OHIO STATE MURDERS Previews- Page 3

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 11/14/22 at 8:40pm

Maybe it’s “dragging” because it is not supposed to be 75 minutes long. I have a connection to the off-Broadway production that ran 55 minutes. If these producers are deliberately pacing it slowly to make it longer, that is pathetic. 

[LarryD2]

Posted: 11/15/22 at 8:40am

I don't think the producers are intentionally inflating the running time. I think it's a directorial decision that doesn't work. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/15/22 at 10:57pm

betyourass said: "Thing I was missing was some big emotional moment. There's definitely emotion, but not enough of a reckoning."

I don't think it needed a "big" emotional moment. What we got was sufficient and not "heightened". For me, that hit harder than a big emotional moment along with the delivery of the final line in the play. JMO

 

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 11/15/22 at 11:20pm

Didn’t someone say that this is one out of a series of plays focused on Audra’s characters? Why wouldn’t they keep the basic running time and add another play as the second act? 

[Ledaero]

Posted: 11/22/22 at 11:52pm

Saw tonight's preview. TDF tix - Row H center orchestra.

I hate to say it, but... this is rough. 75 minutes felt like 2 hours. It's a huge misfire for me if Audra McDonald is working her ass off onstage and I'm left thinking, "when will this possibly end?"

Leon is a total mismatch for the material. He has no idea what to do with it. ROUGH direction with really weird choices throughout the entire performance. The scarfs - WTF!

I am particularly not a fan of monologue pieces, but Leon makes little efforts to add variety and cadences to the arc. It all ends up being a monotonous and repetitive slog with no levels. Audra is doing her best, but even she can't save this.

Hoping the production team can sort this thing out - what a dreadful Broadway debut production for Kennedy.

 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 12:26am

What could make them add 20min in? Lots of pauses? Lots stage business? If they thought it was too short then they should have probably not chosen this piece?

[ACL2006]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 6:15am

Is anyone else shocked by how poorly this is selling?

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 7:17am

ACL2006 said: "Is anyone else shocked by how poorly this is selling?"

The main selling point of this show is Audra McDonald and her track record with straight plays as of late isn’t the best (see Frankie & Johnny). Plus, a show called “Ohio State Murders” isn’t likely going to be catering to more than the regular theatregoing crowd, especially as we enter the cold winter months where even regular theatre goers are being more discretionary with their dollar due to rises in illness.

Personally, I’m going tonight and i’m excited, but I can see why it’s not selling.

[BJR]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 7:19am

I definitely am. But then again, Frankie and Johnnie didn't fare much better.

Sadly, she's a massive name, but I think the public wants to see her in a musical. Reminds me of Patti's long run of plays before Sweeney.

[willep]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 7:21am

A massive name to nobody outside die hard theatre people.

[JasonC3]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 7:37am

Her name may not be "massive" beyond theater people, but it is pretty big given her TV exposure for more than a decade on the popular combo of The Good Wife and The Good Fight.  Private Practice wasn't exactly a slouch as a series either.  And she certainly is well-known to PBS audiences.

Updated On: 11/23/22 at 07:37 AM

[HunterK]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 9:26am

Ledaero said: "Saw tonight's preview. TDF tix - Row H center orchestra.

I hate to say it, but... this is rough. 75 minutes felt like 2 hours. It's a huge misfire for me if Audra McDonald is working her ass off onstage and I'm left thinking, "when will this possibly end?"

Leon is a total mismatch for the material. He has no idea what to do with it. ROUGH direction with really weird choices throughout the entire performance. The scarfs - WTF!

I am particularly not a fan of monologue pieces, but Leon makes little efforts to add variety and cadences to the arc. It all ends up being a monotonous and repetitive slog with no levels. Audra is doing her best, but even she can't save this.

Hoping the production team can sort this thing out - what a dreadful Broadway debut production for Kennedy.

"

I was also at last night's performance, seat more towards the rear of the orchestra, but could see every range of expression on Ms. McDonald's brilliantly expressive face. I left thinking about this piece and researching it until 1am. I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling. Her heartbreaking performance and her command of the stage is in true Audra from. I actually thought Mr. Leon had some excellent moments (without spoilers), but the play is complete circle that connects perfectly. The fact that certain characters do not speak or barely speak, tells a lot about their trauma of time and their back story. We are all going to have our own opinions, but I enjoyed my time at the James Earl Jones. The minute the house went to black at the end that entire audience was at its feet cheering. Yes it began at 8:05pm and I was walking home at 9:18pm. I thought it was perfectly paced and the story well told. Audra is inter element. Kenny Leon was 2 rows behind me and I shook his hand and thanked him, couldn't have been more kind and thankful. Who knows how long it will run, but I know I enjoyed it. I hope other will as well. 

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 9:30am

Audra wasn't really on The Good Wife. She had a brief, one episode guest spot. Sadly, she's become the queen of the less popular spin-off. Haha. 

I do think she's a major name... but it seems like she doesn't sell tickets if she's not singing. 

[Damiensta]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 10:12am

When I saw it, the show started at 8:10. Was out by 9:20ish

Audra is giving an amazing performance. But show dragged in certain parts.

one thing I didn’t like was hearing the author interview on speaker nonstop as you wait for play to start. By time show starts, you have just heard at least 20 -30 minutes plus of nonstop talking. I can see why they did it but just doesn’t work for me

[kwoc91]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 10:15am

Audra is great as usual but when I'm checking my watch seeing when a 75 minute play will end there's a problem.

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 9:45pm

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Kenny Leon did not make lightning strike twice in one season, I’m afraid. Where TOPDDOG/UNDERDOG crackled and kept you guessing until the end even with the inevitable conclusion, this felt like a lazy, $50, 75 minute murder podcast I couldn’t shut off. For a show to have a title like OHIO STATE MURDERS, I expected at least something juicier. I honestly felt more dramatic tension coming from stirring audience members itching to silence an orchestra patron with an incessantly wet hacking cough.

Overall, this was an entirely toothless, bloodless, and gutless endeavor. Audra works her butt off, as is her high standard, but this was material better left to the annals of time. 

I cannot see this lasting it’s whole run. The orchestra was only about 70% full and when I picked up my TDF ticket (Orch Left - J7), there was a thick stack of comps ready to be doled out.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 10:31pm

KJisgroovy: …but it seems like she doesn't sell tickets if she's not singing. 

So glad I have my tickets to see Audra at Carnegie Hall on Dec. 3.  Looks like some seats opened up this week. It had been completely sold out. 

[kennin]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 11:34pm

quizking101 said: "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Kenny Leon did not make lightning strike twice in one season, I’m afraid. Where TOPDDOG/UNDERDOG crackled and kept you guessing until the end even with the inevitable conclusion, this felt like a lazy, $50, 75 minute murder podcast I couldn’t shut off. For a show to have a title like OHIO STATE MURDERS, I expected at least something juicier. I honestly felt more dramatic tension coming from stirring audience members itching to silence an orchestra patron with an incessantly wet hacking cough.

Overall, this was an entirely toothless, bloodless, and gutless endeavor. Audra works her butt off, as is her high standard, but this was material better left to the annals of time.

I cannot see this lasting it’s whole run. The orchestra was only about 70% full and when I picked up my TDF ticket (Orch Left - J7), there was a thick stack of comps ready to be doled out."

The issue with the lady with the cough is was insane.  I was diagonally across the aisle from her.  Throughout the whole show, people kept telling her to leave and yet, she stayed and coughed for 75 minutes.  I thought there was going to be another murder…

[Wallman2]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 11:56pm

Surprised by how much I liked this.  I found it a completely compelling and beautifully designed and directed production.  Audra's performance is heartbreaking and mesmerizing...the play lasts 70 minutes.  My only concern was the interview we heard at the beginning of the show...it must be the playwright but it was a little confusing.   And not sure it was necessary.  But I am recommending this one highly.

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/24/22 at 12:02am

kennin said: “The issue with the lady with the cough is was insane.  I was diagonally across the aisle from her.  Throughout the whole show, people kept telling her to leave and yet, she stayed and coughed for 75 minutes.  I thought there was going to be another murder…”

You might have been right by me!

For real though, what a genius that person was, in the time of COVID, Flu, and now RSV, to think that attending a Broadway show and hacking over the actors projecting for nearly 75 minutes was a good idea…

That murder would’ve held my attention.

 

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 11/24/22 at 12:30am

Wallman2 said: "My only concern was the interview we heard at the beginning of the show...it must be the playwright but it was a little confusing. And not sure it was necessary. But I am recommending this one highly."

I was super thrown off by that interview audio before the show, because it felt like bonus material for a true crime podcast. Not having a lot of context for the play before seeing it, that led me to believe the play's protagonist was a real person, and the play was going to be a memory play about actual events. 

I actually found the play's ending to play oddly upbeat because it took me that long to fully piece together, that the pre-show audio was an interview with Adrienne Kennedy not Suzanne Alexander. I was just happy to find out no one really got murdered. 

What interviewing Adrienne Kennedy beforehand about The Beatles added to the actual play, I'm not really sure. For me it was just confusing. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/26/22 at 6:16pm

As predictable as the triumph for McDonald might be, she still surprises. For me the greatest attribute of this performance is her restraint, resisting even a single moment of indulgent emotion. Of course that's arguably a given in any McDonald characterization (and I found it revelatory in Frankie and Johnny), yet in this piece, which hangs on a dark thread of near melodrama, she refuses to render even the most unsettling turns with more than is earned. Because she incrementally reveals the tightly sealed lid on this woman's well of pain -- she could easily dissolve, simply recounting the horrors that befall her -- she makes the tragic trajectory more gripping.

To echo others here, I can't say that Kennedy's play feels as noteworthy in 2022, though -- no spoilers -- its depiction of racism in academia circa 1949-1951 in the first half is decidedly startling and informative, as much as we know about segregation and race biases on the cusp of the Eisenhower era. The plot proper, which has a whiff of early Neil Labute, unavoidably (fully acknowledging that no such oeuvre existed at the time Kennedy wrote it), is certainly illustrative of America in any time. Yet we're perhaps as angered early on by the shocking institutional racism as the ultimate violence that provides the play's title. This woman's life is marginalized, educational opportunity withheld far before the worst happens. For me, that's the historic takeaway:

MILD DESIGN SPOILER: Boritt's set, which some here admire, struck me as tonally wrong. A stylized use of floating bookcases and off-center stand-ins for furniture feels twee, precious. And it's distracting when the playing environment most needs to recede from the story being told. But by the end, McDonald on Broadway is an an event and here ultimately the event.

Updated On: 11/26/22 at 06:16 PM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/26/22 at 6:33pm

I do think she's a major name... but it seems like she doesn't sell tickets if she's not singing."

Correct. I got so much crap for saying exactly that during the sad production of Frankie and Johnny. But, it's true. Her concerts are events all over the world for a reason. When she is in a musical? It's a "can't miss" in my book and many other people's as well. Anyone could have played her characters in Private Practice or The Good Fight. But, no one else in the world sounds like her and that's what people will always pay for.

I hope it last the whole run but when the majority of posters check their watch on a 70 minute play, it sure doesn't seem like it. 

 

Updated On: 11/26/22 at 06:33 PM

[Jay Lesiger]

Posted: 11/29/22 at 3:02am

Audra is just about my favorite Broadway actress, so the slightness, emptiness and lack of style of this virtually one-person play leaves me baffled. Yes, there are a few other actors, but there is barely any interaction between them, and they are seldom given anything to do: What I think should have been developed; given the title of the piece, is practically an afterthought in what should have been a sad, shocking, eloquent play, highlighting one of our greatest actresses. Sadly, it is none of those things.

[jlindsey865]

Posted: 11/29/22 at 10:38am

Saw this Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Love Audra.  Love true crime (I know this play is technically not true crime.  Didn’t love the play. 
 

I actually found several of Audra’s acting choices very odd.  The other actors didn’t really serve a purpose.  Would not see this again.