, is jam-packed with zingers, 80% of which land really well. I had a good time at the show and laughed quite a lot. I'm interested to hear what everyone else thinks...the younger people in the audience seemed to really enjoy it. Needless to say the older people didn't just seem to "get" it. Personally, I'm definitely glad I saw it. I had quite a bit of fun!

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/1/13 at 11:15pm

"Needless to say the older people didn't just seem to "get" it"

Oh, they "got" it, all right.

It's just that they had the taste and intelligence to know that it stank.