ONLY GOLD Musical at MCC Begins October 5- Page 2

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 10/9/22 at 10:39am

Thank you for reporting back! Would you describe it as a period piece or fantasy (out of time/not grounded in reality) or contemporary? What is the costuming like and does the dialogue reflect whatever setting/period they've chosen?

It's interesting to hear there are at least some recycled songs. How would you describe the genre of the music? With a song like Mouthwash is it arranged to fit a more musical theater or period style?

Why are these royals in Paris???

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/9/22 at 12:54pm

For anyone wondering, the stage is very low, and sitting in the first row is fine. 

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 10/9/22 at 4:21pm

The playbill says it is sent in Paris in 1928, although I wouldn’t say that anything in the show feels particularly specific to this time. I got the impression they were almost going for a fairy tale feel, but all events are rooted in reality. The dialogue feels appropriate for 1928, which is why some of the more modern lyrics feel out of place (it would be one thing if this was a choice - much like “Spring Awakening” - but I didn’t get that impression). The costumes are a little all over the place - many of them are stylistic pieces (the King wears an animal print suit at one point, for example), but then there are occasionally period-appropriate dresses/suits/uniforms.

 

The music feels very much like Kate Nash’s genre - singer-songwriter pop. None of the songs felt particularly “musical theatre-y” to me, although her pre-existing songs were certainly fleshed out to include the ensemble singing and such. (Maybe someone who is more familiar with her songs can speak to the adaptation to stage better.) Definitely no effort to style the music to the time period.

As to why the royals are in Paris…I don’t necessarily even feel 100% clear on this. The king is forcing his daughter to marry someone and he is bringing his family to Paris (for only 30 days, per the Queen) to prepare for the wedding and also to try to get his daughter more excited for the upcoming nuptials. I don’t know if I missed the explanation of why Paris would make the daughter more excited or if it wasn’t fully explained.

I forgot to also mention that there’s this whole motif of “what if you could turn back the clock?” but…nothing really comes of it. It seemed on odd thing to carry throughout when I don’t feel it really had much to do with the story.

[Jmuep2]

Posted: 10/9/22 at 10:48pm

I saw tonight’s preview and I will agree with GGO2 that it was beautiful, but I didn’t think it was a mess. I thought it was great. As mentioned, the dancing really is the star of the show here and it captured my attention and imagination so vividly, I was willing to forgive what I thought were shortcomings in the book. Were the characters drawn as sharply as I would’ve liked? No. But I was emotionally invested in them, nevertheless. was all the music great/ no, but I left the theater with tunes in my head and a desire to learn more about Kate Nash, who I knew nothing about prior to tonight. 
 

I do think there are some thematic things that could use tightening. I hope they find a way to redress and restyle Gaby Diaz’s character so that she doesn’t come off as harsh and is more likable (or go deeper with her character). I think you can lose the narrator and not much would be lost, but those are all easily fixable in my estimation. I also wish the climax built a little more than it did. 
 

This aims to be a big romantic musical, which if the creatives can amp up some emotional stakes, can easily be accomplished. I mean, I was already buying a ticket to see it again during intermission. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/10/22 at 2:40am

Is Blankenbuehler's choreography anything like what he did for "Hamilton"? I thoroughly enjoyed his work in "Bandstand". It was just a shame that the set didn't allow enough room for it to really shine, IMO. 

[gibsons2]

Posted: 10/10/22 at 8:08am

I went to see the fourth preview yesterday and have to agree with the person who called it a beautiful mess. Choreography was amazing,  reminded me a lot of Hamilton, with some beautiful, artistically inventive moments. Although, some elements were getting repetitive. Songs were fine, most of them sung by Kate Nash who is also a narrator and almost never leaves the stage. The biggest issue is the incoherent plot that leaves you with way too many questions that start with "why" and "what's the point". Dialogs were written so uncomfortably badly at times that people around me chuckled and looked at each other. Few people left at intermission. Do not recommend. 

[ken8631]

Posted: 10/10/22 at 12:42pm

How was Terrence Mann?  

[Mitch101]

Posted: 10/10/22 at 7:42pm

I'm in agreement with all of the "beautiful mess" comments. I kept thinking throughout, "What would Michael Bennett have done?" He tried "Scandal," but couldn't get that produced. I mention that because everything that raunchy musical attempted, this romantic music fails at. There is so much beautiful dancing, but the story is so generic and unclear. Terrance Mann is wasted, given a pattern song in Act One, and then a big anthem in Act Two that never reaches any sort of dramatic climax. As Andy B is now proving, he is only one half of a great idea. He needs Thomas Kail or a director with a strong vision to shape story. There are no stakes here. Plot is repeated over and over and over. Poor Terrance has to say about 10 times, no kidding, the reason his daughter must marry is because of tradition and saving his country. (PS- the reason they go to Paris is because the King is trying to rekindle something he has lost with the Queen...this is a similar courtship his daughter is having...but none of this is clear).

Word of advice...in the second act, the jilted wife has a song. It's almost a roof raiser. But the big musical theatre moment never arrives. They cut it short and leave the actress to exit in a hurry. You must give her the big moment. Write a final verse for her!

Cut the replay at the top of Act Two. You're not saying anything clearly enough in a show where everything is unclear, more or less.

Try to make this a two hour, no intermission story. What happens if you cut it down and are forced to clarify story, rather than keep extended dance sequences?

Replace Kate Nash. She's charming, but comes off as an amateur.

Get a new lyricist to help her. Wow, talk about horrible lyrics.

Despite all of these negative criticisms, its a beautiful evening and deserves a chance to figure itself out. But do the work! With no set, its easy to cut and change anything. No excuses.

[dave1606]

Posted: 10/12/22 at 11:21am

I caught Only Gold last night and have to agree. Its definitely a beautiful mess. The dance is STUNNING. If you are booking tickets to this, I’d recommend booking as far back in this theater so you can take it all in. There is a lot going on and they use the full stage.

David Korins set design is incredible and I LOVED the use of lighting. I disagree about Terrence Mann, I felt like he was a very important grounding element to this show. He’s got the most dialog to deliver a lot of it is silly but he comes across the best in the cast in my opinion. He sells some often subpar material and does it well.

The story is a big problem here. It is at once both overblown and underdeveloped. I don’t understand how a 2:40 show can have characters so thinly written. I was frustrated with the women here who are nearly all completely underdeveloped. I think the Clockmakers wife should be cut entirely, her motivations especially in act 2 make no sense. Gaby Diaz unfortunately has one character trait to work with: petulance. I kind of understood what they were going for with the King's wife, but even she has actions out of left field in act 2.

I agree that this is a very simple story and would definitely function better as a one act. The “re-cap” song that opens act 2 is particularly frustrating and unnecessary, retreading through act 1 like we didn’t just sit through it 15 minutes prior.

I found Kate Nash’s music pleasant but these were songs that more fit the mood of scenes than had much to do directly with characters or plot. At best they melded beautifully with the dance (there’s a dream sequence in act one that is particularly breathtaking) and at worst they felt comically out of place (I Hate Seagulls?!!!)

Overall I have to give the show credit for being an original piece and I think there is potential for a good musical here, they need an editor to comb through the show and do some focusing and cutting.  I have to give the cast major props as this is a MAJOR workout for them and they are giving it their all.

 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 10/13/22 at 10:43am

Kate Nash Keeps Getting Back Up. This Time, Off Broadway.

[Kad]

Posted: 10/13/22 at 10:54am

Maybe MCC should be giving opportunities to actual musical theatre writers who deserve a shot. 

[2]

Posted: 10/15/22 at 10:33pm

One of the most boring musicals I've ever seen, there are really no stakes in sight in this "plot." What a bunch of nothing this show is; shaky performances, endless choreography with no impact, embarrassing narration, the list goes on and on.

[VotePeron]

Posted: 10/15/22 at 10:56pm

For a show with virtually no plot, it has one of the biggest identity crises of any show in recent memory. It opens with Nash at the piano - and then introduces a king and queen politely in 1920’s Paris. When the music begins with lyrics unintelligible the entire evening due to horrid sound mixing, an ensemble enters the stage doing Hamilton choreography for the next 2.5 hours and never leave.
 

This is less a musical and more of an Andy Blankenbuehler showcase, which is frankly, exhausting. Act 1 could be condensed into 15 minutes, but don’t worry, because then they spend *the first 10 minutes of Act 2* recapping it via RAP. All this for 3 very boring love stories that couldn’t have lower stakes.
 

It felt like an estranged cousin of Hamilton, Hadestown, Waitress, and Shaina Taub’s Twelfth Night & As You Like It. There are never moments it all clicks together, and I don’t know what could make this successful. It needs a new book writer and director. Or, they need to zero in on what their intentions are and clue the audience in from the opening moments. Because this isn’t a show about Nash, or the king & queen…I don’t know what it’s about, but it wasn’t them.

 

Edit: WHY WAS IT CALLED ONLY GOLD? They ridiculously mimed like a dozen necklaces but the one they showed was diamonds right?? And the finale song was about Seagulls? GOLD WHERE

Updated On: 10/15/22 at 10:56 PM

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 10/19/22 at 11:08pm

I'm not seeing the show for a couple of weeks, but a friend went tonight and stayed for the talkback. Apparently, they just removed 17 minutes from the show and added 6 new minutes, with more changes coming, including the top of act 2. 

Updated On: 10/20/22 at 11:08 PM

[kurtal]

Posted: 10/20/22 at 4:32pm

I saw this last night and will add my voice to the chorus of "beautiful mess" sayers.

There's so much good in this.  The musical numbers are (by and large) gorgeous.  The choreography is wonderful.  The basic plot has potential.  The orchestrations were often incredibly rich and moving.

But by god is the book terrible.  We're asked to care about characters but not given any reason to do so until WAY too late.  

Henri - why was he resistant to following in his father's footsteps?  Was his journey about overcoming these barriers to find his ability or about becoming a self-centered genius?  

Henri's wife (sorry, I can't remember her name...) - Nothing in her early scenes laid the groundwork for the major journey she went on.  We needed some more solid breadcrumbs of her dashed hopes and desires for that arc to feel authentic.

King & Queen -  there's a beautiful story of rekindled love here, but we know *nothing* about the barriers until the second act.  There's an act and a half of "we don't have what we used to have" with nothing to let us know what each character needs to mend for the reconciliation to have any meaning.  All of the Cosimo-based political machinations are confusing and superfluous.  Either give them heft and show the burden of kingship or cut that whole subplot.

Tooba / Bellhop / Count - for god's sake, give us something more than an eye-contact meet-cute for these two people to fall in love.  There's so much that could have been explored about royalty/commoners/gender/class that just...didn't...happen.  And where the f*ck was the count for the first act?  How was I supposed to believe at all in an arranged marriage with a character who I haven't even met.   There's no tension there.

Kate Nash as narrator.  This is probably the most egregious issue.   What was she supposed to be?  Look, having a narrator style character can absolutely work -- see the Emcee, Che, the Narrator from iTW, the Leading Player.  But her entity had no purpose -- no defined relationship to the actual characters in the story.

And for all of this griping, I would still recommend it.   I think there's a phenomenal show buried in this thing, and I  really hope they do the work (and kill the darlings) necessary to get it there.

[raddersons]

Posted: 10/20/22 at 9:55pm

Wow this show does NOT know what it wants to be. It has about 20 loose threads repeated over and over with no knot at the end. For a show that is ultimately about women’s empowerment and leaving unhappy relationships, the women don’t talk about anything but the men. The function of the narrator was confusing and should either be better defined or just cut entirely. I assumed this was a 100 minute no intermission so when the lights came up all I thought was… damn I have to sit thru another hour of this.

I love Kate Nash and wanted to love the show but wow I left frustrated. This really solidified MCC’s reputation to me of taking promising popular music writers and throwing them to the wolves.

[edmondj5]

Posted: 10/22/22 at 11:41pm

I saw the matinee today (10/22) and the show ran about 2 hours and 10 minutes; based on other reports in this thread, it seems like a lot was cut. In addition, the Act 2 song list in the program is...incorrect. The first few songs were there, and then it seemed like we got an entirely different show. There was no "Seagulls" song to end the second act.

It appeared to me that they are still working on the ending; it was very succinct and just sort of...happened. But I liked it a lot more than what others have said. However, I imagine it being 30 minutes longer would have been tough to sit through. 

I actually really enjoyed Kate Nash's score - sounded different than any musical theatre score I've heard in awhile.

I would LOVE to talk to someone who saw a preview earlier this month. So curious about the changes. 

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 10/24/22 at 6:22am

I saw the Saturday matinee and was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable this was.  The plot is thin, but the score and choreography mined some fantastic moments out of it.  I was also surprised by how much of the score was actually previously released Kate Nash music.  This explains why sometimes the titles of the songs in the playbill don't align with their use in the show.  Yes, the final song is her song. "I Hate Seagulls" but the lyric which gives the song its title is not included in the show.

[ken8631]

Posted: 10/27/22 at 8:10am

Saw it last night and really enjoyed it.  Sat in Seats FF6 and FF7 which were perfect for the show (lots to see at once).  Basically went cuz we are Terrence Mann fans (have seen him in MANY things), and he didn't disappoint, especially his song near the end.  But what blew us away was the dancing/choreography  and the music - fantastic!  I was watching one dancer (shorter with the blond pony tail (Morgan Marcell maybe or Samantha Pollino - not sure which) who was amazing (they all were great though).  They did a talkback at the end which was also very good with some of the actors which we also enjoyed.  They mentioned how the show is changing day to day, and are actually enjoying the changes...  Maybe not even looking forward to doing the same thing every night - lol.

For me, I couldn't understand the words at times that Kate was saying (so fast), but my hearing isn't 100% - my wife understood her.  Terrence on the other hand, was easy to understand.....

Definitely worth seeing!

[JoeW4]

Posted: 10/28/22 at 5:25pm

I saw the show this week and agree with a lot of the comments here, though I think I was more forgiving than some of you.

See my more detailed thoughts here. 

Also worth noting that the show ran 2h15m, getting out at 9:15 on the dot after a 7:00 clock. 

Also, I didn’t mention it in the video, but I agree that Hannah Cruz is the biggest standout in the cast, by a wide margin. 

[willep]

Posted: 10/29/22 at 11:54pm

I saw it tonight and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Was the book thin? Yes. But I still had fun, the music was terrific and as others mentioned, the dancing is incredible. I didn’t have an issue with Kate Nash being the narrator as others have.

They are definitely constantly making changes. Tonight there was an insert in the program with an updated song list that was different than the song list printed in my program, which was further different from the song list printed in the program of my friend sitting next to me (and none of the three included “I Hate Seagulls&rdquo.

Updated On: 10/29/22 at 11:54 PM

[PublicHorizons]

Posted: 11/3/22 at 11:25am

Looks like it is cancelled tonight 11/3

[Candice Malkin]

Posted: 11/3/22 at 12:08pm

canceled matinee today too. Was excited to see a Thursday matinee. oh well...

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 11/6/22 at 12:06pm

Saw the matinee yesterday ahead of tonight's opening, and I thought it was quite beautiful. If you're looking for traditional musical theatre, then it's probably not for you, but if you're willing to go with anachronistic songs that are more about mood and feeling than about storytelling, and movement to convey story, character, and conflict, then you might be as enchanted as I was. It's first and foremost a dance musical, and it's important to go in with that it mind. The choreography is stunning, and the entire cast looks absolutely gorgeous doing it. I can't imagine what it was like a month ago, but the show I saw yesterday was like a haute couture gown, tailored to within an inch of its life, and ready for the runway.

It's all subjective, of course, and I'm very curious to see what critics make of it.

Final song list:

Updated On: 11/11/22 at 12:06 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/7/22 at 9:11pm

NYT is positive on the dancing, but negative on the whole.

Review: In ‘Only Gold,’ Each Move Is Worth 1,000 Words

The new Kate Nash dance musical, choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, is spectacular as long as you pay no attention to what it’s saying.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/07/theater/only-gold-review.html?

Updated On: 11/7/22 at 09:11 PM